A project by French artist Armelle Caron looks at what happens when you take the patterns of blocks that make up a city's form and organize and stack them sideways. Robert Krulwich investigates what such an exercise reveals about a city.
By dismembering, dissecting, categorizing, sorting and stacking the shapes that make up a city's blocks, Caron has constructed her own visual language of cities. So when you look at some of the urban areas that have come under her knife, what might they be saying? Krulwich takes a stab at translating some of the forms.
On Berlin: "Berlin, of course, contains mainly rectangles. It also has trapezoids,
triangles and, down in that last row, weirdly shaped squiggles that
represent actual city spaces. So, if you are walking through Berlin, the
cityscape isn't going to repeat endlessly. There will be surprises.
There are some totally irregular nooks and crannies there."
On New York: "Take away the bums, the fashionistas, the food carts, the cabs, the
colors, the smells, the sounds, cut it up and stack it on a table, New
York's grid system seems more than a little monotonous."
And on Istanbul, seemingly the most diverse set of blocks illustrated in the article: "Check out the top few rows - these are blocks, remember - and then
imagine wandering around these curves, angles, sudden narrowings.
Walking that city has to be amazing."
Read the full story: Odd Things Happen When You Chop Up Cities And Stack Them Sideways
The Sweet Smell of Density? Subconscious Influences on Perceptions of Urban Form
Michael Hooper of Harvard University writes about a recent article in the Journal of Planning Education and Research
The Block Fallacy, or How Not to Build a Circulation System
An examination of the Block Ordinance as a panacea for the ailments of modern cities.
Friday Eye Candy: Comparing a Square Mile of the World's Famous Cities
Street networks and city blocks, reduced to their fundamental attributes, reveal the vast differences between cities.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
A panel of judges found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury as a result of New York City's implementation of the tax.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Seattle passes record-breaking transit services expansion
Proposition 1 will double the city’s transit tax to add 95,000 more bus trips and preserve 180,000 bus trips annually.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority