For a MoMA exhibition about urban inequality, Brooklyn architects SITU Studios documented informal housing in New York.
Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities, an ongoing exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, focuses on the complex relationship between urbanization and inequality. Over the 14-month period leading up to the launch, six interdisciplinary teams explored how these issues are playing out in different parts of the world, each developing an architectural response for a specific city.
Architecture firm SITU Studio was tasked with studying its home city, New York. Sarah Wesseler spoke with SITU principal Bradley Samuels about his investigations into informal housing conditions in the five bouroughs.
'The issue of housing in New York gets a lot of attention — everybody talks about it as a crisis — but there’s a large part of the population that’s actually left out of that conversation,' Samuels said. "There are about 200,000 people or more, depending on how you’re counting, living in illegally converted apartments in New York. They don’t show up on the census; this condition of density is more or less hidden."
FULL STORY: Inequality and Informality in New York
To Reduce Carbon Emissions, Focus on Existing Buildings
Architects are uniquely positioned to reduce global warming, argues the CEO of Urban Green Council—but first they need to rethink their role.
Confusing Architectural Tastes for Moral Judgement
Kate Wagner argues that moral arguments about what kind of architecture is fitting, can stand in the way of good planning.
Denver Residents Voice Aesthetic Concerns Over New Housing Developments
The Denver FUGLY Facebook page makes the case that developers are building too many boring tan and rust-colored buildings in Greater Denver.
Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.
Half of Post-Fire Altadena Home Sales Were to Corporations
Large investors are quietly buying up dozens of properties in Altadena, California, where a devastating wildfire destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.
Opinion: What San Francisco’s Proposed ‘Family Zoning’ Could Really Mean
Mayor Lurie is using ‘family zoning’ to encourage denser development and upzoning — but could the concept actually foster community and more human-scale public spaces?
Jacksonville Launches First Autonomous Transit Shuttle in US
A fleet of 14 fully autonomous vehicles will serve a 3.5-mile downtown Jacksonville route with 12 stops.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont