Built Environment

Australian Planner recently published a great review of Spatial Planning and Climate Change by Elizabeth Wilson and Jake Piper, describing it as "timely and thorough" and "essential reading for anyone interested in the nexus between spatial planning and climate change."

Construction is one of the biggest industries in the world, providing necessary facilities for human prosperity ranging from the homes in which we live to the highways we drive, the power plants that provide energy for our daily activities, and the very infrastructure on which human society is built.

Exploring critical planning issues facing Latino communities in relation to urban design and land development, the authors investigate how Latino communities collectively engage in placemaking, and look at strategies to build more sustainable and effective working relationships between Latino communities and planning professionals. The book's focus is on planning and placemaking efforts throughout the United States, and demonstrates how professionals can enhance – or inhibit – placemaking that serves the interests of Latino communities.
 

Americans are committing "country-cide" - converting farms into suburban yards and channeling streams that once provided flood control, water purification, habitats, and recreational opportunities. But rather than rail against overdevelopment, this book celebrates communities succeeding in preservation. Pruetz brings a planner’s-eye view of the practices behind their achievements. His detailed reports of creative preservation solutions mark the trail for planners, commissioners, and citizens who seek to preserve the green legacy in their own backyards.

A systematic approach is used to cover the many facets of terraced and townhouses – a style of building which has been in use since the Roman era and is still useful today. The whole range of this style of housing is covered from interior design and construction methods, to more social factors like the issues of parking and street configurations. Alongside over 150 diagrams and 80 photos, Friedman creates a book which will be a valuable resource for all those involved in the planning, design and creation of terraced and town houses.
 

Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams explore the growing interest among practitioners at the cutting edge of architecture, urban design and regeneration, in temporary, interim, ‘pop-up’ or ‘meanwhile’ uses for land and buildings in our urban areas. They explore the origins and the social, economic and technological drivers behind this phenomenon, and its place within modern planning theory and practice. Using sixty-eight diverse case studies from Europe and North America, it challenges our preoccupation with long-term strategies and masterplans and questions our ability to achieve these in the face of increasing resource constraints and political and economic uncertainty.
 

The book launch for Systemic Architecture: Operating Manual for the Self Organizing City by Marco Poletto and Claudia Pasquero takes place tomorrow evening at 6:30pm at the Architectural Association (AA) Bookshop in London (36-37 Bedford Square, Greater London, WC1B 3ES). We hope to see you there!

Justin Hollander, author of Sunburnt Cities: The Great Recession, Depopulation and Urban Planning in the American Sunbelt, has a fascinating new article on vacant housing stock

Friday 27th April 2012  - 10am-1pm

A panel discussion around the publication of Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis, Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World (London/New York: Routledge, 2012)

This half-day symposium will debate some key ideas around the issues of globalization and regionalism, using the presence of Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis to discuss their latest book about the subject. The event will be chaired by Murray Fraser, Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, and among the other contributors will be Dr Yat Ming Loo and Dr Tania Sengupta, both of whom also teach at the Bartlett, and Ricardo Agarez, PhD candidate >>> http://bit.ly/JXuE6M

To book, please send an email to Nadia O’Hare on: n.ohare@ucl.ac.uk  

Entry is free, but tickets must be booked in advance.

G.04, Wates House
22 Gordon Street
London
WC1H 0QB

The Temporary City has received another very positive review on internet blog, The Pop-Up City, who describe Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams' new book as "a decent and thorough-full document that combines inspiring examples with interesting academic reflections."