Search by tag «Urban Planning» 15 results

• SimCity IRL: How Citizens Help Urban Developers by Playing Board Games

  City dwellers often don’t have the chance to express their support or opposition to various urban development initiatives. And it’s not because there’s a lack of ways to do that, but that people may find it difficult to express their ideas. One way to solve this problem is to use a game-based approach, suggests Milena Ivkovic, an architect, game designer and head of Rotterdam-based company Blok74. She offers urban residents to play games as a way of showing the environment they’d like to inhabit in a simple, informal setting. Ms. Ivkovic explained her game-making process during a recent workshop at ITMO’s Institute of Design and Urban Science.

  25.04.2018

• What It Means to Be an Architect in 21st Century

  The concept of public spaces is still somewhat underdeveloped in Russia, but it is already hard to imagine cities where projects such as the New Holland island renovation in St. Petersburg or the Wi-Fi enabled playgrounds in Kemerovo aren’t being implemented. Good public spaces are ones that the people love and keep coming back to. Urban studies are a new thing to Russia, but architects and planners are already adapting to new standards. Architect Daria Paramonova gave a talk as part of the Strelka Institute Week in St. Petersburg. Among the topics of discussion were: the role of architects in large-scale urban renovations and the intricacies of project planning – from historical research and pedestrian and transit route analysis to in-depth interviews with locals.

  10.10.2017

• Urbanist Dhiru Thadani: to Improve Cities, We Must Focus on People

  According to UN estimates, by 2050 the population of Earth will reach nine billion people. The rapid growth of urban population, climate change, depletion of fossil fuels, healthcare crises – these are just a few of the global issues that experts are trying to tackle. In the search for sustainable means of subsistence, city planning is becoming a bigger priority. But what should modern cities look like and how can ubranists prepare for the rapid changes in the environment? These are some of the issues that Dhiru Thadani, architect, urbanist and VP-Members of the International Society of City and Regional Planners, is working with. Recently, Mr. Thadani gave an open lecture at ITMO’s Institute of Design and Urban Studies. In an interview with ITMO.NEWS, Dhiru Thadani speaks about the similarities between St. Petersburg’s “grey belt” and USA’s brownfields, how new global challenges will affect the teaching process and what issues need to be prepared for even now.

  03.10.2017

• Spatial Development Forum: How Citizens Create Smart Cities

  According to IESE’s Cities in Motion Index, St. Petersburg is rated 103rd among the world’s “smartest” cities. The city’s Governor believes that the city has potential to be among the top 50. How can that goal be achieved, however? Through the integration of information technologies in the city’s management systems. It is also important that the citizens take on a more active role in the city’s life. At the III International Spatial Development Forum (ISDF), a plenary discussion on the future of “smart” urban technologies was held. This year, the forum’s main theme is “Re.Urban – Re.Evolution — rethinking of cities’ essence and evolutional ways of their development”. The event is co-organized by ITMO University and the Government of St. Petersburg.

  29.09.2017

• Lawns vs. Paths: Why Urban Planners Can’t Please Everybody

  Traffic jams, a lack of green areas or infrastructure, overpopulation, crowded public transportation – these issues are all too familiar to the citizens of major cities. The solutions to these problems can seem strange: closing roads, sharing cars with strangers or laying down paths only after the people have moved into the neighborhood. But research shows that it is such seemingly uncomfortable solutions that make for a comfortable urban environment. Michael Lees, co-head of International Laboratory “Urban Informatics” and Assistant Professor at University of Amsterdam, spoke to ITMO.NEWS about how urban studies save cities, which paradoxes of urban planning scientists encounter and why “smart” technologies take so long to be adopted by major cities.

  20.06.2017