urbanisation & planning

Is land scarcity a myth? Should we just abandon planning? What density and layout should our cities aim for?
Tuesday 8th November

Nicaragua: the road to 'pacification'

Dennis Rodgers, 8 November 2011
The transformation of Managua's road system should be seen as a case of “infrastructural violence” which is intrinsic to a broader regime of injustice, argues Dennis Rodgers
Friday 1st October

Loneliness alert! Rounding up the unusual suspects

Akhil Katyal, 1 October 2010
How our exaggerated respect for personal freedom and independence undermines the social fabric of modern societies
Thursday 13th May

Mayor Luzhkov and the reconstruction of Moscow

Clementine Cecil, 13 May 2010
On 5th May the Moscow authorities approved a new General Plan described by its critics as “the death-knell” for the city. It is yet another strong-handed move by Yuri Luzhkov, whose personal tastes and business interests have left a strong mark on the city since he became Mayor in 1992. A trend for sham replicas has flourished during his tenure, causing experts to fear that Moscow has turned into an ‘ersatz city.’
Wednesday 14th October

Moscow traffic: jam today and more jams tomorrow

Mumin Shakirov, 14 October 2009

Moscow jams 

 

Moscow, famously, has a traffic problem. But apart from moving the capital, there isn't really an answer, points out Mumin Shakirov

Monday 1st May

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006): cities for life

Roger Scruton, 1 May 2006
Jane Jacobs's book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" changed the way people thought about urban planning, the street and the character of cities. Roger Scruton reflects on the relevance of its message today.
Thursday 7th November

The worldwide one-night house

Colin Ward, 7 November 2002
The anarchist writer and educator, life-affirming champion of creative radicalism at the margins of life, died on 11 February 2010 at the age of 85. In tribute, his openDemocracy article from 2002
Thursday 29th November

Walking in cities with dignity

Ben Plowden, 29 November 2001
Urban areas in Britain have acquired a degraded feel in parallel to the decline in public services. The director of the Pedestrians’ Association, which recently launched its “living streets” initiative, argues that a revival of walking is an essential part of a wider strategy to make public spaces flourish. The experience of Birmingham shows what can be done.
Wednesday 3rd October

The planning process: a local councillor's view

Sophie Jeffreys, 3 October 2001
From the outside, planning decisions can seem bureaucratic and even corrupt. From the viewpoint of a local councillor in England’s rural North Wiltshire, the role of planning officers is a reminder of their human, and honourably professional, dimension.

Lutyens and Le Corbusier: from heritage to history

Jane Ridley, 3 October 2001
The contrasting legacy of two “artist-architects”, each active in India on either side of the country’s independence, illustrates the need to see the architectural past in aesthetic terms. And it is Lutyens’ elemental classicism, not the modernism of his counterpart, that is a rich source of learning today.
Tuesday 28th August

Experiencing the city anew

Charles Landry, 28 August 2001
Roger Scruton and Sophie Jeffreys are right that a planning process which fits people’s needs must be aesthetic rather than only economic or technical. But people seek novelty as well as coherence in their urban experience. The static certainties of classicism cannot contain modern longings. We must make cities feel, and be, ‘creative’.
Tuesday 7th August

The future is classical

Sophie Jeffreys and Roger Scruton, 7 August 2001
Modernist architecture is more than a failure; it is a mistake. It has degraded our cities and ruptured the dialogue across generations essential to civic life. The future lies in a return to the principles of classicism: “fittingness” of building and settlement, part and whole, people and dwellings.
Tuesday 31st July

Planning for humanity

Leon Krier, 31 July 2001
Land scarcity in Britain is a myth spun into fact by planning controls. To this extent Jules Lubbock is right. But the way towards individual freedom and community rebirth, says Prince Charles’s favourite architect, is not to collapse the controls, but through the careful release of millions of plots of land in variegated new settlements.
Wednesday 18th July

Smarter planning, better living

Simon Fairlie, 18 July 2001
Jules Lubbock is wrong: dismantle the planning system, and people will want three cars and an acre, as in the US. The result? An urban disaster.

Testing the argument for social living

Peter Hall, 18 July 2001
Passion spills over the fields of green and brown where a calm assessment of real alternatives is needed. Progress towards sustainability is possible, but requires a portfolio approach that addresses the needs of different environments and geographical regions.
Tuesday 3rd July

Planning is the problem

Jules Lubbock, 3 July 2001
The new urbanism represented by Richard Rogers is shallow and authoritarian. Its impulse to confine people in high-density settlements has disastrous social and economic effects. The truly radical answer is to dismantle the planning system, allow people to live where they wish, and nurture a creative mix between town and country. Let Swindon breathe, the Yorkshire Dales thrive, and Glasgow flourish!
Thursday 24th May

After the white papers: green dreams, brown sites, blue sky

Roger Scruton and Ken Worpole, 24 May 2001
City & Country’s two editors, one from the Wiltshire countryside and the other from Hackney in London, join forces in search of a new urban-rural relationship.
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