How far is 5 min walking

by gailiute

 

 

Some time ago we had discussions why people do not choose public transport to reach university campus in Kaunas (Kaunas University of Technology campus), instead they drive cars even if they live in convenient location to a bus stops, close to campus, etc.

Well apparently taking a bus sometimes can take more than an hour to reach campus, while one can spend less than 15 minutes driving the same distance.

time spent travelling

5min (400m) walking distance from bus stops

There are many reasons for such an inadequacy,  starting from (probably) inefficient bus routes and bus stops that are quite far from campus itself.

This research is only small part of an ongoing project.

Eventual goal is to ensure sustainable future development of this campus. Making it better accessible by public transport instead of private cars is one small milestone to reach.

 

Brutalist architecture

by gailiute

Today I came across an interesting article about 60s brutalist ski resort by Marcel Breuer, architect, known for Whitney Museun NY builbing among others (which recently reopened as the Met Breuer) and his iconic chairs – Wassily and B32.

This article is a photo-essay trying to explain the ambivalence of this architecture and in general is a nice way to spend few minutes of your time.

Alastair Philip Wiper finds “noble failure” at Breuer’s Modernist Flaine ski resort

Monocle 24 radio – The Urbanist show

by gailiute

 

This is great stuff: radio station with the show about the cities for everybody who love cities, want to live in cities, move out of cities or just want to listen to smth that even might be interesting ;)

http://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-urbanist/

Highly recommend to listen!

P.s. they have more interesting shows, check them out

 

A history of cities in 50 buildings

by gailiute

The Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex in St Louis, shortly after its completion in 1956. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Few days ago I stumbled across very interesting series of articles. They explore our urban history through 50 buildings. Though didn’t read all of them yet, few already caught my attention quite successfully, like story about Pruitt-Igoe highrise or Aleppo citadel. So far so good.

Strongly recommend to read!

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/series/history-cities-50-buildings

Why you will fail to have a great career

by gailiute

Well this is definitely one of the funniest and the most inspiring talks i heard recently!

Immersive ugliness of everyday’s environment in America

by gailiute

Such a good talk. And very hilarious :)

Good.is

by gailiute

Though I found this page accidentally and intended to add it as a nice and very clearly done example of website in the info graphics post, I decided that it is worth to pay your attention to it a bit more.

I think it is great platform for sharing ideas and issues that people care about.

And pay attention how amazingly it plays with words in the website address line: ” good is everyone” ;)

“GOOD is a global community of people who give a damn.”

 

http://www.good.is/everyone

Mapping 5.0 How many Earths do we need?

by gailiute

Here it comes the 5th post about infographics. It is quite remotely related with urbanism, however here you can find an article how much space would we need if everybody in the world started consuming as e.g. americans.

“Assuming we were able to use all the land on the planet–with the exception of Antarctica– here’s how much of Earth(s) we would need if we all lived like people in Bangladesh (or India. Or France. Or, yes, the U.S)” (Elert, 2012):

Futher reading: Elert E. (2012) http://www.popsci.com

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2012-10/daily-infographic-if-everyone-lived-american-how-many-earths-would-we-need

Smart failure or the world after midnight

by gailiute

The world is changing much more rapidly than most people realize, says business educator Eddie Obeng — and creative output cannot keep up. In this spirited talk, he highlights three important changes we should understand for better productivity, and calls for a stronger culture of “smart failure.”

Why you should listen to him:

Because he knows how to fail and be rewarded for that! :)

 

on ted: http://www.ted.com/talks/eddie_obeng_smart_failure_for_a_fast_changing_world.html

SpontaneousInterventions: design actions for the common good

by vytasvulgaris

“SpontaneousInterventions: design actions for the common good is the theme of the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale (Fall 2012). In recent years, there has been a nascent movement of designers acting on their own initiative to solve problematic urban situations, creating new opportunities and amenities for the public. Provisional, improvisational, guerrilla, unsolicited, tactical, temporary, informal, DIY, unplanned, participatory, opensource—these are just a few of the words that have been used to describe this growing body of work.” http://www.spontaneousinterventions.org/about

Picture: http://www.envelopead.com/proj_octaviakl.html
http://www.spontaneousinterventions.org/project/proxy