Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Wisdom of Jane Jacobs...

... on the importance of networks.
Great sense of reality and simplicity (kind of a rare thing among architects and urban planners).
Always worth listening to. Gotta love her.

"I stay away from visions of the cities of the future. Any city at all that's worth learning from our considering, has parts that work. (...) We should study the parts that work and the parts that people use. All hypotheses get tested in the real world. You don't have answers in advance and one size doesn't fit all. And the greatest asset that the city can have, that the city neighborhood can have, is something that is different from every other place. Don't think that it can be done with wishful thinking or pretty words. Think how to get examples done. And then don't hide the examples under a bushwa. Try them out, use them for public education. Show what they mean."


Monday, July 18, 2011

"Green streets" and Water Sensitive Design

Um link de um texto do Tucci sobre a possibilidade de se melhorar o manejo de águas no ambiente urbano através de desenho e com isso recarregar o aquífero.

Aqui um pdf do programa europeu "Switch Urban Water" explicando o que é Water Sensitive Urban Design e dando exemplos. Boa referência.