• Practical confessions of an urbanist pilgrim

    After 12 days of walking the Portuguese Camino, the importance of many urban planning and development concepts—from the urban-to-rural Transect to balanced growth—became abundantly clear.
    In order to understand places, built environment professionals and real estate developers need to also understand the places between, and practice on-the-ground, inter-urban, and inter-settlement walkability. This approach is an essential way to anticipate the context of a given site, using the “...Read more

  • Why cities are the world’s best hope for climate action

    Cities offer breakthrough potential for immediate and effective action on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and a hotter world, according to a new book, The Urban Fix.
    The Urban Fix is the culmination of a long journey for Doug Kelbaugh , an architect and educator in the forefront of environmental and urban design for decades. Kelbaugh designed and built one of the nation’s first passive solar houses in 1973, and he was one of the first advocates of transit-...Read more

  • Beyond resilience: Toward ‘antifragile’ urbanism

    Let’s embrace and empower the collective skill in producing beautiful and well-adapted habitat, which is evident throughout human history.
    Resilience is a hot topic in urbanism today—and understandably so, given the increasing prevalence of storms, floods, fires, heat waves, and other potential disruptions to urban well-being. But we might consider another level of organization beyond resilience—what has been termed “antifragility.”...Read more

  • Andean city is a model for water infrastructure and green space

    In Mendoza, Argentina, ancient acequias provide a green design element that transforms the city and has passed the test of time.
    Implementing green infrastructure widely in cities is never easy. Professionals and practitioners around the world face many challenges, including design standards (how to build the most efficient infrastructure?), regulatory (what policies are needed to promote green infrastructure throughout the...Read more