RULES The International Society of Biourbanism, in cooperation with “Progetto Artena” and “Immaginari Urbani”, promotes the international photo contest “Sguardi su Artena” (“Glimpses of Artena”). TEMA The photo contest aims to promote Artena, by using pictures to tell its extraordinary historical centre, the landscapes, the “contrade”, the characters and the people, the festivals and the […] read more
by Mathieu Helie Until very recent times, a study entitled Julian of Ascalon’s Treatise of Design and Construction Rules From Sixth-Century Palestine might have been categorized somewhere in-between ancient history and archeology of architecture, if not relegated to the dusty shelves of legal scholarship. Although it deals with one of the most sought-after secrets of […] read more
by Besim S. Hakim The mind set and associated skills of the contemporary architect whose ideology is rooted in modernism and post-modernism does not provide her or him with the outlook and skills necessary to intervene intelligently in habitat. Developers and home builders have taken the role of habitat producers, driven by the notion that […] read more
by Besim S. Hakim My primary motivation in undertaking research on traditional Islamic environments was to derive principles and lessons from the past which can be used today to improve the quality of our contemporary built environment, regardless of location; and to learn how to develop the framework and mechanisms necessary to allow a culture’s […] read more
by Michael Mehaffy and Nikos A. Salingaros There’s a quiet, but important, revolution going on in environmental design today. It started in hospitals, of all places. Medical science has long used an “evidence-based” methodology. It’s a trial-and-error process that goes through an evolutionary cycle: the doctor tries something, evaluates it, then goes on to use […] read more
by Nikos A. Salingaros Techne Press, Amsterdam, Holland: 252 pages. This monograph introduces the unifying notion of the network city to understand urban phenomena as components of a complex system, using concepts such as “fractal loading” and the brain-computer analogy. Scientific principles underlying urban form surprisingly support traditional concepts of urban planning. “Urban coherence” links […] read more
Edward O. Wilson’s Biophilia Hypothesis Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard University entomologist, coined the term “biophilia”, referring to humans’ “love of living things” – our innate affinity with nature. A somewhat controversial hypothesis put forward by Edward Wilson is the idea that humans evolved as creatures deeply enmeshed with the intricacies of nature, and that […] read more
by Nikos A. Salingaros “Traditional architecture and urbanism require a sense of modesty and humility from the individual creator towards the sacred creation of the universe, as well as a basic intuition that concepts of beauty, harmony, justice, truth, and rightness are permanent and universal” — Lucien Steil. For the past few years, I have […] read more
Apple Inc. June 14, 2011 Dear Mr Jobs,Due to the wonders of the iPad, I came across your June 7th presentation to the Cupertino council of the plans for the new Apple campus. My excitement at the start of your presentation — expecting Apple’s cutting edge tradition to appear in the Architecture and Planning — […] read more
On RMJM, or the fall of gods The monstrous project of building a 403 meters skyscraper in the centre of St. Petersburg, Russia, has been dismissed by a presidential ukaz ( http://rt.com/politics/gazprom-skyscraper-moved-petersburg/ ).According to Guardian, company in charge of realizing the Okhta Centre, the Scotland-based multinational RMJM, is sailing in troubled waters. Newspaper points out […] read more