by Stefano Serafini Following the theme of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato si’, the 53rd International Making Cities Livable Conference, on Caring for Our Common Home: Sustainable, Healthy, Just Cities and Settlements will take place at the Pontificia Università Urbaniana, in Vatican City, June 13-17. Neoliberal urban development is cancerous, killing a city’s social, economic and […] read more
by Nikos Salingaros and Michael Mehaffy How Modernist Fundamentalism degrades the human and natural environment Many research studies show a remarkable divergence between the way architects see their work and the way non-architects do — to such a degree that it is not uncommon to hear ordinary people wondering aloud how it is that architects, […] read more
by Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros “Only connect,” the writer E. M. Forster said famously — and modern scientists working with network structures are learning how right he was. Forster was talking about how to tell a good story, but it turns out that the same principles for creating richly interconnected structures do apply to […] 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 Michael W. Mehaffy and Nikos A. Salingaros Originally published in Metropolis 29, November 2011 In 1984, the environmental psychologist Roger Ulrich made a startling discovery. In studying hospital patients recovering from surgery, he found that one factor alone accounted for significant differences in post-operative complications, recovery times, and need for painkillers. It was the […] read more