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
An international working group has been established under the direction of Prof. T. M. Vinod Kumar for studying the effective results of cities “smartization” around the world. 8 countries are under examination: Canada, China, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Thailand, and USA. The goal is verifying what are the real advantages ICT and biopolitics of control […] read more
by Marco Casagrande Urban acupuncture is an urban environmentalism theory which combines urban design with traditional Chinese medical theory of acupuncture.[1] This process uses small-scale interventions to transform the larger urban context. Sites are selected through an aggregate analysis of social, economic, and ecological factors, and developed through a dialogue between designers and the community. […] read more
The 1982 Debate Between Christopher Alexander and Peter EisenmanAn Early Discussion of the “New Sciences” of Organised Complexity in Architecture ______________________________________________________ Peter Eisenman: I met Christopher Alexander for the first time just two minutes ago, but I feel I have known him for a long time. I suddenly sense that we have been placed in […] read more
by Nikos Salingaros Architecture is indeed linked to biology. This observation is intuitively true from a structural perspective, since human beings perceive a kinship between the different processes — natural and artificial — that generate form. Nevertheless, the broadness of the claim might appear surprising, considering that it comes from architects holding radically different ideas […] read more
Author of Notes on the Synthesis of Form, A City is Not A Tree, A Pattern Language and The Nature of Order by Michael Mehaffy Michael Mehaffy: We’re seeing some astonishing things coming out of the sciences just now. Geometry seems to be the hot topic – the complex structure of proteins, the unfolding processes of […] read more
Naples, Italy, September 1st – 7th, 2012 An ISB delegation, consisting of Angelica Fortuzzi, Angela Maria Pezzilli, and Stefano Serafini, participated in the work of the sixth UN Habitat World Urban Forum (http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/ProgrammeWUF6.pdf), in Naples, from the 1st to the 7th of September 2012. We met colleagues from all over the world, and discussed […] read more