Emergent Urbanism

Rediscovering Urban Complexity

Place

The patterns of place

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 15:00, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 00:50

(This article originally appeared in Get Ahead Magazine, for the Get Ahead Festival of independent short films in Brooklyn.)

Modeling the processes of urban emergence

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 01:57, last updated Sun, 04/08/2012 - 23:07

Placelife

A conversation about the geometry of nowhere

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Sun, 04/12/2009 - 20:42, last updated Mon, 02/20/2012 - 16:07

In response to my previous article, Bruce Liedstrand of Community Design Strategies in Paris writes,

I read with interest your essay on The Geometry of Nowhere because I divide my time between Paris and Silicon Valley (the site of your Cupertino Target store example). After re-reading the essay, I am puzzled. I hear your frustration with narrow sidewalks, but I am lost in understanding your concept of “place”.

The geometry of nowhere

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Sat, 04/04/2009 - 08:00, last updated Sun, 02/19/2012 - 23:32

I hate sidewalks.

Planning for nomads

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 00:39, last updated Mon, 04/09/2012 - 15:25

Almost half of Americans want to live somewhere else. Even for a nation known for its exceptional mobility, the fact that people are not only moving in pursuit of employment opportunities but are looking to move simply because they hate the place they live in reveals a much deeper problem. Economic opportunity is no longer what keeps people moving, it is what keeps them immobilized. Given the same opportunity they would relocate to the kind of place where life is good.

The emergence of a sense of place

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Sun, 06/15/2008 - 22:14, last updated Sun, 04/08/2012 - 23:11

Modern urbanism has given us a landscape that many consider to be soulless. Everything looks the same. Nothing creates a sense of place. New Urbanism has attempted to reverse this by returning to traditional architecture and town planning forms. This was done in European new towns, under the advice of well-meaning men like the Krier brothers, in the late 1970's, and did not succeed.

Further comment

Please send your comments by email at mthl@mthl.info, or find me on Twitter @mathieuhelie. The commenting system is closed at the moment as no measures can hold back blog spamming bots.

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