Emergent Urbanism

Rediscovering Urban Complexity

random growth

Defining a new traditional urbanism

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 21:55, last updated Mon, 04/09/2012 - 15:16

Sometime last year this website attracted the attention of several members of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, an organization sponsored by the Prince of Wales Foundation in order to support and renew traditions of construction. While this organization does great work to preserve the techniques of traditional building cultures, they have yet to define what the traditional urbanism of their name really implies. The importance of such a definition I believe to be primordial.

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

Don't demolish Detroit

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Tue, 06/16/2009 - 15:50, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 23:11

The following story about a presidential program to demolish whole neighborhoods of inner city fabric in the United States and turn them back into wilderness has been making the rounds around news blogs.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

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 Marketplace City

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Wed, 01/23/2008 - 00:56, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 01:12

Christmas break brought me back to Montreal visiting family, and family took me out to the post-holiday sales in the constellation of big-box stores along Montreal's southern beltway, highway 30. Having all but grown up in the area, I've been witness to the transformations that the commercial space along the highway has experienced. There are some hard lessons to learn from the silly congestion of Christmas shopping and the impact of random growth in the context of the severely zoned outer suburbs.

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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