City Form Lab: Better design trough research

"The City Form Lab at the Singapore University of Technology & Design in collaboration with the School of Architecture & Planning at MIT focuses on empirical studies of urban form. We develop new software tools for researching city form; use cutting-edge spatial analysis and statistics to investigate how the physical pattern of urban infrastructure affects the social, environmental and economic quality of urban environments; and develop creative design and policy solutions for contemporary urban challenges.

By bringing together multi-diciplinary urban research expertise and excellence in design, we develop context sensitive and timely insight about the role of urban form in affecting the quality of life in 21st century cities."

Andres Sevtsuk and Onur Ekmekci presented the work of The City Form Lab in the Tallinn Architecture Biennale on 5.9.2013.

www.cityform.mit.edu

Foster+Partners: Climate sensitive architecture enables social interaction in Masdar City

"Masdar City combines state-of-the-art technologies with the planning principals of traditional Arab settlements to create a desert community that aims to be carbon neutral and zero waste. The 640-hectare project is a key component of the Masdar Initiative, established by the government of Abu Dhabi to advance the development of renewable energy and clean-technology solutions for a life beyond oil.

The city will become a centre for the advancement of new ideas for energy production, with the ambition of attracting the highest levels of expertise. Knowledge gained here has already aided the development of Abu Dhabi's 'Estidama' rating system for sustainable building."

The careful climatic design of the Masdar Instutute has created pleasant outdoor environments despite the extreme heat on the Arabic peninsula. This has enabled active social life within the institutes outdoor spaces, for example a popular weekend market is organized in the courtyards of the institutes over weekends.

Ross Palmer from Foster + Partners was interviewed in Masdar Instutute, Abu Dhabi on 19.8.2013.

www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/masdar-development/

What actually is Public Interest Design?

The terms public interest design and social impact design have been around for a while, but the terminology is still not understood in a self-explanatory way.

Luckily too good glossaries were recently published by Public Interest Design Blog and GOOD magazine. Also American Institute of Architects have included a definition in The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice:

"Public Interest Design is the practice of design with the goal that every person should be able to live in a socially, economically and environmentally healthy community.

As in the field of public health, those practicing public interest design take a holistic approach, considering a broad range of social impacts.

As with public interest law, practitioners seek to provide services to the general public, not just those able to pay a fee for services"

Now one just needs to come up with a term in Finnish. Sosiaalinen arkkitehtuuri? Humanitäärinen arkkitehtuuri? Yhteiskunnallinen suunnittelu? Sosiaalisuunnittelu? Huh, that's not going to be an easy task.