| This Big City

Jan

Active Streets in India’s Dharavi Slum

Categories: Asia and the Pacific, Planning, Urban Scale

by Rachel Smith

Dharavi is a mixed-use self-contained residential and commercial development with a population in excess of 1 million. It has a real and very genuine sense of community. It's also one of the biggest slums in the world. Read more

Sep

Unlocking Future Bicycle Networks with the World’s First Crowdsourced Bicycle Map

Categories: Asia and the Pacific, Bikes, Data and Infrastructure, Digital, Europe, Transport

Tags: cc

Comments: 6

by Rachel Smith

The Dynamic Connections Map is a world-first experiment which allows bicycle riders of all abilities to rate streets on how cycle friendly they are and, as a result of data processing, unlock a potential future cycle network. Read more

Jul

Creating Safer Streets for People, One Parking Space at a Time

Categories: Europe, Placemaking, Planning

Tags: Berlin, cc, parking

Comments: 4

by Rachel Smith

Streets and public spaces should be for everyone, not just cars. They should address the needs of children, an ageing population, people with disabilities, pedestrians and cyclists. This recent community project in Berlin reimagined the city's parking spaces for social good, with amazing results. Read more

Jul

The Challenges Facing Electric Vehicle Uptake

Categories: Cars and Roads, Transport, UK

Tags: cc, electric vehicles

Comments: 2

by Rachel Smith

The UK is aiming to have 2 million electric vehicles in use by 2020 and 9,000 e-mobility charging points by 2013. With 30 million non-electric cars already in use in the UK, and only 704 charging points, these are some ambitious targets which, unsurprisingly, face many challenges. Read more

Jul

Tactical Urbanism in Berlin sees Parking Spots Turned into Public Spaces

Categories: Europe, Placemaking, Planning

Tags: Berlin, cc, parking, tactical urbanism

Comments: 3

by Rachel Smith

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is currently running in Berlin and a workshop last week saw participants spend a day transforming car parking spots into spaces for people. A swimming pool, dance floor, bike workshop and more soon took over a space formerly dominated by cars. Read more

Feb

Can Cupcakes Inspire Collaborative Consumption in our Cities?

Categories: Community, People, UK

Tags: cc, collaborative consumption, retail

Comments: 4

by Rachel Smith

Collaborative consumption is about sharing, trading and renting rather than owning. Enabled by technology, we can access all manner of assets from houses to technical skills. But if we really want sharing to be mainstream we have to think differently - are cupcakes a good place to start? Read more

Jan

Can Karaoke Transform Public Space?

Categories: Arts and Culture, Europe, People

Tags: Berlin, cc, entertainment, karaoke, public space

Comments: 3

by Rachel Smith

Karaoke is not just for terrible Christmas parties. In a not-so-pristine park in Berlin, one Irish street performer called Joe regularly draws crowds of more than 3,000 people, and that’s before the karaoke has even begun. So can karaoke transform our public spaces? Read more

Aug

How Cycling Became an Integral Part of Life in New York City

Categories: Bikes, Transport, USA and Canada

Tags: cc

Comments: 2

by Rachel Smith

It was recently announced that two-thirds of New Yorkers support bike lanes in their city. Cycling is now, undeniably, an integral part of life in the Big Apple. But how did this become so, and what can other cities learn from New York's transformation? Read more