According to a new book, Obama aims to “abolish the suburbs, ideally by having cities annex suburban municipalities.” Is the author right that Obama's policies are “hostile to traditions of individual freedom”? Read more
This Big City is partnering with London-based charity 3Space on 'Re:THINK' - their new event kicking off May 1st in Blackfriars, London. We got the chance to put a few questions to the event's organisers. Read more
We are living under a system of placeless economics, where a few digits on an accountant’s spreadsheet negate the common sense of properly building and locating industrial facilities. Read more
As cities around the world grapple with rising sea levels and strengthening storms, governments are responding with an array of infrastructural solutions. But there’s a growing awareness that combating disasters with hard infrastructure alone ignores half the equation. Read more
The Green Lane Project has brought together six U.S. cities to build more protected bike trails. Martha Roskowski, Director of the project, put some time aside to talk to This Big City. Read more
Tales about America’s “freeway revolts” are usually told through notable cities such as San Francisco and Portland. But one project less talked about—although equally devastating—would have been the East-West Expressway proposed in the 1960s for Baltimore. Read more
With the potential to reduce carbon consumption and energy costs, retrofitting older schools makes sense. And schools are increasingly discovering the education value of retrofitting too.
retrofitting its school is an investment that Impington Village College, near Cambridge in England, can’t afford not to make. Especially given that its annual carbon emissions – currently at 101.33kgCO2/m2 – are double the national average. Read more
The energy that comes out of solar panels is renewable, but what about the panels themselves? Not so much - today’s leading solar panels owe their high sunlight-to-electricity conversion rates to the use of rare elements. The pressure is on to find a way of making solar power even more sustainable. Read more
"The problem we're trying to solve is people are disengaging more and more with formal politics," said Emma Daniel of Citizens Agenda - the overall winner at this year's CityCamp Brighton 'unconference'. Read more
The launch of the latest SimCity has been dogged with problems - mostly technical. And the functionality is far removed from previous versions, changing the meaning of the game significantly. Is the digital urban planning dream dead? Read more