Toluu : The Future of Cities - A conversation about global urbanization in the 21st century

The Future of Cities - A conversation about global urbanization in the 21st century

DUMBO Stories: The Telectroscope and Carbon-Neutral Office SpaceMay 27

A colleague from the Institute for the Future was in town last weekend and we took the opportunity to walk over to Brooklyn's waterfront DUMBO neighborhood and see The Telectroscope, a steampunk-ish portal connecting New York and London.

New York's Video Game IndustryMay 13

The Center for an Urban Future has an interesting new report, "Getting in the Game", on the economic potential of the video game industry in New York City. From the press release:

Pruned: Venice on StiltsMay 12

"According to Agence France-Presse, 'Local officials and engineers are planning to lift buildings under operation Rialto by up to one metre (3.3 feet) using piston-supported-poles to be placed at the bottom of each structure. This will take around a month per building if each structure is raised by eight centimetres (3.14 inches) a day.'"

full article: Pruned: Venice on Stilts

Technology Review: Building the Zero-Emissions CityMay 12

"Last week, in the harsh desert climate of Abu Dhabi, construction started on a city that will house 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses but use extremely little energy, and what it does use will come from renewable sources. The initial building is a new research institute that the founders hope will be the seed for the equivalent of a Silicon Valley of the Middle East, only one centered not on information technology but on renewable energy."

Architecture of AutocracyMay 8

This month's edition of Foreign Policy magazine has an article about architecture in totalitarian countries.

It is rare for a periodical about global politics to take on the relationship between monumental architecture and mono-polar governance.

There's something archaic and even pharaohic about the inverse relationship they aptly spot between political freedom and architectural freedom.

And so they ask the question:

"Why are the world’s best architects taking their most ambitious plans to modern-day autocrats?"

Their response:

"Blank Slates"