The idea behind Bicycle City is that people can live, work, and play in a town where everything is accessible by just riding a bike (with parking is at the edge of the community.) Bicycle city was an idea conceived in the 90’s and was just recently started this past year after they received funding. The location for the first Bicycle city is Lexington County, SC, between mountains…
Posts Tagged ‘new urbanism’
Mall in Utah Being Transformed into a Mixed-Use Walkable Neighborhood
In my previous post I talked about how in the future we will be needing to retrofit our malls and redevelop our suburbs into mixed use communities that are human scale rather than reliant on the car. One great example of this is the redevelopment of the Cottonwood Mall in Utah. This mall is known for being the first mall in Utah and now is being known as the first mall to be turned into a neighborhood.
What is New Urbanism?
New Urbanism is an urban design idea that encourages building walkable communities. The idea is that to be sustainable we must start with our way of life. Introducing green techniques and green building methods do their part in helping the environment but the real way to be sustainable is to live sustainable. By building walkable communities it encourages people to not own cars, live closer to the city, own smaller homes, etc. The hopes of many new urbanism designs are that people live in work in the same area.
How to Build a Green, Car-free Community: Vauban
We hear often how hard it is to live in North America without a car, yet in Manhattan 75% of households get along without one. Then we hear that in the suburbs its different- that is why in the USA nationwide, only 8% of households don’t own a car. But what if you designed a community around the principle that one doesn’t need a car? That really was green from the ground up? What would it look like? Vauban, near the German city of Freiburg, may be the best demonstration yet.
Tian Yi: Masterplan with optimum housing location
In wetlands on the outskirts of the city of Wuxi in eastern China, the new Tian Yi neighbourhood is seeing the light of day. The former industrial area will be integrated into Wuxi’s existing urban structure, and the area’s natural environment will once again have its original flora and fauna. With the focus on sustainability, Tian Yi will be an independent and compact mixed neighbourhood with homes and businesses, allowing residents to fulfil all their needs locally. The area is part of a larger master plan for the 2 km² big area.