Urbanism

From The Ecozoic City.

From 2009 to 2014, Places was one of the main content channels at Design Observer, which raised the bar here for substantive news coverage regarding the design and development of cities. Since then, we’ve continued to follow stories related to architecture, signage, transport, mobility, civic engagement, speculative planning, and the enduring complexities of social communion. From battery-powered bikes in China and walled cities in Kowloon to placemaking (and tastemaking), we’ve looked at skyscrapers as surfaces, slums as shelter, miniature fictions, and necessary frictions. Our writers have examined Babylonic empires and remixed favelas, studied urban anthropology, and explored territorial adaptation via questions of mobility, migration, and memory. Such breadth of exposure speaks to the wealth of perspectives only a community can produce, and we are both proud of and grateful for the many critics who have graced us with their thoughtful commentary. On this topic, the Canadian-American urbanist Jane Jacobs deserves the last word. Cities, she wisely observed, have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.