Emergent Urbanism | Rediscovering urban complexity. Six trending urbanist themes for 2012. The urbanist calendar published on Monday was, admittedly, a visual provocation, setting a stage for thought about important urban issues for 2012. I see great merit in such urban exploration with a descriptive, rather than prescriptive approach. But there is another provocation—from 2011 professional experiences and featured articles—that offer several themes that I expect will also endure. Here is a synthesis of themes to watch, and why, based on my own encounters, and those of clients and friends. As illustration, I offer citation to several of my articles as they reappeared in the trend-capturing Planetizen (after original appearance in one or more of myurbanist, The Atlantic, The Atlantic Cities, The Huffington Post, Grist, Sustainable Cities Collective and Crosscut) .
The themes span six subject areas, below. More Roles for Social Media Evolving communication technology has forever changed how we analyze and discuss the city. Make No Little Plans Without Twitter Urbanism Without Effort. Glossary: Terrain Vague | Urban Attributes - Andalusia Center for Contemporary Art. With the coining of the term Terrain Vague, Ignasi de Solà-Morales is interested in the form of absence in the contemporary metropolis. This interest focuses on abandoned areas, on obsolete and unproductive spaces and buildings, often undefined and without specific limits, places to which he applies the French term terrain vague. Regarding the generalized tendency to "reincorporate" these places to the productive logic of the city by transforming them into reconstructed spaces, Solà-Morales insists on the value of their state of ruin and lack of productivity.
Only in this way can these strange urban spaces manifest themselves as spaces of freedom that are an alternative to the lucrative reality prevailing in the late capitalist city. They represent an anonymous reality. The term Terrain Vague is part of a proposal of urban analysis that is an alternative to models of structuralist origin; these have demonstrated their inefficiency in their confrontation with contemporary urban events. Parametric Urbanism - Urban Reef - by Shampoo. City plan diagrams | Forum.