Το βιβλίο του Κωνσταντίνου Δοξιάδη είναι ένα έργο το οποίο επιχειρεί να παρουσιάσει με όσο το δυνατόν πιο αναλυτικό και ακριβή, αλλά παράλληλα άμεσο και κατανοητό τρόπο, το θέμα το οποίο διαπραγματεύεται. Αφενός οι χάρτες με τα πολλαπλά επίπεδα πληροφορίας, τα στατιστικά γραφήματα και τα –πρωτοποριακά για την εποχή– isotype διαγράμματα, καταγράφουν την ποσοτική έκταση της καταστροφής. Αφετέρου οι ασπρόμαυρες φωτογραφίες των ερειπωμένων χωριών, των σκελετωμένων παιδιών, των νεκρών αμάχων, … [Read more...]

Britain's hopes of a shale gas boom are at risk from a stand-off between the Government and council chiefs, who are demanding communities near fracking sites receive payments ten times higher than those on offer. The Local Government Association has warned that councils could deny drillers planning permission unless communities are guaranteed a 10 per cent share of revenues for “any gas which is found in their backyards”. But energy minister Michael Fallon and the head of the … [Read more...]

A recent study purporting to debunk the link between sprawl and ill health has gotten much publicity recently.  Some commentators have trotted out the old argument that plenty of city-dwellers, especially in poor areas, are fat, so therefore sprawl really just doesn't matter. I am perfectly willing to concede for the sake of argument that poorer people tend to be fatter (though a CDC report suggests that this correlation is more modest than some believe).  But this doesn't mean that sprawl … [Read more...]

If a sprawling mall parking lot is one of the symbols of suburban America, this particular lot is a perfect example of how the suburbs are changing: Six acres of pavement have just been turned into the beginnings of a walkable community, complete with a new park that’s helping restore a creek for local salmon. The shopping center next door--Northgate Mall--was one of the first suburban malls in the country, built in 1950. The surrounding neighborhood used to be the kind of place where … [Read more...]

We had barely started our tour of the Chautauqua, Boulder's verdant 19th-century park, when my guide for the morning, local historian Carol Taylor, handed me the packet with the "cautionary tales." They were photocopied news articles, all from national publications, all featuring Boulder and all written--in Taylor's mind, anyway--by superficial out-of-towner nincompoops. "Namaste and Pass the Naan," read one's subhead. "You will be hard-pressed to find one person here, including your 85-year-old … [Read more...]

Early in Spike Jonze's new film Her, Joaquin Phoenix's character gazes out his Los Angeles window. As the camera pans, we see not a squat, sprawling metropolis, but a golden-lit landscape of skyscrapers stretching all the way to the horizon. When I saw the film last Friday night, this scene made me gasp. It wasn't just the shock of seeing L.A. rendered as a vertical city. It was because this L.A. of the future looked like a place where I wanted to live. This digitally enhanced, metastasized … [Read more...]