Urban studies and planning terminology

1. Discuss Activities 1.1(2), 1.2(1), 1.3, 1.4 Activity 1.1: Do you think it would be possible to make a perfect map of a city? What would such a map have to look like? How useful would it be? Making a perfect map of a city wouldn't be possible because it is impossible to make a perfect detailed replica of what a city looks like while also scaling it down. For the map of a city to be absolutely perfect it would also have to be the exact size of the city and then it would be rendered obsolete…

Excessive Planning in the Urban Future: Obstacles to Urban Utopia The utopian-style planning of the urban future has embraced principle, and abandoned practicality. In order to form utopian cities, the planners of urban areas like Brasília and Delhi proposed detailed urban plans that have mostly ignored market factors in favor of heightened urban regulations. In the case of Brasília, these regulations, designed to further the city’s utopian conception, have actually had the opposite effect.…

of the previous map design. Massimo Vignelli’s believes that as human beings, we analyze everything in a semiotic grid, creating associations to signs and colors, so it was just natural to reduce the map to the bare-essentials. Semiotic means the study of symbology which is the notion that every sign has importance and has a meaning. For example, the redesign of the subway map used different eye-catching colors to differentiate the routes. This choice of color change doesn’t just make the map…

Manhattan Analysis: A Discussion of Urban Life and Urban Planning As along with the rapid development of science and advanced technology, people’s life style in urban area is dramatically changed with the outstanding improvement of the urban planning and management. In the movie Manhattan directed by Woody Allen, described a romantic story of four people’s life in Manhattan, the importance of the urban planning to people’s urban life is obviously discovered by the main characters’…

have our own views of them. But as civilians, we only see the what is attractive to us such as, building, parks, and the attractions of the city, but we never think deeply enough to see the reality. Richard Florida, the author of the book The New Urban Crisis, is a researcher and expert in cities. He identifies inequality, segregation, and high costs of living as challenges confronting today’s cities. Florida applies the sociological imagination to break down these factors. His purpose is to…

My response to Recovering Utopia by Nathanial Coleman from the Journal of Architectural Education. This article is an intellectual article that works towards defining utopia in regard to architecture and city planning. It includes explanations that make up the dangers and realistic ideals that come along with trying to create utopia in architecture or a utopian city. Coleman describes what makes up utopia in architecture which include as he describes four elements: “social and political content;…

Oldenburg, American urban sociologist, places can be divided on three categories. The first one is the home, the second one is the workplace, and the third is a place which exists on neutral ground and aims towards social equality (Oldenburg, p. 163). In the middle of the city of Jönköping between Södra Strandgatan and Smedjegatan, lies the inner garden of Borgmästargränd 5, a third place. The aim of this essay is to describe and analyze the inner garden based on the American urban sociologist…

I never intended to study architecture. When I was applying to colleges, I intended to study kinesiology and psychology. Studying dance and photography when I was younger gave me a desire to be expressive, and even though I felt a connection to the physicality of dance through kinesiology, I knew I wanted to do something that fulfilled that same sense of expression. It wasn’t until I studied architecture that I noticed some of its similarities with dance. Dance is expressive of the body, but it…

the growing impact of gentrification has made the urban development very susceptible. At this point, it is very important to mention the fact that the process of gentrification emerges under the impact of multiple factors, including but not limited to economic & social factors and globalization in general, which encourage consistent modifications in urban development. Socioeconomic and demographic changes are also a consequence of urban planning which is provoked by gentrification. On the other…

Reagan Wintle 1/19/15 G2 Modern China Mr. Cote Newly built cities that are void of life have become a huge problem for China. Not only have these cities neglected to bring any newcomers, but China continues to build them. It is important to understand why they continue to build these cities. It is also important to learn the short and long term effects on China, and the impact it has not only on China, but the rest of the world. Many projects, including the nation 's high-speed…