Metropolitics

In Norway, Housing Schemes Designed with Children in Mind

Grégoire Tortosa & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-11-22T06:00:00Z

How can cities take more of a “child's eye view”? Grégoire Tortosa shows how avant-garde housing developments in Oslo and Tromsø, in Norway, have been designed to encourage children to play freely.
From the 1920s onwards, the Modernist movement defined a new conception of the city. By proposing a “coherent set of reasoning principles recognized and used as a reference,” it set itself up as an urban paradigm (Héran 2015, p. 33), with functionalism, technicism, the rejection of all heritage,

- From the Field / cars, Norvège, urban planning, spatial planning, urban design, urban development, housing, housing estates, housing projects, children, play

The Emergence of Ecological Thinking in the City

Charles-François Mathis & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-09-27T05:00:00Z

What place does ecological thinking have in the field of urban planning? In describing the use of vegetation in cities since the 19th century, Charles-François Mathis examines the historical evolution of planning choices and the foundations of a new “ecological urbanism.”
Wherever I may go today, if the opportunity arises, if I have an hour to spare in an unknown city, a complacent drift takes me along the streets, towards these placid chlorophyllous enclaves encircled nowadays by the

- Essays / landscape, nature, gardens, ecology, parks, urban development, urban planning, environment, history

Cities in the Age of Financialization

2021-06-18T05:00:00Z

Over the past four decades, the financialization of capitalism has transformed economies, societies, and urban space. This series of articles examines the growing involvement of financial actors, instruments, and rationales in the production of the urban built environment; the role of public authorities in this process; and their social, political, and spatial consequences.
---- ▼ Jump to the list of articles in this series ▼ Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, the financial

- Series / finance, housing, financialization, real estate, urban project, urban development, development, urban planning

The Brazilian Experience of Financialization Through Urban Redevelopment: The Case of “Urban Operations”

Laisa Eleonora Marostica Stroher — 2020-12-01T06:00:00Z

Laisa Stroher examines the history of large-scale urban regeneration projects in Brazil and shows how a policy instrument initially designed to respond to a lack of public funding has morphed into a tool that has helped transform urban land into a financial asset, leading ultimately to the displacement of populations without delivering on the initial social promises.
---- Series: Cities in the Age of Financialization Large-scale urban development projects and their contradictions feature

- From the Field / financialization, urban regeneration, urban development, Urban Operations (Brazil), Brazil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, redevelopment, urban planning, real estate, Latin America, South America, displacement

Fragile Financialization: The Struggle for Power and Control in Indian Real-Estate Investment

Llerena Guiu Searle — 2020-11-27T06:00:00Z

How does the financialization of real estate—a global phenomenon—affect urban development in India? In this ethnographic essay, Llerena Guiu Searle shows how financialization redefines the balance of power between the real-estate sector, local authorities, and financial investors.
---- Series: Cities in the Age of Financialization Advertisements for a residential township 40 km (25 miles) outside of Chennai, India, called Hiranandani Parks Oragadam–Chennai, show cream-colored colonnaded

- From the Field / financialization, real estate, India, urban development

Right(s) to the City in Hanoi

Divya Leducq & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-10-11T05:00:00Z

Over the past decade, urban change has accelerated and transformed the physical, social and symbolic landscapes of Hanoi. Taking as her starting point a survey in the Vietnamese capital, Divya Leducq identifies three key means in which residents express their right to the city which, in a context of multiple aspirations, reflect a shared desire for high-quality urban planning.
In recent years, urban transformation processes advocated by proponents of “top-down” planning built around

- From the Field / Hanoi, Vietnam, right to the city, inhabitant, civil society, urbanization, urban planning, urban development, social class, globalization, associations

Shanghai's West Bund Cultural Corridor Exemplifies the Opportunities and Risks of State-Driven Cultural Development

Siqi Tu — 2018-05-08T05:00:00Z

The West Bund Cultural Corridor in Shanghai is the latest entrant in a global competition to attract investment by combining cultural institutions with real-estate megaprojects. But arrangements between the corridor's private art museums and institutions of the local and national state remain ambiguous, raising questions about economic elitism and artistic freedom.
China's contemporary art scene is on the rise, as is the number of private museums in China, most notably in Shanghai. The Long

- From the Field / culture, urban development, China, development, neoliberalism, arts, global cities, Shanghai, cultural district, arts district, arts-centered development, cultural corridor

The Cost of Good Intentions: Planning Gridlock in San Francisco

David Prowler — 2018-01-30T06:00:00Z

The culture of protest that marked development and planning in San Francisco during the 1970s and 1980s was a response to the trauma of urban renewal. But this culture has left an ambiguous legacy for the present, argues author David Prowler.
In San Francisco, diffusion of decision-making and a restrictive and bureaucratic planning culture have impeded the planning of the city and focused resources on procedural battles that fail to manage its recent growth boom. Indeed, gridlock is the goal

- Debates / urban planning, urban renewal, urban development, development, San Francisco, downtown development, neighborhood preservation, planning politics

Restless Cities

Laura Wolf-Powers — 2016-10-25T05:00:00Z

The world of downtown real-estate development seems to have a life of its own, independent of demand for space and animated by financialization and public subsidy. Commenting on Rachel Weber's book From Boom to Bubble, Laura Wolf‑Powers wonders what the creation of 20 million square feet of office space and 34,000 housing units in downtown Chicago during the 2000s has to say about urban redevelopment more broadly.
Obscure news items like this one—“Aramark moving Schuylkill-side as downtown

- Reviews / Chicago, United States, urban development, real estate, asset bubbles

In Havana, Tourism Development Before the US Tsunami

Lily M. Hoffman — 2016-03-22T06:00:00Z

The easing of Cuban–US relations will likely bring a new wave of tourists to Cuba. Although the Cuban government needs the foreign investment, it is wary about the all-too-common ills of tourism. Cubans talk about growing inequality and corruption. Lily Hoffman considers the difficult choices facing the country and their likely impact on Havana.
In the wake of President Obama's visit this week (March 21–22, 2016) to Cuba, Cuba is poised to become the next hot tourist destination. Cuban

- Essays / inequalities, urban development, tourism, Cuba, Havana, urban heritage