Paisajes de Azerbaiyán. Descubre la impresionante belleza y diversidad de los paisajes de Azerbaiyán mientras te llevamos en un viaje

Imagine waking up to the gentle noises of the city, and moving through your day with complete confidence that you will get where you need to go quickly and efficiently. Soft City is about ease and comfort, where density has a human dimension, adapting to our ever-changing needs, nurturing relationships, and accommodating the pleasures of everyday life. How do we move from the current reality in most cites—separated uses and lengthy commutes in single-occupancy vehicles that drain human, environmental, and community resources—to support a soft city approach? In Soft City David Sim, partner and creative director at Gehl, shows how this is possible, presenting ideas and graphic examples from around the globe. He draws from his vast design experience to make a case for a dense and diverse built environment at a human scale, which he presents through a series of observations of older and newer places, and a range of simple built phenomena, some traditional and some totally new inventions. Sim shows that increasing density is not enough. The soft city must consider the organization and layout of the built environment for more fluid movement and comfort, a diversity of building types, and thoughtful design to ensure a sustainable urban environment and society. Soft City begins with the big ideas of happiness and quality of life, and then shows how they are tied to the way we live. The heart of the book is highly visual and shows the building blocks for neighborhoods: building types and their organization and orientation; how we can get along as we get around a city; and living with the weather. As every citizen deals with the reality of a changing climate, Soft City explores how the built environment can adapt and respond. Soft City offers inspiration, ideas, and guidance for anyone interested in city building. Sim shows how to make any city more efficient, more livable, and better connected to the environment. Product DetailsISBN-13: 9781642830187 Media Type: Paperback Publisher: Island Press Publication Date: 08-20-2019 Pages: 256 Product Dimensions: 7.90(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.60(d)About the Author Jan Gehl is a founding partner of Gehl Architects—Urban Quality Consultants. He is the author of Life Between Buildings and Public Spaces, Public Life. He has received numerous awards for his work and is widely credited with creating and renewing urban spaces in cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Melbourne, New York City, London, and many others.Read an Excerpt Read an Excerpt CHAPTER 1 Being Neighbors "Neighborhood is not a place; it's a state of mind" When talking about the human environment, towns and cities, urban design, or placemaking, the word neighbor is always useful. Think of your neighbor and you immediately think of another human being. It is not a vague planning concept or an unspecified urban phenomenon, but a living person, someone like you, but different. Neighbor is not a technical term or professional planning jargon, but a simple word that everyone knows and understands. At its simplest, neighbor can mean the person next door. At its broadest, it can mean all of humanity. Neighborhood is a state of being in a relationship. More than anything, the human environment is about relationships: relationships between people and planet, relationships between people and place, and relationships between people and people. In the relationship between people and the planet, we have made harsh places and severe climates habitable. Coexisting with other people has allowed us to cooperate and collaborate — to organize, trade, manufacture, and learn. Our ability to cultivate, control, and even manipulate these different relationships has allowed us to go beyond survival, to create societies and cultures, and often (but certainly not always) to achieve a better quality of life. Successful neighboring has allowed us to thrive and flourish, to live longer and fuller lives. Of course, being a neighbor is not always easy. People have different perspectives and needs, values and behaviors. The benefits of colocation can just as easily become problems, as surplus becomes waste, energy becomes pollution, mobility become congestion, collaboration becomes exploitation, and coexistence becomes conflict. Yet, in our rapidly urbanizing world, the word neighbor is more relevant than ever. All over the world, cities are not only densifying, but also diversifying. It is precisely the diversity and the differences that create opportunities. The simplest way to tap into everything society has to offer is to have neighbors, close neighbors. The thesis of this book comes down to a simple equation: Density x Diversity = Proximity The idea is that the fusion of density and diversity increases the likelihood or the possibility of useful things, places, and people being closer to you. The attraction of cities lies in mutual benefit. They offer reciprocal systems or arrangements, which support symbiotic relationships. There are at least three such benefits that can explain the attraction of a dense, diverse urban environment: physical proximity, common resources, and shared identities. Physical proximity to people and places can improve access to employers and employees, teachers and tradesmen, shops, schools, and services where and when you need them. Proximity in an urban context is made possible by common resources such as public spaces, hospitals, libraries, universities, and public transport. It is about being closer to where decisions and discoveries are made, where new knowledge grows, where fashion is created, trends start, and culture happens. With proximity, the space of the urban environment can be translated into time, with the convenience of being able to do a wide variety of things in the same day, in the same morning, or even in the same hour. We know that infrastructure costs per capita decrease as density increases. Additionally more people make for more customers, allowing a wider range of commercial and cultural activities to thrive. In theory, the larger the city, the larger the pool of common resources. It is exactly this access to these that compensates for the sometimes cramped and crowded living conditions of urban life. Another benefit is having a shared identity with your community, which comes from sharing the same places and resources. This feeling of belonging can be seen in people's pride in their city, in its places and local heroes, its public buildings, parks, and promenades, and its athletes and artists. Local urban identity is often stronger and perhaps more relevant than national, cultural, or ethnic identity. Its inclusive nature arguably makes for one of the healthiest forms of collective identity. Yet another benefit of dense, diverse urban environments is the potential for unexpected opportunities. Towns and cities are sites of the spontaneous and serendipitous random encounters and unpredictable meetings. The ever-changing configuration of people results in a delightful unpredictability, rife with possibilities. Seemingly an insignificant aspect of urban life, it has very real importance. If we better understand what conditions make for being good neighbors, we can then better accommodate density, difference, and change. We can embrace these as beneficial opportunities rather than unfortunate challenges. We should recognize that every detail in the physical composition of the built environment has the potential to deliver comfort, convenience, and connection to others. The subtle balance of private and public needs, and the colocation of different activities in the same place make it possible to live well without having to travel so much. By getting the relationships right in the physical environment, with everything you need close at hand, an urban neighborhood can offer a better life. With everyday exposure and regular encounters comes relevance. With time, this awareness and understanding can grow into reverence, when people care about planet, people, and place. Changing mindsets leads ultimately to changing behaviors. In this way, neighborhood is not a place; it's a state of mind.CHAPTER 2Building Blocks Living Locally in an Urbanizing World There are many arguments for increasing density. With rapid urbanization and dwindling resources, we have to use existing infrastructure more efficiently, make better use of the resources we have — specifically the space we have — and make what we build work harder for us. Greater density alone is not going to give us better lives. No real benefit comes from being stacked on top of one another just because it is more spatially efficient. True urban quality comes from accommodating density and diversity of building types and uses in the same place. I believe that different, even conflicting, uses and users can coexist and enjoy the convenience of colocation if they are accommodated in an urban framework that lets them be good neighbors to each other. Enclosure The urban pattern of enclosure seems to be as old as the built environment itself. Ever since the very first formal human settlements, thousands of years ago, there has been a simple pattern of building that could be called urban. The urban pattern is characterized by building to the very edge of the property rather than in the middle, and having joined-up buildings, where different properties are juxtaposed. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this urban pattern is the different outdoor spaces created between the buildings. By grouping buildings to make enclosures, extra, controllable outdoor spaces are created at no extra cost. The enclosures between the buildings or inside the block give privacy and security, which are much-needed qualities in an urban environment. The fact that the space is protected, physically and visually, means it lends itself to useful activities, either as an extension of life inside the buildings or as an additional, complementary space where other activities c

Buenos aires y sus Jacarandás ❤

Toronto un Destino Inolvidable Uno de los lugares que hemos tenido la fortuna de conocer y que nos cambiaron la vida es sin duda Toronto un destino inolvidable

El cambio climático toca a nuestra puerta con insistencia y la arquitectura lleva años poniéndose las pilas (recargables, por supuesto) para aportar su grano de arena en la construcción de un futuro más verde.

Before sunrise

| My Photo

Isla de los admins~

En los años 70, en plena recesión económica, Nueva York era una de las ciudades más peligrosas de Estados Unidos. Con una tasa de criminalidad de las más

Le damos un mordisco a la Gran Manzana y saboreamos 100 curiosidades que nos hacen amar 100 veces más a Nueva York.

Imágenes que capturan la sensación que tendrás al ver la ciudad japonesa por primera vez.

Recibió un descanso para el último partido del City contra Luton, en la Copa FA en febrero