A call for a global network of city arcologies

by AgaTino Rizzo*

....the article (link) is really interesting, but as architect, engineer, and planner I'm a bit skeptical about Soleri's model.

Arcology is a comprehensive device which need to be created by a top-down authority....need to have 100% consensus...in one word is not that democratic. Risking to be a bit polemic, I would say: better to have sprawl than a dictatorship...because that's the kind of project.

As architect I'm really fascinated by these pure and organic forms, but the reality is much complex and I don't see many chances for Soleri's project to be successful. Yet we can't address a problem so complex (namely, change our way of live) in such simplistic terms.


read more: http://www.presstletter.com/articolo.asp?articolo=2249

UF-Mashup #5: P2P CONTEST "Let's complete Anders's project" (this week "Expecting visitors")

by Anders Simonsen*

"Let's complete Anders's project" is a P2P contest aimed to complete Anders Simonsen's research on mass culture, consume, and decadence in post-socialist countries in Europe.

New topics will be created in the discussion board of the UF-Facebook. In this space you can copy/paste texts and links created by you or quotations from an available (for publishing) source. In alternative, you can post your work to "cityleft (at) altervista (dot) org". The aim is to complete Anders's research.

read more: http://www.presstletter.com/articolo.asp?articolo=2069

UF-Toolbox #6: Helsinki-Tallinn Region - tracing networks in an archipelago of islands

by Bauhaus Kolleg IX

What's about the northern periphery of Europe?

How post-communist countries handled the transition from a collective economy to a liberal one?

What imply transnational dynamics between consolidated and fast-developing countries over cities?

What socio-spatial patterns can we recognize in this particular side of Europe and how Europeanisation is influencing young-small democracies in the Baltic Sea?

As planners, what future scenarios can we propose beside the increasing fragmentation of cities?

read more: http://www.presstletter.com/articolo.asp?articolo=2067

p2p art contest

Take part to the p2p art-contest!!!
check it out at this linK:
http://www.presstletter.com/articolo.asp?articolo=2053

UF-Mashup #2: P2P CONTEST "A plane yellow burger"

"Let's complete Anders's project" is a P2P contest aimed to complete Anders Simonsen's research on mass culture, consume, and decadence in post-socialist countries in Europe (see: http://www.presstletter.com/articolo.asp?articolo=2044).

New topics will be created in the discussion board of the UF-Facebook. In this space you can copy/paste texts and links created by you or quotations from an available (for publishing) source. The pictures area available on GMap support for a closer look. The aim is to complete Anders's research.

This will be one of the first experiments in P2P media-art research. I hope you will be proud to take part on it and, therefore, invite other friend to do so. Once the series of pictures will be entirely published, UF-Community will evaluate democratically each proposal which, together with the pictures, will be published in the first issue of UF-Mag, available online as well as in paperback.

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Cityleft - Openshare Urbanism
http://www.cityleft.altervista.org/

UF-Toolbox #3: Metropolis?

by ATR

At the Laituri workspace in Helsinki is currently going on "Metropolitan Horizons", an exhibition organized by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies – Helsinki University of Technology.

In this frame, a palette of analyses and ideas are shown to allow a debate on European metropolises scenarios today and in the next future....

read more: http://www.presstletter.com/articolo.asp?articolo=2023

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Cityleft - Urbanism 3.0
http://www.cityleft.altervista.org/

Urban Fiction Toolbox #2: How Peer Production And The Economic P2P Model Can Subvert The World Of Physical Production

by

How does the peer to peer paradigm, which combines the input of open and free raw material (knowledge, software, designs), with participatory production processes and commons (i.e. universally available output), affect the world of urbanism?
read more: http://www.presstletter.com/articolo.asp?articolo=2016
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Cityleft - Urbanism 3.0
http://www.cityleft.altervista.org/