1) Introduction to CitiesSimply.com
Urban places are essentially manifestations of organised chaos. Some are great places but many are not. Ensuring urban places are great...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 21, 20203 min read
2) What makes an urban place
Urban places are more than just buildings- its the spaces between buildings and the way the buildings relate to those spaces that matters...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 20, 20202 min read
3) Spaces, Places & Changes
We must start by remembering that we experience any urban environment on foot. We see the buildings around us, but what we perceive is...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 19, 20203 min read
4) Achieving Change
In the city or town most change is delivered by private landowners and developers. Most of the time this involves repairing or...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 18, 20203 min read
5) How the public sector can shape cities
Successful cities require holistic vision and planning, they require thinking beyond the space individual buildings occupy. They require...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 16, 20202 min read
6) Layers of the city
We need to start by thinking of the layers of the city up on top of which the buildings sit. There are multiple facets to these layers:...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 15, 20204 min read
7) Street Structures
All urban places have a grid of streets and when thinking about delivering change we need to think about how this functions as a network....
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 14, 20203 min read
8) Blocks, plots & buildings
In any urban environment, the spaces between where streets interconnect are parcels of land where buildings or green spaces appear. These...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 13, 20204 min read
9) Open spaces
In the pre car city there is usually little open space, particularly if it is a pre-Georgian or unplanned city. However what space is...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 12, 20208 min read
10) Making places more interesting
If we take all the previous principles and apply them to making a place, we will probably make somewhere which functions reasonably for...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 11, 20202 min read
11) Finishes of streets and open spaces
The finishing of streets and open space relates to matters such as the surfacing, planting, artwork and seating. With unsuccessful places...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 10, 20205 min read
12) Density and Vibrancy
The British have an aversion to density, yet most Brits who live in a city want to use vibrant places and even Brits who live in suburbia...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 9, 20202 min read
13) Locating to create life
People designing urban centres, need to understand how life is created in that centre. Successful urban spaces are filled with life. How...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 8, 20202 min read
14) Zones and Nodes
The different parts of any urban environment will have different purposes and functions. In the small town you will likely have a town...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 7, 20202 min read
15) Recap: The urban rule book
In India something like 90 cities have been declared smart cities, of these around half are prone to flooding, and there are problems...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 6, 20203 min read
16) Context is king
Next to the aforementioned design rules, context is king. It is all well and good to be able to design a great place, but for that to be...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 5, 20202 min read
17) Demand: Retail, food and drink
To be blunt, if there is more space than demand for retail, food and beverage, then there will be lots of empty shops and empty retail...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 4, 20202 min read
18) Population profile
It is necessary to understand the characteristics and needs of the population who are going to use or live in the place so that those...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 3, 20205 min read
19) Housing market economics
Before delivering any change it is vital to first understand housing market economics in more detail than TV's Homes Under the Hammer...
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CitiesSimply.com
Nov 2, 20203 min read
20) Making s**t happen
So far, we have run through the principles and context we need to understand to make sure schemes are designed well and are appropriate...
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