This Thursday is the launch of a brand new city event called the WRLDCTY Virtual Festival (vowels, clearly, suck). Presented by Vancouver-based Resonance Consultancy, the "host cities" are New York, London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Toronto.
The idea is to bring together thought leaders and city lovers from all around the world on a virtual platform for three days. The speakers include people like Richard Florida, Bjarke Ingels, and Dan Doctoroff.
The other thing they're doing is offering up over 20 virtual urban experiences. Think yoga on Santa Monica Pier, burlesque in Brooklyn, and graffiti art tours in Toronto. It's clearly no substitute for actual travel, but this is the best we've got right now and we're all trying to adapt.
A general admission ticket is free, but some of the headline events require a pro pass and if you'd like to do some virtual networking and chat with other guests in the "Community Center," you'll also need that same pass. Here's the full agenda.
Barcelona is one of the densest cities in Europe. And Márton Mogyorósy's recent photo series, called Barcelona from above, does an excellent job of demonstrating that. My favorite photo is this one here, showing La Barceloneta neighborhood adjacent to the beach:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsa78llAC2c/
None of the buildings are particularly tall (maybe 6 or 7 storeys at the most), but the streets are probably only about 6m wide, including sidewalks. This is one way that you can achieve density without height and it is a good example of what I was getting at in my post, European-style height, but not density.
This Thursday is the launch of a brand new city event called the WRLDCTY Virtual Festival (vowels, clearly, suck). Presented by Vancouver-based Resonance Consultancy, the "host cities" are New York, London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Toronto.
The idea is to bring together thought leaders and city lovers from all around the world on a virtual platform for three days. The speakers include people like Richard Florida, Bjarke Ingels, and Dan Doctoroff.
The other thing they're doing is offering up over 20 virtual urban experiences. Think yoga on Santa Monica Pier, burlesque in Brooklyn, and graffiti art tours in Toronto. It's clearly no substitute for actual travel, but this is the best we've got right now and we're all trying to adapt.
A general admission ticket is free, but some of the headline events require a pro pass and if you'd like to do some virtual networking and chat with other guests in the "Community Center," you'll also need that same pass. Here's the full agenda.
Barcelona is one of the densest cities in Europe. And Márton Mogyorósy's recent photo series, called Barcelona from above, does an excellent job of demonstrating that. My favorite photo is this one here, showing La Barceloneta neighborhood adjacent to the beach:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsa78llAC2c/
None of the buildings are particularly tall (maybe 6 or 7 storeys at the most), but the streets are probably only about 6m wide, including sidewalks. This is one way that you can achieve density without height and it is a good example of what I was getting at in my post, European-style height, but not density.
The above photo was taken on a walk up to the Castillo de Gibralfaro in Malaga, Spain. It was built by the Moors during their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. It is located on Mount Gibralfaro (~130m up) in the center of the city, overlooking the historic core, the waterfront, and its lower elevation sibling -- the Alcazaba (or citadel). In the Middle Ages, this is what it meant for a city to be defensible. High ground. Formidable double walls. And places to shoot from. Thankfully, today, I think one could easily argue that "urban defensibility" tends to instead rely on things like knowledge, innovation, and diversity. Here are a couple of photos from inside the fortress. It is always amazing to see what labor was able to build without the technologies that we have today.
Portions of it were built using a very elegant and elongated brick. Above is the bar area at the top. Presumably this was a later addition, though, supposedly the Moors did make and sell wine from the Andalucia region. If you ever find yourself in Malaga, this complex is a must visit.
The above photo was taken on a walk up to the Castillo de Gibralfaro in Malaga, Spain. It was built by the Moors during their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. It is located on Mount Gibralfaro (~130m up) in the center of the city, overlooking the historic core, the waterfront, and its lower elevation sibling -- the Alcazaba (or citadel). In the Middle Ages, this is what it meant for a city to be defensible. High ground. Formidable double walls. And places to shoot from. Thankfully, today, I think one could easily argue that "urban defensibility" tends to instead rely on things like knowledge, innovation, and diversity. Here are a couple of photos from inside the fortress. It is always amazing to see what labor was able to build without the technologies that we have today.
Portions of it were built using a very elegant and elongated brick. Above is the bar area at the top. Presumably this was a later addition, though, supposedly the Moors did make and sell wine from the Andalucia region. If you ever find yourself in Malaga, this complex is a must visit.
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