The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite index that ranks countries based on four key indicators (3 dimensions):

• Life expectancy in years (health)
  

• Expected years of schooling (education)
  

• Mean years of schooling (education)
  

• Gross national income per capita (standard of living)
  

Equal weighting (1/3) is given to each of the above dimensions: (1) health, (2) education, and (3) standard of living.

And the resulting index value is a normalized number between 0 and 1, with the latter number representing the maximum possible value.

Generally speaking, a country is thought to be developed or advanced when it has an HDI greater than 0.8.

The way you calculate each dimension’s index value is by using the minimum and maximum limits set out by the United Nations.

To give you an example, for gross national income per capita (standard of living), the minimum is $100 and the maximum is $75,000. (Logic behind these numbers, here.)

Once you know the boundaries, you then use this formula for each dimension:

Dimension Index = (Actual Value - Minimum Value) / (Maximum Value - Minimum Value)

Each of the individual dimension indices are then aggregated together to create that country’s HDI.

In 2017, the country with the highest HDI was Norway at 0.953. Brazil, which is what got me started thinking about this, was at 0.759. So not quite developed.

Canada and the US were on top of each other at 0.926 and 0.924, respectively.

Today’s post is going to be about a handful of things that have caught my attention.

- Gary Hack, who is the former dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, recently published a book called Site Planning: International Practice. It is a textbookish guide to planning processes, new technologies, and sustainability, with an emphasis on rapidly urbanizing countries. Thank you to my friend Michael Geller for bringing this to my attention.

- Sidewalk Labs Toronto is opening a new experimental workspace here in Toronto at 307 Lake Shore Boulevard East (Queens Quay & Parliament) on Saturday, June 16th from 12 - 6pm. It’s an old fish processing plant that they have turned into their office. The team will work there during the week and on the weekends they will open to the public to showcase what they’re up to. Register for the June 16th event, here. I just did.

- Alexandra Lange has a recent piece in the New Yorker called, The Hidden Women of Architecture and Design. It’s about the important role that women have played in the “design of childhood”, which is the title of a book by Lange. There’s also a short but interesting story about Detroit’s Lafayette Park (Mies van der Rohe) at the beginning of the article.

- Finally, here is a blog post by Witold Rybczynski where he talks about the shortcomings of architectural education. Obscure theories. Technical or made-up jargon. And no concern for budgets and schedules. I have always shared a similar view and have long felt that there needs to be more business school in architecture school.

Hopefully there’s something in here that is of interest to you.

The University of Toronto just announced a new School of Cities. It will begin operations on July 1 of this year (2018) and bring together researchers from various disciplines to address the world’s most critical urban challenges. 

Insert stat here about the percentage of the population that will live in an urban area by 2050.

There are more than 220 faculty members across 40 different academic divisions at the University of Toronto who are doing urban-focused work. The School of Cities is intended to bring those minds together.

So far there are plans for a “global cities summit” and an “urban lab” that will also bring students, faculty, industry, and government together. The intent is for the School to act as a city builder both locally (Greater Toronto Area) and globally.

This once again goes to show just how important we are all taking urban issues today. But I am sure this blog audience didn’t need to be reminded of that.

If you would like to sign up for updates from the School of Cities, you can do that here.

Photo by Jorge Vasconez on Unsplash

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite index that ranks countries based on four key indicators (3 dimensions):

• Life expectancy in years (health)
  

• Expected years of schooling (education)
  

• Mean years of schooling (education)
  

• Gross national income per capita (standard of living)
  

Equal weighting (1/3) is given to each of the above dimensions: (1) health, (2) education, and (3) standard of living.

And the resulting index value is a normalized number between 0 and 1, with the latter number representing the maximum possible value.

Generally speaking, a country is thought to be developed or advanced when it has an HDI greater than 0.8.

The way you calculate each dimension’s index value is by using the minimum and maximum limits set out by the United Nations.

To give you an example, for gross national income per capita (standard of living), the minimum is $100 and the maximum is $75,000. (Logic behind these numbers, here.)

Once you know the boundaries, you then use this formula for each dimension:

Dimension Index = (Actual Value - Minimum Value) / (Maximum Value - Minimum Value)

Each of the individual dimension indices are then aggregated together to create that country’s HDI.

In 2017, the country with the highest HDI was Norway at 0.953. Brazil, which is what got me started thinking about this, was at 0.759. So not quite developed.

Canada and the US were on top of each other at 0.926 and 0.924, respectively.

Today’s post is going to be about a handful of things that have caught my attention.

- Gary Hack, who is the former dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, recently published a book called Site Planning: International Practice. It is a textbookish guide to planning processes, new technologies, and sustainability, with an emphasis on rapidly urbanizing countries. Thank you to my friend Michael Geller for bringing this to my attention.

- Sidewalk Labs Toronto is opening a new experimental workspace here in Toronto at 307 Lake Shore Boulevard East (Queens Quay & Parliament) on Saturday, June 16th from 12 - 6pm. It’s an old fish processing plant that they have turned into their office. The team will work there during the week and on the weekends they will open to the public to showcase what they’re up to. Register for the June 16th event, here. I just did.

- Alexandra Lange has a recent piece in the New Yorker called, The Hidden Women of Architecture and Design. It’s about the important role that women have played in the “design of childhood”, which is the title of a book by Lange. There’s also a short but interesting story about Detroit’s Lafayette Park (Mies van der Rohe) at the beginning of the article.

- Finally, here is a blog post by Witold Rybczynski where he talks about the shortcomings of architectural education. Obscure theories. Technical or made-up jargon. And no concern for budgets and schedules. I have always shared a similar view and have long felt that there needs to be more business school in architecture school.

Hopefully there’s something in here that is of interest to you.

The University of Toronto just announced a new School of Cities. It will begin operations on July 1 of this year (2018) and bring together researchers from various disciplines to address the world’s most critical urban challenges. 

Insert stat here about the percentage of the population that will live in an urban area by 2050.

There are more than 220 faculty members across 40 different academic divisions at the University of Toronto who are doing urban-focused work. The School of Cities is intended to bring those minds together.

So far there are plans for a “global cities summit” and an “urban lab” that will also bring students, faculty, industry, and government together. The intent is for the School to act as a city builder both locally (Greater Toronto Area) and globally.

This once again goes to show just how important we are all taking urban issues today. But I am sure this blog audience didn’t need to be reminded of that.

If you would like to sign up for updates from the School of Cities, you can do that here.

Photo by Jorge Vasconez on Unsplash