Urbanism Blog @lewis-mumfords-ghost - Tumblr Blog

Feel free to send in an ask with any planning related topics you guys are interested in hearing about, otherwise I'm just going to talk about whatever I'm currently reading about

lewis-mumfords-ghost

Some ideas if anyone doesn't even know where to start asking; I focus a lot in my school work studying specifically various forms of urban greenery such as city parks, street trees, communal agriculture, etc. but I am well versed on city planning in general, including like zoning laws, water and waste management systems, transportation, etc. As well, I have been trying to read more in my spare time about historical city planning just because I find it fascinating. Unfortunately, I will admit that my knowledge in that is rather western-centric but I have working to expand that (if anyone has any book or video recommendations, please send them).

Overall though, if you're unsure if I can answer something, try asking and if I am unsure, I can at least point you in the direction to start looking

whaile

late summer / early fall thoughts

wachinyeya

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/12/29/the-japanese-micro-forest-method-is-transforming-cities

The Japanese ‘micro-forest’ method is transforming cities

plantyhamchuk

"More than 420 million hectares of forest have been lost to other uses since 1990, according to the UN’s 2020 State of the World’s Forests Report.

With more than 85 per cent of the global population living in urban areas, micro-forests in cities offer an essential opportunity to combat deforestation.

The Miyawaki Forest Technique, invented by Japanese botanist and plant ecology expert Professor Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s, is the inspiration for micro-forests worldwide.

These diverse, organic small forests can be created on sites as small as nine square metres, and only use native species that would otherwise grow naturally in the planting area. They grow up to 10 times faster than monoculture forests, in just two to three decades.

Since Miyawaki’s work began, more than 280 micro-forests have been planted."

...

"In polluted urban areas, micro-forests can help to restore soil, water and air quality, according to the Woodland Trust.

Their small size allows plantation in relatively limited urban space, often taking advantage of unused spaces such as school playgrounds, cemeteries, and near metro stations. They can also help to reduce the impact of heavy rainfall, and to keep towns and cities cooler.

Micro-forests can create more habitats for wildlife in cities, such as blackbirds or hedgehogs. When planted in distinct layers, they can also develop plant communities of smaller shrubs and herbs, which allow the micro-forests to become self-sustaining after just three to five years of growth.

“Our pocket forests offer a myriad of benefits” says Elise Van Middelem, Founder and CEO of SUGi.

“Perhaps most importantly, they can support the positive well-being of communities. From a psychological perspective, interacting with nature reduces physical stress and can improve symptoms of mental ill health, including anxiety or depression.”

anastasha-romanov

The link provided doesn't really go over the method, so I looked into it a bit more. The key is planting a bunch of native trees close together. Like, 2ft tall trees, 2 ft apart. The overall garden can be just 3ftx3ft, any is fine really. By planting the trees close together, they grow upwards faster (rather than out sideways). Additionally, they make sure to prepare/improve the soil in advance to hold lots of water, and to apply lots of mulch over the top. You water it tons and weed it in the first two years or so, then it goes on by itself without maintenance.

The more diversity in native trees you can plant, the better. I think this @jstor blog post on the jstor website has a nice overview and some info on how the technique is being utilized around the world: https://daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-method-a-better-way-to-build-forests/

lilou-the-world-builder

sweetpuppea

don't tell these people what happened to London in 1666

westformiles

Jokes aside, when straw is tightly compacted and covered in plaster/stucco as it is in building applications, it's approximately as flammable as a big phone book that's been tied shut with wire, dipped in concrete and allowed to cure.

Source: have watched a fire that would have destroyed a wood-frame structure in half an hour do only minor superficial damage to a straw bale building in the same time. (The fire crew were gobsmacked.)

middlingmay

There's an increasing trend to look back at traditional building types (like earth) and apply their principles to modern construction. Issue is, a lot of modern construction materials are incompatible with traditional materials and can cause deterioration. Traditional buildings, generally speaking, were designed holistically. The whole building worked together from foundations to roof. If one element breaks down, or is replaced with something that doesn't work with the rest of the building (for eg a modern cement render instead of a lime render in a lot of cases; poor ventilation features, minimal water shedding detailing common in modern buildings), it affects the whole of the rest of the building.

But some people may take that to mean the trad materials or approaches don't work. They do; they were designed to last centuries. It's why roofed castles and cottages still stand centuries later (my own house in 124 years old). The Arnol Blackhouse, although it underwent significant conservation, is about 150 years old. it's made using thatch, timber cruck frame (cuppils) and stane walls. And they're babies, architecturally speaking.

Historically, people designed and constructed buildings that worked with the environments they lived in (costal winds and salt spray; inland flooding; etc). Blows my mind how dismissive some poeple can be of historic construction; when I doubt a lot of the new builds being constructed are going to be there several centuries later...

speranza-manor

Just gonna copypaste what I said before to this thread:

Unironically yes they should. Straw is an incredible building material, I looked into it back when I first discovered the concept of sustainable buildings and it is seriously incredible how good it is. The UK also produces it as a by-product, so if they start using it to build housing that is basically eliminating that product just being trashed!

Building with strawbale-and-mud (and remember, "mud" is a category that includes cement, concrete, clay, and plaster) is called cob building, and if its properly compacted and sealed against moisture, and maintained properly, it's a really great passive energy saving material that is VERY fire-resistant, quake-resistant, and you end up with walls that are thick and covered in plaster like in old cottages, and that means HUGE WINDOWSEATS! And very low HVAC bills and a quiet house bc of how thick the walls are! Straw is also very much sustainable for that part of the world, it's a traditional building material and has many benefits! You want a hobbity cottagecore house? Look into cob building!

Honestly, building a house this way works better than modern timber-and-drywall, whether in a place like California's deserts or in a place like England's temperate oceanic or in Africa's wide variety of climates, and I'm glad to see cob being re-introduced to modern building!

I have convinced myself that Jake Blount's last two albums are a fantastic artistic embodiment of Social Ecology that I am pretty sure I could write a thesis on it. I'm about to start going through my books on the subject to drafting an essay

#jake blount #social ecology #murray bookchin

queer-as-city-folk

San Francisco doing something good?? Please vote to get rid of it

queer-as-city-folk

(I mean their doing it to get their home values to climb ever higher but a highway removal is a highway removal)

lewis-mumfords-ghost

I live in the city and have worked to promote this proposal. Unfortunately from what I've seen I'm skeptical it will pass, but we're trying.

I'd be willing to go into detail of why this is such a good project if anyone wants more info

#urbanism #san francisco

the-city-in-mind

The City of Montreal is building temporary modular housing for homeless Montrealers awaiting more permanent housing solutions.

The City of Montreal is building modular housing to accommodate houseless people:

The City of Montreal launched a call for tenders today to acquire the modules needed for modular housing for the homeless. The first two buildings in this pilot project, which will house 60 people temporarily as they await more permanent housing solutions, is expected to be completed within six months.

While the location of these buildings has not yet been confirmed, the city’s executive committee member responsible for the homelessness file, Robert Beaudry, told La Presse that each would feature common areas as well as 30 separate rooms with toilets and showers. He added that a community organization (also TBD) would be present to assist residents in need of specialized services.

queer-as-city-folk

I just started a new public transit gimmick blog any advice on how to get started?

Bother big blogs till you get noticed

obviously-mojang

it works

the-m-is-for-minor

it's true

the-principality-of-sealand

Can confirm.

apple-unofficial

Works like a charm

queer-as-city-folk

Shoo the lot of you, I am not a gimmickverse blog

lewis-mumfords-ghost

no but bothering you to get noticed for talking seriously about these topics also works

queer-as-city-folk

There be devils at work here

queer-as-city-folk

That happens in every American city, it's called an American downtown

dragonflea

Why is everything else squares?

queer-as-city-folk

That's a good old fashioned American Grid System

ktempestbradford

Let's give credit where credit is due: the Romans popularized the grid system during the empire. America didn't invent that nonsense.

queer-as-city-folk

I don't actually feel that grids are that bad, with 4 way stop signs and narrow streets they can maintain slow car speeds, are easy to make for expansion of cities when needed and are great for navigation. The winding unconnected roads of suburbs are much worse and create bottlenecks which grids mostly lack

lewis-mumfords-ghost

There is that but under our current economic system, the parcelling of cities into grids was used by and large as a tool of the american elites to make it easier to financialise land, because using a grid divided the land into simple rectangular parcels that made it easier to wholesale chunks of cities to investors.

#urban planning #urban studies #I recommend sticks and stones by lewis mumford as a history on this in america

incognitopolls

Do you mind if your pets are in the room while you're having sex/masturbating/etc?

I don't care, it's fine if they're in there

I don't want them in the room, they'll jump up on the bed or want my attention

I don't want them there, it's just weird

I don't want them there for another specific reason

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#fine if they're not in the way

I've spent some time contemplating what I want to specialise in when I go to grad school for urban planning. So I did my undergraduate mostly focusing on green spaces in cities, which is something that I think is vitally important. Parks are a good place for community and have been shown to improve the mental health of people living near them. As well, I could go on for ages about the many benefits of street trees.

Then there's also public transport, which is one of the things gaining the most traction right now in the public conscious, as it's so obviously broken in North American infrastructure. These planners working on improving local and regional transit lines are probably going to be getting the most funding in years to come just because of the community support, which is good of course, i think we can all agree that cars as a means of mass transit is a failed experiment that should be left as a relic of the 20th century.

However I think the subfield I would be most interested in is working specifically with Community engagement. More than anything I want to encourage People to become invested in their local communities and educated on how we can fix our broken cities. Because while fixing our car dependant infrastructure is definitely the start, there's still so much more that needs to be done if we want our communities to be the best they can be, and that will require all of us onboard and working with the people we live with

#personal #urban planning #urbanism #politics #public transit

One of my favourite things about taking the regional train is watching the connection signs as we travel, and seeing when we transition on signs for local connection changing between the different local agencies that we pass by.

#personal #urban planning #urbanism #public transit #my least favourite thing is that they only run the local trains on weekends so when trying to use it to go between districts takes forever

I saw a description that characterized urban planning as an inherently utopian field because you're constantly working towards creating a better future for your city that is a long lasting project you will probably never see the finality of.

And that really spoke to me

#utopianism #urban planning #urbanism #personal #anarchism #politics

I hate how with my friends that don't use public transit, I feel like I can never complain about it being bad without them writing it off completely. Like yes the buses are always running late and come infrequently (15 minutes) in our area. But the city government is working to improve it, they've been adding new routes and increasing the frequency around the city. We should fight for them to make it even better than it's become, and part of that is riding! They collect numbers on ridership to see how well these improvements are received by the community. You can't just write it off and say you'll never take the bus! That's what got it underfunded in the first place.

Please just work with your city transit department, I promise you they're trying to improve things but to get the funding they need to be able to show something for it. Please take transit.

#personal #urban planning #urbanism #public transit #public transport system