How can we embrace radical urban greening in the urban metropolis? — There are no simple answers and every context presents different challenges and possibilities, which may be smaller in gesture yet often more meaningful in closely conforming to the parameters of rewilding. Director of The Oval Partnership Jonathan Pile has a clear interpretation of where the boundaries lie. “As I understand…

Why is biodiversity the key to sustaining our life on earth and why might rewilding provide the best rescue remedy? — Eco-warriors the world over continue to coin new mantras that promise to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Intensified greening is one of many strategies in a field that includes renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon capture, passive design, etc. There is a raft of trending terminology to describe how…

How did we end up here? The rising tide that led us to biodiversity loss and the climate emergency. — We do not need to search too deeply in order to learn the sobering — many would say grave — statistics regarding the state of planet earth: global warming, icecaps melting, corresponding sea level rises, more frequent extreme weather events, tragic and destructive wildfires, rising carbon emissions, infectious disease transmission…

Working with The Oval Partnership, Wedderburn Transport Planning is using an evidence-based approach to develop context-sensitive forms of Open City Design that are culturally and commercially successful, while providing safe and comfortable access to transit stations. — China has expanded the metro networks of its major cities at an unprecedented pace over the last 25 years. High-capacity urban transit is essential to manage the growth of mega-cities in an environmentally responsible manner. Yet the quality of a transit network is also defined by the ease with which…

Patrick Geddes is regarded by many as the father of citizen participation, and is renowned for his theories based on the “autonomous community” and “bottom-up” planning. He pioneered the place-making approach, was founder of the urban conservation movement and originated the phrase, “Think Global, Act Local”. — At 5pm, on Monday 18 July 1904, a Scottish professor of biology stood up to read a paper at Clare Market, London University, in front of an assembly of illustrious city reformers. In the Chair was the famous Rt Hon Charles Booth FRS and among the audience was Ebenezer Howard…

Digital Placemaking is a term we coined to encompass a set of data-driven processes harnessing place and people data analytics. The endeavor is to craft a toolkit for spotting emerging urban patterns-location intelligence if you will-and to capitalize on them through design and place curation for all to benefit. — Cities are our ever-evolving human-habitat. In the 21st century, the population of our cities will reach new highs. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. That’s 2.5 billion more people living in cities within 30 years. Nearly 90 per cent of this growth will take…

Infrastructure never exists in isolation; each is part of a larger system we call the city — When it comes to how a city is built, the importance of infrastructure cannot be overstated. Infrastructure amplifies a city space, an intricate web of networks in which people, materials and information can be circulated. In our daily lives, infrastructure may be rarely something we use directly, however it forms…

Community Arts Thrives in Hong Kong to Heal A Wounded Society — Chan King-cheung can never forget the hostility he faced when he curated his first community art project in the remote district of Tin Shui Wai. He first took up the job as a curator for the YWCA Tin Library and was creating a graffiti work in Tin Shui Estate, a…

What is special about Pieter Bruegel the Elder the is that he used techniques and layouts usually utilized in landscape paintings to depict peasant scenes. — Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a 16th century Dutch painter who specialized in large communal and landscape paintings. Many moderns like us probably know him through The Tower of Babel which has been the go-to image for book editors looking for cover art. The theme is of course based on…