Postcard from Vienna May 2017July 2025 Creating a model for smarter urbanisation Vienna has undergone a transformation since the bleak days of The Third Man, and now regularly tops the polls as one of the world’s best cities. Mercers, for example, have rated it number one from 2011-17. Yet the Lonely Planet Guide as recently as 2007 was complaining of…
Indian Urban Futures I May 2017June 2025 The publication reports on a symposium held on May 11th, 2017, focusing on the future of urban areas in India. With a population exceeding 1.2 billion, only 30% live in urban settings, leading to challenges such as urban sprawl, pollution, and inadequate housing. The event featured discussions on smarter urbanisation, addressing transport, housing, public health, and community engagement. The symposium aimed to foster collaboration between Indian and British organisations to share knowledge and develop innovative solutions for urban challenges.
Postcard from Tamil Nadu, Southern India March 2017July 2025 Smarter Urbanisation and Rapid Growth I have just come back from my fourth visit in as many years to Southern India. My main aim was to take forward the URBED Trust’s project to help SCAD (Social Change and Development) and to visit some historic attractions in Tamil Nadu. However, I was also struck by…
An Urbanist in India November 2016July 2025 I have just returned from three weeks travelling in India with Hélène, visiting friends and trying to understand Indian cities. Even for a couple of cityphiles like ourselves India can be disconcer… Source: An Urbanist in India
Postcard from Eindhoven, NL November 2016July 2025 From Forbidden City to creative dynamo In the early 1990s Eindhoven, an industrial city in the South Eastern part of the Netherlands, was hit by two crises. Philips, the electrical giant around which the City had grown, decided to close down manufacturing in the City and buy from the East. Shortly after DAF, the major…
Postcard from Montpellier September 2016July 2025 Turning a sleepy town into a great French city Revisiting Montpellier in South East France after almost 20 years offered a unique chance to assess progress in the fastest growing city in France – which has gone from 28th to 8th in size in just a few decades. I met up with the people…
Postcard from Southwark Street September 2016July 2025 What urban renaissance really means Looking out from the front doors of Kirkaldy’s Testing and Experimenting Works, URBED’s base in the 1980s, to the new Tate Modern extension and Richard Rogers’ stupendous apartment blocks, it seemed time to reflect on what urban regeneration is all about. When we moved there from Covent Garden we…
Postcard from Athens (and Byzantine towns): living with debts June 2016July 2025 Travelling with the Urban Design Group to explore the legacy of Byzantine towns in the Peloponnese at a time when Britain seems intent on leaving Europe made me reflect on our ‘common wealth of cities’. So what causes countries like Greece to fail, while others like Germany are resurgent? The answers lie not just in…
Postcard from San Sebastian and the Basque country June 2016July 2025 San Sebastian won the Academy of Urbanism’s Award for Great European City, and is also currently European City of Culture. A study tour backed up with fact filled presentations provided a unique chance of learning how the Basque Country, with just two million inhabitants and an economy based on manufacturing, has reinvented itself. Later travelling…
Postcard from mid Wales May 2016July 2025 Alternative technology in action Visiting the Centre for Alternative Technology for the first time, after a week holidaying in Wales, was a good opportunity to reflect on the progress that is being made in putting alternative ideas into action. I wanted to see how well town centres were faring, what is being done to build…
Postcard from Cambridge May 2016July 2025 HOW TO PROMOTE QUALITY HOUSING A tour around major developments in Cambridge’s Southern Fringe provided the prelude to a lively discussion on promoting quality housing. The event held in the new primary school at Trumpington Meadows was part of URBED’s 40th anniversary celebrations, revisiting key pieces of work that we have done over that time.…
Postcard from Bratislava and Vienna April 2016July 2025 Creating Great Places in Small Countries Returning from speaking at a property conference held by the Penta Group in Bratislava, the relatively unknown capital of Slovakia, and a weekend break in the famous city of Vienna, offered the opportunity to reflect on what makes a great city, and how to make cities affordable to all.…
Postcard from Kochi – Southern India April 2016July 2025 One of Premier Modi’s ‘big ideas’ for India is the promotion of a group of a hundred ‘Smart Cities’. The hundreds of initial applicants have been assessed by what they have already achieved, for example in collecting revenue. But the second stage is to be judged in terms of the quality of citizen participation and…
Postcard from Pittsburgh March 2016July 2025 Renaissance through mobilising local assets The renaissance of Pittsburgh, once known as ‘smoky Pittsburgh’, to the position of being judged ‘most liveable city’ by the Economist owes a lot to the work of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Established by Arthur Ziegler in 1964, the Foundation is now worth over $80 million and employs…
Postcard from NEQ, Brighton July 2015July 2025 RE-THINKING THE MASTERPLAN A workshop in Brighton’s New England Quarter on July 13th provided the opportunity not just to look around what has been achieved, but also to meet some old friends, such as Pooran Desai, the founder of BioRegional, and Nigel Green, who was the planning officer with whom we worked. David Rudlin explained…
