Project for Public Spaces' website has a new series of articles on public Parks, Plazas & Squares including their approach to design and Ten Principles for Creating Successful Squares. Six Parks We Can All Learn From writes about some real examples and Magic in the Motor City talks about how Campus Martius, a new public square, brought life back to downtown Detroit.

For the first time in human history more people live in the world's cities than in the country. CBC radio has created a website dedicated to cities  in conjunction  with  the  United Nations World  Urban Forum  in Vancouver.  The World  Urban Forum is a gathering of thousands of people from the world's cities to look for ways to deal with this new reality and give people a chance at a better life.  The website lists a series of radio shows dedicated to cities and an ...

There has been a lot of excitement in Toronto recently about the potential of revitalizing the public space of the city. Two new exhibitions are currently displaying projects that investigate the potential of overlooked spaces in the City. Vacant Lots: An exploration of vacant spaces within our cities is showing at The Toronto Free Gallery between June 10- July 28 (Opening Reception: Saturday, June 10, 8pm). The starting point for this exhibition was for artists to find a vacant space within a city and respond to it in some way. The result is an exhibition ...

With the growing popularity of bicycles we are seeing a rejuvenation in bicycle support design such as the car shaped bike rack by Adrian Rovero. As Toronto struggles with profiting from its street furniture policies Netherlands based design studio Himom, the team of Jeroen Bruls and Krijn Christiaansen, have reasserted the role of street furniture as a social space. The Heklucht, a combination bike stand and pump is made of stainless steel that shines brightly against the dull, grey of city sidewalks. The goal of the project is ...

The TTC strike reminded Toronto Star jounalist Jim Coyle how wonderful the bicycle is for getting around: The learning began long years ago, a six-year-old aboard a red-and-white model from CCM, training wheels removed, the father running laps on a patch of asphalt at Greenwood Park to steady him, until the rider, finally feeling the absence of that hand on his back, looked around and realized he was on his own. Amy Lavender Harris waxes poetically about the escape velocity of cycling at Reading Toronto: At escape velocity it is possible to rise above the ...

One great way to start your bike week is to ride your bike over to see the Market Gallery's exhibit: From Scorchers to Alley Cat Scrambles. The exhibit features Lorne Shield's extensive collection of historic bicycles, posters and ephemera. At the opening cycle historian Steve Brearton spoke passionately about the history of the bicycle in Toronto and the resurgence of its popularity: "My real belief is that people just rediscovered the joy of riding their own bike," he says. "What it comes down to is the sheer unadulterated joy of riding ...

According to the recent news: we are all working too much. Perhaps we are trying to save up for a new condo in the sky? Because soon only the affluent will be able to afford living close to the ground. The rest of us will most likely be driving cost-efficient scooters in order to save our money for fancy (bikeless) shopping disticts. Meanwhile in Switzerland (where they don't work so much): The fancy financial district of St. Gallen has been transformed by artist Pipilotti Rist and architect ...

Royson James has a great piece in the Toronto Star today critiquing the 2.4-metre-high cedar fences being erected around Toronto police stations. These tall fences make the police look like they are afraid of seige. If the police are afraid what are the rest of us supposed to be feeling? Fences are a subtle but essential element that demarks the boundary between public and private spaces. The height and transparency of fences are signs of openness and public engagement. Tall solid fences are not appropriate along public streets as ...

A different traffic culture from India. Via: Space & Culture

Albert Howell has a great article in the Globe and Mail highlighting issues surrounding the role of local goverment to supply cycle-safe infrastructure vs. civil disobedience in the form of law-bending cyclists. Interspersed in the article are cheerful notes to pedestrians and drivers like: Drivers, when a cyclist is eyeballing you it's not an insult or a challenge, we're simply watching you to see what you're going to do. If you make a mistake in traffic it's an expense; if a cyclist makes one, it's a lot of pain ...