createstreets

Design practice, town-builder, think tank. Master-planning, design codes, research, co-creating popular, beautiful, durable Gentle Density. @CreateStreetsFN

[createstreets @createstreets]

The best density is gentle .....

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

Good news. Investment in infrastructure makes things better. Who knew? We should try it again one day.

[createstreets @createstreets]

Walking is good for you! Who knew?

[Mobility Behaviour 👨‍🎓 @davidlois_uned]

Cuatro experimentos demuestran que caminar aumenta la creatividad tanto a corto como medio plazo, especialmente pasear al aire libre.

[createstreets @createstreets]

Rejoice. This is new. Creating streets in 🇺🇸 Glorious work by..

[createstreets @createstreets]

@MichaelNatelli You might find some of these helpful especially “Of Street & Squares” and “Heart in the Right Street” https://t.co/RTXiXsJnsL

[Will Norman @willnorman]

Paris - unlike London - has had the powers to regulate dockless e-bikes.

Walking around, you can really see how regulations result in orderly parking.

Government is giving UK cities similar powers so we can ensure bikes are parked as well as these in future.

[createstreets @createstreets]

This must be the right compromise between convenience & cluttering chaos. Bravo @willnorman for pushing for this & @transportgovuk for agreeing

[Will Norman @willnorman]

Paris - unlike London - has had the powers to regulate dockless e-bikes.

Walking around, you can really see how regulations result in orderly parking.

Government is giving UK cities similar powers so we can ensure bikes are parked as well as these in future.

[Devon ☀️ @devonzuegel]

GREAT NEWS: The Council voted to advance Esmeralda's approvals!

This was the single most important vote of the project, Oct 14. Adoption of the ordinances is on track for Nov 11

These approvals will unlock tremendous value & opportunity

[NeoTraditional Architecture Memes @VicctorianChad]

YIMBYs: “Why aren’t we more popular?”

Also YIMBYs:

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

Why is the Chrysler Building so great I ask for @Telegraph?

The Platonic ideal of an art deco skyscraper & a temple to the motor car. Stylised hubcaps, fenders and hoods encrust the façade. American eagles, new-world gargoyles, glare out protectively at the 61st floor. Above …

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is the world’s greatest shopping arcade. It gets everything right: location, innovation & beautification. Linking Milan’s Duomo with her opera house, La Scala, it brilliantly deploys Victorian glass & iron know-how to span soaring distances…

[Kitty Thompson🐿 @kittyraethomp]

The subjectivity embedded within the English planning system makes applications too costly, lengthy, and unpredictable, no matter their size and potential impact.

Small but telling case studies show the value of a more rules-based approach. Croydon versus South Tottenham, for example, illustrates why design expectations must be codified too.

Read more...

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

Build the Leeds tram. Build it now. Link it to pre-approved new Gentle Density development.

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

Interestingly, this is precisely the case for more popularly beautiful development. The current system in UK does have a view on design but does so subjectively, unpredictably & normally in a way non-aligned with public preferences. Bring the democracy forward, set popular ..

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

‘Good things,’ wrote Roger Scruton ‘are easily destroyed, but not easily created.’ He had in mind the ‘collective assets’ of ‘peace, freedom, law, civility, public spirit and the security of property’ but he might equally have been writing about architecture.

Yesterday...

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

What should Limoges do with their town hall?
1 Rebuild it as was?
2 Rebuild as an 'honest' modernist building?
3 Leave it as an 'honest' ruin (the National Trust approach)
4 Rebuild it even bigger & better & more beautiful?

[createstreets @createstreets]

Ten minute towns or fifteen minute towns?

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

1) Expand the radius for development from 800m (a 10-minute walk to the station) to 1,200m (15-minute walk)
2) Build near railway lines, not just stations (using the cash to build new stops)
3) Restore original density standards
4) Cut affordable housing quotas to get more built

[createstreets @createstreets]

Should we build on ugly land near stations in the green belt?

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

For this paper, @CPSThinkTank & @createstreets carried out the most detailed survey of England’s green belts in years. We trawled the data. We flew drones. And we found there is an awful lot of beautiful, valuable land. But there is an awful lot that isn't.

[createstreets @createstreets]

Delighted to have contributed our land use & drone photography analysis to this important report by @CPSThinkTank

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

100 years ago, England embarked on one of the most successful urban expansion projects in history: the creation of Metroland, beautiful suburbs and towns, strung along the railway lines out of London. Today, @SCP_Hughes, @createstreets and I set out how we can do it again. (1/?)

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

100 years ago, England embarked on one of the most successful urban expansion projects in history: the creation of Metroland, beautiful suburbs and towns, strung along the railway lines out of London. Today, @SCP_Hughes, @createstreets and I set out how we can do it again. (1/?)

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

The plans to rebuild Parliament are indeed indefensible, outrageous, unnecessary. The most wasteful scope creep I have ever seen. Here’s what’s wrong with them, why and how to fix it: https://t.co/7fjyYTWOQx