Helping to run and write for the NCL Urban Design blog this semester has been an interesting experience. For most of this semester I feel as though the emphasis has been more on the ‘running’ of the blog rather than on the writing element (and I suspect this is why many of our blogs have been…
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In the post, Tomo has introduced us the vertical garden city in Tokyo. He mentions that sustainability has become a significant factor applied in urban design. In order to develop the city as a sustainable city, Tokyo government has tried to design the city as a green city first. However, due to the large population…
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The design of urban environments has the potential to enhance the health and well-being of residents by impacting social determinants of health including access to public transport, green space, and local amenities. Ng and Popkin (2012) argued that people in many countries have reduced their physical activities over the past few decades. In the 19th…
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Smart technologies are becoming more a part of our lives every single day. From smart phones to smart TVs the idea is becoming the norm for influencing how we live our day to day lives. So much so that in many parts of the world we’re even trying to make our cities ‘smart’. The concept…
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It was a first time I wrote blogs. When I was a primary student, I was writing and drawing daily diary for long time. But the experience between blog and diary was totally different for me. When I wrote diary, I focused on what I thought, did and got in a day, so it was…
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In his post ‘Health & Well being in Urban Design’, Shijie talks about many of the effects that Urban Design can have on our mental and physical well being. Whilst I agree with what Shijie has said in his post. I would add an extra dimension to this and talk about the importance of security…
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Runyu Zhang clarified the difference of elements between health, well-being and flourishing. Refer to her description, mentality seems to be a common element so it can be said that how people feel is more important rather than how space work physically well. As she mentioned, talking to nature is good way to improve people’s mental…
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Class experience All of our blogs are based on the lectures from principles and practice of urban design, which has broad coverage of the curriculum, from the economy, human health and industry prospects to the status quo and so on. Different areas of experts deliver each lecture and they explain to us the most cutting-edge…
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The concept of public space dates back to the 1950s as Whyte proposed to protect open space in American cities. Recently, we continue to refer to this idea in the field of urban planning. However，what exactly is public space? Why is it so important? Can a high-quality public space be designed? The following sections cover…
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Before this course, I’ve never written one blog. I would say that it was so fantastic to have such an amazing experience about creating blogs. Expressing my opinions about urban design through blogs is difficult for me because I never tried that before and also I don’t know how to express my thoughts in an…
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