RESTORATIVE CITIES-MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

In a time of increasing material abundance, more and more people are beginning to realise that mental health also plays an important part in everyday life and has a significant impact on the quality of life. In response to this phenomenon, as an urban designer I think we can think about the following questions: What Read the full article…

The New Normal for High Streets

Think of a city and what comes to mind? Its Streets. -Jacobs, 1961:39   © Copyright- Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-walking-on-sidewalk-3703738/ Streets are an important part of city life. They serve as the foundation for the complex interactions that exist between the architectural fabric and human organisation. A “high street” is one such Read the full article…

Reflections on Design

Project Description “To develop an understanding of the design parameters of neighbourhood development in context, around housing needs, community facilities, and viability -To improve the knowledge of the nature and processes of urban residential development and design -To To appreciate and incorporate principles of sustainable development into the creation of new and existing residential/mixed areas Read the full article…

Urban Squares- An Identity of the City

Victoria Square, Belfast, Northern Ireland © Copyright Arundhati Chitnis The changing economic and social conditions result in people shaping their environments. With the rise in the urban population, the physical structure of the cities has changed. As the number of people increases, the infrastructure demand also increases affecting the cityscape and its open public spaces. Read the full article…

Biophilic Design

The number of people living in urban areas has surpassed the number of people living in rural areas, but the range of each person’s residence is decreasing and the radius of each person’s life is shrinking. People are also completely ignorant about where their food comes from. Digitised images on a screen are one of Read the full article…

NEW FACADE FOR OLD BUILDINGS

In recent years, massive urbanisation has brought with it a great number of challenges and cities have built many new buildings at an increasing rate, which has undoubtedly posed a challenge for the renovation of old buildings. This is especially true for the renovation of old urban residential facades. In my opinion, the very good Read the full article…

How do we design inclusive spaces?

The United Nations defines a disability as resulting “from the interaction between persons with impairments, attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis” (United Nations, 2006). In the past, accessible design has focused on physical access. In more recent years efforts to consider other elements of Read the full article…

The what’s of Transition spaces!!

What are transition spaces ? The forces behind the creation of any space are careful consideration of context and its surroundings, along with community needs. These spaces are designed to serve a specific purpose and are articulated in accordance with the connectivity and privacy requirements of each space. However, there are different kinds of spaces Read the full article…

‘Woonerf’: A Refuge Opportunity for Us All

 ‘Woonerf’: A Refuge Opportunity for Us All   “The modern street in the true sense of the word is a new type of organism, a sort of stretched out workshop, a home for many complex and delicate organs, such as gas, water and electric mains.” (Le Corbusier, 1929)   However, our streets are more than Read the full article…

A Space for Mental Resilience

  Our existence acts in a space. we are always moving away or towards, or being still in a space. Our own experience of finding ourselves depends on the space. Shape and re-shape space can reveal and define a great many of our values, aspirations, insecurities, and concerns. As broadly acknowledged, place identity was initially Read the full article…

My continuous growth

Photo by Luke Studio Sunrise

Growth The activity of blog writing was something entirely new to me. It was a personal way of engaging a short discussion and respond to what I’ve learned in our selected urban design lectures. At first, writing blogs seemed very intimidating and to be honest, still is. However, I am slowly learning that this has Read the full article…

Reflection on Practice: Community engagement

A New Kind of Suburbia by Metropolitan Workshop has attempted to explore and challenge the growing suburbia through their practice based research. Dhruv (2021) led this project, aimed to enhance our understanding with the ever expansion of the suburbs. Noticeably, the challenges faced by existing and new suburban resident in the changing market condition, allows Read the full article…