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China

Living in China: Chinglish to get the axe in Shanghai for World Expo

Shanghai is looking to get rid of poorly translated English signs as it readies to welcome 4 million foreign visitors to next year’s World Expo.

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Design Information Technology

Listen to Mary Newsom’s “The information Superhighway: Urban Renewal or Neighborhood Destruction?” talk at IDEA 2009

As a long-time practitioner of daily newspaper journalism who sees the economic model of the newspaper industry sinking (and broadcast journalism isn’t in much better shape), Mary looks into what will happen to cities if/when the mass media splinter. With all of the “new media” journalism: the emerging trends of crowd-sourcing, blogging, YouTube, Twitter and the general explosion of information available to people, this makes virtually anyone, a potential journalist. What are the implications for information, and for the dependability of that information?

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Design Innovation Trend Watching

Watch Thom Mayne’s “Architecture as Connection” talk at TED

Architect Thom Mayne has never been one to take the easy option, and this whistle-stop tour of the buildings he’s created makes you glad for it. These are big ideas cast in material form […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: urbanization to create massive infrastructure investment

Some 300 million Chinese now living in rural areas — the equivalent of the entire population of the United States — will move into cities in the coming 15 to 20 years, said a senior Chinese official recently […]

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China Consumer Behavior Design Economics

Watch William McDonough’s “Cradle to Cradle Design” talk at TED

Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account “all children, all species, for all time” […]

Categories
China Design Economics

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: World Bank injects $200 million for China’s urban environment

World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a loan to China –$200 million to support the Shanghai Urban Environment Project […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: future cities to make small carbon footprint

Even as China undergoes one of the most rapid urban transformations in the world, the Chinese government is promoting sustainable development to curb the country’s growing rate of carbon emissions, a World Bank urban specialist said in Beijing on recently […]

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Design

Design, Technology & Urban Planning: Silos of Technology, Interoperability, and Digital Cities

There’s an interesting article by Rob Colman in Green Business who chatted with Dan Campbell of the City of Vancouver and Geoff Zeiss about digital cities and how by enabling interoperability between architecture, engineering and construction design models such as BIM, telecom and public works network design, and gaming engines for video games, we can model cities holistically by creating 3D urban models that not only look good but offer the depth of information required to make real decisions […]

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China

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: Shanghai is the world’s 4th tallest city

Shanghai made it to 4th place in Forbes’ list of the world’s tallest cities with a total of 21 towers climbing over 700 feet. The current tallest is the Shanghai World Financial Center, at 1,614 feet, but it’ll be surpassed by the Shanghai Tower, which is expected to be completed in 2014 and reach heights of 2,000 feet. It was beat out by Dubai, Hong Kong and, at number one, New York City […]

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China Economics

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: Shanghai to speed infrastructure investment, boost job rolls

Shanghai needs to push investment in infrastructure, expand domestic consumption and aid threatened enterprises as it strives to help its citizens and businesses survive the global economic downturn, Mayor Han Zheng said recently […]