World Wide Wednesday: Paris, Copenhagen and Seattle

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

• The recent addition of couches and floor lamps to Metro platforms has made commuting in Paris a lot more comfortable. Part of a Paris-wide IKEA ad campaign, stations around the city have been staged to look like living rooms–redecorated with Ektorp and Kalstad couches and Brasa floor lamps. Check out FastCompany for pictures of Parisian commuters lounging on furniture in some of the cities busiest stations.

• Real Simple Magazine has compiled a list of America’s 21 most time-saving cities. Based on criteria such as “Getting Around” and “Green Time-Savers” the top spot was awarded to Seattle–a city that boasts an impressive public transit system, “one of the country’s most on-time airports, [and] an extensive urban Wi-Fia network”.

• eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of their 2010 Skyscraper Competition. The competition, established in 2006, recognizes architects from around the world for “outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design”. This years first place prize was awarded to architecture students Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, and Beh Ssi Cze from Malaysia for their “vertical prison” design. Unlike traditional prisons, this “prison in the sky”–elevated far above ground level–would function as self-sustaining and wall-less community for inmates.

• Last weekend’s “2010 LA Streets Conference” saw hundreds of Los Angeles residents, activists and experts sharing ideas about the future of their city. Check Streets Films for some of the best moments from the lively discussion.

• A new proposal to improve on Copenhagen’s already world-renowned bike sharing system would feature “real-time GPS tracking, an online reservation system” and bikes so versatile they could be stored atop lamp posts. Inhabitat hosts renderings of the new bike-sharing scheme courtesy of the company behind the project, RAFFA Arhictecture & Design.

photo of Paris Metro from pterjan