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.
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• Planners in Cairo have big plans to revitalize the city’s notoriously congested downtown district. While the official plan for the area is still a work in progress, Egypt’s General Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP) has committed to one bold guiding principle — a ban on cars. The Egypt Times reports that in an effort to restore what was once the city’s cultural and economic heart, downtown Cario is to be transformed into a green, pedestrian-friendly oasis.
• Japanese architect Kengo Kuma‘s magnificent Casalgrande Ceramic Cloud (CCC Wall) was unveiled in a University of Milan courtyard during Milan Design Week in April. The structure is built from sheer organza curtains held up by clothesline-like wires with ceramic tiles and stones at its base. The CCC Wall is at its most fascinating at night when video footage is projected onto the organza screens. As described by Fast Company, the effect is patterns of lights that “dart about the courtyard, slipping over the ceramic garden in an eerie ghost dance and illuminating the surrounding loggia”. Fast Company has posted a video of this stunning land art installation in action.
• As India’s urban centers continue to grow at breakneck speeds the country has seen a surge in high-density skyscraper construction. Urban Vision‘s Aditi Nargundkar Pathak interviews architect and planner Sudhir Jambhekar on the role and design of tall buildings in Indian mega-cities.
photo of Cairo from upyernoz