Technology

The Printable Home

Engineers at USC have developed a new technique for '3-D printing' houses.

September 4, 2008 - Boing Boing

The Black Cloud: Using Games to Understand Air Quality

Human behavior and land use affect air quality, and those effects are very distinct at the local level. A new environmental game fusing public participation, air quality sensors and web technology shows how.

September 4, 2008 - Nate Berg

Boston's Largest Property Owner Going Green

Equity Office Properties Trust is undertaking major green renovations for its Boston properties, citing fiscal benefits as the impetus. When complete, the work will likely serve as a model for the Company's holdings across the country.

August 30, 2008 - The Boston Globe

Planning for Avalanches

Technologie Alpine de Sécurité creates gas-powered avalanche control systems. The blog Pruned shows pictures of the system installed at Val Thorens, France.

August 18, 2008 - Pruned

Friday Funny: More Fun With Google Maps

An obviously Photoshopped cluster of trees appears in the Netherlands. What is someone hiding, and how are they hacking Google Earth?

August 15, 2008 - Boing Boing

Friday Funny: Drunk Caught on Google Streetview

Google Streetview is slowly taking pictures of every street in the world, and capturing unexpected vignettes along the way like an Australian man passed out on his front lawn.

August 15, 2008 - Gawker

'Wood Waste' Power Plant Raises Questions in Texas

The city of Austin considers a multi-billion dollar investment in a "biomass" power plant, burning wood waste in East Texas as a carbon-neutral, renewable energy source.

August 15, 2008 - Austin American-Statesman

Boise Looks to Streetcars for Urban Renewal

Boise considers resurrecting their streetcar system after an 80 year absence.

August 15, 2008 - The Boise Weekly

Flood Forecasting Goes 3D

New modeling software could soon be available that would allow monitoring across the internet of flood levels in specific areas- like your backyard.

August 14, 2008 - Popular Mechanics

The Microsoft Sphere

Microsoft has introduced a spherical computer display that lets users touch the globe to interact with it. There are many likely applications for planning and public participation.

August 13, 2008 - YouTube

NYC's New Green Escalators

Escalators are major energy wasters, so many cities are looking for greener solutions. 35 new green escalators were recently installed in the New York Subway, with mixed success.

August 13, 2008 - The New York Times

Avoid Smelly Humans In Your Own Transit Compartment

Australian designer Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan has designed a transit concept lined with one-person compartments for personal space.

August 7, 2008 - Treehugger

China Rail Goes High Speed

A new high-speed rail line has opened in China, just in time for the Olympics.

August 6, 2008 - BBC

Is Globalization Slowing?

Alex Steffen of WorldChanging proposes that globalization could soon change direction as transportation costs increase.

August 5, 2008 - WorldChanging

Time for Government 2.0

With increasing amounts of data collected and held by governments, there's a lot of opportunity to make use of it for the betterment of communities, according to this column from Neal Peirce.

July 29, 2008 - Citiwire

San Francisco Locked Out of Own Data By Disgruntled Employee

A systems admin in San Francisco apparently decided to bring San Francisco grinding to a halt, and refuses to divulge the passwords he set up across the city's entire network.

July 24, 2008 - The Christian Science Monitor

Google Maps Adds Walking Directions

Google announces walking directions feature for Google Maps.

July 23, 2008 - Google

Will Your Bank Card and Bus Pass Become One?

MarketWatch reports on the rise of contactless smart cards in public transit and banking, and speculates that the time is ripe to put the two uses on the same card.

July 21, 2008 - Marketwatch

Are Automated Public Toilets A Fiasco?

Seattle is closing the lid on a disappointing experiment with public toilets after spending $5 million dollars to install them. Cities from Boston to San Francisco have had mixed results with automated toilets, The New York Times reports.

July 17, 2008 - The New York Times

Electricity and Rail Can Solve Our Energy Woes

Writer Benjamin J. Turon argues that we aren't in an energy crisis as much as a transportation crisis, and that we already have all the technology we need.

July 16, 2008 - The Daily Gazette, Schenectady

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.