Urban Infrastructure

In urban communities, infrastructures that support living are indispensable. There is increased interest in alternative ways of providing such support systems, including semi-autonomous infrastructures resulting from the self-organization of local actors. In this study, we analyze the emergence and management of such infrastructures in light of the theory of complex adaptive systems, within which they are called ‘inverse infrastructures’. Empirical evidence is drawn from the case of water cooperatives in the town of Ikaalinen, Finland. Our analysis shows that, with favorable preconditions in place, inverse infrastructures may contribute significantly to local infrastructure services and so also to the functioning of society.

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This research investigates the urban infrastructure in its current situation concerning its impact on urban form, through analysis of the existing facility, their historical processes, and their new possibilities. Essential for the functioning of cities, urban infrastructures are usually inserted as large, autonomous, and introverted spaces, generally resulting in negative impacts on its surroundings. The methodology of this study combined the analysis of these impacts, focusing on the electrical substations in Rio de Janeiro, to understand the processes that led urban infrastructure to possess their current character and why new approaches are needed in the contemporary city. The analysis model adopted seeks to understand different scales: territorial, inherent in infrastructure networks, and the local scale, using tools such as cartography, urban fabric analysis, and analysis in situ. With this, we tried to bring a method that would allow comparisons between facilities, ensuring a basis for discussion on their situation in the city of Rio de Janeiro and to better understand their distance from the projects that best suit contemporary needs.
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Esta pesquisa investiga as infraestruturas urbanas em seu quadro atual, relativo aos seus impactos na forma urbana, através de análises sobre equipamentos existentes, seus processos históricos e suas novas possibilidades. Essenciais para o funcionamento das cidades, as infraestruturas urbanas são usualmente inseridas como grandes espaços autônomos e introvertidos, acarretando, de modo geral, em impactos negativos em seu entorno. A metodologia deste trabalho aliou a análise destes impactos, com recorte sobre as subestações elétricas no Rio de Janeiro, à compreensão dos processos que levaram as infraestruturas urbanas a possuírem o caráter de isolamento que em geral trazem em si e o porquê da necessidade de novas abordagens na cidade contemporânea. O modelo de análise adotado busca compreender diferentes escalas: a territorial, inerente às redes de infraestruturas e a escala local, através de ferramentas como a cartografia, análise do tecido urbano e análise in situ. Com isto, buscou-se trazer um método que permitisse comparações entre os equipamentos, garantindo uma base de discussão para a situação dos mesmos na cidade do Rio de Janeiro e sua distância em relação a projetos que melhor se adequam às necessidades contemporâneas.

One prominent consequence of globalization has been rapid urbanization and the formation of extremely large cities where more than half the world's population lives today. These cities are usually fragmented in form, widely open to foreign workers, and simultaneously juxtapose different scales of physical and abstract things such as buildings and infrastructures, and economic and social networks that thread through them. It raises a question whether architecture, which has been involved in city matters over a long history but has so far been absent in current urban debates on global urbanism, might have particular things to contribute to a wider discussion on and be able to offer an innovative approach to these contemporary globalized urban phenomena. The aim of this research is to address two key factors which will help introduce architectural knowledge more concerning with users, materialized space and urban fabric into current debates on global urbanism. Firstly, the research indicates that urban infrastructure, particularly in globalized cities, served as a radical support system in terms of physical transportation and informational linkage. It therefore may provide a socio-spatial channel to reveal globalization forces which are dynamically embodied by the coexistence of multi-scale practices in cities. Secondly, the informal socio-spatial practices of everyday life, normally subtle and ignorant to be seen in cities, suggests an alternative understanding of the conflicts and networking between diverse communities and spatial issues which have long been dominated by either superior global or extreme local narratives. Accordingly, this research argues that urban conditions in global South and North might co-present and be folded in each other within urban infrastructure where informal socio-spatial practices intensively and dynamically manifested. Under such hypotheses, this research argues that new ways of thinking through the concept of scale that is reside in most of spatial disciplines are essential to appreciate these large, fragmented and transnational urban conditions in contemporary cities. Drawing from the critiques of my Ph.D. research, multi-scale methodology, which is activated by the architectural knowledge of operating different scales at the same time, is proposed in this research as an enabling approach to engaging in contemporary global urbanism. It will be demonstrated by two case studies, the process of daily rubbish management in Taipei and Boat life on River Lea in East London, which examine if urban infrastructure can provide an alternative engagement with informal global urbanism in various socio-spatial contexts. Each of these cases can be regarded as site-specific projects which subtly and materially reflect the impact of globalization in urban and multiple scales at the same time. It is intended not only to offer an alternative insight into but also to stimulate creative debates on current global urbanism in contemporary architectural agenda.

It is generally accepted that roads and mobility infrastructures have a major effect on economic and spatial development, and, in many cases, this effect is considered to be a positive and, furthermore, a causal one. This implicit assumption has also a great impact on the cultural and aesthetic perception of road infrastructures.

This thesis investigates the capacity of existing large scale utility infrastructure to be transformed through intervention at the local scale, based on community initiatives. Thus, it aims to assess the potential impact of these initiatives to qualify the local space. The thesis presents a method for reading community-driven initiatives, documenting a field work in São Paulo. With the goal of unlocking local social knowledge and tactical action, the work unveils the learning potential embedded in their action for the planning discipline.

The paper argues that the face of Ghanaian towns has changed since the initial contact with the colonialists. Investments in infrastructure, urbanisation and enhanced economic activities have combined to change the face of Ghanaian towns. These changes in turn have affected the quality of urban life and the disparity in development between the north and the south as well as in various towns with marked spatial segregation of residential areas. Considering that the current face of several Ghanaian towns is characterised by overcrowding, cluttering of houses, insanitary conditions and poor environmental conditions; it is argued that the face of Ghanaian towns should increasingly reflect orderly development, adequate environmental sanitation, tolerable densities and effective local planning to create a more livable and sustainable environment.

A 19. század elején kibontakozó ipari forradalom nagymértékben átalakította a termelési folyamatokat, és számtalan gyár megjelenését vonta maga után, melyek egyre több munkaerőt igényeltek. A városok többsége azonban nem rendelkezett elég tartalékkal a hiány pótlására, mivel a munkaképes lakosság folyamatosan csökkent. Vidéken viszont ennek a fordítottja történt. Itt a születések aránya rendkívül magas volt, ami túlnépesedést és ezzel komoly megélhetési gondokat okozott. A kiutat a gyárak által felkínált munkában remélték, így hát a vidék megindult a városok felé, ezzel pedig kezdetét vette a modern kor legnagyobb népvándorlása. A lakosság gyors növekedése azonban súlyos köztisztasági problémákhoz vezetett, melyekre a korszerű vízvezeték- és csatornahálózat jelentette a leghatékonyabb megoldást. Jelen tanulmányban ezen közművek és a városi társadalom közötti kapcsolatokat fogom bemutatni.

This paper explores infrastructure projects that present a conscious merging between urban transformation, community development, culture, and technology through sustainable design. When urban projects successfully and meaningfully include all these dimensions, we refer to them as "blended infrastructure" projects, since they offer much more than just infrastructure. A literature review pertaining to the rejuvenation and renewal of cities reveals that infrastructure projects have the potential to be at once, smart and ecological as well as cultural and deeply integrated urban interventions. We, therefore, propose that 'blended infrastructure' projects are those that profoundly integrate anthropological and technological dimensions. These two poles are the basis of our analysis method. Our methodology, which includes a mapping tool, is used to cartograph a series of design projects. We select two sets of projects for analysis. First, we select "light infrastructure" projects that are not yet built, still in an imaginary phase, which have a common underlying positive intention of bringing sustainability to the city. Second, we select heavier, already built, infrastructure projects, those subjected to real-world constraints, i.e., economic, political, etc. These polarities (light and imagined vs. heavy and realized) will help test the applicability of this mapping approach on different types of infrastructures. By studying projects on either side of a spatial design spectrum, we aim to understand which types of projects have a potential to be "blended infrastructure" projects-and therefore, deeply integrated sustainable urban interventions, as key contributions to the future of our cities.

In the essentially water-rich basin of Mexico City, water taps are now installed in most homes. Yet in many of the city’s poorer neighborhoods in particular, water is supplied intermittently and taps often remain dry. How does such a socially constructed water scarcity affect water-related everyday practices in the home? And, more in general, what is the relation between urban space and domestic practices of water use? In accordance with these questions, the present study aims to explore how people’s everyday practices are linked to urban space, understood as a social product always in the making. A sociospatial approach is employed, setting Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice in conversation with a relational understanding of space. Rather than identifying a ‘habitus of water use’, this involves a reflection on the implications of Bourdieu’s famous statement that the habitus makes the habitat. The research design is based on empirical fieldwork involving a set of qualitative methods. As it is assumed that both past and current water supply conditions in the home are key parameters for domestic practices of water use, the sphere of the dwelling lies in the focus. Taking subjective experiences and everyday practices as a starting point, it primarily draws upon in-depth interviews, conducted at the interviewee’s home to allow for a simultaneous participatory observation. A total of 53 residents from several neighborhoods in two different boroughs within the jurisdiction of the Federal District, Mexico City, were interviewed to provide a range of different urban living conditions. Through the newly developed tool of habitat biographies capturing people’s past dwelling experiences, the interviews also adopt a historical perspective. Focus group discussions and other empirical methods complete the picture, tackling practices of water use with respect to questions of materiality, knowledge and meaning.
This book demonstrates how using water can turn into a demanding everyday task even in cities where virtually all dwellings do have water taps. It sheds a light on everyday practices of water use in Mexico City in the realms of drinking, personal hygiene, and domestic storage, and their relation to past and current supply conditions. Across all these sets of practices, influential urban imaginations with respect to the logic of urban water supply and a widespread mistrust in the potability of tap water are at play, and marked differences arise between waters used for body-related and more technical purposes. Other than expected, current water supply conditions seem to influence much stronger on domestic practices of water use than people’s past experiences. Keeping water in domestic storage tanks, waiting for water provision to resume, reusing domestic grey water, and the ubiquitous consumption of bottled water have all become essential everyday practices in Mexico City amidst unequal and often unreliable patterns of water supply reinforced by processes of neoliberal urbanization and infrastructural unbundling. Women in poorer parts of the metropolis are the ones bearing the brunt of such exclusionary configurations of urban space. Serving as a reminder that a water tap in the home alone does not guarantee proper access to water, the present book develops a sociospatial, subject-based approach to explore everyday practices and experiences in the realm of water. Such an approach is relevant beyond the example of Mexico City presented here, as a permanent water supply of a potable quality remains the exception rather than the rule in many cities around the world.

While Dearborn, La Salle, and Michigan Avenue would become the city’s “skyscraper districts” over the next century, in the 1880s the Chicago River was the city’s true high-rise canyon.  Grain elevators that buffered the flow of agricultural wealth from the west into eastbound lake and rail systems, and that rose to more than 140 feet, were the city’s tallest buildings through the 1880s.  They mapped the city’s changing infrastructure and the region’s changing economic geography, represented evolving practices in building and mechanical engineering, and their concentration and leveraging of the Midwest’s agricultural wealth meant that they played a crucial role in the evolution of commodities markets in the city and throughout the world.  Chicago’s grain elevators—the city’s other skyscrapers—illustrate as explicitly as its commercial towers the financial, technical, and geographical forces that nourished, buffeted, and sculpted the city.

One of the most significant changes in the life of 19th century cities was the modern infrastructure network. The various infrastructure systems have become indispensable elements of the operation of the cities. On the one hand, they played a decisive role in improving the living conditions of the population and the development of a modern urban
lifestyle, on the other hand, they were essential conditions for industrial activity. In this paper, I try to examine the impact of infrastructure systems built in the 19th century on Cluj-Napoca’s industry and how they shaped its development.

Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Nessuna parte di questo volume può essere riprodotta, memorizzata o trasmessa in alcuna forma o con alcun mezzo elettronico, meccanico, in disco o in altro modo, compresi cinema, radio, televisione, senza autorizzazione scritta dalla Fondazione. Le riproduzioni effettuate per finalità di carattere professionale, economico o commerciale o comunque per uso diverso da quello personale possono essere effettuate a seguito di specifica autorizzazione rilasciata da Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Indice 7 Premessa -La città montaggio di Ilaria Giuliani e Paola Piscitelli 15 Introduzione -Polis e futuri urbani di Gabriele Pasqui 23 Capitolo 1 -Il diritto alla città di Salvatore Settis 39 Capitolo 2 -La città ecologica di Stefano Boeri 57 Capitolo 3 -La città convivio di Mauro Magatti 73 Capitolo 4 -La città mutevole di Alessandro Balducci 99 Capitolo 5 -La città violenta di Paola Piscitelli 115 Capitolo 6 -La città della giustizia di Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos 135 Capitolo 7 -La città culturale, ovvero il diritto ad avere infrastrutture per la produzione di cultura di John Bingham-Hall 155 Capitolo 8 -La città interculturale

Despite massive investments in infrastructure reconstruction, Beirut has never fully recovered 24/7 provision of electricity after the civil war (1975-90). Since 2006, the consequences of Israeli bombings and of infrastructure decaying in a context of political bickering preventing new investments plans have worsened the situation. On average, electricity is currently supplied only half of the day. Building on Timothy Mitchell's project to follow the tracks of energy in order to unravel the precarious agencies of power that allow its flows to circulate, I try to map the disruptions and reconfigurations of energy circuits and to show that it both reflect existing configurations of power in the city and create new ones. (Mitchell 2011) At a first glance, uneven access to electricity might well be understood as the way to reproduce social and political domination between central Beirut and its suburbs and between the wealthiest and the middle and lower class, for which the cost of making without public network is very heavy. But seen from Mitchell's perspective, the economic arrangements and the technological devices needed to run the system and for the electricity being generated and processed contain in themselves their fragilities that allow such domination to be constantly challenged by the clients-users-citizens or newcomers like informal vendors of alternative electricity devices (the famous generators). Thus, one might well read the rising protests against the current state of blackness in Beirut as new agencies of power that seek to undermine and derail the symbolical hierarchies of power (here I will analyse cartoons and the Minister of Energy bashing on the social networks), despite the constant struggle by the political class to reenact them through sectarian cleavages. Hooking and meter-pirating, as well as non-payment, display the power of the network's end-users. The development of private illegal-but-tolerated generators involves the building of new local configuration of power.

This article analyzes displacement in the context of three communities in South Asia: Afghan refugees in Pakistan, Sri Lankan Tamils in India, and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. In each of these cases, refugee management emerges out of the complexities of geopolitics and humanitarianism and becomes central to urban questions of the right to move and remain in the city. Drawing on scholarship in the geopolitics of
migrant (im)mobilities, refugee studies, and South Asia studies, we argue that displacement threatens the contours of belonging and citizenship across South Asian nation-states. For these reasons, the cities where
the displaced live have become the locus of national unbelonging and state violence through entangled forms of securitization and urbanization. In particular, we detail the spatial and socioeconomic segregation of
displaced populations in which they are subject to mundane bureaucratic violence and the role that social class plays in navigating the exclusions triggered by displacement. In the cities where the displaced settle,
the displaced shape the urban economy, whereas the state applies strategies of spatial control that aim to nationalize urban space while maintaining the refugees as forever displaceable.

Workers in Kenya's informal transportation sector are employed in what anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and organizational scholars call " dirty work, " or occupations that are tainted morally, socially, or physically. Although the operators of matatu, minibus taxis, carry a large portion of the Kenya population daily, they face stigmatization and discrimination, which can result in a decrease in lifechances and in some cases even death. In this article, I focus on the outcomes of the occupational stigma that matatu workers experience, and I argue that although the informal transportation workers of Nairobi's matatu sector are stigmatized symbolically and institutionally, they are also increasingly able to contest these perceptions of their work in ways that are having a powerful impact on the workers personally and collectively. The way that workers are reframing the meaning of their labor using a worker-run union is having an impact on worker identity and sociability leading to an inclusiveness, characteristic of what theorists describe as cosmopolitanism. This process is important for anthropologists to understand as more people are finding work in undesirable and/or informal employment sectors due to the global economic crisis.

The study analyzes the political economy of the development of the Nairobi Expressway toll-road set to be launched for public-use in 2022, in a bid to understand not only the influence of domestic politics in shaping incentives for ruling elites to favour or commit to certain development policies but also how local political dynamics interact and blend with competing foreign aid relations. The study provides an alternative, ‘South’ perspective to the dominant narrative that centralizes the motives and interests of China and Chinese trans-national companies in African countries.

As subestações elétricas são componentes comuns da funcionalidade das cidades, contudo tais elementos inserem-se num contexto no qual preza-se por quesitos econômicos e técnicos, desconsiderando a interferência que podem causar a morfologia urbana, a paisagem e aos transeuntes. O presente trabalho pretende analisar os impactos gerados por essas estruturas na cidade de Niterói, RJ. Assim, essa investigação observará o cenário dos elementos encontrados no recorte, estabelecendo uma avaliação comparativa entre eles em busca da identificação das principais características que interferem negativamente no espaço urbano. Objetiva-se com este estudo colaborar no processo de projeto e planejamento dessas estruturas, a fim transformar a conjuntura atual. Almeja-se também ressaltar o papel do Arquiteto e Urbanista como auxiliador do planejamento dessas infraestruturas, atuando como conciliador das questões técnicas e da paisagem e morfologia urbana.

The city of Banjarmasin has long been developing with a nearly related to the existence of the river. In addition to the evidence of heritage object, along with the banks of rivers in Banjarmasin also found many residential districts. The riverbank residential district develops into a high-density neighborhood due to the very limited availability of land in the area. Open space in residential areas is also very minimal, due to the high density of buildings and the availability of land that is minimal at the location of settlements. Ironically, the existence of open spaces has important roles and functions, especially in residential areas. Titian network is the result of adaptation from people who adapt to the environment. Titian can be found throughout the riverbank residential areas in the city of Banjarmasin so that it has great potential to be developed into open spaces. This study uses descriptive qualitative methods, using literature studies as a comparison of field conditions. Titian has the potential to be used as open space, while the one that influences that potential is the dimensions of the bridge, the functions connected by the bridge, and the design of the titian.

To cite this report:  Ford, Chris. (2011). “REIs: Renewable Energy Infrastructures,” Final Report, 2009 AIA Upjohn Research Initiative Project. BRIK: Building Research Information Knowledgebase. May 01 2011, p.1-18. 

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Design is a form of applied research, and furthermore, architects have historically played a role as technological innovators. Our funded, university-based research / design team has applied design thinking skills to a problem that involves energy production, energy transmission, and urban living. We believe a Renewable Energy Infrastructure (REI) will solve this problem.

An REI generates renewable energy megawatts (MW) at an industrial scale through the simultaneous harnessing of wind, solar, and geothermal resources within an integrated, holistic, and free-standing facility positioned in an urban environment. An REI is not a retrofit of a preexisting architectural condition, but rather is conceived as a new typology to be owned and operated by an electrical utility for purposes of servicing users in high-population areas. While current renewable energy
technologies of industrial scale are typically located in rural areas, their greatest possible service to urban areas is limited due to measurable degradation rates along transmission lines and loss during stepdowns at transformers.

We are in an advantageous position to consider this design problem and are currently assessing the full design requirements involved in such a proposal. Our project required working with the State of Nebraska’s various public power districts and enabled us to connect with expertise in private industry. 

While the REI design is not economically feasible within the specific context of Lincoln NE, it remains technologically plausible for other urban sites in alternative or future economic contexts.

It is impossible to find the nexus between resiliency, safety, and sustainability without first exploring six factors that define of what resiliency consists: ethics, morality, collective choice, transparency, accountability, and sustainability. With that, an outline of a governance style (i.e., how society does what it sets out to do) can be fashioned to allow continuous achievement of social goals at that nexus. Resilience is often associated with fixed objects or systems of objects and methods of control against forces of nature that compromise their integrity and value. Two examples of resiliency include seawalls that block intrusion for the protection of critical infrastructure, and an upward sloping coastal space that passively accommodates rising storm waters without damaging critical infrastructure (that has been elevated and strategically positioned). However, resilience can also describe a system of governance that reliably sustains levels of service to the public regarding all types of infrastructure (e.g., roads, education, communication, and water supply, etc.). Unfortunately, modern society is plagued by non-resilient governance for lack of one or more of the above-listed factors. This happens when we become victim to the false dichotomy trap of markets versus government. The means of finding the resilient-safety-sustainable nexus outside of the market/government box is in a consensus standard guidance (ASTM) that is currently under development. Ethics – One value of a good education is having a better understanding of the workings of society so that human suffering can be avoided. On the flip side, education can uncover opportunities for strategic, rent-seeking, and socially damaging behavior, and frequently (Hillman, p. 3217) society makes distinctions between what is ethical and what is legal. Because of this, we must go beyond " what is legal " to define worthwhile behaviors to promote. In this understanding of ethics, ethics begins with following the law and not lying about it. Morality – Because of the diversity of cultures and the legal protection for a lack of culture, actions that are not tolerated by law are limited and very specific. For example, killing and physically harming other humans and certain animals are not allowed. People lacking morality may be protected from legal penalty, but few are rewarded to represent others in elected government. People are allowed to be immoral (as variably defined by a diverse population) by law. Collective choice arrangement – Individuals affected by the operational rules of governance can participate in setting and modifying the operational rules under certain circumstances. (Ostrom, p. 91) In democratic government, people are allowed to define what they want to achieve, prevent and change what does not work, and continue to have input over long periods of time. This is where prohibitions to antisocial behavior can be expressed, including rent-seeking, hateful speech, and biased rules regarding community engagement. Transparency – When people and government act and interact, what they say and what they do should be available for public scrutiny. Nothing that has great impact on how society works should be kept a secret. If something important is claimed to be the case, there should be easy opportunity to verify that the truth about it can be confirmed. Recordkeeping and access to records is the means for preserving this factor.

This article discusses formalization processes in the context of urban conflict, focusing on the ways adversarial power relations dictate methods and outcomes of formalization. Based on analysis of the formalization of public transport in ethno-nationally contested Jerusalem, the article demonstrates the production of a mode of formalization, which the author terms sub-formalization. This mode is characterized by severe deviation from professional and administrative norms, both in methods and outcomes, and usually results in inferior solutions and irregular arrangements for challenging informality. In subformalization, modern rationality -which constructs planners' professional authority -is eroded by powers from above and below. Therefore sub-formality represents a mutation of modern, rational, West-oriented planning, coming as a result of the encounter with informality and resistance in a way that blurs dichotomization between the formal and informal. In the context of an ongoing urban conflict, as in the case of East Jerusalem, subformality is also utilized by the state to maintain urban marginality and secure existing power hierarchies.

Mobility is a key word for understanding gender and class formation. In a recent review of feminism, gender, and mobility, historian Georgine Clarsen reminds us that movement never occurs through neutral physical space; it involves gendered bodies through gendered spaces, by means of transport technologies that are often deeply gendered. Furthermore, gendered meanings, practices, and experiences change greatly over time and location. 1 For all these reasons, mobility is-and has to be-contextualized. This article takes inspiration from Clarsen and investigates recent literature on the issue of gender and everyday mobility in urban Asia across a number of academic disciplines. This topic builds on the gender and transport tradition, where feminist scholars have made daily mobility central to their work and the larger fi eld of transportation studies by clarifying how women's travel practices differ from men's and analyzing what gender-based factors are associated with these differences. 2 Given recent globalization, transnational labor migrations, and ongoing processes of urbanization, an emphasis on everyday mobility as an analytic category offers a critical medium for examining widening social differentiation in the past and today. 3 Patterns of everyday mobility in Asia are especially crucial examples to focus on given the quick pace of industrialization and urbanization in many

This paper explores infrastructure projects that present a conscious merging between urban transformation, community development, culture, and technology through sustainable design. When urban projects successfully and meaningfully include all these dimensions, we refer to them as "blended infrastructure" projects, since they offer much more than just infrastructure. A literature review pertaining to the rejuvenation and renewal of cities reveals that infrastructure projects have the potential to be at once, smart and ecological as well as cultural and deeply integrated urban interventions. We, therefore, propose that 'blended infrastructure' projects are those that profoundly integrate anthropological and technological dimensions. These two poles are the basis of our analysis method. Our methodology, which includes a mapping tool, is used to cartograph a series of design projects. We select two sets of projects for analysis. First, we select "light infrastructure" projects that are not yet built, still in an imaginary phase, which have a common underlying positive intention of bringing sustainability to the city. Second, we select heavier, already built, infrastructure projects, those subjected to real-world constraints, i.e., economic, political, etc. These polarities (light and imagined vs. heavy and realized) will help test the applicability of this mapping approach on different types of infrastructures. By studying projects on either side of a spatial design spectrum, we aim to understand which types of projects have a potential to be "blended infrastructure" projects-and therefore, deeply integrated sustainable urban interventions, as key contributions to the future of our cities.

HS-Net is a network of individuals, networks and institutions engaged in human settlements research. HS-Net seeks to promote global dialogue, collaboration and exchange of information on human settlements conditions and trends and the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the targets of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on slums, water and sanitation.

Neo-Andean Architecture and a metropolitan cable-car system are part of wider social and material transformations currently underway in El Alto, Bolivia. Both developments not only reshape the city’s landscape but are materializations of an urban understanding of indigeneity that embraces infrastructural development and accommodates social difference.

The rapid increase in urbanization and economic development has led to severe environmental degradation that undermines the environmental resource base upon which sustainable development depends. Our understanding of urban areas, in both theory and practice, is at a turning point. Urban development across the world faces complex and rapidly evolving challenges. Is "sustainable urban development" still the best guiding concept for policy makers, urban planners, architects and investors in building the cities of the future? This new urban agenda transforms urban areas into regenerative cities that dramatically reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, boost the deployment of renewable energies, etc. Transforming urban infrastructure into regenerative systems consequently requires an integrated approach, coordinated action and policy dialogue. Most states in India today have new trends like township policies to reduce inorganic growth of cities. State governments are encouraging private real estate sector to develop townships where the entire security, street maintenance and administration of the estate are managed by the developers. These new townships can be developed as smart and intelligent urban centers with focus on becoming drivers of technology innovation and environment conservation. The paper deal with the analysis of the problems associated with rapid urbanization, and seeks a possible and practical solution, as integrated townships, understanding and acknowledging the role and importance of emerging trends in development of sustainable cities.

In the summer and fall of 2019, the Blue House / Civic Studio visited five different pump stations with photographers Christine “CFreedom” Brown and Maggie Hermann. We spoke with a dozen pump station operators and documented their daily routines, including what happens when it rains. We sought to understand what it takes to move water through and out of our city, and the kinds of labor and knowledge that are necessary to operate the pumps. We explored, too, the limits of the mechanical drainage system that we’ve put in place over the past century.

This is a lift-out that was included in The New Orleans Advocate newspaper in December 2019.