Kanishk Tharoor ~ The Rise And Fall Of Great World Cities: 5,700 Years Of Urbanisation – Mapped

Urbanisation is one of the defining processes of modern times, with more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, and new mega-metropolises mushrooming in Asia, Latin America and Africa. But a comprehensive, digitised database of city populations through world history has been lacking, with the United Nations’ dataset only extending as far back as 1950.

That was until recent research, published in the journal Scientific Data, transcribed and geocoded nearly 6,000 years of data (from 3700BC to AD2000). The report produced a gargantuan resource for scholars hoping to better understand how and why cities rise and fall – and allowed blogger Max Galka to produce a striking visualisation on his site Metrocosm.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/rise-fall

Smart City Makeover For Slums In Bhubaneswar Township Area

BHUBANESHWAR: The slum pockets falling under Bhubaneswar Town Centre District (BTCD), will wear a new look, according to the concept of Smart City Mission.

The BTCD is spread over 985 acres and there are 26 slums in the zone. The BTCD will be a model town of the city to be developed under the mission. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started validation (enumeration) camps to identify the genuine slum dwellers so that they are provided with concrete buildings.

Read more: http://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/hubaneswar-township-area

Moladi ~ Conventional Building Methods Not Suited To African Conditions

Housing and construction systems developer Moladi says its low-cost housing system, comprising plastic formwork panels and a cement admixture, is widely embraced throughout Africa, as it has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of the African market.

Moladi founder and CEO Hennie Botes says the system alleviates challenges associated with conventional building methods, including excessive costs, labour-intensive processes and the availability of materials. He notes that while the aforementioned challenges are not specific to African countries, they are exacerbated by other uniquely African obstacles.

Read more: http://www.designmind.co.za/conventional-building-methods

Moladi ~ Push To Supply Longer-Term Lodgings

Housing and building construction systems company Moladi believes mining companies, which are currently dealing with the commodities downturn, should invest in longer-term building solutions for the purpose of on-site accommodation, as opposed to more traditional prefabricated modular buildings.
Thus, the company is targeting the mining industry for the provision of long-term accommodation, says moladi founder and CEO Hennie Botes.

The Port Elizabeth-based company’s buildings offer mines investment in permanent structures, which can be used for a range of applications, from accommodation to storage, that are secure, unlike temporary modular solutions.
Further, the company emphasises that its focus on providing a housing solution that is a quicker and a cheaper method of producing better-quality structures that are “far more durable and require less maintenance” will benefit mines and their workers.

Moladi uses mine by-products such as mine slag and crusher dust, which act as a stable level filler, as bulk building material to construct its long-term housing solution, reducing the cost of construction.
He adds that the company can construct buildings that are more durable than prefabricated and traditional brick and mortar building solutions.

Moladi’s green building method involves the use of removable, reusable, recyclable and lightweight plastic formwork moulds that are filled with mortar consisting of sand and cement.

The walls of Moladi’s buildings have a strength of 16 megapascal (MPa), compared with traditional brick walls that start at 2 MPa. “Our walls are up to six to eight times stronger than brick and cement,” adds Botes.

Read more: http://www.designmind.co.za/push-to-supply-longer-term-lodgings

Lisa Novacek ~ Empower Shack

Empower Shack from Urban-Think Tank on Vimeo.

The Empower Shack project is directed by Urban-Think Tank and the local NGO Ikhayalami in collaboration with the BT-Section community and associated local and international partners. The project aims to develop a comprehensive and sustainable informal settlement upgrading through addressing there core components:

• a two-story housing prototype,
• participatory spatial planning,
• ecological landscape management,
• integrated livelihoods programming,

There is an ongoing pilot phase is focused on a cluster of 68 houses within the BT-Section of Khayelitsha to be completed in 2017.

Read more: http://futurecapetown.com/watch-empower-shack

Brandon G. Donnelly ~ How Megacities Are Changing The Map Of The World

In advance of his new book, titled Connectography, Parag Khanna recently delivered an interesting TED Talk called, How megacities are changing the map of the world. It’s about 20 minutes long.

A lot of what is covered won’t be new to this audience, but I like how he talks about the importance of urban connectivity, the shift from political to functional geography, and the idea that, in a megacity world, countries can actually be the suburbs of some cities.

One thing you might notice about the talk is how he glosses over both Canada and Europe. This is a reminder to me that if Canadian cities are going to continue to compete against the emerging megacities of the world, we are going to need to think at the scale of the megalopolis. And a big part of that means a focus on extra-urban connectivity.

Read more: http://brandondonnelly.com/how-megacities