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Planned Cities: Strange, Beautiful and Unexpected

Started by M4346, December 31, 2012, 07:09:53 AM

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M4346

Good day Devotees!  ;D

Nothing escapes the all-seeing eye of David (dedgren) who has spotted, and caught, me lurking around the forum once again...

It is true, I have been frequenting the famed halls of SC4D on a more regular basis largely because I miss it and the game, and partly because of a rekindled personal and professional interest in urban and regional planning and the amazing efforts of the community here in that regard.

This is linked to the fact that I live and work in what is increasingly known as the Gauteng City Region with its unique challenges and dynamics. This is possibly best captured in the vision of the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) for "South Africa's economic heartland as a region that is competitive, spatially integrated, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive".

These are some of the primary things I deal with professionally on a daily basis in my current job, specifically as we prepare to take over the government of the Gauteng province as soon as 2014.

This includes, for example, issues like the controversial electronic tolling of Gauteng freeways and the Gautrain, the high speed rail networking linking the metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane (Pretoria).

To cut a long story short, this ties to my interests in planned cities (and urban and regional planning more broadly), largely because none of Gauteng's major cities were planned, having developed "organically" due to various socio-economic demands 100 and more years ago (such as the Witwatersrand gold rush).

I have always been in awe of the monumental planned capital cities of Washington, D.C. and Canberra, Australia.

Sadly we don't have the luxury of planning cities and regions from scratch in the most densely populated and intensely developed region of South Africa, so we have to work with what we have. Which is why I love coming here to see what innovative, creative and passionate mayors on SC4D do to deal with topographic and socio-economic realities in regional and urban development.

I can't formally commit to actively returning to SC4D or SC4 on a regular basis, but I do have my eye on a possible planned regional development on the Jacksonville, FL map created by the NHP's Blade2K5. I have rendered this and would like to solicit advice from fellow Devotees on regional transportation and development planning for this amazing map.

In conclusion, and to get back on topic, I want to share this great article on planned cities from Wired.com:

Strange, Beautiful and Unexpected: Planned Cities Seen From Space

What are your thoughts on planned cities? Which planned city is your favourite? Do you plan for the short, long and medium term urban and regional development in SC4?

I'd like to dedicate this topic to the strange, beautiful and unexpected that is the planned city!

Cheers, and happy New Year!  ;D

M

PS. I couldn't find a topic dedicated to the notion of a planned city (I guess this discussion board is broadly dedicated to planning and urban design, but planned cities are a unique phenomenon and I though warranted a separate thread). Please move / merge as you deem necessary or fit.
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catty

Quote from: M4346 on December 31, 2012, 07:09:53 AM
PS. I couldn't find a topic dedicated to the notion of a planned city (I guess this discussion board is broadly dedicated to planning and urban design, but planned cities are a unique phenomenon and I though warranted a separate thread). Please move / merge as you deem necessary or fit.

I think this board is the right place for this topic, and thank you for starting it, when we did the last site shift this board was moving to a more noticeable position in the hopes people would start using it.

While this site will always be for devoted players of SC4, topics on real life cities and all the various ways people build them or design them are something this site is happy to see.

:thumbsup:

-catty
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