Category Archives: Urban Design
Transport Urban Design Cycling Transport Transport+Urban Design Urban Design WillClontarf Baths – New car parking
2020, April 8 – 03:07
Observation on planning application for new car parking and access layout – Dublin City Council reg. ref. no. 2355/20
Thanks to the Council for the opportunity to comment on this Application. The Applicants are to be commended on their restoration of the old swimming baths and the construction of a well-designed contemporary building by Noonan Moran in a manner sensitive to the Dublin Biosphere and Birds Directive site. However the current application raises one or two issues that I would like to comment on, as someone who lives nearby and who swims and cycles regularly around the Bay… read more
Building boom in Thailand?
2018, October 17 – 14:40
Cranes everywhere, hoardings on every street and road advertising new houses, offices and apartments: Thailand seems to be developing again with gusto.
Biking Bangkok
2018, October 16 – 03:34
I’ve been biking round Bangkok now, including the day-and-a-half spent coming in from the countryside, for six days, covering maybe 100km including trips to the camping shop, bike tour hq, embassy and round hotels. The short version: it’s terrible!
Facades in Bangkok
2018, October 16 – 03:03
I love these mid-20th-century buildings with a few decades’ wear showing. They generally have a good, livable scale that breaks down nicely from city- to home-size.
Visiting Barcelona’s Superblocks
2017, December 9 – 14:17
Barcelona in Spain is a city that suffers air pollution, much of it from transport.
Reducing dependence on cars for short trips is one way of tackling pollution, so on a visit there I looked at one of Barcelona’s tactics in weaning short journeys off the car: Superblocks. Here are some photos from my visit to the Poblenou neighbourhood.
Road capacity
2017, February 28 – 09:47
I wasn’t aware of this research by Botma and Papendrecht. A striking set of figures.
Cycling in Berlin
2016, June 13 – 20:19
Typical Berlin scene
We stayed in Neukölln, an inner suburb of Berlin, for a few weeks and looked at cycling infrastructure and how cyclists seemed to be faring.
Cycling in Barcelona
2016, June 3 – 06:50
I took some snaps of the beautiful cyclists of Barcelona -2016- May and June.
The experience of cycling here seems a bit of a patchwork, as in many big cities. Some segregated lanes have been built, some two-way -at the side of larger streets, or sometimes along the street centreline. But a typical ride would seem to involve a bit of painted lane very close to moving cars & vans, up & down the footpath for a few hundred metres, a quiet street where you’ll roll slowly to share with pedestrians, and some nice segregated lanes along a multi-lane arterial road. Then you’ll be left to fend for yourself on a stretch of one-way road, sharing with buses and trucks.
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