Category: Short Films

Engineers Infographics Ranked Cities Short Films Sustainable Cities

ARCADIS Sustainable Cities Index

SHORT FILM / INFOGRAPHIC

arcadis.com, 2016

Well-established European cities dominate the top of the overall ranking making up 16 of the top 20 positions. They are joined by the advanced Asian cities of Singapore (in second place), Seoul (7th) and Hong Kong (16th) as well as Australia’s capital, Canberra (18th). Cities around the world are living at extremes, not balancing these pillars of sustainability. While taking the lead in some areas, cities often sit lower in one area of sustainability. How can cities do more to ensure that as they develop and implement strategies and policies to address the considerable challenges they face – from environmental to socio-economic – they do so in a way that puts people first and at the forefront of their sustainability?

Economists Populism & Digital Disruption Short Films Social & Economic Inequalities Some Background

Outsider Economics

SHORT FILM

David McWilliams, Punk Economics, ft.com

And, of course, outsiderdom is politically located where the nationalist old and disenfranchised you intersect. Outsiders are not defined by traditional labels, but they do form strange coalitions. So the small shopkeeper could well have conservative instincts, while the twenty-something tattooed barista could be liberal to her core. Yet both of them see themselves as outsiders, and neither has a voice, but what they do have is a vote and every once in a while, if pushed, they say – enough!

For more from David McWilliams and his work on contemporary economics, click here.

Biking Short Films USA

Brooklyn bridge study sizes up expansion

SHORT FILM

New York Times, 17 August 2016

It’s a good problem to have right? Bicycling is now a mainstream mode of transportation in New York City. Almost a million New Yorkers now are riding their bikes regularly. And we should be providing for cycling as we provide for motoring in New York City.

Articles Newspapers (Print & Online) Short Films Urbanisation

The rise and fall of great world cities: 5,700 years of urbanisation – mapped

SHORT FILM

Kanishk Tharoor, The Guardian, 27 June 2016

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.

For more from Guardian Cities, click here.

Archaeologists Articles Lessons from History Newspapers (Print & Online) Short Films

Revealed: Cambodia’s vast medieval cities hidden beneath the jungle

ARTICLE / SHORT FILM

Laura Dunston, The Guardian, 11 June 2016

That survey uncovered an array of discoveries, including elaborate water systems that were built hundreds of years before historians believed the technology existed. The findings are expected to challenge theories on how the Khmer empire developed, dominated the region, and declined around the 15th century, and the role of climate change and water management in that process.

For more from Guardian Cities, click here.

Architecture & Engineering Developers Short Films The Public Realm UK

King’s Cross: urban transformation

SHORT FILM

Pauline den Hartog Jager, Monocle, 12 May 2016

It is expected that this year around 30,000 people will be visiting King’s Cross every day, for that we have to thank its developers Argent, who have focused just as much on a manifesto of good living, as they have on a bottom line. “Once we had been confirmed, one of our first jobs was to write this first document called, ‘Principles for a Human City’ which was published in July 2001, and we set out 10 principles for what we though should be a fantastic piece of this world city.”

Japan Living in the City Magazines Short Films UK USA

How to Live in the City

SHORT FILM

Hugo Macdonald, Monocle, 2016

Choosing to live in a city is chooosing to enter into a relationship with it. And like any human relationship, the relationship you have with your city is one that requites nurturing, constant practice and work.

For Hugo Macdonald’s School of Life book of the same name click here.

Colombia Government Agencies Short Films The Public Realm Transit Urbanisation

Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize 2016 Laureate: Medellín

SHORT FILM

Lee Kwan Yew World City Prize, 2016

We live in a time when billions of people are moving into cities. Many of these cities, especially the new mega cities, are very dangerous and disorganised. Many of them are getting worse, and many of them are are looking for role models of cities which have transformed themselves, and no city has done as great a job as Medellín has.

For more about the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, click here.

Cities for People Housing Philosophers Short Films The Public Realm Urban Activism

On how to make an attractive city

SHORT FILM

School of Life, 26 Jan 2015

Cities are a big deal. We pretty much all have to live in them. We should try hard to get them right. So few cities are nice, very few out of many thousands are really beautiful; embarrassingly the more appealing ones tend to be old, which is weird because we’re mostly much better at making things now.

For a related articles and short films by The School of Life on Ugliness and the Housing Crisis click here and on Relativism and Urban Planning click here.

Academics Community India Informal Cities Mega Cities Short Films

Mumbai: Maximum City under Pressure

SHORT FILM

Urban Think Tank / LafargeHolcim Foundation

Old slums actually function as villages, they’re medium rise, high density urban areas in cities. And actually you have an infinite number of diverse productive businesses going on all along in Dharavi. And what you see in the background here, in the distance, is the alternative, the modern housing block. Now what’s better? To upgrade this village or to house people in those vertical, kind segmented ghettos. I believe the village culture is much more interesting and the village must remain in the city.

For more about ETH Zurich’s Urban – Think Tank’s work on social architecture and informal development, click here.

For more about The Holcim Foundation’s support for sustainable construction, click here.

Books (16+ yr) Journalists Short Films Sustainable Cities

The Conundrum

SHORT FILM

David Owen

Every device I own today is vastly more efficient than it’s 1970s equivalent, yet my energy use, along with the country’s and the world’s has soared. That’s because we almost always reinvest efficiency gains in additional consumption. The better we get at doing things the more things we do. That’s The Conundrum.