Urbanism

Interessant artikel van Bruzz over het toenemend fenomeen van coliving in Brussel en de gerelateerde sociale problemen. Gespecialiseerde bedrijven kopen gebouwen om en vormen deze om tot gewilde kamers van jonge en vaak internationale mensen in de start van hun carrière:

Bij coliving kopen of huren gespecialiseerde start-ups gebouwen, bij voorkeur langs mooie lanen en straten. Ze maken er acht tot vijftien slaapkamers in en voorzien in ruime gemeenschappelijke ruimtes: een grote woonkamer, open keuken en een tuin, maar vaak ook een sport- of filmzaal, een spelletjeskamer of een coworking_space. Prijzen voor de kamers variëren tussen 550 en 750 euro per maand, vaak nog exclusief kosten.

I find the way skateboarders use the urban landscape as their playground just fascinating. Elements in the city which we take for granted or see as useless suddenly can get a completely different meaning by skateboarders. In the following video from Vox gives from great examples of the history of some “legendary spots.”

Via Open Culture.

Living in the Netherlands now for over two years I cannot begin to explain how amazing the cycling infrastructure is. It’s in the little things such as the traffic lights, as explained in the following video:

Christien Klaufus writes at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research blog on burial places of large metropolises in Latin America:

What have we learned from the examples of burial place policy in Latin American metropolises? Poorly regulated logistics for burial plot allocation can result not only in emotional suffering, but also in public health risks. Many large burial places in cities all over the world were built in response to a disaster or epidemic. In some cases, these then became the cause of more deaths. By carefully monitoring the existing capacity, combined with tight logistics and behavioural regulations, we can prevent burial places from becoming another risk factor during the crisis.

Read the full article here.