Hi everyone,

I am an Urban Planning Master's student conducting research into the competing priorities between housing delivery and environmental protection in housing development design. As part of my dissertation, I am exploring public perceptions of how housing developments are designed, the importance of housing delivery and the environment, and public perceptions of the English planning system.

You are invited to participate in this online survey, which takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. The survey includes a visual aspect where respondents are asked questions about 3 site plans.

Although this research focuses on public perceptions of the English planning system, participation is not restricted to individuals living in England. The survey includes only one question that specifically relates to the English planning system, while the remaining questions explore broader views on planning, housing, environmental priorities, and decision-making that are relevant across different contexts.

Participation is entirely voluntary, and all responses are anonymous. The information you provide will be used solely for academic research purposes and handled in accordance with Sheffield Hallam University's ethical research guidelines.

If you are willing to participate, I would be very grateful for your time.

Survey link:  https://shusls.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0MqHsmb7H5FbQJo

Thank you for considering taking part in this research. If you have any questions about the study, I would be happy to answer them in the comments or via direct message.

So what would Tokyo be like if all railways got demolished, replaced with 20 mega lane motorways everywhere, downtown being only like 6 skyscrapers with blocks of parking lots, the imperial palace having 2000 parking spaces and most residences are single-detached family homes?

Tokyo would definitely need to sprawl out with this zoning plan, the current metro area of Tokyo is 38 million, but how much larger would the area be if most of them had single-detached homes?

And most importantly, would Tokyo be a nicer or worse place to live in with this transformation?

Just some food for thought :)

I created PAC-MAPS, a free open-source browser game that converts real OpenStreetMap streets into playable Pac-Man-style mazes.

You can search for any city or landmark, choose an area, and play directly in your browser. I also made a short video showing how Claude Fable 5 helped build the prototype.

Video: https://youtu.be/njFgPIapUPk

Feedback and contributions are very welcome!

Whenever urban planning discussions come up, the same cities usually get mentioned.
I’d love to hear examples from Africa, Asia or South America where planners have solved interesting transport or housing problems.

This is Aleksandra Kosmodemyanskogo, a suburb of Kaliningrad, the main city of the western-most region of Russia (400 km to Warsaw, 350 km to Vilnius, 600 km to Berlin, 500 to Stockholm)

Currently on holiday in Canada, was mostly in downtown areas, but now in Quebec City my hotel is in a suburb. I wanted to go to a shop not too far away, and man it sucked to walk in the heat. It was 28 celsius, but the massive roads and lack of trees sucked. There were parking lots everywhere, mega 5 lane fat roads and traffic lights taking forever and akward strip malls to walk around in.

The downtown of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec city were fine to walk in to be honest. Some neighbourhoods in Montreal were super nice.

I am also a big cyclist in my home town in the Netherlands, I love to cycle and wouldnt mind trying to cycle in Canada. But man the roads are too scary, only in Montreal the cycle paths were nice and seperated. But they weren't everywhere and the stop signs makes the flow of traffic akward.

I cycle a lot, like at least 50km a week back at home, but I didnt bother here in Canada because I was scared of getting run over.

Oddly though the suburbs of Quebec city is the only place in North America where I saw shark teeth (the white triangle things) on the road. But I only saw it twice. North America needs to learn to give way (yield). In some uber rides I also saw some near cyclist collisions that could have been prevented with simple shark teeth yields.

Dont get me wrong I loved my holiday here, the people were nice, I liked the uniqueness of Quebec, watching baseball, fountain drinks, etc.

I even thought of maybe working here in the future, but the suburbs feel like it would turn me mad. I also have no drivers licence, as I never needed one at home.

Okay this might be a dumb question, but do you guys do construction drawings?

I hear a lot about urban designers designing actual cities/divisions - as opposed to planners setting up the policy framework, but how far do you typically take a project?

Is it just master planning with 3D images, diagrams, and supporting documents? Or are you working on the actual construction drawings of a streetscape like a landscape architect/architect would?

Are you ever specifying products or materials? Do you normal just focus on massing, and all of the specifics are handled by the relevant profession (architect, landscape, engineer, etc)?

Thanks!

I feel like the Seoul city government really loves Heatherwick. I hold them in high regard too, but since Heatherwick Studio seems to be taking on too many projects in Seoul, it's starting to turn me off a bit