I'm Derek Pokora, a designer currently studying urban and regional planning at Ryerson University in Toronto.I'm also a consultant with The Tapscott Group. I enjoy exploring the subjects of information and interaction design and I'm increasingly interested interested in the evolving relations between ubiquitous computing, networking, architecture, and public space.
Contact me via email me@derekpokora.com, or by clicking on one of the icons below.
The Temporary City
The book questions the need for permanent uses and solutions for sites and argues that we need to increasingly look for short and medium term uses, rather than obsess about the long term; realistically it will take a long time for the economy to achieve stable and meaningful growth and for sites to become viable again – especially with what was paid for many sites at the market peak – and in the meantime these same sites will lie vacant for many years without an effective framework for their interim use.
Popuphood: How to Revitalize A Struggling Neighborhood In Six Months
“In September 2011, Dominguez and his friend Sarah Filley, an urban planner, teamed up to create Popuphood, a project that is giving five new retail shops the opportunity to get six months of free rent at previously vacant storefronts on one block in the neighborhood. Dominguez and Filley didn’t have to work too hard to convince the landlord that owns the storefronts to get on board. The spaces had been unoccupied for at least a year, and successful storefronts might stay put past the six month mark. The Oakland Redevelopment Agency, ever hopeful to revitalize downtown, pitched in with a $30,000 grant. And the pair have plenty of creative-minded contacts in the city, so finding tenants wasn’t too difficult.
It’s not as if the idea of pop-up storefronts is new. Cities across the U.S. have been populated in recent years with a slew of pop-up restaurants, stores, and even parks. Popuphood, which officially launched on December 9th, is offering something different: the opportunity to be part of a larger, newborn retail community.”
(via panmesa)
The Nature of Cities explores both the nature in are own backyards - Austin and San Diego and the possibilities in projects of cities of the future - Malmo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Freiburg, Amsterdam and Paris. The film features Sustainable Communities professor Timothy Beatley as he tours these places with City Planners, Landscape Architects, Ecologists and Residents.
Robert Moses v. Jane Jacobs; Rationalism meets advocacy planning.
(via humanscalecities)
This definitely helps demonstrate the different densities of New York City and Chicago. The MTA serves over 5 million weekday rides in a city of over 8 million, while the CTA serves over 750,000 weekday rides in a city of over 2.6 million. We have fewer lines and fewer stations, but they reach further away.
CTA lines superimposed over NYC.
MTA lines superimposed over Chicago.
(via titularhumour)
