Top Planning Trends from 2012

So, what were the buzz themes in planning 2012? Urban Times came up with a list, including placemaking, tactical urbanism, smart cities, walkability and infill development.  Here's some more on a few of these themes:

Placemaking

According to the article, place making (the process of creating squares, plazas, parks, streets and waterfronts that will attract people) was big in 2012, and is likely to thrive in 2013 as people (at least in the USA as people head back to cities).

Tactical Urbanism
Pop-up, guerilla, open-source, temporary or any other of the heap of names that refer to similar kinds of ventures became increasingly popular in 2012.  Some fun Melbourne examples include where?house, park(ing) day and the Stanley Street Markets.  So, more for 2013?  Yes please.

The Smart City

The article app-lauds the demand for more 'interactive and more technologically enabled' cities. Examples include free wifi in public spaces and availability and accessibility of data on a range of things (transport, parking, pollution for instance).

This list is nifty way to summarise some of the popular trends in planning and design.  It can also make you think, what's new? what have we seen before and what does that say about our cities?


Read on at Urban Times