Transportation and Housing_Group 7

TRANSPORTATION INOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO MOVEMENT

Group 7: Mashael Alhothali , Jiatai Wu, Tevin Williams

Global Trend – Going Carless The industrialized nations made a terrible mistake when they turned to the automobile as an instrument of improved urban mobility. The car brought with it major unanticipated consequences for urban life and has become a serious cause of environmental, social, and aesthetic problems in cities.

In response, cities around the world are trying out car-free initiatives. Helsinki has ambitious plans to make its “mobility on demand” service so good that nobody will want to drive a car in the centrer by 2025, while Paris’s car-free days have successfully reduced high pollution. New cities – such as the Great City on the outskirts of Chengdu, China, and Masdar near Abu Dhabi – plan to focus on mass transit or electric cars as alternatives to gas-guzzling private cars.

Innovative Solutions to Going Carless Develop new technology Masdar City - Abu Dhabi Designed by Foster and Partners for the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company and set in the desert 17km from the skyscrapers of Abu Dhabi, Masdar is an intriguing experiment in urban design and living. It aims to be carbon neutral and zero waste. The driverless scifi pods bumble around the undercrofts of the first phase of Masdar City. The original idea was for these comic pods to crisscross the entire city underground so that residents, commuters and visitors could reach any part of it without having to drive, and in the welcome shade.

However, the pods move so slowly that it might be faster just to walk, and they seem to be an all too complex way of getting about, they won’t be implemented in the future phases of the Masdar City.

Innovative Solutions to Going Carless Develop new technology Straddling Bus – China Car ownership in China is soaring, with an estimated 20 million new drivers hitting the roads each year. Cities there can expect no shortage of air pollution and hellish traffic jams. There is need for a city bus that could carry more than a thousand passengers from one point to another without taking up any space on the road.

The bus would span two traffic lanes and carry up to 1,400 passengers. It would travel up to 40 miles an hour above street level on a special track, allowing regular cars under 7 feet high to freely pass underneath. More importantly, it would run on electricity and take the place of 40 buses, which could cut annual fuel consumption by 800 tons and carbon emissions by almost 2,500 tons.

Innovative Solutions to Going Carless Regulations – Enhance Public Transportation and Bike Infrastructure Oslo – Norway The Norwegian capital’s announcement came last month as part of a wider political initiative by the newly elected leftist municipal government to halve the city’s emissions by 2020. On top of implementing a no-car zone within the city’s central ring road, Oslo plans a number of other proposals, including building new bike lanes, introducing rush-hour charges and removing parking spaces.

Paris – France When smog levels were at a dangerous high in Paris earlier in the year, mayor Anne Hidalgo gave the red light to half of the city’s diesel vehicles. After just 24 hours, PM10 particle pollution fell back to well below 80mg per cubic meter and traffic jams were reduced by almost 40%. In December, 2014, the mayor of Paris implemented a permanent ban on diesel-powered vehicles from the heart of the city by 2020. Parisians were offered a brief taste of what their city might look like in 2020 when the mayor rolled out a car-free day across one-third of the French capital in sunny September. Air and noise pollution was significantly reduced, and major arteries such as the Champs Élysées transformed into temporary public spaces for bikes, pedestrians and impromptu yoga sessions.

Innovative Solutions to Going Carless New City Design The Great City- Chengdu- China The development of the Great City is intended to respond to the problem of overburdened infrastructure in many of China’s major urban centers without contributing to the high energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with suburban sprawl.

When completed, Great City Chengdu will be home to about 30,000 families totaling 80,000 people, many of whom will also have opportunities to work within the development. The distance from any location in the city to any other location will be walkable within about 15 minutes, all but eliminating the need for most automobiles. The project has been designed to achieve a remarkable series of sustainable benchmarks. Great City Chengdu will use 48% less energy and 58% less water than a conventional development of similar population. It will also produce 89% less landfill waste and generate 60% less carbon dioxide.

The city’s perimeter is defined by a clear edge, from which the city center can be reached on foot within 10 minutes. An extended recreation system connects the pedestrian network to trails that run through the green buffer and surrounding farmland.

The infrastructure and public-realm networks include electric shuttles, plazas, parks and links to the recreation system. As a primarily pedestrian city, only half of the road area is allocated to motorized vehicles. All residential units will be within a two-minute walk of a public park.

Innovative Solutions to Going Carless New City Design Masdar City- Abu Dhabi Masdar City combines state-of-the-art technologies with the planning principals of traditional Arab settlements to create a desert community that aims to be carbon neutral and zero waste. The city itself will be the first modern community in the world to operate without fossilfuelled vehicles at street level. With a maximum distance of 200 metres to the nearest rapid transport links and amenities, the city is designed to encourage walking, while its shaded streets and courtyards offer an attractive pedestrian environment, sheltered from climatic extremes. Like mentioned in the previous pages, the first phase of the Masdar City is up and running, the driverless sci-fi pods bumble around the undercrofts of the first phase of Masdar City, there would have been hundreds of pods. In the event, they have been seen as an all too complex way of getting about.

Future phases of Masdar will be podfree, although cars and lorries will be directed underground, leaving the streets above for pedestrians only.

HOUSING PLACES FOR PEOPLE

Group 7: Mashael Alhothali , Jiatai Wu, Tevin Williams

HOUSING PLACES FOR PEOPLE

Group 7: Mashael Alhothali , Jiatai Wu, Tevin Williams

Housing Affordable housing: Affordable housing is dwelling units whose total housing costs are considered “affordable” to people with median to low-income.

“According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), affordable housing is housing that costs no more than 30% of your median family income.”

If the monthly costs of a home exceeds 30%-35% of a household income, then the housing is considered unaffordable for this household.

Mixed-use development “Development projects may be classified as "mixeduse" if they provide more than one use or purpose within a shared building or development area. Mixeduse projects may include any combination of housing, office, retail, medical, recreational, commercial or industrial components.”

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The benefits of a Mixed-use development is that it promotes a sense of place which helps brining the community together, it encourages economic investment and increases revenues, it promotes efficient use of land and infrastructure, promotes pedestrian and bicycle travel as well as providing housing opportunities.8 Figure 20

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nARCHITECTS: Carmel Place (formerly known as My Micro NY), the ninestory building is located in Manhattan's Kips Bay neighborhood to accommodate the city’s growing small household population The tower contains 55 units that range in size from 250 to 370 square feet “With more people living alone, the architects believe there is a large market for microapartments. In New York, however, city regulations require that residential units be a minimum of 400 square feet (37 square metres) — regulations that were waived for Carmel Place.”

Though the rental units are intended for lowand middle-income residents the building offers amenities more commonly associated with luxury apartment buildings.

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“The New York Times reports that a majority of the units will have a monthly rent of $950 (approximately £600), which is considered a bargain in Manhattan. The median rental price for a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment is currently $3,400 (approximately £2,200), according to a Bloomberg report.”

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Figure 22 : Micro unit diagram

Figure 25: Amenities diagram

Mithun I Solomon: 1180 4th Street 1180 4th street is a six-story mixed-use building in San Francisco, situated on a pointy corner lot in Mission Bay Neighborhood.

With the growing population in San Francisco, low-income families find less affordable houses to rent.

The team said. "It demands a welcoming mixeduse street frontage with richly articulated architecture to define the character of this emerging neighborhood.“ The building features communal areas, a parking garage and ground-level retail space totaling 11,000 square feet The team integrated numerous outdoor spaces into the complex, including walkways lined with planters made of weathering steel. The central courtyard features a turf field for sports activities and film viewing, a barbecue area, garden plots and a secure playground for children.

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Meta Housing Corporation: Adams & Central Mixed-Use Development Located in South Los Angeles which is known for urban blight, poverty, and high percentage of unemployment. This project brought a mixed-use building including affordable residential and commercial space for the community with more than 160,000 square feet includes an 80-unit affordable multifamily community situated above a ground floor retail space, which is occupied by a Fresh & Easy grocer.

“Prior to the development of this property, the South Los Angeles neighborhood in which Adams & Central is now located was identified as a “Food Desert” due to its lack of fresh food options. The people living in this area were purchasing foods only at corner stores and liquor stores, which contributed to higher food prices, and less healthy food options.”

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“With the inclusion of the Fresh & Easy store, Adams and Central produces numerous benefits to the community—economic revitalization through private investment, highquality urban design for an improved quality of life, jobs with good wages, and the elimination of blight.”

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Zigzag Arquitectura: Vivazz, Mieres Social Housing Located in Mieres, Asturias, Spain. This housing project was designed to match The environment and blends with nature through its central plaza and the voids and cutting which allow views of the surrounding mountains as well as enabling the sun and air to enter the inner spaces.

Opening the block was a priority for the designer to allow for central circulation and making it the center of the social meeting of its inhabitants as well as a place worth seeing.

The access was designed by breaking the block in two of its corners, creating diagonal space tension.

The entrance to the apartments passes through this intermediate space, activating it and generating the necessary neighborhood relationship

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