"Between 1990 and 2000, every fourth city in the world was shrinking, and this tendency is on the rise. Which urban areas are people leaving? How is it happening? And why now? The Atlas of Shrinking Cities answers these questions and many more in some 30 world maps, 50 diagrams, 30 city portraits and 15 encyclopedic essays, documenting a global phenomenon in innovative cartography and graphics that make complex information and conclusions easily visually comprehensible. Four chapters of maps, illustrations and statistics explain reasons for shrinkage ranging from demographic developments and migration flows to increasingly limited resources, the destruction of nature and the evolution of the character of human settlements. Case studies on all continents shed light on the real effects of the global transformation process, and the index lists population development over the past 50 years in all cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants. "

Antitypes

Architecture has been used for a long time to design objects. These days, it must be concerned with relationships. It must project not unambiguous forms (compositions) but plural "contracts" between places and events (arrangements). These arrangements suggest both combinations and distributions in space, as well as flexible forms of logic [...]. Their effectiveness lies in the sound design of their operating system : the specific logic of relationship and internal combination ; articulation and infrastructure ; the mechanism of exchange and "glocal" relationship (between individual interests-local-and combined objectives-global). This hybrid and at times "anti-natural" contract, which can bring together in one and the same project differing formation codes, in fact refers to the actual division between the parties to the project and the contemporary city : twinned crystals, cuttings, grafts, and pairings are all recent-anti-compositional-illustrations which convey undisciplined, impure and indeterminate orders and "eccentric" forms (uncentered but also extreme and cursory, almost spontaneous) in continuity with the particular interpretation of a space, that of the present-day Metapolis, which can only be effectively represented by the changeable, opportunistic and unprejudiced overlay of different and differentiated layers and networks (as is the case with scanner readings and GIS maps). In a way, these contracts are "antitypes", associated with scenarios once and for all devoid of any formal typification ; antitypes in which, as in the contemporary world, different layers of movements, actions and activities overlap, no longer in the form of harmonic and coherent bodies, but of simultaneous landscapes in which "commensal" structures, forms and identities co-exist. This is how we like to see ACTAR : like a strange antitype ; a singular project issuing from the desire to bring together personalities, callings and fields of activity that are apparently diverse, but in fact linked : architectonic project and publishing project ; creation and distribution ; forward-looking action and critical eye. Dichotomies akin to others traditionally associated with the definition of the contemporary city and space (man-made/natural, urban/territorial, public/private, style/content, solid/void) ; dichotomies which have suddenly blurred the strict limits and given way to new and operative binomials or pairs. Mixed realities brought about by associations, transversalities and unexpected connections : LINKS. It is precisely this desire for linkage that explains and orders ACTAR's hybrid identity and activity, oriented towards the interpretation and treatment of a complex space, subject to new technical and phenomenological conditions-keys to a specific environment and new scales of processes occurring therein ; keys to the cultural phenomena of a thoroughly metropolitan (global) scenario, but one also attuned to the interests of the particular, the singular and the individual (local) ; keys leading to other types of arrangements based on direct forms of-disinhibited-ogic, rather than to orthodox prefigurations, to the revaluation of situations rather than to their design, and to the creation of strategies (capable of encompassing complexity) rather than to the formulation of constructions.

Manuel Gausa

http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/index.html

A good source for free historical maps of London

Future Vision

The future is unfolding around us. Over the next decade we will be able to see all sorts of differences that we can barely imagine today.

In the Vodafone Future Vision Website you can explore what we think that future might look like, experience some of the changes we believe will happen, and tell us what you think of them.

Vodafone is working hard to mobilize tomorrow's world, but we need your input. You are our partners in innovation, helping to shape a future that offers the mobile services we want, and brings us closer to the people we care about, wherever they are in the world.

Together we can build a future that turns this vision into reality.

BT Reveals Insight into the Future
In the future we could be holidaying in space while robots tend our gardens back home - according to BT's latest technology timeline.

BT's futurology department has gazed into the future to predict the technological advances that will impact our lives.

The timeline encompasses all areas of life influenced by technology developments including artificial intelligence, health and medical, business and education, demographics, energy, robotics, space, telecommunications and transport and travel.

It predicts by 2012, children could be entertained by video tiles in the bath before sitting in a playroom with wallpaper which changes to promote energy, happiness or calm. And they could even be interacting with toys that respond to their voices with matching emotions.

As beaches become more crowded and quiet corners become harder to find, BT predicts we could be holidaying somewhere above the earth's surface by 2017.

And by 2040, the timeline predicts we could get a space elevator to take us up to a moon village that will have developed by then.

BT researcher and editor of the timeline Ian Neild said: "The timeline enables organisations to design technology and products with future customers in mind, with a vision of the kind of environment they will be living in.

"Looking at the future of education or lifestyles, for example, will impact the way BT enhances and develops its broadband network."

BT Group chief technology officer Matt Bross said: "We have looked at a wide range of technologies and how these may impact on our lives in the future.

"Our futurology team has looked at both personal and professional scenarios when compiling the timeline."

Interactive Timeline
Static Timeline

http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/html/welcome.html

http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-11373-en.html

Cosplay: become your favourite online character

Today we live, work and ROAM in a world of perpetual motion. The mobility of people, goods, information and services confronts, permeates and saturates our everday existence.

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/

1. Learn: Design has emerged as one of the world's most powerful forces. It has placed us at the beginning of a new period of human possibility, where all economies and ecologies are becoming global, relational, and interconnected.

2. Act: Massive Change online is moving into a new phase, from communication to action. Join the project and connect with people around the world to share your ideas, discuss the critical issues, and collaborate on changing the world.

http://www.massivechange.com/mcweekly.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/siuyee/sets/72057594057397464/

In an effort to determine why people buy, Paco Underhill and his detailed-oriented band of retail researchers have camped out in stores over the course of 20 years, dedicating their lives to the "science of shopping." Armed with an array of video equipment, store maps, and customer-profile sheets, Underhill and his consulting firm, Envirosell, have observed over 900 aspects of interaction between shopper and store. They've discovered that men who take jeans into fitting rooms are more likely to buy than females (65 percent vs. 25 percent). They've learned how the "butt-brush factor" (bumped from behind, shoppers become irritated and move elsewhere) makes women avoid narrow aisles. They've quantified the importance of shopping baskets; contact between employees and shoppers; the "transition zone" (the area just inside the store's entrance); and "circulation patterns" (how shoppers move throughout a store). And they've explored the relationship between a customer's amenability and profitability, learning how good stores capitalize on a shopper's unspoken inclinations and desires. Underhill, whose clients include McDonald's, Starbucks, Estée Lauder, and Blockbuster, stocks Why We Buy with a wealth of retail insights, showing how men are beginning to shop like women, and how women have changed the way supermarkets are laid out. He also looks to the future, projecting massive retail opportunities with an aging baby-boom population and predicting how online retailing will affect shopping malls. This lighthearted look at shopping is highly recommended to anyone who buys or sells. --Rob McDonald

Like a favorite shopping emporium, The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping is a browser's paradise. This second installment of the Project on the City aims to investigate "a general urban condition undergoing virulent change." A big brick of a book with hundreds of photos and a bundle of essays by prominent designers, architects, and urban scholars, it traces the evolution of the marketplace and the environments we create for the purpose of getting and spending. From the great covered arcades of the 19th century to the museum displays of grand department stores to air-conditioned suburban malls, the book examines the ecology and life cycles of retail space the world over. Dip into the book anywhere for insights into acquisitive behavior. Newspaper clippings cite retail trends; a bar chart compares retail square footage by country (the U.S. tops them all). Some of the essays are already marked in yellow highlighter so you can scan for the main points. A 2,000-year timeline tracks major developments with theme concepts: Disney Space, Three-Ring Circus, Brand Zones, Shopping Landscapes. The book makes a wonderful reference for urban planners, but it's equally accessible to those who just want to shop 'til they drop.