Category: Urban Development
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Know What’s Under Ground and Make Smarter Planning Decisions
A Finnish experimentation project developed a framework for classifying ground conditions for building and infrastructure construction. It will help anticipate the future cost of foundation laying during the early stages of city planning. The ground conditions of an area can have a substantial effect on the costs and the environmental impacts of constructing buildings and…
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An International Ideas Competition in a Magnificent Finnish Lakeside City
An international ideas competition started off on 15 May 2019 in Viinikanlahti, a highly exciting area close to Tampere city center. Competitors get to design a housing area of over 3,000 residents on the shores of Lake Pyhäjärvi, as well as a leisure time environment for the locals and tourists. With a population of roughly…
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Gardeners in the City of the Future: An Interview with Eric Baczuk
I had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Baczuk, Designer at Google. We discuss his views on the future urban experience and design. We also touch on Sidewalk Labs of which Eric was a founding team member. What are you working on currently? I lead a design team imagining future of communication and thinking about possibilities…
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Helsinki’s Digital Twin Report Released
A report called The Kalasatama Digital Twins Project by the Helsinki 3D+ team details the process and the technologies that they used to create a digital twin of the Kalasatama district. I met with the city’s team in April 2019 and consequently wrote the article Helsinki is Building a Digital Twin of the City. Download…
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Picks from Construction IoT News
Internet of Things is a rapidly expanding technology that will have a fundamental impact on the built environment. Here are picks from articles in April/May 2019 representing the many aspects of IoT applications. IoT for Commercial Buildings: From Cost Reduction to Enhanced User Experience David H. Deans writes about a recent study by Berg Insight.…
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Helsinki is Building a Digital Twin of the City
The capital of Finland first tested city modeling as long back as 1987. But the most recent model of the Kalasatama district demonstrates the new state-of-the-art possibilities of this technology: creation of a highly accurate digital twin of the city. My hosts, Helsinki’s city modeling specialists Jarmo Suomisto and Enni Airaksinen, showed me their latest…
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Plehat Brings Natural Environments into Design Tools
Natural elements are an essential part of the built environment. However, BIM tools offer almost no support to landscape architecture. Plehat is introducing a new solution that helps architects and decision-makers to understand the dynamics of nature and make smart design choices. Plehat used photogrammetric 3D models of Uunisaari islands, to the south of Helsinki.…
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Plehat Brings Natural Environments into Design Tools
Natural elements are an essential part of the built environment. However, BIM tools offer almost no support to landscape architecture. Plehat is introducing a new solution that helps architects and decision-makers to understand the dynamics of nature and make smart design choices. Plehat used photogrammetric 3D models of Uunisaari islands, to the south of Helsinki.…
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Citizen-Centric Development: An Interview with Ken Dooley
In this interview with Ken Dooley of Granlund, we discuss sustainability from a user’s point of view and how technology will help cities become more citizen-centric. Dr. Ken Dooley is a Technology Director at Granlund in Helsinki. He has over 15 years’ experience as a consultant in the built environment and has worked in London,…
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Smarter Planning Decisions with Geospatial Data
As more data on our environment becomes openly available, new ways to use it in design and decision-making emerge. A-Konsultit, a Finnish architectural design firm, and Sipoo, a municipality, set out to use geospatial data in a novel way. “We got a commission from Sipoo to devise a method for determining development rights in rural…