Sommaire pour N. 122 de Topos

THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN

Oh, hi there! I’m topos, the leading international magazine for urban planning from Munich, Germany. For me, everything revolves around the sustainable city of the future. Online, I spend 365 days a year dealing with the question: how will we live sustainably, healthily and technologized in the world’s future metropolises? In addition to my home www.toposmagazine.com, I am published four times a year as a print magazine (that’s what you are holding in your hands right now!). I address everyone who is interested in the smarter, greener city of the future and who works in, on and with the city. My readers include CEOs, mayors, architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers, digitalization specialists, researchers – simply everyone that is interested in urban development! My great passion is finding and analyzing…

Swim City

Swim City

Forget the Hamptons, Bondi Beach, the Florida Keys, etc. Summer is best spent where? In Switzerland. Strangely enough. Here, an urban trend has manifested itself in recent years: river swimming. While Berlin, London and Paris were still struggling with the implementation of their river pools, people in Basel, Bern, Geneva or, as pictured, the city of Zurich, were already jumping into the city river at all times of the day-without paying any entrance fees, of course. According to the organizers of the exhibition "Swim City" at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, river swimming is possible primarily because of Switzerland’s pragmatic legal approach to risk. The difference: In contrast to many other countries, swimming in moving water is legally permitted in this country. At the same time, however, no one…

Work-Life City

Work-life balance is the idea of balancing the demands and responsibilities of an individual’s job with the time and energy required for their personal and family life. It encompasses the time, energy, and effort that a person dedicates to their job and their personal life, including relationships, hobbies, and other interests. In practice, work-life balance means finding the right balance between time spent on work-related tasks and time spent on personal pursuits. Being a personal and subjective concept, however, different aspects of work-life balance that work for one person may not work for another. Factors that can impact work-life balance include job demands, hours of work, commuting time, and family responsibilities. Achieving work-life balance requires effort and often requires making changes to one’s work habits and schedule. This can include…

Looking for Your Happy Place?

Looking for Your Happy Place?

Already for the 10th time, the World Happiness Report 2023 reflects how people in over 150 countries feel about their lives. Finland with its isolated, snowy landscapes and yet vibrant urban areas came in first place. The report considers data concerning happiness, benevolence and trust, as well as people’s perception of progress and well-being. Since social media has by now become a big part of everyday life for most of us, the World Happiness Report uses this data to document emotional states before and during the COVID-19 pandemic as well. In general, the biological basis for happiness is defined by the ability to cope with genetic, environmental or societal influences and whether we can utilise these dynamics for progress or surrender to the given circumstances and lose all hope for…

The Open-Hearted

After completing her Master’s degree in clinical psychology with a focus on development and education in Vienna, Shanti Hetz supports children and young adults in need as part of the Austrian kids-line. There is one group of city dwellers that is often talked about, but whose interests are hardly ever heard in many metropolises: children. In a world that is dictated by political self-interest and twisted sub-societal currents, the interests of children fall by the wayside on a regular basis. No wonder, as children do not have a lobby and usually cannot represent themselves. The Viennese psychologist Shanti Hetz knows the reality of many children’s lives in central Europe. Among other things, she works for the anonymous counselling service for children and young people offered by kids-line (www.kids-line.at). Kids-line is…

The Open-Hearted

THE PRIVILEGE OF MISSING OUT

THE PRIVILEGE OF MISSING OUT

Who does not know the feeling that there could be a better café or pub at the corner? Or that the atmosphere at the other party might be even better. Maybe the people you would meet at that other event are even more interesting. Would a holiday in Italy not be too boring? In most cases, you could call this the supposed illness FOMO, which is widespread among Millennials. The abbreviation stands for the "Fear of missing out". In other words, it is the pathological fear of missing out on something better. What many people use colloquially and rather excessively is at its core quite a serious issue. This fear of missing out is increasingly driving more and more people into a lifestyle of constant stress. And for a long…

Race and Place

Race and Place

The California Healthy Places Index (HPI) focuses on social conditions that drive a healthy population. Its purpose is not simply comparing or ranking cities, but to be a source of help when it comes to identifying certain factors which tend to compromise health in residential areas. Thus its data is open source, provided by the Public Health Alliance, a coalition of ten Californian health departments, together covering 60 per cent of the population of California. The goal is to achieve a more equal and healthier society as a whole, by highlighting data showing race inequality linked to poor conditions (applying a “race and place” framing to neighbourhood-level data). This also includes an analysis of the political representation of residing ethnicities. Especially the middle and southern coastal area tends to provide…

The Solution Builders

Grace Kim and Mike Mariano are two architects, living and working in Seattle, Washington. The setting is a less common one: an urban cohousing community in a building that they designed and developed. They’ve been advocating cohousing – a model of communal living – for a long time now. Does cohousing influence their work-live-balance and what could this way of living do for us all? Imagine the end of a long, exhausting working day. Before sitting down on your sofa and putting up your feet to relax a little, you have to get home first. Riding your bike may already be a welcome change from your day at the office. If you commute by car you might be stuck in rush hour traffic. Or the underground might be delayed, as…

The Solution Builders

Sky High Standards

Sky High Standards

Transit areas are having a hard time. They are compelled to cater to security, safety, sanitary and transportation standards. Thousands of people every day enter and exit the halls, cleaning personnel making sure they won’t leave any traces. With that in mind, it’s much more impressive that an airport terminal like San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1 qualified for the highest possible standard on the WELL Certification, a performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring aspects which impact human health and well-being indoors. Overall, there are more than 100 features in ten impact areas that measure the building standard in the WELL Certification. The international airport terminal is the first airport building ever to achieve the highest Platinum level in the building certificate from the public benefit corporation International WELL…

Contributors

Theresa Ramisch studied Urban Planning at the TU Munich. She began working as an editor for Garten + Landschaft and topos in 2016. Since 2021, she has been Editor in Chief for Garten + Landschaft – the leading German magazine for Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. t.ramisch@georg-media.de Jessica Mankel studied History of Art at the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz. She started her journalism traineeship at Baumeister, Garten + Landschaft and topos in 2019. She has joined the editorial team and works as performance manager. j.mankel@georg-media.de Ramona Kraxner finished her studies in architecture with the Graz Diploma Award 2020. She soon started to actively engage in critical discourse and eventually in architecture communication. She is the brand manager for NXT A, The Network for Young Architecture Workers. r.kraxner@georg-media.de Laura Laker Laura…

Contributors

Work-Life-Binga

Work-Life-Binga

Oslo, Helsinki, Zurich, Copenhagen - which metropolis is the best city to live in is a matter of debate. City rankings are a great way to boost the sale numbers of glossy magazines and to do some marketing on one’s own behalf. But no matter which city is at the top of the popularity scale, the decisive factor is why it is there. One important factor is the quality of the public space, with all its squares and parks, streets and paths, trees and bodies of water. There, people go for walks, do sports or meet friends. Increasingly, you also see people working outdoors with headsets and laptops. The classic office workplace has thus been given a new alternative through the recent years - a workstation in a different location.…

CITY GAME CHANGERS

CITY GAME CHANGERS

Meditopia Meditopia is a mental wellbeing app designed to decrease stress and anxiety levels and improve sleep. The intention behind all of their meditations is to support users in exploring and understanding their thoughts and emotions and to learn how they affect their body. The app was developed in Turkey and now has over 35 million users in over 60 countries, offering its content in twelve languages. With a library of over 1,000 meditations, courses, readings, music, and sleep stories, it is easy to find the right session for every mood and situation. With a mood history log, badges, and your personal mindful meter, they make it easy to stay on top of your mental health. Some of the content is free. You can access the entire content library with…

EDITIORIAL

Mindfulness, meditation, social detox – finding a balance in everyday life, between work, family, friends, sports and smartphone, seems to have become the most important asset for many – especially younger – people. Several studies confirm that a supposedly "good" work-life balance is now actually particularly important for many people – for example, more important than their salary. The new target of self-optimization, malicious tongues might think. Less work, but more time for family, friends and leisure. Or in other words: a better quality of life all around. Most people probably wouldn't say 'no' to that. If that’s possible. Because ultimately, it is a luxury, the balance between life and work. Who can afford to work a four-day week, but only get paid for four days? Very few. Work-life balance…

Capetown

STEVE KRETZMANN has worked as a journalist for 23 years, having founded the news agency West Cape News in 2006, mentoring young adults to provide previously overlooked stories of Cape Town and surrounds to the South African, and international press. The growth of free online news led to West Cape News having to close offices in 2013, with Steve continuing as a freelancer, covering social justice, the environment, and, through his site The Critter, the arts. He is also editor of monthly community newspaper Mother City News. After growing up in Johannesburg, he first moved to Cape Town in 1992, later studying at Rhodes University in Makhanda. The mountain, with its sheer cliffs rising above the white sand and turquoise water of Cape Town’s beaches, makes the city unique in…

Capetown

And the Winner is… Oslo

And the Winner is… Oslo

City rankings and indices are a dime a dozen. Everyone wants to know the smartest city, the most livable metropolises, the greenest capitals, and so on and so forth. The fact is: all city rankings (including the ones you will meet on the following pages) must always be taken with a pinch of salt. Hardly any index is determined on the basis of purely scientific factors. And there are always private-sector interests behind almost every ranking. Nevertheless, the results are sometimes an interesting orientation. This is also the case with the "Cities with the Best Work-Life Balance 2022" ranking of the company Kisi. Kisi is a private company with headquarters in Brooklyn (NY) and Stockholm, which at first glance does not have much to do with work-life balance – and…

The Benefits of Sports and Outdoor Spaces in the City

Urban living is often associated with increases in mental health problems and with challenges to physical health. On the other hand, cities offer great opportunities to exercise, to socialise, and some even to enjoy nature. How do urban sport and outdoor offers influence work-life balance? And which cities are exemplary in boosting the mental and physical health of their residents? Can urban planning have any effect at all on the health of citizens? According to the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, living in a city is associated with increases in mental health problems: 39 percent more mood disorders, 21 percent more anxiety disorders, a heightened risk of schizophrenia, and an increase in the rate of cocaine and heroin addiction are some of the challenges of urban living. At…

The Benefits of Sports and Outdoor Spaces in the City

Baby Steps

Baby Steps

More than a quarter of Brazil’s population is aged 18 and under. Since 2008, the Platform for Urban Centres (Platforma dos Centros Urbanos, PCU), a Unicef initiative, is dedicated to promoting child friendly major cities in the south American country. Starting with Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, it now consists of ten capitals in total. Improving four major aspects of children’s lives in those cities, PCU intends to reduce adolescent homicide, prevent school exclusion, promote early childhood development and adolescent sexual reproductive rights. The initiative collects data as a baseline indicator to identify vulnerable territories, so as to start a collective impact by cooperating with local government, eventually designating an inter-sectoral group to manage the PCU partnership. It’s about collecting policy options, implementing an “Impact Plan” in each part…

A Day in the life of Elon

A Day in the life of Elon

07am Elon wakes up, showers and has a cup of coffee. Only sometimes he would eat an omelet for breakfast. He believes that showering has quite a big impact on his life and would never skip it, as he doesn't feel in the right headspace without it. 10am Morning phone calls to journalists, job candidates or conference calls. He plans his day in five-minute time blocks for maximum efficiency. 12pm Lunch time for Elon, usually he does it in the form of lunch meetings, where he wolfes down a meal in a few minutes during a meeting to save time. 10pm Elon returns home, answers e-mails and spends some time reading and watching anime (especially Evangelion and Death Note). 01am Goes to bed for his 6 to 6,5 hours of…

Commuting and Mental Health

Commuting and Mental Health

Transportation is an essential part of a city. However, it is not only about cheap and reliable transport. It is also the way we travel we should consider, as it affects our health and well-being. In fact, commuting can be bad for your health. It may be time to design transportation with human well-being in mind. For millennia, cities have served as hubs of commercial, political, social, and religious activities. Urban life may have its downsides, but millions of people around the world leave rural homes and livelihoods each year for the prospects of better lives in cities; prospects that depend on the flow of information, material, and especially people. Even in this information age of virtual connections, the ability of cities to support economic productivity, life support functions, and…

Safer Cities

Safer Cities

What makes a city safe? For most people it’s all about the everyday life. We don’t want to be offended or limited in our personal expression; we simply want to feel safe. We just want to sit down every we want. Or even to lay down wherever we like – like here, in the Financial District of Toronto. In fact: Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, is also in two “Top 5” rankings of the 2021 Safe Cities Index (SCI) from The Economist Intelligence Unit. It also almost ties on the overall first place of the SCI, narrowly beaten by Copenhagen (82.2 points vs. 82.4 points). The report considers digital, health, infrastructure, personal and environmental security in urban everyday life. Naturally, the latest Index deals with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,…

Working From Home: How it Changed us Forever

OFFICE LIFE EVA WISEMAN I’ve read and thought more about office life over the last two years than I have at any time over the previous two decades when I worked in one. I say worked, but of course from this distance I can see that what I called office work might not quite stand up in a court of law, being comprised of equal amounts gossip, tea-runs and shouting passive aggressively at computers, alongside the clattery typing I am paid for. There was a moment, in those early pandemic days, the days of shock and clapping, before the felt-tip rainbows in our windows faded to a ghostly grey, when the closure of offices felt like an opportunity. The future of work might find efficiency in compassion – it might…

Working From Home: How it Changed us Forever

Have a look!

Have a look!

Allrounder aluminum Aluminum is a material with many advantages. Hence, Aréa uses the metal in many of their products. Especially the combination of the metal with wood and steel “ticks many boxes” for the use in public spaces. One major aspect is its aesthetic value: the hollow slats, embedded in steel structure, offer interesting optical effects, for both designer and user. Next to these optical effects, it’s the technical ones that make the use of aluminum worthwhile: The metal is very light, recyclable, and highly resistant to corrosion. This resistance is further enhanced by anodizing, the finish chosen for the benches and seats. area-stadtmobiliar.de Creativity meets function BEGA’s modular street furniture meets the functional requirements of public squares and areas in a special way. A variety of combinable modules such…

13 EDGE CITY – Karoshi Death by Overworking

In the summer of 2013 Miwa Sado, a reporter at NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, died of overwork. The 31-year-old’s heart failed after she logged 159 hours of overtime and took only two days off in a month. Christmas 2015, 24-year-old Matsuri Takahashi, an employee at Dentsū, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, took her own life after working 100 hours of overtime for months and sleeping only two hours a day. These are two of many who died a death for which there is a separate term in Japan: Karoshi – death by overwork. Karoshi refers to the phenomenon of people dying from heart attacks, strokes, or other illnesses as a result of working excessive hours or being subjected to extreme job-related stress, while there is disagreement…

“NOT APPROPRIATE FOR STAYING MORE THAN A FEW HOURS A DAY”

ARIAN SCHLICHENMAYER studied Biotechnology in Munich and has been writing for Garten + Landschaft and topos since 2021. He has joined the editorial team in 2022 and is responsible for the topos print issue. In a 2020 press release, United Nations entity UN Women stated: „When households are placed under the increased strains that come from security, health and money worries, and cramped and confined living conditions, levels of domestic violence spike.“. A substantial number of studies and reports conducted before and since indicate that levels of domestic violence increased during the pandemic. Having to stay home during the pandemic and its lockdowns, on top of that, without being able to go out even for a walk, was a stressful episode in most people’s lives. And for some, this episode…

Parkour Generations

Leaping down entire flights of stairs, climbing walls, vaulting over balustrades – what seems daunting or just plain dangerous to most of us is exactly what those practicing parkour love doing. This strictly non-competitive sport has the aim of moving efficiently across any terrain and surrounding using only your own body. Those practicing the sport, which was originally termed “Art du Deplacement”, seek to become physically, mentally, and ethically strong. It is a sport that does not simply train the body. “Traceurs” aim to be able to rely on themselves, be adaptable, protect the environment, be disciplined, value friendships and community, and be of service to others. “Public spaces are there to be used, embraced, explored – both for kids and adults, and nothing does that better than parkour.” That…

Parkour Generations

Income and Health

People at risk of poverty have a significantly lower life expectancy. This was announced by those responsible for the 24th Public Health Congress at the Technical University of Berlin (Germany) in 2019. Studies by the Robert Koch Institute, the federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention in Germany, support this statement with clear figures. In this context, people are considered poor if they have less than 60 percent of the median income at their disposal. This is because poverty is not measured globally but is based on the standard of living in the respective country. Someone who falls below the poverty line in one country could still be considered rich in another. Since the cost of living varies from country to country, regional analysis has…

Urban Games

Urban Games

Paris is currently preparing for the Summer Olympics. 100 years after the French capital last hosted the mega sporting event, it will once again host the world’s best athletes in 2024. The Games will take place in the heart of the city. The famous boulevard Champs-Elysées will be transformed into a gigantic cycling track, the Champs de Mars into a beach volleyball court, and the Invalides, the Palace of Versailles and the Grand Palais will also be venues for competitions. Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s goal: She and her team want the Games to be environmentally friendly and in line with sustainable urban development. In January 2021, Anne Hidalgo got the green light for her radical green changes to Paris' Champs-Élysées. In May 2021, she unveiled the concrete plans. According to the…

What Would the Ultimate Child-Friendly City Look Like?

The reality for many urban children is too much time spent indoors playing on smartphones – but a few cities are fighting the tide with innovative ways to keep kids healthy, sociable – and outdoors. Imagine you are 10 years old. You live in a medium-sized city and want to visit your best friend, a five-minute walk away, so you can go to the park, another 10 minutes’ walk. The problem is, there’s a big, dangerous road between you and your friend, and another between them and the park. You ask your parents if you can walk, they say no, and they are too busy to take you there themselves. Perhaps you SnapChat your friend instead, perhaps you play a video game on the sofa. You’ve lost out on exercise…

What Would the Ultimate Child-Friendly City Look Like?

The Paid Activist

Andrea Zafra is a climate change mitigation expert and consultant. She and her family are long-term residents in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City: a region more known for commuting than work-life balance. How Andrea gets things done between being a mom, fighting climate change and what significance traditional Mexican role models as well as post pandemic changes have in her life. The OECD recently ranked Mexico as the country with the worst work-life balance in the world. Mexico City in particular is notorious for its long commutea, which, according to the OECD Better Life Index 2023, take an average of 2.5 hours a day. Therefore, Mexico City residents lose up to 45 days a year to their commute, which – in combination with long working hours – makes work-life…

The Paid Activist

Long Live the Bike

Long Live the Bike

Amsterdam is always making a name for itself in terms of bicycle technology. In January 2023, the superlative bicycle garage opened here. The new bicycle parking garage at Amsterdam Central Station can hold a total of 7,000 bikes. The special feature (in addition to the proud construction price of 60 million euros): The garage is completely under water and is the last missing component of the complete redesign of Amsterdam’s station square. Amsterdam and cycling – they belong together. Since 2011, the Dutch city has regularly topped the Copenhagenize Index, the largest ranking on cycling cities worldwide. The last time they came in second was in 2019 (Copenhagen came first, Utrecht third). To determine the index, the private-sector Copenhagenize Design Company, which is responsible for this, distributes one to four…

Daring Utopia

Single-family house, semi-detached house, apartment building, duplex apartment, boringly normal apartment A without a balcony or boringly normal apartment B with a balcony – all these forms of living have one thing in common: they are familiar. But there are hardly any truly innovative, new, urban forms of living. And yet they are so important right now. In order to respond to changing life concepts, in order not to simply carry on as before after the pandemic, in order to counteract the increasing housing shortage and in order to really improve the living and housing situation of many city dwellers. What we need to do now – a commentary. Urban housing changed throughout the centuries, always adapting to economical, technological and sanitary standards. When workers were needed in the factories,…

No Home but the Best Home

No Home but the Best Home

Ever felt like boarding a train (or plane) and going to the beach, with a subtle salty breeze swooshing through your hair and fingers, while working on your laptop? If so, you’re probably a digital nomad – or at least you could be one. Lemon.io is an online-platform for hiring developers for start-ups. Since remote work is a key ingredient to a mostly digital job, the website ranked their top ten countries for a healthy and safe digital nomad life. Australia, with its picturesque long beaches and outback full of rich nature, made number one on the overall best countries, with Germany second and Hungary third. Sydney for example, being located on the eastern coast, could be a perfect starting point to explore Australia as it’s the healthiest country in…

Horizontal Climbing Net

Horizontal Climbing Net

HUCK Seiltechnik proves versatility: guests at the Downtown Camper by Scandic hotel can enjoy modern architecture and stylish furnishings in rooms, fitness, and wellness areas as well as meeting rooms, restaurants and bars. HUCK Seiltechnik has played its part in creating a unique atmosphere: with a large horizontal climbing net. The architects of the project had a clear plan: they wanted an open, airy design that would create a lounge where guests could relax, interact with others, read a book, have a drink, and simply feel good. This was a challenging, especially since high demands were placed on appearance and finish. HUCK Seiltechnik solved the challenges with a large horizontal net. It has several functions: On one hand, the net divides the room into two areas. It functions as an…

Always in Charge

Always in Charge

Dutch company Streetlife is known for its street furniture, planters and bridges. The company’s products are often made of solid wooden beams, making them both robust and sustainable. With the retrofittable USB Power Charger, the company’s benches can be expanded with a practical additional benefit. Streetlife’s USB Power Charger is ideal for use on university or corporate campuses, in shopping and pedestrian areas, or near bus and train stations. With the three versions of the USB Power Charger, almost all products from the most popular ranges can be equipped with a charger to serve the growing need for USB charging on the go. The glass bead blasted stainless steel module is mounted as an extension at the end of a beam or in the longitudinal side of a beam. The…