In considering Google’s latest venture into prefabricated housing, I was struck by the parallelism with an earlier attempt to promote prefab as a means for addressing a dire housing crisis.
By Jeremy Pi
Category2018 Spring
Why a Harvard Planning Publication
The call for a planning publication at the Harvard Graduate School of Design has gained interest over recent years. With faculty and institutional support, planning students began to consider this idea more vigorously in the fall of 2017.
By Hung Vo
After Trash: The Not-So-Brief and Wondrous Life of a Plastic Toy
Mexico City produces waste at a rate of 12,920 tons a day–where does all of it go, and how? This deceptively simple question has no direct and simple answer.
By Cynthia Deng and Elif Erez
Landscapes of Trauma – The Legacy and Future of the Abandoned Modernist Villas of Kep, Cambodia
Unique to this region are a series of modernist villas, which were constructed over a twenty-year period, 1955-1975, after independence from French Colonial rule, and then destroyed or abandoned following the Khmer Rouge Genocide.
By Malika Leiper
100 Hub: A New-Town Proposal for Hong Kong as a Model for High-Density Sustainable Cities
This article is adapted from a submission for the 2017 Hong Kong Seek Road Dream City Urban Design Competition, which received First Prize as well as Public’s Favorite Prize by online voting.
By John Wang and Joe Liao
Trusting Autonomous Vehicles: A Public Affair
Given the recent headlines, designing trust into autonomous vehicles has become all the more salient. But how does trust become automatic, especially in the aftermath of a tragedy?
By Gina Ciancone
Urbanization by Brahmanization
The ‘Vegetarians Only’ sign has increasingly become a way to specifically exclude Muslims from occupying public and private spaces in the city.
By Neeti Nayak
Resident-Led Services in Affordable Housing: A Case Study on Gentrification
This case study examines coproduction as a preventative measure of the negative aspects of gentrification. The case is the poorest social housing estate in Cornwall, United Kingdom.
By Carissa Connelly
Boom or Bust? Techno-Optimism and the Driverless Car
As further regulation and design questions emerge in response to new technologies, planners must set out priorities for our cities with clarity, confidence and resoluteness.
By Solomon Green-Eames
Whose Streets? Power and Place in The Bahamas
My earliest memory of Bay Street was when I was twelve years old. It was New Year’s Day and my mom, brother, and I decided to attend Junkanoo, an annual celebration on Bay Street.
By Chanel Williams
We the Planners: A Public Manifesto
No problem is confined to a single discipline, nor is any solution. We study urban planning because we believe fiercely in this mantra—in the power of shattering silos, of thinking systemically, and of working with diverse communities on the ground to tackle thorny challenges facing cities.
By Harvard Urban Planning Organization
Vision 2018
The vision of the Harvard Urban Forum is to create a student-run platform for conversation in urban planning. The works in this editorial will encompass a variety of forms ranging from research papers to anecdotes about growing up in a legacy city. Just as cities and the urban planning field change over time, so will this publication. We hope you enjoy Harvard Urban Forum’s first edition. We look forward to receiving your feedback and submissions.