HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > Canada > Manitoba & Saskatchewan


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2010, 2:57 AM
Bdog's Avatar
Bdog Bdog is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 2,228
Thesis ideas

Throughout this forum, a lot of interesting questions and ideas arise, related to urban planning. As a planning student myself, I love reading these debates and the questions that come up. Sometimes, questions come up that no one has really studied before in depth. My question to you is this:

If you were to write a thesis on a specific urban planning related topic, what would it be?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2010, 5:29 AM
Boreal's Avatar
Boreal Boreal is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 1,698
I'm surely way off the horizon here, but I nonetheless thought I'd contribute my $0.02. Something related the the complete and thorough separation of people from the land which birthed them, manifesting itself in the desire for built forms that that are thoroughly antithetical to the land itself - sprawling, McMansion subdivisions over fertile territory with street names mocking the wildlife that once called it home (Deer Run for example).

Or perhaps more accurately, I just have an axe to grind, and this isn't helpful at all.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2010, 5:03 PM
drm310's Avatar
drm310 drm310 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Saskatoon, SK
Posts: 647
An interesting, if not controversial, subject would be the impact of peak oil on urban planning. In case you're not familiar with the topic, peak oil is the point in time where the maximum rate of petoleum production occurs, after which it will go into terminal decline.

If/when global oil production starts to fall, what will happen to our cities? Several theories include oil becoming so expensive that no one could afford to drive cars anymore, and suddenly mass transit, cycling and walking will take on new importance. Perhaps the suburbs will become the new ghettos as people try living closer to where they work? What will the impact of more people living in higher density housing be?

I've also read authors who talk about the production and transportation of food. Not being able to rely on petroleum-fueled farm machinery, petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides might mean that food production will have to be done on smaller plots of land, closer to the markets they're sold in. Will we stop importing produce from foreign countries? Will suburban lots transform into urban farms?

There's a wealth of topics you could write about...
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2010, 8:06 PM
rgalston's Avatar
rgalston rgalston is offline
Density and complexity
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Parish of St. John
Posts: 2,644
I think this was suggested on this forum recently...

When Density is Not Enough: A Look at Why Broadway-Assiniboine is so Dull
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Jun 4, 2010, 4:00 AM
Bdog's Avatar
Bdog Bdog is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 2,228
Really interesting ideas guys. Boreal, I think you bring up a great point about the disconnect between people and the land. For an urban agriculture project I was working on, I met with the organizers at a community garden/foodbank (check out their innovative programs: http://www.thestop.org/). Kids in the local schools (many whose families used the foodbank) were taught about where food comes from, how it is grown, etc. I think it is important that the next generation learn about and appreciate the source of not only food, but many other products we use in our daily lives (including our built urban form)...As for peak oil, that's another awesome topic. I too wonder how planning methods and public policy will change when gas is 3 or 4 dollars per litre. It's conceivable that those prices could be seen in the next 20-25 years. I imagine that a development like that would spur on massive gentrification in inner cities everywhere, and an abandonment (or at least mass exodus) of the furthest lying sprawl. Not to mention the impacts the that spike would have on the price of consumer goods and food (which are both transported and largely a product of oil). It will be an interesting time indeed... Rgalston, that was the post that actually partially inspired me to start this thread. I remember reading that post about broadway-assiniboine and thinking, "what other issues or questions have we yet to look at in depth?"...
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Jun 4, 2010, 7:42 AM
Ruckus's Avatar
Ruckus Ruckus is offline
working stiff
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Woodlawn Cemetery
Posts: 2,583
This would require further refinement/narrower focus, but I'd explore the interrelationship — or lack thereof — between social cohesion, housing and employment densities, and urban design in colder, northern latitude cities. How does social cohesion manifest itself within a particular community? Is it a function of density, climate, design, or a combination of several factors? What are the barriers that suppress, or discourage cohesion in northern cities? What promotes it?

It's not a sexy topic, but it's something I obsess about as a result of living in one of those colder, northern cities.

Also a planning student (I enjoy reading planning literature, not a fan of writing on the subject...well, there's good days and bad days ).

Last edited by Ruckus; Jun 4, 2010 at 8:26 AM. Reason: for improvement
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Jun 4, 2010, 9:24 PM
Boreal's Avatar
Boreal Boreal is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 1,698
I don't think we'll ever see $3 or $4 per litre gasoline in our lifetimes, and certainly not for a period of time longer than 6-9 months, long enough for a market correction of armageddon-like proportions. It has been proven in my opinion quite clear that the world doesn't function even at $140+ US per barrel oil. There is consensus from some executives (Saudi's I believe...might be able to be seen as an archived Charlie Rose episode, I could be wrong...) that the oil industry functions best at US $70 - 90. Though prices may momentarily get out of whack for a vast variety of reasons, commodity pricing in the stratosphere is where the world literally ceases function and things crash from Shanghai to Johannesburg to New York. Thus, though I know less than nothing about urban planning, I'd be wary of any project in any field, centred around prospective commodity pricing that is possibly if not likely well beyond anything we are likely to see in the 21st Century. At least, in my opinion.
Reply With Quote
     
     
End
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > Canada > Manitoba & Saskatchewan
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 5:03 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.