Unconventional Urbanism

Urbanism as Computation

Successful urban configurations are the result of a complex sequence of implicit computations that transform unorganized input into organized output. Although that is exactly what they do, few urbanists discuss their work in these terms. I propose a fundamental distinction between the principal methods of urban computation. One algorithmic process for urbanism leads to formal planning, which la...

Slumdog cities: rethinking subaltern urbanism.

This article is an intervention in the epistemologies and methodologies of urban studies. It seeks to understand and transform the ways in which the cities of the global South are studied and represented in urban research, and to some extent in popular discourse. As such, the article is primarily concerned with a formation of ideas - "subaltern urbanism" - which undertakes the theorization of t...

Information Urbanism Parametric urbanism in junction with GIS data processing & fabrication

Parametric Urbanism, pioneered by Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher Architects with support coming from advanced computational technology, has been the interest of architects and urban designers in recent years. This new design thinking has been used in projects ranging from large scale urban development to building façade/surface design. However, the integration of demographics, cultural, and hum...

A New Approach to Chinese Urbanism

Food Systems: New-Ruralism vs. New-Urbanism

There is a growing debate on whether agricultural land in urban fringe should be maintained or converted to other uses. While ‘pro-ruralists’ believe agricultural land conversion can threaten food security and cause rural-urban migration, ‘pro-urbanists’ find it a necessary change for transition from a primitive agricultural-based community to an advanced industrialbased society which has the c...