In an article about the future of the city of Barcelona, Miquel Molina, journalist at the World-renowned newspaper La Vanguardia, depicts how urbanists face a great issue, the fact that real estate comes first and urban planning has to adapt, with no other criteria than fast buildability. In this scenario, he quotes Aretian Urban Analytics and Design, as well as Ramon Gras Alomà, Aretian co-founder and Harvard researcher, as an example of best practices in the field of urbanism. As he explains, Aretian is currently publishing two studies in partnership with the cities of Esplugues and Badalona, two Catalan cities, which focus primarily on the future of their innovation districts, meant to become urban poles of economic sustainability and innovation.
Innovation Districts represent important pieces of urban fabric, as they allow communities to be centered around innovation, which in turn foster economic growth, stability and sustainability. Based on the model of the 15-minute city, communities become happier, more diverse and produce more innovation. Aretian also developed a novel City Science, and recently published a book about this research. The book, titled “City Science: Performance Follows Form” and published by Actar Publishers, presents an extended study of 100 urban environments and metropolitan areas throughout the World, across the 5 different continents. It replicates in a three-dimensional manner the morphological features of cities and metropolitan areas, as well as the economic and human systems that inhabit them. It also allows Aretian to compare and contrast - in terms of urban performance - not only the quality of the architectural and urban design characteristics and civil engineering infrastructures, but also the impact that those systems have on the quality of life of citizens.
You can buy the book here: https://actar.com/product/city-science/
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