The Life-Sized City Blog

Quite out of the blue during dinner one evening, I asked my daughter, Lulu, aged 6 almost 7 (you may know her as the world's youngest urbanist ...) if she thought she could find her way to the local swimming pool by herself. I was explaining directions to somewhere else to my son, Felix, aged 12, and I realised that all the references were visual. No street addresses or anything, just directions like "go down that street and when you see that shop, turn right...". To which he would reply, "is that the shop with the red door?" or "is that the shop across from that other shop with this or that recognizable feature?" It all originates with this earlier article here on the blog: Wayfinding in a Liveable City . So I wondered how much Lulu has registered in her daily, frequent journeys around our neighbourhood. So... I laid down the challenge to Lulu. Find your way to the swimming pool on foot. Felix and I would walk behind her but wouldn't offer...

There's some exciting news coming to the suburbs of Copenhagen. The Capital Region of Denmark - 20 municipalities all in all - have decided to expand their network of dedicated bicycle infrastructure, connecting the inner city with surrounding suburban regions and inviting more commuters to hop on a bike rather than clog the motorways in a car. This bicycle superhighway project is exciting and impressive both in terms of numbers - 28 new routes stretching 500 kilometers and an expected 10,000 new riders - and in vision; uniting the entire region with a cohesive and consistent network of bicycle tracks. Copenhagenize Design Co . was thrilled to partner with Dutch transport and mobility consultancy, Mobycon , winning the bid to help turn this vision into a reality. We were tasked with analyzing the two existing bicycle superhighway routes in the area, researching foreign examples of bicycle superhighways and creating our own innovative and user-driven ...

" Hi... excuse me... can you help me find this address? " An oft-used phrase for visitors in a foreign city. A few months ago I met up with Andy Cutler from Providence, RI, who was in Denmark to explore opportunities for Providence and Copenhagen to hook up on a creative and business level. He did a cool little experiement. He was here for two weeks and only got around by asking people on the street for directions, instead of using tech-gadgets. He wrote about it here, on the Better World by Design blog . He told me about it at Bang & Jensen café in Copenhagen one evening and I thought it to be cool. One of his observations is that Copenhageners - besides being helpful - never really gave him complete and specific directions. They sent him in the right direction and then suggested he ask someone else for further details once he got closer. I found that interesting. I've spent a awful lot of time thinking about it since then. Making mental notes of my own e...