Issue 12
ISSUE
STORY TYPE
AUTHOR
12
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
October 7, 2024
What It Means—and What It’s Worth—to Be “Light”
by Julie Lasky
12
PERSPECTIVE
September 23, 2024
Redefining “Iconic” Architecture and Ideals
by Sophie Lovell
12
PERSPECTIVE
September 9, 2024
Surrendering to What Is
by Marianne Krogh
11
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
August 26, 2024
Sometimes, Democratic Design Doesn’t “Look” Like Anything
by Zach Mortice
11
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
August 19, 2024
What Does Your Home Say About You?
by Shane Reiner-Roth
11
BOOK REVIEW
August 12, 2024
Is Building Better Cities a Dream Within Reach?
by Michael Webb
11
PEOPLE
August 5, 2024
The Value of Unbuilt Buildings
by George Kafka
11
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
July 29, 2024
Future-Proofing a Home Where Water Is a Focus and a Thread
by Alexandra Lange
11
BOOK REVIEW
July 22, 2024
Modernist Town, U.S.A.
by Ian Volner
11
PEOPLE
July 15, 2024
Buildings That Grow from a Place
by Anthony Paletta
10
URBANISM
June 24, 2024
What We Lose When a Historic Building Is Demolished
by Owen Hatherley
10
PERSPECTIVE
June 17, 2024
We Need More Than Fewer, Better Things
by Deb Chachra
10
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
June 3, 2024
An Ode to Garages
by Charlie Weak
10
PERSPECTIVE
May 28, 2024
In Search of Domestic Kintsugi
by Edwin Heathcote
10
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
May 13, 2024
The Perils of the Landscapes We Make
by Karrie Jacobs
10
PERSPECTIVE
May 6, 2024
Using Simple Tools as a Radical Act of Independence
by Jarrett Fuller
9
PERSPECTIVE
April 29, 2024
Why Can’t I Just Go Home?
by Eva Hagberg
9
PEOPLE
April 22, 2024
Why Did Our Homes Stop Evolving?
by George Kafka
9
ROUNDTABLE
April 8, 2024
Spaces Where the Body Is a Vital Force
by Tiffany Jow
9
BOOK REVIEW
April 1, 2024
Tracing the Agency of Women as Users and Experts of Architecture
by Mimi Zeiger
9
PERSPECTIVE
March 25, 2024
Are You Sitting in a Non-Place?
by Mzwakhe Ndlovu
9
ROUNDTABLE
March 11, 2024
At Home, Connecting in Place
by Marianela D’Aprile
9
PEOPLE
March 4, 2024
VALIE EXPORT’s Tactical Urbanism
by Alissa Walker
8
PERSPECTIVE
February 26, 2024
What the “Whole Earth Catalog” Taught Me About Building Utopias
by Anjulie Rao
8
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
February 19, 2024
How a Run-Down District in London Became a Model for Neighborhood Revitalization
by Ellen Peirson
8
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
February 12, 2024
In Brooklyn, Housing That Defies the Status Quo
by Gideon Fink Shapiro
8
PERSPECTIVE
February 5, 2024
That “Net-Zero” Home Is Probably Living a Lie
by Fred A. Bernstein
8
PERSPECTIVE
January 22, 2024
The Virtue of Corporate Architecture Firms
by Kate Wagner
8
PERSPECTIVE
January 16, 2024
How Infrastructure Shapes Us
by Deb Chachra
8
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
January 8, 2024
The Defiance of Desire Lines
by Jim Stephenson
7
PEOPLE
December 18, 2023
This House Is Related to You and to Your Nonhuman Relatives
by Sebastián López Cardozo
7
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
December 11, 2023
What’s the Point of the Plus Pool?
by Ian Volner
7
BOOK REVIEW
December 4, 2023
The Extraordinary Link Between Aerobics and Architecture
by Jarrett Fuller
7
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
November 27, 2023
Architecture That Promotes Healing and Fortifies Us for Action
by Kathryn O’Rourke
7
PEOPLE
November 6, 2023
How to Design for Experience
by Diana Budds
7
PEOPLE
October 30, 2023
The Meaty Objects at Marta
by Jonathan Griffin
6
OBJECTS
October 23, 2023
How Oliver Grabes Led Braun Back to Its Roots
by Marianela D’Aprile
6
URBANISM
October 16, 2023
Can Adaptive Reuse Fuel Equitable Revitalization?
by Clayton Page Aldern
6
PERSPECTIVE
October 9, 2023
What’s the Point of a Tiny Home?
by Mimi Zeiger
6
OBJECTS
October 2, 2023
A Book Where Torn-Paper Blobs Convey Big Ideas
by Julie Lasky
6
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
September 24, 2023
The Architecture of Doing Nothing
by Edwin Heathcote
6
BOOK REVIEW
September 18, 2023
What the “Liebes Look” Says About Dorothy Liebes
by Debika Ray
6
PEOPLE
September 11, 2023
Roy McMakin’s Overpowering Simplicity
by Eva Hagberg
6
OBJECTS
September 5, 2023
Minimalism’s Specific Objecthood, Interpreted by Designers of Today
by Glenn Adamson
5
ROUNDTABLE
August 28, 2023
How Joan Jonas and Eiko Otake Navigate Transition
by Siobhan Burke
5
OBJECTS
August 21, 2023
The Future-Proofing Work of Design-Brand Archivists
by Adrian Madlener
5
URBANISM
August 14, 2023
Can a Church Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis?
by Alex Bozikovic
5
PEOPLE
August 7, 2023
In Search of Healing, Helen Cammock Confronts the Past
by Jesse Dorris
5
URBANISM
July 31, 2023
What Dead Malls, Office Parks, and Big-Box Stores Can Do for Housing
by Ian Volner
5
PERSPECTIVE
July 24, 2023
A Righteous Way to Solve “Wicked” Problems
by Susan Yelavich
5
OBJECTS
July 17, 2023
Making a Mess, with a Higher Purpose
by Andrew Russeth
5
ROUNDTABLE
July 10, 2023
How to Emerge from a Starchitect’s Shadow
by Cynthia Rosenfeld
4
PEOPLE
June 26, 2023
There Is No One-Size-Fits-All in Architecture
by Marianela D’Aprile
4
PEOPLE
June 19, 2023
How Time Shapes Amin Taha’s Unconventionally Handsome Buildings
by George Kafka
4
PEOPLE
June 12, 2023
Seeing and Being Seen in JEB’s Radical Archive of Lesbian Photography
by Svetlana Kitto
4
PERSPECTIVE
June 5, 2023
In Built Environments, Planting Where It Matters Most
by Karrie Jacobs
3
PERSPECTIVE
May 30, 2023
On the Home Front, a Latine Aesthetic’s Ordinary Exuberance
by Anjulie Rao
3
PERSPECTIVE
May 21, 2023
For a Selfie (and Enlightenment), Make a Pilgrimage to Bridge No. 3
by Alexandra Lange
3
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
May 8, 2023
The Building Materials of the Future Might Be Growing in Your Backyard
by Marianna Janowicz
3
BOOK REVIEW
May 1, 2023
Moving Beyond the “Fetishisation of the Forest”
by Edwin Heathcote
2
ROUNDTABLE
April 24, 2023
Is Craft Still Synonymous with the Hand?
by Tiffany Jow
2
PEOPLE
April 17, 2023
A Historian Debunks Myths About Lacemaking, On LaceTok and IRL
by Julie Lasky
2
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
April 10, 2023
How AI Helps Architects Design, and Refine, Their Buildings
by Ian Volner
2
PEOPLE
April 3, 2023
Merging Computer and Loom, a Septuagenarian Artist Weaves Her View of the World
by Francesca Perry
1
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
March 27, 2023
Words That Impede Architecture, According to Reinier de Graaf
by Osman Can Yerebakan
1
PEOPLE
March 20, 2023
Painting With Plaster, Monica Curiel Finds a Release
by Andrew Russeth
1
PERSPECTIVE
March 13, 2023
Rules and Roles in Life, Love, and Architecture
by Eva Hagberg
1
Roundtable
March 6, 2023
A Design Movement That Pushes Beyond Architecture’s Limitations
by Tiffany Jow
0
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
February 7, 2023
To Improve the Future of Public Housing, This Architecture Firm Looks to the Past
by Ian Volner
0
OBJECTS
February 7, 2023
The Radical Potential of “Prime Objects”
by Glenn Adamson
0
PEOPLE
February 20, 2023
Xiyadie’s Queer Cosmos
by Xin Wang
0
PEOPLE
February 13, 2023
How Michael J. Love’s Subversive Tap Dancing Steps Forward
by Jesse Dorris
0
SHOW AND TELL
February 7, 2023
Finding Healing and Transformation Through Good Black Art
by Folasade Ologundudu
0
BOOK REVIEW
February 13, 2023
How Stephen Burks “Future-Proofs” Craft
by Francesca Perry
0
ROUNDTABLE
February 27, 2023
Making Use of End Users’ Indispensable Wisdom
by Tiffany Jow
0
PEOPLE
February 7, 2023
The New Lessons Architect Steven Harris Learns from Driving Old Porsches
by Jonathan Schultz
0
PERSPECTIVE
February 7, 2023
The Day Architecture Stopped
by Kate Wagner
0
OBJECTS
February 7, 2023
The Overlooked Potential of Everyday Objects
by Adrian Madlener
0
ROUNDTABLE
February 7, 2023
A Conversation About Generalists, Velocity, and the Source of Innovation
by Tiffany Jow
0
OBJECTS
February 7, 2023
Using a Fungi-Infused Paste, Blast Studio Turns Trash Into Treasure
by Natalia Rachlin
Untapped is published by the design company Henrybuilt.
BOOK REVIEW
08.12.2024
Is Building Better Cities a Dream Within Reach?

Enrique Peñalosa thinks it can be done, and explains how in a recent book.

Colorful street view of Bogotá, Colombia, in 2017.
Bogotá, Colombia, in 2017. (Photo: Pedro Szekely)


Enrique Peñalosa Londoño is a pragmatic politician who combines idealism with a firm grasp on reality. He was twice elected mayor of Bogotá, the fast-growing capital of Colombia, and fought special interests to transform it for the better. In his first term (1998–2000), while the country was bedeviled by drug violence and guerrilla warfare, Peñalosa focused on the pursuit of happiness—which he defined as “the ability to walk safely, meet friends, and share in creative activities.” He’s perhaps best known for developing TransMilenio, a bus-based transport system (BRT) that operates like a train without tracks on dedicated routes. It now covers 70 miles and has a daily ridership of 2.5 million. Of equal importance are his less costly incremental improvements, including protected bike paths and parks, now numbering more than 1,500, in densely populated districts. Sidewalks have been widened and cleared of parked cars and vendors.

His most daring initiative was to expropriate, for a fair price, the polo fields and riding track of the exclusive Bogotá Country Club to create an 18-acre public park. That may sound like the class-driven policies of Castro or Chávez, but Peñalosa, who was born in Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s, got over his youthful flirtation with socialism while studying at Duke University. He is reconciled to the economic inequalities of capitalism, but determined to improve the quality of life for every citizen.

Just as he borrowed and refined the concept of the BRT from the Brazilian city of Curitiba, Peñalosa’s ideas have been adopted in other locales, sometimes with his counsel. He is currently advising the authorities in Addis Ababa, the depressed capital of Ethiopia, and has offered insights to local and national governments around the world. He also lectures and serves on several important planning committees.

For Peñalosa, remaking cities is a dream within reach—achievable not decades from now, but in our lifetimes. He outlines the hurdles, and how to clear them, in the recent book Equality and the City: Urban Innovations for All Citizens (University of Pennsylvania Press), a revised English translation of a study first released in Spanish, in 2021. It is a call to action, essential reading for planners and urbanists around the world, as his strategies have been tested and applied at scale.

Consider his take on transportation. “To see expensive cars idling in traffic while buses pass swiftly alongside them amounts to democracy at work,” Peñalosa writes. Buses on dedicated lanes are cheaper than subways for cities to operate and can carry more passengers, especially in densely populated areas. (Though Peñalosa admits to owning a car, he uses it very rarely, preferring to cycle around Bogotá on its 560 kilometers of protected bikeways.) He decries the emphasis on motorways and parking lots for deforming cities, and deplores the ways emerging societies are repeating the mistakes of the West. In his opinion, the urbanization of Latin America in the late 20th century offers a catalog of what not to do.

Equality of access to streets, greenery, and water is a recurring theme in Peñalosa’s thinking. While mayor, his proposals to open up the riverfront and build a hiking trail through the mountains that surround Bogotá were blocked by opponents using specious environmental arguments. Peñalosa denounces the hypocrisy of those who put a few trees ahead of the greater good, and argues that public respect for nature will increase as more people are able to experience it firsthand.

What about crime? When Peñalosa presided over Bogotá, the construction of new public schools run by the university, libraries, and sports facilities in underserved neighborhoods likely contributed to a sharp drop in murders, from around 88 per 100,000 people in 1993 to around 14 in 2019 following his second mayoral term. That’s about half the rate of Washington, D.C. (The second Colombian city of Medellín, once terrorized by drug gangs, has also become much safer and boasts many of the same improvements, including spectacular, though costly, cable-car lines linking rundown mountainside districts to its center.) Peñalosa argues that public space needs to be not only accessible, but secure enough to use. He redeveloped two high-crime voids at the heart of Bogotá—one as a park, another as a hub for creatives—and ten skateboard parks provide an outlet for the energy of youths who might otherwise have funneled it elsewhere.

Peñalosa was groomed for his life’s work in childhood. “When I was about 10, the older boys at school used to shout insults, or even have at me with their fists, because my father was the first director and the public face of a national agrarian land reform institute,” he writes. “Part of his job was to expropriate large tracts of idle land from absentee landlords and redistribute them to subsistence farmers [...] Thus, from an early age I was more or less bullied into thinking about the merits of agrarian land reform and, more broadly, about inequality.”

Like Peñalosa’s approach to city-building, his book has an immediacy and a human dimension that most urban-planning studies lack. He cites a maid who asked if she might ride the TransMilenio to work, because it was an hour faster than the car her thoughtful employer was sending to pick her up. He meets a woman who was building houses, one at a time, in an illegal settlement, and realizes she is providing a vital service to her neighbors. Later, as mayor, he legalized many of these settlements, making their inhabitants eligible for city services.

“A city reflects the values of the society that makes it. Creating our city is rather similar to making our lives. It shows how its residents wish to live,” Peñalosa insists. “But the city also constructs values, attitudes, and ways of living.” The responsibility of city-making also extends beyond its citizens, as he notes early in the book: “National governments would do well to remember that their major cities are not only the locomotives of progress for the country but also the principal source of funds to support their poorer regions, which are mainly rural.” He sees little chance of arresting urban growth in existing metropolises and anticipates that African cities, such as Lagos and Addis Ababa, may become the world’s largest in the next few decades. His only answer is to plan their expansion in a rational way and to improve the quality of smaller cities in order to help absorb the flight from rural poverty. Public land banks should be established to discourage private speculation, he advises, and cities should purchase rural land to create parks and in anticipation of future growth.

Having visited Bogotá and Medellín and seen firsthand how livable they’ve become, I’m impressed by Peñalosa’s achievement and influence on home ground. It’s less certain how effective he can be as an advisor. The world is full of politicians making extravagant promises and planners drafting idealistic solutions. What’s lacking is leadership that is committed to overcoming inertia and special interests, as various delays, de-prioritization, and project founderings (seen, for instance, in the current state of the TransMilenio) following Peñalosa’s mayorship attest. In New York City, a congestion tax that could ameliorate congestion and subsidize public transit is urgently needed, but it has been “indefinitely paused” and blocked. Progressives have urged São Paulo and Los Angeles to develop their rivers as linear parks to serve communities with no open spaces, but they are still unsightly drainage channels. And I’m dismayed by Peñalosa’s acceptance of explosive population growth in the emerging world as inevitable. There, the most pressing needs are to educate and empower women and combat the forces of reaction before the cities become even more squalid and unmanageable than they are today.

Every settlement in the world has its own distinctive culture and potential, while sharing problems with many others. The value of this book is to show that those obstacles are not insurmountable. As Peñalosa writes, “Cities can foster at least two kinds of equality: quality-of-life equality and what I call democratic equality. And they can foster an environment in which nobody feels inferior or excluded.”