The housing minister says much can be learned from Ebeneezer Howard in helping to solve our chronic housing shortage.

Are town slogans and icons, brands and promotions, doomed to mockery? Or can they ever work?

England’s first new town is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the construction of its first homes.Stevenage was designated a new town on 11 November 1946 under that year’s New Towns Act. The Act allowed the government to designate areas for development to relieve overcrowding in London and provide homes for servicemen returning from the war and their families.

The term “Nimby” was first used in political debate some 25 years ago, by the late Nicholas Ridley, then environment secretary. In characteristically bullish style, he took on the critics of his plans for a network of new towns. “Our English countryside is one of the most heavily man-made habitats in Europe,” he said. “To make it into a green museum would be to belie its whole history.”

This famous statement by Mahatma Gandhi is being challenged by urbanists today who see a shining future for India in its cities. Architect Dhiru Thadani writes that Gandhi’s vision of village life can apply to all levels of urban form.

A new satellite city to be known as Arusha DC Safari Town is in the process of being established in the Ilakilak area of the Arusha-Rural District in Tanzania.
The massive construction project for the proposed Arusha DC Safari city is expected to start on the 1st of October 2011 and should be finished in 2013.

The mountain town of Morococha in Peru. To access an estimated 5.7 million tonnes of copper to wire China’s rapidly industrialising society, a Chinese mining company is planning to relocate the town and its 5,800 residents. Many say they are being forced to move against their will.

New towns will dramatically cut Bahrain’s homes waiting list, said the Premier yesterday. His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa directed their completion for occupation by 2016 at the latest.

A new study claims the establishment of wholly ultra-Orthodox towns will make for weak locales and socio-economic problems. Other experts say there are advantages

This Friday, Burbank celebrates its centennial. The city ambitiously billed as the media and entertainment capital of the world—and which, for much of its history, also served as a major hub of the aviation industry—hardly betrays today its humble origins as a dentist’s sheep ranch.

It’s no secret that people who live in the city – particularly those raised in one – have higher risk for anxiety and mood disorders than country folk. A new study in the journal Nature finds that these behavioral differences can actually be seen in MRI scans of the brain itself.

How big is Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state? One way of answering the question is to take its total area: 95,000 square miles. Another way is to think of it as a country. If Uttar Pradesh were to declare independence, it would be the world’s fifth most populous country (it has about the same number of residents as Brazil).

As sprawling housing developments and skyscrapers in one of the world’s most populous countries, these tower blocks and recently-built neighbourhoods should be busy and swarming with people.

But on closer inspection these stunning pictures show elaborate public buildings and open spaces which are left completely empty.

China’s much-hyped ‘zero-emission’ city of Dongtan may remain stuck firmly on the drawing board, but hopes are high for another eco-metropolis at Tianjin, on the Pacific coast 150km from Beijing.

China’s much-hyped ‘zero-emission’ city of Dongtan may remain stuck firmly on the drawing board, but hopes are high for another eco-metropolis at Tianjin, on the Pacific coast 150km from Beijing.

In an open field 30 kilometres south of Angola’s chaotic capital, a city seems to rise from nothing. Dubbed the "new city of Kilamba Kiaxi", it’s the antithesis of overcrowded Luanda’s traffic-choked streets and is being built - like so much else in Angola - by Chinese contractors.

Vertegenwoordigers van de ’new towns’, Almere, Apeldoorn, Ede, Haarlemmermeer en Zoetermeer, kwamen bij elkaar om te praten over de waarde van de wijk. Daarbij lag de nadruk op het zoeken naar een evenwicht tussen wat bewoners zelf doen en wat organisaties, zoals de gemeente, voor hun rekening nemen.

Combine historically low traffic with abundant undeveloped land at low prices (at least by Southern California standards) and regional governments hungry for economic development at any cost, and you get what the Coachella Valley is, increasingly, becoming: an inefficient, low-density, car-centric megasuburb.

The country’s New Town projects are turning into a battleground. Conflict is sharpening by the day between associations, renewal companies, and outsourcing companies pushing the projects on one side and resident committees opposing them on the other.

Like many other fellow residents, Park (73)gave his full support to the government’s proposal to develop his rundown working-class neighborhood into a posh apartment complex named "Gajaewul."
Things did not go the way he and other residents had hoped.

"I belatedly learned that I have to pay more than the government-appraised value of my old house to get a new one," Park said with a deep sigh. "I have no place to resettle with little amount of compensation in hand, and my source of monthly income is gone."

Manesar may soon be home to India’s first eco-city, a place where people live in an environment-friendly way. A team from Toshiba that studied this initiative submitted its pre-feasibility report to Rajeev Arora, managing director, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Develop-ment Corporation.

In China’s big cities, real estate’s expensive and young women are in short supply. If the population spread more evenly into new cheaper cities in the country, would it be easier for a guy to get a date?

In recent years, there has been a growing trend among emerging economies to study South Korea’s experiences in economic development.

The emerging economies’ interest is broad, ranging from economic development planning to the promotion of the export industry and agricultural and New Town development.

Prince Charles wants to build an eco-friendly shanty town near Kolkata or Bangalore for 15,000 poor Indians, inspired by the one he saw in Oscar-winning film ’Slumdog Millionaire’, a media report said.

DETROIT — When Marja M. Winters was studying urban planning in graduate school, she learned the art and science of helping cities grow.
Now Ms. Winters, a native of Detroit and the deputy director of the city’s planning and development department, finds herself in an utterly unexpected role, one that no school would have thought to prepare her for: she is sorting out how to help her hometown shrink, by working through difficult decisions that will determine which neighborhoods can be saved and which cannot.

The decision to impose property tax on New Town has not gone down well with many residents, who feel the absence of civic amenities doesn’t justify the strain on their pockets.