The Case for a Feeling Architecture
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The Case for a Feeling Architecture

ByRoy

My mother is a psychologist, so our family talks a lot about emotion.More specifically, we discuss the experience of emotion, because, as she likes to remind me and my sisters, “We don’t think our feelings—we feel them, in our bodies.” According to my mother, it’s this experience of emotion that gives our lives a sense of meaning and vitality; as a result, her work isn’t about intellectual insight or abstract theories, but rather about giving her patients a new experience of themselves in the world.

The Storefront Accelerator
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The Storefront Accelerator

ByRoy Prince

The Storefront Accelerator By  Jaime J. Izurieta Your storefront can make you money. Odds are it is not and you are wasting a great opportunity.  Design brings people into your store. It attracts new customers and tells them what your business is about. Once inside, it guides them to what you want them to see.  Most…

To Save the Planet, Start with Sidewalks
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To Save the Planet, Start with Sidewalks

ByRoy Prince

Why does social life matter so much for our sustainable future? And what does the future of our planet have to do with our sidewalks?

Imagine if the places where we live were shaped by our social lives, re-imagined to make it easy for us to gather, shop, have fun, eat together, and meet new people. With this mindset, we would fundamentally change our communities. Maybe this vision is closer than we think: Perhaps, all we have to do to bring this to life is start with the sidewalks.

Superblocks of Barcelona
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Superblocks of Barcelona

ByRoy Prince

Over two years ago, Barcelona set the transportation world aflutter when it announced it would be attempting to reinvent parts of its city by developing a Superblock system by transforming targeted street grids to prioritize people over cars. On selected small street networks large parts of intersections and roadways would be taken back for parks and community gathering. Vehicles would not be banned, but it would redesign the grids so that fast thru-traffic was discouraged thru a series of driving direction changes, street narrowing and speed limits. Thus, almost all vehicles present would be either local residents or people with personal business on those streets.

An ode to Lisbon’s kiosks by photographer Richard John Seymour
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An ode to Lisbon’s kiosks by photographer Richard John Seymour

ByRoy Prince

Once obsolete, these staples of city life are making a comeback Until just a few years ago, a ‘capilé’ would have been as unfamiliar to Lisbonites as to those outside of Portugal. Once a staple local tipple, made from maidenhair fern leaf syrup and essence of orange blossom, it slipped out of people’s consciousness as…

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Oxnard Draft Downtown Code & Architectural Guidelines

ByRoy Prince

Oxnard recently released the Draft of the new Downtown Code & Architectural Guidelines. Click the image below to get your PDF copy. If you would like to comment on this document please contact us.

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The Ped Shed – Building a Successful Equitable Oxnard – 2018.11.29

ByRoy Prince

Downtown Oxnard and Pink Zones: At a recent DITF meeting, Able Magana mentioned that the owner of the Vogue theater building had been approached by a City employee. The owner claims he was told that, as the 20-year agreement had expired, “would you please tear down those 6 spaces facing west on B Street”. That…

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Gentle density: Making neighborhoods transit-ready

ByRoy

A recently built accessory dwelling in a new urban subdivision in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Source: Mission Heights development. ROBERT STEUTEVILLE    AUG. 30, 2018 Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a rapidly growing city—the largest in Northwest Arkansas, a region with major corporate headquarters including Walmart, and a major research university in the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is a low-density city…

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Housing and Oxnard

ByRoy

Oxnard has a severe housing shortage. Earlier this year SB 827 attempted to help communities build more housing. If the direction of SB 827 is correct the “fixes” relate mostly to zoning that incentives sprawl and makes it almost impossible to build in city cores. I will not go into the failure of SB 827…