The hottest Urban Design Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Art & Illustration Topics

The IBX could be the start of an outer borough transit renaissance

Urben Field Notes • 124 implied HN points • 17 Mar 26
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. The IBX will create a new 14-mile orbital light-rail across Brooklyn and Queens that shortens cross-borough trips, serves subway deserts, and offers faster, high-ridership transit for many neighborhoods.
  2. How useful the line is will hinge on transfer quality, train speed and frequency (including possible automation), and better connecting services like more frequent LIRR trains to avoid new congestion.
  3. The IBX could spark major neighborhood development and reshape regional travel patterns, but those broader benefits require zoning changes and additional complementary transit investments.

How malls can become the midtowns of the future

Urben Field Notes • 205 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. Transforming dying malls and office parks into mixed-use, transit-connected neighborhoods can create new midtowns or metroburbs with homes, shops, offices, and public spaces that are walkable.
  2. The postwar move to car-oriented strip malls and isolated office campuses destroyed the old urban mix and proximity; redeveloping these sites is a chance to restore walkability and everyday urban life.
  3. Cities must shape these projects with public streets and parks, varied architecture, limits on bulky buildings, and strong transit links so they don’t become bland, privately controlled places.

Natural Paths

Polymathic Being • 58 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. Natural or "desire" paths show how people actually move and can improve design when you watch and follow them.
  2. The same easy, natural paths can create predictable vulnerabilities or ambush points, so sometimes it’s safer to deliberately avoid them.
  3. The best approach is balance: use natural flows when they help, but apply critical thinking, humility, and intentional reframing to diverge from them when risks appear.

We could return three continents of land to the wild

The Novelleist • 434 implied HN points • 30 Jul 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Urban Design
  1. We could bring back a lot of land to nature by changing how we farm. This could help wildlife thrive again and create better ecosystems.
  2. Human activity has caused massive biodiversity loss, but small changes in our diets and energy sources could fix a lot of this damage.
  3. Creating gardens for insects and supporting nature in our own spaces can make a big difference. It helps both wildlife and ourselves feel happier and healthier.

Why American needs fewer bus stops

The Works in Progress Newsletter • 29 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. American buses stop too often, which makes them slow, unreliable, and less useful than driving. Increasing the distance between stops (stop balancing) speeds buses up and expands how far riders can get in the same time.
  2. Stop balancing is cheap and quick to do and lowers operating costs because faster routes need fewer drivers to maintain the same frequency. Agencies can use those savings to run more service or protect routes from cuts.
  3. Fewer, better-placed stops let agencies invest in higher-quality shelters, real-time info, and safer sidewalks, improving the rider experience and visibility of the network. Closing overlapping stops usually only slightly reduces coverage while making the remaining stops more useful and likely to attract riders.
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Mini Exasperation #5

Exasperated Infrastructures • 14 implied HN points • 07 Feb 26
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. Space Syntax is a science‑based, human‑focused method for linking spatial layout to social, economic, and environmental outcomes, and Depthmap is the open‑source software used to run those analyses.
  2. Its key metrics are "choice," which predicts which street segments travelers are likely to use for trips of set distances, and "integration," which measures how connected intersections are across the network.
  3. Space Syntax is not an agent‑based model and doesn’t simulate individual behavior or real‑world attributes, so it requires careful data cleaning and must be interpreted alongside GIS, observed data, and knowledge of network limitations.

The Brilliance of Cadiz's Urban Design

The New Urban Order • 159 implied HN points • 25 Aug 23
🏝 Travel Urban Design
  1. Cadiz's urban design features a largely car-free town center, multi-family housing stock, and commercial space on the first floor of residential buildings, enhancing the concept of a 5-Minute City.
  2. The city boasts an abundance of parks, plazas, public spaces per capita, breathtaking waterfront esplanades, and historic buildings rich in charm.
  3. Visiting a 3,000-year-old city like Cadiz showcases the historical beauty and urban planning that can inspire contemporary urban development.

Make London even greater

Wrong Side of History • 479 implied HN points • 29 Feb 24
🏝 Travel Urban Design
  1. Priority should be given to building more homes in London through ideas like estate regeneration and deregulation of the housing market.
  2. Improving London's aesthetics by creating more open squares and rethinking the design of buildings and infrastructure.
  3. Enhancing transportation in London by expanding the railway system with projects like Crossrail and implementing measures to reduce car dependency and improve cycling infrastructure.

Little boxes — and they all look just the same

City Hall Watcher • 98 implied HN points • 27 Feb 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Urban Design
  1. Toronto's architecture is becoming more monotonous due to recent provincial legislation affecting design approvals for buildings.
  2. City Hall is preparing for a by-election to replace Mayor John Tory, with the process set to begin after Pride weekend.
  3. The development pipeline in Toronto has seen a significant increase in proposed residential units, reaching a record high in 2021.

Green patch: Bällsta bro

The Third Place • 39 implied HN points • 31 Oct 23
🎭️ Culture Urban Design
  1. Neglected urban areas like barren grass patches in cities can disrupt city flow and pose problems like attracting bad activities due to neglect.
  2. Transforming neglected spaces into green recreational areas with community input not only beautifies the area but also positively impacts the environment, creating win-win situations.
  3. Community involvement in urban design interventions fosters a sense of belonging, enhances neighborhood aesthetics, and manages resources like rainwater effectively.

Placemaking vs. Mission-Shaping

Breaking Smart • 70 implied HN points • 07 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Urban Design
  1. Placemaking is about creating welcoming spaces where people can thrive, while mission-shaping focuses on specific goals or projects. These two ideas often compete with each other because one is broad and inclusive, and the other is focused and narrow.
  2. The popup city movement is experimenting with creating communities that don't force a single mission, letting people bring their own projects while still fostering a vibrant environment. It's more about the place existing and supporting different activities rather than being driven by a single purpose.
  3. Cities and startups have different goals. Cities are about nurturing life and managing ongoing experiences, while startups are about efficiently solving specific problems. Mixing the two approaches can lead to mistakes in how we build and think about communities.

#101 Design on the streets

Design Lobster • 179 implied HN points • 24 Jan 22
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. Design choices can shift the system you work within.
  2. Consider how to prevent design from becoming overwhelming, especially in widespread use.
  3. Embrace the idea that people will find their own unexpected uses for your designs.

Nurse Buildings

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 159 implied HN points • 19 May 22
🌞 Climate & Environment Urban Design
  1. Nurse buildings, like the Colosseum, are structures where plants can thrive, thanks to their materials and existing cavities that hold seeds and moisture. This creates a unique environment for plant growth.
  2. The Colosseum has over 600 plant species recorded, showing how nature can reclaim man-made structures, even after efforts to remove them.
  3. Living walls in buildings can enhance urban spaces by providing natural beauty and habitat for plants, making cities greener and more inviting.

How to redraw a city

The Works in Progress Newsletter • 17 implied HN points • 18 Jun 25
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. Japan's cities transformed rapidly thanks to a planning method called land readjustment. This approach helps organize land into larger areas for better infrastructure while ensuring fairness for landowners.
  2. Infrastructure is crucial for city development, but it can be tricky because it often doesn't generate direct revenue. Japan managed to tackle this by sharing the benefits of new developments with everyone involved.
  3. Land readjustment isn't just useful in Japan; it has been applied successfully in other countries too. When communities feel included and can benefit from changes, it leads to better urban planning outcomes.

Curb Appeal

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 139 implied HN points • 07 May 21
🎭️ Culture Urban Design
  1. Curbs can tell us a lot about local geology. In Seattle, you can find granite curbs that are 32 million years old.
  2. Carrara in Italy has beautiful marble curbs and sidewalks that were formed around 200 million years ago. This adds a touch of style and history to the area.
  3. The oldest known curbs are made from Morton Gneiss in Minnesota, which is about 3.5 billion years old. It's wild to think about how much history these stones have!

The Anatomy of Narrative Change

Creative Destruction • 39 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
🎭️ Culture Urban Design
  1. Breaking free from old narratives can lead to amazing opportunities for new thinking and innovation.
  2. Questioning and debunking old myths can pave the way for new narratives to form.
  3. As old narratives break down, new imagination spaces open up, fostering new ideas and potential for transformative innovation.

California Forever, the tech-billionaire funded city, plans for transit after all

Urben Field Notes • 32 implied HN points • 05 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Urban Design
  1. California Forever, a tech-billionaire funded city in the Bay Area, is planning to include transit connections to improve accessibility and reduce reliance on cars.
  2. The lead urban designer behind California Forever is aiming to integrate rail systems to connect the new city to Sacramento and the Bay Area, highlighting the importance of regional transit connections.
  3. The proposed transit plans involve challenges such as negotiating with Union Pacific for track usage, but the project envisions a cohesive urban ecosystem with high-quality transit services and a compact urban form for easy access.

Building for the Block, Not the Feed

Kathy PM • 7 implied HN points • 30 Mar 25
🕹 Technology Urban Design
  1. Creating simple tools can make it easier for people to take action on local issues, like biking safety. By providing ready-to-use message templates, more people can easily express their support.
  2. Fast and focused coding can lead to impactful solutions that address specific community needs. You don't need large projects to make a difference; sometimes, small changes have a big effect.
  3. Listening to your community's needs and building tools to address them can spark meaningful conversations and connections, helping people feel more involved in local matters.

Optimising Traffic with Linear Equations

Kartick’s Blog • 0 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
🪑 Design Urban Design
  1. Traffic is basically people’s frustration, which equals time spent on the road times frustration per minute, so you reduce traffic by cutting travel time or making each minute less aggravating through better rules and infrastructure.
  2. Rush-hour speed is driven by free-flow speed divided by rush-hour slowdown, and slowdown falls with wider/better roads, expressways, flexible work hours, more people per vehicle, WFH, and congestion pricing.
  3. City shape and density set commute distances, so making cities rounder, denser, and mixed-use (or spreading jobs and services across sub-centers) shortens trips and reduces overall traffic.

Autonomous Vehicles and Culture

The Digital Anthropologist • 0 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Urban Design
  1. Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) face cultural challenges due to the deep-rooted connection between cars/trucks and human culture worldwide. This may impact adoption despite technological advancements.
  2. The adoption of AVs requires significant societal changes beyond just the vehicle technology, such as redesigning cities and shifting away from fossil fuels.
  3. Despite challenges, advancements in infrastructure, manufacturing, and materials hint at a future where AVs could play a vital role in transportation systems, sparking innovative urban planning ideas.