About Concept Urban Village

Sweet memories of Village Life~

Do you still remember the traditional values of village? Cooperation, helpful, warmth, sense of place, unites, sharing,  closet the relationship among villagers, kindness, self-help spirit.. arrrh~ even cannot forget the sweetest memories of going to river for a swim, hiding behind the trees to play seek and hide. We walked / biked to the school every early morning, families can have dinner in the evening instead of night time because none of traffic congestion as now urban people are encountering... more and more and more..  :)

That's why the urban village is so welcoming until today. Urban village :- leading village life in urban areas. The wonderful spirit of village integrated in convenient and sufficient urban area, where public transport  commercial, job opportunities, infrastructure, retails, and entertainment are so much better than traditional rural area location. Live, work, education, and play all in Urban Village.

Synergy, Vibrancy, Sense of Place

I summarize few of the basic principles of Urban Village. They are Synergy, Vibrancy, and Sense of place. After this I will talk about those physical features to achieve the principles above. 

Synergy

Synergy can be defined as the interaction between 2 or more places or elements until produce a combined effect, which is greater than their separate effects. Let's look on the examples Urban Village. Synergy in this context, can be refer to mixed-uses development. Combination of residential, commercial, recreation and public facilities have achieve synergy by creating the live-work-play-leisure within the community. With this, multi-level building is encouraged because has a wide range of goods and services under one roof,  plus it is within walking distance of much of the housing.

Vibrancy

Vibrancy at here is refer to people and bicycle movement. As mentioned above about the mixed-uses development, it had lead to more activities accessible within small radius so that, it is feasible to walk or ride a bike. short distances mean  greater opportunities for walking and cycling.  It helps to reduce the dependent onto automobiles. More pedestrian walkways and cycling ways are provided and this encourage the vibrant and movement of people. Not only for local residents, but also welcoming the non-residents from other gardens / residential areas. This directly enhance and improve the interaction and vibrancy within and between the zones.

Sense of place

This is the most critical components to indicate the spirit and ambiance of Urban Village. A living place most important is able to provide the sense of place to the villagers, this is related to villagers pride on their living areas. In short, it should be livable. For instance, villagers indeed can work or purchase their daily needs out from this zone. However, the fundamental spirit of Urban Village is through the mixed land uses, where live, work, education, buy and play all in ones had create and enhance the interaction and understanding to each other, at the end, the sense of pace achieved. --- You know where you lived, you know who are your neighbors,  you know what are the join forces and united village living is, you have the community pride, you know who you are.

Urban village is there to stay, but to create that environment in the city with many of its population born in the city and without any experience of village living is a challenge itself. For some of the children, perhaps spending hours in front of computer screen chit-chatting with friends is better than going out and picnic under the hot sun. Some of them might have thought frozen chicken found in supermarket is the "chicken" instead of those running around in the compound of a village house.

New strategies are needed. Planners' creativity and innovative are needed. We need to apply new terminology, approaches and concept of discussing with them and along the process in building the underlying concept of urban village into their mind. For example, since many have acquitted with the idea of going green as a cool thing, perhaps asking the youth to plant trees while going for outing should be the way forwards.

Support & Encourage Yourself ^ ^

 Be proud of yourself. 

Whether it is because of a small accomplishment or just life in general, you have to believe in yourself. Always remember, you can't encourage yourself if you don't like yourself. Self-esteem is important.  ^__^ V  oh yeah~

 Try being your own best friend. 

Talk to yourself like you would to a friend who needed motivation. Say things like "I know it's hard but you can do it," or, "By this time tomorrow, it will be all done." You will getting motivated!!

 Keep a good sense of humor! 

It helps tremendously! Nothing big deals. My quotes: Nothings able make life difficult except your mood to make your life difficult.

Spend some time on a hobby.

Reach out to others who can encourage you.

If you can get out some, then think about what encourages you. 

Many people find that doing things for others helps their own problems feel smaller, or at least it gets the problems off their mind for a little while.

Exercise! 

Walk outside or on your treadmill, ride a stationary bike, do yoga. You can choose the kind of class you'd feel most comfortable in, or you can practice yoga at home with music of your choice. The stretching and de-stressing techniques are excellent. Or you can jog, or belly dance, or whatever feels wonderful to your body. Just 15, 30, or 45 minutes a day will help your metabolism, which in turn helps your mood.

Eat good food! 

Add fresh foods and whole grain foods; go organic on some things if you would like to.

Play music! 

Whatever kind of music lifts your spirits, play that for yourself. You can keep a radio or stereo on so that you can hear it in the background wherever you are.

URBAN PLANNING VS HEALTH ISSUES

Chronic diseases + Causes

People today are more knowledgeable and start paying attention on healthcare. In most people common sense, chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol and so on and so forth are results of the civilization society today. And, the common consent on this emergence of chronic disease is caused by the eating habits, the lifestyle that many depends on the automobile nowadays , the advanced of technology, smoking, and stress of life.

Yup, above statements are all correct. But... what makes them have to travel along the ways to work or to school? What causes them have to travel over a long distances to gyms and fitness centers for exercising?  The built environment nowadays is increasingly driven by automobile dependent living. People work far from their homes, children are either by bus or driven to school, cars are used to run most errands and opportunities for social interaction are so limited.

If, through the urban planning, communities become places where people willing to stay and work, now and future, in well functioned and high quality environments. At the same time, all the infrastructures and amenities required such as transit, buses, shops, parks and community facilities, all able been reached on foot or by bike within 10 minutes. Even the distance to working places are available within easy travelling distance. No more long distance travel across the roads, people able reach any places they want by their feet. Indirectly, well designed urban planning spurred the chances of residents moving and exercising.

The built environment in Malysia is increasingly characterized by sprawling, car-dependent suburban living. For example  Putrajaya, Seremban, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur. People work far from their homes, children are bused or driven to school, cars are used to run most errands and opportunities for social interaction are limited. The consequences include poor air quality, deficient social capital and an increased incidence of injuries. Heat-absorbent asphalt and concrete surfaces and a lack of tree cover can also cause higher temperatures, which can increase health risks, especially for the elderly. The built environment's impact on physical activity, however, has the most significance for health.

Environments to support walking

So, the growing body of evidence links the built environment to health outcomes. What should we do? The evidence points to the relationship between neighborhood design and the extent to which neighborhoods support walking with health outcomes. Take a look on foreign example : Toronto. Study  shows that a low density suburbs have low walkability and a higher prevalence of diabetes. Besides, low-density suburbs also typically have a larger environmental footprint.

When we think about physical activity, recreation often comes to mind. But getting from A to B — utilitarian physical activity — has a greater potential impact on health than recreational physical activity. Supporting this type of activity requires a fundamental change in the built environment.

We know what a healthy built environment looks like. It includes a range of services — such as transit, shops, parks and community facilities — that can be reached on foot or by bike within 10 minutes. Some employment will be available within easy travelling distance. The streets are set out in a rectilinear, connected pattern rather than crescents and cul-de-sacs. Roads are relatively narrow and houses and shops are close to the street, with parking at the rear. There is a mix of housing types (fewer single detached, more townhouses and apartments above retail). These characteristics are associated with the "New Urbanism" movement. All of this requires densities to be considerably higher than those that currently prevail in our suburbs.

Urban Planners VS Built Environment

Urban planners have, over many years, developed a vision of a high-quality built environment. It includes the elements that research has shown to be related to good health. This work is complex and involves many interests. For example, the design of roads is influenced by transportation engineers. Adding bike lanes and bus lanes may widen roads unless lane widths are adjusted. School boards may build one large school instead of several neighborhood schools, or may not provide bike racks. This affects the level of activity required to travel to and from school.

A built environment that supports health is no different than a built environment that is aesthetically pleasing, that provides good recreational opportunities, that is environmentally sustainable, that minimizes the costs of infrastructure and that enhances economic prosperity by reducing traffic congestion. We all have much to gain by working together to produce better places to live, work and play.

Oh Hai yo0oo0 mY 1St ProJect - Part 1

Hallo~~  Good day to you!!  Glad to met u again ^__^

ENVIRONMENT

Concept Guideline 1 : Minimize hill cutting, maintain topography of site

For Botanica CT site land is virgin with hills and trees covering the whole area. Developer is trying to implement the green element of environment by maximizing the area with trees and minimize hill cutting as they could.

Evaluation

• The hillside cutting for the future development is adapting the terrace cutting style, minimizes the land to cut. 
• Terrace cutting would also reduce the risk of landslide, as the landscape such as trees will help to support and stable the land activity. 

Concept Guideline 2 : Provision of recreation area

3 acres site area is provided as the green lung of the Botanica CT. 

Evaluation

• The design is too artificial and feels like just to create the atmosphere of garden township only. 
• The park has no any proper facilities and functional infrastructures. 
• E.g. benches, playground equipment and resting hut. 
• It only has some sculptures and hardscape for decoration purpose 

Concept Guideline 3 : Landscapes

Various kinds of trees and shrubs are planted along the roadside, pedestrian walkway and divider. The landscape comes out with different sizes and shapes, which enhance the environment by giving a different view in attractive way and create the sense of place. Besides, the landscape is one of the main components in express the welcome effect, direction indicators, and the inclusion space.

Evaluation

• Many landscapes and trees planted along the roadways and pedestrian walkways, effort to create scenery of “garden” and “green”. 
• Garden community is not simply planting few trees but how the greens integrated in each different land uses.
• Landscape found in residential area : the trees had planted within residential area, but it does not provide any practical uses to local units.

加油 ^ ^ GAMBATEH !!

DENIS WAITLEY :

DON'T DWELL ON WHAT WENT WRONG.

INSTEAD, FOCUS ON WHAT TO DO NEXT.

SPEND YOUR ENERGIES ON MOVING FORWARD TOWARD FINDING THE ANSWERS.