Sub-National Density ~ Population World Map...

Very interesting map of population density shown within sub-national territories (e.g. the 50 United States, the Lander in Germany, Provinces in South Africa, etc)...

Population Map ~ Latitude and Longitude Sorted!

Evening Raga maps World Population by Latitude and Longitude!

1M/km2 ~ HK's KWC Superdense Vertical Village!

VICE Motherboard takes A New Look at Kowloon Walled City, the Internet's Favorite Cyberpunk Slum...

"Borne out of longstanding tensions between the British and Chinese governments. It was spawned by the agreement, completed in 1898, to lease Hong Kong to the British for 99 years, which didn't include the Walled City [...] The result was a heavily isolated, ramshackle city-state. [...] The lack of outside support meant the Walled City was built on itself largely by itself, with commerce and industry mixed into itself as produced by a self-sufficient population. [...] Ingenuity was spawned by the city's isolation. There was little in the way of public services, meaning sanitation, public safety, and crime prevention were all the purview of locals. [...] The Kowloon Walled City continues to captivate people because of those problems, and its ills are also what make it such powerful inspiration for fictional portrayals of what's to come."

See WSJ's City of Imagination: Kowloon Walled City 20 Years Later... Plus definitely check out -- and please support financially -- the ambitious and timely City of Darkness Revisited book publishing project on Kickstarter by co-authors Ian Lambot and Greg Girard...

"We are working together again to produce City of Darkness Revisited, an all-new edition that will combine the best of the original book with several new sections that will fill in some of the gaps and bring the story up to date. We will explore the City’s dramatic architectural evolution from a near bare site in 1945 to a 17-storey megalith housing over 33,000 people at the time of its clearance. And we will explain the City’s unique legal and political status -- under two jurisdictions but effectively managed by neither -- and how this coloured every aspect of life there. A third theme will delve into the myths and realities of the Triads’ activities within the City and how these might -- or might not -- have been effectively policed. And finally we will describe how the influence of the Walled City has spread into popular culture worldwide, and how this has allowed interest in the City -- either as myth or physical reality -- to flourish."

And as extra bonus, Ian and Greg and friend Lisa point out Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, Urban Fabric -- Historic project prepared by Lia Tramontini, Haneen Dalla-Ali, Mona Dai, and Christopher Glebe...

World Population Density ~ People per Square Km

Lovely hi-res worldmap of people per square kilometer by daysleeperrr posted on Reddit MapPorn. The comments are also illustrative. And author's note...

"Took about four hours, with notepad to write the map generator script and photoshop for the legend. I downloaded an .asc (ascii) file [with pop density, about] 30 million records. Converted the huge 200 MB file to a smaller file with this php script in which 30 catogories were used instead of exact numbers. [...] Convert the file to an image. For that I used the PHP GD Library [and script. And finally] Added the legend and some color using photoshop. It's the first time I tried creating a map using programming language only, instead of ArcGIS or tools like that. I was surprised how little lines of code were needed in order to generate such a map. If someone has suggestions for improvement let me know ;-)"

Country of Cities ~ Chakrabarti's Urban Manifesto

Thanks to UrbanCincy's Randy Simes for spotting Vishaan Chakrabarti's A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America!

“The suburbs are largely a creation of “big government,” an explicitly, policy-driven, subsidized scheme that has guided how we live, work, and play,” Chakrabarti explains. “One of the fundamental premises of the book is not whether people should live in the suburbs or not; I believe in free choice. The question is whether they should be paid to do it.”

Living Micro ~ PBS on Tiny Apartments Movement

PBS spots Living Micro: Single Residents Embrace Tiny Apartments

Innovation Hubs ~ MIT Urban Design Workshop

My MIT Media Lab CityScience colleagues Kent Larson and Ryan Chin (and team) are hosting a design workshop this Fall 2013 on Innovation Hubs looking at the greater Kendall Square area as a Living Lab for high-density, thriving urban neighborhood design.

"This workshop will explore new urban systems for high-density cities including systems for mobility, energy, food production, and live/work. The workshop will focus on the design of resilient, scalable, adaptable, and reconfigurable systems. This course will utilize CityScope, an urban simulation tool [...] to prototype the design of Compact Urban Cells [...] walkable neighborhoods with a diverse mix of live/work areas that utilize shared mobility systems, distributed renewable power generation, shared spaces, and integrated vertical urban farming. As a test case, the course will focus on the redesign of Kendall Square as a new sustainable model for developing hyper-dense urban environments in the U.S. and abroad. Students will initially study precedents for innovation hubs in other cities, and then they will build [CityScope urban models] to represent their design interventions and illustrate system-level affects."

Hi-Density & Livability ~ Lessons from Asian Cities

Lessons from Fall 2011 ULI meeting...

Liveable Hi-Density Cities ~ Singapore Principles

Earlier in 2013, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) released their joint publication 10 Principles for Liveable High Density Cities: Lessons from Singapore spotlighting lessons from...

"...Singapore’s successful urbanization

experience -- despite its population density, the city-state has consistently ranked favorably in various surveys measuring the liveability and sustainability of cities around the globe. [...] Each of the 10 principles in the publication reflects Singapore’s integrated model of planning and development, which weaves together the physical, economic, social and environmental aspects of urban living."

The ten principles are:

1. Plan for long-term growth and renewal 
2. Embrace diversity, foster inclusiveness 
3. Draw nature closer to people
4. Develop affordable, mixed-use neighbourhoods
5. Make public spaces work harder 
6. Prioritise green transport and building options
7. Relieve density with variety and add green boundaries
8. Activate spaces for greater safety
9. Promote innovative and non-conventional solutions
10. Forge “3P” (people, public, private) partnerships

But not everyone buys their analysis or promo graphics...

Too Many Bikes? ~ Euro Cycle Boom Backlash

Holger Dambeck asks in DerSpiegel are there Too Many Bikes? Europe's Cycling Boom Sees a Backlash...

"More bicycles were supposed to make Europe's cities more livable. Instead, the popularity of two-wheeled travel is causing problems in some cities in Holland and Denmark, where traffic jams and parking shortages are common. [...] Cycling has been heavily promoted, and more and more people are taking to the pedal -- but eventually cycling paths, bike racks and other parking areas have begun to run out of space. The bike boom -- long seen as the universal solution to roads jammed with parked cars, dead inner cities and other urban maladies like noise, smog and lack of exercise -- threatens to choke on its own success."

City of Anarchy ~ Old Kowloon Infographic!

Mapporn spots Old Kowloon Walled City infographic! See also Kowloon Cross-Section!