New: Cities The Magazine

We just received some information about the launch of a brand new magazine about the urban sphere, entitled Cities. The first edition, which is a test issue (Volume 00), is available online and contains articles of contributors from all over the world. The magazine sheds a light on some interesting urban themes such as raw urban areas, temporary spaces, gentrification, shrinking cities, urban intensification. Cities aims to look both ways, combining academic reflections about the global patterns leading contemporary cities from a user’s perspective, personal obsessions and local experiences.

I’d like to compliment the editorial board and all other members with this first test edition. Especially the lay-out is neatly taken care of. Nevertheless, the chosen subject for this first edition (regeneration of old industrial areas) is not too interesting. This discussion has become pretty formal, and not very animating at this point in history. Professionals at building companies, local governments and project developers would love to read about it, but my not-informed guess is that these guys are not the main target group. However, this first edition is probably meant for fund raising. Then the theme is already more interesting. Personally, I liked the article about urban exploring by Philippe van Wolputte. He gives new meaning to vacant buildings infiltrating previously impenetrable non-spaces. Also the work of the Polish artist M-CITY is interesting: “M-CITY plays with transferring elements of urban reality, which he changes into models and pretty artworks. The next edition of Cities will be about urban farming… good luck guys!