Posts Tagged ‘Brussels’

November 01, 2010

Cultivating Direct Experiences and Propinquity in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet According to Carol Venolia in her article Real Time in Natural Home Magazine, modern day society is moving away from direct experiences, such as actually spending time with our friends, and moving more towards indirect experiences such as chatting online instead. This distancing from real experiences, the author argues, creates a less satisfying and perhaps somewhat of a distorted life. The idea of direct versus indirect experiences is very much tied into the concept of propinquity which was first introduced to me by Kevin Kellogg. Propinquity, if you’re unfamiliar with the word, “refers to the physical or psychological proximity…

October 25, 2010

Craving Green Breathing Space in a Fast-Paced City

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Today’s post is a continuation of my series Learning from European Cities and I’d like to talk about the role of green space in urban life. In my past visits to European and South American cities, I’ve always been impressed by the green space embedded in their urban fabric in the form of beautiful, lush city parks. On my recent trip to Europe, I was particularly impressed with the green spaces in Brussels. This may partially be due to the fact that Paul and I stayed next to the Botanique, a beautiful and very old botanical garden right in…

October 11, 2010

Biking Infrastructure as Sign of Modernity and Progress

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet “Bruges is a biking city” declared the woman at the information counter at the train station when we arrived from Brussels. I found out first hand that she wasn’t kidding. Biking is an integral part of the infrastructure in Bruges, which is a tiny city in Belgium that has gotten a few big things right. And one of those things is their bicycle culture. Right from the get go, when we walked out of the train station, I saw a sea of bicycles parked outside: The woman at the information counter would later tell me that locals bike to…

October 04, 2010

Learning from European Cities: An Introduction

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet It’s good to be back in the Valley of the Sun! I had a fantastic time in Europe and learned a great deal about how dense urban centers work. I’d like to share what I learned over the coming weeks on Mondays in my Learning from European Cities Series. It’s true that Phoenix will never be and shouldn’t be a reproduction of a European city. We have very unique characteristics here, as well as a completely different climate and landscape, land availability, and cultural differences among other factors. However, there are a few universal things that work well in…