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“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

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Some Inspiration from Guatemala

November 8, 2010 By Adam Hengels

Turn the lights down, and the volume up. It’s time for some Market Urbanist media, courtesy of some future urbanist leaders who’s ideas may one day liberate our cities from yesterday’s unenlightened technocrats.

Architecture students at Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala participated in Professor Gonzalo Melian’s (more on him and his work in future posts) Dynamic Urban Planning Workshop. Obviously very proud of his students, Prof. Melian offered to share his students’ inspiring videos with the readers of Market Urbanism, which you can watch below. Prof. Melian described the course as followed:

The Dynamic urban Planning workshop started this year. It has two parts. One part is theory and the other one is practice. The theory part has 15 sessions (90 min) and it is divided into two parts: Static Urban Planning and Dynamic Urban Planning.

Static Urban Planning is divided into different lectures about: the ontology of cities, what is a static urban planning, the modernist ideas as the beginning, some critics, such as Jane Jacobs, the history of the static urban planning system from 1950 to today and the static urban planning system in theory and practice.

The second part of the course, Dynamic Urban Planning, is divided into different lectures like: the importance of private property rights: the problem of the commons and the problems of the anti-commons; public goods and externalities in cities; the theory of economic goods of cities; the price formation in cities: the importance of free market prices; the theory of monopoly onto cities; entrepreneurship, knowledge and spontaneous order in cities; theory of the impossibility of economic calculation in cities; the capital theory of cities; the economic cycle applies on cities; the expansion of credit without saving as a distortion of cities; charter cities; and looking for free cities.

The practice part is divided into three parts: analysis, dynamic urban planning and dynamic urban design.

And the result is what you are about to watch [and is posted] on the dynamic urban planning blog.

Enjoy!:

GUATEMALA FREE CITY from Diego Saenz on Vimeo.

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Filed Under: Economics, planning, video, Zoning Tagged With: planning, Urban Planning, video

About Adam Hengels

Adam is passionate about urbanism, and founded this site in 2007, after realizing that classical liberals and urbanists actually share many objectives, despite being at odds in many spheres of the intellectual discussion. His mission is to improve the urban experience, and overcome obstacles that prevent aspiring city dwellers from living where they want. http://www.marketurbanism.com/adam-hengels/

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