Nicole Avril – Ecoblock Qingdao

The City of Surrey recently announced plans to increase density in the downtown core, and the reaction recorded in letters to the editor shows understandable concern with the quality of life changes that will accompany higher concentrations of people in an area. As the work of Jane Jacobs has demonstrated, density doesn’t have to mean reduction in well-being. Here’s some interesting work along these lines from Nicole Avril, Director, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley.: