Word: townes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Innovation also blooms in unlikely places such as southern Bavaria. In the town of Penzberg, the Islamic Forum, built in 2005, last year won a Wessobrunner Architekturpreis, an award granted every five years for outstanding Bavarian architecture. A simple block of glass and pearly stone, the Forum beckons Muslims and non-Muslims alike to enter through two doors built to resemble an open book. "It's a place of communication," explains its Bosnian-born architect, Alen Jasarevic, in an e-mail. "Vast windows and openings in the façade, even in the prayer room, invite the citizens of Penzberg...
...Walk a few blocks from the summit site, though, and the symbols of globalization quickly make way for gloom. Canning Town and Custom House, as the neighborhoods around the ExCel center are known, may have played spectator to the city's trade-driven growth, but they have seen little of its benefits. Dogged by poverty, poor health, and low education, both neighborhoods rank among the most deprived areas in Britain. Almost a fifth of the local working-age population receives welfare benefits. Half have no formal qualifications. For leaders of the world's most advanced economies, the area offers...
...Past governments have had their chances. Lured by good rail and river links, new industries poured into Canning Town in the mid-19th century. The Thames Ironworks Ship Building and Engineering Co. opened a 30-acre site at Bow Creek in 1846, bashing out ships for much of Europe. Eager for jobs, workers from all over the country poured in. The seasonal or casual work on offer meant few could afford comfortable places to live, though; landlords, well aware of the fact, threw up cheap housing without toilets, bathrooms and oftentimes drinking water. The over-crowding and disease appalled visitors...
...local government has plans for a big overhaul, a $5.3 billion regeneration of Canning Town and Custom House over the next few years that will provide 10,000 new homes - some on the estate of Calado's - transform the two town centers, and create jobs and community facilities. In a new pink and green building nestled next to the concrete flyover launching traffic into central London, locals can view competing designs for Canning Town's next town center. The building also offers locals help with job searches, skills training and a weekly police surgery...
...near its entrances tempt passers by with the bold words "STABILITY, GROWTH, JOBS". But for anyone looking for a way out of the blight, it's another disappointment. The local footbridge to the center will be shut during the meeting of the world's most powerful. Once again, Canning Town will find itself cut off from what lies beyond...