 Your new post is loading...
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Gardens by the Bay is the newest addition to Singapore's green space innovations, making this architecturally brilliant metropolis truly a “City in a Garden.” Still a work in progress, Gardens by the Bay was named the World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival 2012. The use of innovative energy saving technologies is a noteworthy element of this unique project. More than 217,000 plants belonging to approximately 800 species and varieties are represented in the Gardens “with the hope that it will help to promote awareness of the wonders of nature and the value of plants to Man and the environment.” In this way, visitors are instilled with new or renewed awareness of plants, while experiencing different ecosystems without disturbing original forests. Gardens by the Bay also supports the sustainability of culture through a wide array of “edutainment” available onsite — from school programs to concerts – to further enhance an understanding of this experience...
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
The city of Helsinki tapped Madrid-based Lighting Design Collective (LDC) to convert a once-used oil silo into an interactive light installation to commemorate Helsinki being the World Design Capital of 2012.
Facing the sea, the area is quite windy, which was not only design inspiration for the project, but it also powers the exhibit. LDC designed software to take data from the surrounding wind speed, direction, temperature, and weather, and turn it into patterns for the never repeating light show that displays on the inside and outside of the silo.
The silo’s walls were perforated with 2,012 holes that display a mesmerizing light show, engaging visitors with the data in a new way. At midnight, the silo’s exterior turns red for one hour to reference that the silo was once a container of energy...
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Last week, Fast Company posted a list, adapted from the book Smart Customers, Stupid Companies, of 7 Ways to Disrupt Your Industry. Reading through the list, we were struck by how applicable the recommendations that the authors put forth are to our own principles for good Placemaking. But it makes sense, when you think about it: by directly involving communities in shaping their public spaces–leading with people, not design–Placemaking is in fact a highly disruptive approach. Placemaking tosses out the idea that an architect or planner is more of an expert about how a place should be used than the people who are going to use it. By bringing people together around a shared physical place, it’s also a powerful tool for disrupting local complacency. Great public spaces give people a tangible way to connect with their neighborhoods, building a stronger local constituency–aka sense of community–over the long term. With that in mind, we’ve taken Fast Company‘s list and tweaked it slightly to create a roster of 7 Ways to Disrupt Your Public Space for anyone who’s looking to use a local spot to build social capital in their neighborhood...
|
Suggested by
Shamengo
|
Shamengo pioneer Richard Reynolds is taking back the city of London with his trowel and tulip bulbs... Read more about urban gardening, including tips on how to be a stealthy gardener at www.guerrillagardening.org.
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
A playground pavilion and multi-use building in Copenhagen is clad in mirrored steel on its gabled ends, giving kids a funhouse experience. The architects say, “At night the shutters are closed making the building anonymous. During the day the building opens up, attracting the children who enjoy seeing themselves transformed in all directions. With simple means it has succeeded to transform an existing, sad and anonymous building to a unique and respectful installation in the newly renovated park.”
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Applications for Smart Growth America’s free technical assistance are in, and they tell an important story: communities across the country are eager to learn more about smart growth strategies. Smart Growth America received applications from 89 communities in 34 states plus the District of Columbia. Stretching from Maine to Hawaii, these communities represent major urban centers, fast growing suburbs, rural small towns and everything in between. This broad mix of applicants shows that all types of communities are interested in using smart growth strategies to build stronger local economies, preserve a sense of place and protect the environment. Smart Growth America will announce the communities selected to receive technical assistance on Monday, November 14th.
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
The Product of the long term collaboration with the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning (GSAPP) and Preservation and the Fu School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), this studio accepted the design challenges of the next "Urban Green”wave in the United States, with emphasis on the specificities of neighborhood and building constellations. The studio explored new categories of micro-scale "infrastructures" combined to form a new design lexicon in accomplishing 50% less waste production; 50% less energy use; 50% less water consumption. Analyses were developed for neighborhoods within Manhattan surrounding the Columbia University Morningside and Medical School complexes.
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Register now for PPS' NYC-based Fall training! Please read on for more information about the three training courses PPS is offering this October and November. The How to Create a Successful Markets training will be offered during the Summer 2012 session.
|
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
(by Cristiana StravaIt) It's the time of year again when we take stock of the old and pledge to be better in the new. Since our goal at Polis is to foster dialogue and cooperation for improving city life, I'm proposing a short list of New Year's resolutions to help us all live better urban lives...
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
How can cities be designed for sustainable living?
A new interactive exhibition from the Guardian, 'Our Urban Future', explores the importance of cities in making the world a more sustainable place. The exhibition at The Crystal in London's Docklands seeks to challenge and reinvent the way we think about cities and gives visitors the chance to learn how they can make a contribution to sustainable living. Scroll through the gallery showcasing snippets from the exhibition, and read responses on how cities can be designed for sustainable living and share what you think urban environments will look like in future...
Visit the link for a slideshow of exhibition highlights, including: - The immersive Forces of Change theatre: a global view of the challenges and opportunities that climate change, demographic change and urbanisation raise.
- The Creating Cities game: exploring issues around city management and urban planning.
- The Go Electric Zone: the challenges and solutions to balancing energy supply, demand and storage.
- The Water is Life Zone: harvested rainwater is used to shed light on desalination, purity and resources.
- The ‘Future Life’ film gallery: how London, New York and Copenhagen look forward to 2050, and envisioning how our cities could develop if sustainable solutions are embraced.
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Dutch people aren't born knowing the rules of the road. They're taught from an early age. Bicycling is such an integral part of life in the What’s kind of wonderful is the way that they learn. It’s not just a matter of going to the park with a parent, getting a push, and falling down a bunch of times until you can pedal on your own. Dutch children are expected to learn and follow the rules of the road, because starting in secondary school – at age 12 – they are expected to be able to ride their bikes on their own to school, sometimes as far as nine or 10 miles. Because this independent travel for children is valued in Dutch society, education about traffic safety is something that every Dutch child receives. There's even a bicycle road test that Dutch children are required to take at age 12 in order to prove that they are responsible cycling citizens...
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Nat Turner and the hardworking young crew behind Our School at Blair Grocery are bringing healthy soil and fresh food to the Lower Ninth Ward. Nat Turner, a former New York City public-school teacher, moved to New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward on Thanksgiving Day, 2008. He didn’t know anything about gardening — “I could barely keep a cactus alive” — but he had a vision to start an urban farm that would be a vehicle for educating and empowering the neighborhood’s youth. He’d been making service trips to the Big Easy with students, but he wanted an opportunity to dig deeper, literally and figuratively, into the city’s revitalization. His first goal, Turner says, “is to figure out how to make the Lower Ninth food secure.” It seems fitting, then, that in a neighborhood with no supermarket, Turner set up shop in a falling-down building that had once housed a black-owned family business called the B&G Grocery. He filled a pink bathtub in the backyard with soil and planted scallions, which floated away when the bathtub flooded in a rainstorm. That was the beginning of Our School at Blair Grocery (OSBG)...
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Education is critical if we are to continue to improve our cities. With this in mind, This Big City’s Joe Peach and Lyndsey Scofield were thrilled to get the opportunity to talk with Aseem Inam, Director of the MA Theories of Urban Practice, and Miguel Robles-Duran, Director of the MS Design and Urban Ecologies, from Parsons The New School for Design. Education, Urbanization & Citizen Activism were just some of the subjects that emerged in conversation.
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Continuing the thread of review for the new landscape urbanism website, I'm discussing 'The Re-Representation of Urbanism' by Gerdo Aquino, SWA Principal as well as educator and author of the book 'Landscape Infrastructure'. As a fundamental opening to his essay, Aquino mentions the major shift that has taken place towards urbanization and linking it to Odum's ecological idea of the 'carrying capacity' as these areas continually add more people. It's interesting to think in these terms in numbers we can related to, so the example of the resource base for Los Angeles being about to support 1% of the current population is troubling - as it is a case in point (and a poignant example) of us living well above our means.
|
|
Scooped by
Lauren Moss
|
Mapping higher education as a potent force of development across the city, now and in the future. Essay by Mitchell Moss.
|
The Supertrees are vertical gardens that vary from 20-50 meters in height, which line the OCBC Skyway, a 128-metre long walkway that provide glorious views of the Gardens and Marina Bay area. These structures are created by wrapping a steel frame around a concrete core to support planting panels. The vertical “grove” allows the Gardens to showcase different plant species found in the different strata of forests, including epiphytes and orchids. In fact, there are approximately 162,900 plants representing more than 200 species on these manmade trees. Of the 18 total Supertrees, 11 are also embedded with environmentally sustainable functions such as photovoltaic cells that harvest energy that is later used in the nightly light up show. Some are also connected to the biomes and serve as air exhaust receptacles.