Share ideas that matter on the social web and experience
the benefits of curating the world's best content.
I don't have a Facebook, a Twitter or a LinkedIn account
 Your new post is loading...
Scoop.it!
Dynamic catalog of patterns, structures, experiments, reflections and digital explorations on built and natural environment by Ignacio López Busón resulting from the London Architectural Association Landscape Urbanism Master's Programme (AALU) with the collaboration of Olga Mikhaleva during the course 2011-2012, and the AALU students and Giancarlo Torpiano and Vincenzo Reale during the current course 2012-2013. No comment yet.
Sign up to comment
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Interactive global population density map, ranging from 5 to 500 people per square kilometer. According to its creator, Derek Watkins, "it’s an unabashedly generalized interactive population density map inspired/stolen from a map by William Bunge entitled “Islands of Mankind” that I came across on John Krygier‘s blog. I thought Bunge’s map was a novel way to look at population density, and I’ve tried to stay close to the spirit of the original."
Find the original "Islands of Mankind" here: http://makingmaps.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/islands_of_man.jpg And John Krygier's post "More Principles of Map Design" here: http://makingmaps.net/2008/02/05/more-principles-of-map-design/ Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Created by Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari, Ladybug is a free and open source environmental plugin for Grasshopper to help designers create an environmentally-conscious architectural design. Ladybug allows you to: import and analyze standard weather data in Grasshopper; draw diagrams like Sun-path, wind-rose, radiation-rose, etc; customize the diagrams in several ways; run radiation analysis, shadow studies, and view analysis for your design inside Grasshopper!
Download it from here: https://github.com/mostaphaRoudsari/ladybug
Grasshopper's Ladybug Site: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/ladybug Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Adaptative Flux Morphologies proposes strategies for urban morphological development based on computational simulation of urban flows. This Final Thesis is the result of the Emergent Technologies & Design MArch at the Architectural Association during the course 2011-2012 and was designed by Javier A. Cardós Elena, Dennis Goff, Goli Jalal and Mary Polites.
"The main objective of this research is to develop a system for generating transportation networks in growing urban area, and to couple the resulting flows within this network with built morphologies at the architectural scale. "Transportation and communication infrastructure systems have played a drammatic role in contributing to explosive urban growth, and therefore impact on its form", thus a system that is capable of linking large urban networks with urban morphologies is necessary in order to ensure the continued effectiveness of the city as a whole. Just as transportation networks can contribute to urban growth, they must also adapt to it. This research addresses the development of urbanism through network design, which aims to develop connections that are able to adapt to new requirements over time." AFM Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
At the 1997 ESRI User Conference, Jack Dangermond honored landscape architect Ian McHarg, author of Design with Nature, with the president’s award. Here is a video of McHarg’s acceptance speech, where with typical humor he reminisces about his seminal discoveries of overlays and chronology, the challenges of environmental planning, and the role that GIS can play.
"So then, I discovered this wonderful conception of layers. But the environment, of course, is not divided, say by language and science...but the divisions have fragmented the environment and so it has to be reconstituted using chronology as a device. Let's suppose about 30 or 40 years ago, I invented ecological planning and one thing we could say about it, having all these disparate scientists and so on, bringing them all together we were able to do really quite elegant ecological plans."
First part of the speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PfcKtcc_jA Second part here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDpKmZE8Hok
Transcript of the entire acceptance speech here: video.esri.com/transcript/127/en-us/pdf/video-of-ian-mcharg-at-the-esri-user-conference-in-1997
And an interview to McHarg on regional planning by Cliff Ellis for The Berkeley Planning Journal here: http://escholarship.ucop.edu/uc/item/5gj2n3d1 Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
“Landform Systems: Surface as Performative Terrain” presents a compilation of relevant contemporary Landscape Urbanism projects. All of them defend the idea of topography and surface as means to organize the territory, being able to address specificity and flexibility at the same time. This presentation was part of the Landscape Representation subject at GSD in 2011, instructed by Andrea Hansen. It features works by Stoss, FOA, Field Operations and Reiser+Umemoto among others. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"At a time of increasing concern over the adequacy of design methods, "A City is not a Tree" broke open and reoriented the debate. It also represented a fundamental change in Christopher Alexander's thinking. While retaining the mathematical foundation underlying his Notes on the Synthesis of Form, "A City is not a Tree" takes it in a very different direction. Where the one seeks a crystalline logic to arrive at the notion of "fitness" between form and programme, the other points to a fundamental ambiguity and overlap in the relation of form to its uses. The one is an extreme extension of Modernist rationalism, the other a reaction against it." Charles Jencks and Karl Kropf
"The tree of my title is not a green tree with leaves. It is the name of an abstract structure. I shall contrast it with another, more complex abstract structure called a semi-lattice. The city is a semi-lattice, but it is not a tree. In order to relate these abstract structures to the nature of the city, I must first make a simple distinction..." Christopher Alexander (1965) 
Landscape MASLA ETH Zurich's curator insight,
January 26, 9:02 AM
Great, thanks for sharing the pdf with us - the texts of Christopher Alexander are always very inspiring! Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Preface of the classic "Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture" written in 1964 by Bernard Rudofsky.
"Architectural history, as written and taught in the Western world, has never been concerned with more than a few select cultures. In terms of space it comprises but a small part of the globe -Europe, stretches of Egypt and Anatolia- or little more than was known in the second century AD. Moreover, the evolution of architecture is usually dealt with only in its late phases.”
Maria Popova's review "What Ancient Structures Reveal About Collaborative Design" here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/23/architecture-without-architects-bernard-rudofsky/
The Amazon's link here: http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Without-Architects-Introduction-Non-Pedigreed/dp/0826310044/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1358019202&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Architecture+Without+Architects Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
According to its author "mostly about matter, process, designed ignes fatui and digitized transfiguration", this compilation, created in 2011, has more than 1000 inspiring images on art, design, architecture, landscape, urbanism and science. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
The US National Geologic Map Database Project (NGMDB) is a collaborative effort primarily involving the USGS and the Association of American State Geologists (AASG). This Web page contains information regarding the development of methods and standards intended to address a fundamental requirement of the NGMDB's authorizing legislation, the Geologic Mapping Act of 1992 - that is, the systematic, regional mapping of the bedrock and surficial deposits, conducted by Federal, State, University, and private entities since 1800's.
"Geologic maps contributed to the national archives should have standarized format, symbols, and technical attributes so that archival information can be assimilated, accessed, exchanged, and compared efficiently and accurately." Access to the NGMDB Map Catalog here: http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngmdb/ngmdb_home.html Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time he was Japan's leading expert on Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (c. 1831) which includes the iconic and internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. [...] His influences stretched to his contemporaries in nineteenth century Europe whose new style Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil in Germany, was influenced by him and by Japanese art in general. This was also part of the larger Impressionism movement. [...] His work became focused on landscapes and images of the daily life of Japanese people from a variety of social levels.
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"The Cambridge Solar Tool shows Cambridge residents, businesses, and property owners how much electricity can be produced on their rooftops from solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, how the financial investment will pay off, and how much pollution will be reduced. The Solar Map was developed by the Sustainable Design Lab at MIT and Modern Development Studio LLC (MoDe Studio) —a consulting, design, and development workshop based in Boston—, in collaboration with the City of Cambridge Community Development Department. MIT created the annual electricity yield map from PV for virtually all Cambridge rooftops, MoDe Studio designed and developed the online viewer as well as its financial and environmental modules, while the City of Cambridge provided the underlying data and images. Technical details can be found under the "Assumptions" tab. [...] Solar energy is a key strategy for Cambridge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the community more resilient to the impacts of climate change. The Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA) program assists the community in taking the next steps toward installing a PV system." Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Tim Stonor is a founding director of the Space Syntax Network, which is an organisation of academic researchers, teachers, software developers and professional practitioners. Their mission is to improve the quality of architectural and urban practice through the development and dissemination of tools that forecast the way that new places will be moved through and occupied by people – and by practising what we preach through planning and designing places that work. They specialize in “evidence-based” planning and design, with a particular focus on spatial layout.
"We use computer-based tools to measure and forecast the influence of spatial layout on social, economic and environmental outcomes such as movement patterns, land use vitality and carbon emissions. We bring cutting edge research directly into practice. This brings a level of rigour to planning and design that is too often missing."
Tim Stonor’s blog: http://timstonor.wordpress.com Space Syntax Network’s website: www.spacesyntax.com "Spatial layout efficiency" lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MBZhNAaZL4&feature=player_embedded Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
|
Scoop.it!
Dynamic compilation of books and publications on design, science and nature to understand the interdisciplinary field of Landscape Urbanism Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Since 2003 Michael Marten has travelled to different parts of the British coast to photograph identical views at high and low tide, six or eighteen hours apart. His beautiful and surprising photographs reveal how the twice daily rhythm of ebb and flood can dramatically transform the landscape. From holiday beaches to industrial estuaries, the photographs record two moments in time, two states of nature. One aspect of what makes these photographs so compelling is the fascination of comparing each pair of pictures, spotting what has or hasn't changed. The contrasting views play with our sense of depth and perspective, and show how subjective is our perception of landscape. The result is a substantial document capturing the variety of the British coastline, a portrait of the maritime landscape that makes visible in a dramatic new way the ebb and flow of tidal waters."
Sample spreads from his book "Sea Change: A Tidal Journey Around Britain" here: http://www.michaelmarten.com/seachangebook/sample_spreads.html Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
“The 2013 Human Development Report -The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World- looks at the evolving geopolitics of our times, examining emerging issues and trends and also the new actors which are shaping the development landscape.The Report argues that the striking transformation of a large number of developing countries into dynamic major economies with growing political influence is having a significant impact on human development progress. […] By 2020, according to projections developed for this Report, the combined economic output of three leading developing countries alone—Brazil, China and India—will surpass the aggregate production of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Much of this expansion is being driven by new trade and technology partnerships within the South itself, as this Report also shows.[…] A key message contained in this and previous Human Development Reports, however, is that economic growth alone does not automatically translate into human development progress. Pro-poor policies and significant investments in people’s capabilities—through a focus on education, nutrition and health, and employment skills—can expand access to decent work and provide for sustained progress.”
Find an interesting article regarding the launch of the report here: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44371&Cr=sustainable+development&Cr1=#.UVqnuDfzl8H
And the report by chapters in pdf here: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2013/download/ Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Relevant collection of essays from the ESRI’s library on how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are pushing the boundaries of Geography sciences and critically changing the way we deal with the built and natural environment.
“By understanding geography and people's relationship to location, we can make informed decisions about the way we live on our planet. A geographic information system (GIS) is a technological tool for comprehending geography and making intelligent decisions. GIS organizes geographic data so that a person reading a map can select data necessary for a specific project or task. A good GIS program is able to process geographic data from a variety of sources and integrate it into a map project. From routinely performing work-related tasks to scientifically exploring the complexities of our world, GIS gives people the geographic advantage to become more productive, more aware, and more responsive citizens of planet Earth.”
Volume I: http://www.esri.com/library/bestpractices/essays-on-geography-gis.pdf Volume II: http://www.esri.com/library/bestpractices/essays-on-geography-gis-vol2.pdf Volume III: http://www.esri.com/library/bestpractices/essays-on-geography-gis-vol3.pdf Volume IV: http://www.esri.com/library/bestpractices/essays-on-geography-gis-vol4.pdf Volume V: http://www.esri.com/library/bestpractices/essays-on-geography-gis-vol5.pdf Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Dynamic compilation of books and publications on design, science and nature to understand the interdisciplinary field of Landscape Urbanism Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Draw like a scientist! Great collection of truly inspiring images about science and nature by @lukaslarge
“As art reflects culture, scientific illustration reflects the findings of science and technology. Scientific illustration takes the viewer to the often unobservable - from molecules and viruses to the universe, from depiction of the internal anatomy of arthropods and plants to geologic cross sections and reconstruction of extinct life forms, ranging from realistic to abstract portrayal. Shapes, anatomy, details, and concepts that cannot be conveyed with words form the essence of this art. […] Science illustrators are artists in the service of science. They use scientifically informed observation, combined with technical and aesthetic skills to accurately portray a subject. Accuracy and communication are essential. The skilled scientific illustrator can clarify multiple focal depths and overlapping layers, emphasize important details, and reconstruct broken specimens on paper - results unattainable through photography. Structure and detail may be depicted with cutaway drawings, transparencies, and exploded diagrams. Many steps may be required to achieve accuracy.” http://www.gnsi.org/science-illustration Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"In 1960, the United States put its first Earth-observing environmental satellite into orbit around the planet. Over the decades, these satellites have provided invaluable information, and the vantage point of space has provided new perspectives on Earth. This book celebrates Earth’s aesthetic beauty in the Available as a free 160-page ebook or as a free iPad App here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nasa-earth-as-art/id577527077?mt=8 Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Landscape is the context and the source of inspiration for Ms. Lin's art. She peers curiously at the landscape through a twenty-first century lens, merging rational and technological order with notions of beauty and the transcendental. Utilizing technological methods to study and visualize the natural world, Ms. Lin takes micro and macro views of the earth, sonar resonance scans, aerial and satellite mapping devices and translates that information into sculptures, drawings and environmental installations. Her works address how we relate and respond to the environment, and presents new ways of looking at the world around us. [...] Ms. Lin has consistently explored how we experience the landscape. She has made works that merge completely with the terrain, blurring the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional space and set up a systematic ordering of the land tied to history, language, and time." Maya Lin Studio Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. This essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble and to continue to learn. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions. A vital read for students, professionals and all those concerned with economics, business, sustainability and the environment."
"Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes...Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes." Russell Ackoff, operations theorist 
Urban Greens Watch's curator insight,
December 26, 2012 4:28 AM
The best book I have heard of to understand how to think in systems, why it can be helpful to do so, and why not. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"The megaform may be defined as displaying the following
characteristics: A large form extending horizontally rather than vertically. A complex form which, unlike the megastructure, is not necessarily articulated into a series of structural and mechanical subsets. A form capable of inflecting the existing urban landscape as found because of its strong topographic character. A form that is not freestanding but rather insinuates itself as a continuation of the surrounding topography, and last but not least, a form that is oriented towards a densification of the urban fabric. Beyond the dense historical core, a megaform may be identified as an urban nexus set within the “space-endless” of the megalopolis." This paper was published to commemorate the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Lecture given by Kenneth Frampton in 1999. A Frampton's similar lecture at Roger Williams University can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI9h9bUJxPE Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Decoding Spaces Components is a set of spatial analysis components for Grasshopper3D and Rhinoceros 5.0 . The DS-Components allow to generate graphs from line-drawings (e.g. street patterns) and analyse these graphs according to familiar graph-measures. The line-drawings are interpreted as segment maps. The derivable graph measures are closeness centrality and betweenness centrality (Space Syntax terms them integration and choice). The measures can be calculated for different radii, to consider differences in cruising ranges for different actors." Developed by Martin Bielik, Sven Schneider, Reinhard König in cooperation with chair Computer Science in Architecture (Prof. Dr. Donath).
More about Space Syntax's methodology here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_syntax Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Katarxis is an online publication regarding urbanism and architecture which in its 3rd edition, incorporates science into the equation. With words and thoughts from Christopher Alexander, Andres Duany, Nikos Salingaros, Leon Krier, Philip Ball, Brian Goodwin and Ian Stewart among others. The issue also incorporates the legendary 1982 debate, between Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman.
"People used to say that just as the twentieth century had been the century of physics, the twenty-first century would be the century of biology… We would gradually move into a world whose prevailing paradigm was one of complexity, and whose techniques sought the co-adapted harmony of hundreds or thousands of variables. This would, inevitably, involve new technique, new vision, new models of thought, and new models of action. I believe that such a transformation is starting to occur…. To be well, we must set our sights on such a future." Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander's Essay here: http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Architecture_Science.htm
Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman debate here: http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Over the past decade landscape has emerged as a model for contemporary urbanism, one uniquely capable of describing the conditions for radically decentralized urbanization, especially in the conetext of complex natural environments. Over that same decade the landscape discipline has enjoyed a period of intellectual and cultural renewal. While much of the landscape discipline's renewed relevance to discussions of the city may be attributed to this renewal or to increased environmental awareness more generally, landscape has improbably emerged as the most relevant disciplinary locus for discussions historically housed in architecture, urban design, or planning." Charles Waldheim (2006)
Amazon's link to the book "The Landscape Urbanism Reader": http://amzn.to/WXRGCb Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
|
