Tokyo (AFP) Jan 1, 2013 - Japanese regulators have found inadequate fireproofing at more than one fifth of the nuclear reactors that went offline after the 2011 Fukushima crisis, a major daily said Tuesday.
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As cities become more conscious of their environmental and social impact, smart growth has become a ubiquitous umbrella term for a slew of principles to which designers and planners are encouraged to adhere.
NewUrbanism.org has distributed 10 points that serve as guides to development that are similar to both AIA’s Local Leaders: Healthier Communities through Design and New York City’s Active Design Guidelines: Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design. Planners all appear to be on the same page in regards to the nature of future development. But as Brittany Leigh Foster of Renew Lehigh Valley points out, these points tend to be vague; they tell us “what” but they do not tell us “how”. 10 Rules for Smarter Smart Growth by Bill Adams of UrbDeZine San Diego enumerates how to achieve the various design goals and principles that these various guides encourage. Via Lauren Moss Delete the scoop?
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Eco-city 2020 is a proposal for the rehabilitation of the Mirniy industrial zone in Eastern Siberia, Russia designed by the innovative architectural studio AB Elis Ltd. The project would be located inside a giant man-made crater of more than one kilometer in diameter and 550 meters deep that used to be one of the world’s largest quarries. The idea is to create a new garden city shielded from the harsh Siberian environmental conditions and instead, attract tourists and residents to Eastern Siberia, with the ability to accommodate more than 100,000 people. The new city is planned to be divided in 3 main levels with a vertical farm, forests, residences, and recreational areas. One of the most interesting aspects of the proposal is the glass dome that will protect the city and would be covered by photovoltaic cells that will harvest enough solar energy for the new development. A central core houses the majority of the vertical circulations and infrastructure along with a multi-level research center. The housing area is located in the first level with outdoor terraces overlooking a forest in the center of the city, in order to create a new type of highly dense urbanism in harmony with nature.
View diagrams & renderings, and learn more about this interesting approach to urban design, sustainability and renewal at the complete article link... Via Lauren Moss, Hans De Keulenaer Delete the scoop?
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The Harvard Graduate School of Design released its Ecological Urbanism app last month. The interactive app adapts content from the GSD book of the same name, which explores how designers can unite urbanism with environmentalism. Combining data from around the world, the app “reveals and locates current practices, emerging trends, and opportunities for new initiatives” in regard to the future of cities. A collaboration between the school and Second Story Interactive Studios,the app stems from the GSD’s Ecological Urbanism conference and dovetails with the duo’s ongoing efforts to explore sustainability in our cities of the future. Via Lauren Moss, landscape architecture &sustainability, F|Mattiuzzo Delete the scoop?
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The green living lifestyle skyrocketed in the last decade and became a social injection of epic proportions. In no time shoes were being made from bamboo, college towns were turned into tiny Vespa cities, and the canvas bag market boomed like it was being shot from a cannon. Suddenly, shrinking America’s Shaq-sized carbon footprint seemed possible, and everything from water bottles to t-shirts changed their ingredients. There are plenty of ways to go green and promote sustainable living in your home and community. Beyond simply rolling out the recycle bin to the curb and making eco-chic clutches out of Capri Sun pouches, you can get innovative with your recycling through local waste services like Republic Services in the US and other international equivalents who, by changing the way they take care of trash and recyclables, are making money from your waste. Earth consciousness is perpetually rising, and waste management is following suit. Here’s a quick trip around the globe, looking at three sustainable cities on the rise and what they’re doing to be friendly to the earth... Via Lauren Moss, Digital Sustainability Delete the scoop?
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A very long, very bold to-do list for the next 20 years. The city of Toronto has already begun to sketch out policies that could reduce the area’s greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades. Officials have proposed greening the electric grid, banning incandescent light bulbs, promoting green roofs on commercial buildings, retrofitting 1960s-era high-rises and implementing a stricter energy-efficient building code for new construction. With transportation, the city wants to expand bike lanes and transit infrastructure, all while it anticipates that electric vehicles will grow slowly more common. This is a pretty standard menu of ideas, and according to scientists it will get the city part of the way toward the kind of changes broadly needed to really keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius. But to really alter the future prospects for climate change, much more will have to happen in Toronto, and every other city. Researchers used the city as a case study to model what a truly aggressive framework might look like. If Toronto wants to cut emissions by 70 percent by 2031, all of these actions (or others with a similar impact) might be required in tandem... Via Lauren Moss, Stephane Bilodeau, Lockall, Territori, Ursula Sola de Hinestrosa 
Pamela D Lloyd's curator insight,
February 13, 6:13 PM
While the steps being proposed in Toronto may not be as aggressive as those recommending by researchers concerned with reversing the climate changes caused by humanity's activity, they are at least a step in the right direction and far more than what seems likely in most U.S. cities.
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Cities never stand still, so why should architecture? The future of buildings is adaptability, and mobility can augment the special powers of architecture to encompass greater experiences, while contributing more to the urban whole at large. Still, it’s not enough for buildings to move on their own; it’s the development and infrastructural connective tissues between and beyond city blocks that proves just as important. The way we get around the city is changing, and so the services that the city has to offer are shifting as well. Fixed institutions like universities and libraries will need to be just as agile as food trucks. Commerce can venture out from their flagship shops on Soho and literally “pop-up” and sprout throughout the city. Similarly, more will be expected from cars and automobile circulation, just as larger urban developments will need to be embedded with urban spaces. Motion is the key to the future of the city, and the A+: Mobility Award will honor the best project that reflects this fundamental shift... Via Lauren Moss, Digital Sustainability Delete the scoop?
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As we plan for the future of our planet, it is imperative that we consider the effects of development on both the environment and human populations. A city is only truly sustainable if it uses natural resources efficiently while still fully meeting the needs of its inhabitants and a decent standard of living.
Via Lauren Moss, Peter Jasperse, David Hodgson Delete the scoop?
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One of the greatest environmental and social challenges facing many countries is the development of urban water management strategies that will support significant population growth in an era of climate change. By the middle of this century, about 70 per cent of the world’s population will be living in cities where existing water services and planning processes are ill equipped to handle such growth and the accompanying economic and climatic challenges. Climatic extremes of droughts, floods and heatwaves will place increasing pressure on the livability of cities. Via Lauren Moss, Digital Sustainability Delete the scoop?
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