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A team of researchers from Arizona State University have developed a new software system, called Hestia, that is capable of estimating greenhouse gas emissions across entire urban landscapes, all the way down to street level and individual buildings.

The project, known as Hestia after the Greek goddess of home and hearth, allows the team to combine extensive public database “data-mining” with traffic simulation and building-by-building energy-consumption modeling.

According to researchers, Hestia’s increased detail and accuracy will help cities, and possibly even other nations, identify where an investment in energy and greenhouse gas savings would have the greatest impact...

Via Lauren Moss, Territori

Architecture that does not have a function, is not appreciated or that stands unused has no place in a world that consumes as many naturally resources as ours.

The global building industry caters to the needs of billions, but it also is the highest consumer of these resources, meaning that there must be a level of responsibility in play that restricts unnecessary works at all costs.
However, an increasing number of urban development projects are being undertaken that are unused and unnecessary. These ‘ghost towns’ stand as an outdated and regressive waste in the meantime, although they are often justified as a long-term development goal...

Via Lauren Moss, Territori

"The buzz from Copenhagen is all about its new "superhighway" for bikes. The real secret to its pioneering urban design, though, is that it puts people first on all its streets."

 

this is cool!!! 

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Via Laurence Serfaty, Wa Gon, David Hodgson, Anne Caspari, Territori

Experiments in cooperative living offer a great model for building sustainable urban communities. But can they work for everyone?

Back in the good old days, people lived in neighborhoods where they had potlucks, kept an eye on each other’s kids, loaned out lawnmowers and cups of sugar. Each home was its family’s castle, but the instinct to participate in a caring community transcended the temptation to isolate in private houses.

Apparently we’ve strayed so far from that norm over the last half-century or so that it now takes a conscious effort to recreate it. That’s one way to view cohousing, a collaborative housing model imported to the United States from Denmark in the 1970s, in which “residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own neighborhoods.” In the approximately 125 cohousing communities in the U.S., residents share chores and responsibilities, come together for meals and other activities in a common house, and make decisions based on consensus. It’s a conscious way of living designed to encourage social interaction and investment in the greater good.

We’re starting to realize that our long-term future won’t be built around highways, automobiles, and detached houses with fertilized lawns. As more people seek out a different kind of community, cohousing, or projects like it, will grow in popularity...

Via Lauren Moss, Peter Jasperse, Territori