Towering work in a brown paper wrapper

March 8, 2010 at 10:54 am
Filed under Design education, Exhibit Design, Green Related, Materials, Placemaking, Public Art

A ten-meter tower made entirely of recyclable cardboard, brought to the Carton Plein! exhibit in a small delivery truck, and erected in nine hours with no scaffolding.  Oh, and it’s student work. — A.M.

Trees for Toronto

March 8, 2010 at 10:25 am
Filed under Green Related, Signage

Toronto’s Queens Park is a green oasis in the urban core, home to almost 50 species of trees—from mature red and white oaks to butternuts, Norway maples, lindens, and pines. To help preserve and renew the forest, and to promote stewardship of the park, Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation partnered with good neighbor Royal Ontario Museum on the Trees for Toronto project.

ROM donated $100,000 to plant trees and create interpretive elements that help foster appreciation for the forest. The signs, fabricated by Acumen Visual Group, detail the natural and cultural history of the park, identify tree species, and generally help to remind residents and visitors that the park is a jewel to be treasured.  –P.M.K.

Not just pretty buildings

January 18, 2010 at 9:57 am
Filed under Architecture, Green Related

Philadelphia's Thin Flats condo development, designed by Onion Flats, is a model for energy efficiency.

If a rising group of Philadelphia architects has its way, the city’s skyline might not get a lot prettier, but it will be more environmentally friendly. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Inga Saffron writes about the Philadelphia Four, a group of architectural firms that want to focus on process rather than good looks, using their talents to invent cheaper, greener ways to build. Their work is diverse, but shares the conviction that conventional building methods are obsolete. — C.B.

Back to the future?

January 12, 2010 at 9:24 am
Filed under Architecture, Design business, Green Related

Design and construction-related business are in for a long, slow climb back to mid-2000s levels of work, according to the latest issue of DesignIntelligence. An emerging “new normal” will require firms to batten the hatches and look critically at their business structures, practices, services, and brands.

But there are glimmers of hope. “2010: A Year of Convalescence,” featured in the journal’s January/February issue, identifies 25 significant trends that architecture and design firms can use to hang on during a painfully slow economic recovery.

Authors James P. Cramer and Jane Gaboury say sustainability will drive design in the coming years, so companies that embrace these types of projects will have better chances of thriving. They also focus on creating new business models, building strategic collaborations, using metrics to measure systems performance, and leveraging evidence-based design to demonstrate design’s impact on client’s businesses.  –P.M.K.

Wooden textiles

January 10, 2010 at 9:01 am
Filed under Green Related, Materials

Elisa Strozyk creates fluid fabrics by affixing geometric wooden shapes to a fabric substrate.  Since she’s using offcuts of wood veneer, it’s all very green. — A.M.

The power of information (graphics)

December 29, 2009 at 10:43 am
Filed under Green Related, Misc.

Until now, average citizens might not know if there’s a toxic dump site in their neighborhood, or if a nearby factory is polluting water sources. But a new interactive map released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency takes a small step toward transparency in its enforcement efforts.

The map pinpoints locations of facilities that have been the subject of enforcement actions related to air, water, and land pollution. They include enforcement actions and cases from 2009, including civil enforcement actions taken at facilities, criminal cases prosecuted under federal statutes, and cases in which EPA provided support in state criminal cases.

It’s a small but important step, and another example of how graphics can be used for the public good. The map is not lovely, but it does provide crucial information. We’ll give the EPA an A+ for effort. — P.M.K.

Refuse Probes Project

December 5, 2009 at 9:23 am
Filed under Exhibit Design, Green Related, Placemaking, Politics, Public Art, Social Issues

“At this year’s Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (SZHKB), LOT-EK  will be presenting their Refuse Probes Project. It is a physical and social device that visually questions the relationship between the artificial/manmade and the natural. The concept looks to the local waste of shenzhen’s manufacturing landscape. Using this refuse LOT-EK has produced vertical units, stacks which are a visual representation aspects of packing, shipping transformation and the movement and trade of goods within the area. They are cut and extracted out of the ground to reveal the layers of refuse accumulated under the top soil of the land.” — A.M.

Coolest water bottle. Ever.

November 13, 2009 at 9:45 am
Filed under Green Related, Misc.

Each color stands for a cause.  Each cap holds a stone with your personal mission statement.  And there’s more to explore. — A.M.

Water wonderland

November 9, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Filed under Architecture, Green Related, Landscape Architecture, Uncategorized

“In Florian Boer and Marco Vermeulen’s proposal, rainwater runoff isn’t funneled into a complex system of underground pipes, a system that is rather expensive to build and maintain, but is managed instead through a network of surface reservoirs, the Waterpleinen, or Watersquares. These storage spaces will be dry for most of the year, but during storm events, they will collect water from the surrounding neighborhood. If one reaches capacity, excess water will overflow into another basin. After the rain, the collected water will slowly recede into nearby bodies of water or seep into the soil.” — A.M.

Big yellow – and green – bus shelter

November 5, 2009 at 9:42 am
Filed under Arts and Crafts, Green Related, Transportaton

“This unique bus shelter is the work of Christopher Fennell. The sculptor and designer turned bits and pieces of school buses from ‘62, ‘72 and ‘77, and their city line seats, into a most intriguing bus shelter. The bus shelters were designed with the aim of reducing waste and encouraging people to recycle and adopt greener lifestyles.” — A.M.