Urban agriculture, Agri-burbia, and the Inevitable Need to go Vertical.
The realization of imminent changes to the way we obtain resources is a topic that many within the design realm continue to ignore as a whole. Focused attempts at recycling energy, water, and other resources are fantastic and should continue, however, these attempts do not curb the reality that the city, including the suburbs, still works like a parasite, not an ecosystem. A city will never work as such until the number one rule of an ecosystem is addressed: The food source must be a cycle from within.
Landscape Theories: Aesthetic Sustainability and Organic Design
Let us abandon simplicity and give unity its due.’ – Ian McHarg 1969
This post is part book review and part reflection on the ecology of design and sustainability. It begins with a tour of an organic farm in north Florida and closes with one chapter of Simon Swaffield’s reader Theory in Landscape Architecture.
Environmental Focus for Miami’s New Science Museum
ArquitectonicaGEO, the integral landscape architecture division of Miami’s longtime architecture firm Arquitectonica, has designed the ecologically motivated outdoor spaces for the new Miami Science Museum located along Downtown Miami’s waterfront. The new museum is part of Miami’s vision to focus energy along their once overlooked downtown water’s edge. It will be located inside Museum Park adjacent to the new Miami Art Museum, all currently under construction and to be completed by 2015. The museum has incorporated a green roof, storm water rain garden, and food forest that will let the “living” landscape begin the teaching experience even before the user enters the state of the art museum.
An Honest Roof for a Rising Profession
Visited the ASLA greenroof on Friday. For all the pomp and circumstance that people have made about it, my visit was honestly quite an underwhelming experience. I missed my Metro stop because I was doing a crossword and ended up in Chinatown about a block away from ASLA. So I thought, “Hey, I should check out the greenroof, I’ve been meaning to do that.” The office is small and unassuming when I approached it and I was met by a seemingly perturbed receptionist who may or may not have thought it was ridiculous that I should bother her for a tour at 8:45 in the morning.
Benidorm Seafront Promenade
Benidorm is a coastal, tourist oriented city in Spain that is built to be very dense. The positive side of this concentration is that less acreage is used for an area that is only used for a portion of the year and empty for the rest. A competition was held to create a new promenade on a 1.5km long stretch of the west beach. The project is interesting in its focus because it serves as a barrier from the city for the beach, a transition zone, as well as a public zone with the opportunity for many other public activities.
Plant of the Week: White Top Pitcher Plant
With stormwater management and rain gardens becoming more prevalent in design, incorporating aquatic plants into designs is a necessity. Our plant of week is part of the Sarracenia genus and can add texture, color and distinct didactic forms to both residences and preserves.
Zeitgeist !
A pleasant surprise found at the bookstore. My regrets on picture quality.
Title image credit: Zimbio.com
Urban Soccer and Its Implementation
Over at the City Parks Blog a recently highlighted topic really hit home for me as a soccer player / urban planning enthusiast. Soccer has for recent years, at least since I was a kid, become the quintessential sport for young people and for good reason. There are low introductory requirements for one: no extravagant pads to be bought, no huge height requirement to be good, and leagues are as numerous as ever for all levels of skill. Not to mention that soccer is the world’s sport, a fact that attracts people that have settled here from other countries.
A Little Insight From St. John
Being privileged enough to have met great people in my life; I was recently put up in a flat on the rocky slopes of a Caribbean paradise called St. John, US Virgin Islands. Historically, I found it to be a mix of Jamaican and Puerto Rican cultures having been thieved from native tribes by Columbus and Dutch plantation owners, plundered by pirates, bought by a Rockefeller and donated for its current use: conservation land and rum fueled Jeep trails.
Park Review: Parc Central de Nou Barris; Barcelona, Spain
If there is one city that portrays connectivity as a key to good urban design, it is Barcelona, Spain. In my first visit to the city in the Fall of 2009, I was blown away by how well organized the city and its layers were. By far, it is my favorite city I have visited and a beautiful example of the synergy between society and urbanity. One of the hundreds of site to visit in Barcelona is Parc Central de Nou Barris.
