Biking goes cultural

Starting on april 21 there will be an exhibition on bicycles and associated items at design museum Röhsska in Göteborg.

Ciclovia

Images: Global Arquitectura Paisagista

The Tagus is more beautiful than the river which flows through my village
But the Tagus is not more beautiful than the river which flows through my village

Because the Tagus is not the river which flows through my village

Poetry by Alberto Caeiro lining a bicycle path along the river Tagus in Lisboa, Portugal.
By Global Landscape Architects.

O Tejo from Abilio Vieira on Vimeo.

2021

There is a new iPad-app out called 2021, a game that allows you to be head of a team planning the future of the city of Gothenburg.

Developed by Mistra Urban Futures for Stadsmuséet. Via G-P.

Eiffel tree

Image: Inhabitat

A french urban planning consultancy recently launched their vision to turn the eiffel tower into an immense body of biomass by covering it with 600.000 plants which, according to the consultants, would symbolize the reconciliation of nature and mankind as the world's population heads for nine billion, seven billion of whom would live in urban areas. Why not? Via Reuters.

Save the date: january 26 Livet i staden 2012

Illustration: Nils-Petter Ekwall. Via Movium

This winter's conference arranged by Movium will go by the name of Livet i staden 2012 (Life in the city 2012). This time the conference will address the idea of the city as an association of people who have gathered in a number of communities and the landscapes surrounding these people.

There will be a number of inspiring lecturers including the following:

Helga Fassbinder, Foundation Biotope City, Amsterdam, Holland

Mattias Litström, Utopia Arkitekter AB, Stockholm

Gregory Trefry, Come Out & Play Festival, New York City, USA

Piet Oudolf, Hummelo, Holland 

The conference will take place at SLU Alnarp, one of the locations of the university educating landscape architects in Sweden.

Save the date: september 5-7 2012 IFLA world congress

Ten months from now the next IFLA world congress called LANDSCAPES IN TRANSITION will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. The subject up for discourse is the social and environmental challenges facing us while moving towards a sustainable future. September is springtime in South Africa!

Read more at the IFLA web site.

Picked out project: Gary Comer Youth Center Roof Garden

images: www.asla.org

In a not very fancy part of Chicago there is the Gary Comer Youth Centre designed by John Ronan Architects and on top of the building is a garden producing organic fruits and vegetables and providing the center's café with fresh produce.

Places like this make me happy! I think we need to grow our food closer to where we live given the post peak oil times facing us.

Decapitated mountains

image via: www.ecosphericblog.com

In today's Svenska Dagbladet, a Stockholm based daily newspaper, there is an article on mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachians, West Virginia, US. In short this is a cheaper faster way to extract coal than traditional mining and it involves blowing up mountaintops, buying off house owners in the area to be able to legally dump the waste down the slopes of the mountains and into the valleys, burying water streams and disturbing or destroying wildlife in vast areas.

This seems to be a very undignified way to treat a 480 million years old mountain.

Picked out project: Windstalk

image: atelierdna.com

When swaying like grass in the wind these tall carbon fiber reinforced resin poles cleverly generate electricity. As well as creating a landscape of displaced proportions. The project Windstalk by Atelier DNA entered the Land Art Generator Competition in 2010 and came in second. Via Forum Landskap.

Transition Towns

image: www.ettannatgoteborg.se

This weekend Gothenburg hosted its very first conference on the subject of Transition. I went to see the co-founder of the first Transition Town in Totnes, UK, Naresh Giangrande hold an inspiring speech on moving from oil dependence towards community resilience. He shared some nice examples of what is happening in the UK, like the Cottage Farm and the community owned Handmade Bakery. Paul Sousek, owner of Cottage Farm describes his journey towards sustainability like this:

"Spent 20 years in market research, discovered Peak Oil in 2005, changed my life, quit career, sold house, rescued pension, bought a farm, converted to organic, built up a herd of native rare breed of cattle (Red Ruby) and sheep (Wiltshire Horn), selling meat boxes locally and nationwide on Ebay, converted whole farm to renewables for water heating, space heating, electricity (wind and panels), water from bore hole, running cars and tractor on home produced bio diesel made from waste vegetable oil, built a pond for fishing, planted hundreds of trees for wood, fruit and nuts, grow own veg, soft fruit, potatoes, keep poultry. In short built a lifeboat. Now spreading the message through Transition to establish an island of resilience."

Learn more about the transition movement here,  Transition Sweden here and Omställning Göteborg here.

"We have to start creating the structures which will enable us to be citizens instead of consumers." Naresh Giangrande