Currently browsing

December 2012

Cardboard cathedral in New Zealand

  Cardboard cathedral being built in earthquake hit Christchurch – short news clip (1:45 min) about Shigeru Ban’s design for a cathedral made of cardboard tubes which is to replace the structure destroyed last year by earthquake.  The city wants to use the cardboard building, designed to hold 700 people, …

Good planning magazine, The Urbanist

  If you’re an urban planner or if you’re interested in how cities work, check out the magazine The Urbanist from the San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Association (SPUR).  The focus is on “good planning and good government in the San Francisco Bay Area” but the issues addressed, the …

World’s largest prefab building

    Largest modular high-rise – post about recent groundbreaking in Brooklyn for what will be the world’s largest pre-fabricated building.  The 32-storey / 363-apartment structure is the first of a planned 15.  Designed by SHoP Architects (also image source).   As quoted from the New York Times: …next spring, 125 …

Korean work culture

      HOK’s Leigh Stringer was part of a project team in Korea recently and makes great observations on Korean culture and work environment (love the photo, Leigh!).  Here’s a selection: On being there in general: We didn’t see a lot of bikes but public transportation is good. Gangnam is an actual district where people actually …

Phi design software

    Check out PhiMatrix, software that applies the principles of Phi, the Golden Ratio – PhiMatrix is a design and analysis software application for Windows and Mac.  The PhiMatrix grid system quickly overlays any image in any software on your screen to identify or apply phi proportions in various …

HBR – top sustainable stories of 2012

Top 10 Sustainable Business Stories of 2012 – Harvard Business Review’s blog network has collected their top stories on green business into a summary post which includes macro trends and company stories.  Here are the main points: Historic drought and Hurricane Sandy sweep away (some) climate denial The math and physics …

Designers talk about books

  Designers talk about books that have inspired them on Designers & Books‘ section on Designers.  Choose from 127 (as of today; what you see here is the first of three pages) “architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, interior designers, landscape architects, product designers, urban designers, and other design professionals” and …

Wind+solar+storage = full grid power by 2030

  Wind, solar power paired with storage could be cost-effective way to power grid – Recent research from the University of Delaware and Delaware Technical Community College says this can be done by 2030 at costs comparable to today’s.  The study drew on data from 13 states, about one fifth …

Find a Spring

The website Find a Spring lists natural springs from around the world.  As you can see from the map, North America and Europe have by far the most listings, but it looks like other regions are starting to be filled in – India, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, …

The Importance of Soil and Its Conservation

The Importance of Soil and Its Conservation [Video] – this 5+ min video is packed with statistics about soil and how we use and thoughtlessly misuse this most valuable of resources.  See more at Global Soil Forum, a European partnership that recently sponsored the first Global Soils Week.  The Global Soil …

Reclaiming South Bronx’ industrial waterfront

A second life in the South Bronx – commentary on WAN (World Architecture News) about one project – Hunt’s Point Landing – in the 20-project South Bronx Greenway effort to reclaim the brownfields and industrial sites that make up much of the riverfront of the South Bronx.  Details and background are …