Archive for the ‘Visions’ Category
Visions refer to ideas on how to create a sustainable future for cities around the world. Visions links in strongly with the overall Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL) project, which designs visions to change our current direction towards a more sustainable future. If you are involved with an environmental visioning project you are welcome to post information about your work on SustainableCitiesNet.com. To do so visit the “How to use this site†page and follow the prompts.
Collaborative Democracy
Posted in Research, Visions by Kate Archdeacon on September 3rd, 2010
Source: Worldchanging.com
Image: infomatique from flickr CC
This article is from a remixed talk by Beth Noveck’s on “Transparent Government“. The talk was given as part of the Long Now Foundation‘s Seminars about Long-Term Thinking. The talks were remixed by Hassan Masum, are made available under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 2.5 license.
The talk describes a social experiment “which seized upon the truth that each of us is an expert in something” that was designed to investigate ways of re-energising democratic decision making. It started from the following point,
We have been concentrating decision-making power in the hands of too few people – whether legislatures, or cabinet officials, or bureaucrats and agencies like the patent office. We construct our institutional practices around the notion that this is the best way that we have to make decisions. Even though we do not have a system of monarchy or aristocracy, we still believe in the notion of political expertise, and the notion that we have to rest power at the center.
What exacerbates this problem is that we are making long-term decisions that affect the fate of our planet. The fate of our economy, and of major systems of health care and education and environment, are being decided by people who are in short-term political positions. We have a disconnect between the long-term effect of what we do, and short-term electoral cycles.
We have to look at the ways we can reengineer our institutions to take advantage of the expertise that comes from outside the center, and bring it into the way that we make decisions.
Read the full article on Worldchanging
Buckminster Fuller Challenge: Open for Entry
Posted in Events, Visions by Kate Archdeacon on September 1st, 2010
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual international design Challenge awarding $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. It attracts bold, visionary, tangible initiatives focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Winning solutions are regionally specific yet globally applicable and present a truly comprehensive, anticipatory, integrated approach to solving the world’s complex problems.
» Applications are now being accepted: How to Enter
» Deadline is Monday, October 4, 2010 at 5pm, Eastern Standard Time
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Floating Home
Posted in Research, Visions by Kate Archdeacon on August 27th, 2010
Source: Metropolis Magazine
A competition proposal to develop a floating city has developed into ‘the world’s first off-the-grid floating building’ in Rotterdam.
Towed into place in the Rijnhaven harbor late this spring, the 10,764-square-foot pavilion is made of three geodesic domes designed by Bart Roeffen, a local architect. It grew out of a competition proposal for a floating city developed by Roeffen and fellow students at the Delft University of Technology. “We thought it was a brilliant idea to promote Rotterdam as a city on the water to anticipate the effects of climate change,” says Arnoud Molenaar, program director of the Rotterdam Climate Proof Program.
The city is expanding its current harbour by 20% and this expansion has created the space for up to 5000 similar floating structures that could potentially use the harbours and docks that are being superseded.
Original article by Cathryn Drake on Metropolis Magazine
Living Climate Change Video Challenge
Posted in Visions by Kate Archdeacon on February 22nd, 2010
Source: Inhabitat
As designers, we believe that envisioning the future leads to new choices and opportunities. Living Climate Change, an online community hosted by IDEO, presents a conversation designed to move the dialogue about climate change toward inspiring, human-centered scenarios that create new possibilities for business and society.
The Living Climate Change Video Challenge invites you to show us your vision of a future shaped by climate change, as we move along the path toward reduced carbon emissions.
The Challenge
Create an original video that envisions how climate change will impact our lives over the next 20 to 30 years. Looking beyond the doom and gloom and the policy discussions that have dominated the debate, how would you envision a human-centered, sustainable future? Which behaviors will change? Which will be preserved?
The Nature of Cities: Film
Posted in Visions by Kate Archdeacon on December 9th, 2009
Source: How It Grows
Image: Congress Avenue Bridge, by jessicareeder via flickr CC
University of Virgina professor Timothy Beatly premiered his new film, The Nature of Cities, at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s Gillette Forum on October 29th. The film is an interesting overview of various ways in which nature and sustainable architecture are being incorporated into European and American cities. Geared towards people outside the design and science community, it’s a great introduction to the concept of urban nature. The film has several interesting vignettes, like a car-free development that is so eerily quiet you can follow the sound of waves to find a nearby beach. Or a week-long bio-blitz of a canyon in San Diego that allows kids who were previously warned about the ‘danger’ of the local canyon to explore it and identify the native plants and insects.
The most striking story in the film features the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas, famous for its bat colony. The city has gone from trying to torch the bats under the bridge to setting up a protected area where crowds of people assemble to watch 1.5 million bats emerge in the evenings. Now, new bridges in Texas are being specifically designed to house bat colonies. Imagine if more of our buidings and infrastructure were built this way! It’s fascinating to see the shift in construction from environmentally harmful, to environmentally neutral, to environmentaly positive.
Source: How It Grows
Reinventing Invention – A new way of looking at Industrial Design
Posted in Visions by Virginia on May 13th, 2009
Excerpt from March Issue of Metropolis. To view the article, please visit Metropolismag.
By Susan S. Szenasy
I’m having a wabi sabi moment. Thoughts of simplicity, tranquility, and balance envelop my senses even as I feel a lively intelligence hovering around me. I’ve escaped into Tadao Ando’s Suntory Museum, on Osaka’s carnivalesque waterfront, and I’m strolling through white interiors, looking at an array of famÂiliar objects. They tell a story about how inventive forms, in conjunction with material and technical innovation, can result in an iconic family of industrial designs.
What sustainability should look like in Valley by 2025
Posted in Visions by Devin Maeztri on May 1st, 2009
“With visionary planning, we created a practical oasis” – original article by Rob Melnick posted in The Arizona Republic.
“Cities would need innovative regional sustainability plans and would have to create economies of scale when purchasing sustainable technologies for public benefit, such as solar-energy products.”
Rob Melnick is executive dean, Global Institute of Sustainability, and Presidential Professor of Practice, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
To read more of the article visit The Arizona Republic
The Sustainable Cities Network and VEIL wish you a Happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year!
Posted in Visions by fedwards on December 24th, 2008
The Sustainable Cities Network and the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year! The Sustainable Cities Network will be on hold from 25 December to 12 January. We look forward to working with you all to achieve significant sustainable change in 2009!
Best,
Ferne Edwards
Sustainable Cities Network moderator
Bioneering ahead!
Posted in Visions by fedwards on October 28th, 2008
Posted recently on the excellent blog, Worldchanging.com, is a review of the Bioneers conference. Bioneers are “social and scientific innovators from all walks of life and disciplines who have peered deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates, and to mimic “nature’s operating instructions” to serve human ends without harming the web of life“. Now in its 19th year the Bioneers conference had some fantastic speakers, including Janine Benyus, Ray Anderson, Bill McKibben, David Orr, Naomi Klein, and others. To view the review by author Jeremy Faludi and get inspired by some innovative environmentally-engaged thought, click here.
Designing human-powered flight
Posted in Visions by fedwards on October 26th, 2008
Recently published on TED.com is the story of Paul MacCready, an aircraft designer who talks about what we all can do to preserve nature’s balance. His contribution: solar planes, superefficient gliders and the electric car. To view the footage click here.