Often nicknamed the “City of Glass” for its towering downtown condominiums, it is hard to imagine that Vancouver, British Columbia used to be a dense cedar and hemlock forest hosting one of the most active above-ground water drainage areas in the Northwest. More than 100 years after the first European settlers arrived on Canada’s West [...]
In Thessaloniki, Northern Greece, on May 24 2012, the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT), the Greek Center for Research and Technology along with the municipality of Thessaloniki, and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, presented the project “You are a click away.” This project will suggest intelligent, environmentally-friendly, and sustainable transportation solutions to citizens of [...]
Spokane’s university presence is synonymous with Gonzaga’s basketball fame. But there are many other universities trying to take their place as downtown powerhouses in Spokane’s economic future: Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, and Whitworth University are the largest stakeholders at the Riverpoint campus. So, how are things changing for this conglomerate of satellite campuses? [...]
Given the disappointing situation of nuclear energy stations and their hazardous accidents, nations like Denmark have strictly excluded nuclear use as part of their strategy for producing electricity. This has increased aspiring concepts like alternative energy farms: socially and environmentally-harmless frameworks. Autonomous giant structures that coordinate their moves with nature’s rhythm, the wind power plants [...]
Unlike other countries, the Netherlands appears to be on track to support it’s growing elderly population financially; however, as in many places with historical infrastructure, a big question is whether or not the built environment suites the needs for traditionally differently-abled populations. Newer cities with more modern designs are more likely to accommodate access for [...]
At the eastern edge of downtown Vancouver, Canada remains the elevated viaducts of a freeway system that never came to be. In the 1960s, after a display of public engagement that has become legend in Vancouver, a proposed expressway was successfully opposed making Vancouver one of the only cities in North America without a major [...]
“Rethink Athens” is a project organized and funded by the “Onassis Foundation” whose objective is to improve the everyday life of Athenian citizens, by transforming the center of the Greek capital. “Rethink Athens” will be realized by a European competition which will indicate a winning architect (person or legal entity) to undertake the design of a [...]
Locally known as the North-South highway, “North Spokane Corridor,” has been well over 50 years in the making. Since the onslaught of the automobile on the American urban landscape, Spokane has always assumed their future held a four-lane highway to the East-West in I-90 to Idaho, and another going North-South in US 395 to Canada; [...]
“The water in itself adds quality to this city”, Kim Herforth Nielsen, 3XN The United Nations committee reaches worldwide, currently covering 193 member states. Its foundations were set following the end of the Second World War, when 51 countries committed to invest their power in the welfare organization. The declaration formulated in the Millenium Summit [...]
Apparently there are endangered species in our urban environments, although it may be difficult to realize. How often, when we are getting around a city, with its pollution, noise, and traffic congestion, do we see something that reminds us of nature? It is often the case that biodiversity declines with urban expansion. Extensive roads, transportation [...]
While the Netherlands boasts some of the greenest urban environments, it is important to remember the local relationship between then landscape and its inhabitants over the past 2,000 years. For generations upon generations, the soil, sea, and sand have been manipulated in response to the needs of a growing society. Perhaps the most poignant statement [...]
In spirit of the burgeoning backlash to the North Carolina legislature’s contentious support for fracking, as presented in my previous article, this piece will review the state’s particular advocacy for “Save the Outer Banks.” A polemic released in July of 2008 spells out with retrospectively astonishing accuracy the threats to North Carolina’s coast; ones that [...]
Islands Brygge industrialised waterfront in the 90′s. Located nearby nowadays Copenhagen Harbour Bath Automation, market variations, and strict ecological legislation push dysfunctional factories on the verge of extinction. Yet, the heavy industrial remains hardly disappear from the urban skyline. The Danish Soy Cake Factory, once the economic engine of the capital, used to employ 1,200 [...]
As President Barack Obama’s recent acceptance speech showed us, Twitter has become one of the largest social networking services in media today. His speech broke the twitter record with 52,756 tweets per minute and generated roughly 4 million tweets. In the realm of architecture, twitter can be used to promote, inform, and create dialogue with [...]
“Wind Mills, Not Oil Spill, The Environmental and Economic Benefits of Offshore Wind Versus Offshore Drilling in North Carolina” is the name of the directorial manifesto, authored by Environment North Carolina, which will guide North Carolina in its fight against the consequences of Senate Bill 820. The controversial 820, which was passed after numerous vetoes [...]
An overgrown parking lot clings to the fringe of an urban center. Rundown school buildings wait for a sorely needed upgrade. Somewhere outside of these places, sleekly dressed design students stay up late with their rulers and tricked out software in hand. How about combining the two? This type of collaborative thinking has become increasingly [...]
The Øresund Strait links the two nations through an underwater tunnel, an artificial island and a bridge structure, totaling 8km of rail and road. There lies the Øresund region, the northern European territory around the Baltic Sea covering the southern Sweden and eastern Denmark, the most densely populated area in Scandinavia, housing 3.7 million citizens. It [...]
In April 1888, the first streetcar line in Spokane, Washington was built for Browne’s Addition, a neighborhood just one-mile West of downtown. The terrain is level and easy to maneuver for the less-powerful engines. It was built to attract mining and timber barons to the then-newly built mansions in the subdivision. It was drawn by horses and was [...]
Beneath the myriad accolades and honors awarded to the city of Raleigh, exists its innovative and exceptionally accessible Raleigh Urban Design Center. This past summer, pools of Raleigh’s most engaged denizens sacrificed their lunch breaks for a higher cause; the city form. On five separate occasions, the Urban Design Center hosted one-hour civic discussions on [...]
Garden designer? How about ecological warrior? Landscape architects may be due for a new reputation, and for good reason. As a field, landscape architecture has changed rapidly over the past two decades. It is too simple to assume that architects focus only on floral gardens and upscale stone walkways. As human environmental impacts become more [...]
