Deep thought – June 27
-Back to the Future
-Behaviour change, not technology, is key to cutting vehicle emissions
-The great land grab: India’s war on farmers
Buildings
The Timeless Way of Building
This timeless book from Christopher Alexander was released back in the seventies, and it’s just as much a book on philosophy as on architecture. Still, the main purpose of the book is as an introduction to A Pattern Language. Alexander’s architectural writings at the same time develop a philosophy of nature and life. He proposes a more profound connection between nature and the human mind than is presently allowed either in science, or in architecture.
NY Times edits for economic optimism
Web-based news sources occasionally reveal the normally behind-the-scenes editing in an intriguing way. Take an article to be published in the June 1 New York Times.
Great places – May 28
– Ken Greenberg On How Jane Jacobs Was Right (Book Review)
– Great places: dense, wired, and sustainable
– What’s So Great About Portland?
– Expanding Bike Programs Makes Sense in a Time of Shrinking Budgets and Soaring Gas Prices
Transportation – May 28
– Bicycling and the art of being broke
– Wealthy Nations Maxed Out on Travel?
– How drivers can put a brake on the world’s petrol crisis
– New report and map chronicles the visceral reality of 47,000 preventable pedestrian deaths
Transportation – May 26
– Never too old to bike to work (video)
– Plugging High-Speed Rail Into Germany’s Power Grid
– Bikes are the future, not cars
– E-cars won’t solve congestion, says president of Bicycle Association
– Cars & Capitalism
Peak Moment 195: This Old House – Rethink, reuse, remodel
Turn a century-old Seattle house into an efficient, energy-producing home using repurposed materials. Owner-builder Jim Bristow’s creativity extends to reclaiming dead spaces, jacketing his house with exterior insulation, and modernizing the kitchen with sleek previously used cabinetry and low-power LED lights. But he’s not stopping there. Along with maintaining a prolific front yard vegie garden, this green-minded guy is working with neighbors and the city to construct a storm water drainage and traffic circle at the nearby street intersection.
Living buildings, living economies, and a living future
At a recent conference, I saw the potential for blending two of the most exciting emerging movements of our time—the living building and the living economies movements. A vision of the combination of these two movements energized me with renewed hope that we humans can end our isolation from one another and from nature—that we can move forward to achieve a prosperous, secure, and creative human future for all.
Matteo and His Fig Tree
More and more I’m finding that it’s good to know people who can do things, and these people are of two sorts: those who can do things you don’t know much about and those who know more than you about what you know. From both you can learn.
Book review: Unplanning – Livable Cities and Political Choices
What we need are generated cities, not fabricated!
Two wheels good – May 12
– SF’s Bike to Work Day May 12
– Peak oil? Now it’s peak cars
– The Book Bike
– Philadelphia’s Two-Wheeled Revolution in Progress
Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs
What if you had three weeks to prepare for a life-changing disaster? A severe ice storm, earthquake, flood, or something similar? Wendy Brown says that preparing for disaster leaves us better equipped for the changes that are happening right now. Carl Etnier interviews Brown about her book, Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs: The thrivalist’s guide to life without oil.
