Author: Jason King
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Veg.itecture: VIVA Vision City + Nessie
Two proposals for vertical greening from Asia push some of the buttons and boundaries of our continually uneasy relationship with representation over implementation (the subject of the ongoing VIVA series). :: not dumb boxes – image via designboom VISION CITYFirst, via Designboom, the Vision City proposal from sparch architects envisions a gargantuan a retail mall…
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Landscape on the Brain
Landscape is good. Landscape is healthy. Landscape is necessary. We all know this, innately, but a refresher is never a bad idea. This post made the rounds a few months back, quoting a study and article from the Boston Globe, ‘How the city hurts your brain, and what you can do about it.’ delves again…
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From the Archives: Urban Habitat
One of the more interesting urban legends (which happens to be true) is the story of the coyote that decided to hitch a ride on Portland’s MAX light rail – recently reemerged on the Seattle Transit Blog. :: image via Seattle Transit Blog Some more info via the strange Dogs In the News – from…
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Be Careful What you Wish For…
Just kidding… I can’t think of anything better in the world to do. Plus we are multi-talented: Via Topophila: I Want to be a Landscape Architect“Landscape architecture combines environment and design, art and science. It is about everything outside the front door, both urban and rural, at the interface between people and natural systems. The…
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Mountains
There are a bunch of projects using the literal and figurative idea of mountains as a stylistic point of departure. One of the recent visuals is that of the Zira Island development in Azerbaijan by BIG Architects. Some info via Arch Daily:“In the words of Bjarke Ingels, the proposal for Zira Island […] is an…
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Planting Air: Thigmotrope
One can’t help but be impressed by the creativity of landscape professionals in coming up with inventive new ways to express the concept of vertical greenery. The latest, spotted via Land+Living and later picked up on ASLA’s blog The Dirt – this link to a NY Times article shows the use of varieties of Tillandsia,…
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DailyLand: Green Island
Somewhat of a visionary departure for the DailyLand feature, these visions of ‘green’ urbanism in the literal Green Island proposals of a vegetated Tokyo are both confrontational and thought provoking. It makes me think directly of the previous post wishing for green transit, and taking it a whole city further. Specifically I ask… would cities…
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Ecological Urbanism at the GSD
An upcoming must-see conference entitled Ecological Urbanism: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future will take place at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on April 3-5, 2009. The event will “…bring together design practitioners and theorists, economists, engineers, environmental scientists, politicians and public health specialists, with the goal of reaching a more robust understanding…
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Reimagining Shade
A couple of active competitions address a similar and pressing issue – reimagining the function and form of trees in our urban areas. árboles urbanos First, via Urbanarbolismo, the árboles urbanos competition, sponsored by asa, provides the following challenge (via translation, so apologies for any misrepresentation): “The Urban Trees Asacción is organized around a design…
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Veg.itecture: VIVA Conceptual 2
Part 2 of the Conceptual Veg.itecture in Visual Assessment (VIVA), showing off some of the latest representations of building greenery on the web. I’m holding onto the Evolo Skyscraper winners, as well as a proposal for a modern vegetated ‘vision city’ for their own posts… In the interim, here’s the latest representations… Extreme Birding –…