Category: dialogue
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Botanical Neurobiology
A TED Talk on Plant Intelligence by Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso will leave you on the edge of your seat and asking all sorts of questions of both your house-plants and about the wide-ranging implications for landscapes. Mancuso operates the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology in Italy. A brief synopsis of the talk: “Does the Boston…
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The Wilderness Downtown
I have in the past alluded to the ‘Soundtrack of Spaces‘ linking music to our physical environment. I know most people have amused themselves with this video experiment, but I finally found myself engaging with the Arcade Fire’s interactive video ‘The Wilderness Downtown‘ – perhaps a literal interpretation of the space/music connection. The narrative film,…
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Landscape+Urbanism: Large Print Edition
Apologies for the random post: Through some unknown glitch, the formatting of some recent posts has been defaulting to both large print and strange spacing. I have not been doing anything different, but it is making me suspect that the AARP has hacked into my code and removed the default font size giving me a Goldilocks dilemma…
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Know Thy Annotations…
I’m really pleased to be able to present a snapshot of the bibliographical evidence related to the existing literature. While not a complete and total view, this gives hints into some of the theoretical unpinnings of the theory of Landscape Urbanism, which could aid many of the discussions and dispel (or reinforce) some of the…
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The Landscape Urbanism Wars
A number of recent posts/discussions outline what is now shaping up as a ‘war’ between the proponents of Landscape Urbanism and those of the New Urbanism. I find it constantly amusing, in this time of blatant political attack ads on television every night (the rift could be DNC v. RNC), to see the polarization that…
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Density of the Dead
A little cross-post from the Veg.itecture blog, where the concept of a vertical cemetery in Mumbai ‘Vegitecturally Vertical Cemetery‘ was presented as a way to satisfy cultural expectations while efficiently utilizing scarce urban land. As we’ve become less likely to cross program or use cemeteries as quasi-public parks and open space – these areas (while…
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Ph.D.
In addition to (or shall I say augmenting) the launch this year of my new firm, I’ve also begun what shapes up to be a long process of obtaining my Doctorate – specifically a Ph.D in Urban Studies from Portland State University – and their Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning. I…
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Island Life
Greetings from sunny, partly cloudy Friday Harbor, where we are taking some late summer refuge from the urban areas of Portland. Life on the San Juan Islands gives one an opportunity to relax and live a more confined life -because you are literally confined with access either via plane, boat, or car (via ferry)… the…