Landscape+Urbanism

Category: ecology

  • RBC: Notes on the Third Ecology | Kwinter

    Notes on the Third Ecology | Sanford Kwinter Kwinter used the dichotomy of city/nature, rooting in our historic perceptions that evolved in the Industrial era.  As mentioned, this concept is characterized by a time “…when immense upheavals in social, economic, and political life transformed the very landscape around us and our relationship to it irreversibly…

  • RBC: Zeekracht (OMA)

    Zeekracht | OMA A related follow-up to the essay by Koolhaas, this short essay explores Zeekracht, a master plan for the North Sea, driven by it’s “high wind and consistent wind speeds and shallow waters…” making it “…arguably the world’s most suitable area for large-scale wind farming.”  The project master plan (below) outlines the strategy. …

  • The Red Brick Chronicles – ‘Advancement verus Apocalypse’ by Rem Koolhaas

    As I mentioned in the recent reckoning of the L+U blog, I wanted to focus on a number of recent texts that I’ve had the chance to delve into (by disconnecting myself from the nefarious teat of the RSS feeder)  Of significance is finally getting around to expanding on the initial readings of the book…

  • Brief Thoughts on Binary Thinking

    The on-going debate on LU/NU is interesting less for any content (of which there has been little beyond posturing and uninformed rhetoric), and more than its continuation of a history of binary discussions between oppositional actors that has occurred in many arenas, including a long history within urbanism and design.  Lest we think there is…

  • More Hidden Rivers – NYC

    An interesting post from Urban Omnibus from earlier in January entitled ‘Grey vs. Green: Daylighting the Saw Mill River‘ is less intriguing in design concept that in larger idea of envisioning the expression of the variety of waterways that are hidden/buried/forgotten within our urban areas.  As referenced by Eric Sanderson through  his work on the…

  • City Concealed: Staten Island

    I previously featured a video from the online video series “The City Concealed” produced by Thirteen, a project of New York station WNET.  The series offers glimpses into some of the terrain vague of the metropolis by: “…exploring the unseen corners of New York. Visit the places you don’t know exist, locations you can’t get…

  • Aquifers not Aquitards

    From the recent post on watershed boundaries, a reader mentioned the concept of underground aquifers and their relation to geographical boundaries and .  My title is in jest (sort of) referring to ‘Aquitards’ which according to Wikipedia is “a zone within the earth that restricts the flow of groundwater from one aquifer to another“, but…

  • Environmental Urbanism Panel Discussion

    As an addenda to the previous post, on Chris Reed’s lecture, a round-about summary of the panel discussion that followed. Panel Discussion – Environmental Urbanism:  Ecological Design for Healthy Cities The panel was moderated by Peter Steinbrueck, with Reed joined by additional panelists including Randy Hester (who lectured the previous evening on Design for Ecological Democracy) and…

  • Ecology.Agency.Urbanism

    I warn the reader that my take on the recent NOWurbanism lecture featuring Chris Reed, Randy Hester and Howard Frumkin may be skewed by a really bad cold and the influence of massive doses of cold medicine, along with spilling an entire water bottle inside my bag that literally muddied my notes into a semi-decipherable pulpy…

  • Environmental Urbanism

    Excited to have a chance to head up to Seattle for tomorrow’s lecture as part of the NOW Urbanism series at University of Washington.  Look for a report of the festivities in coming days. November 18:  Environmental Urbanism: Ecological Design for Healthy Cities Kane Hall, Room 120 (University of Washington) What does it mean to…