Category: materials
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Bad Idea of the Week
This interesting product appeared last week from Inhabitat, consisting of small squares of grass for your desk or home. “These grass squares were designed at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Israel, in 2009 as a way to combine nature and architecture.” While a laudable concept in theory, the idea of bring in grass…
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Reading List: Green Roof Systems
My good friends at Wiley sent me a copy of the long-awaited ‘Green Roof Systems: A Guide to the Planning, Design, and Construction of Landscapes over Structure‘ by Susan K Weiler and Katrin Scholz-Barth. At first glance, the book is not remarkably pretty, which is usually a sign of a reference that aims for substance…
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Stats, Kind Words + Aggregation
I’ve been somewhat busy, and haven’t had a chance to see who has actually been reading the blog and commenting on it elsewhere – so a change for some interesting highlights I discovered in a recent search. Our recent review of the fantastic ‘The Infrastructural City’ caught the attention of the folks at Varnelis.net and…
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Reading List: The Sourcebook of Contemporary Landscape Design
As always, the holiday season came with a typically literary bent, as family and friends know of my bibliophilic tendencies – and I have a free moment or two to read – so look forward to some book reviews that have been waiting in the wings for a couple of months. One tome that was…
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The Cold Seat
I recently received an email from Hongtao Zhou, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Artist/Designer that recently installed a project on Lake Mendota with an environmental statement and a frigid ends – something a person who grew up in North Dakota can appreciate. Enjoy! :: Ice & Snow Furniture Raised From Lake Mendota – image via Hongtao…
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Energy Dump
Not a lot festering here in terms of energy links, but a couple of interesting ideas related to our electricity infrastructure – coming from two different worlds. The first takes a look at our existing power structure – namely the ubiquitous grid. From InfraNet Lab, this post announces the ‘Power of Ecosystems/Ecosystems of Power’ –…
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Veg.itecture: VIA Olive 8, Joost, Mission, + Busan et.al.
VIA: Vegitecture in Action: As promised, the inevitable death of posts related to Veg.itecture has spun, in this auspicious 50th post, into a new series that will investigate the dual sides of the concept – the VIA and the VIVA, if you will (explained here in detail). For this inaugural installment of Veg.itecture in Action…
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No Shortage of Site Furnishing Options
The eternal quest for more innovative furnishings always leaves mean amazed by the constant and never-ending iterations of a flat or semi-flat slab, 15-18 inches high, and able to last in outdoor situations and be cleverly placed or comfortable enough to place ones ass on for a spell. Different materials, configurations, and just plain oddities…
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Sunday Crossword
As an obsessive crossword addict that spends a portion of Sundays on the couch working on the NY Times puzzle of the week, (and time-permitting some of the weeks puzzles as well) I couldn’t resist this interesting installation that arcady over at gardenhistorygirl dropped on her site last week. Call it at-grade green roofing meets…
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Our Crumbling Infrastructure [aka Call Before You Dig]
[UPDATE: 01.10.09 – As mentioned, I recieved this as an email forward – one of those ubiquitous things that get pitched around in our digital age – thus had no context in which to verify the story. Thus, it turns out that the pics are from a corrosion-related rupture of the high pressure gas line…