Melbourne, Australia: A model for how cities can lead the energy transition

Over half of the world’s population lives in cities, and rates of urbanization continue to increase. In the Anthropocene, cities are significant players. Dense concentrations of people and resources, while sometimes environmentally taxing, are also fertile grounds for cooperation and models of sustainability. Melbourne, Australia started turning heads in 2015 when they put forward a simple, yet revolutionary, model for renewable energy transition. Thirteen of the largest institutions in the [...]

2017-05-12T15:32:34+00:00infrastructure|Comments Off on Melbourne, Australia: A model for how cities can lead the energy transition

Students activating recycling awareness: Eco-savers in Marikina City, Philippines

How can a municipality create a waste recycling program where there is none? Yes, municipal recycling programs need bins, and trucks, and recycling plants, which money can buy. However, one of the most important ingredients needed is community buy-in. In the Philippines, recycling is not a very popular pastime. Many people are actively skeptical of recycling programs because they find waste separation messy and difficult. Recycling programs are often temporary, [...]

2017-05-03T18:30:20+00:00infrastructure|Comments Off on Students activating recycling awareness: Eco-savers in Marikina City, Philippines

Yachay City of Knowledge: A New City of Technology, Research and Innovation

“New Cities” are planned cities, generally conceptualized and constructed in partnership between government and corporate actors. While this phenomenon has resulted in a mixed-bag of mostly non-sustainable boondoggles, there is no doubt that these cities represent a vision of the future – new ways of people living together and relating to one-another. While these visions of the future may not be shared by all, they are visions worth noticing. Yachay [...]

2017-02-14T21:40:54+00:00infrastructure, Urban|Comments Off on Yachay City of Knowledge: A New City of Technology, Research and Innovation

Sand Motor

How can infrastructure work with ecological dynamics?   The Sand Engine (Zandmotor), is an human-created sand peninsula that is designed to gradually erode in a way that sustains a coastline against coastal erosion.  Coastal erosion is increasing world-wide due to climate change driven sea level rise.  The Sand Engine represents an example of a new approaches to coastal engineering that work with rather than against nature. Kitesurfer in the lagoon of the Sand [...]

2016-12-21T12:53:50+00:00climate change, design, europe, infrastructure, sea-level rise|Comments Off on Sand Motor

WOHA Architects – Buildings for high density tropical Garden Cities

WOHA is Singaporean architectural firm that aims to re-invent skyscrapers for  dense urban living.  Some of their influential projects are  The Met Apartments in Bangkok, and the Singapore School of the Arts, and the Parkroyal on Pickering hotel in Singapore. School of the Arts, Singapore designed by WAHO. Photo by wikipedia user Katmorro. WOHA was founded in 1994 by architects Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell.  It has designed projects [...]

2016-12-12T13:55:18+00:00design, infrastructure, Technology, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off on WOHA Architects – Buildings for high density tropical Garden Cities

Cable Cars as Urban Public Transport in Medellin

How can cities grow in ways that promote social inclusion? The city of Medellín, Colombia, built a cable car system to provide a new type of public transport that connected poorer people, living in rugged areas, to Medellin's public transport system.  The cable car system, Metrocable, was part of an integrated investment in new public transport and neighbourhood infrastructure.  It began operation in 2004, and the success of the first line lead to the construction [...]

2016-11-11T12:13:37+00:00infrastructure, transport system, Urban|Comments Off on Cable Cars as Urban Public Transport in Medellin

Cyclovia

Cyclovia is an institutionalised event in Bogota where each Sunday and public holiday over 100 km of roadway are closed to car traffic for seven hours to create a ciclovia (“cycling way”) for cyclists, skaters, runners and walkers.  On some Sundays, as many as a million and a half people, or about 20% of Bogota, use Ciclovia to relax, excercise, and connect with others.  By promoting the use of roads as public [...]

2016-10-31T13:30:01+00:00community, health, infrastructure, transport system, Urban|Comments Off on Cyclovia

Indian Bend Wash – Resilient Safe Fail Urban Green Infrastructure

How can infrastructure protect urban areas from extreme weather, while providing other benefits when weather is non-extreme? Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdale Arizona is a 17 km greenbelt that runs through the Phoenix metropolitan area in the SouthWest United States.  It is "green infrastructure" designed to provide both flood protection and recreation. Indian Bend Wash is a historic floodplain, which was urbanized in the 20th century.  In the late 1960s, development in the floodplain [...]

2016-10-21T00:20:01+00:00infrastructure, United States, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off on Indian Bend Wash – Resilient Safe Fail Urban Green Infrastructure

Lüneburg 2030+ Participatory Urban Sustainable Futures

How could the city of the future be designed and constructed to enable more sustainable pathways of development? City of the Future Lüneburg 2030+ is a project that aims to envision the future city of Lüneburg, Germany in a way that it turns into more sustainable, livable and fair place. The project has been jointly developed by the sustainability oriented University of Leuphana, the local government of the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg, [...]

2016-05-20T07:59:33+00:00community, europe, infrastructure, transdisciplinary research|Comments Off on Lüneburg 2030+ Participatory Urban Sustainable Futures
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