Urban – Seeds of Good Anthropocenes

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 [...]

Anna Kusmer2017-02-14T21:40:54+00:00infrastructure, Urban|Comments Off

Bayou Greenways

Houston's Bayou Greenways - using swamps for recreation, transportation, social connections, & water regulation

Garry Peterson2017-01-05T12:17:38+00:00community, Conservation, infrastructure, United States, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off

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 [...]

Garry Peterson2016-12-12T13:55:18+00:00design, infrastructure, Technology, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off

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 [...]

Garry Peterson2016-11-11T12:13:37+00:00infrastructure, transport system, Urban|Comments Off

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 [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-31T13:30:01+00:00community, health, infrastructure, transport system, Urban|Comments Off

Restoration of Cheonggyecheon River

How can urban cities be renovated to provide opportunities for their residents to reconnect to nature? Cheonggyecheon river restoration project in Seoul replaced a highway with urban green spaces and a highly engineered river. The project opened in 2005 and has become popular place for people to visit in Seoul. The restoration of the Cheonggyecheon aimed to provide people with access to nature in the city as well as to revitalise downtown Seoul's culture and [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-27T07:11:30+00:00transport system, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off

Bogota’s CicloRuta

How can government investments in infrastructure projects help trigger good sustainable change? How can we overcome our lock-in to fossil-fuel intensive transport systems? Bogotá is the largest city of Colombia with a population of 7 million. Since the 1990s it has undergone a transformation from being know for its drug violence to its sustainability initiatives, many which have focussed on public transportation as a key for social inclusion. One of these initiatives was [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-24T07:50:14+00:00Social-Ecological Seeds, transport system, Urban|Comments Off

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 [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-21T00:20:01+00:00infrastructure, United States, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off

Social change through “Social Ecology” in Montreal

By Théo Rouhette How can a citizen community use popular education and social action in order to transform society and its institutions toward an ecological, egalitarian and democratic future? Challenges such as climate change and global inequity can be so overwhelming, individuals may feel powerless to respond and create positive change. But what if there was a way to organize ourselves so that together we can make more of a difference than [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-07-12T17:34:34+00:00Education, social movement, sustainable living, Urban|Comments Off

Songdo Smart City

Can technology and green building provide a prosperous, enjoyable, and sustainable life? Songdo is a newly built "smart city" near Seoul, South Korea. Songdo International Business District (Songdo IBD) has been built of reclaimed land on Incheon's waterfront, 65 km southwest of the megapolis Seoul, South Korea, and close to the Incheon International Airport. As its name indicates Songdo was designed as a corporate aerotropolis, and is part of the much larger city of Incheon. It [...]

Garry Peterson2015-10-15T13:14:00+00:00business, infrastructure, Urban|Comments Off

Seeds are existing initiatives which hold potential to shape the future. They are likely not widespread nor well-known. They can be social initiatives, new technologies, economic tools, or social-ecological projects, or organisations, movements or new ways of acting that have that appear to be making a substantial contribution towards creating a future that is just, prosperous, and sustainable.

We gather seeds from diverse research disciplines, communities of practice, and individuals that have different world-views, values, and problems. This diversity means that not everyone will agree on the importance or value of every seed.