Ecosistema Urbano’s energy carousel, created for the Carve design contest for the Dordecht space, Governeurs Plein, has been designed to serve as meeting place for different age groups. As a forest of revolving rope swings that hang at different lengths, the hanging rope seats towards the center of the structure accommodate smaller, younger children, while taller, older children may grab onto the shorter ropes on the outside. the kinetic energy that is released by the children’s hanging and turning on the ropes is captured via carousel structure and stored in a battery underneath the play site. 
When the park begins to lose light, the carousel’s battery supplies energy to light up the structure. When the speed of play increases, the lamps will light up brighter. The color of the lights also change according to how much energy has been generated for the battery on any particular day. 
Over the past year, the design for the Carousel was developed with three phases. You may view the planning documents here:
competitions
April 11, 2011
April 8, 2011
Last year, the Amsterdam design bureau Carve developed a plan for a new public square in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Carve specializes in the design and engineering of public space for use by children and young people. Their plan for the new square in Dordrecht, named Governeurs Plein, included five open spaces for the addition of unconventional play objects.
In cooperation with the Centre for Visual Arts in Dordrecht, Carve invited 10 design firms to develop inventive, resourceful and multi-age friendly objects to complete their final design for Governeurs Plein. Ecosistema Urbano and the nine other bureaus invited submitted the following Proposals:
April 6, 2011
As a current semi finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge award, Ecosistema Urbano is proud to share the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Summary Assessment with our readers. We are always excited to read that others believe in the potential of our work to inspire and engage architects and residents to become active agents of change. You can find Ecosistema Urbanos complete Semi-Finalist profile here
Ecosistema Urbano is an architectural firm located in Madrid, Spain led by Belinda Tato (@belindatato), Jose Luis Vallejo (@jlvmateo), Michael Moradiellos (@terapiasurbanas) and Domenico Di Siena (@urbanohumano). The core of their proposal centers on contributing to an emergent practice of urbanism that responds more fluidly to the nature of contemporary urban problems. “Creative Urban Sustainability” is the theoretical framework that scaffolds their endeavors, which include built prototypes, an online platform for citizens to engage with their cities and Web 2.0 tools for design practitioners to engage with each other. The idea is simple: combine innovation, creativity and action to generate urban solutions.
Three projects they recently launched highlight their approach. The first is the Plaza Ecopolis pilot, a demonstration site focused on water issues and on transforming local cultural norms. It features a macrophyte water treatment system integrated into a complex of buildings (including a kindergarten) built around a plaza. The second is the What If Cities web platform that asks citizens to imagine what their cities could do and be. Anyone can download it as open-source software and modify it for his/her town/city. It is currently being used in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The third is a blog and TV station they launched as a solution generator and mode of exchange for fellow design practitioners.
April 4, 2011
We are glad to report you that Ecosistema Urbano’s principals Belinda Tato and José Luis Vallejo visited Hamar last week to present the ONETHOUSANDSQUARE project to the city’s politicians.
Work on the project has not yet begun and another article was published in the local newspaper, supporting it in the name of democracy - “Invitasjon til demokrati” (invitation to democracy) was last week’s title in Hamar Dagblad, a local newspaper.
“I think the Spanish project is exciting, especially because it invites us to participate in a democratic process’ says Brox Haugen (..) Today the square is large, sloping, gray and noisy. We, the local residents, must find out, preferably together, how we can make it more inviting.’”.
Please see bellow for the complete article (in Norwegian). For more information about the project please visit the website ONETHOUSANDSQUARE.
March 30, 2011
The top 10 fastest trains in the world belong to Asia and Europe. Number 10, the MLU00, which ran at a speed of 248.9 mph in 1987 was engineered before I was born. As an American in 2011, it’s pretty embarrassing that our fastest train is Amtrak’s Acela Express, which travels the not-so-far distance between Boston and Washington, D.C. and only reaches speeds of up to 150 mph. On top of this, If I were to take the fastest trip from Boston to Washingtion DC today, a 6 hour, 32 minute journey (I know because I just did the search), It would set me back $235.00, but a 1 hour, 40 minute, heavy-Co2-emitting flight with JetBlue would cost me $149.00 – which is $95.00 less…
March 29, 2011
Ecosistema Urbano is participating in the urban development competition From Streetscape to Cityscape: remodelling Thomas B. Thriges Gade in a team together with the two Danish agencies Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and Kristine Jensens Tegnestue.
Among 25 teams 7 teams have been selected to make their proposal for the remodelling of the street Thomas B. Thriges Gade in the historical city center of Odense, the third largest city of Denmark.
Since the 1960′s the city center of Odense has been divided into two parts by the 4 lane street of Thomas B. Thriges Gade, which was established as an effort to modernize Odense. On a daily basis 35,000 cars are passing the street. Having served as an thoroughfare for many years, the street is now being remodelled as a step in the sustainable development of the city. When the new bridge Odins Bro will be finished in 2014, the main car traffic will be led around the city center as part of the Planning Strategy for Odense.
March 22, 2011
Norden Fund Travel/Study Grants: An opportunity for students and recent graduates:
The Norden Fund, offered by the Architectural League of New York, annually awards students and recent graduates up to $5,000 in travel/study grants to pursue projects in the field of architecture, architectural history, or urban studies.
March 21, 2011
Ecosistema Urbano is pleased to present the project of our collaborator Noa Peer, awarded an Honorable Mention in the international competition “NETWORK RESET” an international design competition to rethink the Chicago Boulevard System.
March 20, 2011
Organized by Planet One and Terreform One, the One Prize: NYC 6th Boro challenge is accepting design proposals that envision New York City´s 6th borough as the water that surrounds it. These propositions should describe a plan for a ¨NYC Blue Network¨ including the expansion of waterborne transportation, linking the five boroughs with transit hubs, incorporating ferries, water taxis, bike shares, electric car-shares, electric shuttle buses, providing in-water recreation, educational events, cultural activities, pavilion halls and climate resilience. If you can pull all of that off, you´ll be entered into the competition for the 10,000 dollar cash award prize and ten tickets to the NYC Clean Tech World Expo 2014. There are also three Honorable mention prizes worth 1,500 dollars plus one Expo ticket each. And hey, if you don´t make the top 4, well at least you´ll be recognized by some of the U.S.´s top leaders, academics, practitioners, and thinkers for trying to make the world a better place.
January 19, 2010
The OPEN SOURCE HOUSE design competition started on January 15th, 2010 and is open for team or individual participation. The challenge is to design a sustainable, flexible and locally embedded one family house for a specific location in Ghana. The modular construction should be suitable for local implementation and affordable for its future owners. The winning design(s) will be built in Ghana.
November 21, 2008
Pix Pictet 2008
Category: arte+castellano+competitions+sostenibilidad
Benot Aquin ha ganado el Pix Pictet 2008, el primer premio del mundo sobre Fotografía y Sostenibilidad.
Este año el concurso estaba dedicado al tema del agua y el fotógrafo canadiense ha ganado con fotos dedicadas a China y al proceso de desertificación.
September 30, 2008
Madrid/Spain – September 26, 2008 – Winners of the second European Holcim Awards competition for projects and visions in sustainable construction were announced at a ceremony in Madrid. Total prize money of USD 270,000 was presented to ten projects that demonstrate the latest in eco-friendly and sustainable approaches from the building and construction industry.
February 1, 2008
The European Prize for Urban Public Space is a biennal competition that is presently organised by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (CAP, Paris), the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (NAi, Rotterdam), the Architeckturzentrum Wien (Az W, Vienna), The Architecture Foundation (AF, London) and the Museum of Finnish Architecture (MFA, Helsinki) in order to recognise and ecourage activities aimed at recovering and creating spaces of cohesion in cities. The Prize, which was created in 1999, is awared both to the authors of the project and the promoter institutions as an incentive to investment by administrations in remodelling public spaces so as to improve the quality of urban life, from renovating a discrete crossroads zone through to trasnforming a set of collective spaces throughout a neighbourhood.
November 13, 2007
The neighbours’ association Nudo Sur (southern Madrid) has complained about the “creative urbanism” project for the old fruit and vegetable market in Legazpi, Madrid. They claim the project seeks economic profit instead of caring for the real needs of the neighbourhoods around Nudo Sur. They are calling an alternative ideas competition open to neighbours, urbanists and social organisations, to try to find the best uses for the market.
The debate, currently ignored by the city council, will be published in the web (http://mercado.afectadosnudosur.com) and the outcome of the competition will be published in early 2008, simultaneously with the results of the city council competition.
