The Clinton Climate Initiative, from the William J. Clinton Foundation, has decided to promote 16 good practices in sustainable urban growth. Everybody is making list, as Forbes, but they don’t present very well the meaning of thist list. Through the website, we can see that the Initiative push the urban regeneration and the improvement of green energy as goals to reach better cities and better life’s. From this first post, our aim is communicate information about those projects, receive comments from our community and in two weeks offer a critical overview and some strategic keys to understand why some of the presented projects are in this list, and why some have no reasons. I hope we will generate some group of discussion on the present of our cities and some positive criticism on the ways to improve them.
new technologies
July 5, 2009
June 30, 2009
This is our last daily playlist at the office, from now on we’ll post weekly or monthly playlists, so the first music brain-storming ends up here… the bright side is that weekly or monthly playlists are smoother and rested, and we have more time to select tracks for everyday work…
spotify:user:eiza1980:playlist:0iZq0jYXYYnqCggogvts9w
June 17, 2009
Prezi has been founded by Adam Somlai-Fischer and Peter Halacsy. Adam, an artist and graphic designer had been building flash navigations mostly for architecture firms or science education sites since 2000.
May 26, 2009
Twitter is currently echoing the excitement of open data advocates and data geeks alike, due the release of data.gov, an open and free web repository that aims to provide public access to US Federal Government datasets. Or, in official terms: “The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government“.
May 19, 2009
Deadline for submissions: May 31, 2009
Event dates: July 6 to 10, 2009 in Medialab-Prado (Madrid, Spain)
Medialab-Prado issues a call for the presentation of papers to be publicly presented during the 4th International Inclusiva-net Meeting. This edition will focus on an analysis of “peer-to-peer” networks and network processes, highlighting the social potentials of cooperative systems and processes based on the structures and dynamics inherent to these types of networks.
May 11, 2009
[EU] spotify playlists #3
Category: english+ new technologies+ open culture
Here we go with the next delivery…
spotify:user:eiza1980:playlist:4Z7uxOl0c4qexuHdbu01Ux
April 23, 2009
here’s another “homemade” playlist collected by all of us at the office.
spotify:user:eiza1980:playlist:13KOuaYxJRU6iIc1BjWm9f
April 21, 2009
P2P and Urbanism 3.0
Category: english+ new technologies+ urbanism
Agatino Rizzo and Michail Galanakis, are organizing participating in the conference in Helsinki in May 2009 (Urban Studies Days, University of Helsinki, 7-8th May), to discuss the evolution towards new forms of urbanism, that will be strongly impacted by p2p influences, as explained here:
April 17, 2009
April 14, 2009
[EU] spotify playlists #1
Category: english+ findings+ new technologies+ open culture
After the great discovery of Spotify [the online music player] and its wide range of possibilities, in our case to play music at the office, we want to let you know about what we listen to everyday…
April 8, 2009
Vorrei presentare un’interessante iniziativa ideata per gestire le informazioni riguardanti il terribile terremoto in Abruzzo che ha già contato 250 morti (più informazioni qui). Si tratta di una mappa partecipativa delle zone terremotate in cui tutti possono intervenire e apportare contenuti riguardanti notizie, soccorsi e mesaggi di SOS.
March 10, 2009
More and more, mapping tools are being used for real-time data collection. Some of the slickest – and most helpful – uses have been in the area of crisis warning and humanitarian issues. To be able to centralize and contextualize information from seemingly random places and from a variety of different platforms has multiple benefits.
February 27, 2009
play pump!!
Category: engineering+ english+ new technologies+ sustainability
from http://www.playpumps.org
Access to clean drinking water is critical for human survival and is an essential ingredient for improving the lives of those living in poverty in developing countries.
February 11, 2009
Exploring New Visualisation Tools for Community Participation in the
Transformations of the Built Environment
Pop-Up Landscapes and Wiki Urban Planning Workshop
26-27-28 Feb 2009 – Hangar Barcelona
February 5, 2009
Did You Know 3.0
Category: english+ internet+ new technologies+ video
3.0 for 2008 – Newly Revised Edition Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization & The Information Age. It was even adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome this year. Credits are also given to Scott McLeod, Jeff Brenman.
Lo hemos probado en el estudio, y funciona. Es tan sencillo como bajarse el plug-in Ar -media para sketchUp y conectar una cámara web. La imagen parpadea porque no he conseguido que la captura de vídeo funcione bien, pero en realidad se ve perfecto.
January 14, 2009
Mediamesh® is a stainless steel mesh fabric with interwoven LED profiles and with connected media controls installed behind it. The LEDs render the images onto the facade, providing the ability to display a wide spectrum of graphics, animated text and video.
December 1, 2008
The RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software is a unique decision support tool developed with the contribution of numerous experts from government, industry, and academia.
The software, provided free-of-charge, can be used worldwide to evaluate the energy production and savings, costs, emission reductions, financial viability and risk for various types of Renewable-energy and Energy-efficient Technologies (RETs).
October 29, 2008
Shawn Frayne, a young inventor based in Mountain View, California, is the creator of Windbelt, a new device for wind-energy production based on an aerodynamic phenomenon known as aeroelastic flutter.
This phenomenon is a well-known destructive force and it caused, for example, the Washington’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge to collapse in 1940 (video). Researchers at Humdinger (this is the name of the company pushing forward the Windbelt technology) have discovered that it can also be a useful and powerful mechanism for ‘catching the wind’ at a variety of scales and costs beyond the reach of traditional turbines.
October 16, 2008
one of the few built examples of wind power integrated into buidings is Near North Apartments in Chicago, where eight HAWT’s [HAWT Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine] on the structure´s roof produce about 10% of the building´s total energy needs…
September 30, 2008
The Energy Ball designed and built by Home Energy, breaks from most wind turbine design by using a spherical structure. They say that by using such a design, significantly higher aerodynamic efficiency can be achieved (40% better efficiency), as compared to traditional designs…
September 11, 2008
Curated by: José Luis de Vicente
Instructors: Bestiario and Fabien Girardin
Dates: 3rd – 18th November, 2008
Venue: Medialab-Prado, Madrid (Calle Alameda, 15 · 28014 Madrid, Spain)
Medialab-Prado issues a call for data visualization projects to be carried out within the context of the VISUALIZAR 08: Database City International Workshop, that will take place from 3rd to 18th November 2008 at Medialab-Prado (Madrid, Spain).
July 23, 2008
Selection of a maximum of 10 projects to be collaboratively developed.
Through a program of reflection, research and production, the use of open hardware and software tools in a collective and interdisciplinary manner will be explored, in order to create technological prototypes with success in the Media from different perspectives: playful, creative and critical.
July 14, 2008
zoomarchitecture: Wikibivouac
Category: english+ internet+ new technologies+ urbanism
Official website HERE, full description of the project THERE
The Wikibivouac is a collaborative map which reappropriates space to create new uses of the city. The wiki element of contibutions from anyone aggregates information for improved transient occupancy of place. We understand the value of a local resident’s recommendations and guidance – when this infomation is pooled and accessed a visitor attains a greater understanding of the true availability of resources and locations shown on a static map.
May 23, 2008
Building Futures is the future studies programme of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Its activities include undertaking research, producing publications, and holding lectures, debates and seminar events. Building Futures promotes and encourages interaction between researchers, developers, architects, clients and the public.
Building Futures was established to create space for discussion about the needs of society from our built environment and, consequently, the built environment professions in 20 years and beyond.
The group aims to address the big picture. How and where will we be living in 50 or 100 years’ time, when the climate has changed and cities are bigger than ever? What technologies will architects be using to design buildings and what new materials will they be specifying? How will the inevitable new technologies affect the buildings we all use every day?
May 19, 2008
Think to a Plaid in the middle of a field, a sunny day and some musical Nerds with their laptops that generate sweet electronic melodies: not a sound from a generator, no stinky fuel but only the sound of the music and the smell of just cut grass.
Play on Plaid is also the occasion to record tracks produced with solar energy and make out of them records with out being totally slaves of oil.
May 13, 2008
Re:vision
Category: english+ findings+ new technologies+ sustainability
Re:Vision is a diverse group of people focused on changing the urban landscape by reimagining all the components that make up a city block. From energy to transportation to commerce to community, we believe that by finding innovative, healthy and sustainable ideas to help revitalize one urban block, we can create a blueprint for better cities everywhere.
Interesting innitiative…They have also a tv channel.
April 30, 2008
The author of this is proposal is Michael Jantzen. This is an observation tower where people can walk through to view the surronding landscape, while the five wind activated segments of the structure rotate aroud them in diferent directions.
April 13, 2008
From May 30 through June 14, 2008
Projects and Papers’ Submission Deadline: April 25
Open call for collaborators: May 9
With Simone Jones, Alvaro Cassinelli, Julian Oliver, Daniel Canogar & Pablo Valbuena.The workshop aims to use open hardware and open code tools to create prototypes for exploring image technologies and mechanisms of perception.
April 8, 2008
“Odo” by Sony is a new generation of toys that takes advantage of child-generated kinetic energy, and which can be used without ever having to be plugged in for a recharge. Products are inspired by children’s imagination & curiousity designed to provide new experiences, a sense of ecological values, environmental issues and energy sources. They are an invitation to enjoy a new level of interaction with devices, having fun moving parts, turning cranks, and using your body to generate energy as you play with them.
Toys are familiar and accessible even to young children. The product body itself is made of recycled or vegetable-based plastic as a commitment to the environment
March 27, 2008
From May 30 through June 14, 2008
Projects and Papers’ Submission Deadline: April 25
Open call for collaborators: May 9
Pablo Valbuena-Augmented Architecture (2007)With Simone Jones, Alvaro Cassinelli, Julian Oliver, Daniel Canogar & Pablo Valbuena.
March 8, 2008
First realized as an Industrial Design Thesis project at Pratt Institute in Spring 2005 by Samuel Cabot Cochran, GROW.1 employs thin film photovoltaics with piezoelectric generators and screen printed conductive ink encapsulated in ETFE fluoropolymer lamination.
February 29, 2008
December 26, 2007
Last Wednesday, I (Domenico) had the chance to attend the event held at Medialab (Madrid) about Wikis and Knowledge Standards. I could only watch the round table chaired by Adolfo Estalella, who was joined by Antonio Lafuente, Platoniq and Juan Freire.
Antonio Lafuente talked about the capacity of new virtual communities to generate knowledge that would never be possible without the use of new technologies, such as wikis. He talked about the production process of lay knowledge, which obtains a percentage of “error” of 6%, that is, lower than what is obtained in normal scientific processes.
Platonig talked about some of their most interesting projects, such as the BCC Banco Común de Conocimientos (Shared Knowledge Bank), concerned about favouring free broadcasting networks and free contents (education p2p).
What I most liked about Juan Freire (who I finally met) was his thoughts about the wiki technology: it allows us to generate knowledge while we design it, something that previously couldn’t be done. I’d like to add that it also allows us to associate a static element (design) to a dynamic element (knowledge). He also talked about the concept of standard, describing it as something arbitrary, something that doesn’t depend on nature and that isn’t inevitable.
Talking about Wikipedia, he pointed out how the whole debate about its functioning is taking place with full transparency, thanks to the very essence of the wiki system. All this is new, very new. We were used to standing aside this kind of debates between a few “chosen” ones.
Wikis are introducing transparency standards never seen before. I think we could take example and start thinking about the possibility of similar standards applied to public spaces. Is there a public space where one can enjoy the same transparency standard as in wikis? What would this space be like? I will carry on thinking about this topic, see if something interesting comes up… what do you think?
Ps. I met Marilo from La Fundacio, who told me about a very interesting project: http://projecte3.pbwiki.com/ I will write more about this in future posts.
