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Shop with a concept: Unpackaged

Category: creativity+english+sustainability

Unpackaged is one of the shops with interesting, environmental friendly, and ethical concepts. Their philosophy is simple and they are describing it with this statement: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” (Buckminster Fuller)



photo: www.flicker.com (c) Grainger Laffan (globalpressgang.com).
For The Social Enterprise Coalition

The model of “world with less wasteful packaging” was created in 2006 by Catherine Conwayin, and company is achieving it one customer at a time. Unpackaged was set because Catherine wanted to refill her groceries using her own containers. She set up shop that made it really easy for customers to come and refill all their daily essentials. The products they sell are usually seasonal and from local production, with minimal transportation, mostly certified organic, and fair trade. In Unpackaged shop in London you can buy the exact amount you need or want so you don’t waste anything and also save money. And in the end going packaging-free means also that less waste will end in landfills.

How It Works? They are giving us some instructions:

- Remember to bring your containers* from home (if you forget, you can buy reusable containers here)
- Come to Unpackaged & say hello
– Weigh your containers at the counter then choose the product & amount you want
– Take your goods home & enjoy
– When you’ve run out, come back for a refill, simple as that!

*Containers: bring anything you like, there’s nothing to date that we haven’t been able to refill (even our lovely friend who likes putting lentils in old water bottles!) Bring glass jars, tupperware, old takeaway cartons, brown paper bags, plastic bags, old packaging.. if it’s heavy, we’ll weigh it first, if it’s light then just refill and we’ll weigh at the end.


photo: www.flicker.com (c) Grainger Laffan (globalpressgang.com).
For The Social Enterprise Coalition

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STUDIECYKEL.DK | a social economic undertaker company to help students in Denmark and Africa

Category: english+sustainability


Image above by Studiecykel.dk

As I am a student myself I thought it is important to not just talk about architecture and sustainability but also students, society in general and how we can make our world a better place and help others. See how small actions can do big difference to the world.

I will be going back to Denmark in august and it happens that I am in the situation of needing a bike. My old bike did not survive the last Danish winter and believe me when I tell you, that a student living in Copenhagen needs a bike to get around the city, to go the fast and easy way from home to the university and in my case it only takes 30 minutes by bike and not the 60 minutes by bus to get through the city…

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Gunter Pauli – The Blue Economy: Flow Based Architecture

Category: architecture+english+sustainability

 

Next Thursday May the 12th Gunter Pauli will be lecturing at IAAC from 12.00- 13.00

Dr. Gunter Pauli graduated with a degree in economics from Loyola’s University in Belgium and obtained his masters in business administration from INSEAD in France. He is an entrepreneur and founder of ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives). The Blue Economy is an international community of companies, innovators and scientists, providing open source access to develop, implement and share prosperous business models that strive to improve natural ecosystems and the quality of life for all.

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Carrer de Pujades, 102, Barcelona,
IAAC Auditorium, Free Admission

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Appropedia | sharing sustainability

Category: english+sustainability

 

For those of you who are not yet familiar with it, Appropedia is an appropriate technology wiki entirely dedicated to sustainability, poverty reduction and international development. Containing an encyclopedia, discussion forums and numerous links, Appropedia is a user generated open platform tool for empowering and informing. Anyone can add, remove or edit content.

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‘city civic movements in a global world’ – Saskia Sassen in Lisbon (18th April)

Category: english+events+sustainability

Next monday (April 18) Saskia Sassen will be in Lisbon for an evening conference on ‘city civic movements in a global world’ at the presentation of the ‘GLOBAL CITY 2.0′ NETWORK (see document below ).

The Portuguese CIDADES PELA RETOMA movement is now challenging partnersworldwide to create a global network called GLOBAL CITY 2.0, an open invitation toindividuals, groups and institutions who wish to think about the role of URBAN CIVICMOVEMENTS and its potential to transform cities and beyond, specially in this hardeconomic times (http://globalcity.blogs.sapo.pt/).

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ecosistema urbano lecturing at the EKODesign Conference, Istanbul April 14th

Category: ecosistema urbano+english+sustainability

ecosistema urbano lecturing at the EKODesign Conference, Istanbul April 14th


The fourth of EKODesign Conferences organized by Yapı-Endüstri Merkezi, the information centre of the building sector on ecology, sustainability, environment-friendly buildings and practices at the architecture and building sectors shall be held on 14 April 2011, Thursday at YEM Events Hall, Istanbul Turkey.

ecosistema urbano will be lecturing, presenting thir most recent works under the title of URBAN SOCIAL DESIGN as keynote speech.

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From Brown to Green: Development of London´s 2012 OLYMPIC PARK

Category: city+english+sustainability

Olympic game development is  rushed,  expensive and large-scaled.  Now, more than ever, winning the right to host Olympic games also comes with large-scale responsibility. Olympic game hosts are given the opportunity to present their country as leader of the current  times -  and in our time, its becoming more and more obvious that such large-scale development must be carefully pursued by the sustainability conscious.

London took this challenge and ran with it. The new East-London Olympic park that will soon boast world-class sporting facilities for the 2012 summer Olympics was once, not too long ago, just an unvisited, industrial wasteland.

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Tallest Building in the U.S. Becomes Solar Farm

Category: english+sustainability+urbanism

When people get to talking about the greenest city in the U.S., they’re usually referring to Portland, Oregon, which boasts an exceptionally, historically environmentally conscious, pro-active citizenship. Chicago, with its famous theater, symphony, and Navy Pier bi-weekly summer firework displays,  is usually acknowledged for its art and music.

However, Chicago deserves more recognition for its architecture, which has, in recent years, boasted some of the greenest (and I mean this quite literally) initiatives in the country. Like many U.S. city Mayors, Richard M. Daley announced his intention to make Chicago the greenest city in America. He began this transformation by transforming the Chicago City Hall rooftop into a green garden. Other Chicago dwellers followed suit, greening up businesses and homes with vertical and rooftop gardens.By 2009, Chicago was the city with the most LEED certified buildings in the country.

This week though,  we’ve learned that Chicago is taking its environmentally friendly architectural history one step further. The Willis Tower, formally known as the sears center, will be adding a vertical solar farm on the 56th floor.

The Willis tower is tall – really tall. In fact this ¨planting¨ means there will soon be a vertical solar farm on the tallest building in America!

While Chicago is definitely not the most environmentally conscious city in America, as it lacks the extent of aggressive sustainable development policies and pro-active citizen initiatives that Portland owns, Chicago’s leadership in promoting ¨green¨ architecture is really something special.

Chicago is the city of the arts – it’s a visual city. Adorning the tallest building in the country with solar panels represents and promotes sustainable development  as a partner of the American city.

The 1.3 million tourists who come to gape at the willis building each year will now have a bit greener of an image of what 21st century urbanism can be. I propose the addition of a vertical  garden next…

(Vertical garden at Caixa Forum, Madrid)

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Ecosistema Urbano take part in the Symposia Series at the msa

Category: ecosistema urbano+english+sustainability

Next friday Ecosistema Urbano will take part in the Symposia Series at the münster school of architecture (Muester, Germany).
The symposia will be held in the lecture building in room Leo5.

The title of our presentation is: Urban Social Design.

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Ecosistema Urbano is a Buckminster Fuller Semifinalist!

Category: ecosistema urbano+english+sustainability

Today Ecosistema Urbano has been announced as one of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge´s 21 semifinalists. Named “Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award” by Metropolis Magazine, this prestigious prize will award 100,000 dollars to one project strategy with potential to solve world problems through humanitarian action and environmental responsibility.

Ecosistema Urbano´s submission is What if Water… Community Macrophyte Lagoons, a water purification initiative that doubles to engage communities in water conservation activities.  The purification system that has been engineered to assist the natural macrophite purifying processes in plants. After purifying the water, the natural system stores water for reuse on the project site or within the surrounding community. To support community macrophyte lagoons, which initiate physical networking at project sites, the creation of an online social network will allow community members to share their What if Water, Community Macrophyte Lagoons experiences with each other locally and globally.

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Ecological design fundamentals: responsible materials and construction practices

Category: architecture+english+fundamentals+sustainability

What is Ecological Design? Resposible Materials and Contruction Practices
When constructing, In order to encourage stability of environmental and cultural systems that are already in place,  ecological design should utilize the skills and resources available in the nearby areas. I wrote my last post about the necessity for buildings to be engineered so they may evolve in response to environmental changes. Today I will write about how, even more fundamentally, construction process should evolve in response to local contingencies and opportunities.

We can see examples of this practise in the last two examples of ecological design i´ve featured. The first, The Arup designed Druk white lotus school, used both traditional materials and traditional building methods. This supported the local economy, the local culture and avoided harmful environmental effects by limiting the distanace (and carbon-footprint) of material transport. With another take on responsible material usage,  Morphosis’ FLOAT house design for New Orleans, acknowledged poverty pressures in affected flood zones all over the world, by (using local labor) assembling the house on-site from pre-fabricated components with all required wall anchors, electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems pre-installed. The affordable housing was designed as easy-to-transport, easy-to assemble sections so that the design may be reapplied throughout the 9th ward, as well as be adapted to the needs of flood zones worldwide.

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ecological design fundamentals: human-nature interaction

Category: design+english+fundamentals+sustainability

 

What is ecological design? Human-nature Interaction.

Features  of ¨green¨and ¨sustainable¨architectural design often emerge as solar panels, green roofs and other technologies that make up the checklist for LEED certification. But to identify features of ecological design  is more complex.

Healthy ecosystems exist in a dynamic equilibrium of nutrient cycles and energy flows. To design ecologically is to consider the relationship between built structures and social structures as an evolving support system for environmentally responsible living. Ecological design does not only aim to produce low-impact architecture, but also works to support healthy relationships between culture and natural earth processes.

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Green Coverage: They say money doesn’t grow on trees, rather, trees grow on money

Category: english+sustainability+the environment

green – eco – sustainable

The media plays a crucial role in defining what these words mean because, lets face it, these words don’t have any universally acknowledged definitions. It´s been a challenge, of course, for the media to embrace this recent environmental enthusiasm and deliver news that is truly ¨green¨-worthy. However it has also been an incredible opportunity for these writers to decide, for the millions of their readers worldwide, what sort of initiatives really are worth the press.

Most of us assume that if the words  ¨eco¨ ¨green¨or ¨sustainable¨ are in the headline of an article, than the writer is speaking about an environmentally and socially responsible subject. These articles inform public understanding of the environmental terms used and shape the culture that either embraces or rejects them.

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URBAN PROTOTYPE PLAZA ECOPOLIS to Compete for the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Category: ecosistema urbano+english+sustainability


Madrid, Feb. 14th

WASTE TO RESOURCES- URBAN PROTOTYPE PLAZA ECOPOLIS led by ecosistema urbano is proud to announce our submission to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Named “Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award” by Metropolis Magazine, the Challenge is an annual international prize program that awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.

We are thrilled to be a part of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge review process, which brings together influential design science leaders such as Josè Zaglul, Vandana Shiva, Danny Hillis, William McDonough, John Thackara and Hunter Lovins.

We entered this competition because of its reputation as the most prestigious Prize concerning social issues.

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community-run green areas | studioUAP

Category: english+sustainability


About 50 community-run green areas mapped: little urban gardens, play yards, edible gardens and areas for walking, resting, or simply talking. Citizens and associations acting together to reclaim the abandoned areas in Rome.
More than 100 sites together with the 65 spontaneous gardens registered by the Rome municipality.
Urban farms too and other interesting experiences such as Partecipation Houses, “Punti Verdi Qualità” and green areas maintained by established associations.

The map is in progress. Point us out any news and changes you know of.

More info can be found in: http://www.urbanarchitectureproject.org/

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Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement

Category: architecture+english+sustainability


This exhibition presents eleven architectural projects on five continents that respond to localized needs in underserved communities. These innovative designs signal a renewed sense of commitment, shared by many of today’s practitioners, to the social responsibilities of architecture. Though this stance echoes socially engaged movements of the past, the architects highlighted here are not interested in grand manifestos or utopian theories. Instead, their commitment to a radical pragmatism can be seen in the projects they have realized, from a handmade school in Bangladesh to a reconsideration of a modernist housing project in Paris, from an apartheid museum in South Africa to a cable car that connects a single hillside barrio in Caracas to the city at large. These works reveal an exciting shift in the longstanding dialogue between architecture and society, in which the architect’s methods and approaches are being dramatically reevaluated. They also propose an expanded definition of sustainability that moves beyond experimentation with new materials and technologies to include such concepts as social and economic stewardship. Together, these undertakings not only offer practical solutions to known needs, but also aim to have a broader effect on the communities in which they work, using design as a tool.

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Sustainability in motion. Aarhus Nov. 5th

Category: ecosistema urbano+english+sustainability

ecosistema urbano will be present at the conference  Sustainability in Motion, taking place in Aarhus next November 5th hosted by the Danish Architects’ Association.  Other speakers will be Lia Ghilardi from Noema Research and Planning (England) and Patricia Patkau from Patkau Architects (Canada). Related to the event they have interviewed us. The interview is available in their webpage.

More info on the workshop and lecture here

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EDUCATION+ECOLOGY: CENTER FOR ECOLITERACY

Category: english+sustainability


The Center for Ecoliteracy supports and advances education for sustainable living.

We believe that schools play a pivotal role in moving us beyond our growing environmental crises and toward a sustainable society. We recognize schooling for sustainability as a process that fosters abundant living on a finite planet and makes teaching and learning come alive.

We bring a passion to our work that stems from our conviction that the best hope for learning to live sustainably lies in schooling that returns to the real basics: engaging with the natural world; understanding how nature sustains life; nurturing healthy communities; exploring the consequences of how we feed and provision ourselves; caring about the places where we live and the people and creatures in them.

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Talented Award: Bauhaus.SOLAR Award

Category: architecture+english+sustainability


The Bauhaus SOLAR Award is being awarded for the first time at the 3rd International Congress Bauhaus.SOLAR in Erfurt on 10th November 2010.

Der Bauhaus.SOLAR Award for young talent is being sponsored by SolarInput e.V., Solarvalley Mitteldeutschland e.V., the German Solar Industry Association and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. The award is being advertised all over Europe and is geared towards students and young graduates. It honours superb architecture and design projects from over the last two years which demonstrate innovative use of renewable energy and the award is endowed with 15,000 Euros. An international jury selected from architecture and industry assess the submitted works.

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PODCASTS: Ecological Urbanism Conference Harvard GSD

Category: english+sustainability

ECOLOGICAL URBANISM: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future
Conference at Harvard University Graduate School of Design
April 3 – 5, 2009

The conference, which ran from April 3-5, 2009, brought together design practitioners, students and theorists, economists, engineers, environmental scientists, politicians and public health specialists, with the goal of reaching a more robust understanding of ecological urbanism and what it might be in the future.

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rifiuto con affetto

Category: creativity+english+sustainability


Objective
The aim of this project is to make people aware of the increasing amount of rubbish we throw away and choices for its disposal. How many times have we thought to ourselves “What a pity to throw this away!”. It just shows how often people throw away items which can still be used. RCA wants to change our attitude towards these objects and offer them a second life: if we throw away something “with love”, then someone else may “love it again”. What has become useless to someone, can become useful to someone else.
RCA enables the public to think twice before getting rid of unnecessary belongings and points out the importance of “wasting” in a critical and conscious way.

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International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change

Category: english+sustainability

Climate change is an urgent global challenge. In response to the Stern Report, the RIBA Trust launched “International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change|”, a major programme of symposia exploring climate change, ecology, architecture, design and urbanism. Inaugurated by Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, Founder of the Green Belt Movement, the series brings together visionary thinkers and practitioners from a range of disciplines to consider new possibilities, design innovation, technologies and partnerships in the global effort to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Curated by Tamara Horbacka, RIBA Trust.

View videos of International Dialogues online:

http://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/Talks/VideoArchive/VideoArchive.aspx

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WHATIFCITIES: workshop with students in Louisiana

Category: architecture+educación+english+sustainability

The exhibition What if…? cities is ongoing until the Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen. Meanwhile the staff of Louisiana organise workshops with several schools from Denmark.

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[strategic issues] Clinton Climate Initiative series

Category: city+creativity+english+new technologies+sustainability

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.

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Nothing has been done to explore new urban models to improve cities’ efficiency

Category: architecture+ecosistema urbano+english+sustainability

The European Urban Knowledge Network has published an interview with Belinda Tato (Ecosistema Urbano):

Many people, organisations and governmental bodies would agree that cities play an important role in reducing the negative effects of climate change. In the past few years, this role has been actively debated at conferences, summits and informal meetings. Some organisations have a very clear and progressive image of what cities can do to tackle climate change related issues and strongly believe in large-scale transformations. An example of such an organisation would be ‘Ecosistema Urbano’, a Madrid-based architectural research and design institute that is strongly committed towards ecology and sustainability. Belinda Tato, architect at Ecosistema Urbano, believes that far more can be done to make cities more sustainable. “In the last few decades cities have grown considerably, but nothing has been done to explore new urban models to improve their efficiency, especially in relation to the management of resources.” According to Ecosistema Urbano, the ideal sustainable city can become a reality if more creative and holistic solutions are sought.

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Architecture and Entropy

Category: architecture+english+sustainability

What do we think or talk when we refer to Sustain and Develop in the last years and for the forthcoming future? How can architects confront their work and ideas within the paradox that any new building, any new city will inevitably disrupt the natural ecology?

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taller de Sostenibilidad urbana creativa – Logroño

Category: arquitectura+castellano+ecosistema urbano+eventos+internet+sustainability

090227taller_rioja
El próximo lunes 2 de Marzo ecosistema urbano imparte un Taller en la Escuela de Arte y Superior de Diseño de La Rioja . El tema será la sostenibilidad urbana creativa.

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play pump!!

Category: engineering+english+new technologies+sustainability

13454365

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.

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Sustained development Hong Kong style:Architecture of Density

Category: architecture+english+sustainability

090223_hong_cong
Architecture of Density, an exhibition of large scale color photographs by Michael Wolf.

Wolf has lived and worked in Hong Kong for ten years. Stimulated by the region’s complex urban dynamics, he makes dizzying photographs of its architecture.
One of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world, Hong Kong has an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometer. The majority of its citizens live in flats in high-rise buildings. In Architecture of Density, Wolf investigates these vibrant city blocks, finding a mesmerizing abstraction in the buildings’ facades.

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WRI on Bus Rapid Transit v. Light Rail

Category: english+sustainability+urbanism

090208_light_rail
What’s the smarter solution for bringing mobility to 21st century cities: bus rapid transit (BRT) or light rail? With questions this big, it’s important to consider all the perspectives.

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LONDON CALLING

Category: architecture+art+english+sustainability+Uncategorized

breath_01

“Scientists think that ice will probably disappear from the North Pole for the first time by this summer 2008 due to the global warming. We would like to express our solidarity with the hungry – and probably angry – polar bears that will soon reach our lands (?) trying to find some dry land and food. What about architecture?”

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Sustainability After Zero

Category: architecture+english+sustainability

volume #18

In its newest edition Volume #18, published by an international think-tank including AMO, Archis and C-LAB, is raising questions about the condition of sustainability in a world that seems to have yet accepted its importance, but still searches for its meaning.

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Urbania Festival 29-30-31/01/2009 Bologna Italy

Category: architecture+english+events+research+sustainability+urbanism

urbania_365

Urbania Festival 29-30-31/01/2009 Bologna Italy

The Festival is focused on “the Hell and Paradise” of life in contemporary cities. Urbania, the Bologna urbanism festival, proposes to gather urbanists, landscape architects, artists and politicians from Italy and abroad. Lectures, talks and meetings held for three days in order to discuss about urban economy, town life and urban writing. Here, some of the preeminent international figures of architecture, economics, public administration, art and literature aim to exchange views on several themes.

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re-biennale

Category: architecture+blogs+city+creativity+english+proyectos+sustainability

rebiennale_365

Quite often grand cultural events, as the Architecture Biennale is, cross the city of Venice in a such imposing manner, rarely interacting with what stays out of the exhibition path. This applies to the citizens (inhabitants, students, workers) and also to the professionals and the artists officially invited.