Comments: (0)

[ecosistema urbano]:abierto

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+ecosistema urbano+eu:abierto+research+sustainability+the environment

Some weeks ago, Ecosistema Urbano created an account in Facebook. If you don’t know it yet, Facebook is a social network, a phenomenon that some experts think has the potential to become a giant of the size of google, Yahoo or Amazon.

The motive for opening this account is simple: we want to develop a network of creative people interested on areas related to architecture, city and design; people who constantly think about sustainability in their work, and aim to maintain and increase urban vitality.

We understand this blog as a meeting point for all this people and a social network as the best tool for them to meet and communicate.
For this purpose we have created in Facebook the group [ecosistema urbano]:abierto where all our readers can join in exchange for a text introducing themselves which we will publish in this blog.

We want to meet our readers and we want them to have the possibility to publish in the blog.

If you want to be part of the group, send us your text – write about what you want; we have conceived it as an introductory text, but you can make it anything you like. You can tell us about yourselves or about your interests.
The texts, which should contain less than 3000 characters, will be published in the blog under the category eu:abierto, and they can include links to sites you want to recommend.

For publishing and joining the Facebook group [ecosistema urbano]:abierto you can send me an email at domenico@ecosistemaurbano.com

Comments: (0)

“Green” cars

Category: ⚐ EN+sustainability+technologies+the environment

We bring you more opinions about biodiesel. Now is the turn for an published in the newly born Spanish paper Público: “green cars pollute too”. It talks, for instance, about the ban implemented in Norway to use the word “ecologic” in automobile publicity. Another interesting aspect is the debate that has started in the Spanish version of the blog following the previous article on this topic: bloggers’ comments, related news, etc.

On the same topic, check his link to flickr.

Comments: (0)

wiki:eutv

Category: ⚐ EN+ecosistema urbano+eutv+sustainability

More on the sustainability website for expo Zaragoza2008: We decided to use a wiki site as the collective working tool. We had only to choose a wiki site. After analysing various sites, I have chosen pbwiki. It feels pretty intuitive and graphically attractive.
The address is www.eutv.pbwiki.com, we invite you to visit the site and take part in the construction of this new project.
For those who don’t yet know what we are talking about, there is more info here.

Comments: (0)

Sustainability interactive site

Category: ⚐ EN+ecosistema urbano+internet+sustainability

[ecosistema urbano] has been invited to take part in the exhibition “Zaragoza-Kioto architectures for a sustainable planet”, to be held in the Spanish Pavillion at Expo Zaragoza2008, together with twelve other international teams.

We have tried to find the way to make the best use of this opportunity for reaching the public, and we think it would be very interesting to let everybody express their opinions on sustainability: we want to offer our bloggers and readers the opportunity to be part of this exhibition. The idea is to develop and then “present” a new website about sustainability where experts and passionate people can share their knowledge.

It is going to be the first site about sustainability managed in web2.0 style, with inputs from anyone. On top of this, the site will be presented at the expo Zaragoza2008, a true international showcase.

It is our aim to increase participation levels, starting from the very first step of brainstorming and developing the website. We want bloggers to give their opinion, telling us how we can create a website as interactive as possible.

We have been trying to develop a system that enables an effective way for us to receive all sorts of advice, comments and critiques about this project. We will of course keep you up to date! For now, we want to ask you to post your comments through this blog.

Comments: (0)

www.agenda21-local.net

Category: ⚐ EN+sustainability+urbanism

We have opened up our own media channel at www.agenda21-local.net. We are given the chance to communicate our innovative products for implementing the objectives of the local “agendas21”. We offer a range of high-quality services that can be used to improve the relationship between neighbours and the public space. We have started a new site inside our blog, next to the projects site, called products. In this space you will shortly find a list of specific services aimed for sustainable towns and cities. Some of the services, including rehabilitation of neighbourhoods, workshops for the future involving the participation of the neighbours or the eco-pack, will be carried out together with fundación CIREM foundation, an expert on this matter. We hope these services are what Spanish towns are looking for. We will watch out for your comments to improve our proposals throughout the process.

Comments: (0)

Sustainable cities ranking

Category: ⚐ EN+eutv+sustainability+the environment

eutv” (Ecosistema Urbano TV) goes ahead. At the office we are working on the design of a logo that will shortly be ready. Meanwhile, the collective task involved in defining the project goes on on the internet. So far, at the project website eutv.pbwiki.com we have registered a proposal by juan freire, which we find particularly interesting. Juan proposes developing a Ranking of cities to help publicising the project: Over the last few months a number of initiatives for comparing cities have come up, based on rankings that use different indices to quantify the degree in which cities are creative, green, sustainable, innovative… Despite these exercises being very criticisable for the methodology used as well as often for their consequences (sometimes they lead to a “city race” in which all cities want to be like each other), they generate great interest amongst politicians and the public, and they can have positive applications (they can point out weaknesses and define routes for change). In this project, work could be done with sustainability indices for Spanish cities, for example. A number of variables could be defined and the results could be compiled in a cooperative manner. These results could be published broadly and could be an instrument for making the project better known within the media, amongst politicians or the public. In a few days I will publish in Ciudades enredadas, a blog in ADN.es, a post with the analysis of different international city indices that have lately appeared in the media. It can be useful as a guide.

What do you think these indices could be?

Comments: (0)

Biofuel – right or wrong?

Category: ⚐ EN+sustainability+technologies+the environment

The following headline in Spanish paper ELPAIS on 12th September has caught my attention:

“Biofuels don’t reduce CO2 emissions. This statement opens the interview of Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner Hartmut Michel. The interview questions the suitability of biofuel. I am not an expert, so I can simply recommend the article.

These are further extracts from the interview:

“to produce biofuel, such as ethanol, it is necessary to invest much energy in the shape of fertilizers, transport, as well as on distilling the alcohol. (…)Nearly as much energy is required as that later found in the ethanol. And if you obtain that energy from fossil fuel, you end up emitting more CO2 than you would if you simply used petrol in your car.”

“Biofuels are promoting the loss of tropical jungle in Indonesia, Malaysia, some regions in Africa and Brazil. In Brazil the issue is soya: more and more soya is being cultivated in the jungle. Burning up the jungle in order to produce soya liberats an enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

Comments: (2)

ecosistema urbano winner of experimental education center for Reggio Children Foundation

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+competitions+ecosistema urbano+news+sustainability

experimental education center for Reggio Children Foundation

Last June, we shared in our blog we had been invited to participate in the competition for the design of an experimental center for early childhood education in Reggio Emilia (Italy).

The Reggio Children Foundation is a network of public schools for kids between birth and 11 years old in Reggio Emilia, a city where one third of the public budget is invested in education. During these months we have been working to develop the proposal, a laboratory-school where a new approach to children’s education is experimented, trying to make a proposal that would enhance the spirit of Reggio Children Foundation, their working method and philosophy, at the same time that addressing issues such as energy efficiency, sustainability, participation, etc.

It was very exciting to get a deeper knowledge of the “Reggio approach” and its learning methods, and experiment with the educational role of the spacial and urban space context. The Reggio Approach is an educational philosophy based on the image of the child, and of human beings, as possessing strong potentials for development and as a subject of rights who learns and grows in his relationships with others.

It is an honor for us to know that we have been winners of the competition, competing with extraordinary teams across Europe. The Reggio Children Foundation philosophy dovetails nicely with our own and we see the development of the proposal and the materialization of the solutions as a challenge we are willing to face.

Congratulations, Ecosistema!

experimental education center for Reggio Children Foundationexperimental education center for Reggio Children Foundation

We share an excerpt from the considerations of the jury:

“The proposed solution is the best suited to represent the new school concept, making the new building a new collective experiment. The building itself becomes an opportunity for comparison, on issues of sustainability and eco-backwards compatibility, making the children themselves active participants. The construction techniques proposed include a development which can be implemented over time, according to needs for teaching-learning related to the school’s teaching plan, which makes the construction of the building itself a community project, seen as a process rather than a point of arrival”.

experimental education center for Reggio Children Foundation

experimental education center for Reggio Children Foundation

Experimental education center for Reggio Children Foundation