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May 23, 2012
Biophilic Building Design Held Back by Lack of Data
Biophilic design is still at the bleeding-edge of green building design and hasn’t taken off yet. The obstacle may be the lack of data on the impact of biophilic design on health and well-being. Or perhaps it’s because... [read more]
May 23, 2012
Sustainability and Affordable Housing: Maybe Occupy Is Onto Something
Occupy has been speaking out against the ongoing housing and foreclosure crisis. In conjunction with this cause, and as an adjustment to forcible removal from public spaces by law enforcement, the movement has evolved to Occupying abandoned properties and homes of families facing foreclosure as an act of civil disobedience. This post considers what would be involved in Occupying vacant and abandoned buildings – legally – as affordable housing for homeless families and individuals or for households caught up in the housing crisis. [read more]
May 22, 2012
Big and small questions about food
I’ve just returned from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Cooking for Solutions conference feeling optimistic about the potential to change the way we grow food, cook and eat. Maybe it’s the wine, the seafood, and the wonderful fruits and vegetables (fried artichokes!) from nearby California farms... [read more]
Microcities: The Rise of the Mini Home and the Walkable Neighbourhood
I’ve written before about how much I enjoy living in a small home in a walkable neighbourhood. Apparently I am not the only one. Real estate trends, urban planning theorists, and architects in North America are coming to the realization that more and more young people – Generation Y – and even their soon-to-be-empty nest parents, want a smaller home. [read more]
New American Frontier: The Braddock Initiative
Earlier this week, we published our report on CNU20 that took place in West Palm Beach. In it we deduced that New Urbanism is at a critical pivot point in its evolution. Conceived as an alternative to sprawl, which was the predominant development... [read more]
‘Decision Trees’ Guide Vacant Land To Renewables
Image via Shutterstock
There’s no telling how much land sits vacant in America. Some of this land is just unused, while other plots, called brownfields, have been contaminated by industrial waste, and deemed unfit for use. There have been no comprehensive studies to tally... [read more]
The Coming Robocar Apocalypse
Photo via Huffington Post
How will driverless cars affect the built environment? A lot of the discussion lately has focused on whether driverless cars will affect the demand for rail. Michael Lind thinks they will make rail obsolete. Alex Block, sensibly noting that a change... [read more]
Homes Struggle With Lighting Efficiency
When it comes to homes, lighting has become a luxury of the modern age. Architects have steadily grown to gorge themselves on light fixtures. Without a doubt, nice lighting can certainly look cool, but it is easy to go overboard. Light a circulation path here, throw in some accents there, before we know it we end up with over 62 lights... [read more]
Your Garden Will Spring Higher If You Keep It Local
Indigenous plants support local ecosystems, and by introducing foreign plants to your backyard-garden-ecosystem, you’re interrupting the natural flow. Each region of this country has a specific style, its own pace, tone, foods, views, and people. The type of vegetation also varies by region, but we don’t often think about the flowers or trees that are native to various regions. Can you even name your state flower? [read more]
Street Art for Redevelopment in Miami
A walk through Wynwood, a neighborhood north of downtown Miami, brings an encounter with two-dimensional fangy creatures that transform the physical and social landscape of this once-industrial zone into a spray-painted cultural destination.Wynwood has become the epicenter of Miami’s artistic rebirth. Over the past decade, Art Basel... [read more]
Integrating Transportation and Culture in Nice
I was recently lucky enough to spend some time in Nice, on the Cote D'Azur in the South of France, and was blown away by the way in which this punchy medium-sized city had come on in leaps and bounds in terms of improving its urban realm. I was last there some 7 years ago when traffic choked the upper half of the city whilst... [read more]
Going Multi-Modal in the “Texas of the North”
Even in Red Deer's downtown area, pedestrians play second fiddle to automotive traffic / Photo: Gary TothRed Deer, Alberta, is a small city about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton. Once a sleepy agricultural outpost of that provided a convenient stopover for travelers moving between the territory’s two larger cities, Red Deer has... [read more]
CNU20: Final Reflections.
It’s been one week since I started out on my first CNU journey, and overall it was a wonderful one. I am still wallowing through all my reflections on my week in West Palm Beach and have been able to express many of them through posts I’ve written. I have believed in the movement and adhered to the CNU Charter in my own way since I... [read more]
Food Truck Fad Takes An All-Electric Turn
A century and a half before becoming one of the hottest foodie trends of the past decade, they were called chuck wagons. The chuck wagon begot the canteen. The canteen begot the roach coach. They roach coach gave birth to the taco truck. The taco truck has evolved into the the food truck, serving hungry patrons “street food” which now... [read more]
Federal Green Building Code Creates Unnecessary Risks and Costs
Someone recently asked me why I was baffled about the Department of Defense's decision to use both LEED and a green building code. Here are two reasons: 1. The policy is a waste of taxpayer money.2. The policy unnecessarily increases risks for government contractors.LEED + Green Building Code =... [read more]
Energy Efficient Homes On Rise, But US Will Lag
image via Shutterstock
Market dynamics will drive strong growth in the residential energy efficiency sector through the remainder of this decade, though largely outside the United States. Says who? Says new cleantech market analysis from Pike, which forecasts that the construction of new energy efficient homes (and retrofits of existing buildings) will... [read more]
New housing forecast mostly good for walkable communities
The housing price recovery has begun, says a new report from The Demand Institute, a think tank recently launched by Nielson and The Conference Board to track consumer demand. Among the findings that are promising for more sustainable development patterns, the strongest segment of the market “comprises populous urban or semi... [read more]
Should you eat farmed fish? It’s complicated
For environmentalists, some food choices are simple. Eating less red meat is better than eating more. Beef and cheese have bigger climate impacts than turkey and eggs. Fruits and vegetables in season likely have a smaller footprint than strawberries in the wintertime.Farmed fish is complicated–because it includes many species of... [read more]
Blink and You Will Miss These Urban Memes
Street art can be elegant, enigmatic, or just plain goofy. In a new addition to our series of posts on how the built environment can be transformed through new forms of “rebel” or street sports, games, and art work, here are a few new “memes” worth mulling over. Perhaps the urban form of flash-in-the pan Internet... [read more]
Sustainable Cities Collective
What's New on
Kaid Benfield is director of sustainable communities and smart growth at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC. More »
Chris Cheatham is a LEED Accredited Professional and green building authority who frequently speaks to groups and associations. More »
Jared Green is Web Content and Strategy Manager at the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) More »
Rodrigo Herrera Vegas is a writer for for one of Argentina's main newspapers, La Nación, and a radio show host. More »
Warren Karlenzig Warren Karlenzig is the founder and president of Common Current. More »
Geoff Wilkinson is the Vice Chair of the Building Standards Faculty of the Chartered Institute of Building.i More »
Chuck Wolfe Chuck Wolfe is a lawyer, professor, and photographer who blogs at MyUrbanist. More »
- YOU
- TheCityFix - produced by EMBARQ
- Green Buildings Alive
- Kaid Benfield
- This Big City
- polis blog
- Tyler Caine
- Centre for Cities
- Next American City
- Waverly de Bruijn Klaw
- julian dobson
- Vanessa Francis
- Rodrigo Herrera Vegas
- Kristen Jeffers
- Warren Karlenzig
- Jason King
- Mark Lovett
- Adam Mayer
- Daniel Nairn
- Foster Pepper
- Project for Public Spaces
- Douglas Reiser
- Jim Russell
- Neil Takemoto
- Grown in the City
- ECPA Urban Planning
- Jovan Vucetic
- Geoff Wilkinson
- Chuck Wolfe
Transformation Through Technology: Delivering Better Public Services
When: Thu, 2012-05-24 08:00
Webinar: ISO 20121 - Sustainability & Event Management
When: Thu, 2012-05-24 08:00
Sustainability and Affordable Housing: an Interactive Charrette
When: Sat, 2012-06-02 11:00
Tourism and Sustainable Futures: Beyond 2015
When: Fri, 2012-06-15 09:00
Public Sector Leadership: driving cultural change
When: Thu, 2012-06-21 14:36
Youth Policy Summit on Urban Sustainability at UC Denver
When: Sun, 2012-06-24 12:00
“Ever since it appeared in The Road. Braddock has been on my radar for some time. They have been working hard up there for a long time. Very good to see the community pushed into the spotlight. Looking forward to watching this series of articles!”
“I don't walk by choice. My vision forced me to give up my car years ago. I won't lie, I miss being able to drive. I hate the bus, though Santa Clara's VTA is one of the best systems in the country. But I am able to get around. And I walk to shop, sometimes as far as 3 miles away. Sometimes I take the bus back, sometimes I just walk back. This changes ...”