War and conflict often bring about the destruction of architecture, however these forces can also result in new constructions that define a cultural identity and place.Stressed by China’s growing population, the Hakkapeople have been confronted with armed warfare for local resources since the 17th century. To remedy their situation the Hakka began building massive structures that could not only stave off intruders, but would also form amazing self-sustaining micro-communities complete with food storage, space for livestock, living quarters, temples, armories and more.
…Scripts are made out of series of written commands which can be programmed to solve complex geometric problems. Scripts can also be used to generate new, unexpected outcomes as they have the ability to evaluate, process and build on the given commands…
Generate seminar on the 30th of October 2009 in Oulu, Finland.
Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing.
Two cities, Helsinki inFinland and Eindhoven in The Netherlands are competing about the prestigeous title of Design Capital 2012. The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design will choose the winner in November. The judges will visit the two cities in August.
If Helsinki is chosen there will be big opening and closing events and several festivals and happenings organised around Design and Architecture in the city during the two-year capitalship.
Will the establishment of Iittala, Marimekko, Fiskars, Aalto, Artek, Helsinki art nouveau- and modern architecture, and designers like Ilka Suppanen, Harri Koskinen, Valvomo bring the price home, or do the judges look for new design ideas of non-commercialism, ecology, ethics and mysticism like Hel Looks, Globe Hope, Hollmen-Reuter-Sandman Architects,Marcus Copper, or -since the almost total death of free graffiti culture in the city-, the risign culture of guerilla gardening in Helsinki?
Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects New Heden project transforms a vacant city block is a self-contained sustainable city interspersed with cycling paths and walkways. Envisioned as a “green lung” for Gothenburg, Sweden, the development will introduce a beautiful expanse of fresh green space to an area currently consumed by parking lots and football fields.
Tuomo Siitonen Architects´ plan for apartments in downtown Helsinki
Cement accounts for 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions – more than aviation. Now British engineers have discovered a new form of cement that instead reduces CO2 emissions. Cement is the key ingredient in concrete. In Finland, concrete is the most common material for building bearing structures of high-rise apartment houses. Scientists predict, that worldwide, the demand for cement will grow by 50% in the years to come.
Cement, a vast source of planet-warming carbon dioxide, could be transformed into a means of stripping the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, thanks to an innovation from British engineers.
Making traditional cement results in greenhouse gas emissions from two sources: it requires intense heat, and so a lot of energy to heat up the ovens that cook the raw material, such as limestone. That then releases further CO2 as it burns. But, until now, noone has found a large-scale way to tackle this fundamental problem.
The new cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative. Set up by chief scientist at Novacem, Nikolaos Vlasopoulos and his colleagues at Imperial College London, the innovation has already attracted the attention of major construction companies and investors.
Butterflies exhibit vibrant colors and stay clean using nano-scale structures on their wings. Designers and engineers have emulated this strategy to create self-cleaning coatings, fabrics and paints, and electronic display screens.
What is Biomimicry?
Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more.
Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most importantly, what lasts here on Earth. Instead of harvesting organisms, or domesticating them to accomplish a function for us, biomimicry differs from other “bio-approaches” by consulting organisms and ecosystems and applying the underlying design principles to our innovations. This approach introduces an entirely new realm for entrepreneurship that can contribute not only innovative designs and solutions to our problems but also to awakening people to the importance of conserving the biodiversity on Earth that has so much yet to teach us.
A parecon workplace is possible. I have experienced one, and now I believe we can overcome capitalism.
The hierarchical workplace is an insidious institution. It is a powerful mechanism through which capitalism imposes and normalizes some of its most vicious values: It thrives on competition. It encourages authoritarianism and subservience. It rewards workers for their race, gender, education, output, age, conformity, and their ability to “work the system.” It is dangerous for individual empowerment and democracy, yet it is embraced even by most social-change organizations. It must be subverted.
The theory of Participatory Economics provides a framework for creating a new kind of workplace in present-day market economies. It shows us how to organize our work around a different set of values: equity, solidarity, democracy, and diversity.
Unlike some facets of the parecon vision, which may seem lofty and futuristic, the workplace model can to a great extent be immediately implemented. I say this with confidence because I have done it.
For four years, I, along with several co-workers, labored in a parecon-based workplace to produce a daily, online news publication called The NewStandard. TNS, as we called it, was 100 percent reader funded and not-for-profit. It upheld the highest ethical standards in the news industry and focused on the perspectives of people most affected by current events and government and corporate policy.
Our particular project was a less-than-ideal laboratory for parecon. At its peak, when there were six of us, we worked from four different locations, which made communication challenging. We worked grueling hours to meet daily publishing deadlines, leaving little time and energy for other aspects of our organization. And the funding pressures of the news and alternative-media industries kept our publication on the financial brink.
Yet we found even this to be a rich environment in which to stave off hierarchy. Using the parecon fundamentals—balanced job complexes, participatory decision-making, and payment for effort and sacrifice—we were able to experiment, invent, and reinvent until we found ways of operating that were increasingly efficient and fair.
A simple mission: “to generate design opportunities that will improve living standards for all” by providing an open-source platform through which ANYone can view, post, share, and adapt sustainable, humanitarian-based, scalable solutions. The idea that designs and all associated documents can and should be shared within the decidedly proprietary architectural industry is truly innovative, and could very well aid in the reshaping of the entire architectural profession into a more socially-focused and responsible vocation. Architecture for humanity; Cameron Sinclair on TED talks//aito
“Theo Jansen has been creating wind-walking examples of artificial life since 1990. What was at first a rudimentary breed has slowly evolved into a generation of machines that are able to react to their environment: “over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storms and water and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.” From >Inhabitat
These sculptural ‘animals’ are amazing; like a combination of DaVinci and David Cronenberg. Jansen has hit upon a form that resonates with a sense of the future/past as present; fairy tales, dinosaurs and mythical beasts.
