Design like you give a damn

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

www.openarchitecturenetwork.org

www.cameronsinclair.com

To transform temporary available and under-used spaces

A renewed approach to architecture and urban planning cannot be initiated solely by centralised structures and governmental bodies. Doina Petrescu highlights the importance of ‘other spaces’, the temporary appropriation and use of leftover spaces and urban interstices, spaces of relative freedom, where rules and codes can still be redefined.

continue>www.re-public.gr

Theo Jansen´s kinetic sculptures are alive!

“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.

from> (incli)NATION via east coast Architecture review

More on youtube: Theo Jansen

Things happening soon in Helsinki worth checking out:

1) This year´s Megapolis 2023 on date 27.9.2008 at Vanha Ylioppilastalo in Helsinki

2) Carrotmob is coming to Finland: Saturday 27.9 (at 18.30) in Ravintola Juttutupa in Hakaniemi.

Concept idea presented by the founder Brent Schulkin on youtube:

3) Thursday 2.10.2008 (at 17.00)

HUM:ARC (Architecture for Humanity) exhibition opening at A-Guild´s Gallery “Mom, whats´s architecture?” Neitsytpolku 8 in Helsinki

www.new.facebook.com/EVENT

www.new.facebook.com/GROUP

Reclaim the streets

“Reclaim the streets” is a worldwide phenomenon, where people take over the streets and set up a party. Yesterday in Helsinki, Punk took over. The organization was excellent; one second - people fill the street, two seconds - traffic is stopped and anarchist black flags put up, and a red blanket constructed to hinder cars from passing. Three seconds - the tent is up. Four seconds - the instruments are orderly put up and the spontaneous stage is ready. Five seconds - a small aggregat is carried in to give power to the loudspeakers. Next the bar is up and punk music fills the neighbourhood. //aito

Punk my neighbourhood

Malminrinne reclaimed

The police watching over

Concert

Red skeleton banner

< VIDEO

Artist Joshua Allen Harris´ plastic bag polar bear

Polar bears, polar bears. Those ubiquitous symbols of climate change. Cute and cuddly, ethereal and majestic, they’re popping up everywhere - including atop subway grates on the streets of New York City. Artist Joshua Allen Harris has created quite an online buzz with his puppy-like inflatable plastic bag polar bear: it inflates and deflates with the passing of subterranean subway trains, springing to life and then fading away in a vital commentary on global warming.

From Inhabitat > www.inhabitat.com

As architects we often get frustrated by building codes. Finnish building codes are strict, and cut in stone, there are no excuses made. A step higher than 40-50 cm; has to have a safety rail of 90 cm high. Apple trees in apartment building gardens; forbidden, raw apples can be toxic if consumed in huge quantities (and I mean HUGE). A staircase cannot be too narrow or too steep - ever. Etc, etc. By all these rules we think we make the world safer. But is safety first right? We are actually by eliminating risk, also eliminating part of life, and the process of learning. Learning gives you joy and confidence. And arent small risks so much more fun than someone telling you “play NOW!”.//aito

www.baumraum.de

Kids need the adventure of ‘risky’ play

A major study says parents harm their children’s development if they ban tree-climbing

A major study by Play England, part of the National Children’s Bureau, found that half of all children have been stopped from playing; climbing trees, playing conkers or taking part in games of tag or chase. Some parents are going to such extreme lengths to protect their children from danger that they have even said no to hide-and-seek.

‘Children are not being allowed many of the freedoms that were taken for granted when we were children,’ said Adrian Voce, director of Play England. ‘They are not enjoying the opportunities to play outside that most people would have thought of as normal when they were growing up.’

Voce argued that it was becoming a ’social norm’ for younger children to be allowed out only when accompanied by an adult. ‘Logistically that is very difficult for parents to manage because of the time pressures on normal family life,’ he said. ‘If you don’t want your children to play out alone and you have not got the time to take them out then they will spend more time on the computer.’

Voce pointed out how irrational some of these decisions were. Last year, almost three times as many children were admitted to hospital after falling out of bed as those who had fallen from a tree.

The tendency to wrap children in cotton wool has transformed how they experience childhood. According to the research, 70 per cent of adults had their biggest childhood adventures in outdoor spaces among trees, rivers and woods, compared with only 29 per cent of children today. The majority of young people questioned said that their biggest adventures took place in playgrounds.

Voce said Play England was determined to spread the message that children ought to be taking risks and that it is ‘not the end of the world if a child has an accident’. The latest study will be launched on Wednesday to coincide with Play Day, when hundreds of events will take place across the country to celebrate children’s right to play. It will show that play providers also feel the opportunities for children to ‘test and challenge themselves in play involving a level of risk’ have reduced over the past decade. They blame overcautious health and safety officers and the fear of litigation if children have accidents.

link> The Guardian

Ekosähkö

An announcement, better late than ever:

Aito, and most of its affiliates, has tossed Helsingin Energia into the trash bin (except for the monopolized transfer part) and has a new electricity provider: Ekosähkö Oy http://www.taustavoimaa.fi/ekosahko/.

Ekosähkö produces electricity through small power plants and at least one third third is produced by wind power. We made the contract here (keep the suggested parameters unchanged, consumption of energy for an one-two person household is 2000 kWh/year) http://www.taustavoimaa.fi/ekosahko/laskuri/ekosahko/index.asp

We will see in some time how it works.

Cheers//aito

MIT opens new ‘window’ on solar energy

Cost effective devices expected on market soon

glass facades

Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun’s energy that could allow just that.

The work, to be reported in the July 11 issue of Science, involves the creation of a novel “solar concentrator.” “Light is collected over a large area [like a window] and gathered, or concentrated, at the edges,” explains Marc A. Baldo, leader of the work and the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.

As a result, rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells (the semiconductor devices that transform sunlight into electricity), the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell “by a factor of over 40,” Baldo says.

Because the system is simple to manufacture, the team believes that it could be implemented within three years–even added onto existing solar-panel systems to increase their efficiency by 50 percent for minimal additional cost. That, in turn, would substantially reduce the cost of solar electricity.

…

LINK

> http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solarcells-0710.html

WIRED SCIENCE: See-Through Solar Hack Could Double Panel Efficiency:

LINK> blog.wired.com

Wikicity

Vaarallisia ajatuksia - Dangerous Thoughts - that is something the guys at Demos like. Imagine year 2050 they say: most of the worlds population will live in “slums”; self-built cities. `This is our salvation!´ the men state. Wait a moment?

Wikicity is the city of voice. It’s the place of opportunity superior to the gold paved streets of another utopia, it is where opportunity is something you create together. It’s the place where man (hopefully woman, too…) can create his own surroundings. It is organised anarchy - extremely alluring. Dangerous? Risky? Naive? Optimist? Innovative? Hopeful? Progressive? Unpredictable? Brilliant? YES!

Look at what we have as an option: people more and more disengaged in decisions on their own lives, more and more distrustful of neighbours, more and more alone, embedded into a blanket of that everything in life is -so well organized-.

Roope Mokka of Demos Helsinki wrote an article on “Thinking Cities” for the Monocle alongside Alain de Botton, Richard Florida, Jonathan Raban, Ricky Burdett and Richard Alston. //aito

The idea of self-built cities is the greatest promise for urban development. The idea is that we open up the creation of cities in the same way we have opened the compiling of encyclopedias and online-media to allow anyone to contribute. It’s the same principle that many industries are using to open up their R&D, design and marketing processes to their customers and which also inspires “open source” software development. Co-creating cities is one of the few positive developments in a problem-ridden tidal wave of urbanisation in the 21st century. And it’s one that could make us happier.

The core issue is that cities no longer enable us to live out our dreams. We have changed, but the cities haven’t. They remain the final bastions of modernistic design where users are seen as the masses and individuals are an obstacle. Even suburbia (on the surface a tasteless, mundane, hypermarket-bound high-carbon lifestyle) offers more potential for self-expression. That is why we fleeing cities. To lure us back we need cities that give us a voice. We need to take democracy to the next level, where it recognises our individual needs and dreams.

Demos NOW, an urban think tank, has created the concept of City 2.0 (PDF) - an urban ecosystem of social innovation, governance and social risk funding. We want to turn the Helsinki Metropolitan Area into a self-built city; a hi-tech low-carbon “slum” with an unforeseen and unpredictable quality of life. A Wikicity.

yhteiskunta 2.0