Love vs Power In Iceland
For some Icelanders, in a country whose inhabitants have survived 1,100 winters without central heating, the environmental costs of aluminium smelting are worth [continue …]
The Hidden Costs of Tiger Water
This jequitiba tree in Brazil moves hundreds of gallons of water up into its canopy every day. It does so without pumps, without electricity, and [continue …]
Why White Is Wicked
[Photograph by Tim Mitchell]
You probably need to be naked to read this book with a clear conscience. This reader, for one, felt like stripping off [continue …]
It’s (Still) Not Just The Bags
[I’m re-publishing this story to celebrate the fact that I just got to Sao Paulo, met Adelia Borges, and discovered that the first print-run of her book has sold out in just a couple of months. Adelia explained that one of the organisations [continue …]
How to game the gift economy
In pre-market-based societies, goods and services were distributed on the basis of gift-giving and reciprocity. The most effective strategy for security, in an age without bank accounts and insurance policies, was to develop a reputation for generosity and sharing. This is a heart-warming story – so shall we put it to [continue …]
Who Is the Arne Jacobsen of Urban Food?
Illustration by Helle Schou Pedersen
At a workshop on food in cities at Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark last week I learned: that [continue …]
Istanbul: City of Seeds
It was generous of the The Building Information Centre (YEM) and 34Solo to host an xskool event in their city last week. Our starting premise, [continue …]
Mr Icarus: Meet Mr Gatherer
All credit to the brave persons from Silent UK for sharing with us their spectacular photographs from the top of Europe’s tallest building, the [continue …]
Beyond Good Intentions – The Movie
Humanitarian crises caused by civil wars or natural disasters, such as in Haiti, often trigger a wave of support from us, the public. But our support [continue …]
34 Alternatives to University or Design School in Europe
From alternative technology in Wales, to Gaia Studies in Norway
Oil-Powered Thinking
Last week the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (which has a new director, Martin Roth) staged a conference about Design & Risk. (The [continue …]
Blood Minerals and Cellphones
“Increasing pressure on electronics companies to ensure that their products do not contain illicit minerals from the killing fields in eastern Congo is beginning to have a significant impact. With bills [continue …]
24 Alternatives to University and Design School in Africa and Australasia
From Agroecology training In Africa to social ecology in Australia
The Transition Companion
We can do this the hard way or the easy way. The easy way is that you skip this post and buy the book now.
The hard way is that your reviewer attempts to describe a 320 page book whose contents have been shaped by the infinitely varied experiences of [continue …]
50 Alternatives to University and Design School in the Americas & Canada
From Bioregional Planning in Idaho, to permaculture in Brazil
Zürich Eco Lab
As the guest last week of Zurich University of the Arts I set the following task to a group of sixteen masters students: “Create the plan for a social harvest festival that will reconnect Zurich with its natural ecosystems and grassroots social innovators.”
The idea was to demonstrate, in practice, [continue …]
Hard Words And Soft Words
The words we use often shape the ways we look at the world - and hence, the actions we take. Here are some hard words and their soft alternatives.
Relocalising? How To Make Our Own Money
The money system we have now is ecocidal - but people are designing alternatives.
Relocalising? Social Tools For Solidarity
From potlucks, to time-share: 35 different platforms that probably need to be designed for your locality.
Next Generation Biennials: My How-To Guide
Biennials should connect people to a place, and help them learn from that experience
Relocalising? 100 Items Likely To Disappear First
We take these artefacts for granted - but they'd soon become scarce if our globally-connected economy were to unravel.
Design In The Light of Dark Energy
[ This text is a shortened version of my talk at last month’s conference in Philadelphia on Architecture & Energy; proceedings of that event will be published as a book later this year. Whilst preparing the talk, and this text, I also prepared this Reading List for Mr [continue …]
A Reading List for Mr Monti
As an exercise, I thought I’d share with you (and Mr Monti) the best writers on my reading list – in the order I’ve read them, not in chronological order.
1. TOM MURPHY – DO THE MATH
[continue …]
Beer and solidarity
The photograph shows John Gorzynski and his vegetables before a hurricane devastated his family’s farm last Autumn. Nestled in a valley of the Catskills, Gorzynski Ornery Farm is where [continue …]
100 Books
From Theatre Anthropology, to Stone Age Economics
A Breakfast Thought
This is my breakfast on my flight back from India on Air France.
I count at least 20 separate items on the tray that are unlikely to be recycled.
Virtual Boring Agent
I’ve seen this Virtual Boarding Agent a couple of times now at Orly Airport in Paris. A It’s a life-sized, life-like, two dimensional human figure that talks pleasantly about liquids and gels. It’s spooky, clever, and very well executed – [continue …]
A Reading List for Mr. Monti
When the new Italian Prime Minister, Mr. Mario Monti, gave his acceptance speech to the Italian Senate before Christmas, he used the word “growth” 28 times and the word “energy” – well, zero times. Why would this supposed [continue …]
Why Walls Need Floors
When he was sixteen years old, Floor van Keulen made a wall painting in the stairwell of his mother’s beauty salon. For the next 43 years, the artist has worked with the knowledge that most of his site- and time-specific specific works are destined to disappear. Why?
[continue …]
From Milk To Superfoods: Supping With The Devil?
I’d be surprised if many readers of this blog work for the fracking industry. Those charming people spend a lot on lobbying and public relations, sure – but their main aim in life is to remain obscure.
But food and drink? The branding, the packaging, the communications, the stores, the promotions, [continue …]
From Druids, to Biorefineries: Innovation In A Small Nation
How best do you help a resilient economy emerge in a region that has one foot in ancient ways and traditions – its other in the world of global universities and nuclear power?
Left: “The Hill Farmer” by Bedwyr Williams. Right: a [continue …]
Man and Nature, Re-Connected
There are times when you have to wonder whether ad industry persons totally, er, get it, on the matter of man’s disconnect with nature… and what to do about it.
This Aigle ad, which I tore out the Air France magazine, [continue …]
Turn-key food hives
Hanging out with health system innovators in recent times I’ve been struck by two interesting things. The first is that the buzz in the investor community about health apps is palpable. To feed the hunger, a new incubator called Rock Health, positioning itself as “the seed accelerator for health [continue …]
Design and Health: Flipping The Pyramid
It’s easy for two people to look at the same information – such as this chart (above) about health costs – and perceive totally different things. What I see is an out-of-control Medical Industrial Complex that’s heading, Icarus-like, for collapse. What many designers see is a sea of [continue …]
Compost Candidates
Something special is happening in France. A nationwide campaign will be launched next week by the Colibris movement for the 2012 Presidential Elections – but without a charismatic leader.
Carrot City: Design’s New Shtick
A splendid new book from Monacelli Press marks the coming of age of urban agriculture – at least for the design world. Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture is a timely reflection on design and urban food systems, and on [continue …]
5% health: The risk of catabolic collapse and peak fat in modern health systems, what to do about them, and how design can help
This text touches on: 'energy intensity in health systems' , 'peak fat' , '5% health in Cuba', 'the Quantified Self' , 'Design grammars for health and care' , 'doing what we know we need to do'.
Iceland: eaten alive, or growing to live?
“Who needs oil when you have rain?” The ad for Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s national energy company, dominates this month’s Icelandair magazine. It sits alongside other ads that feature wild spaces, rugged outdoor clothing, and all-round natural purity. The message is not disguised: Iceland is blessed by massive amounts of clean energy.
The [continue …]
Water: the bad news and the good news
A new book by Alex Prud’homme called The Ripple Effect addresses the “vast and desperately serious subject” of water.
The author does not hold back: all the world’s water problems are here. The sewage, fertilizers, industrial chemicals, plastics, paint, drugs, and hand soap, among other [continue …]
From Powerpoint to Permaculture
When I arrived at Angsbacka, the site in Sweden of last weekend’s first Future Perfect festival, an alarming array of leaflets was on offer in the foyer : ‘Shamanic De-Armouring’; ‘How To UpGreat Your Life’ or ‘Reach The Temple of your Inner Beauty’; [continue …]
Ten Ways to Redesign Design Competitions
The image above is a Piezzoelectric skin that could be attached to vertical surfaces on buildings.The skin would generate electricity as wind moved across its tiny hairs. Wind Skin, as the project is called, so enchanted jurors at last week’s [continue …]
Life is a Picnic in The Fertile City
If you’re in Paris before 24 July a spectacular exhibition called The Fertile City: Towards An Urban Nature is well worth a visit.
The show’s OTT poster does not over-promise. The exhibition explores nature in the city from multiple perspectives: historical, social, cultural, botanical, ecological. Two [continue …]
Edible Architecture
Today seems to be the day when, once a year in this part of France, every spider in the region spins her best possible web at the same moment.
Early in the morning, when covered in dew, the whole landscape seems to be dotted with uncountable millions of these amazing structures.
Now [continue …]
Knife sharpening
Last week I was taught how to sharpen our kitchen knives by a wood carver, Howard Raybould, who’s been honing his technique for 30 years. It’s the most useful skill I’ve acquired since learning how to ride a bike.
Howard arrived bearing: a wooden board; a [continue …]
Geeked-out gardening
The day after I celebrated his Kickstarter success with Tyler Caruso, co-founder of Seeing Green, which is about measuring the value of urban agriculture, I read a fascinating piece by Simon Kuper in the FT about the use of data to analyse every tiny aspect of a [continue …]
Shoe Town to Brew Town
When Jimmy Carbone, co-creator of The Good Beer Seal, was considering running for mayor of his old hometown in Haverhill, Massachusetts, he began to ponder possible new uses for industrial buildings that had fallen in to disuse. Could small resource-sharing breweries be a centerpiece of [continue …]
The high-tech permaculture metabolic engine greenhouse
[Stop Press: Polydome has been shortlisted for the 2012 Buckminster Fukller Challenge]
A few years ago urban farming in developed cities was a fringe topic that few designers or architects thought much about. There were exceptions: we tried hard [but failed] to build a prototype of Natalie Jeremijenko’s Urban Space [continue …]
Kick-off!
This was a first for me: witnessing first-hand a Kickstarter project cross the line and go live.
The happy guy with the phone [in Claire Hartten’s garden in Brooklyn] is Tyler Caruso, joint founder [with Erik Facteau] of Seeing Green: The Value of Urban Agriculture.
[continue …]
How to make systems thinking sexy
[The following is based on the author’s keynote at the Buckminster Fuller Challenge awards in New York on 8 June. He was also on the 2010 jury of the Challenge.]
We will not transition successfully to a restorative economy until [continue …]
Sweat equity infra
It’s hard not to be impressed by the Millau Viaduct that’s down the road from where I live in France.
The tallest bridge in the world boasts an eight-span steel roadway, is supported supported by seven huge concrete pylons, and weighs 36,000 tonnes.
But consider this: The great pyramid in Egypt weighs [continue …]