urban-rural

How To Manage a Constellation

The map below is of the Baltic Sea. Over the last hundred years its ecosystems have been poisoned almost to death by outputs from a multitude of industries and farming activities in the nine countries that surround it. These deadly flows are shown on the  complicated chart below: [continue …]

2022-10-04T10:19:12+00:00October 1st, 2012|urban-rural|

Design, regions, and the two economies

The stated ambition of Cornwall, in the the far south west of England, is to become a “green peninsular”. It’s an evocative concept, but people there interpret the word “green” in different ways.

For example, although Cornwall aspires to become a “knowledge economy” it is more of a tourism economy at [continue …]

2022-10-21T12:08:48+00:00April 3rd, 2010|development, urban-rural|

Territorial development books

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It has always been a point of pride at Doors of Perception events to curate the bookstore as carefully as we curate the speakers. We do this because when a conference theme cuts across disciplines – as ours do – no single bookseller is likely [continue …]

2022-08-23T13:49:29+00:00December 15th, 2009|urban-rural|

Spacing in

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As you may have read in this month’s newsletter, I’m a new fan of Spacing. This excellent new-paradigm magazine and multi-city blog (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Atlantic, including Halifax) features daily dispatches from the streets of these places on “just about anything that involves the [continue …]

2022-10-21T12:11:03+00:00November 9th, 2009|urban-rural|

Cities of Design

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At a conference in St Etienne next month ‘Cities of Design’ including Minneapolis, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Seoul, Portland, Eindhoven and Dortmund will all be represented. Personally I think either that all cities should be design cities – or perhaps that none should if the [continue …]

2009-10-05T20:20:30+00:00October 5th, 2009|urban-rural|

In transition

Fui So means “ability to rejuvenate” in Mandarin. I learned this from Wong Lai-yin, a Chinese participant in last week’s Transition Towns event in London.
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2022-08-28T15:07:08+00:00June 2nd, 2009|urban-rural|

What Tools for Transition Towns?

This morning I received an interesting email from Transition Towns. “We recognise that out in transition land there’s a great diversity of web tools and processes currently in use and under development” the mail begins; “some of these will be resilient and adaptable enough to support the changing needs of [continue …]

2023-05-04T10:09:51+00:00March 25th, 2009|urban-rural|

Silent tree hugging in Tenerife

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The criminal over-development of the Canary Islands – and the loss of biodiversity and social capital that followed – was financed by the same banks and speculators that our governments are now trying so desperately to save.

Given the desecration of these [continue …]

2022-08-23T13:49:45+00:00March 12th, 2009|urban-rural|

Re-imagining Metropolis

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An interesting event for our London readers: “No understanding between the brain and the hands” is a collaboration between Pocko photographers and illustrators. Inspired by Metropolis, the 1927 silent science fiction film, created by the famed director Fritz Lang, five photographers have collaborated with nine [continue …]

2009-03-04T14:19:38+00:00March 4th, 2009|urban-rural|

Land and re-localisation

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With allotment waiting lists in the UK massively over-subscribed, and people right across the country keen to grow their own fruit and vegetables, a new project called Landshare aims to make British land more productive and fresh local produce more accessible to [continue …]

2008-11-11T08:50:30+00:00November 11th, 2008|urban-rural|

Liminal space

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Next week the team at St Etienne City of Design returns from its vacation ready for a massive final push towards 15 November. That’s the date when when their biennial opens, and Doors of Perception has to fill its 5,000 square metre shed with a [continue …]

2008-08-12T07:08:09+00:00August 12th, 2008|urban-rural|

Water garden

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This was the most interesting exhibit for me at the Milan Furniture Fair. Hidden away in a small courtyard, “Aqva Garden” functions as a distributed rain collector and water storage system. Unlike conventional recycling systems, which tend to be hidden away in clunky boxes, Aqva [continue …]

2007-04-25T06:56:22+00:00April 25th, 2007|urban-rural|
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