Monday News Roundup

Top headlines from last week for architecture, planning and design:

The First Government-Sponsored Bike Sharing System (Planetizen)
The first North American community to offer a government-sponsored bike sharing system dubbed "Capital Bike Share" celebrates at one of D.C.'s newest parks, Yards Park.

Transitions Lenses for Buildings (Fast Company)
Windows that automatically change color to reduce heating and cooling bills are the next step of smart buildings. South Korean scientists just got a lot closer to automating them.

Bright Entryways (Apartment Therapy)
The foyer is your home's first impression. Why not make it a wow? Here are some inspiring bright entryways from across the spectrum.

"Re_Home" created for Natural Disaster Recovery (Inhabitat)
The central premise behind U of Illinois students' "Re_Home" is a fast response time in order to get families in more permanent housing. As such, Re Home is sustainable, flexible and easily set up!
 
Preservationists are all about preserving our past while Urbanists harvest lessons from the past to create better places in the future. Seems like these two groups would get along quite well. But no.

Breathtaking Images of Spiral Staircases (1 Design Per Day)
Photos credited to Nils Eisfeld

Would you use plants to power your home electronics? (Design Milk)
Moss Table, from the 2011 London Design Festival, is an experimental table that uses plants to generate energy on a micro level.

How Temporary and Simple Places can Define City Life (Sustainable Cities)
In building urban community, it remains imperative to reassess—with simplicity in mind—and to always remember first principles, such as shelter and the wheel.