Monday News Roundup

Happy Monday! Let's start out with the top links from last week:

From Sprawl to Complete Communities (Planetizen)

Galina Tachieva's new Sprawl Repair Manual creates a narrative and visual process for making suburbs more sustainable.

Presentation skills and techniques - For architects! (Life of an Architect)

The spectacular 'green' way to build affordable housing (Switchboard)
Via Verde (“Green Way” in Spanish) is a new mixed-income, mixed-use development nearing completion in a once-severely disinvested area of the South Bronx - but it is like no other affordable housing development you have seen.  It is much, much better.

Well-structured handbags fortified with concrete! (Design Milk)

Green Infrastructure: Making cities sustainable + hospitable (Switchboard)
Case studies demonstrate the successful application of ”green infrastructure” techniques that collect and process rainwater naturally before it flows into receiving waterways as polluted runoff.

Eleven of the Best Urban Design Ideas in the World (Planetizen)
From a penthouse dwelling above an air-raid bunker to an "inside-out" building where plants grow on the walls through rainwater irrigation...

Frii Bike (Wannekes)
Beautiful and eco-friendly, the Bike Frii is composed of recycled plastic elements.

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 vs. Urbanists (Planetizen)

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.