Nov 21, 09
Worldchanging Timeline: 2003-2009
We here at Worldchanging just celebrated our sixth anniversary! In addition to publishing a series of "101" posts, highlighting some of the iconic pieces we've published over the years, and a primer on blogs and other resources we lean heavily upon, we though that it might also be useful to share a timeline of the project so far, noting some representative events, to give the interested reader a sense of where we came from and how we got here; perhaps knowing something of the evolution of...
San Francisco’s Foggy Sunday Streets 2009
By John Hamilton Despite a blanket of fog, the last San Francisco Sunday Streets of 2009 was, from all accounts, a smashing success, one of the most popular so far, with thousands of people enjoying four activity-filled hours of pristine car-free space through Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway. Kids, families, bicyclists, skaters, dancers, and even the MTA Chief Nat Ford came out to enjoy the carfree zone. Related posts in the Worldchanging archive: Event notes: Streets for People...
New Yorkers to Create PreFab Parks for Park(ing) Day
What comes to mind when you picture “livable streets?" For me, the phrase conjures up consciously-designed, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, where people -- not cars -- are priority. But what if we were to take the phrase "livable streets" literally? Park(ing) Day 2009 allows us to do just that. What began in 2005 as an attempt by a San Francisco art collective to highlight the lack of public space in urban areas has now turned into an international event. Once a year, artists and...
The Ruins of the Unsustainable: Searching For Answers to the Suburbs
"The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century's frontier." We've been pondering that statement by Worldchanging ally Bruce Sterling for nearly two years now. In North America, several decades of bad development (and the government policies that enabled and encouraged it) have resulted in unchecked sprawl and played no small part in our global financial meltdown. Far-flung exurban areas have swallowed up miles of greenfield, replacing farmland and woods with pavement and lawns, and...
Straw Really Does Keep The Wolf From The Door
by Paul Rainger I'll huff and I'll puff, but we'll build that house up. Let's face it, until Kevin McCloud and Grand Designs came along, the reputation of straw houses was not good. Largely thanks to the tale of the Three Pigs, a story that, with hindsight, looks suspiciously like a piece of inspired viral marketing by the Brick Manufacturers Association. But that situation looks set to change this week, with work getting underway on Bath University’s pioneering project to build a...
Roundup: Car-Free Suburbs, Climate Politics, and D.C. on Zipcar
Martin Specht for The New York Times Picket Fences, No Driveways If you thought woonerfs were cool, check this out: in Vauban, a suburb of Freiburg, Germany, nearly all streets are car-free and there are only two places to park. Residents, 70 percent of whom don't own a private vehicle, report feeling safer and happier as a result of the suburb's "smart planning." In a world where millions still treasure the space and pace associated with suburban life, car-free suburbs might be one...
Turning Shipping Containers Into Customizable, Affordable Housing
We recently started following the development of a cool new project taking root at
LEED Platinum Prefab Home Now Available
Yet another large step in the quest to make green building efficient and more affordable: Green building leader Bensonwood Homes has constructed a prototype net zero-energy home that was recently awarded LEED Platinum status, the U.S. Green Building Council's highest rating for green building construction. The Unity Home, currently occupied by the president of environmentally focused Unity College and his wife, uses widely available green building strategies including passive heating,...
Changing Ideals: Re-thinking the House at NAI in Maastricht
NAI (the Netherlands Architecture Institute) in Maastricht, one of my favourite venues to see how architecture fits into the broader context, is currently running an remarkably well-curated exhibition called Changing Ideals: Re-thinking the House. The Mauritshuis of Jacob van Campen, photo Moniek Wegdam Architects consider the house the best place to test and demonstrate new concepts. Some even go so far as to claim that the history of modern architecture coincides with the search for the...
The Outquisition & The Future of The Ecovillage
Awhile back, Alex Steffen posted an interesting riff speculating on the potential for a new kind of sustainability movement, “a crusade of open sharing” that would spread the brightest green practices to decaying cities and flailing suburbs around the globe with “missionary fervor.” It would be a sort of inverse of the medieval crusades – he dubbed it “The Outquisition,” borrowing the name from Cory Doctorow and the mission statement (“the ruins of the unsustainable are the...
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