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Kit of Parks
May 19, 2016
World Landscape Architect
Image courtesy of Ben Gebo
This low cost and portable kit is a great way to activate under programed public spaces. Constructed from a lightweight material, the pack fits into a bike trailer, can be unpacked in 10 minutes and contains a high top table, benches, side tables, stools, games, and planters.
Click here to read more about this project.
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San Diego Teaches Us How Micro-Living Can Thrive
April 21, 2016
Dwell
Image courtesy of Ye Rin Mok
Hector Perez, a Woodbury University professor, rallied together a team of architects to design a small urban infill project in the historic Barrio Logan neighborhood of San Diego. The development was supposed to be a series of nine infill projects, but was unable to complete them due to the economic downturn. However, the first lot was developed into a double-height, mixed-use building of Perez’s design, where, in less than 4,000 square feet, he has created eight live-work units, each with a private outdoor space.
Click here to read more about this cool California contemporary design.
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Urban Coffee Farm
April 14, 2016
Landezine
Image courtesy of Bonnie Savage
Built for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, the Urban Coffee Farm & Brew Bar is a beautiful example of bringing a functional landscape into the urban core. Melbourne is famous for its coffee culture, and design studio HASSEL wanted to bring the story of coffee’s growth and production into the same space as it is consumed. Sitting amongst coffee plants, users will be able to learn more about coffee’s journey from rainforest slopes to the cup they have in their hand.
Click here to read more about this fun and innovative installation.
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12 Projects that Explain Landscape Urbanism and How It’s Changing the Face of Cities
April 7, 2016
Arch Daily
image courtesy of Arch Daily
“a traditional understanding of the city as an extrapolation of architectural models and metaphors is no longer viable given the prevalence of larger forces or flows. These include ruptures or breaks in architectonic logic of traditional urban form as compelled by ecological, infrastructural, or economic change.” – Charles Waldheim
Click here to read more about these twelve projects and how they are changing the way we understand and live in our cities.
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Metcalfe Park – ASPECT studios
March 30, 2016
Landezine
image courtesy of ASPECT Studios
Metcalfe Park is an urban park located on Sydney’s famous waterfront. Despite the spectacular views, the grassy park lacks any functional or recreational amenities. ASPECT studios conducted extensive research to find how people use the site currently and what additions to the park would best suit the neighborhood.
Click here to read more about how ASPECT studios created a park within a park.
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Making Sense of The Broad: A Milestone in the Revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles
February 24, 2016
Arch Daily
image courtesy of Jeff Duran
The 20th century was not kind to downtown Los Angeles. While the city stretched out into suburbia, cities like Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood blossomed into cultural centers. Meanwhile the downtown “core” of the city rotted into vacant corporate mega towers.
Click here to read about how the opening of a new contemporary art museum downtown that is transforming the area into a new cultural hub for a new Los Angeles.
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Mariahilferstrasse – Landezine
January 28, 2016
Landezine
image courtesy of B + B
Mariahilferstrasse is a common shopping street in the Austrian capital city of Vienna. Dutch landscape and urban design office Bureau B+B together with the Viennese architects orso.pitro transformed this crowded street of pedestrians and vehicles into a metropolitan shopping boulevard fit for this thriving urban center.
Click here to read more about this new social center in the heart of Vienna.
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Town Hall Square Solingen – Scape Landschaftsarchitekten
January 21, 2016
Landezine
image courtesy of atelier2
This urban space in Solingen, Germany employs the concept of a continuous public open space; one that connects the Town Hall Square to the city’s vast network of urban parks and spaces. Located in front of the city’s municipal offices, the design aims to create a space that is welcoming and inviting to all its citizens in the industrial core.
Click here to read more about how this town uses its central district as a place for everyone to gather.
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Producing the world’s first 3D-Printed bridge with robots is “just the beginning”
January 13, 2016
Dezeen Magazine
image courtesy of Future Makers
3D-Printing and robots are already transforming our world today. As these technologies advance, we will see their impact in the built environment increase dramatically.
Click here to read about how a technology startup is using 3D-Printers to build a bridge over a canal in Amsterdam.
Helena Street Bike Corral | photo courtesy of SB BIKE
The City of Santa Barbara’s Public Work’s Department recently opened a second bike corral within the Funk Zone neighborhood. We could not be more excited to see further support of multi-modal transportation within our community, especially in an area of town that is home to so many bikes! This project was a partnership between the City of Santa Barbara Public Works Department, the Architecture Review Board, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition as well as local business and property owners.
This particular location provides space for 18 bicycles without the loss of any vehicular parking.
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From Issue 32.3
Tuesday 27th Jan 2015
ARCADE 32.3
Winter 2014
From the issue feature, “Living by Design in the Pacific Northwest.”
It’s no secret. The veil of rainy weather doesn’t hide the fact that the Pacific Northwest is a great place to live. For the same reasons you and I love living here—the temperate climate, easy access to mountains and water, big-city life—people are moving to the Northwest at a rapid pace. As reported by Jon Talton for The Seattle Times, according to a US Metro Economies report created by Global Insight for The United States Conference of Mayors, the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area is expected to grow more than 39 percent in the next 30 years. How can we grow and, at the same time, keep our cities not just livable but also lovable?
The answer lies in streets. Typically representing about 30 percent of a city’s open space, streets have huge potential for uses other than just moving traffic: streets should perform the triple duties of multimodal transportation, placemaking and ecological function.
Bit by bit, cities are dismantling an auto-centric landscape in exchange for an enriching network of public spaces. We are learning that transportation and recreation don’t have to take place separately. Fitness becomes a positive side effect of a fun and active commute, and environmental health results from designing with nature. Our cities can grow while increasing our quality of life when we expand our definition of what our streets can offer.