Urban Rural Reconnect

Last week a kilometre stretch of the Champes Elysees in Paris was transformed into a massive strip of farmland. The event lasted 2 days and was organized by The Jeunes Agricultures (Young Farmers) Union which represents around 55,000 farmers under the age of 35yrs and the French Forest industry. The avenue was covered in greenery from trees to lavender and flowers, live stock too!

The purpose of the event was to raise awareness about the decrease in farm revenues and reconnect the city of Paris with its farmers outside the city. It was to show off what they are all about and to inspire and encourage people to be more involved with the farming industry again.

"Do they want the cheapest products in the world or do they want products that pay producers?"

This is an issue I think farmers worldwide are facing. We are losing touch with where our food comes from. Buying oranges that have travelled half way across the world from California, or unknowingly buying local product but that has travelled to China and back to be packaged! These choices are not only affecting local farmers and the local agriculture industry but are also contruting to negative environmental decision making.

Urban Jewel

"A derelict area beneath a series of overpasses in the West Don Lands is going to be transformed into an urban jewel"

Funny I am coming across all of these great projects going on in Canada, and Toronto in particular. It is really great to read about all that is happening to Toronto as it has often been defined by sprawl and a gloomy, dull appearance.

It is apparent the local government is making a real effort in contributing to urban environments making them more user friendly and enjoyable. The city is home to over 2 million residents and thriving urban centres and urban communities need effective public space. It is the experiences that humans have in the environments they occupy that enables meaningful relationships to be created. The attachment of meaning to 'space' therefore creates 'place'! Moreover the positive interactions people have in their environments encourages a sense of identity. This is what we want, residents feeling a part of the spaces they spend most of their time in!

Do you ever think about the everyday environments you live in? Do they contribute positively to your overall experience? How would you feel without them? How could they offer you more?

Underpass Park as they have named it will be a bright new neighbourhood destination. A part of a promised revitalization project in creating Torontos next great neighbourhood. It will take a derelict, unused space (underpasses often are), and produce an innovative urban park. It will feature a socially engaging park for community members of all ages and abilities, incorporating public art, recreational space, climbing structures, flexible community space, community gardens, and public gathering places. Sustainable best practices will be used in the design as well, including the reuse of granite cobblestones, use of recycled rubber materials for the recreational areas, planting of over 50 trees, and using energy efficient LED lighting to name a few.

A refreshing, creative use of space. I look forward to following its progress and want to hear the reviews!

Toronto goes green

Canadian city Toronto has turned an empty unused rooftop to great use! City Halls rooftop/podium which has been closed since the 80's has turned into an 11,000 square metre GREEN, public park! It includes 65 species of plants for people to enjoy. A new urban ecosystem that will contribute to a more sustainable city.

National Museum of 21st Century Arts AKA Maxxi

The new National Museum of 21st Century Arts (also known as Maxxi) opens in Rome on the 30th of May. It will feature contemporary art and architecture and hope to compete with the contemporary art profiles of London and New York.

The building was designed by Iraqi architect and 2004 Pritzker Prize (architectures most prestigious award) winner Zaha Hadid. She is known to be a visionary architect that produces quite extreme designs.

I look forward to visiting Rome in July!! I will report back on it in a few months.

word of the day

'infrasound' is a low level (low frequency) noise that is believed, but also contested to cause health problems... interesting.

Those who are opposed to the development of wind farms use this point of 'infrasound' in their aguments against the idea.

go green

Have you ever seen a living wall? I have recently been noticing an increasing amount of green walls lately through my travels, however I am yet to see one in Australia but thats probably because ive restricted myself to the Sunshine Coast for too long . Im sure they are blooming throughout the cities!

The purpose of these living walls is not only to be innovative, creative, and trendy but they have real positive impacts on the environment (when outside) and on air quality (both indoors and outdoors). Naturally plants absord pollutants out of the air so these walls are contirbuting to less carbon emissions floating around!Indoors they can lesson noise and increase acoustics, be used as insulation, and of course add to the aesthetics of an indoor or outdoor facade.

With all of these benefits and considering how lovely they are to look at lets hope that we will see more vertical greenery in the near future. How about incorporating them into all government buildings?! parliament?!

Another way of 'greening' our surroundings is with roof top gardens. If such dense areas as cities would have more rooftop gardens (to absorb sunlight/rays and pollution) they could decrease the impact of the urban heat island..

Ill write more about rooftop gardens another time...

Back to living walls, Vancouver airport has a great one you can see as you walk out of the airport towards the Skytrain (see my photo below).

The photo at the top of the post is an example of a living wall in Madrid, Spain, a beautiful public display of tropical plants! The next photo is of green tiles that a Spanish company has invented. I think they are awesome!! They can be aranged by designers to add to the character of a building. So cool. I saw a few apartment buildings in Milan that featured vertical greenery, also a chain of fairtrade coffee shops (Bridgehead Coffee) in Ottawa, Canada has incorporated living walls in a few of their locations. I know they can be a bit challenging to upkeep indoors (probably from the lack of sunshine in some cases) but they really are uplifting and refreshing to see especially when you are enjoying a morning coffee and the paper.

I hear PiperDM is thinking of adding some green to their office... or is this a rumour? Go for it!

wisped away

photo: Garance Dore

I took a moment to check on the update of one of my favorite blogs by Garance Dore http://www.garancedore.fr/ (its also where I practice my french- I read the french version and then the english if need be). Something that just has to be done during a 12 hour stint in the uni library...

Have a look if you too want to be wisped away to a fun and funky Chanel event at Place des Lices, St. Tropez

Lovely post.

Ingenhoven Architects in Sydney

After reading into the Ingenhoven Architects (see previous post) website I noticed they will be in Sydney. Here is what they are proposing:

"The completion of the 139 m high building is scheduled for 2011. Due to its compact geometry and a slight rotation of the building in relation to its plot all offices have an unobstructed view onto the Harbor. In addition all functions of the ground floor have been lifted up to the first floor in favor of a public plaza. The high-rise building thus becomes a significant landmark within the skyline of Sydney. In addition to the high space efficiency of the building the client DEXUS Property Group has been more than convinced by the ecological concept of the tower, which is not only unique for Sydney but for the entire Australian continent. The building will be the first high-rise to receive the 6 Star-World Leadership Certificate of the Australian Eco-Standard Green Star. The fully glazed tower is equipped with a double skin façade and ventilated by an atrium stretching the whole height of the tower. From 2008 on 45,000 m² GFA of premium office space will be realized"

Sydney siders look out.

http://www.ingenhovenarchitects.com/

Green Architecture

How is this for green architecture. The glass faceted office is home to the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. It recently won first place in the Emilio Ambasz Prize for Green Architecture for International Buildings. Designed by Ingenhoven Architects http://www.ingenhovenarchitects.com/

Considering how big the building is, imagine if it was just another concrete block? Dark, hard, bulky and boring to look at. The glass creates transparancy which makes it much more soft for the eye to look at. More green architecture like this will mean less bulk in our view!

Better for the environment and more pleasant to look at. Awesome.

Makes me want to visit Luxembourg and have a look!

Favorite !

Okay so I LOVE a lot of things.. and at least three of those things are furniture (design), textiles, and Missoni in general. I came across this while reading the Design section of The New York Times blog I follow http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/the-well-dressed-chair/?ref=design.

Do you love it? I love it!

Really I think I need this chair, my bedding is the exact print :)

Check out Artek http://www.artek.fi/index.html the Finnish company that designed the chair.

OH and I hope you dont mind my obsession with Italy at the moment.. most posts will probably have something to do with it as it was my most recent travel desination and I have plenty to share!!

M.

Renzo Piano, Genoa

As mentioned in a previous post I was inspired to visit Genoa by Ottagono Magazines featured 'Viaggio in Italia- Genoa' especially to see its Old Port (Porto Antico) and the success of its large scale redevelopment and restoration project.

Renzo Piano, a famous Italian Architect (He was one of the minds behind the Centre Pompidou in Paris) was involved in the Master Plan to reinvigorate the Port after WWII bomb damaged left it in a pretty dull state. Piano was successful in transforming the Old Port into a busy and thriving tourist attraction converting derelict warehouses into restaurants, shops and museums.

There is a recreation area that can be used for multi purposes, when I visited in April it was a skating rink! The public space is wide and spacious with large trees, benches, parks and look outs for the public to enjoy. Two main Piano structures are the Aquarium that resembles a container (like one on a cargo ship) and La Bolla (The Bubble) that is a massive glass sphere that houses a greenhouse with a large collection of tropical plants and animals.

It has proven to be packed with both locals and tourists and was very user friendly! I great place to wander on a sunny day in Genoa!

Polish design studio

I just LOVE this couch made from a recycled wooden chest!

Support Polish design!

http://www.mowo.pl/mowo.php

Ottagono

Ottagono is one of my favorite magazines and magazines are one of the most exciting things I look forward to buying when I travel. Living in a small town I dont have the plethora of international publications at my fingertips so when I am overseas its a treat to flip through the latest editions of my favorites.

When I was in Milan briefly in February it was edition 226 of Ottagono that featured Viaggio in Italia- Liguria. It featured the state of Liguria that is found in the north western region of Italy. Ottagono is a magazine of reference for anything design related and it also regularly features city planning. Naturally after reading the featured booklet on Liguria I was keen to visit and experience the architecture and newly planned and revitalized port of Genoa and surrounding area.

So I did! and I will post photos and my sightings in a future entry...

If you are at all interested in the world of design, from urban to architecture find this magazine in your nearest specialty newsagent, I would hope they stock it! Also lucky for us it features bilingual texts (Italian and English).

Paris- La Cite de l'Architecture & du Patrimoine

It was a cold and gloomy winter day in February this year when I decided to visit La Cite de l'Architecture & du Patrimoine in Paris. http://http//www.citechaillot.fr/exposition/temporary_exhibitions.php?id=92.

Phillipe my Architect friend had never been and so together we hopped on the metro not knowing what to expect but hoping to discover something new and interesting. Little did we know we would spend 3+ hours loving every moment of the gallery and museum! Paris, such a historical city unfolded bit by bit through the displays of its planning history.



If you are lucky enough to be in Paris before the 1st of July 2010 you must stop through and visit the temporary exhibition 'Towards New Social Housing'. It features 16 recent (less than 5 years old) architectural works in France which represent a revival of social housing.



It was awesome, and inspiring! It made me excited for my future career and made me hope to be involved in such a creative, sustainable, social housing project one day.

Not to mention it had some of the most stunning views of the eiffel tower!

Cafe conversation

As an avid reader of the daily paper I have my favorite sections that are featured on particular days. On Wednesdays I make sure to flip through the Higher Education section of The Australian. This is what struck a bit of conversation in the cafe today. The heading read: 'Humanity denied in a dash for cash'

According to education experts as an international student I am treated as a consumer in this country and am not seen or treated as a person of value.

This is what the University of Melbourne's professor of higher educations had to say.

"We separate them from the circle of our humanism, the generosity we extend to ourselves and perhaps to short term visitors,"

Interesting?

I must admit, I can not help but understand that we are treated as consumers... Considering education is Australias third largest export behind coal and iron ore!!

Lucky Kids

I live in Peregian Beach and the kids in the neighbourhood were lucky enough to get a brand new playground! I had a good look at it (and was dragged through the tunnel!) the other day while visiting with my little buddy Jake. It made me think about what makes a playground a 'good' playground.

Unfortunately often times older playgrounds are torn down to sadly be replaced with much simpler versions, minus the swings (for safety reasons), and less enjoyable than the last! The playground is meant to be a learning experience that includes trial and error, if you take away what challeges the children then they are no longer stimulated and the space is left empty of true experience.

Landscape Architects are however creating great play places that inhibit learning in children and steer away from some of the less successful modern 'asphalt-desert' playgrounds. Peregians new playground is mostly made of timber that is meant to last the beachside, salty conditions. It is colourful, fun and incorporates the true feeling of the village adding to the current strong sense of community. It includes a swing set, viewing platform, climbing nets, slides, tunnel, activity walls and more.

The only critique I have is the sand replacement. The pit is topped with bark which is meant to be soft on a fall. It looks great but sand is easier to clean up after. Otherwise I say its a success, and the kids seem to love it (the getting filthy with bark part too)!

The 'Fun Theory'

Im headed to my Regional Infrastructure Planning class. We recently discussed transportation and peoples behavior and attitudes towards public transportation. The presentation and discussion led to the 'Fun Theory'. Have a look at the video I have posted. The photo, is one I took when I was in Milan in February. Same concept. They were the stairs that led you to a stunning view of Milans Duomo directly in front of you when you reached the top. Very fun and inviting! Way more exciting than the escalator thats for sure.

This is a great example of innovative design to make a change that incorporates the public and demonstrates positive outcomes. They may or may not realize that they are using the stairs instead of their habitual hop onto the escalator but the main thing is they are having fun!

Where to start?!

Im struggling with where to start! There are so many things I would like to share.. So I am going to continue my introduction with a photo I took the other day. It is a photo of the eastern beaches from the northern end of Sunshine Beach (from the edge of Noosa National Park) all the way to Coolum on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. This is where I live, and I have spent the last 5 years, the most part of my adult life. I feel lucky everyday to live somewhere so beautiful and there could'nt be a better place to study!

What brought me to the Sunshine Coast in the first place was travel but what has kept me here and busy for the last few years has been my study towards a Bachelor of Regional and Urban Planning. It has kept me busy, but mostly opened up my eyes to a whole new world! The built enviornment, its influence, impacts, and reason. It has been fun, inspiring and I am only 7 months away from graduation! Woop!

Welcome!

This is it! From now on I am sharing my ideas, opinions, interests, travels, and random thoughts with you.

My name is Monica. At this point in my life I consider myself a student, a dreamer and lover of life. I couldn't ever imagine not learning, inviting mental stimulation, finding out something new. I have interests, but mostly passions that you will soon learn about through this blog. Travel, culture, design, architecture, urban landscapes, planning, and the natural environment are categories that will come up regularly. Enjoy and learn something new!

M.