Milano bookstores

I LOVE bookstores, when I travel I search for them, but not the general chain stores, the ones down random laneways, off the beaten track, supporting independent publishers and specific categories.

Milan has proven to have the best bookstores I have found so far. One of my favorites is Libreria 121+ . It started as a Libreria al Tempo, a Temporary Bookstore, a concept I didnt know exhisted but is supposedly popular in Milan. They started with a shop lease for 121 days to trial the bookstore and see if the location fit the shop. A great concept!

It features books on design, graphics, architecture, interior design, planning, landscape architecute, urbanism, photography, art, art history, and a selection of great contemporary kids books. A very specific collection of books and magazines from around the world... I was in heaven! Books are a real weakness of mine and unfortunately my need for them results in excess baggage fees when I travel...

121 was a real experience too, Nicoletta the lovely girl working there offered me an espresso, we had a good chat and had more espresso :) The owner then walked in, a soft spoken white haired italian man. He was the mind behind the unique collection of books. He facinated me. Funny thing was almost all books were in English and he didnt speak a word of it! Through Nicoletta's translation we chat until we discovered we both spoke French and off we went into conversation. I spent about 2 hours there. A great memory of cultural exchange.

Another favorite is the bookstore in the picture above, just around the corner from La Scala, Nicoletta put me on to it. Thanks!



M.





http://www.corraini.com/boxcorraini.php

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!

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!