Living System Design

A great video with a lecture on 'The Practice of Living System Design" (via Arch Daily): "William Reed AIA, a nationally recognized sustainability expert and architect at the Integrative Design Collaborative, Regenesis and Delving Deeper, spoke on developing a whole-systems design process that lifts building and community planning into full integration and co-evolution with living systems in the region. Reed is a founding board member of the U.S. Green Building Council and co-author of The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building: Redefining the Practice of Sustainability."

William Reed: The Practice of Living System Design from BSA on Vimeo.

Check out the fantastic Integrative Design Collaborative to learn more about the process of moving beyond chasing checklist points and truly identifying options for regenerative design.

Green Engines

I stumbled upon the site for Green Engines, a project of StudioMEB, which is a "... research platform that explores the potentialities of productive landscapes to generate a self-sustainable territory." I was immediately struck by their notion of productive landscapes and the focus of the research on landscape urbanism principles.



The interest in defining productive landscapes has grown (pun emphasized) and focused on agriculture - a reframing of the notion of 'productivity' in this context is of vital importance to a discussion of sustainability and ecological urbanism. The integration of a wider ideology of productivity (beyond mere economics) is at the root of these explorations. In the philosophy on the site, the concept involves a number of key features, which are summarized below:

:: belongs to a cultural construction, which adapts to the cultural landscape and the local environment
:: must be multifunctional within an integrated system of different actors involved in the same space
:: takes into account social participation
:: values the phenomenological qualities of the space
:: considers new models of mobility


:: image via Green Engines

The above fits a methodology that focuses on the central tenets of landscape urbanism, eschewing the static object oriented approach and involving a multi-disciplinary approach that looks at flexibility vs. determinacy in resulting form:

"The environment is not an object that can be designed, but a complex system of elements that create a network of interactions between them. The aim of the research of each case study is not to reach a predictable urban form or planning prototype. A new alternative future for the territory is based on planning strategies that take into account flexible dynamics, scenario thinking and processes over time, which relate with changes and re-adaptation. The selection of a specific scenario reflects choices and processes, among the possible options (policies, planning decisions, hypothetical events and plots) which generate the complexity of a new landscape for the future."

As a mode of operation, the team uses case studies with a specific approach that includes analysis, strategy, tactics, and actions. By incorporating a wide view of investigations, incorporating time as a critical factor, and interactions between elements as critical factors, providing a good methodology for landscape urbanism theory in practice by reinforcing their notion that. "landscape urbanism anticipates strategic scenarios and operational logics through a wide range of scale."


:: image via Green Engines

As a follow-up to their 2009 Workshop in Barcelona in the city of there is an upcoming workshop in Covilhã studying the rural-urban interface within the lens of productive landscape. Look forward to seeing more work from this group.

Ephemeral Road Paint

Ubiquitous markings in our roadways are a fact of life. From road striping, lane delineation, and construction utility locates - the street is often a rainbow of color and line. Ways of expanding this notion in interesting ways to take-back some of this area of cities and make us aware of the patterns underlying or within our urban sphere include projects such as the Blue Road or these lighted wayfinding traces - offering methods for making streets more interactive and informative or to reveal underlying processes. Another simple addition to this concept comes via GOOD linking to Abitare and a post about guerilla street painting in Berlin:


:: image via GOOD

Via Abitare: "Last week a group of cyclists dumped 13 gallons of paint on the road at Berlin’s busy Rosenthaler Platz, creating a series of colourful lines as cars drove through. The various colours of paint were dumped onto the road in large puddles at different locations throughout the intersection. As traffic drove through, the paint was spread around creating lots of colourful lines. The whole action took only a few seconds: bikers had poured paint from big boxes in front of cars that waited for green lights. So the cars and their wheels, if the driver wanted it or not, became the brush tool for this guerilla public art piece.The creators of the project posted signs on post nearby explaining that the paint wasn’t harmful and would simply wash off with water."




:: images via Abitare

And a video of the site in action:



There's a great set of photos on Flickr.