Agritourismo Santa Maria – I recently had the good fortune to spend nearly a week at this working farm and tourist facility in the rolling hills of Umbria just north of Rome. It’s the perfect place for a large group – say an extended family ranging from 30 to …
A Monochrome Lego Set To Teach Tomorrow’s Architects – six architectural firms contributed to the 268-page books that accompanies Lego Architecture Studio, a completely white set of Lego bricks designed to highlight major architectural principles. Each of the firms – REX Architecture, Sou Fujimoto, SOM, MAD Architects, Tham & Videgård, and Safdie Architects – gets up to …
Announcing the AZ Awards of Merit – annual design awards in residential architecture (shown here), furniture design, residential interiors, temporary architecture, furniture systems, commercial architecture over and under 1,000 square meters, landscape architecture, commercial interiors, concepts, and student work. Images for all the finalists are here.
Slow Ideas – an article from The New Yorker written by Atul Gawande, tag line is Some innovations spread fast. How do you speed the ones that don’t? Offers great insight into the process of changing behavior, how an idea becomes the new normal, and how the trust to …
RE-Powering Mapper – the U.S. EPA recently updated its RE-Powering Mapper, a map-based tool showing renewable energy potential on 66,000 contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites across the country. Features include: Screening results for over 66,000 sites for solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal energy Search options by renewable energy …
Best Practices for Sustainable Construction – post on SustainableCitiesCollective has good links, especially for those working in the UK. Increased flood risk, increased risk of drought and more severe storms means making greater use of sustainable drainage systems such as: green roofs; rainwater harvesting; permeable pavements; infiltration …
The Cool Hunter – Offices – check out post category ‘offices’ on the design website The Cool Hunter for some unusual workplace design from around the world. Shown here are Belgo Seeds Offices in Kortrijk, Belgium / Hybrid Office in Los Angeles / Dtac Headquarters Bangkok …
Opinion: Bright Nights, Big Problems – recent opinion piece in National Geographic on the growing rarity of true darkness, due primarily to our unthinking use of artificial light. Because of the rapid growth of light pollution over recent decades, most Americans under 40 have never known real …