It has pretty much become universally accepted that global warming is having an effect on global ocean levels. With sea levels rapidly rising, millions of coastal and island inhabitants are threatened to loose their homes. Major cities including London, New York and Tokyo are seen as being at huge risk from oceans which could rise by as much as 3ft by the end of this century. To be prepared for this, new solutions must be found.
The ultimate solution to rapidly rising sea levels are so called “Lilypad Islands” by the award-winning Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut. Based on the design of a lilypad, they could be used as a permanent refuge and a new place to live for those whose homes have been covered in water.
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General @ 24 Jul 2008 08:04 am by Robert Schmidl
As we have reported, we are very much interested into city rankings. Now, another one caught our attention. This time we found a ranking by monthly general interest family magazine Reader’s Digest. Although this ranking is two years old we would like to present it to you because it raises controversy.
In July 2006, Reader’s Digest published an investigation on the courtesy of 35 cities. They sent two undercover reporters, a man and a woman, from Reader’s Digest editions in 35 countries to assess the citizens of their most populous city. In each location they conducted three tests:
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One of our blog roll partner has an interesting contest. The World Mayor project, organised by City Mayors, seeks out mayors who have the vision, passion and skills to make their cities amazing places to live in, work in and visit. The World Mayor Project aims to show what outstanding mayors can achieve as well as raise their profiles nationally and internationally. It honours those who have served their communities selflessly and courageously and who have made significant contributions to the well-being of cities. The most outstanding mayor of 2008 will be presented with the World Mayor Award. Mayors from North and Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa are competing for the annual World Mayor Award.
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General @ 05 May 2008 07:08 am by Robert Schmidl
Today it is hard to sell huge real estate property without a certificate of an advantageous environmental audit and energy balance. The German Government has agreed to hard commitments to reduce environmentally unfriendly greenhouse gases and yet further plans of the European Union. Thus, the value of conventional buildings is affected, because they are still ahead of traffic when it comes to pollution.
To discuss this issue representatives of different departments (political, economical and scientific) met in a think tank called ENRESO 2020 initiated by RWE Energy AG, a subsidiary of German electric power and natural gas public utility company RWE AG. The meeting was held in Frankfurt. The acronym ENRESO stands for Energy Real Estate Economy Society. For the first time there was a presentation of criteria for an environmental certification which has to meet international standards.
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We found out that one of our blogroll partner A Vision of Europe has a new interesting campaign: The European prize 2008 for the best urban neighborhood in Europe. This prize is launched in occasion of the 25th anniversary of the European Prize for the Reconstruction of the City, the Philippe Rotthier Foundation for the Architecture in Bruxelles, together with A Vision of Europe and CivicArch Lab at the University of Ferrara.
The European Prize promotes the characters of excellence in the designing and building of new urban neighborhoods and aims at enhancing the European genius of building the fundamental matrix of the traditional city: the mixed-use urban neighborhood. It also aims at encouraging the creation of new mixed-use urban neighborhoods conceived and designed according to the principles of Sustainable Development and the EU Green Paper for the Urban Environment.
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General @ 11 Feb 2008 02:05 pm by Robert Schmidl
This January, The History Channel (an American cable television channel) initiated a design and engineering competition called “City of the future”. Together with sponsors Infiniti and IBM architects and designers from all over the United States were challenged to compete in City of the Future competitions in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Atlanta.
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General @ 10 Dec 2007 03:24 pm by Robert Schmidl
This year BusinessWeek and Architectural Record joined for the 10th time to recognize successful collaborations of great architects and great business. Although the jury selected only 10 buildings as this year’s winners and finalists, these projects make it clear that architecture can improve any kind of business. Whether it’s a law firm, a federal service, a museum, a manufacturer, a sports team, a performance company, a federal service, or a Web brand conglomerate, smart businesses thrive on smart design solutions.
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With the book review on “Green Building: Konzepte für nachhaltige Architektur”, the authors provided a slight insight into the topic of Green Building. Now let’s go on this subject and focus on Green Buildings, that are buildings that can produce a certain amount of energy themselves.
First of all, what does it mean to build green? Green or sustainable building is the practice of building/creating healthier, environmental-friendlier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and demolition. By considering the complete building life cycle, green buildings can provide great environmental, economic, and social benefits.
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General @ 08 Oct 2007 02:04 pm by Elena Turyanskaya
The IULA 2007 goes to Parc Central de Nou Barris i Placa Virrei Amat, Barcelona (Spain), planned by Arriola & Fiol arquitectes, Barcelona/ Spain.
The ceremony of the International Urban Landscape Award (IULA) took place in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) on Friday 5 October. The winner was chosen by the jury from around 60 entries from EU, Switzerland, USA, Canada and Mexico.
The official certificate of recognition for the Public Favourite from PerfectCity voting was handed over to a representative of the Department of Urban Planning Bydgoszcz for the project Bydgoszcz Water Junction (Poland).
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