World
Global issues, U.N., etc.
A Big Idea: Solar-Powered Cargo Ships
Toyota has hired two firms to build solar panels to augment the diesel engines on their car-carrying behemoths. The result will be a cut in CO2 emissions of 1 to 2 percent per year, or about 20 tons.
The Black Cloud: Using Games to Understand Air Quality
Human behavior and land use affect air quality, and those effects are very distinct at the local level. A new environmental game fusing public participation, air quality sensors and web technology shows how.
The Quest for the Perfect City
The director of the Design Museum in London reflects on the mostly unfortunate quest for perfection in city planning and architecture, as the museum's new exhibit, Design Cities, opens.
Mixed-Use for Volgograd
Volgograd, Russia (formerly Stalingrad) is getting a new mixed-use city center, designed with the idea of "shopping as museum and exhibition space".
Ice Melts Open Shipping Passages
For the first time in recorded history, the Northwest and the Northeast passages are free enough of ice to be navigable. Shipping companies welcome this effect of global climate change.
'Sustainability Toolbar' Released for Google Sketchup
Integrated Environmental Solutions is releasing a free plug-in for Google's SketchUp software that allows users to run sustainability performance simulations.
Calculating Your 'Water Footprint'
Your morning cup of joe - all things considered - takes 140 liters of water to make. A new study reveals the true cost in water usage for crops and cultures.
Lasers May Make Nuclear Power More Efficient (and Bombs Easier to Make)
G.E. is currently experimenting with a new lased-based technology that could make nuclear enrichment much easier. This would be a boon to nuclear power, but would also make nuclear-based weapons easier to make.
Public Sculpture is Getting Better
After an experimental phase of earthworks and video installations, public art is on the rise. And, a New York Times art critic reports, the quality is looking up.
Treechitecture
Civic amenities, public spaces, and even housing could one day be formed by living trees. Researchers are looking into this new idea.
The Future of the Electric Car
Shai Agassi, who's not quite the household name T. Boone Pickens is, has an even more radical plan to end the planet's oil addiction.
Buildings With Living Skins
Giant video screens and lighting displays are changing the face of buildings, but the content has not caught up to the technology. Peter Hall of Design Institute proposes that these displays could reflect the inner life of the buildings and the city.
Beyond LEED: Buildings That Give Back
A handful of thinkers and architects are pushing past LEED requirements to design buildings that generate more energy than they use.
Bridge Building Goes Beyond Transport
This article from the BBC looks at the new face of bridge development and argues that crossing rivers is no longer the main reason they're built.
Oil Supply Crunch May Hit In Five Years
Using the term 'oil supply crunch' as opposed to 'peak oil', this British report indicates that the oil crisis will hit by 2013, with prices jumping to $200/barrel. It states that the problem is not insufficient oil but obstacles to its extraction.
Riding in Peace
'Quiet' cars on trains -- where cell phones and loud headphones are banned -- are widely popular. So why aren't more transit agencies making designated quiet cars?
The Spread of Ciclovia
Temporary street closures for pedestrian use -- an idea that spawned in Bogota, Colombia -- are occurring in cities all over the world. The trend is expected to continue.
Friday Funny: More Fun With Google Maps
An obviously Photoshopped cluster of trees appears in the Netherlands. What is someone hiding, and how are they hacking Google Earth?
Friday Funny: Drunk Caught on Google Streetview
Google Streetview is slowly taking pictures of every street in the world, and capturing unexpected vignettes along the way like an Australian man passed out on his front lawn.
Why We Drive the Way We Do
Next American City reviews a new book called Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says about Us) by journalist Tom Vanderbilt, which follows in the footsteps of Freakonomics and Blink.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
