Before...and After.
This mayor care about the future of their city...now why can't more care?
The first image is a familiar aerial photo of many cities, or outer suburban business centres. Large buildings, lots of roads, no green space, pedestrians non-existant.
The second image is what this particular urban sprawl could become if the mayor gets their way, and if subsequent mayors continue on the same path, densification and peoplisation(word? it is now) of outer burbs business centres could all become their own city, with metro style underground, green spaces and bus networks that work.

If only certain powers to be here had ambition and forward thinking ideas that looked further than re-election.

Link via NPR.org

P.s. Sorry about the lack there of posts, been swamped at work.

Office fires will be so much more fun now...
Well I highly recommend not smoking in this office, everything is made of cardboard, from cubicles to the meeting room table. Paul Coudamy designed this office for a French advertising agency, they were on a tight budget and wanted flexibility of their 180sqm space. So what better way than to grab some waterproof honeycomb cardboard, glue and tape, spend an all night bender on energy drinks and hope you don't slice a finger off...well they probably spent more time than that. There are some nice little spaces created from the massing of cardboard, and I'm sure the fumes from the glue would make you appreciate the space even more.

Link via Dezeen

Attention to detail for the bigger image.
I have always enjoyed looking at the finer details of design and how they can make the bigger picture more whole...look at this design by Susie Mendive of SUM. A floral print of fine leaves that creates a silhouette of a figure...

Link via notcot.org
Buy it at Design Public

Concrete is dull.
Well all those bland grey concrete panels that we see everyday could be more interesting...like artist Yuko Kanemura has exhibited for 100% Design.

Link Via Mocoloco
Other Works by Kanemura

Snaking Timber bench by Gehry Partners.
Check out this timber bench by Gehry Partners, it was designed and constructed for Design Tide which is a design exhibition running concurrently with the Tokyo Designers Week. More photos and links after the link.

Link via Dezeen

LAonline is...Online!
AILA's Landscape Architecture online magazine is now easily accessible via the aila.org.au website. You can access all the past magazines through an easy to navigate site.

Fresh playground images coming up soon...

Seen these around town?
These haven't really taken off as yet but, with the iPhone (murmur..) and other internet savvy phones, you may well be seeing these around alot more.

Good Morning.

Now this is a Super-stop.
We have nothing on it, our whole public transport system probably won't even compare to this one stop.
I'm not sure if this thing would stop much rain...but I'm sure lots and lots of people would use the tram network because they want to see this awesome stop. Or when they travel past it in their cars they will circle around the round about again and again wishing they had caught the tram. Link below...


Via Dezeen

Dog tired from boring playspaces?
I don't think your dog would be getting bored in this playspace designed for children, skaters and our fellow canine friends. As part of ExperimentalDesign2008 in Amsterdam, Droog have commissioned this play space designed by Maartje Dros, it is a space that aims to address the ever growing divide between urban centres and dogs, where the dog spaces are pushed out to the fringes and remove the fence that seperates children and dogs...make sense? Need coffee. Links below.

Via Dezeen
ExperimentalDesign2008
Droog

Be Ready to be Bedazzled!
So BIG as won a competition to do a public space in Denmark, and it seems they propose to have a red square, a green park and a black market made up of 57 objects from 57 cultures forming a "global vernacular". Well actually it is a lot more complicated than that but having wacky ideas and actually doing something with it is pretty cool. Have a read of the project information BIG provided to Dezeen, and then travel to their website to have a squiz at some of the other projects, but be sure to have some sunnies on, or turn down the brightness on your monitor...lots of colour...lots.

A photo speaks a thousand words. Does this mean I can have a 2 photo essay?
I find that photos have a way of interpreting a scene or a landscape that words cannot describe, they can create emotions and sensations that words cannot convey. So here are a couple photographers that I like...links below.

Corey Arnold
Dan O'day

Glowing Fields.
Little lights inspired by the campsite oasis in the Australian outback...
More info and pictures after the jump.

Link via Dezeen

EcoCity by MVRDV and GRAS
It seems that these sustainable ecological happy cities just keep popping up...
I'd like to see in 20 Years time what these cities would be like, spatially and economically...anyway pictures and more info after the jump.

Link Via Dezeen

Sketch to Documentation, Norwegian Style.
The University of Melbourne and AILA Fresh would like to present Jenny Osuldsen who will be informally presenting and exhibiting her design process, the event will take place after The Ellis Stone Awards.

Venue, Drinks and Food provided by The University of Melbourne.

Date:	Thursday, October 9, 2008
Time:	7:00pm - 10:10pm
Location:	2nd Floor Atrium
	Uni Melb Architecture Building

Please place green stuff here -->

Ever see a place that was perfect for placing a little garden?
Well you're probably not the first person...and you probably aren't that weird if you want to jump up and down and yell.."PUT SOME GREENESS HERE PLEASE!!!"..well maybe a little weird...

Anyway a certain Eve S Mosher is planning to do little green spaces all over a city with little signs pointing the way...look at the website

Greenies fight back with knuckle dusters...
Well not really, but what kind of cool fashion accessory that involves live moss and shiny metal won't grow on you...

Link: Via Inhabitat

Have something to say? Submit an article to kerb 17.

Link: kerb 17

It's a Dog! No, It's a bike Rack!

Well someone is trying something different, a bike rack that is a wireframe or outline of objects that you may associate with the street character...pretty cool...


Link: Via Wallpaper

How we design influences.
I'm not one to take a political stance on many things, but have a read of this article that talks about the power of architecture and the way in which it has been and will be used to aggrandize power.

Link: Via TheStar

Design for Design as Designed.
A little article on the definition of design and how the word is used these days.

Link: Via International Herald Tribune

Old News but good news...
Well I remember awhile ago there was a post about guerilla gardening on this blog, and I just stumbled across a review of a book which talks about such gardening. So check out the links...

Guerilla Gardening Hompage
Book Review Via Archinect
Sydney Morning Herald article
Video via The Guardian

1% of water is drinkable. The other 99% just doesn't taste right.
There is an exhibition in Belgium about water, it explores the ways in which we use and abuse this resource...you can also send in samples of you water...so if you are really keen follow the link and find out more details.

Via Dezeen
Official Site

Sitting At Your Desk? Eating Lunch? Cup of Soup?
Well you could be eating this for lunch...Urban Picnic...but only in London.

Link: Via wallpaper

Getting a new phone? Add your old one to the pile.
Chris Jordan is a photographer. He takes photos of things. Consumerism.

Link: Chrisjordan.com

Every morning should be started with bacon and eggs, a coffee and a comic.

Performing arts on sculptures made of recycled materials that float.
An artist going by Swoon gathered some artists, carpenters, musicians and seafarers to construct and travel down the Hudson River on boats made to the junkyard chic aesthetic.

Link: via New York Times
Link: NYT images

Did You Know That Aluminium Foil actually protects you from aliens?
Well maybe I'm making things up...But if it did then you would be very safe in this sculpture by Kimihiko Okada. Built from a frame and lots of alfoil, this sculpture or landscape is over 900 sqm and is 6.5m high...check out the link and blurb from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toyko.

Link: Via Dezeen

Here are some quick ones...

Eco Ego
I easy flash game that tests your eco credits with options to the life of one little character...that looks like a person in an onion suit.
The game meters the onion dude/dudette's comfort and greeness for the duration of the game, and no I don't think you can kill it.

Link: Eco Ego @ 9mine

Future of suburbia
An article in the opinions section of the New York Times talking about suburbia and why do Americans like it so much...has a link to a few other articles and discussions about suburbia.

Link: New York Times


Beijing Streetscape
An interesting competition for the streetscape of Beijing. This is the winning entry by Site and WaHa Studio.

Link: Bustler

After Prefab
This website/blogspot has a special uncut version of a lecture by Bill Ferehawk. He talks about the psychology, technology, ecology and sociology of such prefab developments. He also branches out to critique other designs and how we design...interesting read.

Link: Elseplace

Submissions due this Friday the 15th!!!!!!!!!

Look, Murals on the Security Walls of Baghdad.

Link: Guardian.co.uk

The Olympics In China, Is Green...Really.
You may have seen this already, but there are a lot of very elaborate hedge trimming happening in China.

Link via inhabitat.

Mapping Nature With a Pen.
Originally I found this artist, Tim Knowles, from Inhabitat and their little blurb about Tim's work with trees creating drawings. He pretty much sticks some pens on some branches and puts a canvas/paper in front of it and let the tree do the work, but then I went to his webpage and there is a lot of very interesting works that he has done. In particular are the ones in which he used apparatus of some description, looks like a richter scale, to map a journey through the Alps, and also another one where he placed a pen in a homemade drawing box thing that would draw as it was posted from one place to another...have a look...

Link Tim Knowles
Link via Inhabitat

Environmental Eyesores.

It's a start to a sunny future.
So here we have a new development in Canada that is supposed to rely solely on solar power as its main source of power. Pretty nifty, and energy efficient ain't it? So all they need now is some bioretention, rainwater storage from the roof and solar panels, dedicated bike paths, porous paving...

Link via inhabitat
Link Drake Landing Solar Community

Aila Fresh Going For Green.
A call out to all the professionals out there...Would you like to exhibit your projects? Is it leading edge sustainable design?

Submit 2 x A3 landscape pdfs with 100-200 word blurb to fresh.aila@gmail.com by August 15th.

Please do not place rubbish in skip.
This is pretty cool, a guy in the UK called Oliver Bishop has made these temporary installations all over the place. He has appropriated skips in all kinds of fun and wacky ways...check out the link.

Via Dezeen
Find a skip

PLEASE GREEN ME!
As part of our next event we will be having a competition for students...the above picture is to be 'greened' as in made pretty with unique and innovative sustainable ideas. Do it through collage, 3d modelling, stick figure men...whatever. Just have some fun!

Entries close August 15th, Entry to comprise of A3 Landscape PDF with 100-200 word blurb. Email entries to fresh.aila@gmail.com. Good Luck!

If you need a better photo...email.

So who wants to do another street tree planting?
Well actually this looks like an interesting design competition, it's for a New York streetscape, 9th Street and 4th Avenue. Registration for entries has been extended to the end of this month, not too sure if we can enter but...keep an eye on this one.

Via 21stCenturyStreet

What Happens When We Have Gone?
Nature is an uncontrollable beast, it is beyond the microlimates that we create, it is past the aesthetics that we desire. An exhibition at the New Museum in NY called 'After Nature' explores the future of a world where nature takes control. Since most of us are on this side of the world and can't afford a flight to New York before September the 21st...there is an online exhibition as well at the New Museum website.

Link via Inhabitat
Link NewMuseum.org

Victoria The Place To Be.
For all those that don't really check out what is happening around the country...including me...the Victorian design festival officially started yesterday...so check out the official website for some up and coming events...There is a lot going on. Some quite big ones and then there are always the nice small ones tucked into small little laneways.

Link: State of Design

Who Said They Hated Developers?
Bet you don't hate them as much as this guy...
He cut his head off with a chainsaw because his flat was earmarked for demolition...

Link Via Mail Online

The sweeping curves and segmented pieces represent the...
Ya di ya di ya...This thing looks pretty cool and it was designed and constructed by students as part of the London Festival of Architecture...check it out...

Link: Via Dezeen

Let's Go to Philly.Right Now.
You know Second-life? That program that you download and register, create your own avatar and then wonder around a virtual city, buying property, flirting with other online peoples...just general everyday life but you are sitting on a computer somewhere in the world.

Well GeoSimPHILLY is very close to that, and probably better, it's like Simcity with a real city. It's the same rules as above but you are interacting within a city modeled on a real city. There are tours and interactive things that reflect the real city. You can learn more about the planning of the city, see some sights that you missed on your last trip there and possibly even buy things that you forgot to get.

Link: GeoSimPHILLY

Steel Trees holds up concrete canopy.
This aviary designed for a Swiss public park by Group8 uses thin steel structures to hold up an undulating concrete roof. Birds can perch on the steel frame using them as places of rest, and to gawk at passer bys.

Link via Dezeen

Vertical Elements from Horizontal Elements.
In every landscape project there always has to be a vertical element...I don't know why, but there just has to be...people don't just walk around staring at the ground...So let me introduce you to Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, artists that used grass as a photographic medium. They grew the grass in a dark room while projecting images onto the grass, creating an effect similar to photographic paper and chemicals used with good old film.

Link Via Inhabitat

Bit behind on this one, but if you happen to be in London...
The London Festival of Architecture is an interesting one, with many talks and exhibitions around London showing the processes that created the city as we know it today. Now if only our design festival will become something as big as this...give it a few years...

Link: Official Site

Vertical Walls and Patrick Blanc
Patrick Blanc is presenting for the Design Festival at BMW edge on July 18th, 6pm. For a small fee of $10, which could get you a Veal parma at The Riversdale on a Monday evening, you can watch the french scientist and artist talk about green walls and the applications of such technology.

Link: NDC website
Link: Patrick's Homepage

7 New Natural Wonders of the World...and a Butterfly.
Click on the links to look at the pretty pictures and to find out more about the new natural wonders.

Link: New Scientist
Link: Guardian.co.uk

The Billboard of Greenwalls
With all the talk about greenwalls and the possible applications of such walls, you would have never thunk that McDonalds would do something quite unique and interesting with such technology...

Link via Fast Food News

Spot the Difference.
UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) has been documenting changes to the environment for some time now, and they have recently integrated aerial imagery of areas for comparison...from 1970-2000+. It's called "Atlas of Our Changing Environment".

Check it out...link.

Lecture Tooosday!
Hanne Bruun from Dutch landscape architectural office SLA will be talking about their projects and approach as part of the RMIT Lecture Series...usual place usual drinks...

Swanston Street, Building 8 Level 11 Room 68, Drinks at 6pm, Lecture start at 6.30pm.