West 8’s project Jubilee Gardens is finally going ahead and will screen live footage of the 2012 Olympics. The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has recently announced £11.5m funding to six London boroughs for public space projects that will transform the look and feel of the Capital in time for the 2012 Games.
Jubilee Gardens is situated on the iconic Southbank and forms part of Lambeth, one of the funded boroughs. Lambeth will get £1.5m to create a live site for the 2012 Games and a world-class park.
UNEP has just released the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Year Book 2012 and it highlights assessments indicating that some kinds of conventional and intensive agriculture are triggering soil erosion rates some 100 times greater than the rates at which nature can form soil in the first place.
There could also be profound implications for climate change. Soils contain huge quantities of carbon in the form of organic matter that in turn binds the nutrients needed for plant growth and allows rainfall to penetrate into underground aquifers. By 2030, without changes in the way land is managed, over 20 per cent of terrestrial habitats such as forests, peatlands and grasslands in developing countries alone could be converted to cropland aggravating losses of vital ecosystem services and biodiversity.
The Central Delaware Riverfront Master Plan has received a 2012 Honor Award in the category of Regional and Urban Design from the American Institute of Architects. OLIN worked in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team including Cooper Robertson & Partners, KieranTimberlake, HR&A Advisors and over thirty stakeholder groups to create the master plan for the riverfront in downtown Philadelphia. Continue reading Central Delaware Riverfront Master Plan receives 2012 Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects
Nature as Infrastructure | Ethel Baraona Pohl | Domus
An architecture report from Haerbin City by Ethel Baraona Pohl about how Turenscape’s founder Kongjian Yu demonstrates how nature can be a cost-free service provider in an urban context. Ecology is a synonym of economy.
Olmsted’s jewels in our midst | Justin Martin | Star Tribune
Few people can claim to know America as deeply as Frederick Law Olmsted did. His intimate knowledge of the American landscape served him superbly in the role for which he is best remembered — the country’s pioneering park maker.
The jury evaluating the proposals is comprised of: Stanley Saitowitz, a South African architect and an architecture professor from University of California, Berkeley; James Moore, PhD, a Tampa-based urban designer and former architecture and design professor at USF; Susan Fainstein, PhD, a Harvard University urban design professor; City Council Member Leslie Curran and Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch.
The new Pier is not an icon unto itself. It is instead a lens that frames the City’s relationship to the water, changing how St. Petersburg views its present and its future. While the Pier will remain an important attraction for visitors, we believe that the Pier must be first for the people of St. Petersburg, an active, vital part of the City’s life and culture. Operating on multiple scales of renewal—individual, urban, economic, ecological—this new Pier serve as a new kind of fountain of youth for St. Petersburg and its citizens, a symbol of the renewed vitality of the City, a platform for continued growth, and a destination within the City, the region, and our nation. - Michael Maltzan Architecture (Competition Entry Design Statement)
