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Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 08:42PM Would you like to lower your business' carbon footprint, increase its competitiveness and support a vibrant city? Follow these steps!
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 02:46PM Jaime Lerner is the inventor of Urban Acupuncture, a startling new approach to city planning that allows people to define the space they live in. By Jeremy Torr.
Curitiba, Brazil. 29 January 2012. Jaime Lerner is well-known among transport greenies for his innovative bus 
Jaime Lerner - the new Urban Acupuncturist who believes that people come first in any urban planrapid transit (BRT) in Curitiba, Paraná. Home to 2million people, Curitiba had all the usual transport and pollution problems until Lerner was elected and introduced a new, broad-based development philosophy.
“A city is like a family portrait. You may not like the nose of your uncle but you don’t tear up the whole family photo,” he explains. “In the same way, we just need to make those uglier parts of our cities more attractive. We can’t tear them apart.”
So Lerner introduced a very low-cost bus-based rapid transport (BRT) system which takes more passengers daily than New York City’s new $4 billion 2nd Avenue subway. Curitiba’s BRT offers buses that run on their own lanes every 40 seconds during peak times and averages no less than one every minute – better than most urban rail systems, and so much more attractive to commuters. Not only that, the special BRT lanes also provide 120 kilometres of bike lanes, lined with small parks and rest areas.
Curitiba's BRT system offers better, faster, easier and cheaper transport than the New York subwayThis gradual, phased, bit-by-bit approach is what Lerner describes as “urban acupuncture.” It uses well-planned, targeted, often temporary interventions to address a transport, design, economic, or social issue. They can be small, fast, and effective – like acupuncture. Buildings and public spaces can be turned into parks, event spaces, or sites for raves. Clogged streets can be designated as temporary pedestrian malls, pop-up parks, or “portable streets”.
These are configurable, moveable pieces of structure that enable storefronts to be set up quickly. Inspired by the many bouquiniste of Paris, the portable streets are being tested in Cracolandia, a “tough” part of Sao Paulo, in an effort to bring back street life. Lerner says this approach helps avoid getting stuck in bureaucracy, pointing out that “50 percent of all innovation is just starting something.”
These short sharp interventions can also have powerful “demonstration effect”, he says. Unlike major changes, they can be started – or stopped if they don’t work – quickly to show that people really prefer to walk past small shops instead of driving to a mega-mart. While planning is necessary, it also takes a lot of time, and Lerner’s “interventions” help the process of socially acceptable planning and even guide it. And Lerner’s example is spreading.
As he has demonstrated, increasing the share of bicycle riders can be part of the solution. Bogota now has 350 kilometers of cycle routes and bicycling is up to 4 percent of all trips; Santiago has a massive 690 kilometers planned, while 250 have been implemented; and Sevilla, Spain, has 120 kilometers of lanes in place, pushing up bicycles’ share of total trips to 6.6 percent in just four years.
Paley Park set the trend for small, natural spaces in metro areasAs another example of urban acupuncture, Lerner gives Paley Park in New York City as an example of how a small project can have an enormous impact and influence future planning.Paley Park with it’s small yet well planned waterfall, green areas and quiet amongst the hustle ofManhattan regenerated the area as a habitation and helped reinforce the value of well-designed pocket parks in the neighbourhood.
Perhaps inspired by the example set by Lerner, Guangzhou, with its ever-growing population and tight resources, is another city moving towards some urban acupuncture, creating a new urban greenway across the city.
Working with Guangzhou city officials, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) helped create a new BRT route, which opened up a parallel bicycle infrastructure. Protected bike lanes separate car traffic from pedestrians and cyclists and have boosted bicycle use by up 53 percent in some areas. The city now boasts 1,500 kilometres of “greenways”, linear parks along rivers and canals designed for walking and biking, and 8,200 kilometres are planned for 2015.
Cycle trails offer tranquil path-side parks“Many cities are losing the battle against degradation and violence because they settled for the view that difficulties were too big and could only be dealt with after all planning instruments and financial resources were in place,” says Lerner.
“I see cities not as problems, but as solutions. “What brings a city to life is its people. The better the quality of life of the city, the better it will be.”
Photos © Internet, Curitiba City
BTS ITDP, Curitiba, Jaime Lerner, Portable Streets Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 05:11PM Eco-friendly homes may be getting cheaper and more stylish, according to recent reports from SmartPlanet.Hydronic radiant heating, passive solar designs and much more. Check out these examples from Calilfornia and Pennsylvania.
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 01:39PM With a central theme of “Building Liveable Cities of the Future through Green Design and Good Governance”, the 3rd Annual Sustainable Cities event (27-30 September) aims to explore how good design and planning can improve city management, drive economic growth, promote sustainable development and deliver a better quality of life.
Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 04:52PM Building a high rise development in the centre of a city may not seem the best way to go green – but the designers and developers of Central Park in Sydney say their building will be just as green as any other.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 08:49AM The perfect family resort can be marred by too much activity from the kids. At Soneva Kiri by Six Senses, architect Olav Bruin has have brought a fantasy den to life for the children and a big smile to the faces of their relaxed parents.
Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 12:42PM Scouts from Singapore travel halfway round the world to design and build a new environmentally-sensitive classroom for remote village children in India’s West Sikkim.
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 12:09PM In the small town of Southwell in Nottinghamshire, England nestles the first autonomous house in the UK. Completed in 1993 and designed by professor of architecture with the University of Auckland, green activist and author Brenda Vale, this house makes use of all the natural elements that fall on it.
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 12:03PM by Jeremy Torr "I just love this quote: ‘We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities' - it really describes our current situation well." Huston Eubank, former executive director of the World Green Building Council, and principal of Green Development Services at the Rocky Mountain Institute is realistic about our situation with respect to climate change.
Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 09:01PM Poznan (Poland), Dec 6. A five-star hotel and an office complex in Kolkata went green in various ways but their applications to be registered under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) so that they could be paid for their troubles were rejected for no fault of theirs, an official said here Saturday.
