Haiti’s recovery from the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, plus repeated hits by tropical storms and hurricanes, calls for creative, low-tech, earth-based alternatives. Konbit Shelter, a pairing of international designers including the street artist Swoon with local artisans, have advanced earthbag construction as a viable solution to disaster prone areas.
Landscape
An expanse of earth, adorned, improved, contoured, designed, and experienced. Architecture, travel, design, culture.
Arcosanti: Paolo Soleri’s Visionary Eco-City Prototype in Arizona
A visionary eco-city in the Arizona desert, Arcosanti is an urban laboratory created by Paolo Soleri. Based on the concept of Arcology, or ecological architecture, it presents a compact, sustainable, energy-efficient urban form that confronts environmental destruction, economic collapse, and social dislocation.
BioMilano: Italian Eco-Vision Grows 26-Storey Vertical Forest
Bosco Verticale or Vertical Forest, the first phase of BioMilano, a re-envisioning of Milan, Italy, with an eye toward ecological urbanism, integrating tree and skyscraper, city and wild.
Affordable and Green: Net-Zero Home in Washington DC
EMPOWERHOUSE is a community-based approach to sustainable urban development showcasing the design of two affordable, energy-efficient solar powered homes and a neighborhood learning garden for inner-city Washington DC and beyond.
Maya Ruins at Tikal: A New Beginning at Winter Solstice
Twenty five hundred years ago, a group of peoples settled Tikal, surrounded by the lowland rainforests of the Petén Basin of northern Guatemala. Their descendants would create a remarkable civilization that populated cities and villages across much of southern Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Today, it has returned to the forest but turned into a major archeological attraction.
Agricultural Urbanism: Designing Cities as Edible Ecosystems
The world’s population is expected to rise to 10 billion by 2050. Yet with 80 per cent of the planet’s usable farmland already cultivated, the effects of climate change wreaking havoc across large areas of existing farmland, and more than 10 per cent of humanity going to bed hungry every night, growing enough sustenance for three billion new mouths is not going to be easy.
Wilderness of Minarets: On the Coyote Trail of Muir and Adams
I am on the trail of John Muir, intending to walk into the wild high country, his “range of light,” inspired by the vision of Ansel Adams who once said: “Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.”