Landscape

An expanse of earth, adorned, improved, contoured, designed, and experienced. Architecture, travel, design, culture.

Ancient Maya Ruins of Tikal, Guatemala
Eco-Cultural-Travel, Rituals and Traditions

Maya Ruins at Tikal: A New Beginning at Winter Solstice

youtu.be/_OD9JOlWFOo

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.

urban agriculture rooftop gardens
Design, Sustainability

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.

designed by Michael Reynolds, Earthship Biotecture, United Kingdom, eco-friendly design
Design, Sustainability

Earthship Biotecture: Self-Sufficient, Off-the-Grid Communities

youtu.be/01hIPvNzGmY

Passive solar Earthships provide electricity, potable water, sustainable food production, with contained sewage treatment, and can be built anywhere in the world. Renegade eco-architect Michael Reynolds’ construction and design process called Earthship Biotecture creates beyond LEED Architecture, a sustainable green building design made of natural and recycled materials.

Austrian opera Umberto Giordano
Sound, Urban Art

Austria: Operatic Spectacles Rise from the Lake at the Bregenz Festival

youtu.be/WvHxEJUboCo

The Seebühne, a floating opera stage of bewildering proportions rises every summer from Austria’s Lake Constance, the centerpiece of the annual Bregenzer Festspiele (Bregenz Festival). It has staged productions such as Verdi’s “Aida,” Giordano’s “André Chénier,” Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” and next year will be Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”