The winner of the 2017 Innovations in Reading Prize was awarded last week to Barbershop Books, a program that adds a reading space to local barbershops. The initiative was started by Alvin Irby, a former kindergarten and first grade teacher, who specifically wanted young black boys to have a reading space that is fun and stress-free.
This article in Scientific American calls for high-tech companies to emulate systems found in nature. Written by Yale University professor, Oswald Schmitz, it addresses the flawed manufacturing and consumerism system of advanced technology.
Jeanne Gang is an architect who looks at physical space for its potential to build positive relationships—between people, across disciplines, and between people and the environment.
The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care has won Gold in Climate Leadership for 2016, for its development of the Health Care Climate Change Resiliency Toolkit.
A team of researchers at Yale University recently completed a study on urban centres from 3700 B.C. to 2000 A.D. They explored the global distribution of cities, their populations, and how they influenced their local and regional environments.
Check out this video; a first person tour of a building site in Ethiopia where a new technology, which uses discarded straw to make safe, effective and strong building material, to build new homes.
As the fastest growing city in Europe, Stockholm's plans for new housing are playing with both the ideas of imcreasing urban density and creating workable, walkable greenspace.
Designing for a circular economy is not just about transitioning to a new way of production, but rather, a transformation, rethinking almost everything from first principles. Not only on how stuff gets to be remade, but what that stuff actually is. Click here to read more on what is possible today if we only had legislation mandating zero waste by 2020.
We have seen many wonderful and creative takes on how to create more sustainable and eco-friendly versions of products most people use on regular basis. One example is the biodegradable cups made of corn plastic that have cornered the festival and event market on the last few years. Imagine though, knowing that your house was built using the same forward thinking and innovation? Bricks made without the kiln, which produces massive amounts of Co2, or plastic hinges in your kitchen, made totally petroleum free.
In the modern urban landscape, two things come at a premium: a place for flora to flourish, and space for advertising. A German company has approached the issue of cleaning our cities’ air with a unique and multipurpose solution. Their creation, called the “city tree” is a freestanding, self-sustaining structure, which uses moss as a substrate to feed plants arranged using a weighted system. It has its own irrigation system that uses captured rain water and a series of sensors to keep everything growing.