It is a reality, this project that already we promoted from this blog a few years ago, and has become the first public infrastructure project financed by collective funding, becoming the beginning of crowdfunding urbanism.

The idea arose in parallel to the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) under the name I make Rotterdam, and soon generated a great expectation.

The initiative was proposed in 2011 by ZUS team provided unite three parts of Rotterdam, before disconnected due to be separated by railway tracks.

In the dissemination strategy of the project, in addition to the bright yellow color used iconically, highlights that included the ability to customize a portion of the bridge inscribing the name of each donor an amount exceeding 25 €. A customization that characterizes the new road and also gives it a symbolic collective belonging.

This urban strategy has been accompanied by the reuse of outbuildings to this new route. Have therefore been established around new housing, shops and an urban garden, which have helped revitalize the area.

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Images: Deezen

La entrada Luchtsingel pedestrian bridge | Crowdfunding urbanism | Rotterdam se publicó primero en More Than Green.

The European Commission has launched a programme that promotes the Circular Economy.

As it is stated at their website: “What is a circular economy? Since the industrial revolution, waste has constantly grown. This is because our economies have used a “take-make-consume and dispose” pattern of growth – a linear model which assumes that resources are abundant, available and cheap to dispose of. What we need is a more circular economy. This means re-using, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products. What used to be regarded as ‘waste’ can be turned into a resource. The aim is to look beyond waste and to close the loop of the circular economy. All resources need to be managed more efficiently throughout their life cycle. ”

European institutions have become aware of the importance of making our patterns of consumtion more efficient. For this reason, the European Commision has presented a programme that explain the strategy of the Circular Economy and how Europe will implement it.

At their website, they also remark the economic benefits of this large-scale programme and how it can boost employment opportunities in Europe: “Using resources more efficiently will also bring new growth and job opportunities. Better eco-design, waste prevention and reuse can bring net savings for EU businesses of up to EUR 600 billion, while also reducing total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Additional measures to increase resource productivity by 30% by 2030 could boost GDP by nearly 1%, while creating 2 million additional jobs.”

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(via http://ec.europa.eu)

La entrada In late 2015, European Commission will present a circular economy strategy se publicó primero en More Than Green.

“Located in Shikumen building in Jingan District, Shanghai, 1305 studio office is set to be the space with multi creative functions. The space acts not only for architecture, interior or graphic design, but also for lots of other purposes, fashion show, art exhibition, cocktail lounges, professional lectures, etc. With the interest of Shanghai Lane Culture, the architects tried to make this 300 m2 space into a harmonious combination of tradition and modern. The result turns out that it was not a bad attempt.”

They experiment skillful and subtle way with the functionalist paradigm of rationalism: the flexible space, the total space. Using different combinations of modules used as furniture, formulate various spatial joins in a large open space. Combinations that images can be confusing for the variety of results, which may suggest that they are different spaces instead of oneself.

By studying the dimensions and possibilities from combination or superposition of each item of furniture, the use of each of the elements that make the office and use it multiplies. Thus, not only host the cultural or professional program currently scheduled, but also can accommodate multiple future actions not provided without requiring new investments or spending on new material. We therefore consider the project a good example of economic sustainability by reducing space usage to a minimum and increasing its potential use.

(via archdaily.com) 

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La entrada 1305 Studio Office | Smart design of furniture to multifunctional space se publicó primero en More Than Green.

“Jaime Lerner reinvented urban space in his native Curitiba, Brazil. Along the way, he changed the way city planners worldwide see what’s possible in the metropolitan landscape.”

Jaime Lerner: “I’m working in cities for almost 40 years, and where every mayor is trying to tell me his city is so big, or the other mayors say, “We don’t have financial resources,” I would like to say from the experience I had: every city in the world can be improved in less than three years. There’s no matter of scale. It’s not a question of scale, it’s not a question of financial resources. Every problem in a city has to have its own equation of co-responsibility and also a design.” (source: TED)

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(via TED)

La entrada Jaime Lerner: Sing a song of sustainable cities se publicó primero en More Than Green.

“Buy saplings with an ecological certificate, taste and carry to your fridge handcrafted vegetables, ecological goat cheese, honey without additives and vegetables free of contaminant products; consult an expert to cultivate urban farms in balconies or indoor, and associate with producers and consumers collectives of ecological products are only some possibilities that offer this pilot experience, that aims to be more than a big first appointment with the orchards and their farmers in the center of the city. Huerta Bizarra has been originated to make the orchard of Murcia become part of a net that will make possible the trades between micro farmers, consumers and business owners.”

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(via www.laverdad.es)

La entrada "I Microfarmers Market" by Huerta Bizarra se publicó primero en More Than Green.

Documentary relating the series of events that leaded to the massive construction of cycle paths.

The documentary shows how Dutch people developed a new environmental and social awareness. The causes were the oil crisis and the excessive motorization of the country. The first consequences: high price of petrol, high rate of casualties in car accidents, destruction of consolidated urban patterns  for the construction of new roads, less social interactions, etc.

The solution Dutch proposed, some years ago, to fight a problem -which is now common to every developed country- has been very successful.

Holland has managed to develop and to innovate while keeping their social and environmental values, as well as a powerful cultural identity. And all that, without cars.

(via la Ciudad Viva)

La entrada How did Dutch people manage to get their cycle paths? se publicó primero en More Than Green.

The district 22@Barcelona is within the strategies towards sustainability that strive for a higher urban complexity by increasing those dense knowledge-based activities, that means, activities with information as an extra value (@ activities). On one hand, this enables a higher efficiency within all the urban system components as well as, on the other hand, an urban and social renewal of a degraded area.

Emblematic interventions -like the Media-TIC building by Enric Ruiz Geli or the AGBAR Tower by Jean Nouvel– form, along with others, a distributed net of innovative places that provide a new identity to this area of Barcelona.

22@Barcelona project transforms two hundred hectares of industrial land of Poblenou into an innovative district offering modern spaces for the strategic concentration of intensive knowledge-based activities. This initiative is also a project of urban refurbishment and a new model of city providing a response to the challenges posed by the knowledge-based society.

It is the most important project of urban transformation of Barcelona city of the last years and one of the most ambitious of Europe of these characteristics, with a high real state potential and a 180 million Euros public investment of infrastructure plan.

Media Clusters + TIC

10 universities 

4 residences 

9 I+D  and technology transfer centres

La entrada 22@Barcelona | the innovation district se publicó primero en More Than Green.