City Invincible

Seattle, in an effort to compensate for missing greenery and open space, has approved a plan that “encourages a site-appropriate package of greening possibilities, including green roofs, interior green walls, exterior vertical landscaping, and rain gardens.”

The plan includes incentives for builders that use innovative green technologies in their buildings. Additionally, building owners would benefit from the added “building insulation, shading, air filtration, and stormwater runoff management” provided by green roofs and the like.

Source: www.WorldChanging.com

For the past month or so, I’ve been working on an article about Architecture for Humanity’s Open Architecture Network for a Wired Magazine supported project called Assignment Zero.

Assignment Zero is a test to see if crowdsourced journalism will work. Crowdsourcing, basically, is where a group of people perform a task that ordinarily only one person would pursue. So, in a sense, Wikipedia is a form of crowdsourced encyclopedia.

Getting to my point. We need someone to interview a designer working with the Open Architecture Network–which is a crowdsourcing design and architecture website. The project our group chose is the ShoeBox Homes project in South Africa.

So, if you’re interested in getting your name published, possibly on Wired.com, please consider helping out. Assignment Zero already got one article published called “Assignment Zero First Take: Wiki Innovators Rethink Openness.”

Go to www.AssignmentZero.com to help us out.

Designers of Lunar Resonant Street Lamps–Anton Willis, Kate Lydon, and Christina Seely–won this year’s Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition.

According to www.metropolismag.com, “This re-engineered light has an ultra sensitive photo-cell that responds to the brightness of the night sky, turning on and dimming as needed, cutting down both on unnecessary light pollution and energy consumption.”

Lunar Resonant Street Lamps take city LED lighting to the next level.