toy box

Green Roots

I will slowly update some of the findings and discoveries from Opportunity Green conference. First one is the Green Roots, beautifully displayed at the conference court yard as a vertical living wall. It's a great combination of utilizing urban vertical space while cleaning air and cooling building (if it's used on building wall). I especially love the way the wall feels so 3D with the texture from sacculent.

Bicycle tube bag

This looks great for a day of urban exploration! It's made of inner bicycle tubes and waterproof. Designed by balkan tango in Hungary! You can get them at Supermarket.

"I am open for everything" trash can

documented in Hamburg, August 23rd 2008.

Minimalistic public trash can

Different types of trash goes into the special colored trash bag that is held by a matching colored structure. That's a system!
documented in Paris, August 20th 2008.

Public space fully utilized

Hello from Hamburg. I was in Paris for a few days and now in Hamburg, Germany. I will be reporting from this side of the world till the end of this month. 

So Paris! My favorite hang out place in the city was this spot. On the river bank, a stretch of one mile or so turned into a casual "beach" like setting both catered toward tourists and locals. I think they execute the idea of "public space" really well. Everywhere I went, there were parks and squares with comfortable chairs to lounge nearby beautiful old gardens. Those settings makes it almost effortless to let the time pass by. (unlike Los Angeles where public space almost feels hostile.) I wonder what are the ingredients in creating a space like this... Beach chair alone can not be the only reason. People are definitely relaxed and always ready to jump into spontaneous activities (let that be singing and dancing along with piano, tasting gelato...) I think it is an atmosphere that is created by a combination of people, environment and pop-up inserts (piano, chairs, umbrella, magic show...) without becoming too cheesy. (I think some summer festivals in America miss the sweet spot by making it too theme oriented)  So where can I find a place with this kind of quality to live? 

   

Unexpected green spaces in the cities

Last night I got a twitter message from my friend pbullock that she "Just initiated some guerilla gardening with my neighbor on Main and 3rd" in Los Angeles downtown (Got to love your trendsetter friend).  While I am waiting to see some of the pictures from her... I started thinking that downtown would be an interesting place to live if there are more "creative" green spaces. Not having enough resources to build conventional green areas (aka: park) is probably one of a reason why the greens space is scarce in downtown. So I dug around online and found a few very creative ways to "up" the unexpected green spaces in a dense city.
Portable garden via Yanko Design designed by Kevin VanBraak.
Green panel via Apartment Therapy designed by YABG. We've seen a lot of vertical green walls but modular approach might work better. Also really like the affect of "pixel" look. Would be a great opportunity for an urban advertisement?

And let's not forget about PARK(ing) Day coming up on September 19th, 2008.

Contextual graffiti

I love the photo of contextual graffiti done by Brazilian artist Alexandre Orion. "Orion experiments with combining his street art and his fascination with photography…a process he calls ‘Metabiotica’." Check out more pics on David Report blog

Imagining a Sustainable Downtown LA through Model- building

If you want to see how it feels to "design" the urban city, check out this event this weekend happening in LA downtown.

"Imagining Downtown LA is an interactive public project inviting participants to imagine, and develop innovative land use and transportation elements in a model form based on their personal experiences. Participants will be provided with a medley of recycled materials, and invited to create their ideal urban form on an oversized plot of Downtown"

Location 7th & Figueroa Shopping Center Contact: James Rojas (626)437-4446
 

Location: 7th and Figueroa Shopping Center
For Further information. Contact James Rojas (626) 437-4446