Dive into the archives.
- Student Works: Thermarium
Processing Water Overflow
The Thermarium envisions a new beach typology for the Toronto Waterfront. Responding to the lack of swimming at Toronto’s new urban beaches and consistent CSO (combined sewage overflow) closures at surrounding swim areas, we offer new possibilities for water immersion and activity that are enabled, rather than prohibited, by the polluted run-off instigated [...]
- Islands of Waste 1
[Thilafushi Island in the Maldives]
If you’re planning a winter getaway to the islands this year, you might move beyond ‘eco-tourism’ to trash tourism, in this case, visiting the island of Thilafushi, just off the shores of the Maldives, an island country in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls. The country [...]
- HYDROCity Exhibition opens tonight
[HYDROCity exhibition opens tonight at the Toronto Free Gallery and features 30 projects on hydrology and urbanism.]
With almost 30 projects and proposals addressing the opportunities and challenges of water in/around/under/through the city, we are excited to announce the HYDROCity exhibition opening tonight at the Toronto Free Gallery (1277 Bloor St W).
HYDROCity features the work of [...]
- The Transparent Removal Chain
[Overflowing Trash Cans in Toronto, Summer 2009 via blogto]
While the garbage workers strike in Toronto this past year promoted less tourism and flourishing populations of fruit flies, it also made most Torontonians aware of the amount of garbage they produce in a short amount of time. Researchers at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab are embarking on [...]
- Petropolis
[A tailings pond is a toxic lake so dangerous that air cannon and scarecrows are used to deter wildlife. © Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]
One of my favorite films from this year’s TIFF has to be Peter Mettler’s Petrolis. Mettler, who was the cinematographer for Edward Burtynsky’s Manufactured Landscapes, takes on a directorial role on [...]
- Clean Urbanism / Dirty Realism
[Cover of issue #11 from Rotterdam-based MONU.]
The output of MONU (Magazine on Urbanism) continues to impress, and with issue #11, Bernd Upmeyer and company raise the bar. This issue is dedicated to clean urbanism and a range of responses, mostly antagonizing or shoring up sustainability and its discontents, come pouring in. An initial browse reminds [...]
- Breathing Earth
[Breathing Earth Interface via www.breathingearth.net]
Multimedia artist David Bleja has created an interesting simulation entitled “Breathing Earth“. Breathing Earth catalogues and projects birth and death rates for the globe as well as the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere… all in real time. As such, it is a simulation, but based on pretty realistic sources [...]
- Farming Fuels
[New Algae Farms are reminiscent of Walt Disney\'s \'The Future World of Agriculture\']
In a few weeks the Algae Biofuels World Summit will take place in San Francisco, one of the first formalized events dedicated to the production of algafuels. Algae farming has garnered increased attention as oil prices continue to rise, and it is [...]
- Methane Capture: Agri-Alchemy
[Estimated aggregated distribution of pigs, poultry, cattle, and small ruminants. Source: FAO, 2006g.]
In a recent summary report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Livestock’s Long Shadow), trillions of farm animals across the globe were found to generate a whopping 18% of CO2 emissions. That is more than cars, buses, and airplanes. [...]
- Trash Vortex: sea-based landfilling?
08-12-03: Trash Vortex
The world’s largest garbage dump is located thousands of miles from land. Also known as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Pacific Trash Vortex is an area of marine debris floating in the Pacific Ocean. This collection of trash is characterized as a plastic-soup due the high concentrations of suspended disposable plastics that [...]
