Dive into the archives.
- Particulate Swarms
[Radar image of Sydney during the dust storm of September 2009 - its largest in 70 years.]
Editors Note: File under Glacier / Island / Storm, a studio run by BLDGBLOG at Columbia University GSAPP. Storm edition.
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“It is time / It is time for / It is time for stormy weather” – The Pixies
Storms deal in [...]
- P3-Post Peak Phosphorous
[Togo phosphates mining]
If you thought post-peak oil had generated media frenzy (and spawned endless sustainable design projects), there’s another, quieter crisis looming – post-peak phosphorous.
Phosphorus is at the heart of modern farming; an essential ingredient of agricultural fertilizers. It has no synthetic alternative and is being mined, used and wasted as never before. Inefficiencies [...]
- Medius Terra / Aqua
[Agriculture and Fisheries in the Mediterranean. Zoï Environment Network.]
We were excited to see that MedSec and UNEP have released a series of recent maps on various aspects of the environment dependent upon Mediterranean Sea. The series is titled, appropriately enough, “Environment and Security in the Mediterranean.” They have documented Agriculture and Fisheries, Migration, Water, Population, [...]
- Global Food Networks: Countries Buying Countries
[Greenhouses being erected in Jittu, Ethiopia. Simon Norfolk for The New York Times.]
Two weeks ago, in an article entitled ‘Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism‘, the New York Times reported that financially wealthy but resource-poor nations in the Middle East and Asia are attempting to ensure food security by buying up large tracks of [...]
- Landscape Infrastructures DVD
[Landscape Infrastructures DVD now available.]
This past October 25, 2008, The Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design hosted a symposium organized and curated by Prof. Pierre Bélanger, recently swiped up by appointed by Harvard GSD, titled Landscape Infrastructures. Bélanger rightly marks our time as witness to a unique convergence of infrastructure and landscape. The urgency [...]
- Inverted Infrastructural Monuments, pt.1
[Chand Baori Stepwell in Abhaneri, Rajasthan, India via Creative Commons]
As the looming threat of global warming persists, one of the most prominent effects has been the erratic nature of weather patterns with pronounced emphasis on weather extremes. Some areas of the world are accustomed to such polarity. In Western India, for instance, three months of [...]
- Agrinvestments
[Urban and suburban growth encroaching on Farmland, via creative commons/ Flickr]
The recent volatile nature of the stock market has incited a new type of investment – in Farmland. Deemed as ‘getting rich slow’, The Canadian Investment Company, Agcapita Farmland Investment Partnership, has taken to buying up vast amounts of the Canadian Prairies. Their [...]
- Sea Dust, pt 2
[Guérande salt pans. via flickr/francoiseroche]
It was fascinating to follow João Navalho’s transformation of a microalgae field to traditional salt harvesting ponds in Portugal. What was originally a salt pond was converted to microalgae in anticipation of supplying natural orange dye for the organic food market. Later, as the market’s interest dwindled, the site became a [...]
- 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 [...]
- Sea Dust, pt 1
[Salt mounds at the Toronto port, near Cherry Beach. photo by katalogue on flickr.]
On January 21, Thomas L. Viola was charged with the theft of some 135 tons of road salt in Aurora, Illinois. Viola had (intentionally) sold the road salt, which did not belong to him, on October 1 at the bargain price of [...]
