How to turn an abandoned industrial site into an urban oasis, a community and cultural center, and a business incubator.

The Evergreen Brick Works is an inspiring abandoned industrial brownfield meets social enterprise meets ecological restoration story.

https://civiccommons.us/app/uploads/2018/11/Transformation-EBW-1.pdf
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Our trash might be the most honest thing we produce.

While authors like William McDonough and Ron Gonen focus on eliminating waste through design and systemic change, John Scanlan in his book, The Idea of Waste: On the Limits of Human Life, offers a different perspective.

https://thebaffler.com/latest/w-a-s-t-e-not-adams

Designing a public space that emphasizes the sensory experience of books

File this one under "Bucket List." Not Just Library is a cultural and design library located in Taipei.

https://www.johnnyisborn.com/not-just-library/30matl8gb832onr4ovottspznq145e

'On a porch, inside can feel like it’s outside.'

Here in Greenfield, it’s almost porch season.

https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-case-for-the-porch/

Using public spaces to celebrate social unity and improve the quality of life

The European Prize for Urban Public Space is a biennial award that honors exceptional projects that create, transform, or restore public spaces in European cities.

https://www.publicspace.org/en/home

Good architecture is good for human well-being.

The spaces we live in shape not only our daily experiences but also our emotional well-being.

https://www.azuremagazine.com/article/zurich-childrens-hospital-herzog-de-meuron/

'The demolition of existing buildings is as outdated as food waste, animal testing and single-use plastics.'

By 2050, Europe is set to demolish billions of square meters of existing buildings—an amount equivalent to half of Germany’s entire building stock.

https://houseeurope.vhx.tv

'An unspecified place for gathering, one that manifests as whatever people need, like a tower offering a call to prayer but for giving thanks.'

The Chapel of Thanksgiving in Dallas doesn’t commemorate anything or anybody specifically.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-11-24/dallas-thanksgiving-chapel-is-a-monument-to-the-season

An education space dedicated to both physical and emotional well-being

About one in five students are diagnosed with a learning difference, meaning they experience academic challenges around organization, memory, or attention.

https://metropolismag.com/projects/nbbj-westmark-school-californi/
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'Think like a gardener, not an architect: design beginnings, not ends.'

Sweden has an official "innovation agency".

https://medium.com/dark-matter-and-trojan-horses/working-with-brian-eno-on-design-principles-for-streets-cf873b039c9f

'My paradise is a library ... I am a paper freak. I was born a paper freak … I was not interested in anything else but books, books, books and drawing paper.'

Step through the sliding glass door at 7 Rue de Lille in Paris and you’ll find yourself inside the sumptuous psyche of one of fashion’s most prodigious figures.

https://www.wallpaper.com/fashion-beauty/karl-lagerfeld-bookshop-library-7L-paris

A design to 'reinstate the library's relevance in the 21st century'

https://www.dezeen.com/2024/02/26/beijing-city-library-snohetta-china/

A crochet teacher and her students replaced plastic awnings with beautiful recycled fabrics.

Southern Spain is no stranger to hot weather, and the town of Alhaurín de la Torre, in Malaga, has used plastic awnings to shade its walkways for years.

https://www.core77.com/posts/109732/From-Spain-a-Creative-and-Eco-Friendly-Way-to-Beat-the-Heat

Kids don't need special equipment or lessons; they just need to get outside.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/07/play-streets-children-adults/679258/

'Architecture is not merely the backdrop to our lives, but a crucial determinant of how we live and thrive.'

Many of us have felt the effects of being in different built environments.

https://psyche.co/ideas/how-the-buildings-you-occupy-might-be-affecting-your-brain

New offices, new options

As businesses exit or pare down traditional offices, where are remote workers logging in from? New options prove that the possibilities go beyond the coffee shop.

https://metropolismag.com/viewpoints/four-new-coworking-spaces-for-remote-work-revolution/

'Work resorts” are designed coax workers from their living rooms with the comforts and versatility of luxury hotels.

Visitors to the Springline complex in Menlo Park, Calif., are surrounded by a sense of comfort and luxury often found at high-end hotels: off-white walls with a Roman clay finish, a gray-and-white marble coffee table and a white leather bench beneath an 8-by-4 resin canvas etched with the words “Hello, tomorrow.” Springline’s signature scent — hints of salty sea air, white water lily, dry musk and honeydew melon — linger in the air.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/18/business/office-design-work-resort.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Gk4.NrJJ.-kZ6yT77Okv1&smid=url-share

Helping communities thrive by turning schoolyards into spaces that serve well-being, development, learning, and social cohesion.

When Lois Brink’s kids were in elementary school, she remembers being struck by how uninviting their schoolyard was.

https://grist.org/looking-forward/how-greener-schoolyards-benefit-kids-and-the-whole-community/

Embracing emotion as function, and two other ways to shatter the 'architectural blandemic'

In 2023, (architect Thomas Heathrwick) launched his campaign “Humanise,” delving into why architects make boring buildings (and have for the past 100 years).

https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/ode-to-joy-steps-architects-can-take-to-make-buildings-less-boring/

'In many ways the solution is simple – our high streets need people living in them.'

The concept of a 20-minute neighbourhood, born during Covid, is straightforward: a neighbourhood where people can meet the majority of their daily needs within reasonable distance of their home by walking or cycling.

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/could-a-solution-to-the-housing-crisis-also-save-our-high-streets

A Multifunctional building for the Doig River People is one of the northern-most passive house–certified buildings in Canada.

The Doig River Cultural Centre is a 6,000-square-foot gathering place in Rose Prairie, British Columbia.

https://metropolismag.com/projects/this-first-nations-cultural-center-is-a-symbol-of-community-and-sustainability/

“The car is not only a monstrous land-eater itself: it abets that other insatiable land-eater—endless, strung-out suburbanization.”

In the 1950s, in the glory days of the American automobile industry, when Jane and Bob Jacobs moved to Greenwich Village and their contemporaries were acquiring tail-fined cars and moving to the suburbs, she went to work and got around Manhattan by bike.

https://commonedge.org/jane-jacobs-cyclist/

'A place inside for study and a place above for play.'

The site chosen for this small addition of a children’s library within a school in rural Maharashtra, was a sliver between existing buildings and the school boundary, a site that almost implied a linear building footprint to adjust the program for the chosen site.
Alluding to the impetus that children have towards landscape over a building we imagined the library building to be a formal extension of the ground plane.

https://www.archdaily.com/903713/maya-somaiya-library-sharda-school-sameep-padora-and-associates

"The good thing about everything being so messed up is that no matter where you look there’s good work to be done.”

- Derek Jensen