APRU Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Conference 2020

Registration is now open for the virtual APRU SCL Conference and Expressions of Interest to participate are due by the end of August! Organized by the Future Cities Research Hub from the University of Auckland, the 4^th annual APRU Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Conference 2020 will be held virtually on December 14^th-18^th, 2020. A new addition to the conference this year is the Ph.D. Symposium on December 14^th and will provide opportunities for Ph.D. students to present their research work related to the working group topics of the APRU SCL Hub, the conference, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The virtual Conference and Symposium is an exciting opportunity for academics, practitioners, and public officials to collaborate on research and advocacy projects that foster long-term sustainability and resilient city-landscape relationships.

The conference is structured around eleven working groups that bracket a range of social, economic, and environmental issues. Submit an expression of interest to join a working group here before August 31.

 

Ph.D. Students intending to participate in the Ph.D. Symposium need to submit full papers (3,000 words maximum) to symposium.apru2020@auckland.ac.nz by September 6, 2020

Early bird registration for the conference closes on November 9.
Find out the program and registration fee here.

Please contact the conference organizing committee at symposium.apru2020@auckland.ac.nz.

Conference website: https://www.apru-scl-2020.org/

APRU SCL Hub website: https://apru-scl.uoregon.edu/

Association of Pacific Rim Universities Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Hub (APRU SCL) Conference

Association of Pacific Rim Universities Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Hub (APRU SCL) Conference

APRU SCL brings together experts from around the region to exchange ideas and engage in activities focused on sustainable city-landscape interactions.  

The Association of Pacific Rim Universities Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Hub (APRU SCL) announces opening registration for its upcoming 2019 conference hosted by the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia from August 29 through September 1, 2019.

The APRU SCL conference invites academics, practitioners, and public officials from different disciplines to collaborate on research and advocacy projects that foster long-term sustainability and resilient city-landscape relationships. This three-day conference is structured around 11 working groups that bracket a range of social, economic and environmental issues. Each conference attendee will contribute to a working group of their choice as well as participate in conference-wide plenaries and events.

Visit the 2019 APRU Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Conference website for more information about the conference program and working groups. Early bird registration of $225 USD ends on June 15, and after that will increase to $275 USD. The conference registration covers lunch, morning and afternoon tea during the days of the event, and a special dinner cruise on Sydney Harbour on Friday evening, August 30.

Student Design Competition

Students are invited to enter the Cities and Refugees Global Student Design Competition organized by the Rapid Urbanization Grand Challenge at the UNSW Sydney, and supported by the Australian Red Cross, ARUP International Development, UNHCR, and the APRU Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Program Hub. The winning schemes will be announced in Sydney at the APRU SCL Conference.

Find out more about the competition, eligibility, and prizes, and register before the submission deadline on July 20, 2019."

"For questions regarding the 2019 APRU SCL Conference and the Student Design Competition, please contact Sara Padgett Kjaersgaard, Co-Organizer of APRU SCL conference. 

For questions regarding the APRU SCL Hub, please contact Yekang Ko, Program Director of APRU SCL Hub."

ENERGY OVERLAYS Civic Art for a Circular Economy

In 2018, the directors of the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) invited Beatriz Maturana Cossio as the Founder of Architects for Peace and academic of University of Chile, to be a member of the judging panel for the competition for an urban intervention in the highly controversial St. Kilda triangle in Melbourne, Australia. The competition was a call for feasible proposals for an urban intervention based on a cross disciplinary response to this unique public space, based in landscape and urban design and the physical, social and economic aspects of sustainability. A perfect fit for the principles of Architects for Peace. LAGI occurs in a different city each year. The following article, published with the permission of its authors, presents LAGI’s contribution to the built environment through ecological civic art that produces renewable energy.

ENERGY OVERLAYS
Civic Art for a Circular Economy

Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian
Founding Directors,
Land Art Generator Initiative

“The next culture will be a culture of ‘stewardship,’ the energy driving it will be renewable, and the art it produces will be quite different from the art favored by production and consumption cultures.” — Margaret Atwood on the writing of Barry Lord¹

“All life is a struggle for free energy.” — Leslie White²

More than a decade after the release of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth there remains a vocal segment of the public who are unmoved by images showing rising sea levels and global heat map projections. Talk of mass extinction events and droughts still does not seem to motivate many of us to take civic action to protect the climate. In some cases it can have the exact opposite effect, either entrenching denial or causing political paralysis in the face of the problem’s enormity. The scope of climate change leaves many feeling un-empowered as individuals to make a difference.

It pains us to hear such acquiescence on display, like the time we casually remarked about the unusual weather we were experiencing during the week of one of our LAGI workshops. A 14-year old girl responded in earnest, “I heard the world is ending because of the climate.”

What if instead we could change the message of fear and disaster into one of hope and optimism—an inspirational message about the greatness of a post-carbon future? What if rather than show disaster images to run away from, we could instead design a future that people desire to run towards? What if we changed the conversation about gloom and doom to one of beauty and cultural transformation? While science communication has enlightened the world and brought us to where we are today in the climate debate, it is the humanities and the arts that make us unique and that remind us of what is worth saving for tomorrow.

Culture and energy are two sides of the same coin, but as a consequence of this geometry they rarely catch a glimpse of one another. We know that fuel and electricity keep the lights bright upon our stages, the welding torches lit, and our audio visual equipment humming. It is energy that makes it possible to turn four billion trees every year into magazines, journals, paper, and books.³ Culture can be thought of as a reflection of a society’s ability to orchestrate the use of energy beyond that required for the most basic human survival.

La Monarca. This Land Art Generator Solar Mural artwork for San Antonio is a functioning solar array with a capacity of 1 kW. The graphic was designed by San Antonio artist Cruz Ortiz with creative direction by Penelope Boyer. Photographed at the San Antonio Zoo by Penelope Boyer

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Materiales amigables con el medioambiente

Texto escrito por Rita Núñez. Publicado en Especial Soluciones Constructivas, Medios Regionales El Mercurio. Publicación en Architects for Peace cuenta con la autorización de sus autores.

Las características de los productos utilizados son importantes al momento de construir un edificio sustentable, por ello es importante la información transparente en torno a sus componentes, materias primas y procesos de extracción, manufactura y transporte.

Fuente: Soluciones Constructivas, Medios Regionales El Mercurio.

Cada vez más, es posible ver un interés mayor por incluir materiales con alguna característica de sustentabilidad. La transparencia en sus contenidos y materias primas, o bien, las características de su proceso de extracción y fabricación, tanto en el ámbito ambiental como social, son aspectos a los que se les está dando más importancia.

“Las características de los materiales son muy importantes al momento de querer hacer un edificio sustentable. Por ejemplo, su huella de carbono, medida desde el proceso de extracción de materias primas, su elaboración y su transporte a la obra, pesa tanto como el consumo energético en la operación del edificio”, comenta Gabriela Sabadini, ingeniera de Certificación Edificio Sustentable (CES). Asimismo, el especificar materiales como pinturas o alfombras con bajas emisiones mejora la calidad ambiental interior de un espacio, lo que se traduce en el bienestar de sus ocupantes.

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Sustainable University Campus: neighbourhood and surroundings

The following article (in Spanish) describes the work undertaken by 2nd. year students of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Chile. The challenge was to situate an existing campus (in a transition to sustainability) and improve its presence within the city and with its citizens--how can a sustainable campus become a positive element in the urban fabric?

The proposals and details of the exploration can be found in the webpage developed by the students: http://claudiamirandam.wix.com/campus-sustentable

Escenarios sustentables para el campus Beauchef y la FAU

Source: escenarios sustentables campus Beauchef y FAU

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The Rise of Open Streets

Introduccion by Ajith Kuruvilla

To all my friends that still believe that streets belong to car, watch this documentary. I remember when i first started cycling to school, uni, work over 15 years ago it was a world where there were no bicycle lanes, close shaves with a car on a daily basis and often abuse and spitting by many car users. I know how much has changed since then for bicyclist, but i also know, for car users their ownership of the road has decreased, the speed limits have decreased and the petrol price has gone from 75c to 1.60c.

So for my friends who still want to complain about the cyclists and the hippies and continue to elect pro automotive governments ahead of greater levels of public transport and people friendly streets, just think where the world will be in another 15 years time considering major cities like LA, NYC, Bogota, Mexico City have already moved in people ahead of cars direction.

The Rise of Open Streets

(Source: https://vimeo.com/78886448)


The Rise of Open Streets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
Streetfilms has been documenting the ciclovia/open streets movement for over seven years, beginning with our landmark film in 2007 on Bogota's Ciclovia, currently our most popular film of all time.

Not soon after that film's debut Mike Lydon of The Street Plans Collaborative decided to get one going in Miami in 2008 which led to his research for The Open Streets Project, a joint project with the Alliance for Biking & Walking.

In 2008, there were new events in over a dozen cities including San Francisco, Portland and NYC. Since 2006, open streets events have increased 10 fold.

Since Streetfilms has ample footage of nearly a dozen such events, we decided this was an opportune time to interview some of the most important people in the movement, including former City Transportation Commissioners Janette Sadik-Khan (NYC) and Gabe Klein (Chicago), as well as former Bogota Parks Commissioner Gil Penalosa and Enrique Jacoby, from the Pan American Health Organization.

"The Rise of Open Streets" looks at myriad angles of the Open Streets movement. From its little known origins to the joy it brings to participants. From the sundry types of programming to the health benefits it brings citizenry. From the inspiration it gives people to further change the balance of our streets to giving city residents a few hours of peace from the normal tumult of loud city traffic. And it not only looks at big cities like Los Angeles, but smaller ones like Fargo, Berkeley, and Lexington.

We were proud to partner with The Street Plans Collaborative and the Alliance for Biking & Walking to produce this film, which we hope will give municipalities another tool and encourage even more events throughout the world. Funding for "The Rise of Open Streets" was graciously provided by the Fund for the Environment & Urban Life.

MACDES: Tercer Congreso Internacional Medio Ambiente Construido y Desarrollo Sustentable

Tercer Congreso Internacional Medio Ambiente Construido y Desarrollo Sustentable

Palacio de las Convenciones

November 24, 2014 – November 28, 2014

El Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría con la participación de  organismos e instituciones nacionales e internacionales, se encuentra trabajando en la organización y preparación del Tercer Congreso Internacional Medio Ambiente Construido y Desarrollo Sustentable, a celebrarse del 24 al 28 de noviembre del 2014 en el Palacio de las Convenciones ubicado en La Habana, Cuba.

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10 Ciudades que prohibieron los automóviles

Este artículo ha sido re-publicado con el permiso de su autora Karen Hermosilla, originalmente publicado en http://www.veoverde.com/

Los peatones y ciclistas son reyes indiscutidos de estas joyas del buen criterio urbano característico de la vieja Europa.

Ellos ya vienen de vuelta. Sus historias son difíciles y han determinado a los demás continentes. Luego de tanto ensayo y error hoy Europa nos parece sabia en varios aspectos, donde destaca la urbanística.

Ciudades inteligentes que privilegian los derechos ciudadanos y la belleza. Ya sin preocuparse de la venta de comodidad individual a alto impacto ambiental, no han trepidado en ordenar la prohibición de la circulación de vehículos motorizados por algunas ciudades.

Éstas, más que anhelar el futuro tecnológico del consumo moderno, se han esforzado por conservar un estilo de vida particular, que en su seudo onírica aparición en la escena del mundo se transforma en un destino turístico con redituables consecuencias.

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CHARLA: ANTONIO ELIZALDE HEVIA, Hábitat sustentable, el campus universitario y “la necesaria lucha en el plano de las ideas”

Invitación

LUNES 3 DE JUNIO, 2013, 10:00 AM | Lugar: Auditorio FAU (Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad de Chile) | Invitan: Profesores de la asignatura INVI “Hábitat sustentable: el campus universitario, su barrio y su entorno” Beatriz Maturana y Walter Imilan. 

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More cyclists? That depends on where you live

By Alexis Zander, University of New South Wales and Chris Rissel, University of Sydney

If you have heard comments from friends or colleagues that there seem to be a lot more cyclists these days, chances are that you live or work in the inner city of an Australian capital city.

A new report released by the Prevention Research Collaboration of the University of Sydney examined journey to work data for Sydney from the 2001, 2006 and 2011 Census.

It shows that while the proportion of people cycling to work in inner Sydney has increased markedly since 2006, the proportion cycling to work in outer Greater Sydney has gone down consistently since 2001.

Overall, cycling to work has increased marginally but remains low at around 1% of all journeys to work.

What’s in a choice?

More people commuting by bicycle means cleaner, less congested cities, less stress on public transport systems and a more active, healthier population. In light of Australia’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ever increasing rate of obesity, normalising cycling to work has multiple benefits for cities, government and individuals. But participation needs to be far greater than its current levels for any of these benefits to be felt on a population level.

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Transiting Cities Competition - call for entries

An international design competition is calling for entries to help transition the Latrobe Valley in Victoria into a low-carbon future. The competition closes on 30 November and is targeting the revitalisation of small towns, potentially rehabilitated mines and associated infrastructure. The project is sponsored by RMIT University's Office of Urban Transformations Research Laboratory in the School of Architecture and Design, Latrobe City Council, the State Department of Primary Industries Clean Coal Victoria Unit and the Gippsland Climate Change Network.

It's a big issue to tackle - amid the barrage of calls to shut down Hazelwood, what kind of future awaits those who live and work in this region that for years has contributed substantially to the State's economy?

Registration is relatively inexpensive (unlike some recent local competitions of late) and there are cash prizes - to register and find out more, visit the website www.transitingcities.com

Image: Hazelwood coal mine - credit: Lizardstomp 

A Question of Credibilty

Image source: Political Cartoons

Leaked documents made available through the web site Skeptical Science reveal that prominent climate change denier Bob Carter, Earthsign Climate Clown is being paid $1667 monthly by the notorious US Heartland Institute to spread lies and deception about climate change for his efforts as co-editor on a Heartland project called the Non Governmental International Panel on Climate Change. Carter told The Age:

''That suggestion is silly and offensive - a kindergarten-level argument, … Institutions or organisations simply pay for services rendered. In the same way that an architect is paid for their work, so are scientists."

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Stretch and squeeze: Sustainability vs. sprawl in crowded Asian cities

Dr Sidh Sintusingha discusses the phenomenon of urban sprawl and approaches to enabling sustainability in increasingly crowded Southeast Asian urban corridors. With host Jennifer Cook.

JENNIFER COOK So in your view is urban sustainability even possible and what are the consequences if it’s not? 
SIDH SINTUSINGHA Well putting an idealistic hat on it is possible but we human beings have to be given the big stick, you know a very serious environmental catastrophe for instance might push us towards that direction. But…

Up Close, the research talk show from the University of Melbourne.

Thisted Municipality smart development

Important advance for Thisted Municipality in Denmark. In 20 years the Thisted territory with 45.500 habitants has reach the generation of it 100% renewable energy source. Is important to stand out the compromise between the people and the local government as an example of private-public partnership looking for a low carbon city.