Climate Time Machine from NASA has some great time-series animation and visualizations showing sea surface height variations, changing global surface temperatures, the amount of CO2 emissions produced by top 12 nations, and the annual Arctic sea ice minimum from 1979 to 2007.
Mohonk Mountain house is a beautiful place to vacation with loved ones. The spa there is very enjoyable I must confess. However, the landscape architect in me was most impressed by the landscape formation and the variety of flowering plants that grow there. The hiking trails, the grounds and the lake that encompass 2,200 acres along the crest of the Shawangunk Mountains are just some of the most picturesque.
Mohonk Preserve is admittedly the largest private, non-profit ecological sanctuary in New York. It covers 6,000 acre along the crest of the northern Shawangunk Mountains and partially surrounds the grounds of the Mohonk House. A system of trails through the Shawangunk Mountains Preserve is wonderful to hike, and the massive Silurian conglomerates are quite amazing. They form high cliffs perfect for rock climbing. These conglomerates were said to have been carried by glacier ice throughout the regions south and east.
NYASLA had its annual meeting this past Tuesday at the Center for Architecture, AIA New York Chapter. It was great to meet and hear the candidates who are running for various positions. I wonder if students can vote. I did get an opportunity to ask around, but no one is quite sure.
You can now have beautiful flowers and plants all season long; a welcome sight on those cold, grey, dull winter days. All you need is Daniel Schipper’s foldable greenhouse; made of completely recyclable plastics, he describes it as, “A light-weight, flexible, modular greenhouse especially suitable for small spaces like cityhouses, balconies, roof terraces or town gardens. My folding greenhouse is a frameless folding construction made of different components of recyclable plastic which can be folded flat or expand when required”.
What a lovely design. Pretty impressive to a city folk!
What does it mean to design with nature in mind? Ian Mcharg - a landscape architect and a renowned writer on regional planning using natural systems, comes to mind. Obviously, after reading his 1969 book Design with Nature (last semester) that pioneered the concept of ecological planning, I was smitten by all the mapping analysis, overlays and such. His book, according to wikipedia, continues to be one of the most widely celebrated books on landscape architecture and land-use planning. It is here that he set forth the basic concepts that were to develop later in Geographic Information Systems.
Then, you have this book by Alessandro Rocca (architect and architecture critic and a professor at the Milan Polytechnic) called the Natural Architecture; a collection of works reflecting the ideas of this movement (natural architecture movement) compiled into his book. Read more about this movement here. Design with nature in mind takes a different form here. More of an art for art’s sake, sort of thing… I don’t know how environmentally friendly it is to manipulate nature to make art. But, it is certainly awe-inspiring in its own right. Think Andrew Goldsworthy at Storm King. Here are some collections from Natural Architecture.
Today’s culture has made us into such visual persons: I know that personally, I learn, respond, and pay attention much better when there are visuals accompanying texts. The preverbial, “a picture is worth thousand words” is something to be contemplated especially when viewing the following awe-inspiring landscape photographs - via Landscapes 2.0
How would you like to live in a skyscraper growing your own fruits and vegetables? A real life vertical farm in an urban setting that is sustainable, ecological and agricultural - weburbanist lists five proposals whose designers have the vision of just that! Their common goal is to create an “all-in-one eco-towers that would actually produce more energy, water (via condensation/purification) and food than their occupants would consume.”
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Interesting, Maps, plants | Tagged: climate, plants, sealevel | 
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Posted by Tandin Wangmo
