Solarpunk Urbanism

Source: https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/OSE/ClimateDocs/GHG%2520Inventory/2020_GHG_Inventory_Oct_2022.pdf

I thought those of you who aren't torontonians, and may have never heard of the science center, would be interested in this story. The science center is a phenomenal building that most people living in Ontario have fond memories of. It was designed to draw attention to the environment it existed in, emphasizing natural lighting and including features of the landscape into it's design. However local conservative politicians, funded by developers, are pushing (and might succeed) to have it torn down, and rebuilt on lake shore, on a piece of public land called Ontario place. This is one part in a larger scheme to privatize and industrialize lakeshore (a private spa is planned for construction as well).

I struggled to find an article that encapsulates everything so I've linked some more for anyone curious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Science_Centre

https://mtarch.com/projects/ontario-science-centre/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Place

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2023/05/13/seven-ways-the-ontario-science-centre-move-doesnt-add-up-the-province-needs-to-provide-answers.html

Additionally: 99% of the time they specifically plant non-fruiting trees.

Let communities grow their own food!

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/689547

Parallelogram frames, aluminum flashing and polycarbonate glazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLaZ82jdJ_c

I usually work from home, but at the moment I'm working in that zero-energy building. It's not the most beautiful, but it actually generates more energy than it consumes! There is a small garden on the rooftop with vegetables for employees to pick up and wooden picnic tables. The wooden structure holds solar panels and provide shading for the sun.

It could be better looking, but definitely solarpunk in spirit I think. Also, I like that it functions as a normal office building, it's not something built for show-off, but actually practical.

There's info about the building at this website (in Spanish, tho).

P.S. Maybe we need an !architecture community?

And not a car in sight...

Laisvės Alėja (Independence Way) is a fully pedestrianised street that runs east-west across most of Kaunas.

It is lined with shops, restaurants, cafe/bars, museums, outdoor dining areas, and historical sites (such as the old Presidential Palace, which was used from 1918 until the 1930s). Three-to-four floors of apartments can be found above the shops.

A small tree-lined park can be found in the middle of the street, with bicycle paths and outdoor dining areas on the sides.

During summer, the bars and cafes fill up as lunch approaches, and they remain busy well into the evening (with twilight sometime around 10:30pm).

Cuisine varies from traditional Lithuanian fare (such as Cepeliniai and Saltibarciai) to modern Italian, Turkish, Georgian, Japanese, American, Thai, and more. (That includes these delicious burritos and nachos.)

The street begins as Vilnius Gatve at the town hall square in the old city, just near Kaunas Castle and the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris Rivers.

It continues for roughly 2.3 kilometres across almost the entire length of the city, to the historic Church of St Michael the Archangel (Sv. Arkangelo Mykolo Baznycia).

It is bisected by a second pedestrianised street running north-south that links it to the war museum, the Zalgris basketball arena, and the university.

#Kaunas #Travel #Tourism #Urbanism @[email protected] @[email protected] #cycling #bikes #cycle #bike #pedestrian #walkable #walking #walk #Lithuania #Lietuva

Interesting article with some great linked research and practical solutions to the issue of traffic deaths.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1630538

It's nice to see more and more people taking action against car dominance in the UK, it feels like people are starting to take road safety more seriously after years of ignoring it.

I thought Alt Urbanism might enjoy this! A fun little tool which I mainly use to redesign annoying junctions that I've cycled through. It's a really good demonstration of just how much space cars take up and how much better things could be if less roadspace was dedicated to cars.

Your local NIMBYs don't like barrier-protected on-road bike lanes?

But you have wide footpaths?

Consider doing what Klaipeda (in Lithuania) did, and put your painted bike lane on the footpath, rather than the road.

Yeah, it's not an ideal solution, but it's better than fighting traffic.

@[email protected] @[email protected] #Urbanism #bike #bikes #bicycle #bicycles #cyclist #bicyclist #UrbanPlanning

I believe our cities should belong to us. They should be cooperative, co-creative, ecological, and egalitarian spaces, by and for the people. We have so much untapped urban potential just waiting to be explored. Join me as we determine how to build a solarpunk city.

The ‘right to the city’, as a slogan, a demand, and a body of intellectual work, calls for a radically democratic city. It comes from the work of Henri Lefebvre – French philosopher, Marxist, sociologist, flamboyant revolutionary – from a short piece that came out in 1968, that canonical year in left wing mythology. The right to the city is an appealing idea, because it promises to unite disparate urban struggles on a whole range of issues – from anti-gentrification activism to reclaim the streets marches, community gardens to housing co-ops, anti-police violence campaigns to the fight for better public transport, and so on – into some kind of radical whole; a vision that coalesces around the demand for a city that is more substantially controlled by those who live in it.

Dedicated bike lanes, separated from the road and the pedestrian footpath, in Vilnius, Lithuania.

It's a concept many local councils in Melbourne and Sydney are struggling with, apparently.

#urbanism #UrbanPlanning @Fuck_cars@fuck[email protected] @[email protected] #cycling #bike #bikes #Vilnius #Lithuania #Lietuva

This is my full interview with Kim Irwin, the Executive Director of Health By Design about her work advocating for expanded transit and other urbanist policy in Indianapolis. It was a great conversation. Check out the more polished version of the video here.

Densely-packed housing makes urban areas vulnerable to overheating, pollution and dangerous wind gusts. The effects of climate change can aggravate these problems, but we can also work to prevent them. This can be done by simulating microclimates. …

… So, how can urban planners take a warmer climate into account? Advanced simulation tools such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are able to calculate air movements in a variety of environments. …

… CFD can also be used to make high resolution calculations of wind conditions, such as turbulence and wind speed. In this way, it will be possible to identify sites where urban wind turbines for local renewable energy generation can be profitably located.