### nytimes.com December 29, 2009 In Iraq, a Plan to Revive the Pulse of an Artery
By Riyadh Mohammed and John Leland
BAGHDAD —Some city planners here do not want to leave to chance what Iraq will look like after American forces leave. Working with the Baghdad municipal government and the provincial council, engineers here have drawn up the largest Iraqi reconstruction project since the American-led invasion of 2003, a $5 billion plan to rebuild the city’s economic and cultural main street.
Rasheed Street, designed by the Ottomans in 1916 and modeled on Paris, has figured in much of Baghdad’s history: Sunnis and Shiites planned the overthrow of British rule in 1920 at Hayder Khana Mosque. The new plans show nine wide plazas and a streetcar passing through a low-slung strip of shops with ironwork balconies that would not be out of place in a small city in Florida. The engineers identified 254 buildings as historical or heritage sites to be preserved where possible; in 1984, there were 526.
Muwafaq al-Taei, an architectural planning engineer, said the reconstruction plans were shortsighted, in part because the car-free zone was unworkable, and in part because Baghdad today lacked the infrastructure — municipal or cultural — to regenerate the life that made Rasheed Street. “You don’t jump to the end product,” he said. “Rasheed is an end product.” Read more
### ODT Wed 30 Dec 2009 (page 21) Pivotal year ahead for rugby in the South
By Brent Edwards
So the sporting year is almost done and it’s time to turn attention to what 2010 might bring players and supporters. It’s an especially pivotal year for Otago and Highlanders rugby. Another year of results similar to the past season might have those who made the decision to build the Forsyth Barr Stadium pondering anxiously on the wisdom of their investment.
Here in no particular order, is a wish list for the first year of the new decade:
• Someone, anyone, to sort out the mess that is Otago rugby, to instil some passion, pride (and humour) in a team which we once supported with such fervour.
• Otago rugby to avoid relegation to the championship (the second division) even though the backdrop to the season will be a community divided over the appointment of an Australian coach.
• The Highlanders to win more games. I’m not big on the Super 14, especially in February and March, but they simply have to start winning more matches and attracting bigger crowds. Let’s face it, they can’t do a lot worse on the scoreboard than they have in the past six or seven years.
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Available in print and digital editions of the Otago Daily Times.
### http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com 30 December 2009, 02:13am IST Nehru stadium will be ready by May
By Mahendra Kumar Singh, TNN
NEW DELHI: The main venue for Commonwealth Games 2010, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, will be ready by May next year with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) deciding to deploy more engineers and workers to complete the project before the revised deadline.
“I told the Rajya Sabha that the stadium will be ready in June. But I am going to increase the number of engineers and hope it will be ready by May,” sports minister MS Gill said after a meeting of the group of ministers (GoM). Read more
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The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JNS), named after the first prime minister of India, was built by the Government of India to host the 9th Asian Games in 1982.
The massive facility is an all-purpose sports arena hosting football (soccer) and other sporting events, as well as large-scale entertainment events, such as concerts by India’s leading musical acts and entertainers. The facility seats 78,000 spectators, and up to 130,000 for concerts. In terms of sitting capacity, it is the third biggest stadium in India and the 57th largest in the world. The stadium also houses the headquarters of the Indian Olympic Association.
In preparation for hosting the Commonwealth Games the stadium is undergoing a refurbishment that will reduce the capacity to 75,000 spectators. The facelift includes a new roof, improved seating, a tunnel and other facilities to meet international standards when the stadium hosts the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the Athletics Events.
The nineteenth edition Commonwealth Games (3-14 October 2010) will be the largest multi-sport event conducted to date in Delhi and India generally.
### TVNZ News 6:28PM Wednesday December 30, 2009 Roll out of Rugby World Cup tickets begins
Source: ONE News
Rugby fans worldwide are gearing up for the first release of tickets for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The initial offering, to be launched on January 1, will be in the form of official travel packages, which mean accommodation, travel and rugby tickets.
Two agencies in New Zealand have the franchise – House of Travel and Seasonz Travel.
Many of the stadium deals included “revenue bombs”…
In many cases, the architects of the deals are long gone by the time the bill comes due.
### http://www.nytimes.com December 24, 2009 Stadium Boom Deepens Municipal Woes
By Ken Belson
CINCINNATI — Years after a wave of construction brought publicly financed stadiums costing billions of dollars to cities across the country, taxpayers are once again being asked to reach into their pockets.
“It’s like the movie where the blob keeps growing and eating away at other elements of county government… We’re beginning to cross a line in the sand by taking money from the general fund to pay for the stadiums. Once you put that money in jeopardy, you put the whole county at risk.”
-David Pepper, commissioner
From New Jersey to Ohio to Arizona, the stadiums were sold as a key to redevelopment and as the only way to retain sports franchises. But the deals that were used to persuade taxpayers to finance their construction have in many cases backfired, the result of overly optimistic revenue assumptions and the recession. Read more
Has the RWC 2011 hosting campaign registered this…
### ODT Online Mon, 28 Dec 2009 Tourists want Maori welcomes, hot chips
By Hamish McNeilly
Cruise ship visits injected an estimated $19 million into the Dunedin economy last year, but there was room to improve the tourist experience, according to a cruise industry report prepared by the University of Otago marketing department for Tourism Dunedin. The 64-page report was funded by a $14,000 grant from the Dunedin City Council. Read more
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A salting of fish and chips on the (port)side, done well (make that casually perfectly) in Dunedin-designer settings can’t be too hard.
Let’s face it, most local cafes and restaurants look pretty tame and lame – there are a few notable exceptions. Time for some serious fun promoting the excellence and freshness of our regional food.
This takes culinary talent, an understanding of quintessimal customer service, and a super-large dash of contemporary architecture and design savvy – applied to all types and levels of retail presentation.
I’m not talking ‘over-design’. I’m not referring to the curtain-hanging-cushion-making people who mischievously claim to be interior designers and ‘image consultants’. The kind that leave their business cards (hah!) on the few remaining cafe pinboards in town. Save us from their tedium. Most of what they can do is hauled out of a Made in China shipping container.
And hey, Dunedin eateries: if you can’t keep your main street shop fronts clean, dusted and well designed – don’t bother.
We don’t accept you think it’s cool to sport a bad paint job over cheap wall board on the shopfront, with tacky stuck-on A4 menus and specials* in the windows. We don’t accept your patchy, rotting, filthy floorboards that harbour years of fetid cooking smells. Don’t even try to excuse or extol these as Dunedin ‘atmosphere’ and stylistic ‘grunge’. Get real. Lift your game.
And make sure your coffee cups keep the heat, for god’s sake, if you feel overly impelled to charge $3 to $4 for your somewhat sinking forgettable flat whites.
Good eating in the right place is good urban design. We need more of it, a short sharp shift.
—
New Year charity post —by Elizabeth Kerr
*When was the last time you shelled out on a consult with a good graphic designer? Just asking.
### ODT Monday Dec 28, 2009 (page 10)
Letters to the editor
The Waitati Militia commends the efforts of the Dunedin City Council to raise money to fund its projects by collecting parking fees off offending parkers. We have noticed a huge potential revenue to be collected from around the various funeral parlours.
Our logistics team estimates about $1000 per week can be retrieved from funeral parkers. The Waitati Militia would like to offer its support by supplying parking meters and trained policing staff at competitive rates. We are sure this will help reduce the rates burden of the good citizens of Dunedin.
-Peter Smith, Waitati
Available in print and digital editions of the Otago Daily Times.
### http://www.inhabit.com 21 December 2009 Singapore’s Largest Garden Project Unveiled
By Mike Chino
Designs have just been released for Bay South, an incredible botanical preserve topped with super-tall solar trees that is set to be Singapore’s largest garden project. Conceived by Grant Associates, the 101-hectare expanse of lush green space will be situated right next to the Marina Bay resort and will feature two botanical biospheres and a series of towering tree structures that double as vertical gardens. Read more + Images
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Grant Associates and Gustafson Porter have won an international competition, organised by Singapore’s National Parks Board, to design Gardens by the Bay, part of the next phase of the city’s masterplan.
According to Grant Associates: This is the largest garden project ever undertaken in Singapore, and a landscape project of world significance. It is intended to raise Singapore’s profile and cement its image as the leading garden city in the east. It is therefore integral to the future planning of Singapore as a major global hub and business centre.
The masterplan takes its inspiration from the form of the orchid, and has an intelligent infrastructure that allows the cultivation of plants that would not otherwise grow in Singapore. The centrepiece of this infrastructure is the cluster of Cooled Conservatories along the edge of Marina Bay. The Cool Dry and the Cool Moist Conservatories showcase Mediterranean, tropical montane and temperate annual plants and flowering species. They also provide a flexible, flower-themed venue for events and exhibitions. Read more
olruchimaru 06 November 2009
This is the second film created by Squint/Opera for the Singapore Bay International Design Competition to depict the client’s exuberant and ambitious scheme. It follows the flight of two dragonflies as they weave their way through the imagined gardens, guiding us through the unfurling layers of vegetation and the hothouse structures.
Squint/Opera is a film and media production studio whose unique work and methods bridge the disciplines of visual communication and architecture.The company makes short films, computer-generated visualisations, installations and interactive content to communicate architectural possibilities, putting narrative and humour to the service of deeply innovative design and techniques of illustration.
Thanks to ro1 for the following article, published by The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute:
### http://www.american.com Sat, 19 Dec 2009 The High Cost of Ignoring Beauty
By Roger Scruton
Architecture clearly illustrates the social, environmental, economic, and aesthetic costs of ignoring beauty. We are being torn out of ourselves by the loud gestures of people who want to seize our attention but give nothing in return.
In Britain, the state, in the form either of local or central government, will tell you whether you can or cannot build on land that you own. And if it permits you to build, it will stipulate not only the purposes for which you may use the building, but also how it should look, and what materials should be used to construct it. Americans are used to building regulations that enforce utilitarian standards: insulation, smoke alarms, electrical safety, the size and situation of bathrooms, and so on. But they are not used to being told what aesthetic principles to follow, or what the neighbourhood requires of materials and architectural details. I suspect that many Americans would regard such stipulations as a radical violation of property rights, and further evidence of the state’s illegitimate expansion. Read more
Roger Scruton is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a writer, philosopher, and public commentator, and has written widely on aesthetics, as well as political and cultural issues.
Wishing all What if? readers and posters Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010. And a super large thankyou to Paul Le Comte for indulging our views and debate !!
### Dezeen December 24th, 2009 at 9:36 pm Designer Christmas cards
By Rose Etherington
Here’s a selection of our favourite Christmas e-cards sent in by designers and photographers. Read more
Pixeldreams: Architectural Visualisation Services.
Pixeldreams, is a company based in Barcelona, Spain that has, since 1998, specialised in the creation of virtual renderings and animations for all types of architectural projects. The computer generated images and animations let viewers explore a project or idea before it has been built, enabling clients to present their ideas effectively and facilitate consensus and decision making. Pixeldreams has also developed a special online communication software that will allow you to draw and make notes on top of the renderings in real time, making corrections very easy to understand during the whole design process. Àlex Mas, founder of Pixeldreams, holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad de Barcelona and is currently a professor of Synthetic Image at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
Sixtrees Viz Comms Pte Ltd is a Singaporean graphics and animation studio that produces visually effective and highly artistic images and videos for various companies. This reel shows some of the works done for several industries including property development, architecture, engineering, biomedical, broadcast media, film, among others.
You can also access their architectural reel:
To see the collaboration between Sixtrees Viz Comms Pte Ltd and Urban Redevelopment Authority for the Marina Bay animation showcased during Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally Speech in August 2009:
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Tangram 3DS, a firm specialising in visualisation and computer animation, announced its collaboration with E. Kevin Schopfer AIA, RIBA. Together, the companies have designed and presented a bold new urban platform. New Orleans Arcology Habitat (NOAH) is a proposed urban Arcology (architecture and ecology), whose philosophic underpinnings rest in combining large scale sustainability with concentrated urban structures, and in this case a floating city.
Why a floating city? There are three major challenges to building in New Orleans. The first is to overcome the physical and psychological damages of recurring severe weather patterns. Though repopulation has begun, the need to provide a stabilised and safe environment is paramount to a long-term recovery and economic well being of New Orleans. The second is that New Orleans has been built at and below sea levels, which creates a consistently high water table and makes it prone to flooding and storm surges. The third is that New Orleans is built on a soil condition that consists of thousands of feet of soft soil, silt and clay. These conditions make building large-scale concentrated structures difficult.
Believing that NOAH is a viable plan, our solution to overcome these challenges is to take advantage of these seemingly conflicting issues with the introduction of a floating urban platform. This solution is deceptively simple, using water as a controlled, naturally occurring, bearing foundation, is perfectly feasible and practical, states Schopfer.
Given the design’s massive scale – nearly 1,200 feet tall with a footprint nearly 1/3 of a mile in diameter – it was clear that Tangram’s imagery would need to depict a significant amount of downtown New Orleans to contextualise the project. A 3D model of the downtown buildings was combined with satellite and aerial survey imagery to build a highly-detailed context model in which NOAH could be placed. This allowed Tangram to create a wide range of imagery, including aerials that covered dozens of city blocks, which effectively communicated the ambitious scale of the NOAH project. When it came time to produce the animation, the massive scene scale combined with the river and dense activity of the area were extremely challenging to reproduce faithfully in motion.
Tangram teamed up with the team at VFX Direct, located north of Boston, to further polish the animation frames. The two teams worked closely to build passes of animated elements that VFX Direct would include in their final composite of the animation, along with additional water, smoke, and lighting effects that made the imagery pop.
The intent of NOAH’s open triangulate system,with three separate towers converging at the top, is to allow all severe weather to blow through the structure in any direction with the minimum of massing interference. To further dissipate wind loads, the outer edges are curved and tilted. This is a project of tremendous potential which pushes beyond current expectations for New Orleans and places it in the forefront of the new age of urban growth possibilities, adds Schopfer.
NOAH will house 20,000 residential rental and condominium units, three hotels, time share units, casino facilities (to be determined), commercial space and retail, parking garage (within foundation), cultural facilities, public works, a district school system, a district administrative office and a district health care facility. Estimated total square footage: 30 million.
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shauli3d 13 November 2009
we are vfx, 3d studio located in israel +972545427017
Hopefully, it doesn’t end up shaped like a pear.
-Mike Houlahan, on the stadium vision
### D Scene 23-12-09
Future closer (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan, editor
The future came a little bit closer on Friday morning as two press releases thudded into the D Scene inbox. The first brought the good news that six rugby teams will spend part of their Rugby World Cup campaigns in Dunedin…The second saw University of Otago confirm it has approved plans for the first of the buildings it intends to construct at University Plaza.
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South Dunedin in focus (page 4)
By Wilma McCorkindale
South Dunedin is tagged for action in the New Year. Council wanted to meet concerns about raising the amenity value expressed in consultation on the long term council community plan [LTCCP] earlier this year.
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Looking to the New Year (pages 8-9)
By Michelle Sutton
2009 has been a turbulent year, interlaced with highs and lows that have, at times, divided Dunedin. These are some of the men and women at the helm of the city…they reveal their resolutions and goals for the new year ahead.
Hear from Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, Stadium boss David Davies, Carisbrook Stadium Trust [chairman] Malcolm Farry, Otago Chamber of Commerce [chief executive] John Christie, Otago Rugby Union chief executive Richard Reid, World Champion cyclist Alison Shanks, and others.
[Naive question, was Dunedin a ‘united city’ before the stadium project??? Well, no, not at all – it’s healthy to have differences and divisions, that’s what makes a city a city – ‘united’ is the theory of relativity.]
Positive side to downturn (page 14)
It was the year of the great recession, but many businesses saw an opportunity rather than an onslaught of red ink. Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie considers the positives in a difficult year in business. “I think it’s great that we can have robust debate in this city, and that we are not simply complacent.”
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Dunedin City Council – Media release DCC Appoints Highlanders’ Board Rep
Last reviewed: 22 Dec 2009 12:00pm
At its last meeting of 2009 the Dunedin City Council approved the appointment of Kereyn Smith as its director on the Highlanders’ Board.
Ms Smith has extensive experience in the high performing sports field. She is currently CEO of the NZ Academy of Sport South Island as well as Vice President of International Netball Federation Ltd. She is also a trustee of the Carisbrook Stadium Charitable Trust and a past General Manager of the Hillary Commission for Sport, Fitness and Leisure.
Mayor Peter Chin comments: “Kereyn Smith’s appointment offers a high level of administrative experience and an elite performing sports dimension to the Highlanders??? Board together with a strong focus on community engagement. She is an ideal appointment to represent the Council, and therefore the community’s, interest on the Board.”
Contact DCC on 477 4000.
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### ODT Online Wed, 23 Dec 2009 First woman on Highlanders board
By David Loughrey
Kereyn Smith’s appointment to the Highlanders board has broken new ground for rugby in the South – she is the franchise’s first female director. Read more
### Dezeen December 21st, 2009 at 1:19 pm BEI-Teesside power plant by Heatherwick Studio
By Rose Etherington
London designer Thomas Heatherwick has designed a biomass power station for the bank of the river Tees in the UK. Called BEI-Teesside, the building will be covered in panels planted with indigenous grasses. Fuel will be delivered by boats along the river. Read more + Images
He scotched rumours there would be cuts to core services, and that the council was in financial difficulties […] councillors also needed to be aware of ratepayers on fixed incomes.
### ODT Online Tue, 22 Dec 2009 DCC looks at spending
By David Loughrey
As Dunedin ratepayers face an 8.7% rates increase for the next financial year, and an even steeper increase the following year to pay for a list of multimillion-dollar projects, a four-person team has interviewed every manager at the Dunedin City Council, asking them to justify their spending. Read more
MethanoiaStudio 09 September 2009
Methanoia Studio developed a 100 seconds movie animation for Foster + Partners – competition entry for Municipality Headquarters Project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
MethanoiaStudio 10 September 2009
Methanoia Studio developed a 240 seconds fly through movie animation for Faena Properties in association with Foster + Partners. The location is Puerto Madero, one of the most exclusive and fashionable areas of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
MethanoiaStudio 07 September 2009
Methanoia Studio developed a 90 seconds movie animation for Zaha Hadid Architects – Burnham Pavillion project located in Millenium Park, Chicago.
MethanoiaStudio 08 September 2009
Methanoia Studio developed a 128 seconds movie animation for Zaha Hadid Architects – first stage of competition, Beethoven Festspielhaus Symphony Hall in Bonn, Germany.
MichiganStateU 15 December 2009
Watch a 3D animated video of the planned Michigan State University Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum designed by internationally known architect, Zaha Hadid. The university will break ground for the museum on March 16, 2010. It is expected to open in 2012. Animation by Methanoia Studio.
### Dezeen December 21st, 2009 at 2:11 pm Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum by Zaha Hadid
By Rose Etherington
New images of the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum designed by Zaha Hadid for Michigan State University. The three-storey building will be clad in glass and metal pleats. The project includes 18,000 square feet of exhibition space, an education centre, museum shop, visitor café and staff offices. Read more Related article 15 January 2008.
“Architectural drawings have been given the animation treatment for years, but most fall into a utilitarian mold: a 360-degree rotation around a model of the building and a “flythrough” that takes the viewer inside. The result is a compelling visual for the client, but ultimately it’s a plain-cake approach.”
### http://www.archpaper.com 12.16.2009 Construction Cinema
By Nate Berg
Once bare-bones and utilitarian, architectural animation is becoming more nuanced and experiential. In part, this development can be credited to advances in 3-D technology, but at the same time architects have embraced the art of filmmaking – not only to create more interactive presentations for clients, but also to leverage as a tool in the design process. Read more
LA-based Nate Berg writes about architecture, the environment, and technology. He is an editor at the urban planning news website Planetizen.
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Plain cakes…
danielkidd151 23 May 2007
3d studio max Animation for Architecture Class. (Columbia University)
Na1zzur 19 December 2008
Okhta Center, known before March 2007 as Gazprom City, is a construction project of a business centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It will include the first supertall skyscraper in the city. Architects: Herzog & de Meuron.
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coolhunting 31 March 2008
To document MoMA’s wonderful, monumental exhibit spanning design, science and technology, “Design and the Elastic Mind,” we enlisted the help of the show’s esteemed curator, Paola Antonelli. Paola speaks in detail about several of the exhibits, including “The Afterlife,” a system for turning corpses into batteries, robots that act as personal climatizers and DNA origami. She also weighs in on her curatorial approach, addressing the role of the designer, her mission to shift public perception of design and how design revolutionises our lives.
The plaza will be owned in common with the Dunedin City Council.
### ODT Online Sat, 19 Dec 2009 University unveils stadium building design
By Allison Rudd
The University of Otago’s building next to the Forsyth Barr Stadium will be “one of the most exciting developments on campus for decades”, vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg says. Releasing the design yesterday, he said the Oamaru stone-clad building, linking the University Plaza and the stadium, would be “a major learning and recreational facility next to a world-class covered stadium”. Read more + Image
University Stadium building
– 9663sq m rectangular building providing west wall of the stadium and opening on to University Plaza
– Teaching spaces for Foundation Studies department; Unipol sports centre including two gymnasiums, cardio weights area and large multipurpose team sports area; physiotherapy clinic; cafe for students and public
– Cost still under wraps, but could be $45 million
– Construction May 2010-August 2011
– Second building to be constructed at right angles to this building, providing an L-shaped development.
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Our simple hope is that the current Unipol building in Anzac Avenue is retained to extend University of Otago Hocken Library collections.
…against how much we’ve been told we will spend on ‘facilities’ for the next twenty years. Robin Hood, taking from the poor and giving to the rich, Otago style.
### ODT Online Sat, 19 Dec 2009 Cup ‘gold’ for the South
By John Lewis and Tracey Roxburgh
Otago and Southland have scored a financial bonanza with the announcement the English, Scottish and Irish rugby teams will be among the six teams hosted in the South during the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Read more
Will the euphoria of RWC 2011, timed near to next year’s local body elections, mask any shortcomings of the incumbent local body representatives…
We understand, from Cr Syd Brown on Channel 9 News yesterday, that a “spruce up” of Dunedin will occur prior to the tournament.
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### ODT Online Sat, 19 Dec 2009 Rugby World Cup fixture affords chance
By Tracey Roxburgh
Yesterday’s announcement Queenstown is one of 23 centres across New Zealand which will host Rugby World Cup teams in 2011 has presented the resort with a great opportunity. Read more
### ODT Online Sat, 19 Dec 2009 Breakthrough climate deal agreed
President Barack Obama said the United States and four other countries, including China, have today reached a “meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough” on a deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions after a frenzied day of diplomacy at the UN climate talks. Read more
### ODT Online Fri, 18 Dec 2009 Dunedin, Queenstown to host six RWC teams
Dunedin and Queenstown will host six teams, including northern hemisphere heavyweights England and Ireland and their thousands of supporters, during the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Under hosting arrangements announced today, Scotland, England, Ireland, Italy, a European qualifier and a play-off winner will stay in Dunedin for three pool matches to be played on September 14 and 24 and on October 2. NZPA Read more
### rugbyworldcup.com Thursday 17 December 2009 23 centres to host RWC 2011 teams
Communities, big and small, across New Zealand have been given a chance to share in the excitement of Rugby World Cup 2011 following the decision to allocate hosting rights to 23 centres. The announcement was made by Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd (RNZ 2011) CEO Martin Snedden at a function in Auckland on Friday morning.
“We as a nation are passionate about Rugby so it’s fantastic that we can bring RWC 2011 to the backyards of so much of New Zealand,” said Snedden.
Twenty-three centres – 16 in the North Island and seven in the South Island – will host at least one of the 20 participating teams. Read more
### Footprint: Hattie Hartman’s sustainability blog 17 Dec 2009 AECOM’s Celeste Morgan: At least we have ‘Hopenhagen’
By Hattie Hartman
‘Hopenhagen’ is the real star of the conference. The value of bringing people together in Copenhagen is clear even if the political debate does not result in a strong commitment to battle climate change. The city’s design, its systems and its people show how to deliver sustainable places.
Upon arrival, I was greeted by twenty large wind turbines just off the coast from the central city area. There are no micro-wind turbines or ‘eco-bling’ on new buildings here, just real and large-scale solutions with little fuss, and most importantly already complete. The solutions are wide-spread but subtle. Astoundingly, 98% of Copenhagen is connected to a district heating system supplied by three ‘energy from waste plants’ and four combined heat and power (CHP) plants.
For designers, planners and engineers, the clear message from Copenhagen is that we need to think big and act now to make a difference. Globally our ‘carbon peak’ mustn’t be any later than 2015 to avoid catastrophic changes beyond repair…Design of buildings, public spaces and developments needs to spark the ideas and deliver systems that take forward city-wide solutions so we can all have a little ‘hope’ in the places that we live. Read more + Photos
– Hattie Hartman is the Sustainability Editor of the Architects’ Journal
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circleofblue 15 December 2009
Copenhagen, host of the UN Climate Change Conference, claims to be one of the world’s greenest cities. It has extensive public transportation, a strong bicycle culture and plans to be carbon neutral by 2025 with progressive blueprints to reduce carbon emissions 20 percent by 2015 compared to 2005. Klaus Bondam, mayor of technology and sustainability for the city of Copenhagen, explains the city’s ethos, commitment to sustainability and its rapid plans to move from coal to wind energy.
btrplc 30 November 2009
Mike Cerre of Globe TV reports on the positive steps Denmark has taken to develop renewable energy, transition to electric vehicles and reduce carbon emissions.
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DanishArchitecture 31 January 2008 Copenhagen X is an open urban and residential exhibition (2002 -2012) created by the partnership of Realdania, the City of Frederiksberg and the City of Copenhagen in association with the Danish Architecture Centre. Copenhagen X facilitates and disseminates information on architecture, urban development, building projects, architectural visions and innovation in the Danish capital. This movie gives you an introduction to Copenhagen X. Film & Animation: Anne Haaning, Squint/Opera Denmark.
The alliance, proposed by Prime Minister John Key at the United Nations General Assembly in September, has been heavily promoted by New Zealand as an initiative that brings developed and developing countries together on reducing emissions from live-stock, cropping and rice production.
Copenhagen Summit 2009
### nzheraldco.nz 10:05 AM Thursday Dec 17, 2009 Govt puts $45m into emissions plan
-NZPA With Eloise Gibson
New Zealand will contribute $45 million to the Global Research Alliance on agriculture greenhouse gases following the announcement that at least 19 countries will sign up to the initiative. Associate Climate Change Issues Minister Tim Groser and Agriculture Minister David Carter announced the contribution yesterday in Copenhagen, where ministers from 19 countries joined New Zealand’s plan to bring together public and private researchers from some of the world’s largest economies. Read more
RNZ News Link Foundation members of the alliance will meet in New Zealand early next year to establish working groups and set priorities.
Original post 15 December 2009.
Reviewed 16 December 2009 9:20am.
“Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?”
This Friday’s announcement of which Rugby World Cup teams will be based in Dunedin, Queenstown and Invercargill is eagerly awaited by the southern region stakeholders of SPIN IT WIDE. Based on the region’s successful bid that has already resulted in three matches being allocated to Dunedin and two to Invercargill, there is quiet confidence that a number of international teams will be based south of the Waitaki River.
Karen Gemmell, of Lakes Leisure, is confident that quality accommodation and sporting facilities in Queenstown will serve as an excellent base for teams during the Tournament. “We understand that a number of teams have identified Queenstown as their preferred base so we are looking forward to a positive outcome from Friday’s announcement.”
Roger Clark, of Rugby Southland, says that Invercargill had been visited by the team management of Scotland and Argentina and both were impressed by the standard of training facilities and accommodation available in the city.
Scotland, England and Ireland team managements had visited Dunedin and Debra Simes of the Dunedin City Council said that along with Carisbrook the University Oval and Caledonian Ground had been presented as the key training venues, and met the exacting standards of these teams and RWC 2011.
Ms Simes says “This announcement is important for Otago and Southland because it means the SPIN IT WIDE group can continue working on regional tourism, business and community promotional strategies knowing what teams will be here for RWC 2011 and the resulting international and domestic visitor expectations.”
The team base announcement is expected to be made from RWC headquarters at 9.30 am on Friday 18 December, whereupon the flags of the teams visiting the Otago region will be flown from cranes at the Forsyth Barr Stadium construction site.
What if? Dunedin... 