Solar-Powered Leaf to Build Glaciers in the Desert. The Dirt. Facing continued economic decline and an ever-shrinking population, Cleveland, which has some of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, has come up with an aggressive plan to bring the city back. The new Reimagining Cleveland sustainability vision aims to reinvest in dense urban neighborhoods, build “catalytic infrastructure,” and turn vacant, abandoned lots into green open space, commercial and residential farms, even vineyards. At the 2011 AICP Symposium held at the National Building Museum, Robert Brown, Director of Cleveland’s City Planning Commission, says Cleveland was once the 5th most populous city in the country, but is now in 44th place, with a population of less than 400,000. Over the past few decades, 86 percent of manufacturing jobs have been lost, cutting down the 223,000 jobs the city had in the 1940s.
In the past five years, there have been 40,000 foreclosures, a trend, which, unfortunately, put Cleveland on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. Like this: Garden Rug Lets You Grow a Grassy Field in the Heart of Your Home. City dwellers often lack outdoor areas, which makes it challenging to find space to garden or a plot of grass to stretch out on. To solve this issue, London-based designer Pia Wustenberg has created a DIY kit that brings a private patch of greenery into your home. Called ‘The Garden Rug’, the indoor lawn can be watered, raised, and enjoyed in your own living room! The carpet, made from a felt-like organic material, fosters the germination of mossy green plants inside. Resembling a large grey pillow, it is a comfy place to read a book or sit with friends. The rug grows plants in spiraling floral designs right on the floor of your flat.
Once the leaves have filled out, you can relax and sink your toes safely into the grass. Wustenberg’s work largely focuses on adding comfort and greenery to the home – she has also designed plant-rearing chairs and furniture, and herb-growing shelves. + Pia Wustenburg. American Society of Landscape Architects Highlights 479 Green Infrastructure Projects. The American Society of Landscape Architects just released an incredible useful and comprehensive database of 479 case studies of successful “green rainwater infrastructure” projects. It exemplifies various techniques of collecting rainwater and filtering it naturally before it flows into urban waterways as polluted runoff. Moreover, the study found that the use of green infrastructure is rarely cost-prohibitive.
In fact, 75% of the projects in the database reduced development costs or had no impact on them. One of the model case studies is Tassafaronga Housing Village in Oakland, CA. Another project highlight was an integrated solar panel and rainwater harvesting installation at Apache Nitrogen Product’s office building in Benson, Arizona. Other projects demonstrate that green infrastructure can be beautiful. . + American Society of Landscape Architects Via Switchboard. 2011 Annual Meeting Handouts. FS01_Orange%20County%20Great%20Park.