Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
What Cities Can Do with Vacant Lots
The bursting of the housing bubble wreaked havoc on cities across the United States causing widespread blight in once-thriving community economies. Foreclosed, abandoned and condemned homes continue to pockmark neighborhoods and communities, adding to the vacant lots of populous but affected cities like Philadelphia. But the city has a strong drive to amend these conditions. With organizations like DesignPhiladelphia’s “Not a Vacant Lot†and the city’s Redevelopment Authority, some of this land is being put to good use.
City Life Changes How Our Brains Deal With Distractions
City life requires a lot of attention. Navigating a busy sidewalk while processing loud storefronts and avoiding rogue pigeons may feel like second-nature at times, but it’s actually quite a bit of work for the human brain. Psychologists do know that quick walks through the park can restore our focus, but they’re still getting a handle on just what urbanization means for human cognition.
Urban Ecological Footprint and Bequeathing a Livable Future
Will we have enough resources to consume and survive if 60% of the world’s population becomes urbanized by 2030? Are our cities self-sufficient entities? How are we going to satisfy the huge appetite of the growing cities and still be able the leave a livable world for our future? “Ecological footprintâ€, a term coined by Rees and Wackernagel in 1992, uses land as currency to measure what we have and what our demands are and how our activities impact nature.
‘Car Children’ Learn Less in School
If you drive your child to school, you decrease your child’s ability to learn the rest of the school day. On the flip side, when children walk or bike to school, instead of being driven in a car, they concentrate much better and the effects last for a while.
The Greenest Office Building in the World
Forget LEED certification, the standard for green building. The folks behind this six-story building, the Bullitt Foundation, are going well beyond. The Bullitt Center, located in the popular neighborhood of Capitol Hill, Seattle, will be the world’s greenest office building, meeting the Living Building Challenge.
