EXPO.015

Un convegno per valutare e discutere
gli esiti del Progetto strategico,
un’occasione per rilanciare
e alimentare un cantiere di progetti
e di idee per la Città di Città.

CONVEGNO
MILANO martedì 20 gennaio 2009, ore 9.30-13.00
Palazzo Isimbardi, Sala degli Affreschi – Via Vivaio, 1

Un modulo di radio trasmettitore, posizzionato sul contatore dell’acqua, registra continuamente il volume del consumo e trasmette tramite onde radio a un ricettore. Cosi, queste informazioni sono mandate tramite internet fino al centro di trattemento dati di Veolia Eau. Radio contatore permette di seguire il vostro consumo a distanza. Questo sistema è in uso in diversi comune in Francia.

http://www.service-client.veoliaeau.fr/jahia/Jahia/site/veolia/Accueil/chez-vous/services/radio-releve

Un esempio di progettazione di servizi di mobilità – del comune di Sesto S. Giovanni – che analizzando le problematiche dell’area, identifica i vari interventi e opportunità da attuare, tra cui anche il servizio “a piedi”

Un progetto per un’area della città di Palermo, che identifica aree e necessità di utilizzo dello strumento tapis roulant come infrastruttura per lo spostamento di persone

Qui il pdf del progetto

Un progetto di mobilità pedonale nel comune di Brescia

Il progetto prevede la realizzazione di un micro-tunnel, sull’intera lunghezza di circa 400 metri all’interno della galleria Tito Speri, dotato di tapis roulant (tappeto mobile) bidirezionale.
Nella realizzazione si presterà particolare attenzione alla gradevolezza dell’insieme (luci, colori, temperatura, …) e verrà dedicato un ampio spazio, lungo il percorso, a comunicazioni di interesse pubblico e a informazioni culturali.

Si otterrà così:

• una completa separazione tra traffico pedonale e veicolare;
• un servizio di spostamento veloce e accattivante, a fronte dell’attuale scarso utilizzo della galleria quale percorso pedonale;
• un più stretto collegamento tra la zona nord del Centro storico e i quartieri a nord del Castello, densi di attività, residenze e strutture di servizio (ASL, Uffici pubblici, Ospedale,…).

Verrà inoltre valutata l’ipotesi di collegare, mediante ampi ascensori, la galleria Tito Speri col piazzale del Castello.
Il progetto esecutivo è in fase di completamento.

CO-OP is a free web app that allows co-workers to stay connected. Stay in tune with your co-workers. Ask questions, share knowledge, track time, and update agendas all in one place: Co-op.  It shows what you are working on, what is our daily agenda, and what we worked on yesterday. In addition to the status updates, and daily agendas, Co-op also offers time tracking.

What are we working on?

Co-op makes it easy to stay connected with your co-workers without disrupting them. Your team can use it to post updates, ask questions, share links, and track time.

What is our agenda today?

Quickly share your daily agenda with your co-workers. Quickly scan your co-workers’ agendas. Then cancel your daily status meetings!

What did we work on yesterday?

As each team member updates status and tracks time, Co-op automatically records the transcript. You can go back in time to see what your team has accomplished each day.

Co-op is a great idea for the workplace so that anyone can view everyone’s status without disrupting anyone or having to leave your desk. 

Ravi needs a designer for an hour to complete a small task, but he checks the resourcing spreadsheet and everyone looks booked. Instead of running over to the creative suite and asking around to see who’s currently working on what, Ravi could login to Co-op and glance at the designer’s status messages. In Co-op he can see that Kat is already focused on a project with an end-of-day delivery, while Casey is working on an internal project and appears to have more availability.

Follow Ravi and join in the co-op!

http://coopapp.com/

ChipIn permette a chiunque di connettersi con altre persone facenti parte della stessa rete sociale con lo scopo di raccogliere denaro per un motivo personale, per l’acquisto di un dono o per una raccolta fondi per la comunità. Chipin é un nuovo strumento per il social-commerce divertente, facile e sicuro.

Cos’hanno in comune una pagina Web ed un appezzamento di terreno? Apparentemente nulla, tranne il fatto che entrambi possono essere venduti in base alla propria superficie. E’ questo ciò che potrebbe aver pensato il giovane Alex Tew, lo studente universitario inglese che, con il suo sito milliondollarhomepage.com di sola pubblicità, è riuscito a guadagnare 1 milione di dollari.
Alex ha pensato che il suo sito potesse contenere almeno un milione di pixel. ‘‘Un pixel (abbreviazione inglese di picture element) è uno dei molti minuscoli puntini che compongono la rappresentazione di un’immagine nella memoria di un computer”. Perché allora non abbandonare i soliti metodi di vendita pubblicitaria e non iniziare a vendere spazi pixel per pixel da utilizzare come banner?
Quindi il 26 agosto 2005 Alex Tew pubblica on-line una pagina che assomiglia più ad una carta millimetrata che alla home di un sito internet: l’intraprendente studente ha stabilito a $1 il costo di un singolo pixel e ha messo in vendita pacchetti minimi da 100pixel quindi 100$ per un totale di un milione di Dollari.
Grazie al passaparola (marketing virale) e all’aquisto di alcune aziende di appezzamenti di pixel piuttosto ampi la notizia si è diffusa velocemente su tutto il web e sui giornali. in pochi mesi Alex ottiene il suo milione di dollari.

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

Vertical farming é una possibile soluzione per una futura crisi di urbanizzazione uno dei quali aspetti sarebbe acceso al cibo. Vertical farming segue il concetto di “urban agriculture” ma in questo caso una produzione di grande dimensioni.

“By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 10⁹ hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices.

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world’s urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.”

link: http://www.verticalfarm.com/

http://www.except.nl/consult/largescaleurbanargriculture/largescaleurbanagriculture1.html

Evento di portata internazionale, inserito nel contesto della Biennale internazionele di Design, Sant’etienne  , che si terrà dal 15 al 30 Novembre 2008.

Di seguito una lista delle iniziative, alcune delle quali avranno sede, nello stesso periodo, in tutta Europa.

VELO WALAS
Avinash Kumar on the story behind velowala.org, a media installation made by a
team in Delhi that brings the bike-based commerce of the streets of India alive
- in St Etienne. (Saturday 15/11)

ECOSOFT; WORLDCHANGING
New economic models, complementary currencies, local economy trading schemes,
alternative trade networks, community supported agriculture: Bethany Koby &
Ellie Thornhill talk about their eco-soft shop. They are followed later that day
by special guest Alex Steffen, editor of Worldchanging. (Sunday 16/11)

DESIGN IMPERATIVES; ENERGY
Allan Chochinov, editor in chief of Core77.com, gives a keynote on “design
imperatives”. Later, a worskhop on design and energy will discuss: can design
help us choose among the growing number of green energy offers ? (Tuesday 18/11)

COMPOSTING; DE-MOTORISATION; MANZINI
Clare Brass + Flora Bowden from SEED Foundation talk about their neighbourhood
composting service. Later there’s a design clinic : Design for mobility, or for
de-motorisation? There follows a special keynote by Ezio Manzini on “design
strategies for the small, local, open and connected”. Oh yes, and the French
edition of In The Bubble is launched at 18h. (Wednesday 19/11)

OPEN SYSTEMS AND INFORMAL TECHNOLOGY
A sustainable world will be densely networked – but not by closed, proprietary
networks. Juha Huuskonen (Pixelache, Piksel, Pixelvark, Afropixel, Pikslaverk,
PixelAzo) and Jean-Noel Montagne (CrasLabs, Paris) discuss how self organisation
and technological autarchy will be crucial in the coming years. (Thursday 20/11)

EDIBLE GARDENS ON LYON BROWNFIELD SITES; KIMCHI AND THE CITY
Emanual Louisgrand talks about l’Ilot d’Amaranthes – his gardens on brownfield
sites in Lyon. Later, a design clinic on Food and the City features Matthieu
Benoit-Gonin (Jardinethic); Debra Solomon (culiblog.org); and Francois Jegou
(solutioning.net). (Friday 21/11)

DESIGNING SUSTAINABILITY EVENTS
A Doors of Perception lunchtime discussion. If you are serious about hoping to
do an event City Eco Lab (or Dott 07) in your own region, Doors cannot fund it -
but we can help with the strategy and process. (Saturday 22/11)

RE-LOCALISATION AND SMALL BUSINESSES
Design clinic for and with local companies. (Monday 24/11)

NURTURING A REGION’S HARD AND SOFT RESOURCES
How to find and document eco-materials – and human savoir faire (Tuesday 25/11)

WATER AND THE CITY; SUDS
Re-connecting a city with its natural systems: projects for St Etienne’s River
Furan. Plus a design clinic on sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS).
(Wednesday 26/11)

MAPS OF THE FUTURE
Pirjo Haikola from the Why Factory (NL) a research institute on the future city
founded by Winy Maas and MVRDV, shows how maps are used in rethinking,
researching, reshaping and enhancing images of future urban life.
(Thursday 27/11)

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS AN ECO NEIGHBOURHOOD?
Citizens and designers involved in one of St Etienne’s “eco quartiers” (eco
neighbourhoods) discuss what functions make a place eco – or not -
and how to measure their performance. (Thursday 27/11)

LESSONS OF CANTEEN 80KM
The City Eco Lab restaurant, Cantine80km, serves food sourced within a 80km
radius – the maximum distance food may travel in France without being
refrigerated (Friday 28/11).

TRANSITION CITIES CONFERENCE
Transition Towns groups are growing like wildfilre. The transition model
“emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the
eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers
to a big question: for all those aspects of life that this community needs
in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to rebuild resilience
(in response to peak oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response
to climate change)?” The Transition Cities conference will share ideas and
insights, tools and techniques, and explore what works and what doesn’t.
November 27-28 Nottingham.

ECONOMIC ASHES TO ASHES
The policy think-tank Demos is launching a new book in London called After the
Apocalypse. The report asks, “what we do when the (financial crisis) dust begins
to settle?” When, or if? The speakers listed are heavyweight inside-the-tenters
- but I wish Demos could also have invited Ilargi from Automatic Earth.
6pm, Wednesday 5 November at Demos, London.

ONE PLANET, ONE DAY
A sustainability event hosted by BioRegional in London will focus on real life
developments and businesses: One Brighton urban living; Sonoma Mountain Village
mixed-use community; B&Q One Planet Living retail (sic); Masdar City zero carbon
city; One Planet 2012 London Olympics; Mata de Sesimbra eco-tourism and
conservation development, Portugal. Is building eco cities like Masdar from
scratch in the middle of a desert appropriate, or even viable?
The debate could be lively. 3 December, London.

WEB-BASED TOOLS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.
Social Innovation Camp is looking for the best ideas for web-based tools to
create social change. From 5-7 December the camp will connect software
developers and designers with front-line practitioners to develop six web tools
to change the world. Idea submissions are required by Friday 7 November.

MASTER OF ADVANCED STUDIES IN DESIGN CULTURE
A new masters at the interface of science and society has been launched at the
Institute for Design Research in Zurich.
/

NORWEGIAN JOURNAL FOR DESIGN RESEARCH
invites articles in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and English.

SERVICE DESIGN CONFERENCE
Speakers include Shelley Evensen (Carnegie Mellon University) Rory Hamilton and
Sean Miller (Live|work), Jamin Hegeman (Nokia), Oliver King (Engine), Craig
LaRosa (Continuum) and Denis Weil (McDonalds). 24-26 November, Amsterdam.

450 FILMS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE
I’m not sure whether this counts as a threat, or a promise, but the new website
of Rotterdam’s Architecture Film Festival lists a staggering 450 movies. The
next festival (it’s biennial) begins 29 October 2009.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS
Rob van Kranenberg (with Sean Dodson) has published a a timely book about
“ambient technology” and the all-seeing network of Radio Frequency
Identification Devices (RFID). Anyone living in a city is exposed daily to
dozens of closed-circuit television and camera-phones – but in a few years’ time
even more pervasive and technologies will take their place as consumer goods are
assigned IP addresses, just as web pages are today. Are designers, architects,
policy makers equipped to deal with these fundamental issues ? They will be
better prepared if they read this book. It’s downloadable for free.

CURRY STONE DESIGN PRIZE
A South African architectural firm whose ingenious, yet simple design
re-envisions low-income housing for a Cape Town shantytown, was named the
winner. Luyanda Mpahlwa, 49, and Mphethi Morojele, 45, received the $100,000
prize, administered by the University of Kentucky College of Design. The prize
is given annually to breakthrough design solutions with the power and potential
to improve our lives and the world we live in.

NUBIAN VAULTS
In the Sahel, desertification is a major threat to the local people and their
environment. The traditional use of raw timber as a construction material,
particularly for roofing, is no longer feasible. Population growth,
deforestation, and desertification have contributed to a shift in rural areas to
importing building materials, including sheet metal, to be used for roofing. To
address this problem, the Nubian Vault Association (AVN) has adapted an age-old
construction technique that has been used in other parts of Africa and
throughout the world. To date, AVN has trained 110 builders, is currently
training 100 more, and has built 550 vaults in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, and
Togo. AVN needs money to establish new partnerships and bring its “Earth Roofs”
program to other countries in the Sahel. We know the people – which is why we
urge you support AVN if you can.

CYNICAL ABOUT SYNTONY
The Royal Society of Arts asked me to fill in a survey: “Can Cynicism be good
for Society and Democracy?” The survey was so repetitive that I gave up half-way
through. I should have known better – and stopped earlier – when I saw the word
“syntony.” A significant cause of the cynical society is surely the creation of
synthetic buzzwords. But one thousand of my fellow Fellows, being made of
stronger stuff , completed the survey – and cynicism is indeed infecting the
very fabric of our society. Top of the list was politics (51 per cent) compared
with 31 per cent for “general cynicism of life” and 30 per cent for business.
What a surprise!