Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
• Infrastructurist asks: “what is shovel ready and why does it matter?” In a classic case of buzzword overuse, “shovel ready” projects have lost meaning for the public and politicians looking for instant job creation from infrastructure projects.
• On Design Observer, MoMA’s Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, Barry Bergdoll, explores the advocacy and laboratory functions of museums. He writes: “we have an important opportunity to foster new research and fresh thinking … about the collaborative prospects for architects and landscape designers, and about the fact that design can be a forum for imagining new solutions rather than a means of decorating solutions found by others.”
• A Chicago transit rail car has been turned into a mobile public garden. The native garden car will have regular service around Chicago for a month, pending financial support. (Colossal)
• Greenspace Scotland has mapped the entirety of Scotland’s urban greenspace – creating the first ever greenspace map on this scale. Data collected suggests that Scotland has 1,112 sq km of urban green space. The NGO hopes that the collected data will serve as a baseline to track Scotland’s progress in maintaining urban greenspace (BBC).
• BikePortland.org reports on the growing trend of unauthorized road signs chastising cyclists for bad behaviour in Portland. “Bikes required to stop”, “vehicles only” and “bikes need to share the road” are a few of the DIY signs that have been removed by city officials.
Image from Colossal
Do you have a World Wide Wednesday worthy article you’d like to share? Send the link to www@spacing.ca
