The Orange Line

Healthy Spaces and Places supports and complements planning and design initiatives throughout Australia. It is a single source of easy-to-find, practical information from experts in health, planning, urban design, community safety and transport planning.

This website includes:

• design principles that are the foundation stones of healthier more active communities

• different development types where these principles can be applied

• information about how to make planning for healthier communities happen

• Australian case studies that show what is achievable and which have potentially wider application, and
  links to the health and planning research and resources that support planning for active living.

Planning for healthier outcomes can be applied to all parts of Australia. It is just as applicable in metropolitan areas as it is in regional cities, towns, villages and remote communities.

For an overview, you may wish to download Healthy Spaces and Places: a national guide to designing places for healthy living.

SOURCE: http://www.healthyplaces.org.au/site/

This a resource for anyone conducting research or field work related to slum redevelopment, urban poverty, housing the urban poor among many other poverty and urban form related subjects. This came through via urgent short deadline email from Planning Institute Australia.

This set of seven Quick Guides has been jointly prepared by UNESCAP and UN-HABITAT to aid the daily work of national and local government officials and policy makers as well as other low-income housing stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific in their quest to improve housing for the urban poor. It is not aimed at specialists, but by using easily understandable language and a user-friendly consise structure, is aimed as a quick tool to provide a basic understanding of low-income housing issues. Each Quick Guide is further accompanied by a poster, which highlights some of the main messages.

LINK: http://www.housing-the-urban-poor.net/QuickGuides.asp

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/the-lost-space/#more-2907

Images: Courtesy of NASA’s Space Colony Art from the 1970’s page.
Interior views of, respectively, and cylindrical and toroidal colony, followed by a cutaway of a Bernal Sphere.

smartercities:

Are Green Buildings Truly Sustainable? | This Big City

With the built environment accounting for over 40% of global carbon emissions, sustainable buildings seem like an obvious place to start as COP17 continues to address climate change. But is the trend for ‘green’ buildings resulting in truly sustainable alternatives? Mayra Hartmann of Future Cape Town investigates.

A few weeks ago the GBCSA hosted its annual conference. The topics were plentiful and there was a certain buzz in the air. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend the afternoon sessions, but nonetheless I was able enjoy the whiff of green air. There was an eclectic mix of developers, designers, planners and even psychologists discussing an array of topics, however a few major developments and ideas were presented. As someone that follows the industry, the ideas were not brand new, but the fact that they were discussed in such close proximity was cause for lively discussions.

The discussions and presentations concentrated on three aspects of building;

1. the building itself
2. the effect of green design on office inhabitants and;
3. its integration with its surroundings.

The design feature that seemed to be particularly popular was the use of large central atriums to promote natural light and airflow within the building, something South Africa’s two highest rated green star buildings both make use of. Atriums are also effective at reviving old spaces. Chris Jofeh from Arup described the companies “cut and carve” approach when retrofitting old offices and that atriums were an ideal of way opening up and lighting an otherwise dull space. And dull spaces don’t make for a good working environment.