Being authentically green goes beyond ‘gizmo green’

As urban designer Steve Mouzon states, there’s a lot of press on ‘gizmo green‘; the technology-oriented inventions from hybrids to bamboo floors. However, his website reminds us of The Original Green before technology as we know it today, consisting of the fundamental elements of what’s needed to truly

before gizmo green is introduced.

He defines The Original Green in two phases, with four foundations each:

Sustainable Places

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Paris’ version of coworking - with cafe

Of course a coworking site in Paris would have a cafe. Strangely enough, it’s one of the only coworking sites to include one, especially given the official definition of coworking as a “cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents.“

La Cantine opened January 30, 2008, with 2200 square feet dedicated to three spaces:

- a café and coffee bar for meet-ups, information, exhibitions and project testing;
- a

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Here’s a much more conscientious alternative to the Hummer limousine (no, not a hybrid Hummer limousine)... Prague’s tram-based nightclub, known as Tramix. Yes, that’s a roving streetcar dance party with music, disco lighting and two bars, bringing new meaning to the term bar hopping.

The nightclub streetcar circuits the Czech capital late at night once a month. What’s the big deal? From an experience economy point of view, one of the event’s organizers, Honza Komarek, states it best, “When

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This is another one of those ‘it was just a matter of time’ things…

We’ve gone over how to crowdsource places and scenes, but not events.  Well, here’s a real world example in Scotland…

The Tennent’s Mutual is a music festival with a quarter of a million $ budget (this can obviously be scaled smaller or larger depending on your market)... that its founders will allow music lovers to “shape, create and dictate gig provision - from selecting artists and debating locations to calling the shots

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Already owning bragging rights to being the greenest city in the U.S. by one measure, Portland, Oregon believes it’s the most bicycle-friendly city as well. Their evidence:

- In the 1970s the state passed a bicycle bill requiring that all facilities be built with bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.

- In the 1990s, city councilor Earl Blumenauer worked to establish a bike program in the city, who has since become the leading U.S. congressman speaking on behalf of bike and

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Sign of things to come: Carfree conference comes to the U.S.

What’s a carfree conference? That’s probably what most U.S. citizens would wonder since the first six carfree conferences occurred only in Europe**. However, as you read through the list below, you’ll see that’s about to change…

Towards Carfree Cities I: Lyon, France; October 1997;
Organized by EYFA (European Youth for Action) and RVV (Regroupement pour une ville sans voiture, or Group for a Carfree City, Lyon), with 60-80

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At first glance this may seem like a lot of made-up words, but they’re actually specific terms for solutions to what are known as cloud problems - diffuse and impossible to pin down, requiring “cultural and behavioral change that yields intangible benefits of greater trust, respect, tolerance and social capital.  There are no easy answers to complex problems.

Each of these terms were defined separately: crowdsourcing (as it applies to placemaking), viral loops networks, natural cultural

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First of all, what’s a viral loop? Viral comes from viral marketing - using pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or sales. A loop occurs when a person is invited to a social network, accepts the invitation, then either:
1. invites others themselves or;
2. creates their own social network.

Pictured above is a series of these viral loops, called a viral loop network. Viral loops and their networks have long been happening in the physical world (e.g. tupperware

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The next gen of Central Parks are on their way

Not only are urban dwellers in select cities across the country about to enjoy their own Central Park, but ones that are even larger than New York’s 843-acre treasure, as reported in USA Today:

Staten Island, New York (pictured) - 2200 acres on what is currently the Fresh Kills landfill. You can’t ask for a better transformation than that, though let’s hope they don’t call it Fresh Kills Park. However, think of all the jokes…

Memphis, TN -

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Creative lessons from a green greenfield village

Readers of this website know we don’t normally cover greenfield developments, that is, new communities built in the middle of wilderness or farm land. Some may see even eco-village versions of such communities on par with ads like this.

However, just as Starbucks helped spawn the next generation of local indie coffeehouse third places as we know and love today - and perhaps even coworking sites, sometimes there are valuable lessons in

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Check out those street lamps!

The street lamps in the photo above (yes, that’s a photo) were crafted by an artist especially for this neighborhood. Yes, they’re just light fixtures, but on the other hand, when was the last time:

a. you’ve seen light fixtures that looked like that at all? Tim Burton movies don’t count.
b. you’ve seen street lamps created exclusively for a neighborhood?
c. you’ve seen this Metropolitain sign? Chances are you have. They have the same story of originality and

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Attract more creatives with ‘anchored coworking’

Creatives, free agents, entrepreneurs and mobile knowledge workers may be driving the economy, but they aren’t going to be driving to work. They prefer avoiding isolation at home, but there are only so many coffeehouses, and even fewer coworking sites.

One growing source of spontaneous workplaces are anchored coworking sites - coworking sites provided by established companies who not only have extra space, but enjoy reserving it for

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La Rambla - one of the world’s greatest pedestrian streets

La Rambla, which translates to ‘intermittent water flow’, is the iconic hub of Barcelona, a predominantly pedestrian-only plaza stretching nearly a mile through the historic center of the Spanish city.

The central area is filled with outdoor dining areas, merchant kiosks and countless strollers, bordered on either side by traffic-calmed two-lane roads for cars, which are then fronted with restaurants, stores and residences. 

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The medical value of social interaction, social places

One way to understand the health benefits of community and human interaction is to look at the health risks of isolation. Isolation defined here is not the same as solitude where people live on their own and prefer seeing few friends contently, but rather when they feel they are cut off from people and don’t easily have someone to turn to.

A 1987 report in Science stated, “Isolation is as significant to mortality rates as smoking, high

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NYC ‘Taking Back the Streets’

Anyone familiar with New York City, especially Manhattan knows that there simply isn’t enough room for the pedestrians. The NY Times takes a look at ten progressive pedestrian-oriented solutions that the city’s urban leaders are suggesting:

The Woonerf - Popular in the Netherlands (translates to ‘living street’), it’s a primarily residential street that does not distinguish between a sidewalk and road, designed to look and feel like an outdoor living

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While cities across Europe were growing their bike sharing programs, especially in Paris with 20,000 bikes and nearly a thousand stations, U.S. cities had yet to initiate even one. However, that’s about to change May 2008 when Washington DC becomes the first U.S. city to establish a bike sharing program.

Clear Channel Outdoor and the DC Department of Transportation are launching Smartbike DC, a modest but important introduction to bike sharing in the U.S. - with 100 bikes and 10 stations. 

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At last, a site guide to this website’s categories

1300+ entries later (all archived for free here or via the Archives link to the right), let me for the first time provide an update on what the Categories to the right mean:

Attainability:  All things related to living and working affordably.
Beta Communities:  These are the crowdsourcing teams that literally make places happen.
Community Building:  What brings people together?
Cool Developers:  Creative triple bottom line developers.
Cool

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People are changing their status quo preference of keeping up with the Joneses to wanting to be unique, largely because now we can - the emergence of the knowledge economy and mass customization are enabling a shift to individualized, one-of-a-kind products and services. Thus, as national brands are increasingly unable to tell a one-size-fits-all story to the masses, it is then up to the customer to tell those stories to sell that brand - think Mini Cooper.

Trendwatching.com calls these

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The ultimate small apartment design guide

If you live in an apartment and you care about good design, it’d be a shame if you’ve never been to Apartment Therapy’s 3-million-unique-visitors-a-month site, featuring great apartment design examples via several illustrated blog entries a day.

Being a regular at the site, one can fathom the criticism following the site’s founder and HGTV design expert Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan for not having pictures in his first Apartment Therapy book. He didn’t

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Third place coffeehouses as economic development

I first profiled Tryst back in 2003 as a popular coffeehouse third place in Adams Morgan, Washington DC. But five years later, ten years after it first opened, it’s not only become a neighborhood institution, but it really should be seen as a contemporary model for job creation.

Here’s the big picture:

1. A majority of big businesses come from small businesses, and small businesses are started by entrepreneurs… from their homes.
2. Many

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You may think the most popular, buzz-inducing events that creatives flock to are sponsored by city or arts-related organizations with budgets, but not so. Remember, creatives are attracted to natural cultural districts, which in turn consist of third places, events and scenes sourced by individuals.

A case in point - let’s look at the ongoing events attracting creatives in Washington DC:

Pecha Kucha - The first Thursday of the month, the DC version of this nationwide design presentation (a

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What makes ‘organically-grown‘ retail and entertainment districts (natural cultural districts) so cool? A lot of it has to do with the presence of local, independent businesses, you know, the shabby chic coffeehouses, restaurants with live music and neighborhood events, unique shops with cafes…

Many of you are also now familiar with crowdsourced placemaking, especially one specific business, one building, and one district at a time. But what if you wanted to make a difference to invigorate

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