NatureStructure: Infrastructure for Nature


Book Description

NatureStructure: Infrastructure for Nature is a collection of projects that represent a new generation of nature-centric design and infrastructure. Infrastructure designed for nature that nurtures and restore ecosystems and employs nature and natural processes to address the problems human development has created for itself. “As cities reckon with the impact of a changing climate and activities that have created ecological change go unabated, there will be more of a need to consider organically inclined architecture….this response, and instinct to repair, is what NatureStructure is all about.” – CURBED.COM




Understanding Infrastructure


Book Description

Urban Water Infrastructure Planning, Management, and Operations Neil S. Grigg ". discusses the factors that lead to effective management of water systems in urban areas." --Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation Unique in its orientation for managers, Urban Water Infrastructure focuses on the productive management of urban water systems by laying out its discussion in terms of the system as a whole, how a system's component elements work together, how much they cost to build and operate, and the sociopolitical forces that guide the productive operation. This easily accessible reference is aimed at engineers, planners, and managers, teaching both the theoretical and practical aspects of urban water management. 1986 (0 471-82914-5) 328 pp. A Guide to Site and Environmental Planning Third Edition Harvey M. Rubenstein "Perhaps the strongest feature of the book is the inclusive, comprehensive, and logical analysis within each of the chapters . All in all, I can highly recommend this book to anyone engaged in site planning, or interested in site plans developed by others." --Landscape Planning This Third Edition incorporates pertinent research of the past decade and presents an approach to design based on factual information that enables creative talent to be used to its utmost advantage. Chapters follow phases used in the development of a site plan and include extensive information on: site selection, resource analysis, land use, storm drainage, alignment of horizontal and vertical curves, specifications, sports facilities and play-grounds, rooftop gardens, residential development concepts, and much more. 1987 (0 471-85033-0) 410 pp. Infrastructure Engineering and Management Neil Grigg Here is the first technical and management book to focus on solutions to complex, large-scale problems involving major infrastructure projects. The wide-ranging text covers such systems as roads and streets, water and wastewater, waste management, buildings and structures, and energy facilities. Infrastructure Engineering and Management gives an in-depth knowledge of several key subjects relating technology to management: planning, programming, and budgeting; finance, organization, and private sector involvement; operations and maintenance; project management; and research needs. 1988 (0 471-84974-X) 380 pp.




Learning to Think Spatially


Book Description

Learning to Think Spatially examines how spatial thinking might be incorporated into existing standards-based instruction across the school curriculum. Spatial thinking must be recognized as a fundamental part of Kâ€"12 education and as an integrator and a facilitator for problem solving across the curriculum. With advances in computing technologies and the increasing availability of geospatial data, spatial thinking will play a significant role in the information-based economy of the twenty-first century. Using appropriately designed support systems tailored to the Kâ€"12 context, spatial thinking can be taught formally to all students. A geographic information system (GIS) offers one example of a high-technology support system that can enable students and teachers to practice and apply spatial thinking in many areas of the curriculum.




The Philosophy of Social Ecology


Book Description

What is nature? What is humanity's place in nature? And what is the relationship of society to the natural world? In an era of ecological breakdown, answering these questions has become of momentous importance for our everyday lives and for the future that we and other life-forms face. In the essays of The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin confronts these questions head on: invoking the ideas of mutualism, self-organization, and unity in diversity, in the service of ever expanding freedom. Refreshingly polemical and deeply philosophical, they take issue with technocratic and mechanistic ways of understanding and relating to, and within, nature. More importantly, they develop a solid, historically and politically based ethical foundation for social ecology, the field that Bookchin himself created and that offers us hope in the midst of our climate catastrophe.




New Visions of Nature


Book Description

"New Visions of Nature" focuses on the emergence of these new visions of complex nature in three domains. The first selection of essays reflects public visions of nature, that is, nature as it is experienced, encountered, and instrumentalized by diverse publics. The second selection zooms in on micro nature and explores the world of contemporary genomics. The final section returns to the macro world and discusses the ethics of place in present-day landscape philosophy and environmental ethics. The contributions to this volume explore perceptual and conceptual boundaries between the human and the natural, or between an ‘out there’ and ‘in here.’ They attempt to specify how nature has been publicly and genomically constructed, known and described through metaphors and re-envisioned in terms of landscape and place. By parsing out and rendering explicit these divergent views, the volume asks for a re-thinking of our relationship with nature.




50 Ways to Mine the City


Book Description

Why dig deeper into the earth when tons of metal lay dormant beneath the city? Why exploit distant countries for scarce resources when they can be recovered from the waste cities produce every day? 50 Ways to Mine the City is an exploration of ways in which the city's outputs, byproducts, and under-utilized assets can be recovered, reimagined, and used in new ways. It reveals how innovators are transforming the function of the city from a consumer of resources to a generator of them.Featuring a diverse range of projects from around the world, this book creates a global narrative of how the circular economy, urban mining, and resource recovery are coming together to create a more sustainable and resourceful future.




Green Infrastructure


Book Description










Fundamental Concepts of Architecture


Book Description

Architecture is an experience – with the intellect and with all our senses, in motion, and in use. But in order to actually discuss and assess it with relevance, a clarification of terms is essential in order to avoid the vagueness that often prevails when talking about architecture. This dictionary provides a vocabulary that allows the architecture discourse to go beyond the declaration of constructive relationships or the description of architectonic forms in familiar terms like “roof,” “base,” “wall,” and “axis” or “proportion”. The point is to describe the experience of architecture: how exactly does it contribute to the experience of a situation? For instance, the staging of an entrance situation, or the layout and visitor routes through a museum. From “context,” through “guidance,” “readability,” “patina,” “spatial structure,” “symmetry” and “tectonics,” to “width” (and “narrowness”) or “window,” the most important terms in architectural language are explained precisely and in detail.