Radishes, domes, and eco-cities

January 21, 2007

Another Sunday evening of great food, good company, and interesting discussions

Activities included:

Full-grown daikon radishes

Seedlings

The group planted daikon radish seeds for green roof projects.
The Rooftop Victory Gardens at True Nature Foods should be ready for harvesting (and photo ops!) in late spring 2007. Other projects will include rooftop gardens providing fresh vegetables for 8 families in Chicago’s West Lawndale neighborhood and possibly a residential and/or commercial green roof or two.

We’ll be planting more seedlings (in compostable containers!) in the near future thanks to a donation by Seeds of Change thanks to VP Anna Glenn.

Aerial view of Arcosanti near Phoenix, AZ

“Soleri’s Cities: Architecture for Planet Earth and Beyond”

Documentary, 30 minutes, Dir: David Mayne

A good introduction to the ideas and work of Paolo Soleri, the visionary Italian architect who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright. Arcosanti (pictured above), a work-in-progress outside Phoenix, Arizona which reimagines the possibilities of what cities could be, features built examples of his groundbreaking construction techniques in concrete and earth casting, balances of private and urban spaces, and those very cool bells.

An artist’s impression of Dongtan Marina

Sustainable Development in China

We didn’t get to listen to this as a group, but members were encouraged to check out a Chicago Public Radio program (located near the top of the page at the end of the January 17, 2007 episode) which gives a pretty good overview of tackling the design of an entire city, the interviewee’s interpretation of sustainability, and how governments in Europe and North America approach sustainability differently.
Gary Lawrence, Urban Strategies Leader for the engineering and architecture firm Arup spoke about the Dongtan Eco-City in China.