Month: April 2011

Categories
Canterbury

Build Simply – Northland Northern Advocate

A few simple building rules could have saved billions of dollars and kept thousands of people in their own homes after the Canterbury earthquake, Far North Mayor Wayne Brown says.
The problems showed the complicated building codes of recent years were no help, because they were ignored or not understood.
The excellent performance of old timber-framed, iron-roofed homes – built in the decades after a swarm of earthquakes in 1859-70, long before modern building codes – proved his point, he said.

 
 
Building practices exposed by Christchurch quake – Local News – Northland Northern Advocate.

Categories
Uncategorized

Make Pocket Parks and Gardens in Center City

Pocket parks are frequently created on a single vacant building lot or on small, irregular pieces of land. They also may be created as a component of the public space requirement of large building projects.

Girard Fountain Park, a 0.15-acre pocket park in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pocket parks can be urban, suburban or rural, and can be on public or private land. Although they are too small for physical activities, pocket parks provide greenery, a place to sit outdoors, and sometimes a children’s playground. They may be created around a monument, historic marker or art project.
In highly urbanized areas, particularly downtowns where land is very expensive, pocket parks are the only option for creating new public spaces without large-scale redevelopment. In inner-city areas, pocket parks are often part of urban regeneration plans and provide areas where wildlife such as birds can establish a foothold. Unlike larger parks, pocket parks are sometimes designed to be fenced and locked when not in use.
[from Wikipedia, Susan Lloyd]

Categories
Featured

Provide office space from re-used shipping containers?

12 office/studio spaces constructed from 32 recycled shipping containers on an abandoned strip in Providence, Rhode Island.
There are also links to many notable container projects such as Container City, Illy Cafe, Puma City, and Adam Kalkin’s 12 Container House
But the devil may be in the details – how are the windows be installed and flashed? And how will the gaps between containers sealed?

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