Do cities make us sick?

See the pictures gallery at

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46043926/Most_Stressful_Cities?slide=1

I have no doubt that living in big cities is really stressful. You walk pushing all the people and feel the fear somebody could steal anything from you; everyday listening to vehicles´ horns, the sounds of cars and buses, vendors everywhere, homeless, shouts and so on. I have an architect friend who at noon gets out of the office and goes to the park, and for at least half an hour, sitting on the grass, eating a sandwich, she forgets about the city. I never could imitate her example. It seems there´s a pretty serious research about this issue, let´s read from the article by Brian Merchant at treehugger.com: 

¨ In 1965, health authorities in Camberwell, a bustling quarter of London's southward sprawl, began an unusual tally. They started to keep case records for every person in the area who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder or any other psychiatric condition. Decades later, when psychiatrists looked back across the data, they saw a surprising trend: the incidence of schizophrenia had more or less doubled, from around 11 per 100,000 inhabitants per year in 1965 to 23 per 100,000 in 1997 — a period when there was no such rise in the general population. 

One possible explanation was that exposure to the city itself, and its myriad stresses, was driving the decline in mental health. Statistics collected in the United States and Germany seem to corroborate the finding. Nature notes that "In Germany, the number of sick days taken for psychiatric ailments doubled between 2000 and 2010; in North America, up to 40% of disability claims for work absence are related to depression, according to some estimates." 

But nobody's making any conclusions — cities are vast, complex human ecosystems, and it's extremely difficult to pinpoint how, if, or why living in them may give rise to mental health problems. There's still a ton of study to be done, and there may be more specific reasons that city residents are suffering from mental health woes. So, scientists have embarked on ambitious projects to map entire metropolises, follow citizens with mobile app tech as they go to work, and to better understand how the urban environment causes stress. One thing seems to be certain; better-planned cities, with ample green spaces and areas in which residents can find relief from the bustle are preferable to the concrete jungle. Research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that city dwellers who lived closer to green spaces exhibited better mental health; they were less likely to be stressed or to suffer from more serious ailments.¨

http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/living-cities-may-literally-be-driving-us-insane.html

See the list of the most stressful cities in USA:

http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/stressful_cities_2012_list.aspx

An eloquent picture of urban sprawl. Wikimedia/IDuke/CC BY 2.0

And from Melissa Breyer´s article at treehugger.com:

Newly developed areas characterized by urban sprawl are wreaking havoc on the environment by any number of reasons, one of which is an integral piece of suburban design – a reliance on cars. But neighborhood design also influences the health of human populations, according to a new study from St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

The researchers found that the less walkable one’s neighborhood is, the higher risk its inhabitants have of developing diabetes.

The study looked at data from the population of Toronto aged 30-64 and identified those without diabetes. For five years the participants were tracked to see who developed diabetes, which was compared to where they lived and analyzed against data on neighborhood walkabiliy.

To figure out how walkable each neighborhood is, the researchers created an index looking at factors such as population density, street connectivity and the availability of walkable destinations such as retail stores and service within a 10-minute walk.

The results were surprising, with up to a 50 percent increase in the risk of developing diabetes for those living in a less walkable neighborhood, when compared to long-term residents living in the most walkable areas, results were regardless of neighborhood income. Within these findings, the team found that the risk was especially high for new immigrants living in low-income neighborhoods. As noted in the study, past research has demonstrated a precipitated risk of obesity-related issues for new immigrants within the first 10 years of arrival to Canada.

http://www.treehugger.com/health/how-neighborhood-design-can-make-us-sick.html

How to protect New York from future storms?

¨With the incredible destruction in New Jersey and New York, talk is now heating up about how to invest billions to make cities and coastal communities climate resilient and protect them from future storms. The innovative ideas of Dland studio to create wetlands around the city and landscape architect Kate Orff, ASLA, SCAPE, to mitigate storms with man-made oyster reefs were even just featured in a cover story in The New York Times, while the case for using green infrastructure to deal with heavy rain has now gotten more attention thanks to Kaid Benfield’s excellent piece. However, will policymakers now see the value of putting natural systems in place to address flooding and storm risks, or will New York City and others invest in expensive, “hard” infrastructure like sea walls that often fail to do the job of protecting people and property?

A 2009 report by the Army Corps of Engineer and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey looked at the feasibility of recreating 18,000 acres of tidal wetlands “on the margins of the islands and the coastline, [which] act like sponges, slowing and baffling tidal forces,” to replace the massive sea walls, which had actually taken the place of the original 300,000-acre wetlands in the outer boroughs of New York City. The problem the engineers were looking at: sea walls don’t actually function that well when protecting areas below sea level (see New Orleans and Katrina). The original perceived benefit of the sea walls was that they would enable more land to be developed closer to the water.

A proposal by Dland Studio and Architecture Research Office would put a set of wetlands around lower Manhattan and we would hope all the other boroughs. The New York Times writes: “To prevent incursions by water, Mr. Cassell and his planners imagined ringing Lower Manhattan with a grassy network of land-based parks accompanied by watery patches of wetlands and tidal salt marshes. At Battery Park, for instance, the marshes would weave through a series of breakwater islands made of geo-textile tubes and covered with marine plantings. On the Lower East Side of the island, Mr. Cassell and his team envisioned extending Manhattan by a block or two — with additional landfill — to create space for another new park and a salt marsh.” A complementary set of green streets would also boost absorptive capacity within the city.

Another exciting proposal by Orff would use oysters to create decentralized storm mitigation infrastructure in the low-lying Buttermilk Channel and Gowanus Bay that swelled and severely flooded some neighborhoods during the storm. Orff’s argument is that “the era of big infrastructure is over” and needs to be neighborhood-centric and actually embedded into daily life. The New York Timeswrites: “Ms. Orff’s proposal [...] envisions a system of artificial reefs in the channel and the bay built out of rocks, shells and fuzzy rope that is intended to nurture the growth of oysters (she calls them ‘nature’s wave attenuators’).” The reefs would also help clean the water: each oyster purifies an amazing 50 gallons of water a day. Students at a local NYC school have also picked up on the oysters idea and area doing their own experiments to see how they would work.¨

REFERENCE

http://dirt.asla.org/2012/11/12/with-hurricane-sandy-climate-change-is-back-on-the-agenda/#comment-19172

Three pictures from Venice flood

 People dressed in rain gear sit on chairs in a flooded St. Mark's Square in Venice earlier this month. Photograph by Manuel Silvestri, Reuters

 High floodwaters in Venice this weekend made the water levels in the city's canals and on the streets about even. Photograph by Manuel Silvestri, Reuters

 Venice flood. Photograph by Luigi Costantini, Associated Press

Shared from National Geographic.com 

Though the flood must be problematic, I think the pictures are beautiful. And it must be a great experience to walk the flooded streets, while it´s not dangerous.

The exhibition Design without Borders – Creating Change

WHEELCHAIRS FOR CHILDREN: Design without Borders has collaborated with the Guatemalan foundation Transiciones on the development of a wheelchair for children in Guatemala. Photo: Norsk Form/Kjersti Gjems Vangberg

Location: DogA, Oslo

Thursday 20. September 2012 - Sunday 02. December 2012

Free admission

The exhibition Design without Borders – Creating Change shows how designers contribute to creating social change in developing countries. Mine clearing equipment, wheelchairs for children in Guatemala, ecological urinal for slum areas and computers for young people living in villages. Design without Borders has for more than ten years developed products for and with developing countries and connected designers from the South with Norwegian companies. The objective is to create good, inexpensive solutions that can be produced locally. The exhibition Design without borders – Creating Change presents the products and solutions in the local context for which they have been created. The ecological urinal has been placed in a slum setting, and the wheelchair can be tried out on a cobblestone street. You can try out the new mine-clearing equipment while actually searching for mines and inside an emergency shelter you will find an earthquake simulator. Just as important as the finished products is Design without Borders’ work method. Through text, photos, and videos the exhibition communicates the important design process that lies behind the products.

TOILET SOLUTION: The ecological urinal developed by Design without Borders and SuSan-Design is odor-free and hygienic. A family in the slums of Nairobi is testing the new urinal. Photo: Kjersti Gjems Vangberg

Keep on reading:

http://norskform.no/en/Calendar/Exhibits/2012/Design-without-Borders/

A proposed "greening" of Lower Manhattan to absorb storm surges, designed by Stephen 

Cassell, Adam Yarinski, and Susannah C. Drake for the exhibition Rising Currents, Museum 

of Modern Art, 2010. ARO/dlandstudio/Museum of Modern Art

" As we contemplate the horrific damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, the world of design may seem remote from our most immediate concerns. Yet the urgent needs that follow large-scale catastrophes—the need for shelter, clean water, alternative sources of power—can be particularly conducive to creative solutions. I recently observed that breakthroughs in architecture and industrial design have emerged during wartime; now a remarkable new exhibition in Oslo shows that the same can hold true for natural disasters as well.

Presented by Norsk Form, the Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway, Design Without Borders (the title is an obvious nod to Médecins Sans Frontières) presents realistic mock-ups of fourteen problem-solving design initiatives—ranging from post-hurricane relief to land-mine removal—in Norsk Form’s DogA exhibition space, which occupies a cavernous turn-of-the-twentieth-century power station in Oslo. For example, a life-size replica of a post-disaster shelter features insulated walls made from empty plastic beverage bottles stacked and held in place with chicken wire within wooden frameworks.

According to Leif Verdu-Isachsen, who organized the exhibition and edited its engaging catalog with Truls Ramberg,

After a natural disaster, we have about a two-week window of opportunity in which to engage the global public before its attention shifts elsewhere, so what we do has to be implemented very quickly. Furthermore, we know that on average these shelters will need to be used for about three years before permanent housing can be built, so the combination of rapid assembly and relative durability is essential."

REFERENCE: Martin Filler. Design from Disasters
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/nov/05/design-from-natural-disasters/

Pictures from New York City

Christmas Decoration – New York City NYC knows how to celebrate…everything! (Photograph by Corey Barker, My Shot)

The view from the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center). (Photograph by Asterio Tecson, Flickr)

Brooklyn Bridge – New York City

Late afternoon on the Brooklyn Bridge. (Photograph by Steve Minor, Flickr)

From the post at National Geographic.com

I Heart My City: Annie Fitzsimmons’s NYC

Read about NYC beautiful places to visit and enjoy more pictures:

http://intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/07/i-heart-my-city-annie-fitzsimmonss-nyc/

The origins of the City of Asgard

Asgard. A shot from the movie Thor. Google images

¨Thor swung himself backwards and forwards, and threw stones in every possible direction. Tyr sat down on the top of a precipice, and defied the winds to displace him; whilst Baldur vainly endeavoured to comfort his poor mother, Frigga. But Odin stepped forth calm and unruffled, spread his arms towards the sky, and called out to the spirits of the wind, "Cease, strange Vanir (for that was the name by which they were called), cease your rough play, and tell us in what manner we have offended you that you serve us thus."

The winds laughed in a whispered chorus at the words of the brave king, and, after a few low titterings, sank into silence. But each sound in dying grew into a shape: one by one the strange, loose-limbed, uncertain forms stepped forth from caves, from gorges, dropped from the tree tops, or rose out of the grass—each wind-gust a separate Van.

Then Niörd, their leader, stood forward from the rest of them, and said, "We know, O mighty Odin how you and your company are truly the Æsir—that is to say, the lords of the whole earth—since you slew the huge, wicked giant. We, too, are lords, not of the earth, but of the sea and air, and we thought to have had glorious sport in fighting one against another; but if such be not your pleasure, let us, instead of that, shake hands." And, as he spoke, Niörd held out his long, cold hand, which was like a windbag to the touch. Odin grasped it heartily, as did all the Æsir; for they liked the appearance of the good-natured, gusty chief, whom they begged to become one of their company, and live henceforth with them.

To this Niörd consented, whistled good-bye to his kinsfolk, and strode cheerfully along amongst his new friends. After this they journeyed on and on steadily westward until they reached the summit of a lofty mountain, called the Meeting Hill. There they all sat round in a circle, and took a general survey of the surrounding neighbourhood.

As they sat talking together Baldur looked up suddenly, and said, "Is it not strange, Father Odin, that we do not find any traces of that giant who fled from us, and who escaped drowning in his father's blood?"

"Perhaps he has fallen into Niflheim, and so perished," remarked Thor.

But Niörd pointed northward, where the troubled ocean rolled, and said, "Yonder, beyond that sea, lies the snowy region of Jötunheim. It is there the giant lives, and builds cities and castles, and brings up his children—a more hideous brood even than the old one."

"How do you know that, Niörd?" asked Odin.

"I have seen him many times," answered Niörd, "both before I came to live with you, and also since then, at night, when I have not been able to sleep, and have made little journeys to Jötunheim, to pass the time away."

"This is indeed terrible news," said Frigga; "for the giants will come again out of Jötunheim and devastate the earth."

"Not so," answered Odin, "not so, my dear Frigga; for here, upon this very hill, we will build for ourselves a city, from which we will keep guard over the poor earth, with its weak men and women, and from whence we will go forth to make war upon Jötunheim."

"That is remarkably well said, Father Odin," observed Thor, laughing amidst his red beard.

Tyr shouted, and Vidar smiled, but said nothing; and then all the Æsir set to work with their whole strength and industry to build for themselves a glorious city on the summit of the mountain. For days, and weeks, and months, and years they worked, and never wearied; so strong a purpose was in them, so determined and powerful were they to fulfil it. Even Frigga and her ladies did not disdain to fetch stones in their marble wheelbarrows, or to draw water from the well in golden buckets, and then, with delicate hands, to mix the mortar upon silver plates. And so that city rose by beautiful degrees, stone above stone, tower above tower, height above height, until it crowned the hill.

Then all the Æsir stood at a little distance, and looked at it, and sighed from their great happiness. Towering at a giddy height in the centre of the city rose Odin's seat, called Air Throne, from whence he could see over the whole earth. On one side of Air Throne stood the Palace of Friends, where Frigga was to live; on the other rose the glittering Gladsheim, a palace roofed entirely with golden shields, and whose great hall, Valhalla, had a ceiling covered with spears, benches spread with coats of mail, and five hundred and forty entrance-gates, through each of which eight hundred men might ride abreast. There was also a large iron smithy, situated on the eastern side of the city, where the Æsir might forge their arms and shape their armour. That night they all supped in Valhalla, and drank to the health of their strong, new home, "The City of Asgard," as Bragi, their chief orator, said it ought to be called.¨

Excerpt from The Heroes of Asgar

TALES FROM SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY BY A. & E. KEARY

USA 1909

CHAPTER I.

THE ÆSIR- PART I. A GIANT—A COW—AND A HERO.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41283/41283-h/41283-h.htm

An otherworldly, shimmering citadel, surrounded by thousands of monuments to the uncontested might of the Norse gods, in a land where the weather is always perfect. Text and picture from 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/apr/27/thor-almighty-thor-faceoff

Premio Ñ a la Trayectoria para Clorindo Testa

En nombre de Clorindo Testa, Oscar Lorenti y Juan Fontana reciben el premio de manos de Juan Bedoian. Foto Revista Eñe

He tenido la oportunidad de conocer personalmente al arquitecto Clorindo Testa, a través de los concursos. Y bien recuerdo que algo nos inquietaba en las contiendas. Si bien son ¨anónimas,¨ los dibujos de Clorindo son reconocibles, tienen esa maravillosa marca personal. Imposible no saber qué proyecto pertenece a Clorindo. Mi preferido, el Banco de Londres. No me atrae la nueva sede del Museo del Libro y de la Lengua en Buenos Aires, que no he conocido aún, tal vez a futuro cambie de opinión.

Me ha alegrado saber que el maestro ha recibido un premio por su trayectoria:

De la revista Eñe de Cultura:

En su discurso, Juan Bedoian, editor general de Revista Ñ, eligió la palabra “maestro”. Fue para referirse al arquitecto y artista plástico Clorindo Testa, que ayer recibió el Premio Ñ a la Trayectoria. Testa, que nació en Nápoles en 1923 pero que vive en Buenos Aires desde antes de cumplir un año, no pudo asistir a la premiación por razones de salud, pero participó especialmente del video en el que se recorrió su obra. Allí contó cómo su propia madre le dijo que “de ningunísima manera” se dedicaría a la Medicina, como su padre. Eso lo acercó primero a la ingeniería naval –desde los 13 años diseñó maquetas de barcos–, luego a la civil y finalmente a la arquitectura. En ese mismo video, el artista plástico Eduardo Stupía señaló que el límite entre disciplinas nunca estuvo presente en la obra inconfundible de Testa”. El premio, en su nombre, lo recibieron sus colegas Juan Fontana y Oscar Lorenti. Según Bedoian, “Testa tiene todos los premios que se merece y lo que se hace aquí es decirle una vez más cuánto tienen de admirable su personalidad y su obra”. El arquitecto, coautor del proyecto de construcción del actual edificio de la Biblioteca Nacional, comparte ahora el galardón con Ricardo Piglia, Griselda Gambaro, Roberto Fontanarrosa, Tomas Eloy Martínez y Hermenegildo Sábat, entre otros. La de ayer fue la novena entrega de un premio que se instituyó junto al lanzamiento de la Revista Ñ. “Que Clorindo Testa haya logrado una coherencia creativa en el campo de la arquitectura y en el universo del arte, dos espacios en su caso inseparables, es un hecho admirable. Que lo haya hecho por más de 60 años, ya lo transforma en un hecho extraordinario”, concluyó Bedoian, y en la Usina del Arte, más de cuatrocientas personas coincidieron y estallaron en un aplauso para el gran “maestro”.

http://www.revistaenie.clarin.com/literatura/Premio-Trayectoria-Clorindo-Testa_0_802119993.html

Ingrid Siliakus´ multilayered sculptures

I knew Ingrid Siliakus´ multilayered sculptures, but I´ve lost track of them until I´ve come across this post at

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671138/pop-up-paper-craft-weds-japanese-tradition-and-modern-architecture#6

Here it says: 

¨In architectural criticism (mainly from the early '90s), the term “paper architecture” is typically used to disparage architects whose schemes are so unrealistic they’re unbuildable. The phrase is also applied to the emergence of “paperless,” computer-driven design studios. A third, less polemical definition comes from Japan, where a Tokyo Institute of Technology architecture professor named Masahiro Chatani developed a technique for cutting and folding single pieces of paper into elaborate 3-D models, drawing on traditional Japanese card making and pop-up books.

Chatani died in 2008, but a number of artists have continued his Origamicwork, among them, Dutch artist Ingrid Siliakus. Siliakus studied Chatani’s work in pattern books for years before attempting her first cut, but since then, her work has appeared in dozens of exhibitions and on the covers of the New York Times Style Magazine and Wallpaper.¨

Enjoy!