Starseeds

I don't have any good pictures of this, but a few years ago several students and I helped one of my professors at the University of Arkansas install some land art on the university campus. The installation's location was on Old Main Lawn, which is pretty much the university's "front yard," similar to MSU's Drill Field or Ole Miss's Grove. The lawn is where the university and the city meet, and is one of the most popular places to be in the area during the warmer seasons. Winters there can get a bit brutal at times, so this installation was meant to help liven up the place when there aren't so many people hanging around (though there's still plenty of people walking through).

These pieces of art were made of strips of oak and river cane and were illuminated from within at night. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of them lighted at night, but they definitely created an other-worldly atmosphere for what would have otherwise been a mostly abandoned space.

I think this goes to show the importance of livening up a place even during the winter months, as well as the ease and minimal expense that can go into doing so. Also, it can be quite fun and can turn into a community event!

http://architecture.uark.edu/543.php


architecture.uark.edu

architecture.uark.edu

architecture.uark.edu

fayettevilleflyer.com

Funding Developments with Crowdsourcing

This article from The Atlantic Cities is about using crowdsourcing to fund real estate development. Normally you have to use "certified investors" to fund a development. Banks and other types of "certified investors" are often hesitant to invest in anything except sprawl-type developments, which they feel are safer investments than smaller, mixed-use developments.

Until recently some pretty arcane laws prohibited small-time investors who would be more likely to invest in smaller neighborhood-scale developments, often in their own neighborhoods (These laws were put in place with good intentions, though--to discourage people from taking advantage of one another). Two brothers, Ben and Dan Miller, figured out how to navigate these laws to redevelop a small boarded-up old building in their Washington, DC, neighborhood. The company they set up, Fundrise, seems to be going the way of a tech startup in that it gives people a bonafide legal means of making small investments in small buildings and their future businesses.

New laws passed recently by Congress have eased up restrictions so people can now invest up to $2000 per year on this type of small-time investment. This could have some pretty big implications for the future of development. There could be reduced reliance on distant investors with no personal connection to the community where the development could occur. This could also provide more employment opportunities for designers by providing them with another way to get into the development business (which I think could use plenty more designers). It also would get local money into development of local businesses. People would know that they're contributing to the success of their community, and the investors would likely already have some sort of personal connection with the developer (hopefully a positive one).

This is something I'll definitely keep my eye on and see how it evolves in the near future.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/11/real-estate-deal-could-change-future-everything/3897/

Poundbury's Crooked Streets

A few years back when I was in Poundbury, UK, I remember coming across this diagram showing how the planners laid out the streets.

Most communities in the UK and the US first lay out the location of their streets when an area is being newly developed. All the buildings and other features that come afterward tend to be oriented so that they respond to the street. This next sketch helps show what I'm talking about:

 

In Poundbury, the buildings were located where the developer or owner pleased (within reason, of course). The remaining space between the buildings could then be used for streets. This helps create more interesting spaces rather than a continous street wall; therefore, a more interesting street environment:

 

 

Honestly, though, I think Poundbury's streets were probably arranged using a combination of the two methods, though skewed a bit toward the latter one.

 

Companion Planting

 

Companion planting is a type of polyculture that involves growing different kinds of crops close to each other. (Polyculture is anytime of agriculture that where different plants are planted in the same space, such as crop rotation)  Companion planting can help restore some of the biodiversity that would otherwise be eliminated when land is converted to agriculture.

One of the better-known examples of companion planting is the "three sisters" of the Native Americans. The Native Americans would plant corn seeds in a mound about 1' tall and 2' wide. They often buried dead fish in theses mounds to increase soil fertility. Once the corn reached about 6", the Native Americans would plant a mix of beans and squash around the corn.

The beans, which are legumes, would help increase the soil's nitrogen content. The squash would shade out weeds, help keep the soil most, and discourage pests with its prickly surface. The corn provided support for the bean vines to grow. Together, these three crops could provide most of the nutrients that a person would need to maintain a balanced diet (but each on its own does not carry all the essential nutrients).

I think this type of farming may be worth looking into, especially since the technique and the plants involved are native to North America. There are also many other plant combinations that have been developed by different cultures aroudn the world that could also be adapted to our area.

Parking Lot Farms

The Columbus Dispatch

Here's an article about a researcher at Ohio State University who is experimenting with growing food on abandoned parking lots. So much of our urban environment is made of underutilized parking lots that could be put to a more productive use.

The researcher is looking at the effectiveness of growing plants in large pots, in raised beds, and in holes cut into the parking lot itself. A major benefit of this type of gardening is the sterility of the parking lot. Apparently, pests that traditionally plague garden plants tend to stay away from parking lots.The researcher is also exploring other benefits and drawbacks that are unique to parking lot gardening.

You can read the full article here:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/06/10/asphalt-agriculture.html

Walkscore.com

With this website you can type in an address and it will tell you how "walkable" the neighborhood or city is, on a scale of 0 to 100 (100 is very pedestrian-friendly). The score is based on distance to to the amenities in the area. Different types of amenities are weighted differently in the score, depending on how important the amenity type is in encouraging pedestrian activity. The score is also affected by block sizes and the amount of street intersections in the area. As far as I can tell, the score doesn't factor in sidewalks or other types of transportation networks targetting pedestrians. The idea is that when you're looking for a house or apartment, you would also consider the walkscore along with the other features you would normally look at, such as number of bedrooms, baths, and so on.

Starkville has a walkscore of 40, which is in the car-dependent category, though it is still one of the higher-rated communities in the state. You can see that it's really only the central portion of the city, between Highways 12 and 182, that are rated walkable.

For comparison, Oxford, MS, is 38, New York City is 85.3, Los Angeles, CA, is 65.9. Madison and Brandon, MS, are rated all the way down to 18. The highest-rated city in Mississippi is Hattiesburg, at 46. According to the website, Mississippi doesn't really have any pedestrian-friendly communities.

You can check the website out at www.walkscore.com

Hi-Tech Housing

Some people in the home-building industry are starting to rethink their business. In this article I found, the author writes that builders are going to have to start building houses differently if they want to survive in a tough housing market. I really like some of the article's photos of some of the more innovative-looking homes that have been built recently. This trend may be picking up steam, since this article was included in an email update from the Journal of Light Construction (which I found out about from a friend's blog).

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/shifting-the-suburban-paradigm/