Furniture Design Ideas

Figure 3.4 indicates how between 1910 and 1970 the energy inputs to food produced in the USA Figure 3.4 Figure 3.4 Energy input to food production from farmer to consumer in the USA: the number of calories put into the system to obtain one calorie of food. Probable values used for 1910 to 1937. increased. […]

One of the most effective ways of assessing the envi­ronmental impact of a particular process or product is to find out how much non-renewable energy is required to produce it; this quantity of energy is referred to as embodied energy. The consumption of embodied energy results in the emission of green­house gases, which contribute to […]

Urban agriculture can result in environmental, social and economic benefits. There are three primary environmental benefits from organic urban agricul­ture – preserving biodiversity, tackling waste and reducing the amount of energy used to produce and distribute food. Modern industrial farming techniques in the countryside have had a devastating effect on bio­diversity. The combination of fertiliser […]

Let’s start by considering how we have reached this state of affairs and why architects, urbanists and plan­ners have a role to play in improving the situation. In the English speaking world, the publication of Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 triggered concern over the ecological side effects and health risks posed by industrial agriculture and […]

Andre Viljoen, Katrin Bohn and Joe Howe By agriculture only can commerce be perpetuated; and by Agriculture alone can we live in plenty without intercourse with other nations. This therefore is the great art, which every Government ought to protect, every proprietor to practice, and every inquirer into nature improve. Dr Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 (Johnson, […]

CPULs require land, but in return they will enrich cities by reducing their environmental impact and bringing in spatial qualities until then only associated with rural or natural conditions. The implementation of CPULs will be a slow process varying with the city under consideration. Each city will have to determine the scale and ambi­tion for […]

Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes are about urban food growing and local consumption. They will include livestock, but consist largely of vegetation which is locally managed: mainly organic vegetables, fruit and trees, planted in rows, planted in groups, fields, patches, etc. Vegetation will be chosen for its inherent extractable energy (i. e. it can be eaten) […]

Katrin Bohn and Andre Viljoen WHAT ARE CPULs? Overlaying the sustainable concept of Productive Urban Landscapes with the spatial concept of Continuous Landscapes proposes a new urban design strategy which would change the appea­rance of contemporary cities towards an unpre­cedented naturalism. Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes (CPULs) will be open landscapes productive in economical and sociological […]

It is now widely acknowledged that CPULs have grown alongside three main urban prerequisites: population stability, successful public transport and borough balance. London’s population had stabilised since about 2040 at nearly 9 million and both the city’s skyline and the city’s outline had ceased expanding. This was mainly due to the reduced influx of people […]

The urban strategy that enabled CPULs to happen and to grow to what they are now, in 2045, was called Ecological Intensification (named ‘Carrot City’ by London architects a few years later). In London (as in most European cities), this incremental strategy has been applied since about the year 2005. Ecological Intensification worked by prioritising […]