This week in the world of gardening and landscape design: your eco-actions are making a difference, green design hopes to help birds in London, and visit a laboratory for the world's first underground park.
Strong Showing for Landscapes in World Architecture Awards
Above: Scrubby Bay house in New Zealand by Pattersons Associates.
Following the announcement of finalists for the 2015 World Architecture Festival awards, the Financial Times reports a strong showing of "green-themed" and landscape-focused houses in the Completed Houses awards category. Among the 18 shortlisted for the prize are Cornwall Gardens, a house in Singapore with abundant stepped plantings, Pound Ridge House, set deeply into a forested hill in upstate New York, and Premadydena House, an off-the-grid structure in the forests of Tasmania. The winners will be announced during the World Architecture Festival, November 4-6. Read it at the Financial Times.
Individual Eco-Actions Are Making a Difference
Above: A kitchen compost garden by Justine Hand in DIY: Grow an Indoor Compost Garden.
In his new book, Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Change Crisis, Tim Flannery reports with cautious optimism that the many small environmental actions taken by individuals—like switching to energy efficient lightbulbs, improving household insulation systems, and biking to work—have helped reduce overall demand for oil in the US. For the first time in 40 years, he reports, global economic growth is not tied to growth in fossil fuel emissions—and that's a very good thing. Read more at National Geographic.
UK’s Most Sustainable Historic Building Opens in London
Above: The song thrush is one of several birds spotted in a recent habitat survey in London. Photo by Maurice Baker.
A refurbished office block in London is being hailed as "the UK’s most sustainable historic building.” The complex at 7 Air Street has a green roof with a focus on flowers, grasses, and habitat for insects, birds, and bats. Solar panels, low-energy air conditioning, and LED lighting throughout the building add to the sustainability grade. The building is the first in a new effort called “Wild West End,” a partnership among regional property owners to promote ecology in the built environment. Read it at The Guardian.
Sugar Maples in Decline
Above: "Pantone Autumn" by Chris Glass.
Researchers at SUNY are investigating the decline of sugar maple trees—Acer saccharum—in the Adirondacks in northern New York state. Populations of the maple syrup provider have been in decline since 1970, despite having favorable competitive status in the forest. The researchers do not have an explanation for why the maples are declining, though acid rain and climate change are possible culprits. Read it at Ecosphere.
World's First Underground Park
Above: Rendering via the Lowline.
If all goes according to plan, the Lowline will be the world's first underground park, filling an abandoned one-acre trolley terminal in the Lower East Side of Manhattan beneath Delancey Street. Expected to open in 2020, the Lowline—named as a play on the popular High Line park—will feature more than 3,500 plants, including mosses, ferns, herbs, and fruits. The Lowline Lab—an above-ground testing space for Lowline technologies—is now open to the public on weekends in the abandoned Essex Street Market. The 5,000 square-foot lab is a testing space for the solar technologies that will eventually be used to grow plants below ground. Read it at Time.
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