30 July 2009
Autolib
Selon Annick Lepetit, le projet Vélib ‘a boosté le marché des vélos. Eh bien, avec l’Autolib’, nous espérons faire la même chose : encourager le développement des véhicules électriques et réduire la pollution. Pendant qu’une personne utilise une voiture propre, elle n’en utilise pas une polluante.’
La voiture électrique va certes réduire la pollution en centre ville, mais elle ne réglera pas les autres problèmes lies à l’utilisation massive des véhicules privés. L’idée ne doit donc pas avoir pour but de ‘booster’ la vente de voitures électriques, enfin sauf si l’on se place du côté de l’industrie automobile, mais bien de modifier les comportements face aux usages et Autolib se trouve être parfaitement adapté à cette fonction d’autant plus que les véhicules seront ‘non polluants’, enfin de manière directe…
27 July 2009
Electric Cars invasion!
Better place and Renault plan to produce of tens of thousand electric vehicles a year from 2011 and market them in Denmark and Israel. The average price will be around £23,000 and ‘Electric car drivers will need to sign up for a monthly subscription with Better Place to get access to the batteries but the cost hasn’t been revealed for the moment. Drivers will be able to charge the batteries at home (several hours) or at a ‘swap station’ (several minutes). Already around a hundred of those stations are planned to be install in Denmark and some charge spots at car parks and on streets will also be provided.
According to Better Place, France will probably be the next spot after Denmark and Israel!
(source: The Guardian, 09)
25 July 2009
22 July 2009
7 July 2009
Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes
Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes
Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities
Edited By
Andre Viljoen, Andre Viljoen, Bohn and Viljoen Architects and Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Design, University of Brighton, UK.
Description
This book on urban design extends and develops the widely accepted 'compact city' solution. It provides a design proposal for a new kind of sustainable urban landscape: Urban Agriculture. By growing food within an urban rather than exclusively rural environment, urban agriculture would reduce the need for industrialized production, packaging and transportation of foodstuffs to the city dwelling consumers. The revolutionary and innovative concepts put forth in this book have potential to shape the future of our cities quality of life within them. Urban design is shown in practice through international case studies and the arguments presented are supported by quantified economic, environmental and social justifications.