By Rather than sitting back and waiting for the pendulum to swing back to the left, we need to find more examples of environmental gains that can be achieved in ways that deliver other benefits—in other words, that appeal not just to the left, but across the political spectrum.
Looking to Resilient Design for a Cyclone-Battered Coastal City in India
The devastating cyclone, Hudhud this month in India provides an opportunity to incorporate strategies of passive survivability and resilience in the rebuilding.
By Resilient Design: Not as mainstream as we’d like
As part of its monthly tracking how the architectural firms are faring, in its latest survey the American Institute of Architects queried members about their resilient design practices. Since “resilient design” is a concept that’s not yet the kind of household word that “sustainability” has become, we’re encouraged at the number
By The business implications of sea-level rise along the Atlantic coast, and especially in Delaware
I want us to envision an unfamiliar challenge together. I want us to think about the plans and investments we may need to make.
The Resilience Imperative in Canada
Adam Auer, the Director of Sustainability for the Cement Association of Canada, has just posted an excellent article, “The Resilience Imperative,” in ReNEW Canada: The Infrastructure Magazine. Adam interviewed me when he was writing the article, and I think he’s done an excellent job at capturing the salient issues. Even
Resilience as Means of Mitigating Climate Change
Resilience can be a motivation for taking actions that will not only make us and our families safer, but also help to mitigate climate change.
San Francisco Names a Chief Resilience Officer
“As CRO it will be my task to be a central point of contact for all our resiliency based plans and efforts that currently live in various departments.”
Adaptation Stories
In collecting photos to use in the Resilient Design course I’m teaching right now at BAC, I came across a wonderful blog, Adaptation Stories, that’s worth spending some time with. Two young women, Allie Goldstein and Kirsten Howard, who had just completed their Masters studies at the University of Michigan’s
Resilient Design on the UN Agenda As It Prepares for Climate Change
The United Nations, climate change, and resilient design: a day at the U.N. World Habitat conference
By Resilience forum in Boston
The RDI’s Alex Wilson spoke at a recent forum in Boston called “Building a Resilient City: Preparing Our Buildings for Climate Change,” sponsored by A Better City. From the report on the forum in EcoRInews: Alex Wilson, president of Resilient Design Institute and executive editor of Environmental Building News, suggested other
RDI’s role in two recent reports
There’s a new blog from Urban Green on the reach that the NYC Buildings Resiliency Task Force report has had beyond New York City. RDI was involved with one of these new reports–for the City of Boston. You can access the Urban Green blog here, or download a PDF of
A great post on lack of resilience in glass towers
Lloyd Alter at TreeHugger.com posted a great blog on glass towers and their lack of resilience. There’s been quite a building boom in Toronto, and residents of those new heavily glazed high-rise buildings will be in serious trouble should there be an extended power outage. You can read the blog
The New York City Buildings Resiliency Task Force Presents Recommendations
The report just released by the Buildings Resiliency Task Force presents 33 detailed recommendations for improving the resiliency of New York City buildings.
Bigger, Longer Heat Storms Are Coming Soon: Will Your Building Keep Its Cool?
Editor’s note: Tom Phillips and I have been corresponding about the risks of temperature extremes, and I invited him to put together an article on the topic so that others could benefit from his research. I am posting that here. -Alex Wilson Floods and ice storms cause some the biggest
Public fruit trees gaining ground–in an underground sort of way
There’s a wonderful article in today’s New York Times about the subversive trend in urban agriculture to plant fruit trees in urban spaces. A loose-knit group called Fallen Fruit is planting fruit trees in the Los Angeles area–its bounty to be free for the taking. And up the coast in
