Why Architecture Matters

Because this guy says so.

Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, will be part of the Critical Mass speakers series on May 3rd in Toronto (tickets at hotdocs.ca). The conversation will also include Sasha Frere-Jones, Robin Givhan, Eric Friesen, Michael Enright and Jeanne Beker.

If you can't make it to the lecture you can watch his interview on The Colbert Report, in which Paul and Stephen argue about whether or not American architecture still has "big tits".

You can also check out his latest book, Why Architecture Matters, and many others on display in the library.

Not just another pretty face...

Bjarke Ingels, from Denmark's hottest architecture firm, talks about some BIG ideas in this inspiring and humourous lecture from TED:



Like what you see? Check out BIG's book Yes is More: An archicomic on architectural evolution in our collection!

Down the rabbitt hole...

Urban adventurer and human geographer Michael Cook will be lecturing at the School of Architecture on Tuesday, October 28th at 7pm.

Cook chronicles his adventures through underground tunnels and waterways with striking pictures on his site The Vanishing Point. If you want to dig a little deeper, check out this interview he did with the BLDGBLOG.

For more about urban exploration in the Toronto area you can look here or here or check out the book display in the library.

Interested in a more gentle introduction to urban exploration? UW School of Architecture alum Emma Cubitt will be guiding a walking tour this Saturday of the alleyways in my Hamilton neighbourhood. And that's not all she's up to...

Let's get on the same page!

This year's choice for Waterloo Region's 'One Book, One Community' is...

The 100-mile Diet: A year of eating locally
by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon

The book chronicles their year of strictly eating only the foods that came from within a 100-mile radius of their home in Vancouver. You can now find this book in our collection (call# TX 360 .C22 B74x 2007a).

While you're at it, come and check out our multi-media display of related materials, from books to DVDs, local articles and the Waterloo and Hamilton Buy Local, Buy Fresh maps!

In a time of global warming, food riots and rising gas prices, growing your own food or buying locally is a great way to start building sustainable communities. It's summer and we live in Southern Ontario...fresh and local food abounds! While it may be hard to give up on things like rice, olive oil, coffee or chocolate, it's easy to make up the rest of your diet with food that is only a short walk away. Try eating locally for a weekend, go a month without buying processed foods, walk over the Farmer's Market every Saturday morning, grow some tomatoes in your window. Eating fresh and locally will benefit your health AND the planet's. I challenge you!

Wondering what 100 miles means to you here in Cambridge? Have a look...

...want to know how I made that map? Interested in finding out what kinds of maps YOU can make? Ask me!

Climate change and healthy cities

Upwind Downwind 2008: Climate change and healthy cities conference

The City of Hamilton and Clean Air Hamilton will be hosting the 5^th Biennial Conference, Upwind Downwind: Climate Change and Healthy Cities on February 25 and 26.

A free public lecture, WALK & BIKE FOR LIFE, will be held on February 25 at 7 pm at the Hamilton Convention Centre featuring Gil Penalosa.

Gil is a global thinker with various work experiences in Canada and Latin America in fields related to parks, recreation, urban planning, and active transportation. He is the Executive Director at Walk and Bike for Life, member of the Board of Directors of American Trails and the City Parks Alliance (USA), and the North American Chairman for International Sport and Culture.

In the late 1990s he was commissioner of parks, sports and recreation in Bogota Colombia where his accomplishments include shutting down 91 kilometres of city roads every Sunday to create the Ciclovia where over 1.5 million people now walk, bicycle, run and skate every week.

Visit http://www.cleanair.hamilton.ca/updown/udconf.asp for more information about the conference. Note that there is a reduced registration fee for students ($30)

Check out some videos of the transformation in transportation in Bogota under Penalosa's direction.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/01/28/streetfilm-brt-in-bogota/ and
http://bcgp.blogspot.com/2007/12/ciclovia.html

Do you need a good talking to?

Here are some upcoming lectures happening at the school next week:

Inaki Abalos of Abalos Herreros Architects
Monday February 11th @ 12pm

This Spanish firm has worked on a wide range of buildings, with a focus on Verticalism and the relationship between the Natural and Artificial in architecture and landscape.

There are a number of books by, and about, Inaki Abalos in our library that deal with technological innovations in architecture.

Reinhold Martin of Martin Baxi Architects
Tuesday February 12th @ 7pm

Martin is a director at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and co-founded the architecture journal Grey Room.

His books Organizational complex: Architecture, media and corporate space and Multi-national city: Architectural itineraries can be found in the library.