The Correa Report: January 2009

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

SEVEN RECIPES for the New Urbanism

Freshly published, the Seven Recipes for the New Urbanism presents an irreverent view of seven magical recipes at the heart of the New Urbanism movement: memory, suburban dysfunction, intellectual precedents, region and ecology, urban form, building type and cultural representation. A number of admonitions and a thrilling professional agenda (cleverly disguised as metaphysical denials and affirmations) are followed by a portfolio of breathtaking projects, drawings and photographs. This is one of the freshest expressions of New Urbanism by one of its most zealous practitioners and scholars.

The book is available at many different bookstores online:

Lulu.com
Amazon.com

It will soon be available at Barnes & Noble, and Books & Books!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

SELF-SUFFICIENT URBANISM: a vision of contraction for the non-distant future

The recently published book, SELF-SUFFICIENT URBANISM: a vision of contraction for the non-distant future, is the most comprehensive town design mitigation plan available in today’s transitional market. It encourages the creation of sustainable urban villages and rural settlements where almost everything needed for our daily living is found, produced, created, used, re-used and recycled at walking distance from an identifiable center and in closed economic loops. Self-sufficient Urbanism focuses on the "re-localization" of resources, and on the advocacy and development of technologies attempting to eliminate our existent fossil fuel dependency and reduce our current rate of carbon emissions. This introductory pamphlet reviews the existing universal predicament and offers a positive solution of contraction, simplicity and human dignity.

The publication is available through multiple bookstores online:

Lulu.com
Amazon

Book & Books

And coming soon to Barnes & Noble!

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GREEN FACTS

ON TRANSPORTATION:

The Highway Act of 1956, signed by President Eisenhower, authorized and scheduled the construction of more than 41,000 miles of roads and highways.

The average time lost in gridlock is 36 hours per year. The average commuting time is approximately 35 minutes – the equivalent of 6 full-time weeks of paid vacation per year.

If we add the time spent in a car to the time spent purchasing it, pampering it, and maintaining it, the car would only move at a speed equivalent to less than 5 miles per hour. Compare this to the average human velocity of 3-4 miles per hour and reach your own conclusions.

The best way to go somewhere is to already be there.
Because vehicular traffic was kept artificially low during the Olympic Games in Atlanta, desperate trips to emergency rooms for asthma dropped by 42 percent.

Given the 12,000 tons of garbage produced each day in the City of New York and assuming a load of 20 tons of garbage for each tractor-trailer used for long-distance hauling, some 600 platform vehicles would be needed to move this garbage. This convoy of trailers would take the equivalent of 9 miles in length.

Compared to the 45,000 traffic deaths in the United States alone, air pollution claims 70,000 lives per year. Worldwide, the estimated figure is well over 3 million people –or three time the number of traffic fatalities.

Americans own 12 cars per person per lifetime. Each one of these people drives an average of 11,000 miles per car per year or the equivalent of 627,000 miles in a lifetime.

Whether you drive or not, each person in the United States spends 31,350 gallons of gas in a lifetime.

There are 5,000 airplanes in the American air paths every second of the year.

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

JACK TODD, Nancy. A SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE WORLD: the promise of ecological design. Island Press, Washington D.C. 2005.

CANTON, James and The Institute for Global Futures. THE EXTREME FUTURE: the top trends that will reshape the world in the next 20 years. Penguin Publishers, New York. 2007.

CORREA, Jaime. SELF-SUFFICIENT URBANISM: a vision of contraction for the non-distant future. Lulu Enterprises, North Carolina, 2008.

STEFFEN, Alex, Ed. WORLD CHANGING: a user’s guide for the 21st century. Abrams, New York. 2006.

ARCHITECTURE for Humanity. DESIGN LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN: architectural responses to humanitarian crises. DAP Publishers, New York. 2006.

Traveled distances represent enormous investments of energy and time. Decisions about the location of a particular land use are never disassociated from social, political or economical issues. As traveled distances increase, our use of non-renewable energy sources strengthens; when traveled time increases, our ability to live in communities decreases; as traveled distances rise, our dependence on mechanical transportation multiplies; when traveled time increases, the quality of our urban spaces decreases; and, more importantly, when traveled time increases, our commitment to improve our social, economic and political circumstances decreases.

The Tallahassee project is a simulation of what architect Edward Mazria calls the “2030 Cºhallenge”.

The project depicts a timeline of development stages and decision making processes. It assumes that: an energy crisis is currently in the works; in America, the greatest energy consumer and contributor to the current energy crisis is the building industry (48%); the production of architecture, between now and the year 2030, will result in the replacement, retrofit and manufacture of more than 2/3 of our existing building structures; the forthcoming energy crisis is starting a collective predilection for shorter traveling distances, mass transportation and local renewable resources; and, most importantly, greenhouse emissions can be reversed by changing the way buildings and new developments are planned, designed and constructed.

The ultimate result leads to the accomplishment of a pattern of walkable neighborhoods -contrasting with those designed with just the automobile in mind; the timeline shows that, as citizens begin to make better location decisions, greater development densities and intensities will come into being; it predicts that as a greater desire for community building comes into being, a variety of interconnected neighborhoods and town centers will be its corollary; and, finally, it reclaims underutilized land for the creation of a better ecology, public open space and local agriculture.

OUR FRIEND'S BOOTCAMP

A BUTTERFLY PARADISE

Andrew Georgiadis, a town designer in the City of Miami, has committed his small urban lot (6,500 S.F.) to energy auto sufficiency and food production. As of today, he’s been able to grow the following inventory of trees and plants:

1. A mango tree (producing hundreds of pounds during the Summer);
2. A Tangelo and 2 other citrus bushes;
3. Two native Red Mulberry trees;
4. Several stands of Papayas;
5. Jaboticaba -a fruit from Brazil;
6. Assorted herb bushes: Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Hierba Buena, etc.;
7. Rows of Tomatoes, sweet and hot Peppers, Kale, Brussels Sprouts, and other vegetables;
8. Pineapples; and,
9. Passion Fruit trees.

Additionally, he has removed 2 large invasive exotics (Queensland Umbrella trees and invasive Suriname Cherry trees) as well as extensive areas of lawn. He’s replacing the remaining lawn with Florida native species; his intention is to recreate a Pineland and a Hardwood hammock. In his new Pineland he’s been able to grow Slash Pines, Coonties, Saw Palmetto, Thatch Palm, Lead Plant; and, in his new hammock, he has Tamarind, Stoppers, Pigeon Plum, Bay Cedar, Wild Lime, Wild Coffee, Maple, Satin Leaf, Live Oak, and other shrubs. He is also making a hedge out of wild Florida cotton bushes –a species near extinction in the State of Florida.

His yard has become a butterfly paradise where there are always more birds than at the neighbors’ lawns.

As he says, “Food tastes much better when it’s from your back yard”.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

SEVEN RECIPES for the New Urbanism

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

SELF-SUFFICIENT URBANISM: a vision of contraction for the non-distant future

EDITOR'S BACKGROUND

GREEN FACTS

RECOMMENDED LINKS

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Tallahassee's 2030 Challenge

OUR FRIEND'S BOOTCAMP

YOUTUBE RECOMMENDATIONS

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