#lloyd alter

[maaarine]

Oliver Conway:

“How will the pandemic change our lives in the future?

One clue may come from how previous infectious diseases have influenced the layout of our bathrooms.

Lloyd Alter teaches sustainable design at the Ryerson School of Interior Design in Toronto.”

Lloyd Alter:

“One of the most important changes happened after the First World War, when the whole world was going through both the Spanish flu and tuberculosis.

They really had never known what caused these diseases until Robert Koch and Pasteur made the germ theory.

Suddenly after the war, they understood these diseases were caused by germs, but didn’t have any antibiotics like we have today.

All they had was basically sunlight and cleanliness.

So these sanitariums were developed particularly in The Netherlands, but also in the UK and Germany, where suddenly everything was bright, open, white.

This strongly influenced architects. The whole modern movement basically came out of: how do we make our places almost hospital-clean?

Suddenly you had big windows, you got rid of all the Victorian smuts and dust that filled everybody’s houses.

You got an era of minimalism. And you got tiled, cleanable, washable, bathrooms.”

Oliver Conway:

“Now, when we’re being told we all have to wash our hands even more frequently than we do already, do you think that’s what’s going to have the impact?

Are we going to see more sinks in hallways? Is that the sort of thing you’re looking at?”

Lloyd Alter:

“Absolutely. The most famous sink in a hallway was done by Le Corbusier in the Villa Savoye outside of Paris.

Not coincidentally, his client was a doctor. Some of the best houses that were done in the period were done for doctors who were crazed about germs.

I think you’re going to see a trend back to the very first thing you do when you come into your house: take off your shoes, wash your hands, maybe even change your clothes.

Just because we so much want to make a transition to a cleaner environment.”

Source: Global News Podcast: Worrying upward trends in virus cases, warns WHO

[sheltiechicago]

Stackt, an instant shipping container shopping and entertainment spot, is built in Toronto

Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

[bikedweeb]

[T]he campaign to get people to wear helmets creates a perception that cycling is dangerous, and scares people off bikes[...] That is entirely the point; drivers do not want bikes in their way and will do everything to make it more miserable, from helmet laws to mandatory licensing. The real issue here is a battle over pavement and who controls it.

Everyone should wear helmets. So why pick on cyclists? by Lloyd Alter

[szepkerekkocka]

Miért nem kötelező a bukósisak az autósoknak?

Ha csak egy életet is megmenthet...Lloyd Alter cikke eredetileg a Treehugger oldalán jelent meg. Szalai Krisztina fordította, Halász Áron szerkesztette. A cikk a Kerékpárosklub önkéntes fordítócsoportjában készült.

[fucknomontreal]

People are surprisingly defensive after this architect pointed out that Montreal’s twisty, outdoor staircases are deathtraps. He’s mostly joking and clearly enjoys the city (and also, they’re deathtraps) but what are you going to do. You’re going to comment is what. [Treehugger]

[brandondonnelly]

The great intensification debate--what's better for cities?

San Francisco Bay Blues by Stefano Termanini on 500px

I recently stumbled upon a great Treehugger article by Lloyd Alter called: The real triumph of the city will be seen in Buffalo (2014). The post is partially a response to economist Ed Glaeser's popular book, Triumph of the City, which I've mentioned and cited many times before here on ATC.

Lloyd's thesis is basically that Ed is wrong in arguing that reducing the barriers to building is the most effective way to maintain housing affordability; that cities are really made out of flesh, rather than bricks and mortar; and that urbanists need to move beyond the view that a city's past should be preserved at all costs.

Lloyd then goes on to argue that rather than continuing to over-intensify cities like New York, San Francisco, and Toronto, we should be turning our attention to former powerhouses like Buffalo and trying to figure out how to reinvigorate those cities. The bones are already in place.

Now, I don't disagree that there's lots of potential in cities such as a Buffalo and Detroit. I've written a lot about Detroit and I'm genuinely rooting for the city. But I don't think it's as simple as it sounds to shift our attention, and I don't agree with all of the critiques of Glaeser's work.

As important as built form is, cities like Buffalo and Detroit remind us that architecture and buildings alone aren't enough to build a city. There are countless masterpieces -- such as Michigan Central Station in Detroit -- that regrettably sit abandoned. You need people and communities.

There's also a snowball effect. 

As a city becomes more successful, there's a natural tendency for more people to want to be there. It's no different than the network effect experienced by a social network. A social network without people has no value. But the more people you add to it, the more valuable it becomes and the more difficult it becomes to replace.

So it shouldn't come as any surprise that people will put up with expensive real estate and small apartments just to live in cities like San Francisco. That's where they want to be. And as long as the demand to live in those cities is increasing, I continue to believe that it makes sense to build more, not less, housing and to make it reasonably easy to do so.

At the same time, I believe whole heartedly in heritage preservation. As a trained architect, there's a strong possibility that I would shed an actual tear should a building with heritage value be torn down in my city or in any city in the world. 

And that's why when I was on CBC radio last week I said that neighborhood investment needs to be a balance between preservation and progress. The Twittersphere later blasted me for using the term "progress", but I think you get my position.

My interpretation of Glaeser's work has never been that he supports completely erasing a city's past in order to make way for the future. If that is his position, then I too disagree with it. 

My interpretation has instead been that he supports removing unreasonable barriers to development so that cities are able to supply -- or can at least try to supply -- enough housing to meet growing demand. This also doesn't exclusively mean high-rise intensification. It could mean removing the barriers in front of things like laneway housing. And I continue to believe that this is a good idea.

I don't believe that this approach alone will solve all housing problems, but I do think it's a great place to start.

Thank you Lloyd for the great post.

[metafizikseldaragaci]

Stair House twists up through ten levels

Design Addicts

A clever solution to the problem of the ugly hand rail: Design so you don’t need one.

See on treehugger.com

[whatsnewbuffalo]

The real triumph of the City will be seen in Buffalo

Toronto's Lloyd Alter of Treehugger sees big things about to happen in Buffalo. Alter foresees an energy crisis that will precipitate different forms of transportation. This energy crisis will effect the low cost of air conditioning drawing people back north, Alter blames AC as one cause of the city's demise but doesn't mention the irony in the fact that air conditioning was invented in Buffalo, NY.

The warming climate has been giving Buffalo milder winters without concern of drought. The infrastructure is already in Buffalo and the city is recognized as the most affordable in the nation. Alter questions why people are still moving to extremely large cities, like New York City, with places like Buffalo out there.

An intriguing concept Alter mentions is "Tor-Buf-Chester," an economic region consisting of the economies of Toronto, Buffalo, and Rochester. If "Tor-Buf-Chester" were a country its economic might would be the 16th biggest in the world "with an economic output bigger than that of Sweden, the Netherlands, or Australia." Of course, most of this economic might would be concentrated on the Canadian side as all of Western New York holds about 2.5 million to Toronto's 5.5 million in the metro area alone. And who could forget Hamilton? Western New York could stand to gain a lot from an Ontario-centric economy.

Photograph by Lloyd Alter