Green Infrastucture my Beloved

trying to find my urban utopia in green spaces, bicycle lanes and a marxist revolution

[happyheidi]

[dankomaksimovic]

ph. Danko Maksimovic - Munich, Germany (2026)

Olympiapark München

Film: Kodak Ultramax 400

[germanpostwarmodern]

Bethnal Green Fire Station (1966-67) in London, England, by the London County Council Architects' Department

[cookiethebirddoll]

bus is my friend. shes no train but shes trying her hardest in a world that hates her

[soycrates]

Gentrification creates a stifling homogeneity in urban areas that makes it less suited for the everyday lives of the lower class and more suited towards the leisure and tourism of those with expendable income.

An old, decrepit laundromat gets replaced by an upscale bakery? And people are mad? It’s not that the poor hate organic vegan cupcakes, it’s that most of us don’t have a way to do laundry in our own home.

Run-down corner stores replaced by hand-made designer clothing boutiques? We don’t hate your eco-fabric shawl, but I can’t eat that for dinner after work like I could have a can of beans I grabbed from that corner store when I don’t have time to take the bus to the real grocery store after work.

What gentrification brings in and of itself is not typically bad, it’s that gentrification brings institutions of leisure and pleasure and makes it so that the poor have to go farther out of their way for basic necessities. It turns low-income living spaces into local tourist attractions. It can even create food deserts by putting restaurants, grocery stores, etc. in that the majority of the lower class cannot afford.

Imagine if someone totally renovated your house and turned it into a mini theme park - they took away your sleeping space, where you prepare food, where you clean yourself and get ready for your day, and replaced it with things that will please people who are visiting, who have their own homes they can go back to, who are here not for their entire life but just as a distraction from their otherwise mundane existence. It’s not that you hate theme parks, it’s not like you’ve never been to a theme park and vow to never visit one again. It’s just that you need to live! To survive! And the leisure of those who have more than you should not invalidate your existence.

[soycrates]

I am glad this has made the rounds. Some people feel a dense misunderstanding or misinterpretation concerning gentrification, and I think it helps to hear a description/explanation of what gentrification is from those who are both affected by it and educated by the culture from which it hails. I and many others enjoy some of the delights of gentrification while simultaneously having their livelihoods threatened by it. 

[hipstafootprint]

Paradise found (Apr 2022) · lost (Oct 2022) · regained (Apr 2023) · Vienna

[soberscientistlife]

[utopiaurbana]

Staatsbibliothek Unter den Linden, Berlin

[btaut]

Ostsee-Aussichtsturm, Cottbus, Juni 2023

[sosbrutalism]

Renovation fail: The Sindlingen community center is a classic example of a renovation that failed to maintain the building’s brutalist design intent. 

Günter Bock: Bürgerhaus Sindlingen, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1958–1961

https://sosbrutalism.org/cms/16411375 

Photos: Jupp Falke (CC BY-SA 3.0) / Eva K. 2011 (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) 

[solarpunks]

How to turn your Neighborhood into a Village

Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys to Portland, Oregon to talk with architect Mark Lakeman, founder of Communitecture Architecture and the City Repair Project. Mark initiated a movement in Portland to transform the homogenous neighborhoods of the city into places that have many of the qualities and characteristics that are found in some of the most treasured villages on Earth. Mark reveals the things you need to know to transform your own neighborhood into a village.

Previously on Solarpunks: Ideas & Inspiration For Better Cities: Sprawl Repair Retrosuburbia

[science70]

Peter Brosnan, “Faster…Cleaner…Quieter”, Countdown #56, 11 March 1972.

[dashalbrundezimmer]

storefrontdesign // vienna

vienna your shop windows.

part I

1. margaretenstraße // margareten

2. praterstraße // leopoldstadt

3. siebensterngasse // laimgrube

4. siebensterngasse // laimgrube

5. siebensterngasse // laimgrube

the shop fronts of vienna’s shops are designed from different eras and in different design languages. each owner designed them in the way he thought most meaningful. much more beautiful and varied than today, when we only encounter chain shops everywhere and the city centres seem interchangeable and uniform, devoid of any individuality and soul.

the cinema is not a shop as such, but for me it still somehow fits into the series.

[dashalbrundezimmer]

storefrontdesign // vienna

vienna your shop windows.

part II

even more shop windows and a pub!

1. glockengasse // leopoldstadt

2. taborstraße // leopoldstadt

3. fischerstiege // altstadt

4. tandelmarktgasse // leopoldstadt

5. wipplingergasse // altstadt

6. göschelgasse // fasanviertel

[rafawriter]

[sronti]

Do this tomorrow.

[schwarz-gerat]

The best time to destroy a golf course was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

[gardeningwithpina]

My mentor: I wanna do a wall garden, because it doesnt take up too much space

Me, already vibrating from the dopamine and adrenaline: Let's talk about espaliers

[gardeningwithpina]

okay, so espaliers are beyond sexy, they are so unbelievably productive

The basics are just... pruning growing trees so they are more 2 dimensional, usually placed against walls. It takes a few years to form/ raise, but they are much easier to maintain than free growing trees in the long run.

(source)

Not only is it more accessible, easier to harvest fruit, but the design has a double purpose; the walls hold and release heat that can keep warm-weathered plants alive during Northen winters!

Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s

We are being told to eat local and seasonal food, either because other crops have been tranported over long distances, or because they are g

There are people who use this method to grow avocado, fig, etc trees outdoors without electricity in -20C weather.

A similar technique to espalier can be used to grow furniture without killing the tree!

[stukko]

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