Chat Bench

"Have you seen our ‘Chat Bench’ in Burnham or Taunton? To help us tackle loneliness and isolation in the community we have introduced a ‘Chat Bench’ in Vivary Park in Taunton and also on Burnham Sea Front.  Simply stopping to say "hello" to someone at the ‘Chat Bench’ could make a huge difference to the vulnerable people in our communities and help to make life a little better for them."



from:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/07/17/this-towns-solution-loneliness-chat-bench

Community Design

"As our political discourse generates derision and dissension, our time in the virtual world crowds out our time in the actual one, and trust in our institutions and each other has plummeted, local places such as markets, libraries, and coffee shops can help. A new study shows that living near community-oriented public and commercial spaces brings a host of social benefits such as increased trust, decreased loneliness, and stronger sense of attachment to where we live."

from:

https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/05/having-library-or-cafe-down-block-could-change-your-life/589813

and:

Rethinking the design of goods

"There's a world of opportunity to re-think and re-design the way we make stuff. 'Re-Thinking Progress' explores how through a change in perspective we can re-design the way our economy works - designing products that can be 'made to be made again' and powering the system with renewable energy. It questions whether with creativity and innovation we can build a restorative economy."

"Innovation, quality and good design Cradle to Cradle® is a design concept that was developed in the 1990s by Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart, William McDonough and the scientists of EPEA in Hamburg. It stands for innovation, quality as well as good design and describes the safe and potentially infinite use of materials in cycles."



from:
https://epea-hamburg.com/cradle-to-cradle/

Ten great squares

"Squares are the outdoor living rooms of cities worldwide, and they have been planned at the center of the best North American cities for half of a millennium"

from:
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/05/10/ten-great-public-squares

Sea level rise

"Sea level rise is already redrawing coastlines around the world. What happens when the coast retreats through a major city? We look at how the world map will change in the year 2100, and what coastal cities can do to defend themselves."

Agrihoods

"The size, geography, and socioeconomic culture of agrihoods vary; they can be found in rural, suburban, and urban spaces, using diverse locations including housing built around existing farms or built into repurposed unused commercial or industrial spaces. The term “agrihood” itself is still fluid. “It hasn’t been well defined yet,” said Daron Joffe, a veteran farmer who has worked on a number of agrihoods and farm-centric communities in the U.S. “To me, an agrihood is a working farm that’s really connected to the residents, the local community outside the neighborhood, and connected to the larger region and foodshed.”

And while the definition is changing and growing, a report by the Urban Land Institute notes that agrihoods are “master planned or residential communities built with a working farm as a focus.” Rancho Mission Viejo, a housing developer and longtime ranching family in southern California, has even trademarked the term “agrihood” and applied it to their new Esencia development."

https://civileats.com/2017/01/30/growing-agrihoods-the-next-frontier-in-urban-revitalization/

https://readynutrition.com/resources/how-agrihoods-could-change-the-way-we-think-of-urban-developments_03042019/

Fun video of the week

from:
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2016/07/a-1960s-cartoon-hilariously-mocks-americas-car-obsession/491558