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HERE’S ANOTHER VIDEO THAT we shot at the Cities Alive conference. In this clip, Alan Darlington, Adjunct Professor at the University of Guelph, discusses the results of his research on a number of local Living Walls, to test how effectively they filter out Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOC’s, in enclosed areas. By the end, the walls had performed so well that they exceeded even his own expectations. By combining the science of biofiltration with the floral artwork of Patrick Blanc, Darlington has pioneered a kind of vegitecture, a truly holistic system for human housing. Bravo!
DO YOU THINK IT’S just a coincidence that the Green Apple Living Wall went up exactly twenty years to the day after the Berlin Wall came down? Neither do I, there must be mystical significance to that fact. Let this Living Wall be a powerful symbol for health and equality and freedom, and let it be the cornerstone upon which we build new ecological lives. May we be reminded of relations with the plant kingdom, and may we honour and love them as we honour and love ourselves. Amen! Now, here is a slideshow video of John, Victor and Bob putting up the Green Apple Living Wall. This is how we do it, baby! The accompanying musical track is the instrumental for the song “Be”, by Common. Enjoy!
WE SURE LEARNED A LOT at the Cities Alive Conference two weeks ago, but part of the problem was that there were so many speakers all presenting simultaneously, that it was impossible for any one person to take in all of the interesting information. So as a service to the community of green infrastructure designers and builders, I’m uploading this ten-minute video of one of the panels that Peter and I attended. The speaker in question is George Irwin, principal of Green Living Technologies, a company out of Rochester, New York, that has developed a pre-fabricated tray system for embedding soil on roofs and walls. George is a very emotionally engaging speaker, and he makes a very convincing case for building living walls. Well, we’re convinced, anyways!
LAST WEEK WAS JAM-PACKED with all kinds of eco-events. On top of the Cities Alive North American conference on Green Infrastructure, there was the Planet In Focus Film Festival, 10th anniversary. Planet In Focus holds a special place in our hearts: in addition to providing an important platform for environmental video, it is where Peter, Eduardo, and I all met for the first time. Five years ago, I was screening my film The Red Pill, Eduardo was photographing the event, and Peter was cramming his brain with as much eco-information as possible. We all hit it off, and collaborated on our first joint project, the design of the DVD cover for The Red Pill. In the spring, Eduardo and I joined Green Apple, and we spent the 2005 season in the field with Peter, the three musketeers of construction. Today, all three of us are desk jockeys, but we like to relive the glory days of our youth and catch an eco-flick on occasion to keep current with what’s going on in the world, and what’s going on to the world.
EXCLUSIVE! CHECK OUT THESE pipin’ hot pictures of the new Green Roof on top of the rotunda at Toronto City Hall. This week Toronto is hosting the Cities Alive Conference, a three day symposium for everyone involved in Green Infrastructure projects across the continent. Mayor Miller addressed the audience, and then the crowd was invited to tour the roof of the building. It’s not one hundred per cent completed yet, but I was still able to take some attractive photographs before it got too dark out. Don’t miss the thirty-second video clip of the unveiling that I quickly edited and uploaded to the net. So, how do you like Green Roofs now?
