_Prosperity without Growth

On Thursday I went to a great lecture at LSE by Tim Jackson, entitled Prosperity without Growth. Worth hearing - he speaks with clarity, optimism and creativity. Follow the link for the podcast of the lecture.

Speaker: Professor Tim Jackson

Chair: Dr Richard Perkins
This lecture will discuss a new vision of shared prosperity. It will consider the capability of human beings to flourish within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Tim Jackson is professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey and economics commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission.

http://richmedia.lse.ac.uk/publicLecturesAndEvents/20100225_1830_prosperityWithoutGrowth.mp3

_Design & Transition - Eco Labs

The fundamental concepts of transition and their relation to design.

Design & Transition - Eco Labs

View more presentations from ecolabs.

_Finding The Plot : Spring Garden Skills

_EDIBLE : PERENNIAL

Plans are now underway for:
\\\\\ EDIBLE : PERENNIAL \\\\\ Community Gardening Festival \ Crouch End and Hornsey \ March 2010

Help our community up-skill, connect, and learn about edible gardening.  Designing lasting solutions: building commitment to the land, strengthening intergenerational links and learning how to incorporate edible perennials into our gardens, public spaces and guerrilla plots.

TWO FREE EVENING WORKSHOPS [provisional dates]

Tuesday 9^th March - Hornsey Library

Thursday 11^th March - Camspace, Hornsey            

Skills speed-dating: What do you know? What do you want to know?

Introduction to Permaculture

Seasonal skills: What to do in March

TWO WEEKENDS OF PUBLIC ACTIVITIES

13/14^th March - Outside Hornsey Town Hall

27/28^th March - Campsbourne Estate

Key skills: germinating, taking cuttings

Potato Day: Take free seeds potatoes if you commit to starting a new edible garden

Mapping: Edible plots in your area

Visitors Blog: Leave tips, messages and ideas for others on the online blog

\\\\\ Further details available soon \\\\\

_Seed Swap Sunday

Spent the afternoon at Seed Swap Sunday, Bruce Castle, in Haringey.  The place was bustling - lots of interesting connections and conversations, and plenty of seeds to take home.  I now have Sweet Pea, Angelica, Lovage, Hollyhock, Wallflower and Red Orache [edible?] to add to my allotment.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should be at the Royal College of Art or the Royal College of Agriculture...

_Elemental - Design within your means

Documentary of Quinta Monroy Project in Iquique, Chile from elementalchile on Vimeo.

What can we learn from the architectural principles applied here in Chile?  What aspects of the process, communication and strategy might we take forward when planning housing projects in the UK?

_Perennial

Adj. 1. Lasting for a long time; enduring or continually recurring. > continually engaged in a specified activity: a perennial student. 2. (of a plant) living for several years. Compare with ANNUAL, BIENNIAL. 3. (of a stream or spring) flowing throughout the year.  From L. perennis ‘lasting the year through’.

[Source: Concise Oxford English Dictionary]

_READING LIST ISSUE 1

Good Deeds, Good Design, Edited by Bryan Bell [Princeton Architectural Press, 2004]

The Community Planning Handbook, Nick Wates [Earthscan Publications, 2000]

Permaculture in a Nutshell, Patrick Whitefield [Permanent Publications, 2008]

The Green Braid, Towards an Architecture of Ecology, Economy and Equity, Edited by Kim Tanzer & Rafael Longoria [Routledge, 2007]

How to Be a Happy Architect, Bauman Lyons Architects [Black Dog Publishing, 2008]

Peak Everything, Richard Heinberg [Clairview, 2007]

Breaking out of the box: The Biography of Edward de Bono, Piers Dudgeon [Headline, 2001]

_LINK - Towards a Zoology of Spaces

Saturday 13^th January \ 3pm \ Auto Italia South East

No arts space acting alone can respond to the diverse and conflicting needs, interests and access requirements of all its stakeholders; no insular effort will suffice to critically embrace future technologies ... Instead we offer a toolkit of architectural and political strategies for knitting arts spaces into a tapestry of creative debate, out of which a new and more sustainable global society might one day rise.  Art Spaces Lead Global Ecology of Ideas, Hunter&Gatherer (with Yiannis Kanakakis).

www.autoitaliasoutheast.org/Hunter&Gatherer.html

_Green Screen at Department 21

Green Screen \ Thursday 21^st January \ 6pm \ Department 21

Film \ The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

Dialogue \ How can we move forward with lower energy?

Questions and ideas raised by the dialogue will be collated online, both here and on Sustain RCA www.rca.ac.uk/Default.aspx?CategoryID=36755.