environment for development

“Failure to address these persistent problems, UNEP says, may undo all the achievements so far on the simpler issues, and may threaten humanity’s survival …humanity’s footprint [its environmental demand] is 21.9 hectares per person while the Earth’s biological capacity is, on average, only 15.7 ha/person…“

from a new report from the UN Environment Programme, Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4), published 20 years after the Brundtland Commission’s seminal report Our Common Future.

hopefully this will inspire some action, rather than panic and/or further denial.

Yellow bucket

A kind of public design competition was held recently, called There’s a Hole in My Bucket. This competition was members of the public taking photos of things they thought were badly designed, with a numbered yellow bucket in the picture as well. A few people took photos of buildings:

Bucket 19 – “Where’s the gallery?”

Bucket 29 – “I believe architecture should be SO much more than this.” (I agree, but this building always makes me think of that pithy Robert Venturi aphorism: the only thing worse than vulgar urbanism is tasteful urbanism)

Bucket 42 – “Where does the responsibility lie for creative implementation when it comes to permanent architectural structures? The owner? The Architect? The Local Planning Authorities? When is it right to dedicate a permanent three story structure to a mediocre contemporary? “

Bucket 92 – “When is it right to dedicate a permanent three story structure to a mediocre contemporary?”