Walkonomics mobile app, walking forward in the 21st Century

After talking for two days of food sustainability (monday, tuesday) now it's time to go for a nice walk. The quality and amount of walking as an everyday activity, in any given area, is an established and unique primary indicator of the quality of life. And when I read yesterday of the launch of the new Walkonomics app for iPhone and iPad I thought that was a fantastic development after the Android version. The free Walkonomics mobile app maps and rates the pedestrian-friendliness of every street in San Francisco, New York and England, yes we miss Milan and the rest of the world but let's hope it will arrive in the soon future.

Walkonomics provides 5 star ratings for each street in the following 8 main criteria:

Road safety: How safe do you feel from traffic on this street? It is influenced by actual road accident statistics (where available), street type, traffic speeds and activity.

Easy to cross: How easy it is to cross the street at regular points along the street? It is influenced by the traffic activity on the street, street width, physical barriers and provision of pedestrian crossings.

Pavements /Sidewalks: Are pavements/sidewalks provided along the street? Are they high quality? Are they wide enough? Do they have a lot of unnecessary clutter/furniture on them? Are they overcrowded?

Hilliness: Is the street flat or on a hill? How steep is any slope? If the street is steep, then are any hand-rails or seats provided?

Navigation: How easy is it to find your way around in this street and area? Is it easy to become lost here? Are any street names, pedestrian signs or maps provided?

Fear of crime: How safe do you feel from crime on this street? It is influenced by actual crime statistics (where available) as well as perceived fear or crime. Other factors include lighting, vandalism, graffiti and presence of police.

Smart and beautiful: How clean is the street? Is there much litter or vandalism? Is it regularly cleaned? Does the street have any trees or other green vegetation? Are the buildings attractive and in good condition?

Fun and relaxing: Is this a fun, interesting and popular place to be? Are there things to do in this street? Would you choose to spend time and hang-out here? Does the street have a relaxing atmosphere? Is it noisy or stressful? Can you play in this street?

Walkonomics app shows promise, we have just to wait until they expand coverage!

For the moment if you are a luck one based in New York City, San Francisco or in the UK you can get the new Walkonomics iPhone app here and for Android here.

More info

website Walkonomics

Photo credit © Walkonomics

 

 

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Sunday's Tale - The new concept of the city: the city-container Over het IJ festival in Amsterdam.

Sunday's Tale: a post from the past.

Last summer for the twentieth anniversary of Amsterdam’s Over het IJtheatre Festival, local architecture studio O+A created a gigantic recycled shipping container "stage city" made from locally sourced materials, in North Amsterdam’s huge NDSM shipyard. Lasting only two weeks, the structures provoked theatrical artists in exploring the disused shipyard for site-specific theatre performances.

The festival have been held at the NDSM shipyard, an amzing venue, for over two decades. Theatrical artists, both young and experienced, are challenged to employ, interact and investigate the disused shipyard for unique and context-specific performances.

In the fall of 2011, artistic director Lode van Piggelen asked O A to collaborate on the 20th anniversary edition of the festival. The brief was simple: use the festival's literal building block - the shipping container - to create the beating heart of the event. Besides the central hospitality space, the containers offer ample context for the theatrical artists.

The containers were stacked horizontally and re-invented as pop-up stores, multi-level platforms and even a restaurant.

The project’s three-dimensional checkerboard pattern offers a great spatial diversity, while simultaneously communicating the Festival's ambition to the city. As such, the hospitality area is tall, airy and compelling, while the artists use the labyrinthine aspects of the container city, structure creates an indoor/outdoor space that is both rough and “gezelligheid” (cozy).

More info

www.oplusa.nl

Over het IJ Festival

photo credits O+A Studio

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Philadelphia Mural Arts Program transforms the city’s landscape.

TheMural Arts Program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, began in 1984 as part of a campaign to eradicate graffiti citywide. The Anti-Graffiti Network hired muralist Jane Golden to reach out to graffiti writers and to redirect their energies from destructive graffiti writing to constructive mural painting. Since then, over 3.000 murals have been realized.

Mural painting they created instantly added color, beauty, and life to a tired, industrial city struggling with dozens of economic distress and population loss. The outcomes of the program were nothing less than magical! From the beginning, Golden witnessed how mural-making changed lives and how the murals themselves began to mend the urban aesthetic fabric, each has become a distinctive part of the city’s streetscapes.

The murals also provided a support structure for these young men and women to refine their artistic skills, empowering them to take an active role in beautifying their own neighborhoods. The program is currently one of Philadelphia's largest employers of artists, employing over 300 artists a year.

Public art programs provides a unique opportunity for local engagement. Over the years, Philadelphia’s Mural Art Program has brought artists and community members, schools, grassroots organizations together in a collaborative process that transforms public spaces and individual lives. A recent endeavor of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is The Porch Light Initiative.

The Porch Light Initiative is a three-year program that creates partnerships between health service providers, artists, residents, and individuals receiving treatment for behavioral health challenges. Together these partnerships create public art that raises awareness for community health. 

More info

www.muralarts.org

The Porch Light Initiative

photo credits Murals.org

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Equotube, a responsibile way of travel

"Equotube" offers travel ideas, activities and culinary experiences to give alternatives to rediscover territories and cultures: "Experiences that become exchange between hosts and travelers." It is the first fully united and responsible of this kind.

A sustainable form of travel, where supply and demand meet in a project that tries to protect both. The idea is of the social cooperative "Sogno differente" that launched "Equotube", an alternative way to make and promote tourism in a responsible manner. A sort of Smart box, as the proposal is actually enclosed in a tube. He wants to be a gift idea innovative, useful, and fun experience to live or to give where is the approach to make a difference. The structures are selected on the basis of strict criteria (environmental sustainability, consumption and production techniques) favoring reality of a community and those who are inspired by the philosophy of "Km 0".

"Partners and facilities belonging respond to a specific card values of responsible tourism - explain the designers -. We are working on the ground so that the description is always in line with what was declared to ensure the satisfaction of customers critical and therefore very demanding. "The aim is to please the palates of travelers by putting them in contact with local realities to create a project based on the exchange: "We want to promote local culture and the rediscovery of the riches of the area for tourism that is a true sharing between host and travelers. "Because in the end what matters is not where to go and when to leave, but how to do it.

More info
www.equotube.it

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