These two residential buildings: Or this one here? Both are located in the Porto Nuova district of Milan. And from what I could tell when I walked by them yesterday, they’re pretty comparable. They have similarly deep balconies. And they even appear to have the… Read More
All posts filed under “environment”
Harnessing air conditioning condensate
We spent yesterday and today at the Venice Biennale (both the Giardini and the Arsenale). I really enjoyed it and I’m glad that I was finally able to attend. One of my favorite exhibits was Bahrain’s. It is called “Sweating Assets”, and it’s a demonstration… Read More
Yes, I want a pair of these 3D-printed shoes
3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is often referred to as the next industrial revolution. And we are certainly seeing it creep into the mainstream economy in meaningful ways. You can soon buy a 3D-printed home for under $99,000, and already you can buy a home… Read More
Buildings are carbon icebergs
Kelly Alvarez Doran shared this article with me on Twitter earlier today. It talks about some of the work that his design studios are doing at the University of Toronto around embodied carbon. More specifically though, his studios are being tasked with figuring out how… Read More
The impact of climate change on the Winter Olympics
It was pure luck, but we couldn’t have timed this last week any better. It started snowing in the mountains around Salt Lake City on Tuesday, and it felt like it didn’t stop until Saturday. On Wednesday morning, which was peak powder, the main resorts… Read More
Tesla to open (a portion of) its charging network to all EVs
The current electric vehicle plan in the US is to build a national network of 500,000 chargers and have EVs make up at least 50% of new car sales by 2030. (Here’s where we are today with adoption.) To this end, a big announcement was… Read More
Global electric vehicle adoption
This is the current state of global electric vehicle adoption: It is obvious where all of this is heading. It is simply a question of how fast, and who will be the leaders at the end of the day. All data sourced from the WSJ
Road salt vs. gravel
It has been mild and wet in Toronto over the last week, but normally at this time of the year, the entire city looks like as if it was just hit by some sort of apocalyptic chalk storm. Everything is white. And that’s because we… Read More
Climate lessons from 16th century England
We don’t like coal today, but it certainly transformed Victorian-era architecture: “It is the biggest transition in the history of our species, with the possible exception of starting to use fire at all in the first place,” says Barnabas Calder, author of the groundbreaking study… Read More
Density is good
When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, we know this: Households in denser neighborhoods close to city centers tend to be responsible for fewer planet-warming greenhouse gases, on average, than households in the rest of the country. Residents in these areas typically drive less because… Read More