Friday, April 26, 2013

Children Learning With Nature Conference



Details here.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Would you be happier living in a greener urban area?

I don't know about you but I feel slightly vindicated after reading about an 18 year study suggesting that
 
"........people are happier when living in urban areas with greater amounts of green space."

The research was led by Dr Mathew White from the University of Exeter Medical School's European Centre for Environment and Human Health, in Truro, Cornwall.

Now let's hope this really impacts the way we design and retrofit our towns and cities.

There is also a PhD project called Narrative Journey supported by the European Centre, that looks really interesting.

The aim is to " develop and test 'Narrative Journey' as a tool that can be used by a range of practitioners working with children, who would like to increase children’s physical, social and altruistic activities and relationships with the natural world." I look forward to hearing more......

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Friday, April 19, 2013

No Right Brain Left Behind + very nice = SLÖJD

I have blogged about No Right Brain Left Behind before, for many reasons, but mainly because Ken Robinson is involved.....

They have collaborated with very nice, a design consultancy, to form SLÖJD. This is a workshop aiming to bring the best and brightest creative thinkers in Los Angeles to create a tangible product that will inspire creativity in education.

There are 6 participants invited and 2 slots available if you are interested..... So, if you are an L.A. based designer (sigh.....), click here and fill out the form at the bottom of the page to nominate yourself or someone you know. The deadline for nominations is April 28th.

Found via GOOD. More info there.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Leave Our Kids Alone

Leave Our Kids Alone is a campaigning group based in the UK that wants an end to all advertising aimed at children of primary school age and younger.

"We believe children should be free to grow up without today’s intense commercial pressures, to become young citizens and not just little consumers."

That's got my vote. Not sure if I can sign the petition if I don't live in the UK. I'll give it a go anyway.  I just tried and I could sign up..... you can too, wherever you live.


Found via George Monbiot's excellent column on the subject, Suckled on lies.


Inspiration for today



This is an amazing project, finished in 1938 by Constantin Brancusi.

In a park in Târgu-Jiu, Brancusi created three sculptures, the one here is called the "Table of Silence", then there is "The Gate of the Kiss", and finally "Endless Column." They commemorate the courage and sacrifice of Romanian civilians who in 1916 fought off a German invasion.

Thinking about council circles today made me think of this.....

Street Play

Here's a book I'm wish listing. When London Played is the book from a Lottery funded project that created 100 Street Play events across London.

"One child summed up the transformation to his road in Haringey, when the traffic stopped and the play started;

‘There were no cars, so it was safer and bigger and everyone was together in the street’."

Add that quote to Tim Gill's latest blog post about news consumption, where he writes:

".......the facts show that the strangers who pose the greatest threat to children are those behind the wheel of a car. In 2008 [pdf link] for instance, 91 children under 15 were killed on the roads. By comparison, there were 23 homicides (and as I show in No Fear, most child homicides are committed by parents and members of the extended family, not by strangers). The comparative lack of media coverage of, or debate about, road danger is itself a telling example of news bias."

And we have a fairly compelling argument against cars..... Time to rethink the public realm.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Sheep in Paris

I like this story. Sheep are to mow a half acre patch of public land in the 19th Arrondissement in Paris.

It's a fairly new pilot scheme that the City Hall are calling "eco-grazing". The idea being that the sheep will stop the use of gas guzzling mowers and at the same time fertilize the plot.

I'm quite tempted myself get a couple of these mini sheep (only 2 ft tall) for my lawn.... Very cute too.

Living growing architecture



What you can't do with willow is not worth doing.

This is a Palace in Aeurstedt, Germany from a post over at Dark Roasted Blend on living, growing architecture.

There are some weird and wonderful pictures so check it out. Plus Hundertwasser is mentioned, so they are in good company. (I'm a big fan.)

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Som Sabadell flashmob



I love a good flashmob and this one beautifully illustrates the need for public open space...... for people to gather, bump into friends, kids to play and be exposed to amazing happenings like this.

Via The Kid should see this.

Albert Einstein

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

- Albert Einstein

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

33 Ways to stay creative


This is doing the rounds on facebook. I'd just add one more.

34. GO OUTSIDE