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.

The revolution won’t come from above: young people driving the future with 2020 Education

This is amazing....... Join today. 20/20.

Via RSA.

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.)

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

33 Ways to stay creative

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

34. GO OUTSIDE