Skip to main content

Diigo Home

"'Actions' anthology a handbook for urban revolutionaries" by Christopher Hume... - The Diigo Meta page

www.thestar.com/569282 - Cached - Annotated View

Yule Heibel's personal annotations on this page

lampertina
Lampertina bookmarked on 2009-01-19 thestar christopher_hume waste cities urbanism

Discussion of Montreal's Canadian Centre for Architecture's publication "Actions: What You Can Do With The City" (Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi): 98 examples of "techniques, events, ideas and strategies aimed at making cities more sustainable, humane, efficient, livable and, not least, fun." I was especially intrigued by what Hume describes as "Actions"' subtext, *waste* - see article.
QUOTE
"Our whole economy has become a waste economy," writes Zardini quoting Hannah Arendt, "in which things must be almost as quickly devoured and discarded as they have appeared in the world, if the process itself is not to come to a sudden catastrophic end."
UNQUOTE

  • "Between the utopian fantasy of starting over and the impossible dream of continuing in the direction that we are headed," writes architect/activist Fritz Haeg, "there lies a middle ground in which we come to terms with the urban decisions that have already been made and repurpose aspects of our existing built environment in strategic ways. ... No matter what has been handed to us, each of us should be given licence to be an active part in the creation of the cities that we share."
    • lampertina
      Lampertina on 2009-01-19
      Well said, and interesting to think about in relation to someone like J.H. Kunstler, who thinks there's a tabula rasa coming up.

  • If Actions has a subtext, however, it's that of waste. Many projects included are based on reclaiming the vast quantities of food we throw away – a quarter of all food produced in North America ends in a trash bin, much perfectly edible.

    "Our whole economy has become a waste economy," writes Zardini quoting Hannah Arendt, "in which things must be almost as quickly devoured and discarded as they have appeared in the world, if the process itself is not to come to a sudden catastrophic end."

    Arendt's words, written half a century ago, have never been so pertinent.

  • At the same time, Action recognizes that livability can be a strictly local issue.

This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 19 Jan 2009, by Yule Heibel.

  • 19 Jan 09
    lampertina
    Yule Heibel

    Discussion of Montreal's Canadian Centre for Architecture's publication "Actions: What You Can Do With The City" (Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi): 98 examples of "techniques, events, ideas and strategies aimed at making cities more sustainable, humane, efficient, livable and, not least, fun." I was especially intrigued by what Hume describes as "Actions"' subtext, *waste* - see article.
    QUOTE
    "Our whole economy has become a waste economy," writes Zardini quoting Hannah Arendt, "in which things must be almost as quickly devoured and discarded as they have appeared in the world, if the process itself is not to come to a sudden catastrophic end."
    UNQUOTE

    thestar christopher_hume waste cities urbanism

    • "Between the utopian fantasy of starting over and the impossible dream of continuing in the direction that we are headed," writes architect/activist Fritz Haeg, "there lies a middle ground in which we come to terms with the urban decisions that have already been made and repurpose aspects of our existing built environment in strategic ways. ... No matter what has been handed to us, each of us should be given licence to be an active part in the creation of the cities that we share."
      • Yule Heibel

        Yule Heibel on 2009-01-19

        Well said, and interesting to think about in relation to someone like J.H. Kunstler, who thinks there's a tabula rasa coming up.

    • If Actions has a subtext, however, it's that of waste. Many projects included are based on reclaiming the vast quantities of food we throw away – a quarter of all food produced in North America ends in a trash bin, much perfectly edible.

      "Our whole economy has become a waste economy," writes Zardini quoting Hannah Arendt, "in which things must be almost as quickly devoured and discarded as they have appeared in the world, if the process itself is not to come to a sudden catastrophic end."

      Arendt's words, written half a century ago, have never been so pertinent.

    • 1 more annotations...

Top Tags