Through modern science, man attempts to flex his dominion over nature. Bioengineering of agricultural products and domestication of plant material is our current solution to the creation of “healthy” pest-free vegetation and landscapes. But to what extent can science be pushed to continuously produce plants able to survive unsustainable levels of constantly evolving nuances, and their displacement from natural ecosystems into high density urbanism.
Definitive document of pre-World War II futuristic Utopian thinking, as envisioned by General Motors. Documents the "Futurama" exhibit in GM's "Highways and Horizons" pavilion at the World's Fair, which looks ahead to the "wonder world of 1960."
Interesting how the vision of the future of the American city was so heavily impacted by the automobile, not surprisingly the film was sponsored by GM. "Widening the trails" was the great aspiration of modern engineers and a promotion of untested new concepts of urban development. Apparently GM was able to convince the government to implement various elements of the film in its country-wide development strategy.
Perusing the internet I was a bit overwhelmed by the influx of landscape companies offering "contemporary" and "modern" design/plans. Reading some of the descriptive paragraphs of these said landscape plans it was clear that merely design process terms filled in the blanks and were not necessarily incorporated into the plans. This concerns me on the behalf of homeowners who simply "don't know what they don't know", and in some fashion being misled into believing what is good landscape design. Perhaps I'm a being a bit egotistical to suppose that my ideas, experience, and education give me the authority to judge one design from another, but I believe in the examples shown below I'm just in my views, but by all means, I encourage different points of view.
I'd like to meet David Trubridge. I would ask him his secret to living a life that seems ideal to me, with accomplishments I admire and aspire: Teaching himself furniture making, sailing around the world with his family, and creating a sustainable and responsible international design company.
Rising oil and commodity prices, global warming, and population growth all contribute to a problem us more affluent Americans are sure as of yet to be affected: food shortage. 50% of the world's population living in urban areas has forced us to rethink current practices of food production and delivery. Not only are production problems a concern, but environmental impacts. Modern farming is the largest consumer of both land and water as well as a primary source of water pollution. One burgeoning trend adopted by a growing number of cities is Urban Agriculture.