Gwang Gyo city center design, South Korea

this is the winning entry by MVRDV Architects in a competition to design a sustainable community in the suburbs of Seoul. all the buildings are terraces, edged with boxed planters to create the look of a 'hill.' the voids in the buildings are to create semi-public spaces along with light and ventilation. all told, the community aims to house 77,000 people and should be completed by the end of 2011 (!). 

leave it to people outside North America to show us what the future will look like.. where's my sustainable hill community Stephen Harper?!

via designboom

Hermann Scheer

Last night the always-excellent CBC Newsworld program the Fifth Estate aired a compelling documentary entitled 'the Gospel of Green.' taking a hard look at why our Canadian governing bodies are so resistant to a real green shift in our ways of producing power, the doc showcased Hermann Scheer, a German MP who has been the driving force in both his native land and Europe as a whole when it comes to viable renewable energy sources, namely solar. the statistics are astounding. combining solar with wind and hydro sources, Germany is on pace to be energy self-sufficient within the next ten years. our Canadian politicians could learn a lot from Dr. Scheer, who fought corporate interest in Germany for years before he finally won out and started his green revolution. it's time the financial benefits of renewable energy be made widely known to the public, so that the catalyst for us to put real pressure on our leaders for viable change can finally occur. for more on 'the Gospel of Green,' go here.