New Willow Balls

We are fully committed to promoting the principles of ecotourism and responsible travel. It is very important to determine if your trip conserves and improves the places you visit outside the US. These newfangled mini-lodges are composed of prefabricated pleached structures. Each delicately green unit has complete access to composting toilets, gray water systems, and solar powered lighting. Insect netting made from hemp protects against pests. Each ball should weigh less than 60 pounds. see more: WILLOW BALLS

The Science for Life Conference, Canada

“Science for Life” at the University of Winnipeg, CA Wednesday, February 11th, 2009. Dr. Rod Hanley – Dean of Science Keynote by Dr. Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, NSERC. Keynote by Dr. Mitchell Joachim, Co-founder of Terreform 1, a nonprofit organization and philanthropic design collaborative that integrates ecological principles in the urban environment. Dr. Joachim is listed in WIRED magazine's 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To. The entire conference is free and all are welcome to attend. Confirm with Dr. Randy Kobes (786-9882, r.kobes@uwinnipeg.ca) or Rebecca Stephenson (258-2935, r.stephenson@uwinnipeg.ca)

The 4th NORDIC URBAN DESIGN CONFERENCE

The 4th NUDC 20th February 2009, Grieghallen - Bergen NEW DIRECTIONS IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN Professor // Dr. Matthew Carmona //BARTLETT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LONDON // united kingdom Co-founder // Dr. Mitchell Joachim //TERREFORM ONE // united states of america Co-founder // Cameron Sinclair //ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY // united states of america Vice. President //Jason Prior //EDAW // united kingdomPresident // Erik R Kuhne //ERIK R KUHNE & ASSOCIATES // united kingdom Associate // Richard Hollington //OFFICE FOR METROPOLITAN ARCHITECTURE (OMA) // netherlands Director // Jonathan Smales //BEYOND GREEN // united kingdomConference host: Rob Cowan, Dir. Urban Design Skills http://www.nuda.no/ INTRODUCTION // There is a need to stage a guide for global planning which involves new sustained environmental directions. While urban designers and architects alone cannot solve the world’s environmental problems, they are responsible for designing the future cities, and therefore in a position to influence the promotion and pursuit of energy-efficient, socially-responsible buildings and public spaces. They are also in a position to influence the future cities through new paradigms of innovation; new thoughts; new perspectives; new methods and rural and urban strategies, where increased use of new technology is a crucial part of the sustainable planning strategies developed. The current urbanisation which attracts people in great numbers from rural areas and small towns raises issues such as prospects for work; housing possibilities; improved lifestyle and education. How does this rapid urbanisation effect the environment? How will rural areas cope with the increased emigration? Is urbanisation as an isolated entity the critical factor generating these environmental issues?The green city; the inclusive city; the social city; the walkable city; the eco-city are concepts promoted by architects and planners in their work of designing future cities and pursuing environmental solutions while at the same time trying to include a conscious approach towards the social and human aspect of the new urban context. New city concepts claim to accommodate the rapid urbanisation with design strategies enabling the city as an organism to grow accordingly to the growth of population. Is there a real demand for such new cities being planned? Might it be that the real challenge lies in sustaining the existing city, and turning the focus towards rural areas with small towns, villages and communities making them more interesting and attractive to live in so that people don’t move from these places?Current cities are challenged by future environmental problems escalated from matters such as higher urban density; constraint of land use; rapid urbanisation; increased car use; higher global mobility; higher energy use and an extended consumption of global and cultural resources. Highlighting the concept of the future cities includes discovering the reasons behind the potential environmental disaster. Are the environmental issues our cities are facing only related to what is described in the UN Environmental report? Or could it be a consequence of people’s advanced mobility and change of lifestyle over the past three decades? I.e. new cities adjacent to waterfronts will be major influence on economic growth and tourism, leading to increased consumption of natural resources and undesirable impacts on culturally important heritage sites.

Why WALL•E Works: Cities of Rapid Re(f)use

When I arrived at the fabulous Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters in colorful Glendale California, my expectations were elevated. I was going to meet people with the finest imaginations on earth and talk shop. I had prepared a presentation that would unpack a comprehensive view of tomorrow’s world. It’s a world free of carbon loading in the atmosphere and abundant in self sufficient lifestyles. I had meticulously crafted cities so rich with green wisdom they made Kermit (the frog) appear like Dubya – or so I hoped. As an eco savvy architect, my work includes most things buildable within the rubric of a socio-ecological domain. Everyone and everything in these urban ideations were carborexic to the hilt. This means rethinking the design of entire systems, from doorknobs to democracies. I design places for people to fit symbiotically into their natural surrounds. To achieve this, all things possible are considered. I design the cars, trains, blimps, streets, as well as the parks, open spaces, cultural districts, civic centers, business hubs, etc. that comprise the future metropolis. For centuries cities have been designed to accommodate the drama of our human will. I have joined the ranks of delivering a new sense of the city, one that privileges the drama of nature over anthropocentric whims. I was vying with the good people at Disney for a profound clairvoyant perspective. I wanted them to preview a likeness of our collective future yet untold. Much to my chagrin they were light-years ahead, at least when it came to the topic of municipal wastes. At the time, I had a sketch of a new city composed of waste ordered by massive industrial 3D printers. A cadre of my students had run thru a number of iterations. All were schematic, but I inherently knew this was an exciting vector. When Ben Schwegler, Chief Imagineer, Mouseketeer and mastermind, took me behind the proverbial black curtain to reveal WALL•E, I was crestfallen. They beat me too it. WALL•E is perfect – almost. He is a tightly packaged solar powered, curious, obedient, evolved, robotic trash compaction and distribution device. His name is an acronym; Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class. Left behind by mankind, he toils with trillions of tons of non-recycled inner-city trash. Not only is he a highly advanced rubbish manager, he is a mechanized new fangled Mesopotamian architect. He piles Ziggurats quicker than Hammurabi. Also, and this is vital, he is incredibly adorable. His life is a tale of an ultramodern trash compactor in love. Ceaselessly, he configures mountains of discard material. Why pyramids of trash? WALL•E’s daily perpetual feats seem almost futile. Disney omits exactly why he is programmed to pile refuse, and there's the rub. I was interested in exploring a deeper motivation for stacking refuse. What if the refuse was re-fabricated to become urban spaces or buildings? How much new technology needs to be obtained to do so, or could I modify existing methods? If it is plausible to adapt the current machinery, how much material is available? By Mitchell Joachim Model: Mitchell Joachim & Webb Allen

Dream The Impossible documentary from Honda

Honda showcases “DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE Documentary Series” by acclaimed director Derek Cianfrance and award-winning producers @radical.media. “Mobility 2088” centers on the future of mobility as told by a collection of academics, scientists, sci-fi writers and artists, including; Mitchell Joachim, Dave Marek, Chee Pearlman, Guillermo Gonzalez, Jason Wilbur, Ben Bova, Scott Bolton, Yasunari Seki, Joe Johnston, Orson Scott Card, Chuck Thomas, Jim Keller, and Christopher Guest. The film asks, “How will people get from point A to point B in 80 years?” “Mobility 2088” will air at an exclusive screening before the highly anticipated “Mary and Max” at the Sundance Film Festival.

Mark Primack at Metropolitan Exchange

THE TREE CIRCUS OF AXEL ERLANDSON, a talk by Mark Primack Thur. Jan. 15th at 6:00 p.m at MEx (Metropolitan Exchange) 33 Flatbush Ave. 6th Floor, Brooklyn. Between 1922 and 1963 a California farmer, surveyor and orchardist named Axel Erlandson designed and trained trees into sculptural and architectural forms unique in horticultural history. Axel expanded that ancient science to include chairs, towers, ladders, spiral staircases and enclosures that could be grown, rather than built. He eventually displayed his creations in a roadside attraction outside of Santa Cruz, which he named the Tree Circus. Mark Primack discovered Erlandon's neglected and dying trees in 1977, shortly after completing his Masters thesis on Botanic Architecture at the Architectural Association of London. His efforts to document Axel's work, to write their history, and to protect and preserve the surviving trees were themselves fading into obscurity when his friends at the Museum of Jurassic Technology convinced him to present, in words and images (many for the first time) his remarkable record of a dedicated visionary and a creative genius.

Bioworks Institute Website Launched 2009

Co-Founders: Oliver Medvedik, Ph.D. and Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. Bioworks Institute: An interdisciplinary endeavor that seeks to rethink biological art and design. www.bioworks1.com

EcoRedux Exhibition in Greece

Exhibition: "EcoRedux: Design Remedies for a Dying Planet", Byzantine Museum of Athens, Greece, December 2008. Event hosted in the framework of "Un-Built: International Architecture Research Events 2008. The website will be uploaded in Feb. 2009 at www.ecoredux.com Project: In Vitro Meat Hab, Terreform 1. Curated: Lydia Kallipoliti in collaboration w/ Alicia Imperiale & Amie Shao.

1000 x Architecture of the Americas

Fab Tree Hab by Terreform 1 is featured inside: 1000 x Architecture of the Americas, Verlagshaus Braun, p.429, 2008. One of the "Best Architecture Books of 2008, 10 tomes from the superior to the indispensable," By Norman Weinstein, December 2008.

See the work of DUB Studios

DUB studios is a multi-disciplinary design practice. We work on projects at various sizes, ranging from furniture to towers. At all scales our work involves the practices of Design, Urbanism and Building. We see Design as both a creative and pragmatic process that turns problems into opportunities; Urbanism as a method of observing and acting on a project's varied surroundings; and Building as the motivation for and best test of an idea. DUB studios is headed by its three partners: Natalya Kashper, Michael Piper, Gabriel Sandoval. http://www.dub-studios.com/

Fab Tree Hab video - Terreform 1

Recent Published Designs of Terreform 1

Daria Ricchi, "Cities from Scratch with Mitchell Joachim," Area, pp. 160-163, No. 99, IT. 2008. Gerardo Mingo Pinacho, "City of the Future 2106," Future Arquitecturas, pp. 146,148, No. 10, ES. 2008. Geraldine Zschocke “Super Cilia Skin,” Inform, p. 6, No. 9, Freiburg. Ángeles Martínez, “Sustainable Designs of Mitchell Joachim,” BG Magazine, pp. 78-9, No. 036, Ecuador. Iñaki Aguirre, “Bioviviendas De Última Generación,” Arquitectura y Diseño, No. 95. Dorleta Vidal, “Human-Powered River Gym,” Le Grand Mag, p. 170, No. 5, Autumn/Winter. Kenneth J. Moore, “Ecoarchitecture,” Chemical & Engineering News, p.56, Sept. Dost Kip, Yerin Gelecegi, “Evin kendisi ekosistem,” YER Magazine, pp. 72-73, No. 2, TR. Dave Vickers, “Pectoral Pedalo: River Gym,” Modern Design, p. 66, No. 15, Diseño Earle, ES. Dave Vickers, “Home Grown: Fab Tree Hab,” Modern Design, p. 63, No. 12, Diseño Earle, ES. Marta Gil, “Architecture in a Tree,” Arquitectura y Diseño, pp. 169-74. No. 88, Apr.

Future North Ecotarium video exhibit at:

Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland Superlight Jan. 23 - May 9, 2009 Jaroslav Fragner Gallery Green Architecture Prague, CZ Oct. 30 - Dec. 14, 2008 Miller Block Gallery Figments Imagination Boston, MA Oct. 17 - Nov. 29, 2008 Future North Jane D. Marsching, Terreform 1: Mitchell Joachim, Makoto Okazaki, Maria Aiolova, Melanie Fessel, Dan O'Connor.

Bioworks Institute Online in Brooklyn

Bioworks is a fully operational boutique biotechnology laboratory operated by Dr. Oliver Medvedik. He is partnered with Terreform 1 to produce molecular cell biology projects that advance architectural tectonics with living tissues and rapid prototyping technologies.

Rapid Re(f)use: New Project at Terreform 1

New York City is disposing of 38,000 tons of waste per day. Most of this discarded material ended up in Fresh Kills landfill before it closed. The Rapid Re(f)use project supposes an extended New York reconstituted from its own landfill material. Our concept remakes the city by utilizing the trash at Fresh Kills. With our method, we can remake seven entirely new Manhattan islands at full scale. Automated robot 3d printers are modified to process trash and complete this task within decades. These robots are based on existing techniques commonly found in industrial waste compaction devices. Instead of machines that crush objects into cubes, these devices have jaws that make simple shape grammars for assembly. Different materials serve specified purposes; plastic for fenestration, organic compounds for temporary scaffolds, metals for primary structures, and etc. Eventually, the future city makes no distinction between waste and supply. Credits: Mitchell Joachim, Emily Johnson, Maria Aiolova, Niloufar Karimzadegan.

NHPR: Redesigning Cities for the Future

NH Public Radio: Redesigning Cities for the Future w/ Mitchell Joachim Word of Mouth By Virginia Prescott Listen here: http://www.nhpr.org/node/18175

Wired & New America Foundation, Wash. D.C.

Dear President X: Think Big! Speakers: Robert Dalrymple: Professor: Johns Hopkins. Mitchell Joachim: Partner, Terreform 1. Parag Khanna: Director, Global Governance Initiative, New America Foundation. Montgomery McFate: Senior Social Science Adviser, Army Human Terrain Sys. Moderator: Nicholas Thompson: Senior Editor, Wired. Friday, October 3rd. @ 12pm-1:30pm New America Foundation 1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7th Floor, Washington DC

WIRED: The 2008 Smart List - 15 People The Next President Should Listen To

The 2008 Smart List: "Mitchell Joachim: Redesign Cities from Scratch" by Tom Vanderbilt, Wired, 16.10, pp. 178-9. Oct. 2008. Photo: Bruce Gilden, Illustration: Christoph Niemann http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/16-10/sl_joachim

Cal Poly Hearst Lecture: Ecotransology

2008-2009 Hearst Lecture Series . Hosted by Cal Poly's College of Architecture and Environmental Design. Dr. Joachim will be presenting; Ecotransolgy, Nov. 21st. 4pm at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Foro de Arquitectura 2008 - ACTION:REACTION

Dr. Joachim will be presenting the work of Terreform 1 at Foro de Arquitectura 2008 - COM:PLOT. Oct. 5th-8th in Guadalajara, Mexico. Special Thanks: Louis Cespedes, CITA. http://www.infotectura.org/2008.htm

Exhibition at Galerie Jaroslava Fragnera, Prague

Terreform 1 opens a new "Green" Exhibition Oct. 29th at The Jaroslav Fragner Gallery in Prague. Lecture in Gallery, Oct. 30th. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. Also a "Green Festival" with other participants that include: Colin Fournier, Mathias Sauerbruch, Stefan Behnisch, Georg W. Reinberg, and Martin Treberspurg. Special Thanks: Klára Pučerová, Dan Merta, Zuzana Walter, Petr Knobloch.

New Book: Sonhos Dreams w/ Terreform 1

Sonhos - Dreams

by Bernardo Senna, Viana & Mosley Editora, 2008.

ISBN 978-85-88721-46-3

The book presents unbuilt idealized projects by professionals in the areas of design and architecture. The works of 40 designers are displayed from various countries: Dima Komissarov, Dominique Perrault, Fumie Shibata, Jean Marie Massaud, Jyrki Tasa, Ken Yeang, Korban / Flaubert, Mana Bernardes, Manuelle Gautrand, Marzio Fiorini, Matali Crasset, Michael Jantzen, Nigel Coates, Panatda Manurasda / Studiobo, Piercy Conner, Querkraft, Roberto Verschleisser, Richard Hutten, Sérgio Rodrigues, Stephen Burks, Seymourpowell, Toshihiko Suzuki, Youngju Oh Zuii Design Studio, and Mitchell Joachim.

In Vitro Meat Habitat

This is an architectural proposal for the fabrication of 3D printed extruded pig cells to form real organic dwellings. It is intended to be a "victimless shelter", because no sentient being was harmed in the laboratory growth of the skin. We used sodium benzoate as a preservative to kill yeasts, bacteria and fungi. Other materials in the model matrix are; collagen powder, xanthan gum, mannitol, cochineal, sodium pyrophosphate, and recycled PET plastic scaffold.

Terreform 1: Mitchell Joachim, Eric Tan, Oliver Medvedik, Maria Aiolova

CNN cover story: Fab Tree Hab + Mushroom + MATscape Homes

Just Imagine...what life will be like in 2020? Home sweet... jellyfish! Architects share their vision of what homes of the future will look like. Fancy living in a home shaped like a mushroom or an edible tree house? see our Mushroom House, Fab Tree Hab, and MATscape dwellings. images by Mitchell Joachim http://edition.cnn.com/ http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/04/future.houses/index.html Special Thanks to Lisa Botter

NextWorld on Discovery premieres Aug. 6th

See our work at Terreform 1 and many others in the premier episode of NEXTWORLD. This 14 hour documentary series on the Discovery Channel premieres Wednesday, August 6th at 8pm. The series will air every Wednesday at 8pm for the following 13 weeks. NEXTWORLD explores some of the truly amazing technologies, science, ideas and products that we will encounter over the next 20 years. What was learned during this show has made us wonderfully optimistic about our future. So much is possible: we will grow new brain cells and end Alzheimer's, travel to Mars, drive morphing cars, watch stunningly real holographic actors on Broadway, create energy to power cities using our footsteps, and routinely live beyond a century. http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/next-world/next-world.html Special Thanks: Rob Cohen -Executive Producer NextWorld, Dena Goldstein, and Betty Chu.

La bionique: Fab Tree Hab

Agnès Guillot & Jean-Arcady Meyer, La bionique: Quand la science imite la nature, p. 23, Dunod, Paris, 2008.
http://www.dunod.com/pages/ouvrages/ficheouvrage.asp?id=50635

EdA Architecture Magazine: Fab Tree Hab

Maurizio Meossi, "Veget-arch. Quando l'Architettura diviene Natura," EdA esempi di Architettura, il prato, pp. 182- 187, anno I, n. 3/2007. http://www.esempidiarchitettura.it/

Teaching at Parsons

Mitchell Joachim will be teaching Environmental Design at Parsons The New School for Design in NYC.

Lecture at University in Guatemala

Ecotransology, Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. at Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala School of Architecture, Aug. 18th, 2008. Universidad Francisco Marroquí­n, Facultad de Arquitectura, 6 Calle final, zona 10Edificio Académico, D-614, Guatemala, Guatemala.

New Museum of Contemporary Art Panel Presentaion

Panel: The Visual Rhetoric of Environmentalism for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, "After Nature," exhibition. As scientific consensus about global warming gains traction with the public, this panel explores how such knowledge—and the environmental strategies it prompts—should be expressed visually. Panelists: Dr. Cameron Tonkinwise, Charles M. Blow, and Mitchell Joachim. Moderated by Brian Sholis, editor of Artforum.com. Saturday, August 16, at 3PM New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, NY. http://www.newmuseum.org/events/220

Fab Tree Hab on HGTV Extreme Living

Home & Garden TV FAB TREE HAB: Imagine the day when tree houses are no longer just for kids, when adults will actually get to live in a fully-functional home morphed out of living, breathing trees. Thank You: Lightworks-KPI Productions, Andrea Pilat, Mashizan Masjum, Joanne Azern, Sarah Hodgson, Neri Oxman, Jesse Dobbie, Christopher Cassel, Tim McGarvey, Bob & Lauren Sarafan, Richard Reames, and more... AIR TIMES: July 13, 2008 10:00 PM ET/PT July 14, 2008 2:00 AM ET/PT September 04, 2008 9:30 PM ET/PT September 05, 2008 1:30 AM ET/PT http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hxmlv/episode/0,3200,HGTV_31776_58083,00.html

Kate Orff Studio Review at GSAPP

On jury for Kate Orff, Principal of Scape, Adv. Arch. mid-review, July 09 at Columbia, entitled CarboNYC. Students are looking at 3 sites and programs as a way to critique, participate in and visualize the Mayor's PLANYC 2030 initiative to reduce carbon emissions by 30%. --Looks Great!

Fab Tree Hab at MoMA, July 20-Oct 20

Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling
July 20th – October 20th, 2008.
The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor
Fab Tree Hab
Video installation, 2003-2008.
Mitchell Joachim, Terreform 1
Lara Greden, Javier Arbona.

QuickTime Movie: Fab Tree Hab

Special Thanks: Joey Forsyte, Velocity Filmworks, Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen, Graham Murdoch, Edward Ward.

Urban Design Panel, 6/27 @ 6pm, Columbia U.

Urban Design Panel:

"Sustainable Cities" Fri. June 27th @ 6-8pm Room 114, Avery Hall Columbia University Speakers: Mellisa Wright (Mayor's Office for Longterm Planning and Sustainability), Melissa Keeley (Earth Institute, Columbia University, Tobias Holler (Cook + Fox Architects, NY), Mitchell Joachim (Terreform, NY)

Walt Disney R&D presentation

We had a great presentation and discussion at Walt Disney R&D in Glendale, CA. Thank you very much to the fantastic and green VP Dr. Ben Schwegler for being such a gracious host. FACTS: Walt Disney Imagineering is the master planning, creative development, design, engineering, production, project management, and research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company and its affiliates. Representing more than 150 disciplines, its talented corps of Imagineers is responsible for the creation of Disney resorts, theme parks and attractions, hotels, water parks, real estate developments, regional entertainment venues, cruise ships and new media technology projects.

Earth & Sky Radio: Cities and Cars

Recipe for a sustainable city Earth & Sky - Austin, TX. Mitchell Joachim: Location is everything. It’s a little too nebulous to say that, ‘here’s a ton of money — please give me a city from scratch... Written by Jeremy Shere http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/52578/recipe-for-a-sustainable-city Cars of the future Earth & Sky Mitchell Joachim: It’s really not the car that’s the problem — it’s everything from the wheel to the notion of mobility and travel in places, ... Written by Jeremy Shere http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/52580/cars-of-the-future

Winners: Architecture for Humanity and AMD

Architecture for Humanity and AMD are pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge: Digital Inclusion. The global design competition invited architects, designers and others to develop sustainable designs for technology facilities in communities that lack access to computing power. The competition received 566 registered entries from 57 countries. Fifth Place: Chocologia Washington University, St. Louis, MO. USA 1953_Kallari Faculty Advisor: Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. Student Team: Laura Anderson- M. Arch. Carmen Cervantes- M. Arch. Lucy Colville- B.A. Cultural Geography Irene Compadre- B.A. Arch & B.F.A. Sculpture Mason Earles- Coordinator, B.A. Urban Studies Amelia Einbender-Leiber- B.A. Arch. Jake Levitas- Coordinator, B.A. Economics & Environmental Studies Emily Schlickman- B.A. International Studies & Environmental Studies Researchers: Alex Adarichev- B.A. Arch. Tess Croner- B.S. Environmental Studies Jen Fleming- M.Arch. Columbia University Brian Maurizi- PhD candidate in Mathematics Daniel Payne- B.S. Civil Engineering & Physics Jacob Rohter- B.S. Environmental Studies Jono Sanders- B.S. Mechanical Engineering David Sin- M.Arch. Columbia University

The real and the imaginary: Mitchell Joachim

L to R:
Walter Isaacson
Peter Head
Dickson Despommier
Majora Carter
Mitchell Joachim
Blaine Brownell

Science Magazine
"The real and the imaginary"
by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
The event wasn't so much about science as it was about development. Among the speakers were Mitchell Joachim, a New York designer who won the 2007 Time magazine inventor of the year award for designing -- along with MIT -- a compact, stackable city car, and Blaine Brownell (left), a University of Michigan materials researcher and architect who specializes in eco-friendly building materials.
Joachim wowed the audience with the imaginary. The animation videos he presented featured not just the stackable car -- the design of the stackable car, that is -- but also ideas such as trees networked together into natural green homes.
Brownell was next, and he riveted the audience with the real.
He didn't have videos to show; he wheeled onto the stage a cart loaded with eco-materials like polymeric fabric that converts light to power and countertop surfaces made from factory scrap. Many of these materials are already on the market or close to it, says Brownell, who is on a mission to popularize their use.
I don't know when I'll get to drive Joachim's vision: a car that bunches up like a ladder so you can park 800 of them on a New York city block and communicates with other cars to warn them about a new pothole. To me, it's a shining example of the imaginary part of science, which is often the driver of the real.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/newsblog/2008/05/the-real-and-th.html#more

NY Times: Future Cities — and Festivals?

Future Cities — and Festivals? June 2, 2008 By John Tierney A Friday evening panel called “Future Cities” at the World Science Festival in New York, however, racked up points for positive thinking by taking its audience on virtual tours of skyscraper-farms powered by the sun; publicly-shared, zero-emission cars that can be stacked to fit 880 on a New York City block and homes made by grafting the branches of living trees. Many of the designs on display could take decades to become a reality. But that didn’t stop the audience, packed into an auditorium at New York University on a warm spring evening, from oohing and ahhing.

How will cities of the future look? ABC News

"Soft Cars," is a concept by Terreform1, a design collaborative that integrates ecological principles into urban environments. The concept not only re-invents mobility as a designed object but also redefines the user's relationship to the city. (Dr. Mitchell Joachim, Terreform) http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/technology&id=6173998

Joachim on Mongabay

Future cities will be more like ecosystems that enrich society and the environment Tina Butler, mongabay.com May 30, 2008 http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0530-tina_joachim.html

Discovery Channel: Mitchell Joachim

Not the Usual Doom and Gloom

by Nicholas Scalera

http://blogs.discovery.com/world_science_festival/

Discover Magazine at Future Cities Panel:

DIscoblog MIT’s media lab was present at the event with architect Mitchell Joachim representing. In true media lab form, Joachim came with the most far out idea of the night: Floating megacities. After climate change drowns many of our biggest cities, proposes Joachim, we just pull anchor and float them all to a location at the North Pole to create a “mega mega city.” This means New York, Hong Kong, London, and a dozen more major cities floating on some sort of barge in a dome to live together in harmony (needless to say, the details were fuzzy). Let’s hope we never see the day this plan needs legs. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/31/world-science-fair-radically-green-future-cities/

ABC News: Mitchell Joachim/ Terreform 1

Climate Concerns Shape the Cities of Tomorrow The Future of Urban Life Looks 'Green,' Say Experts By NED POTTER May 29, 2008 http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/story?id=4954102&page=1