Friends of the Earth: The Big Green Bike Ride

6-11 May 2012

• Cycle London to Edinburgh
• 500 miles in six days
• Go the distance or join in for a day (eg London to Cambridge)

This will certainly be good fun and for a great cause: raising money for Friends of the Earth.

Friends of the Earth: The Big Green Bike Ride

Our Planning Course is the 1st in Scotland and the 5th in the UK!

The School of the Built Environment at the Heriot-Watt University was very successful in the National Students' Survey. The results published today show:

• our Planning (Urban Studies) course is the first in Scotland and fifth in the whole of the United Kingdom.
• Civil Engineering is the first in Scotland and fourth in the UK. 
• Building (Construction Management) is the second in Scotland and 8th in the UK. Architectural Engineering is the 2nd in Scotland and twenth in the UK.

Great to know that our Urban Studies students are happy with the courses. :-)

Mies van der Rohe - Visions Of Space 1/7 (Less is More)

A very good documentary although I don't agree with everything Robert Hughes says, especially about the New National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie) in Berlin.

Articles - ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW - Disconnect

Articles - ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW - Disconnect

An installation at the Diamantenboerse in Frankfurt, where visitors become users/players molding the space and having fun. It would be interesting if we were able to incorporate these ideas into the buildings we design and use for our day-to-day activities.

Social housing to install PV panels | Magazine News | Building

This is an article which shows a good example of retrofit initiative: landlords in Liverpool are planning to refit their buildings to make them more sustainable, installing PV panels, insulation, biomass boilers, etc. This is what we need. Let's make the green wave grow..

Social housing to install PV panels | Magazine News | Building

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

A fantastic critic of the traditional educational system.
Uma excelente critica do sistema educacional tradicional.
Vale a pena assistir.

SSPP Blog: Jane Jacobs, the City, and Sustainability

SSPP Blog: Jane Jacobs, the City, and Sustainability: "One critical difference between sustainability and environmentalism is the human factor. While environmentalism places nature at the cente..."