3. Nature’s Little Helpers, by
Patricia Piccinini
Australia: 2004
Some things, once done, are not easily
undone. We might recognise later that
we should not have done them in the first
place, however undoing them is not so easy.
Like an egg, which once broken cannot be
unbroken, when something is created, it
is difficult to contain. This stands as much
for a work of art as it does for a genetically
modified creature. Anyone who thinks that
they can maintain control of the things that
they create is fooling themselves. Whether it
is genetically modified canola, the cane toad,
a work on the secondary market or an image
on the internet, once the thing leaves our
hands all we can do is watch.
4. Dáil Éireann / Seanad Éireann
Dublin : current
Ireland is a parliamentary democracy. The
National Parliament (Oireachtas) consists of
the President and two Houses: Dáil Éireann
(House of Representatives) and Seanad Éire-
ann (the Senate) whose functions and powers
derive from the Constitution of Ireland enacted
by the People on 1st July, 1937.
6. Traditional Irish Fortune
George’s Street Arcade:
current
Traditional Irish Fortune Tellers Mrs. Murphy
and her daughter Trish specialise in Psychic
Tarot Card readings, Palmistry and the
wonders of the Crystal Ball. Each can reveal
what the future holds for you, the unexpected,
love, marriage, travel, career options and
spiritual guidance.
7. Storytellers of Ireland
Web-based: current
Storytellers of Ireland
This is a website where that can connect you
to lots of different story tellers in Ireland. They
also provide different lectures, workshops etc.
8. Yellow Arrow Project
Worldwide : 2004
Participants place uniquely-coded Yellow
Arrow stickers to draw attention to different
locations and objects - a favorite view of
the city, an odd fire hydrant, the local bar.
By sending an SMS from a mobile phone to
the Yellow Arrow number beginning with the
arrow’s unique code, Yellow Arrow authors
connect a story to the location where they
place their sticker. Messages range from
short poetic fragments to personal stories to
game-like prompts to action. When another
person encounters the Yellow Arrow, he
or she sends its code to the Yellow Arrow
number and immediately receives the
message on their mobile phone. The website
yellowarrow.net extends this location-
based exchange, by allowing participants to
annotate their arrows with photos and maps
in the online gallery of Yellow Arrows placed
throughout the world.
9. Newspapers
Worldwide : current
We read them in order to explain to ourselves
what is happening in the world. They tell us
the current stories of the day.
11. The Future’s Academy
Dublin : current
The Futures Academy’s approach is
underpinned by a basic assumption that
the future is not predetermined and can
be shaped and prepared for by those who
employ a proactive attitude. They see their
role as that of creatively exploring possible,
probable and preferred futures for Ireland
and different aspects of Irish life. They also
aim to assist organisations in detecting and
analysing present and prospective changes
and their implications, exploring possible
futures and identifying and formulating
decisions and policies that will stand the test
of time.
12. Scenario planning
Worldwide : current
Scenario planning may involve aspects of
Systems thinking, specifically the recognition
that many factors may combine in complex
ways to create sometime surprising
futures (due to non-linear feedback loops).
The method also allows the inclusion of
factors that are difficult to formalize, such
as novel insights about the future, deep
shifts in values, unprecedented regulations
or inventions. Systems thinking used in
conjunction with scenario planning leads to
plausible scenario story lines because the
causal relationship between factors can be
demonstrated. In these cases when scenario
planning is integrated with a systems
thinking approach to scenario development,
it is sometimes referred to as structural
dynamics. The International Governmental
Panel on climate change use scenarios
planning to examine possible scenarios that
might result in relation to climate change.
14. Hanging Gardens, by
Nicola Placella and Magnus
Svensson
The Why Factory, The Neth-
relands : 2008
The design project illustrates the massive
scale of intervention required to achieve even
a small percentage of self-reliancy in food
production in Barcelona. To be efficient green
must go large scale.
15. Chinese Whispers
Everywhere : always
In the game variously known as Chinese
whispers the first player whispers a phrase
or sentence to the next player. Each player
successively whispers what that player
believes he or she heard to the next. The
last player announces the statement to the
entire group. Errors typically accumulate in
the retellings, so the statement announced
by the last player differs significantly, and
often amusingly, from the one uttered by the
first. The game is often played by children as
a party game or in the playground. It is often
invoked as a metaphor for cumulative error,
especially the inaccuracies as rumours or
gossip spread,[2] or, more generally, for the
unreliability of human recollection.
16. Charades
Everywhere : always
Charades or charade is a word guessing
game. In the form most played today, it is
an acting game in which one player acts
out a word or phrase, often by pantomiming
similar-sounding words, and the other
players guess the word or phrase. The idea
is to use physical rather than verbal language
to convey the meaning to another party. It
is also sometimes called Activity, after the
board game.
17. Creating scenarios for sus-
tainable food
Gothenburg : current
Visions of future scenarios can be important
tools for creating long-term strategies. In the
project Food Göteborg 2050, researchers
and planners from Gothenburg developed
scenarios for a sustainable food production
and supply chain by using a method called
backcasting. The visualisations developed
in the scenarios have become part of the
strategic planning of the Gothenburg City and
region. Scenarios can be a tool to put words,
visions and visualisations to a necessary
process of change. A sustainable food and
grocery chain contains a movement towards
local production and sale as well as a change
in consumer behaviour. A future sustainable
diet consists of two thirds vegetable protein
and one third of animal protein, the opposite
of today.
18. New Babylon, by Constant
Utopia: 1954-74
New Babylon is a Utopian anti-capitalist
city designed in 1959-74 by artist-architect
Constant Nieuwenhuys.The goal was the
creating of alternative life experiences, called
‘situations.
19. Scratch and Sniff
Worldwide: 1970’s - present
Scratch and sniff is created through the
process of micro-encapsulation. The desired
aroma is surrounded by tiny micro-capsules
that break easily upon scratching. Because
of the micro-encapsulation, the aroma can be
preserved for extremely long periods of time.
20. Psychogeography
Anywhere: anytime
Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by
Guy Debord as “the study of the precise
laws and specific effects of the geographical
environment, consciously organized or not,
on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”
Another definition is “a whole toy box full
of playful, inventive strategies for exploring
cities...just about anything that takes
pedestrians off their predictable paths and
jolts them into a new awareness of the urban
landscape.”
21. Francis Alÿs, various works
Mexico: contmeporary
The ideas of conceptual artist Francis Alÿs
usually relate to a specific local context,
but his methods suggest a network of
possibilities that is global. He has used
the basic human activity of walking to
generate works that are remarkably diverse,
including instructional performances, photo
documentations, videos, slide projections,
animations, and paintings. Schooled as an
architect in his native Belgium and in Italy,
Alÿs has lived in Mexico City for the past
fifteen years. Much of his work has taken
inspiration from the chaotic, sensuous, and
brutal streets of that city.
24. William Kamkwamba
Africa : current
William Kamkwamba, co-author and subject
of the best-selling book The Boy Who
Harnessed the Wind. Trapped in poverty
and unable to afford school, William taught
himself to build a windmill at age 14,
generating income for his family and his
village. He went on to become a TED Africa
fellow, and win a scholarship to the African
Leadership Academy in South Africa where
he now studies, and his 2009 book has
become the subject of great media attention.
25. Barefoot Solar Engineers
The Barefoot College, India :
2006
Barefoot Solar Engineers are rural women
trained to install and repair solar power
systems in India.
The Barefoot College has been pioneering
solar electrification in rural, remote, non-
electrified villages, since 1989. The College
has demystified solar technology and is
decentralizing its application by making it
available to poor and neglected communities.
By ‘demystification’ of solar technology and
‘decentralisation’ of its application, meaning
placing the fabrication, installation, usage,
repair and maintenance of sophisticated solar
lighting units in the hands of rural, illiterate
and semi-literate men and women .
26. The Matchmaker
Lisdoonvarna, Ireland : Cur-
rent
Willie Daly, 66, is Ireland’s last traditional
matchmaker, a third-generationpractitioner
from the Co Clare town of Lisdoonvarna,
famed for its annual September. For a small
fee, he will check his records, which contains
information on possible suitors all over the
contry. Willy is the main attraction at the
annual matchmaking festival, which attracts
over 40,000 visitors each year and generates
4 million euro for the local economy.
27. Benjamin Eisenstadt
New York : 1906 – 1996
Born in New York City, and educated
at Brooklyn College, he first operated a
cafeteria across from the Navy Yard in
Brooklyn. He then switched to making
tea bags after his cafeteria declined in
revenue. He came up with the idea of single
servings of table sugar to utilize his tea bag
machinery. He shopped the idea to the major
sugar producers, but since he didn’t get a
patent, they used his idea without paying him
proper royalties. In 1957 he came up with a
formula for a powdered saccharin sweetener.
Previously saccharin was sold as liquid
drops, or tiny, hard-to-dissolve tablets. He
mixed the saccharin with dextrose to bulk it
up to a teaspoon sized portion, added cream
of tartar, and calcium silicate as an anti-
caking agent.
28. Umbrolly
UK : Current
Umbrolly offers several different types of
Umbrella vending machine, which range in
size. The smallest (named the “mini unit”) is
only 8 inches deep, and is thought to be the
smallest umbrella vending machine in the
world. The company are now in the process
of building a network of retailers who will
house the vending machines, and they have
been successful in winning over several
lucrative contracts where passing pedestrian
traffic is high, such as in airports, train
stations and shopping centres.
30. Bumrungrad Hospital
Thiland : current
The all-digital integrated system has
enabled it to accommodate a 40 percent
rise in patient loads without increasing IT
head count, achieve 33 percent gross profit
[though the cost to the customer is a tenth
what it would be in the US], and handle
860,000 outpatient visits yearly, with the
average visit including registration, treatment,
diagnostic procedures, pharmacy and bill-
paying taking just 45 minutes and medical
errors and infection rates have fallen.
The information system helps us attract and
retain doctors. It makes it easier for them to
practice high-quality medicine. Physicians
can see so much more on an electronic
health record than when you’re shuffling
through a paper record. [it also describes the
diagnostic advantages of browsing digital
images over film.]
31. People Tree
People Tree creates beautiful Fair Trade and
organic clothing and accessories by forming
lasting partnerships with Fair Trade, organic
producers in developing countries.
32. Heston Blumenthal
UK : current
Blumenthal is the owner of ‘The Fat Duck’
restaurant and is famous for his scientific
approach and has been described as a
culinary alchemist for his innovative style of
cooking.
33. Cap and Share
Fesata, Ireland : Current
Cap & Share is what is called an “upstream
system”. The cap is enforced by requiring the
fossil fuel suppliers to have permits to bring
fossil fuels into the economy. The number of
permits determines the size of the cap.
Each year you get a certificate for your share
of the country’s CO2 emissions allowance. It
might be for 10 tonnes of CO2, say. It’s free,
and every adult in the country gets the same.
The fossil fuel suppliers (oil, coal and gas
companies) have to buy these certificates
(you’d sell them via banks or post offices)
and they become the permits. If a fossil fuel
company buys your certificate, this allows them
to bring in as much fossil fuel as will emit 10
tonnes of CO2 when it’s burnt (somewhere
down the line). The more certificates they
buy, the more fossil fuels they can bring in.
34. Eat Love: Food Concepts
by Eating-Designer Marije
Vogelzang
Her work is conceptual food — and while the
medium is purposefully edible, it’s meant to
be “experienced.”
Sometimes serious, sometimes playful,
Vogelzang is all over the place — she has
no rules. Employing different strategies to
subvert and tweak the experience of eating,
she mixes and matches from the culinary,
design, and art fields, crafting experiences in
an attempt to elicit memories and emotion,
examine cultures and ritual, or simply trigger
new food sensations.
35. Lacaton & Vassal
France: Current
The architectural practice have designed
commercial, educational, cultural and
residential buildings. A connecting thread
across their work is the desire to find what
is essential in each situation and to create
a modest language of architecture based
on an economy of means. Whether it is
their celebrated conversion of the Palais de
Tokyo or their social housing refurbishments,
Lacaton and Vassal make intelligent re-
use of the existing, minimising new building
through innovative design, and through
an appreciation of the transformative
possibilities in each situation. They maintain
that ninety percent of what is required for
most projects is already available on site.
Philippe Lacaton traces this attitude to five
years spent in Niger which he describes as
a formative experience, where he witnessed
first hand what could be achieved with very
little through the innovation and creativity of
those living in scarcity.
36. Father Shay Cullen
The Philippines: Current
Father Shay Cullen, nominated three times
for the Nobel Peace Prize and other Human
Rights Awards, is a Missionary priest from
Ireland and a member of the Missionary
Society of St. Columban and has worked
protecting women and children and human
rights in the Philippines since 1969.
Father Shay Cullen established Preda
Foundation in Olongapo city, the Philippines
in 1974 to promote human rights, justice
and peace. Believing that poverty, violence
and child abuse are barriers to peace
and give rise to extremism. He strives to
eliminate child abuse and promote respect
for children’s rights. He works for peace
by striving to change the unjust economic
political and social structures and attitudes
that allow such abuse.
38. Urban Catalyst
Berlin: 2001- 2003
Urban Catalyst was a European research
project based in Berlin during 2001-2003 that
explored strategies for the temporary use
of left-over sites in urban areas. Founded
by Phillipp Misselwitz, Phillipp Oswalt
and Klaus Overmeyer the project was
organised as an interdisciplinary platform for
research and public interventions in order
to stimulate discussion amongst architects
and planners about the use of void spaces
in the city. The project took as its topic the
various unplanned and informal uses of
these spaces, which operate within informal
economies and fall outside the remit of
traditional urban planning. Using the city of
Berlin as their site, Urban Catalyst organised
a series of events, exhibitions, publications
and workshops, in order to develop strategies
for integrating such processes into the urban
design of contemporary cities. They research
explored new forms of urban development
where citizens would be the initiators rather
39. City Mine(d)
Brussels: current
City Mine(d) is an NGO based in Brussels
that has been in operation for over ten
years and now has branches in Barcelona
and London. Including artists, activists,
academics, social organisations and
politicians, the group came together around
a series of actions in derelict buildings in
Brussels in 1995 and formalised itself as an
NGO in 1997, dealing with issues arising
at the intersection of art and politics in the
city. Through a critique of the increasing
privatisation of public space in Europe, City
Mine(d) describe their aims as searching for
new forms of citizenship and working towards
the re-appropriation of public space, virtual
or otherwise. Their work takes the form of
urban interventions, action research projects
and they try to influence policy at a European
level through localised action and through
establishing a network of like-minded people
and projects.
40. The Bernard Shaw Coffee
Window
Dublin: current
A window at the front of the building has
been opened up to sell coffee directly to the
street.
42. Jamie Oliver
UK: current
James Trevor “Jamie” Oliver MBE (born
27 May 1975), sometimes known as The
Naked Chef, is a British chef, restaurateur
and media personality, known for his food-
focused television shows, cookbooks and
more recently his role in campaigning against
the use of processed foods in national
schools, and his campaign to change
unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits for
the better across the United Kingdom and the
United States.
43. Damien Hirst
UK: current
In September 2008, he took an
unprecedented move for a living artist by
selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My
Head Forever, at Sotheby’s by auction and
by-passing his long-standing galleries. The
auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111
million ($198 million), breaking the record for
a one-artist auction as well as Hirst’s own
record with £10.3 million for The Golden
Calf, an animal with 18-carat gold horns and
hooves, preserved in formaldehyde.
45. Green Cloud by HeHe
Helsinki: 2008
This environmental art installation is done
by French art duo HeHe - Helen Evans
and Heiki Hansen. Hehe have installed
Ga Green Cloud across sky of Helsinki. It
is used laser tracking to project this cloud
over the cimney of the Salmisaari power
plant. Shape and size are adjustable. Here
are an explanation from HeHe: “No other
space, network, grid, community could better
represent a city and it’s activity as a whole.
The physical dimension of the Salmisaari
site, inhabits a special position in Helsinki;
physically, visually and metaphorically. The
vertical vectors of the architecture connect
the underworld with the sky: the underground
coal storage tunnels descend to 126m below
sea level (the deepest point in Helsinki)
whilst it’s chimney reaches 155m into the
sky with its cloud disappearing into the lower
atmosphere.”
46. Talking Trash Cans
Helsinki: current
The talking trash bins greet passers-by and
encourage them to throw their trash away.
They are never at a loss for words, whether
the subject is culture or politics. This summer
tourists will be delighted to hear that the
talking trash bins speak not only Finnish
and Swedish, but also Japanese, English,
German, Polish and Russian. Tourists can
also learn the basics of the Finnish language,
such as: “One of the sure signs of summer in
Finland is that the trash bins start talking.”
48. Architect - Hertzberger
The Netherlands: current
He makes buildings which are open to interpre-
tation by their inhabitants.
49. Extreme Green Guerrillas, by
Michiko Nitta
London: 2007
This project gives a critical point of view on the
current general green visions, because many
green activities are used as a medium of con-
sumerism. Even though climate disaster might
be happening, the artist doesn’t want people to
panic and just follow what they are told to do.
By illustrating an extreme green scenario
through E.G.G. manual book, she would like
people to think of the core problems and de-
bate about it. Her point is not to say that this is
the solution nor the future. Her role is more to
provoke with intriguiging artworks, have people
question their lifestyle and get the debate on
green issues going.
On the left is the examples of messaging ve-
hicles.
51. Animaris Percipiere by Theo
Jansen
The Netherlands: 2006
This artist/engineer makes wind powered
sculptures
52. Zeekracht, by OMA
The Netherlands: current
Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Archi-
tecture made plans for an incredible array of
oceanic wind farms that may one day produce
as much energy as the Persian Gulf. Dubbed
Zeekracht (sea power), the masterplan com-
prises a massive ring of wind farms centered
around the Netherlands that spans seven ad-
jacent countries. By calling for such a large
network of communal infrastructure and knowl-
edge, the plan takes a giant step towards
ensuring European energy independency by
2025.
53. Collective Consciousness
Collective consciousness is a mode
of awareness that emerges at the first
transpersonal stage of consciousness, when
our identities expand beyond our egos.
A crucial capacity that accompanies this
awareness is the ability to intuitively sense and
work with the interactions between our and
others’ energy fields, physically, emotionally,
mentally and spiritually. For example, just as
Gene Rodenberry imagined a future where Star
Trek’s Spock could “mind meld” with others,
more of us are now becoming aware of our
capacity not only to intuit each other’s thoughts
and emotions, but also to consciously think and
create together without communicating through
our five senses.
54. Tone Zone
Dunshaughlin Co. Meath:
current
The first Tone Zone in Ireland is situated
in a recreational area in Dunshaughlin Co.
Meath, near an existing skateboard park
and a children’s playground. There are nine
pieces of exercise equipment, some of which
can accommodate up to four adults at one
time. Users can improve joint mobility and
perform aerobic exercises on an air walker,
parallel bars, a leg press, a rocking horse, self-
weighted leg press, a sit-up board and sitting
or standing rotators. The robust, colourful
machines are constructed to the same safety
standards required of children’s playground
equipment, are easy to maintain and will
withstand tough weather conditions.
55. BirdWatch Ireland
Ireland : current
BirdWatch Ireland is involved in a wide range
of conservation work, including a number
of survey and research projects, applied
conservation projects, and the development
and advocacy of policies in relation to issues
of importance for the conservation of birds
and their habitats in Ireland. This information
forms a basis for the legal framework for the
protection of Ireland’s birds. Click here for
more information on why birds deserve our
protection.
56. William H. Whyte: The Social
Life of Small Urban Spaces -
The Street Corner
Documentary: 1969
Witty and original film about the open spaces
of cities and why some of them work for people
while others do not.
57. Pocket Parks
Cpenhagen: current
Green cities are on the rise. Copenhagen, the
capital of Denmark, is one of the cities trying
to improve the urban environment and deal
with the daily green needs and desires of its
inhabitants. One way of doing so is pocket
parks: Open green spaces at a very small
scale, often created on vacant building lots or
on irregular pieces of land.
58. Ringkøbing-Skjern
Denmark: current
Ringkøbing-Skjern: A laboratory of green
growthThe Municipality of Ringkøbing-Skjern
has a vision of becoming a ‘laboratory of green
growth.’ An energy council is mobilized to
facilitate informal partnerships and networks
between local industries, NGOs and local
citizens. In collaboration with local enterprises,
businessmen, farmers and local citizens, the
municipality of Ringkøbing-Skjern is aiming
for green growth entirely through renewable
energy. environment and the economy.
59. Changing citizen behaviour
leads to cleaner city
Belfast: 2004
Since 2004 Belfast City Council has been
working hard to make the city cleaner. Litter
was to be found everywhere in public areas.
The city council therefore launched an anti-
litter campaign aimed at improving public
behaviour towards littering. The campaign used
a combination of advertising and penalty fines.
This case focuses on campaigns to change
public behaviour towards littering.
60. Industrial Symbiosis - Waste
makes resource
Kalundborg, Denmark:
Industrial Symbiosis is a collaborative
enterprise in which the by-products of one
industry become valuable resources for one
or several other industries. The overall result
is of direct economic benefit to the companies
involved and widespread environmental benefit
to the surrounding region. By 1998, Kalundborg
could already boast that internal collaboration
between industries had amounted to savings of
160 million dollars since the project’s outset.
The basis of the Industrial Symbiosis
cooperation in Kalundborg is open
communication and mutual trust between the
partners. Business to business relationships
occur on a voluntary basis, but are
encouraged, facilitated and managed by the
Kalundborg Symbiosis Institute.
61. Compost creates income for
park maintenance
Nairobi: current
Lack of toilet facilities and waste dominating
public places is a reality in many places all over
the world. A slum in Nairobi, Kenya, has come
up with a possible answer to the challenge by
creating parks that contain toilets and compost
facilities. The compostable waste of the area
is used to produce compost, which is sold
locally as fertilizer and generates income used
to maintain the park and toilets. The case may
inspire others to bring sustainable economy
into waste management systems and parks.
62. Mexican Wave
Anywhere: anytime
The Mexican wave is achieved in a packed
stadium when successive groups of spectators
briefly stand and raise their arms. Each
spectator is required to rise at the same time
as those straight in front and behind, and
slightly after the person immediately to either
the right (for a clockwise wave) or the left (for
a counterclockwise wave). Immediately upon
stretching to full height, the spectator returns to
the usual seated position.
63. Pilobolus, dance company
Anywhere: anytime
This collaborative dance company is acclaimed
for its mix of humor, invention, and drama.
Drawing inspiration from biology Pilobolus has
created a dance vocabulary all its own.
64. Do the Green Thing
Web-based: anytime
Green Thing is a not-for-profit public service
that inspires people to lead a greener life. With
the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories
from creative people and community members
around the world, Green Thing focuses on
seven things you can do - and enjoy doing.
67. Irish Country Women’s
Association
National : 1910-present
The ICA was founded in May 1910 by a
small group of well educated and largely
Protestant women in Bree, Co Wexford. It is
non-denominational and non-party political,
principles which continue to this day and our
members are drawn from every background
and shade of opinion.
From the start, the Society of the United
Irishwomen tackled the big issues of the day
that affected women’s lives, and this has
continued throughout the decades. The ICA
has been instrumental in providing practical
support in the development of basic utilities
in Ireland, such as water and electricity, and
in influencing policy in health, education,
adult education, agriculture, horticulture, arts
& crafts, and on a range of other issues.
68. Unemployed Ireland
Ireland : Current
A help website for all recently unemployed
people in Ireland
http://www.unemployedireland.com/Home.
aspx
69. The Ark
Dublin, Ireland : Current
The Ark, Europe’s first custom-built
Children’s Cultural Centre, programmes,
promotes and hosts high quality cultural work
which is by children, for children and about
children.
The Ark is a charitable organisation, founded
on the principle that all children, as citizens,
have the same cultural entitlements as
adults.
We work with a diverse range of Irish and
international artists to develop original,
inspirational and playful programmes for
children (aged between 3-14) so that they
can extend their imaginations and horizons.
Certificates are in demand, and are worth
serious money.
70. Mary Hark
USA : current
Mary Hark, artist and Assistant Professor
at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
In collaboration with local artists and
educators in Kumasi, Ghana, Mary helped
create a local hand-made papermaking
initiative that creates an income-generating
product and protects the environment and
local community by putting to use a non-
indigenous, invasive plant that has been
damaging farms as the paper source rather
than using native trees. The GIA will allow
the local artists and educators in Ghana to
share their knowledge with youth, and will lay
a foundation for ongoing youth engagement
at their studio
71. Friends of the Elderly
Ireland : Current
Friends of the Elderly is an Irish charity that
works to alleviate loneliness and isolation
amongst older people who live alone or feel
alone. We believe in supporting people to
remain independent and to live at home for
as long as possible. We think that providing
the essentials in life is necessary, but even
more important is the loving support of
friends.
72. BeLonG To
Ireland : current
Today BeLonG To Youth Services for
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender
(LGBT) Young People launched the nation’s
first ever gay awareness week for young
people. The week is themed STAND UP!
Show your support for your LGBT friends,
and focuses on the importance of friendships
amongst young people, particularly when
tackling homophobic bullying.
73. Healthabitat
Australia : current
Healthabitat link environmental conditions,
and in particular the provision of adequate
housing, to general health and well-being.
Their work has especially addressed these
issues in the context of the Aboriginal
people of Australia whose living environment
and health standards have been woefully
inadequate in relation to white Australians.
Established in 1985 by architect, Paul
Pholeros, anthropologist, Stephen Rainbow
and physician, Paul Torzillo. The success of
Healthabitat’s approach lies in its simplicity
and their commitment that for every research
phase some action or material transformation
should also occur. This pledge is especially
important in a context where Aboriginal
communities had failed to see any major
improvement in their living conditions despite
numerous reports, surveys and analyses.
74. Public Works
London : current
Public works is an art and architecture
practice based in London which was
established in 1999. Currently three of the
five founding members remain: the artist
Katrin Böhm, architects Torange Khonsari
and Andreas Lang, alongside artist Polly
Brannan who joined in 2005. Public works
create projects that investigate how users
engage with public space, devising strategies
for supporting social, cultural and other
initiatives in both urban and rural contexts.
They employ playful methods to involve
local users, residents and passers-by in their
projects, often making interventions on site in
order to inform and expand a given brief.
Park Products is series of collaboratively
produced goods using resources found in
Kensington Gardens to be exchanged in a non-
monetary mini-economy during the summer
75. Irish Guide Dogs for the
Blind
Ireland : current
Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind is a national
charity dedicated to helping persons who are
blind or vision impaired or families of children
with autism to achieve improved mobility and
independence.
76. Multisensory Integration
Multimodal integration, known as
‘multisensory integration’ is the study of
how information from the different sensory
modalities, such as sight, sound, touch,
smell, self-motion and taste, may be
integrated by the nervous system. Such
integration may result in unified perceptual
experiences that are coherent across
sensory modalities. Multimodal integration
also deals with how different sensory
modalities interact with one another and alter
each other’s processing.
77. Mobile schools
Goa : current
In the state of Goa in India, Danish couple
Anders Linnet and Mette Lange have set up
a project they have called MovingSchools.
Their mobile classrooms can be moved to
wherever Indian migrant workers and their
families live and work. This enables their
children to get a free education no matter
where their parents have to work. The school
is built from cheap, local materials, its wheels
allowing a tractor to pull it to wherever the
children need it. The children are taught in
their own language, giving them a unique
opportunity to attend school, even if they do
not speak the local language.
78. Cloughjordan
Ireland: current
The Cloughjordan Ecovillage is a not-for-
profit organisation developing an alternative
model for sustainable living. The ecovillage
aims to provide a healthy, satisfying and
socially-rich lifestyle while minimising
ecological impacts. The 67-acre site includes
beautiful and fertile land for growing food and
trees to promote local food production and
biodiversity.
79. Sustainable Urban
Communities
Montreal: current
In 2003, students from the McGill University
of Montreal, Canada, began the Montreal
Urban Community Sustainment collective
(MUCS). A non-profit student organization,
the MUCS was founded on the principles
of green design, cooperative living, and
education on sustainable livelihoods. The
organisation’s mission is to create and
promote sustainable urban communities.
One of the keys to the successful presence
of the MUCS as a community group was
the creation of a dining co-op, which was
born in July 2007. Thanks to this initiative,
anyone can stop by four nights a week to
find healthy, delicious food and a warm,
welcoming environment in which to share it.
At the present time, several working groups
are active within the MUCS community
81. An Age-Friendly City
New York: current
Long emblematic of youth, energy, and fast-
paced life, New York City has embraced the
challenge of becoming more ‘age-friendly.’
The collaborative efforts of a variety of
municipal departments will help the city to
address the needs of its growing elderly
population in ways that will physically
transform the city.
82. Respect for Learning and
Teachers
Singapore: current
Education is Singapore’s most important form
of capital, and the government considers
money spent on education as a necessary
investment - not as an expense. Teachers
are highly educated and highly respected
in Singapore, where politicians would never
dream of criticising the job done by teachers.
However, respect for the school system is
not based on a blind belief in authority and
the three Rs. Singaporeans do not simply
manage well in tests and learning things
by heart, they are also making tremendous
headway in design and innovation. Less
homework and more creativity and group
work are part of the recipe.
83. Face the Climate
Copenhagen: current
Freely accessible teaching material about the
climate and human living conditions provide
meditative insight into the environment
and support the idea of knowledge sharing
and green learning as prerequisites for the
sustainable cities of the future.
Multimedia teaching material is extremely
suitable when it comes to accommodating
individual pupils’ learning styles and it can
also be used in remedial teaching.
Journalistic reports from the real world
together with involving teaching methods,
issues and knowledge relevant to, and
appropriate for, the students.
84. Life beneath the asphalt
Seoul
What was built in Seoul, Korea, in the
1960s as the road to efficiency, became
a health and safety hazard for the people
of the city. The decision to dismantle an
elevated highway and a buried polluted
sewer was based on the expense of adding
reinforcement and ongoing maintenance.
What began as a question of cost evolved
into a question of value. Cheonggyecheon
River has been transformed from traffic
corridor into people-friendly destination.
Seoul has been reunited with its past history,
its present culture and its future market.
85. Drainage scheme makes
for peace of mind in urban
extension
Upton: current
In Northampton in England, a landscape-
based drainage scheme has helped achieve
sustainable urban development in an area
previously plagued by flooding. The new
community of Upton handles rainwater at
source by means of a system of ditches and
green areas and focuses on vulnerable road
users and proximity to everyday necessities.
87. DreamScape by Attainable
Utopias
Web-based: 2006
What they say ‘Dreamscape’ is:
‘A mutual process of realizing dreams
Arguably, a Utopia without participation,
subscription and ownership is not really a
utopia!
If Attainable Utopia (AU) works it will be one
part of a joined-up network of utopias.
The ‘DreamScape’ is simply the website’s
whole approach to the support of Dreaming?.
Making this work for a (our) whole Network
entails designing an eco-mimetic system.
This will allow individuals to contribute
to their own ‘individual utopia’ whilst also
helping to evolve joined-up, and ‘collective
utopias’’.
88. Walk on the beach in
Sandymount
Dublin: current
An authentic Dublin experience.
98. Unbranded Curitiba
Brazil: current
The inhabitants of the megapolis of Curitiba in
Brazil have 16 parks, 14 forests and more than
1000 green public spaces as their immediate
neighbours. As a whole, the green urban
areas in Curitiba are among the largest in
the world and every inhabitant of the city has
approximately 52 m² of nature to romp about
in. Brazil’s green capital makes a tremendous
effort to preserve the city’s natural environment
and is regarded by many as one of the world’s
best examples of green urban planning.
100. Urban acupuncture creates
new life in the suburbs
Amsterdam: current
The Dutch capital Amsterdam is running out
of space. The city centre has no more room
for housing and entertainment activities, for
which reason urban planners are now trying
to create new urban centres on the outskirts
of the city to comply with the population’s
increasing need for space. In Zuidost, in
the south of Amsterdam, architects have
optimised conditions in the socially deprived
area of Bijlmermeer by means of Urban
Acupuncture, turning the area into a new
entertainment mecca.
101. Witty Names
Dublin: current
E.g. - ‘the Stiletto in the Ghetto, ‘the floozy in
the jacuzzi’, ‘the tart with the cart’, ‘the wart
by the dorsh’, ‘the tube in the cube’
103. My Forestfarm
The Philippines: all the time
What happens when real life interrupts your
fantasy life? This must happen particularly
often for the online community of Second Life
(SL); a virtual 3D world inhabited by ‘avatars’
of millions of real individuals from around
the world. Dirk Fleischmann’s Flex Dix on
Second LifeArtist Dirk Fleischmann was an
active user of the virtual world, so we com-
missioned him to make some work about
ecology that would address the online com-
munity. Then, in 2008 real life interrupted
Fleischmann when he went to the Philippines
and he stopped using SL for a year. Now, for
the month of June 2009, his avatar Flex Dix
is live in SL[2] and has a one-avatar cam-
paign to share with the online community. He
tells the tale of the reforestation work that
Fleischmann and others have been carry-
ing out in real life with a community living in
the mountains near Antipolo City, about two
hours from Manila. Myforrestfarm centres on
the idea of how activities in one place affect
another.
104. Open City
Chile: In progress
A designed city still in formation that has no
master plan, no imposed ordering devices,
and no hierarchical networks of infrastruc-
ture. The strange buildings placed among
dunes and grasslands reflect instead the
mind’s translation of urban phenomena and
natural phenomena relative to the construc-
tion of memory, and a process of composition
that is not dependent on stylistic precedents,
drawing boards, or academic discourse.
Teaching takes place on site and employs
poetic methods to activate the design pro-
cess; the endeavor is considered more im-
portant than the result. More than 100 pho-
tographs are included, capturing the mystical
spirit of the place and of its architecture.
106. Moving Dublin
Cleary and Conolly: 2009
“A million everyday journeys course through
the veins of Dublin, giving it life (or poison-
ing it?). These journeys range in scale and
rhythm from the incessant flow of motorway
traffic through the familiar trundling of a local
bus journey right down to an early morning
stroll around the block with the dog. This pro-
fusion of intersecting paths give the places
its form, carving roads, highways and public
spaces. The impact of these journeys trans-
forms lives, changes the face of the city, and
resonates on a planetary level. For two years
we moved around Dublin in every way pos-
sible: by car, taxi, bus or train, tram, bicycle
and on foot. We met score of Dubliners, and
recorded dozens of personal accounts of
moving through the city. We amassed a trea-
sure trove of documents: video, photographs,
interviews, sounds, stories. The result is
Moving Dublin; a road movie, a picture book,
and many other things. Above all Moving
Dublin is a homage to the city that Lady Mor-
gan once called her dear dirty Dublin.”
