Guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites, areas that are not being cared for, or private property.
Sounds like a fun concept! More info and examples can be heard in the 99 Percent Invisible podcast episode below that is one of my favourites of all time!
Barricades that divide areas of Northern Ireland to help keep the peace. Also called Peace Walls as many are really walls.
These could apply to other places where similar barriers exist, but the term originated and is mostly associated with the complex situation in Northern Ireland. From the 99 Percent Invisible podcast episode below.
The production of urbanization independent from formal frameworks
and assistance (if they exist) that do not comply with official rules and regulations.
Less formally, DIY alterations to urban spaces, especially public spaces, by people.
Here more about it, and many examples positive and negative, in the 99 Percent Invisible podcast episode below.
How much value can a miniature model of a city have? Why don’t you ask the citizens and officials of San Francisco? They have a roughly 40 feet x 40 feet model of the city from the 1930s that is a buzz in the city today for conversations around the city’s history, present, and democratic urban planning for the future. That’s despite the model having been recently rediscovered and restored, some 80 years after it was built and 70 years after it had been put away? But if you can’t talk to the San Franciscans, or the right ones, have a listen to the 99% Invisible podcast below and hear for yourself!
Every city needs a decent city model, it would seem to me. There seems to be something about seeing the entirety of something in front of our eyes that changes our minds and feelings about it. Think about the Blue Marble photo of planet Earth taken over 50 years ago. It still inspires many. But so few cities have such a model, probably for the worse, and that’s too bad.
If you hadn’t noticed, the world around you isn’t designed for women. Even if you had noticed like I have, I bet you hadn’t noticed it to the extent Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, does. Man, it’s shocking!
Despite how incredible the bias is, it’s nothing compared to the ignorance and unwillingness to change it, like with car seat dummies in crash testing. They use a scaled down 50 percentile male and puts it in the passenger seat! That’s where they even try rather than just stick to the 50 percentile male. What? Women don’t drive? Or maybe aren’t stupid so they couldn’t make a dummy of one to be fair, or risk being offensive in doing so? Yes, that must be the reason [sarcasm, if you can’t detect it].
So many more eye opening examples are in the 99 Percent Invisible podcast below, including some really obscure ones you’d have trouble grasping, like how snow plowing patterns are designed for male driving. But still not enough for me as I’m going to have to get the book to learn more, being a designer of many things myself. I’m sure I’ve designed numerous things unknowingly biased towards me, but I’ve also learned to correct my ways such as giving women pockets in some garments I have designed for them… and equal sized pockets to men at that rather than ones 40% smaller that the fashion industry gives them!
Digital Citizen 