still sustainable city blog: ROME » Green Urbanism

I was at the Campidoglio yesterday for the presentation of Rome’s “Piano Quadro della Ciclabilita’”, the plan to promote and support bicycling as an alternative to motorized transport.  ...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2010/05/14/roma-ciclabile-or/

Springtime in Rome always brings excitement and hope for the city, optimism can’t help but prevail amidst the flowering trees, jubilant tourists and warmer weather.  Except when the flowering ...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2010/05/08/update-from-rome-2/

Last week an important conference was held at the Auditorium in Rome: Progetto Millennium. Rome 2010-2020, New Models for Urban Transformation.  A panel of experts from the fields of architectur...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2010/04/11/progetto-millennium/

Some years ago I had my office on Piazza Farnese and would often walk or bike along Via Giulia on my way to work, fueling my frustration with the invasion of cars along what was designed as a gra...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2010/03/15/via-giulia-a-renaissance-jewel-in-need-of-a-rebirth/

Last week I had to go to the University of Rome’s central campus to pick up my university degrees (the new one I recently earned from the Architecture school there plus my original Princeton an...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2010/03/05/the-least-green-campus/

This past week I participated in the conference and workshop “Towards a Frugal Architecture”, sponsored by theFondazione Bruno Zevi, AACUPI (the Association of North American University Progr...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2010/01/26/frugal-architecture/

This month I’ve decided to upload the English-language translation I made of the “CicloDecalogo”, a document presented last fall to the city of Rome by a committee of urban biking activists...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2010/01/16/ten-commandments-for-a-bike-able-rome/

I can’t help returning again and again to Rome’s cultural addiction to automobiles, it’s so obvious a problem but one to which so many Romans seem either oblivious or resigned.  We know th...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/10/03/the-elephant-in-the-rome/

This summer has been a hot one in Italy but I’ve just learned how hot: 1.9 degrees Centigrade higher than the 30 year period documented  from 1961-1990.  Almost 2 degrees hotter than my first...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/09/07/temperature-rising/

Like many architects, I am in love with simple, minimal elegance, with clean lines and stripped down, ordered space.  But I have become increasingly aware of the cost which accompanies minimal d...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/08/16/cities-need-space-for-junk/

Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song. The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymph...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/06/19/rivers-of-the-world/

Last week hundreds of practical-minded and environmentally-motivated urban cyclists took to the streets and highways in Rome for the “Intergalactic Critical Mass”.  For a few hours at the en...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/06/03/more-on-biking-in-rome/

Yesterday I attended a meeting organized on Facebook (Quelli che osano la BICI a Roma is the group) at a bookshop in Garbatella. As community organization meetings go this was pretty well done. ...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/02/22/organizing-bicycling-in-rome/

YouTube link: This is my first real effort at using video on my blog; feedback is welcome as always.  This discussion on architecture in the city follows up on discussions and readings by propon...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/02/13/traditional-modern-and-sustainable-architecture-in-rome/

On the trendy but spectacular terrace of the ES Hotel overlooking the tracks of Termini Station and one of Rome’s most multi-cultural neighborhoods, the Esquiline, I and hundreds of other expat...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/01/26/the-green-administration-back-home/

When the floodwaters of the Tiber subsided in late December, left behind was graphic evidence of the depth the river had reached.  The trees alongside the river, submerged in polluted water for ...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2009/01/01/time-to-take-down-the-decorations/

Images sent around the world from Rome this month provided gripping imagery for the changing climate. As heavy and continuous rainfall fell on central Italy, the Tiber river reached record height...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2008/12/26/rome-and-its-river-2009/

The fact that renewable energy is no longer the terrain of the radical green counter culture is illustrated pretty clearly in the photo above which I took at the Zero Emissions Rome trade fair ye...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2008/10/03/zero-emissions-rome/

I’m a militant biker. Not the loud Harley-riding type, but (worse) the self-righteous self-propelled urban two-wheeler. I ride a Collalti, the bike of choice of many centro storico low-impact c...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2008/07/05/the-eternally-cyclable-city/

When you think of Green Cities you probably don’t think of Rome.  The European cities that come to mind tend to be those where progressive civic projects in recent years have promoted clean en...

https://sustainablerome.blog/2008/06/21/what-makes-rome-a-sustainable-city/