Zona Velha de Funchal

“Arte de Portas Abertas” is a public art program that aims in transforming Funchal´s Old town (Zona Velha) into a permanent outdoor art gallery by displaying over 200 works of art, by guest artists, painted on the doors of Rua de Santa Maria.Below some of the highlights of this unique urban art experiment.

For a full list of the artists and info on the project visit: http://www.arteportasabertas.com/

Sassi di Matera

The Sassi di Matera (meaning "stones of Matera") are ancient cave dwellings in the Italian city of Matera, Basilicata. Situated in the old town, they are composed of the Sasso Caveoso and the later Sasso Barisano.
Matera has gained international fame for its "Sassi". The Sassi originate from a prehistoric (troglodyte) settlement, and are thought to be the second oldest city in the world.

The Sassi are houses dug into the rock itself locally called "tufo". Many of these "houses" are caves, and the streets in some parts of the Sassi are located on the rooftops of other houses. The ancient town grew in height on one slope of the ravine created by a river that is now a small stream. The ravine is known locally as "La Gravina".

In the 1950s, the government of Italy forcefully relocated most of the population of the Sassi to areas of the developing modern city. Riddled with malaria the unsanitary conditions were considered a shame for Italy. However, people continued to live in the Sassi, and according to the English Fodor's guide:

Matera is the only place in the world where people can boast to be still living in the same houses of their ancestors of 9,000 years ago.

Until the late 1980s this was considered an area of poverty, since these houses were, and in most areas still are, mostly unlivable. Current local administration, however, has become more tourism-oriented, and has promoted the re-generation of the Sassi with the aid of the European Union, the government, UNESCO, and Hollywood: one of the benefits of the ancient city, is that there is a great similarity in the look of the Sassi with that of ancient sites in and around Jerusalem. This has caught the eye of film directors and movie studios.
Principally due to this reason the Sassi were the set of many films, as for example "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (Pasolini, 1964), "King David" (Bruce Beresford, 1985), "The Passion of the Christ" (Mel Gibson, 2004) and "The Nativity Story" (Hardwicke, 2006).

The New World Trade Center

Best of TED - JR: Use art to turn the world inside out

It takes few minutes to enter into synch with his art but it is definetely worth watching till the end, an innovative urban concept of artistic endeavour, highly reccomended.

Arcology, the new urban dimension Part I

As the world population is approaching the 7 billion mark, the concept of Arcology is getting more and more attention as a self-sustainable architecture able to accomodate large population within an ecological and energy efficient structure.
Arcology is a combination of the words Architecture and Ecology and was coined and put in practice by the Italian Architect Paolo Soleri.
An arcology is distinguished from a merely large building in that it is supposed to sustainably supply all or most of the resources for a comfortable life: power, climate control, food production, air and water purification, sewage treatment etc.. It is supposed to supply these items for a large population and reduce human impact on dwindling natural resources. An arcology would need no connections to municipal or urban infrastructure in order to operate. Soleri describes ways of compacting city structures in three dimensions to combat two dimensional urban sprawl and economize on transportation and other energy uses.
Soleri's plans are not just "human beehives". Like Wright, Soleri proposed important changes in transportation, agriculture and commerce. Soleri explored reductions in resource consumption and duplication, land reclamation and proposed to eliminate most private transportation. He favored greater use of shared social resources like public libraries.

Soleri's work on arcology started in 1970, the Arcosanti project (above) is a community planned for 5000 people. Located near Cordes Junction, 70 miles north of Phoenix, Arcosanti is a prototype of a desert arcology, the first attempt to provide a new way of social aggregation and still today is a work in progress. Many cities are currently planning arcologies even if the term is sometimes incorrectly extended to a series of ecological or energy efficient buildings or neighborhoods rather than to a single mega structure: an example is the now defunct Dongtan Project pictured below:

Arcology, the new urban dimension Part II

Certain urban projects reflect arcological principles. Pedestrian connection systems often provide a wide range of goods and services in a single structure. Some examples include the +15 system in downtown Calgary:

or the Minneapolis Skyway System:

They include supermarkets, malls and entertainment complexes. The +15 is the world's most extensive skywalk, 16 km (10 miles). Minneapolis has the longest single path, eight miles (13 km).

The largest arcology project under current development is Masdar City near Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. It is projected to house between 45,000 and 50,000 inhabitants on 6 square kilometers, and to have a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero waste ecology.

Arcology, the new urban dimension Part III

Still a proper arcology has not been built yet and although many plans are in place it could take many years to see the development of the first arco-city. I have collected below some of the most interesting projects currently being studied:

Proposed building on the Huan River, Seoul, South Korea:

The 2 Mile Ultima Tower:

NOAH (New Orleans Arcology) meant to house 40.000 residents: