landscape – mammoth // building nothing out of something

Category Archives: landscape

September 28, 2009 – 7:53 pm

not purely mathematical constructions

[Sensors lining the coast of Monterrey Bay, measuring surface currents] A NYTimes article reports on the increasing interest of scientists in “Lagrangian coherent structures”, physical constructs within liquid and gaseous flows which are essentially invisible to unaided eye, but revealed and mapped with the aid of networks of sensors and pattern-discerning algorithms: The concept of […]

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August 19, 2009 – 7:44 am

tree cultivation in the sahel

Farmers in the Sahel are combating desertification with trees — but by cultivating them, not planting them: Amidst his fields of millet and sorghum, Sawadogo is also growing trees. And the trees, he says, work wonders.  The temperature here is very different than in town, Sawadogo says. The forest acts like a pump. The air […]

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August 12, 2009 – 2:56 pm

mammoth suburban land infusions

Here is a little something Rob and I put together for the Re-burbia competition.  Our entry asks the questions: What if the challenge suburbs face is not that they over-consume land, but have too little? How could an infusion of new land simultaneously (and paradoxically) mitigate some of the issues caused by the under-utilization of […]

By Stephen | Also posted in speculative-architecture, the-city-we-have, urbanism | Tagged , , | Comments (10) | Permalink
July 20, 2009 – 8:56 pm

its prettiness and romance will then be gone

As long as I’m on the subject of urban parks that serve as components of flood management systems, I ought to mention the recent Buffalo Bayou Promenade in Houston, which is not only an admirable and forward-thinking project from a city not known for its innovative ecological design (though they have built a rather seductive […]

By rholmes | Also posted in engineering, infrastructure, landscape-architecture, urbanism | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2) | Permalink
June 13, 2009 – 2:13 pm

bulwarks and flux

Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu, returning from a tour of the Netherlands’ coastal armaments, says America needs to “rethink its entire approach to low-lying coastal areas and adopt an integrated model of water management like that of the Netherlands.” Here at mammoth, we (of course) think that this is a fantastic idea, and not only because […]

By rholmes | Also posted in infrastructure | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (11) | Permalink
June 12, 2009 – 7:26 pm

edward burtynsky

Eat your heart out Richard Serra.  http://www.edwardburtynsky.com > ships > shipbreaking. After reading this post I was referred to here by a friend: http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/ It turns out to be doubly relevant to recent posts: not only containing beautiful images of manufactured landscapes, but also absolutely stunning images of shipbreaking in Chittagong, Bangladesh. via Nico Sy, who doesn’t […]

By Stephen | Also posted in architecture, asides, geography | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3) | Permalink
May 27, 2009 – 9:30 am

field guides to highway interchanges

From the beginning of last week, A Field Guide to Freeway Interchanges (part one // part two) on Infrastructurist. Below, one of my favorite interchanges, the interbreeding of I-95, I-295, and I-395 over the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River in Baltimore.

By rholmes | Also posted in asides, landscapes-in-search-of-an-architect, urbanism | Tagged , , | Comments (1) | Permalink
May 21, 2009 – 9:26 am

the ambiguity of seamelt and landrise

One of the trends which most observers of global warming warn us could have particularly dire consequences is the rise of sea levels. And not without reason. The recent evacuation of the Cateret islands, chronicled by Dan Box as the tale of the world’s first climate refugees (though perhaps most recent would be more appropriate, […]

By rholmes | Also posted in geography | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (2) | Permalink
April 28, 2009 – 12:50 pm

a quick visual tour of the urban prairies of america’s heartland

Beginning with Detroit; Saint Louis and Buffalo after the jump.

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April 24, 2009 – 12:21 pm

the most sublime room in the world

The French keep all of the nuclear waste from the last thirty years of energy production in one room, the storage vault at La Hague. la hague in penisular context portion of la hague facility [google maps] If, as the landscape theorist Beth Meyers has suggested, sublime sentiments can be stirred by the juxtaposition of […]

By rholmes | Also posted in infrastructure, landscapes-in-search-of-an-architect | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on the most sublime room in the world | Permalink
April 18, 2009 – 5:11 pm

The Endurance of Cities, pt.1

I went to an interesting lecture put on by the architecture league Monday night. From the description on their website: “Eric Firley will discuss his recent research for the book The Urban Housing Handbook (Wiley, 2009), co-authored with Caroline Stahl. Exploring the relationship between architecture and the urban fabric, the handbook provides graphic representations and […]

By Stephen | Also posted in architecture, urbanism | Tagged , , | Comments (11) | Permalink
April 16, 2009 – 7:39 am

twenty-five years of las vegas

Las Vegas, first in 1984 and then in 2009: [via NASA’s Earth Observatory]

By rholmes | Also posted in asides, geography, urbanism | Tagged , | Comments (1) | Permalink
April 13, 2009 – 1:03 pm

the cemetery as landscape memory

Via bldgblog’s links bar, the northeast corner of Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, a 477-acre cemetery inside the city limits which concealed for over a century — and accidentally preserved, through neglect — a 25-acre remnant of tallgrass prairie, the grassland ecosystem which once flowed across the midwest, carried by seed and fire, capped by […]

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April 9, 2009 – 1:45 pm

bracket: hydrating luanda

The following is a study of a hypothetical water farming infrastructure for the arid city of Luanda, Angola; using fog harvesting nets with varying capabilities. Luanda, the fastest growing city in the world, is desperately short of clean water. Only one in six Luandan households has running water, forcing most of the inhabitants of the […]

By mammoth | Also posted in architecture, urbanism | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (18) | Permalink