Trend Watch, August 2016

smart pavement:

Melbourne design agency Büro North is proposing in-ground traffic lights to safeguard pedestrians glued to their smartphones.

Architecture & Design reports that the firm developed the idea following reports of accidents involving players of the augmented reality game Pokémon Go (see our White Paper on Pokémon, augmented reality and cities).

Read the full story and watch the video, here.

Photo: Büro North.

#GetSunflowered:

David Bullpitt documents beautiful urban interventions with the planting of sunflower fields in prime renewal areas in the La Trobe Valley, Victoria.

In Architecture AU he writes, “the Get Sunflowered project by RMIT University’s Office of Urban Transformations Research (OUTR) offers an un-ashamedly happy intervention.”

The project received an Award of Excellence in this year’s Victorian AILA awards.

See the latest via the #getsunflowered Facebook feed, or visit the website for information on how to get involved.

Photo: Craig Douglas.

Trump short-changes architect:

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has filmed an interview with an architect who was allegedly short-changed by rival Donald Trump. Architizer reports.

Andrew Tesoro was approached by Trump’s organisation back in 2002 to design a new clubhouse at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, New York.

The architect accepted the commission with enthusiasm: it was a prestigious project that could transform his small business.

Four years later, after his invoice had been sent and ignored, Tesoro was summoned to a meeting at the clubhouse. In the ballroom he designed, the architect was offered one-third of his bill.

However, this invoice too, was unpaid.

Tesoro says he met with Trump himself, who told him, “I really don’t think I should pay any more, because I spent too much on this building,” and proposed to pay less than 20 per cent of the original sum.

Read the full story, and watch the interview, here.

Photo: Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons.

zombie urbanism:

“This is what I mean by zombie urbanism. Everything looks nice and urban, but in terms of social life, it’s rather sterile and dead.”

In an interview with Jeremiah Moss, Norwegian urbanism professor Jonny Aspen gives bland public place-making a piece of his mind.