New concept to see older women live together to avoid homelessness, loneliness:
Older women are recognised as the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people in Australia, writes Dea Clark for ABC News, as they struggle to find affordable housing.
With a soaring rental market and no hope of owning their own homes, Dea tells the stories of women who are turning to a newly formed foundation Sharing With Friends, which aims to provide the opportunity to buy into custom-built shared housing.
The prototype, designed by Eloise Atkinson, will fit on an 800-square-metre suburban block of land provided by the charity. Five women will each invest $120,000 to pay for the construction of the accommodation consisting of five private living quarters, a communal laundry, library and garden.
Eloise Atkinson told the ABC the challenge was to balance the cost with liveability. “It set up a number of conversations about what the women are prepared to share and what do they need to have as private space,” she said.
The concept not only provides a housing solution for single women, but also addresses another epidemic – loneliness.
Sharing With Friends president Susan Davies said she had 120 women on her database keen to explore the concept.
Read more about the womens’ stories in the article on ABC News.
Images: Sharing With Friends.
How does removing parking and road space affect people with disabilities?
“There are people for whom the alternatives to driving and parking a car are not practical,” writes Daniel Herriges for Strong Towns – some people rely on quick, door-to-door access, including many people with disabilities.
Herriges lays out three reasons why “those who heavily depend on car access right now need not fear a transition to less auto-centric places, and might still welcome it,” namely:
Creating alternatives to driving saves the parking and road space for those who need it most.
We’re not starting from a blank slate, but with a glut of automobile space that can be reallocated.
Our cities aren’t really designed around the needs of people with disabilities. Retooling the system frees us up to build places that are.
Read the discussion in the article on Strong Towns.
Street Furniture Australia and US partner Spruce & Gander in March hosted landscape architects from California and Texas on a visit to Sydney to experience a factory tour, site visits and a new product launch. The American landscape architects represented MJS Landscape Architecture, RHAA Landscape Architecture + Planning, TBG Partners, Avid Trails and Ten Eyck Landscape Architects. Over a week-long trip the guests were treated to famous sights of Sydney including the iconic Bondi Beach, a harbour cruise and dining at top restaurants in urban Surry Hills and the new Barangaroo precinct. Travelling to Regents Park in Western Sydney, they toured the Street Furniture Australia factory to see first-hand how products are designed, made and shipped all over the world. This included meeting the production team, industrial designers and engineers. …
Melissa Gerke, our Communications and Education Specialist, is bringing a fun, interactive and informative presentation about our carbon neutral journey and latest products to customers in cities around Australia and in the US. In 30 minutes (plus Q&A) we will explore materials and finishes, touch and feel samples, and bond with your colleagues over delicious treats. There will also be a mystery prize for a lucky winner (optional). 2024 cities and dates include: Select from three catering options (optional): To book, contact Melissa Gerke mgerke@streetfurniture.com
Successful products are often followed by copycats. Over the past year we have become aware of an increase in reproductions of the Linea range attempting to create a similar aesthetic at a lower price. This can compromise the overall durability and environmental credentials of projects being delivered, affect ongoing maintenance requirements, and in some instances pose a risk of injury to the public. The design of Linea is deceptively simple while delivering exceptional attention to detail. Details matter not only for beauty, but also for providing durability, and safety, that will last decades. Linea strictly uses the highest quality and sustainable materials, has passed rigorous strength tests, and is designed for longevity, with easily replaceable parts. The product range is the result of hundreds of hours of research and development …
This German Grandma builds wheelchair ramps from Lego: Rita Ebel is making wheelchair ramps out of LEGO bricks to make her town of Hanau, in Germany, more accessible. “For me it is just about trying to sensitise the world a little bit to barrier-free travel,” Ebel told Reuters. She has been using a wheelchair since she was involved in a car accident 25 years ago. Helped by her husband, Ebel often spends two to three hours a day building the made-to-order ramps which contain hundreds of the small plastic bricks secured with around eight tubes of glue. The bright colours stand out in town centres says Rita, who has been nicknamed ‘Lego Oma’, or ‘Lego Grandma.’ “Nobody just walks past a Lego ramp without taking a look,” she said. “Whether …
Dutch couple are Europe’s first inhabitants of a 3D-printed house: The south Netherlands property, made by 3D printing a specially formulated cement through a nozzle on a robotic arm, is inspired by the shape of a boulder – a design difficult and expensive to construct using traditional methods, writes The Guardian. While properties have been partly constructed via 3D printing in France and the US, the Dutch home is said to be the first “legally habitable and commercially rented property where the load-bearing walls have been made using a 3D printer nozzle.” It is the first of five 3D-printed houses planned by construction firm Saint-Gobain Weber Beamix for a plot of land by the Beatrix canal. “It is beautiful,” said owner Elize Lutz. “It has the feel of a bunker …
12 Principles for an Effective Urban Response to Covid-19: UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development, has developed 12 key principles to help local and national governments to prevent the spread of the virus and build preparedness for the future. The principles relate to accessibility, flexibility, design, management and maintenance, connectivity, and equitable distribution, and cover short, medium and long-term interventions. Read about them on ArchDaily. One in four cities cannot afford climate crisis protection measures: One in four cities around the world lack the money to protect themselves against climate breakdown, even though more than 90% are facing serious risks, according to research by the Carbon Disclosure Project. A survey of 800 cities found that 43%, representing a combined population of 400 million people, …
