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Welcome - my name is Kevin Klinkenberg, and this site "The Messy City" is my blog and company website. I started blogging on urban planning and design issues in 2007, and began working in the field in 1993. Please feel free to connect with me on any of the social media sites listed here. Thanks for reading.

Eco design compliments green sustainability to the skylines

Cities around the world are running into the same problems with their infrastructure: how can we create true eco-friendly living where cars, concrete and metal dominate? Its not simple. Problems of old infrastructure and traditional city planning curb significant efforts to recreate a city's environment. New urban developments, like Blue Springs' downtown revitalization, are much easier to reimagine with green living; the upper west side of Manhattan is another thing entirely. What is the answer? Instead of trying to take the cities back into the natural environment, architects, designers and eco-friendly entrepreneurs are attempting to bring the natural environment back into the cities, right underneath their noses.  These eco-towers and sustainable skyscrapers could become a part of your skyline in the coming decades.  What do you think?  Green, or not?  Inspiring or silly?  Check out this description of one proposal in Vancouver:

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Picture 11
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la-tour-vivante-vertical-farm

"Romses Architects envisioned the ‘Harvest Green Tower’ for Vancouver, winning a competition held by the city of Vancouver ‘the 2030 challenge’ to find new methods of green building that can help address climate change issues. The Harvest Green Tower produces food – including boutique goat and sheep dairy – and generates its own energy through wind and solar power. Incorporated within the tower are also residences, transit, offices, retail space and research facilities."

Here's a few more photos from the story of these amazingly creative futuristic proposals:

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Picture 6
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Picture 7
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Picture 12

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