Post Oil City Exhibition in Berlin

I recently visited the “Post Oil City” exhibition at the IFA Gallery in Berlin. It’s a very detailed exhibition about solutions to urban problems. The exhibition was interesting – although I was missing some interactivity, or just something other than pictures and loads of texts. So because the topic is very interesting, but it is hard to read everything in the exhibition, I think it’s better to just buy the exhibition catalog. It comes in the form of an Arch+ issue and contains even more detailed information about interesting projects than the exhibition itself.

Solar Rikshaws in India

Within the framework of my Masters Thesis on Mobility in urban Spaces, I was planning on working on alternatives for rikshaws in India. In some cities in India such as Calcutta runner-pulled rikshaws are forbidden. But rikshaws play a major role in the indian transportation systems, so there is the need to find a replacement. Now India has continued to develop solar powered rikshaws – they should hit the streets of Delhi for the Commonwealth Games in October.

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Banksy on Global Warming

good.

If you want to see more – hit this flickr set.

Unternehmen Nachhaltigkeit – von schwindenden Ressourcen und steigenden Werten

This exhibition “Unternehmen Nachhaltigkeit – von schwindenden Ressourcen und steigenden Werten” about sustainability is supposed to show answers to sustainability problems in different fields.

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IKEA – the most expensive retailer of the world? Yes? No?

The idea for this blog is to post a collection of information and thoughts about everything related to my master thesis on “mobility in urban spaces”. So, let’s get started…

I just found a very interesting read on IKEA and it’s strategies to transfer energy and transportation costs onto the customer. IKEA proudly claims to illuminate their stores with low-wattage lightbulbs – at the same time they position their stores outside of city centers where tax costs are low – the average IKEA customer has to drive a 50 mile round trip. By doing that, the transportation cost is transferred to the customer. But also it is impossible to guarantee that the wood IKEA  (the third largest wood consumer) furniture is made from is harvested legally. And as we all know IKEA products are not build to last. When the product breaks it appears to be a economically reasonable choice for the consumer to just by a new product instead of fixing it. But in the long run that choice will hit us in the back.

“IKEA is the least sustainable retailer on the planet. And in real costs—the kind that will burden our grandchildren—that also makes it among the most expensive.” source

By the way: As I’m sitting here writing this I looked around, and I am astonished at how many IKEA products can be found in my room. Hypocrite? I guess so…but I also think it is important how efficient we use the products we buy. And in some cases I think IKEA IS the right choice. Due to their lightweight built and size optimized products for example, it was possible for me to move just using a single car.