We’re getting pretty excited about the WFES in Abu Dhabi this winter and via Ecocity 2008, Ecobuild America and Kalin & Associates, we were introduced to and have been following (with great excitement) the Masdar ecocity.

Quite simply, Masdar is the ultimate incubator for future visioning. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Archdaily just ran an update worth the read:

LAVA designed the Masdar City as the city of the future; positioned at the forefront of integrating sustainable technology into modern architectural design. Rome, Athens, Florence; most great historical cities have had the plaza, forum, or square at their epicentre – where the life, values, ideals, and vision of the population evolved. Equally, the centre of Masdar must be an iconic beacon that attracts global attention to sustainable technology.

http://www.archdaily.com/33587/masdar-sustainable-city-lava/

Our friends at West Coast Green were mentioned in  the Archinnovations Magazine on Saturday.  West Coast Green is co-sponsoring the competition “Lifecycle Building Challenge 3″.  The competition aims to attract built and un-built projects that save resources and cut costs and green house emissions.

To read the full Archinnovative article click here.

Green-Buildings.Com, the green building and education service, reviewed Re: Vision Dallas’ ECOBlOCK entry from the firm ODA in New York City.  Inspired by the basic elements of wind, water, earth and sun, ECOBLOCK focuses on the aspect of creating a community.  ODA did not win the competition, but they submitted a very interesting concept that merits further investigation.

To read the full article click here.

Over the last few weeks Sensible City has been putting Re: Vision Dallas and Urban Revision in the ears, eyes and minds of the most popular and influential blogs, media portals and news services.  A big idea loves hard work and together we’ve helped spread the world for Urban Revision online. The following is a list of some of our favorite hits.  Stay tuned as we aren’t done yet.

Inhabitat takes a closer look at honorable mention receiver The Co-Op 

Konstructr’s Vik Duggal interviews John Greenan 

Cameron Sinclair of Huffington Post discusses the greening of George Bush’s backyard  

Treehugger’s Jesse Fox discusses the Re: Vision Dallas winners 

Cliff Kuang and Fast Company explore the 3 ideas behind the winning entries  

Dwell gives you their take on the winners

The gospel continues to spread:

Build Baby Build

NBC Dallas Fort Worth Slide Show   

Sustainable Cities Collective

Archicentral:

Texas Sustainability 

Sky Studios

Solve Climate

Landscape Urbanism

Otto

Larry James’ Urban Daily

Larry James’ Everyday Citizen

LEED Loop

Creative Loafing Sarasota

Architecture Competitions

Green Building and Enviro Trends 

Jetson Green  

“If environmental engineers, by gaining experience from building [Masdar], become much more productive at building the next city, this starts to move from being science fiction to something Houston would adopt.” – Gil Friend

The first hints of the project are visible. A white wall stretches through the desert, like a chalk line on a dusty playing field. A bus with darkened windows stirs a low cloud, ferrying workers past a cluster of steel cranes, two portable drilling rigs, and a stand of concrete columns sprouting rust-colored rebar. A tall wire fence guards rows of solar panels mounted on concrete pads.

The construction is the start of a vast experiment, an attempt to create the world’s first car-free, zero-carbon-dioxide-emissions, zero-waste city. Due to be completed in 2016, the city is the centerpiece of the Masdar Initiative, a $15 billion investment by the government of Abu Dhabi, which is part of the United Arab Emirates. The new development, being built on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi city, will run almost entirely on energy from the sun and will use just 20 percent as much power as a conventional city of similar size. Garbage will be sorted and recycled or used for compost; sewage will be processed into fuel. Concrete columns will lift the city seven meters off the ground, creating space underneath for a network of automated electric transports that will replace cars. Planners predict that the development will attract 1,500 clean-tech businesses, ranging from large international corporations to startups, and–eventually–some 50,000 residents.

[ Read entire article ]

In 2008, we uploaded a whopping total of 712 videos to YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo, TeacherTube and other social media video applications. I decided to take a look and try to spot the single most popular video we have posted. Not surprising, the most popular video was viewed by a global community and speaks to a global solution. It is my pleasure to present to you Mr. Peter Head, Chief Architect of the Dong Tan Ecocity project on Chong Ming Island in China.

[Photo courtesy of Spencer Lindsay]

Summitgoers push for sustainable cities

Is there life after cars? Could your house be transformed into a unit in a mixed-use, multifamily building with a vegetable garden on the roof? Would you drink “toilet to tap” water – purified, recycled sewage – or would you rather die of thirst?

These questions and many others like them were asked – and at least partially answered – by an eclectic group of avant-garde designers, builders, planners, organizers, artists and mayors (including Gavin Newsom) from around the world. They gathered at the Ecocity World Summit conference in San Francisco last month to share their ideas and experiences in an effort to create sustainable cities – and there was a palpable sense of urgency in their voices as they spoke of climate change, water and food shortages, soil depletion, deforestation and poverty.

[Read entire article]

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-948591170513306246]