Lips chapped after a long summer of beaches, sea, sun, sand, and wind? I know mine are after this past weekend hiking at altitude and camping in the desert! Try this recipe for an all natural (edible!) lip scrub that also moisturizes. Read my latest DIY on Inhabitat.
Urbanist and architect Inaki Echeverria has spearheaded a proposal to create a giant urban park and waterscape in the central Mexico City valley that would regenerate an area once covered by a now dissipated Lake Texcoco. A prime example of a human landscape, the endorheic lakes and swamplands of the Mexico City area have been engineered, diked, and diverted since the time of the emperor Montezuma I back in the early 1400s. Today, the area is underutilized and polluted, despite its modern-day function as a stopover for many important north-south migratory bird species. Echeverria’s concept is an example of waterscaping as urban architecture, with holding ponds and wetlands functioning to absorb storm runoff and act as wastewater treatment plants for the urban fabric of Mexico City. You can read more and see more renderings in my latest article.
Aerial rendering of SF (left) and Yerba Buena/Planned TI Development (right) via Skidmore, Owings + Merrill
The SF Board of Supes recently gave the go-ahead to a billion dollar plan to redevelop Treasure Island, a flat and wind-scoured artificial island built from fill in the 1930s. Envisioned as a a “green utopia”, there are serious doubts as to how sustainable a 19,000 inhabitant island community can be, considering it will be built on toxic weapons dumps and accessible mainly by car. Read more in my recent Inhabitat post, with architects renderings.