I’m on a film kick. Last weekend I watched a few movies, and my last two posts were unabashed testimonials of a minor YouTube obsession. Bear with me while I share another visual beauty. This one comes via my husband, Ted.
Ted and I wholeheartedly embrace environmental issues, and we share our thoughts and ideas about the subject often. As with most marital relationships, we usually notice different things. Ted is an environmental planner and he sees important environmental concerns that many people glaze over (me included sometimes), like wetland delineation, signage, transportation issues, zoning changes and permit regulations to name just a few. While he is a champion at writing comprehensive plans for municipalities, his passion is sustainable community development. He sent me a link from Smart Growth with a documentary about vertical suburbs (yawn). It came as no surprise that I passed right over it. After a few prompts, I took a reluctant look and almost dropped my laptop.
Out My Window is an online documentary that gives a 360 degree view of apartments in different urban regions around the world. The director, Katerina Cizek hopes to bridge the realities between suburban and urban areas, and to raise awareness for proper access to public transportation, infrastructure changes (water and roads), and the cultural needs of the apartment dwellers. While the 49 stories from 13 different apartments come from diverse areas, a GOOD article says: “It often feels as though the subjects of Out My Window could be found in the same building in some global metropolis.”
For the interactive experience of Out My Window, CLICK HERE.
I’ve mentioned before my husband Ted is a planner. Urban planners are constantly searching for ways to improve transportation in and out of cities. Ted emailed me this video (yes, cure we work in the same house and still email each other) of a slide installed next to a stairway at a railway station in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The slide is called a “transfer accelerator”. It offers commuters in a hurry an expedited trip to the tracks.