design:e2: Challenging Us to Live Smarter and Greener
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.16.06
"The City is, in many ways, the greatest energy saving device ever created. There is no better model." so says architecture critic Paul Goldberger in the first episode of Design: e2, the amazing PBS series narrated by Brad Pitt and produced by Kontent Real. Episode One took place in New York and clearly presented the case for density. It was gripping, dramatic viewing, mixing good architecture, green design and intelligent writing. A favourite- imagine Brad speaking: "What would Walt Whitman write: A new poetry of buildings is born of a deeper beauty- not merely sleek design but rather part of its DNA, ingrained in the materials, its source, its inner workings, possessing an unseen soul. Would the poet in him suggest a building can do more than stand, that in its own way it can live and contribute."
Episode two, "Green For All" is about activist architecture, looking at architectural and design solutions for the third world, teaching commununities to build for themselves. Lots of TreeHugger hero Cameron Sinclair.
Tonight, be sure to watch "The Green Machine", focusing on Chicago and its green activist mayor, Richard Daley:"Most people expect a city to be steel and concrete and dirty and of no benefit to the environment, but I have always believed that nature can co-exist with an urban community like ours." Since the invention of the skyscraper, Chicago has been at the lead of architectural revolutions. It still is. Read more at ::Design:e2
You can also listen to an exclusive e2 podcast here.
I am so upset with my local PBS network. They are not airing the design: e2 series. The only way I can watch it is if I go out a purchase an HDTV. Is anyone else having the same problem with it only being aired on the HD station? I contacted the local network and the TV director said they would keep it in consideration.
BEST SHOW ON PBS, BY FAR
You're taunting me, Lloyd.
As a Chicagoan, I'm dying to see this, but alas, they are no longer showing it in most of the country now.
Now, if we can just get PBS to air the BBC's Climate Chaos series, which is akin to Inconvenient Truth, but with a bigger budget and more time to explain the details.