Category Archives: Environment

From my sketchbook: Litchfield National Park

Posted on December 12, 2012 by

20090804.1313 20090805.1005 Water pools in water holes above Tolmer Falls, flows down waterfalls along Walker Creek, splashes into the pool at the base of Florence Falls. It is always agitated, bubbling and swirling and rushing. impossible to capture in still ink. … Continue reading →

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Happy 2nd birthday

Posted on October 25, 2012 by

Today, Panfilocastaldi turns 2. We have survived another full year of blogging, despite some significant personal upheavals. As new parents, getting out into the worlds of architecture and art is proving more difficult but not, with determined effort, impossible. Looking … Continue reading →

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Dolphin slaughter in Taiji

Posted on August 9, 2012 by

Driving a pod to slaughter What is it? Taiji is a small town in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, inconsequential except for its notoriety as the site of the regular and highly controversial slaughter of large numbers of dolphins. Endorsed by the … Continue reading →

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Regulating sustainability

Posted on April 16, 2012 by

What is it? A proposal is currently before the Victorian State government that recommends abandoning mandatory 6-star thermal efficiency requirements for housing as part of a broader agenda to cut government red tape. Documents obtained by The Age newspaper reveal … Continue reading →

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Castlecrag House

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

Interior looking through kitchen with cosy nook to right What is it? A house by Neeson Murcutt Architects for clients Jo Nolan and Luke Hastings, and the subject of the Our Houses architectural talk on Wednesday night. The series is … Continue reading →

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Our Liveable City

Posted on November 29, 2011 by

What is it? A recently completed, 6-month study commissioned by The Age and undertaken by Tract Consultants and Deloitte Access Economics into the liveability of Melbourne’s 314 suburbs. The term liveability is in itself difficult to define, with research into its parameters … Continue reading →

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A carbon price

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

The 8th of November, 2011: an historic day for Australia, the day the federal Senate approved a price on pollution, 36 votes to 32. The Labour party’s clean-energy package will be rolled out from July next year, with a carbon … Continue reading →

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A word on climate change

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

Back in 2007, an american high school science teacher uploaded this video explaining a unique and thought-provoking argument for action on climate change. Its relevance may be somewhat diminished today, with general consensus on the existence of climate change having … Continue reading →

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Mitsubishi i-MiEV

Posted on August 29, 2011 by

What is it? Australia’s first volume production all-electric vehicle, with zero drive time emissions (depending on how its owners source their electricity, potentially zero emissions, period). First seen on a billboard hovering over the CityLink tollway. The i-MiEV (which we … Continue reading →

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The Ajiro

Posted on August 20, 2011 by

What is it? Entry into, and finalist of, the 2011 James Dyson Student Design Awards by Alexander Vittouris. First seen in a Habitus Living article, here. With extraordinary technical innovation, Vittouris did not build the Ajiro, a single-person velomobile, but grew it from … Continue reading →

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