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Image: Hammonasset Beach State Park, Connecticut, by rickpilot_2000 via Wikimedia Commons.
This fabulous province-wide initiative in Ontario, promotes 'green exercise' - taking a walk in nature - to help improve physical and mental health.
The pilot project, run 2013-2015, focussed on older adults, but helps a wide range of mental health associations supporting the broader community.
Stroll by the Mood Walks website here.
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In late 2015 Sunshine Coast Council announced a design competition seeking ideas for its planned new public toilets in Isaac Moore Park, just outside Kenilworth.
The competition was intended to flush out an 'iconic facility' that would become a landmark and bring visitors to Kenilworth.
Whilst our scheme was not one of the 12 shortlisted finalists, we really enjoyed the process of interrogating the design brief and proposing a solution we felt would work well for people using the park facilities, whilst also protecting the council's assets.
Click to see our entry on our Projects page.
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Image: State Library of Queensland
Many years ago I stumbled across this fantastic picture of houses on the edge of a quarry in Spring Hill.
I loved the apparent precariousness of their situation, and the casual attitude of the people in the photo, especially the person up in the top right, leaning on the verandah rail.
At the time my research took me in another direction, but I always wondered about the quarry.
Where had it been? Was it still there? How long did it operate?
Luckily, my friends at the Asia Pacific Design Library gifted me the opportunity to find out.
I was invited to be part of Design Finds, an event associated with the Asia Pacific Design Forum, running 1-10 March at the State Library of Queensland.
Click to read what I unearthed.
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Image: Robert Piwko Photography
Lee Borthwick's beautiful installations use mirrored logs to encourage viewers to pause and consider trees from a different perspective. The unexpected mirrors interrupt a garden stroll with a view we so often miss, just because we forget to look up.
Click to be delighted by more of Lee's work.
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Image: Chris, via Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons license.
Like many cities, Moscow's river is bordered by roads, like this freeway beside the Kremlin.
About a year ago, the Krymskaya Naberezhnaya (Crimean Embankment) was created.
Covering just under 2 hectares and stretching 1 km along the riverfront, the site is now car-free, with boardwalks, sun loungers, bike hire and food and wine vendors.
Other, grander plans are also afoot.
Click to read more about the city's relationship with its river, both past, present and future.
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