One Prize Design Competition

Introducing the One Prize: Award $10,000
CALLING ALL FUTURE-FORWARD ARCHITECTS, URBAN DESIGNERS, PLANNERS, ENGINEERS, SCIENTISTS, ARTISTS, STUDENTS AND INDIVIDUALS OF ALL BACKGROUNDS: How would you reinvent the American garden?
Select Jury:
Margaret Crawford, Dickson Despommier, Margie Ruddick, Cameron Sinclair, Kate Stohr, Bruce Lindsey, and more TBA.
Please see updates and further information at www.oneprize.org

MEx: A Design Cooperative Grows in Brooklyn

Architectural Record: archrecord2 Oct. 2009.
By Murrye Bernard
Together, Al Atarra and Interboro Partners established The Metropolitan Exchange (MEx), “an architecture, urban planning, and research cooperative” with the goal that members would “collaborate on architecture and planning projects, pursue development opportunities, and sponsor lectures, film screenings, and exhibitions.”
Word spread to friends and colleagues about the affordable studio space, attracting other emerging sole practitioners and small partnerships such as Decker Yeadon, MAN Architecture, Kaja Kuhl, and slo.vis, who find the space a much more productive environment than their living rooms. Aside from traditional architectural practices, other MEx tenants include Patten Studio, which provides design technology for interactive media; Terreform1, a non-profit philanthropic design collaborate; and Meredith TenHoor, who researches and writes on contemporary urbanism and politics.
http://archrecord.construction.com/archrecord2/work/0910/slide_23.asp

Reshaping Cities on CNBC

The Business of Innovation hosted by Maria Bartiromo
RESHAPING CITIES - Premiered Monday, October 5th
Each year, we add the equivalent of seven New Yorks to the planet, creating strains our ageing cities are struggling to handle. The intelligent city won't just survive under this strain - it will flourish. Touching upon public safety, traffic, “self-aware” buildings, and smart grids, this show introduces the systems that will make the cities of the future both successful and sustainable.

Thought Leaders:

Mitchell Joachim, PhD, Urban Architect

Paul Romer, PhD, Senior Fellow at Stanford University.

Michael Chernoff, former US Secretary of Homeland Security.

Special Thanks: Terry Murphy, Jessica Gerstle, Sarah Orenstein.
see video http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1285639918&play=1#

Design Jazz at Pratt Manhattan Gallery

Design Jazz: Improvisations on the Urban Street
Inspired by the newly created department of Academic Sustainability at Pratt Institute, this exhibition in two parts will document both theoretical and creative approaches to the design of urban streets by invited guests Amy Guggenheim, artist, writer and professor, Pratt Institute; Mitchell Joachim, architect, designer and co-founder Terreform One; and Leon Reid IV, street artist, teacher, and Pratt alumnus, as well as document the process of a local realized project.
Design and Sustainability
Pratt Manhattan Gallery September 25 - November 7, 2009
Public reception Friday, October 9, 6–8 pm 144 West 14th Street New York, NY
http://www.terreform.org/pratt.html

Carnegie Mellon's Miller Gallery: Terreform 1

29 Chains to the Moon
Artists' Schemes for a Fantastic Future
Guest curated by Andrea Grover
Aug. 28 - Dec. 6, 2009
Artists: Open_Sailing, Stephanie Smith, Mitchell Joachim/ Terreform ONE
http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/

TerreFarm: Urban Design + Grow

We provide a unique opportunity for students to learn from established professionals in an experimental design/grow urban farm. The Interaction of students, builders, and architects is encouraged by the intense environment of The Metropolitan Exchange (MEx), located in downtown Brooklyn.
see more at
TerreFarm:
http://terrefarm.blogspot.com/

New Executive Director: Eliot Hodges

Eliot Hodges earned his BA from Harvard College and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He served as a project manager for UN- and US-funded reconstruction programs in Afghanistan from 2004-2006. These programs included included housing for Afghan returnees as well as clinic and school construction in Northern Afghanistan. In 2006, he headed a program that provided all logistical and operational support to the European Union Election Observation Mission to Afghan parliamentary and provincial elections. In 2007, he worked in Congress on Senator Chuck Hagel's foreign policy team.
http://www.terreform.org/people_eh.html

Colbert Report: Mitchell Joachim

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mitchell Joachim
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage

Ecological Urbanism at Harvard GSD Podcast

Panel 1: Productive Urban Environments
Urbanism carries a carbon footprint well beyond the physical limits of the city. Future cities will need to aspire to be carbon negative, including off-setting the city’s embodied energy. What is the potential for cities to increase the production of energy, food and good public health?

Moderator: Margaret Crawford, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Speakers:
Michelle Addington, Yale School of Architecture
Dorothée Imbert, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Mitchell Joachim, Columbia University
Nina-Marie Lister, pLandform and Ryerson University
http://ecologicalurbanism.gsd.harvard.edu/2009/01/08/panel-1-productive-urban-environments/

Iron Designer

This past Thursday, April 23, four teams made up of third-year Master’s of Architecture students from Columbia GSAPP, Parsons The New School, Pratt Institute, and City College of New York (CCNY - winners) competed against each other in an hour-long design competition to propose a sustainable design solution for the DUMBO archway. After several years of being used as a storage facility, the archway has re-opened for public use. The competition challenged the students to create a link between the archway and the adjacent lot in light of it’s re-birth as a public space. The event took place in Raumlabor’s Spacebuster, an inflatable and mobile dome which has been hosting events around New York City this past week.

Jurors include: Joseph Grima (Storefront for Art and Architecture), Raumlabor, Olivia Chen (Inhabitat), Kate Kerrigan (Dumbo Improvement District), Richard Plunz, Ben Prosky and Sarah Williams (Columbia GSAPP), Meredith Tenhoor and Deb Johnson (Pratt Institute), Joel Towers (Parsons), Rafael Magrou (architecture critic, Paris), Amale Andraos and Dan Wood (workAC), Victoria Marshall (Till Design), William Menking (The Architect's Newspaper).

Iron Designer is only part of a larger scheme of events that are part of ECOGRAM: The Sustainability Question. ECOGRAM is a series of events initiated at the Columbia GSAPP by Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. and Ioanna Theocharopoulou, Ph.D., to examine the question of sustainability in architecture and architectural education. The first conference “Ecogram: The Sustainability Question” took place in October 2008. A second large-scale conference is planned for October 2009.
Studio- X
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Inhabitat
ECOGRAM

The More the Merrier: An Open Letter for Terreforming

More non-profit charities are a good thing.
More community schools are a good thing.
More Habitat for Humanity operations are a good thing.

We are Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology). We are a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that activates ecological principles in the urban realm. We formed the group to serve the public and created a community laboratory in Downtown Brooklyn. We invite you to please join us in assembling more Terreform organizations.

More non-profit design groups are a good thing.
Happy Earth Day!

Mitchell Joachim in Rolling Stone Magazine

"The RS 100: Agents of Change," Rolling Stone, p.63, April 2, 2009.

Mitchell Joachim; The visionary in urban planning sees stackable cars and houses in trees.
WHAT HE'S CHANGING: In a sedate field, Joachim is pushing for a radical green rethink of the American city in the 21st century. An architect and urban planner at Brooklyn's nonprofit Terreform 1, Joachim wants to open up cluttered streets by creating a soft, stackable City Car that would be shared like a Zipcar.
NEXT MOVE: Exploring inter-skyscraper blimp ferries and weaving energy-efficient houses into existing trees.
KEY QUOTE: "I give a voice for people and things that can't necessarily speak for themselves, like trees and wildlife. Or the residents of Harlem." YES Harlem speaks, but not always by way of detailed urban design drawings.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/26754176/the_rs_100_agents_of_change/3

Michael Sorkin Disclaimer

Disclaimer related to Michael Sorkin and Terreform Inc.  
Since 2008 a professional critic, Sorkin, has distributed inaccurate and damaging claims about our organization Terreform ONE. 
The US Patent and Trademark Office attorney has rejected Michael Sorkin's claims to use our trademark in three consecutive cases and appeals. The USPTO attorney on Dec. 15, 2010 has rendered a FINAL decision and rejected Sorkin.  Sorkin cannot legally use our mark and anyone who does without legal authorization is confusing and deceiving the public.  see: USPTO Office Action

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE (USPTO)
"In the first Office action the examining attorney refused registration of applicant’s (Sorkin) proposed mark based upon a finding of a likelihood of confusion under Trademark Act Section 2(d) with respect to U.S. Registration No. 3752902."
"In its response applicant (Sorkin) submits arguments against the examining attorney’s Trademark Act Section 2(d) likelihood of confusion refusal with respect to U.S. Registration No. 3752902. The examining attorney has carefully considered applicant’s (Sorkin) arguments and does not find them persuasive. Accordingly, the examining attorney continues and maintains said refusal and now makes it FINAL."
"Trademark Act Section 2(d) bars registration of an applied-for mark that so resembles a registered mark that it is likely that a potential consumer would be confused or mistaken or deceived as to the source of the goods and/or services of the applicant and registrant."

We lawfully own the trademark to the name (view our USPTO registration). Any unauthorized use of our Terreform mark or similar derivation will deceive and confuse the public.
Terreform ONE is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization: Mitchell Joachim, Maria Aiolova, Melanie Fessel, Dan O'Connor, Oliver Medvedik
http://www.terreform.org/Terreform_1_Trademark.pdf

For further information contact:  
Christopher J. Glancy, Partner
White & Case LLP
1155 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
T: + 1 212 819 8307

MORE

SEE PUBLISHED LETTER IN ARCHITECT MAGAZINE:

CLICK TO ZOOM

Mimi Zeiger, "Urban Renewal," Architect, March 1st, 2009.

Urban Renewal The Obama stimulus plan promises billions to transform the American city. A new generation of urban designers is ready to spend it.

cityLAB, Los Angeles The culture and politics of urban space.
Interboro Partners, Brooklyn, N.Y. Research. Document. Analyze. Repeat.
Fletcher Studio, San Francisco Harvesting the power of landscape to shape cities.
Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology), Brooklyn, N.Y. Dreams to provoke realities.

Cover Image: Rapid Re(f)use by Terreform 1, Mitchell Joachim, Emily Johnson, Maria Aiolova, Melanie Fessel, Zachary Aders, Webb Allen, Niloufar Karimzadegan.

http://www.architectmagazine.com/urban-development/terreform-one-brooklyn.aspx

Harvard GSD Ecological Urbanism Conference

Mitchell Joachim, Terreform 1, is speaking at
ECOLOGICAL URBANISM: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future Conference
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
April 3 - 5, 2009
http://ecologicalurbanism.gsd.harvard.edu/

Future North at Superlight MOCA

MOCA's 'Superlight' exhibit touches on cultural concerns in mesmerizing ways
by Steven Litt / Plain Dealer Art Critic + http://www.cleveland.com/

Art shows laden with political content were commonplace during the culture wars of the 1990s, a time when artists delighted in poking a finger in every eye.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland was a proud participant in the trend, organizing exhibitions on controversial artistic uses of the American flag and the Christian cross.
MOCA is back in the game, but in a softer, more subtle way.
"Superlight," the newest major exhibition at the museum, shows how artists around the country are infusing their work with political, social and cultural content while exploring digital media, mechanical constructions and installations.
The artists in "Superlight" very definitely want to send strong messages, but they don't bang you over the head. They evoke a mesmerizing mood of relaxed awareness, which gets their points across in ways more haunting and effective than a visual harangue.
Curated for MOCA by Steve Dietz, artistic director of last summer's 01SJ Biennial, a global festival of "art on the edge" in San Jose, Calif., the exhibition sets a viewer adrift in a technological amusement park for the mind.
A few steps farther on, viewers encounter installations by Jane Marsching, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Art, who treats global warming in a dreamy, languorous way.
Her 2008 video "Future North," co-produced with Mitchell Joachim of the New York architecture firm Terreform, envisions how cities from New York to Hong Kong could detach themselves from their moorings and float north to a warmed-up North Pole, destined to become hot real estate.
Marsching's "Rising North" considers global climate change by depicting future increases in Arctic temperatures during the next century through a series of colors projected on a gallery wall. The glowing fields of color are accompanied by a recording of an opera singer singing the words from news reports about rising temperatures and sea levels. The effect is oddly tranquil, suggesting, perhaps, how easily dire forecasts can have a numbing effect.
http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2009/02/mocas_superlight_exhibit_touch.html

The 4th NORDIC URBAN DESIGN CONFERENCE

The 4th NUDC
20th February 2009, Grieghallen - Bergen

NEW DIRECTIONS IN
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Professor // Dr. Matthew Carmona //BARTLETT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LONDON // united kingdom
Co-founder // Dr. Mitchell Joachim //TERREFORM ONE // united states of america
Co-founder // Cameron Sinclair //ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY // united states of america
Vice. President //Jason Prior //EDAW // united kingdom
President // Erik R Kuhne //ERIK R KUHNE & ASSOCIATES // united kingdom
Associate // Richard Hollington //OFFICE FOR METROPOLITAN ARCHITECTURE (OMA) // netherlands
Director // Jonathan Smales //BEYOND GREEN // united kingdom

Conference host: Rob Cowan, Dir. Urban Design Skills

http://www.nuda.no/

// INTRODUCTION // There is a need to stage a guide for global planning which involves new sustained environmental directions. While urban designers and architects alone cannot solve the world’s environmental problems, they are responsible for designing the future cities, and therefore in a position to influence the promotion and pursuit of energy-efficient, socially-responsible buildings and public spaces. They are also in a position to influence the future cities through new paradigms of innovation; new thoughts; new perspectives; new methods and rural and urban strategies, where increased use of new technology is a crucial part of the sustainable planning strategies developed. The current urbanisation which attracts people in great numbers from rural areas and small towns raises issues such as prospects for work; housing possibilities; improved lifestyle and education. How does this rapid urbanisation effect the environment? How will rural areas cope with the increased emigration? Is urbanisation as an isolated entity the critical factor generating these environmental issues?
The green city; the inclusive city; the social city; the walkable city; the eco-city are concepts promoted by architects and planners in their work of designing future cities and pursuing environmental solutions while at the same time trying to include a conscious approach towards the social and human aspect of the new urban context. New city concepts claim to accommodate the rapid urbanisation with design strategies enabling the city as an organism to grow accordingly to the growth of population. Is there a real demand for such new cities being planned? Might it be that the real challenge lies in sustaining the existing city, and turning the focus towards rural areas with small towns, villages and communities making them more interesting and attractive to live in so that people don’t move from these places?
Current cities are challenged by future environmental problems escalated from matters such as higher urban density; constraint of land use; rapid urbanisation; increased car use; higher global mobility; higher energy use and an extended consumption of global and cultural resources. Highlighting the concept of the future cities includes discovering the reasons behind the potential environmental disaster. Are the environmental issues our cities are facing only related to what is described in the UN Environmental report? Or could it be a consequence of people’s advanced mobility and change of lifestyle over the past three decades? I.e. new cities adjacent to waterfronts will be major influence on economic growth and tourism, leading to increased consumption of natural resources and undesirable impacts on culturally important heritage sites.

Green Architecture Opening in Prague

Photos: Dan O'Connor
Special Thanks: Dan Merta, Jaroslava Fragnera Gallery