Anne-apolis

As cities become more densified , a number of problems come in: there is a loss of biodiversity and green space; stormwater and the risk of flooding become heightened; and the widespread use of heavy construction materials such as concrete and dark coloured materials such as asphalt for roads contribute to the Urban Heat Island . One solution is to use the roofs of buildings to reintroduce vegetation. A green roof at the University of the Witwatersrand Green roofs can either be extensive, as shown in the photo, with a fairly shallow layer of soil over the whole extent of the roof-space, or intensive with much deeper soil to support larger plants such as shrubs or even trees. Intensive roofs are quite heavy, so usually they can only be used where they have been designed for in the original construction of the building. By contrast, extensive roofs are quite lightweight and can be installed on a variety of existing flat roofs without the need for structural modification. The green roof i...

  Today I would like to share some thoughts on city planning, which in many parts of the world, including my home town of Johannesburg, is in the process of a shift in mindset. This is in response to the urgent need for a more environmentally responsible approach, as cities are some of the largest contributors of greenhouse gases, consumers of energy, producers of waste and disrupters of ecological processes, such as the water cycle. This new thinking is associated with the Compact City approach, which aims to reduce a city's greenhouse gases, reduce energy consumption, reduce private car use and at the same time reduce travel time especially for day-to-day activities. In this philosophy, there is a drive to protect green space and manage stormwater in a more sustainable way. A city that has made great strides in many of these objectives is Curatiba in Brazil, famous as one of the first cities to introduce a bus rapid transit system, and with some very creative approaches to waste ...

Often our reasons for feeling that we need to move house is because the rooms feel too small, so today we look at some of the inexpensive ways in which we can make a room appear to be more spacious. I will be focusing on the living room, but the principles apply to all rooms, although often with less flexibility such as a bedroom which will be dominated by the bed and maybe a free-standing wardrobe. A good starting point is to draw up a plan of the room: squared paper is very useful for this and you can use the same paper to draw and cut out plans of all your furniture. You will need to measure the room and the furniture so that they are to the same scale. For interiors, I usually let one 1/2cm square on the paper equal 10cm. In an earlier blog , I looked at fitting two studio apartments into a one-bedroom flat, where I used cutouts of the furniture to experiment with different layouts. Two important things to think about when working on the layout is to make sure that you have enough ...

 Living in a heritage building is a joy - large rooms with high ceilings, versatile spaces, beautiful detailing and generally an atmosphere of crafted elegance. But sometimes there is a down-side. Every time anyone opens or closes my front door, the knob comes off in their hand! The doorknob is the original steel one with a restrained art deco design. The front door's is a slightly larger version of the interior doors, using the same steel finish and fluting to the door-plate and knob.  My front doorknob I have tried to repair this myself, using Pratley's steel adhesive, but that only lasted a couple of turns of the knob before it fell off again. Several locksmiths and building contractors have tried to fix it, but with no joy. I really don't want to replace it, as it is so much a feature of the building, matching in with the other doorknobs in my own apartment and the front doors of many of my neighbours. It also matches in with the original bell-push, many of which have b...