Anne-apolis

  Last year I wrote a blog on green roofs , so today I want to follow up with a much smaller and more versatile type of green infrastructure, the rain garden, sometimes called a bio-retention cell. These can be introduced into a small corner of your garden and have even been used as slightly modified planters along roadways where there is not enough space for a more extensive vegetated installation such as a swale. A vegetated swale Creative Commons Licensed:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Planted_brick_swale,_balfour_street_pocket_park.JPG One of the most severe environmental impacts of urbanisation is that the porous soil and vegetation of the natural landscape is replaced by impermeable materials for buildings and roadways. This prevents rainwater from seeping into the soil and replenishing the groundwater (the water naturally stored underground) and becoming cleaned by percolating through the plants and soil before returning to the natural water courses. In urban...

If you live in a place with your own garden, one of the most effective ways of dealing with garden and food waste is through composting. This can give you a steady supply of soil nutrients for no cost at all over time and minimal initial outlay. You have a number of choices for how to do this: the cheapest is to dig a hole or a trench about 30-50cm deep in a sunny corner of the garden. This allows moisture to be retained if you live in a relatively dry area - an essential part of the composting process. The disadvantage of the "hole-in-the-ground" method is that the decomposed material will be at the bottom of the hole, making it quite difficult to access.  If you live in a wet climate, you can simply pile the compost in a heap on the ground, which will prevent the compost heap from getting waterlogged, but this method can be quite untidy.   The much neater alternative is to acquire a box or container (an old municipal waste bin is an ideal size, or you may be able to get a d...

  I have been invited to a workshop at the University of Edinburgh in April as part of a programme for PhD students who are employed at universities throughout Africa. This is a wonderful opportunity to spend a week in a city that I last visited when I was 12 years old. For many years I included Edinburgh as a case study in a lecture course that I gave on the history of architecture and urban design. I am also an avid reader of the works of Ian Rankin , who weaves evocative descriptions of the darker side of the city into his novels. View of Edinburgh Castle Creative Commons Licensed:  https://www.worldhistory.org/Edinburgh_Castle/ The centre of the city is very dramatic in its siting on a ridge running from the Castle in the west to Holyrood Palace in the east, with the hill on which Arthur's Seat is located to the south east.  Holyrood Palace Creative Commons Licensed:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holyrood_Palace The original high street runs along the crest of t...

 I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with carpets - I love how they look, but I suffer from allergies, and they can be a serious dust trap, no matter how often you vacuum them. In a warm climate, they are not so essential from a practical perspective, although it is always nice to step out of bed onto a warm surface, especially in winter. From a design perspective, carpets help to soften the look of a room, especially if your taste tends towards minimalism. Whether plain or patterned, the texture of the carpet can be used to complement and balance the other textures and surfaces in the room, leading to a harmonious effect. If your taste is more eclectic, you could explore wall-to-wall carpets to help "ground" the composition and to visually draw the elements of the room together. This minimalist design uses texture to give interest and scale to the room (Creative Commons Licensed:  https://www.pexels.com/photo/couch-and-carpet-in-living-room-18266460/ ) There is a broad ...