Urban Change Maker - Joost Bakker

Oh yeah, the Urban Change Maker column is back! Do you ever dedicate some time to finally listening to a lecture or talk you have been meaning to and get absolutely blown away by what they had to say? Well, that is exactly what happened when I watched this Creative Mornings Melbourne talk (vimeo.com/63225503 ) by todays Urban Change Maker - Joost Bakker. 

Joost's Melbourne Greenhouse Pop Up via Broadsheet Melbourne

Joost could be categorised as a lot of things; farmer, inventor, artist, designer and problem solver but at the heart of everything he does is his clear ethos - rethink your original notions of waste and products and collaborate and explore to inspire people to live sustainably. Joost has made particular efforts to improve the sustainability of the hospitality industry not only by developing the cool vertical gardens you see everywhere such as those featured on the Greenhouse Pop Up. In Silo by Joost, a hole in the wall Melbourne Cafe in Hardware Lane the act of simple stating that the cafe will not have a bin has lead to a huge range of sustainable and waste minimising solutions! 

Inside Silo by Joost via Broadsheet Melbourne

Asides from providing take away coffee (and I am sure a sustainably made reusable coffee cup is encouraged) Silo boasts the fact that it produces absolutely no waste. You even get to sit on top of the reusable kegs which provide the milk and other beverages for the cafe. I wont provide too much more detail when you can watch the video and check out Joost for yourself and be sure to visit ByJoost.com for more information on other cool projects (e.g. rooftop farming and harvesting urine!). I know I want to learn everything I can about this talented problem solver!

Urban Change Makers: Bee One Third

I thought it was about time I not only reinstated the urban change makers column but that I hopped aboard the praise train for the duo behind Brisbanes Bee One Third (recently featured in the U on Sunday magazine). Although neither Kat Skull or Jack Wilson Stone, the geniuses behind Bee One Third are from Brisbane originally they are both long term residents and luckily for us it has become their entrepreneurial home. Urban bee keeping is by no means a new addition to the rooftops of cities across the world and addresses a vital need to maintain our bee population and restore their rightful place in the city. But Bee One Third bring a new meaning the the term "local" with honey being produced on the rooftops of the very restaurants it is used and sold in (such as Gerards Bistro in New Farm). 

Rooftop Beekeeping taken by Andy Leitch via Facebook

Not only are Skull and Stone bringing bee keeping to our rooftops, they also have taught classes at Brisbane's The Joynery in order to help locals create bee friendly gardens in small spaces, in order to provide the best possible chance for the hives to thrive. The attention to detail shown in the Bee One Third project is admirable, with all hives hand crafted and the honey produced bottled by hand and containing hand stamped and embossed labels. These are some seriously talented and clever bee keepers we are dealing with.  If you are interested in finding out more I would head to Bee One Third's facebook here or try and get your hands on yesterdays U on Sunday article. 

Urban Change Makers - We Are Traffic

Just a quick urban change makers post today in the midst of working from home. I stumbled upon the blog We Are Traffic today on the Visual Supply Co Journal and thought they had a super awesome and simple idea that has been really well executed. Basically Bjorn Lexius and Till Glaser behind the blog wanted to raise bicycle awareness in Hamburg, Germany so they went about doing a series of portraits of people on their bikes and posting them on their blog. The blog has taken off like crazy, with a huge wait list of people wanting to be photographed. This is especially awesome considering they only originally expected to be photographing their friends.  

Tandem Biking by We Are Traffic via Journal

Being someone, who admittedly does not currently cycle (due mainly to safety and the huge hills surrounding my home) and understands how much of a challenge it is to get people cycling where I live (Rachel Smith talks a lot about this on her blog) I think it is super cool to have something that shows the diversity within cycling and removes the "lycra only" stigma.  That being said, a lot of the portraits are just really fun to look at too and if it can get more people interested in cycling, then thats just great. 

Aleksandra via We Are Traffic

Malte (and some great street art) via We Are Traffic

To see a whole lot more bicycle-centric portraits, head over to We Are Traffic and try not to stay there for hours! 

Urban Change Maker - Ryan Reynolds

One of the original reasons I decided that my future was in urban design and not city planning was based on Ryan Reynolds and his "Gap Filler" project for Christchurch post earthquake damages. In response to the devastation and large number of vacant spaces left in Inner City Christchurch post earthquake, Gap Filler make it their mission to temporarily activate these spaces with creative and innovative community uses. Ryan Reynolds, whose inspirational TEDxChCh talk can be viewed here (Coralie Winn also deserves a mention for her talk here).  

Dance-O-Mat in use via Gap Filler

Projects such as "Dance-O-Mat", a coin operated washing machine jukebox, embody the principles of Gap filler; community engagement, experimentation, leadership, creativity, resourcefulness and collaboration. This project was such a huge success that it was recently reinstated due to community demand - a true sign of a great community project. Other projects have also been a huge success and inspiration, including the recent "Summer Pallet Pavilion", a project that provides a small to medium sized community venue built by the community itself. 

Pallet Pavilion Concept Design via Gap Filler

 Keeping a city alive and vibrant in the face of huge devastation is a sizeable task to undertake and one that only a true urban change maker would be behind. I say everyone should key an eye out for what Gap Filler help to implement next, I know I am intrigued.