Last night a few of Toronto's bloggers toured the ROM Crystal and its first curated shows. Reading Toronto took a lot of pictures and we'll have them here--along with some commentary--as soon as we can get some time to download them. What's our take on the architecture? The Crystal may be the city's premier public space, but it needs programming that can compete with the architecture for our attention.

We live in a planning culture that tries to prevent unexpected overlaps between dominant technologies and the functional requirements of every day life. While that approach makes for a much safer society, it also reduces the chance for unexpected and creative adaptations. This video—taken in Bangkok—illustrates just how adaptive people can be in societies where planning is an afterthought.
Train Runs Through Bangkok Market - Watch more free videos Thanks to Phil Goodfellow of the Toronto Society of Architects for sending this along to RT.

Since we've been spending a lot of time discussing the policies of Toronto's mayor, we wonder: does he use toilet paper? Like most North Americans he probably does, but a story in today's BBC.com made us do a double-take. A new York family decided to spend a year living as close to a zero impact life as they could. One of the steps they took was to not use toilet paper. The story's headline? "US family tries life without toilet paper" Catchy.

Here are some of the other ways the Beavans suggest reducing our environmental footprint:

1. Turn off your electricity - no fridge, washing machine, or dishwasher

2. Don't drive - bicycle

3. Wash clothes by hand

4. Use only natural cleaners like borax, vinegar, and soda

5. Buy second-hand merchandise only

6. Take a hamper to the food market - no plastic bags

7. Put a solar panel on the roof to power a laptop and one light

8. Use a crank up radio

As the Beavans will tell you, going cold turkey on all aspects of modern life is probably not the answer. In fact, one advantage that the Beavins had came from living in a big, modern city:

"But the fact is that it is actually easier to live an efficient life in this city, and this is well documented. Here in New York, we emit about a third of the carbon per member of the population of the rest of the country, and it's because of the efficiencies of scale of this city."

Want to know more about this family's epic journey into the no-impact zone? Here is their blog.

With Toronto's budget woes as a background, Charles Landry of "The Creative City" fame - and advisor to our own Mayor Miller - was in town yesterday talking to a Bay Street crowd over lunch. In case you don't know it, Landry's meta-message goes something like this: Rethinking the city can create better places to live, work, and play. While a full review of Landry's talk will have to wait he did get me thinking about my friends at http://www.newmindspace.com and what they've been up to in their poetic reuse of the public realm.

This video tells the story of one of their projects from 2006 - enjoy: