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"What If's"
✳︎ A look back at the origins of the Re:Vision project.
Welcome to the Archive of Urban Revision.
Founded in 2005, Urban Revision was a San Francisco based Think Tank focused on the redesign of cities for a resilient and sustainable future. After running global competitions for ideas and designs and working with the cities of Dallas and San Francisco, Urban Revision published it's Framework for design. An entire toolkit for communities to redesign their city blocks, neighbourhoods or towns themselves.
INTELLIGENT ENERGIES FOR THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
INTELLIGENT ENERGIES FOR THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
It wasn't just a competition. It’s a ReVolt against the old ways of thinking about energy.The challenge: how would you intelligently and sustainably power a city block? Think big ideas. Think small environmental impact. Think about ways to make a difference in how we fuel the future. ReVolt was our chance to flip a switch on the status quo of fossil fuels and dirty energy. To use the sun, wind or even people in an inventive way. And to make a positive impact on our environment. We were looking for a revolutionary plan. Wherever they were, whatever they do, they could have been the one to empower the next ideas about power. Imagination is a force. ReVolt set out to prove just how powerful it is.
New Thinking on Urban Transportation
It's time to change. It was time to re-imagine the way people move through a city. Time to rethink our culture of cars and take back the streets for pedestrians, bicyclists and nature. Time to go—in a healthier, more earth-friendly and beautiful way. Re:Route went looking for ideas to make traveling through an urban city block a more moving experience. We went looking for a revolutionary plan for going from point A to point B, in a more green way. You can move people with your ideas. And Re:Route is out to prove it.
New Thinking on Urban Transportation
Green Innovation For A Heathy Urban Ecology
Green Innovation For A Heathy Urban Ecology
How can local businesses thrive, along with families, neighborhoods and communities? How can we share our gifts and talents to meet our everyday needs? Re:Store is looking for ideas to make transactions as good for the soul as they are for the wallet. How can all trade be fair trade? How can we find healthier ways to make exchanges in urban settings? More than just rethinking how we buy, Re:Store is about rethinking what we’ve bought into about commerce. It’s time that ideas were the true currency. Re:Store is our chance to make change.
Urban Planning For People & Place
What are you attached to? From the earth under our feet to the people who surround us, we are all enmeshed within environments and relationships. We are linked to the food we eat and the water we drink, as much as to the structures we build. We are part of our past—but how will we grow into our future? Re:Connect is a chance to examine our attachments within a city block and find ways to make them stronger, whether it’s how we communicate, how we create or how we interrelate.
Urban Planning For People & Place
Sustainable Materials & Building Practices
Sustainable Materials & Building Practices
What are we made of? Do we have what it takes to make a difference? Can we rebuild a sustainable foundation for the future? It’s time for a change in the way we see things, in the way we do things. It’s time for what we build to reflect who we are and what we’re made of. It’s time to Re:Construct the ideas and realities of sustainable building. We were looking for your inventive ways to create new types of structures and techniques—or renovate old ones. From planning codes to toilets, dry wall to moveable walls we want your help in reimagining the building industry. Change the parts of construction and you’ll reinvent the act of construction itself.
You are what you build. Re:Construct is your chance to reinvent yourself.
After two years of competitions, Re:Vision had been on a journey.
We’ve been illuminated by kid-powered playgrounds where little bundles of energy ARE energy. We’ve traveled elevated bike lanes and stopped in urban pods that humanize transportation. We’ve been enticed by mobile, inflatable, multi-purpose shopping structures.
And we’ve seen how a building can sprout from outdated maps. Our journey has meandered through ideas, concepts and visions that are thought-provoking and revolutionary, innovative and ethereal. But then it was time to bring them back down to earth—to a real city block that is dealing with real issues and limitations, yet offers real potential and hope for bold thinking. Announcing Re:Vision Dallas.
Re:Vision Dallas
Inspiration from the world. Inspiration from within.
What fuels a ReVisionary? For some, it’s realizing potential. For other’s it’s tackling roadblocks. But the common thread that links them all together is action—doing something, anything that can improve lives, reinvent a process, shake a perception, create a better way.ReVisionaries take a look at the world around them, then look deep inside themselves to ask “What If” and find ways to make it “What Is.”
Meet some of today’s most vibrant ReVisionaries. And find out what they have in store for the future.
