This is the Biering Project.

Supplementing the project is the following short documentary, Southtown Greenbound, which discusses the team’s experience designing and building the Biering. The film features conversations with an inhabitant, a builder, a sustainable building science expert, a developer, a realtor, as well as the designer herself – touching on issues of sustainable design and development. Enjoy!

Carnegie Mellon industrial design students Ethan Frier and Jonathan Ota developed Project Aura to address night time bicycle safety through increased visibility. The duo recognized the high number of bicycling fatalities that occur each year (630 in 2009 alone), and that the most dangerous time to ride in cities is between 5 and 10 PM. Their concept brings light to the need for increased bicycle safety, and has been recognized as Core77′s Design Award in the Transportation Design category… pretty cool!

To learn more about Project Aura, watch this ridiculously fresh video below. And when you’re done with that, read up on the behind the scenes development of the concept from Ethan and Jonathan’s own blog called SURG 2011…

This fall, in early September I will ride 1000+ miles from Montana to Minnesota as an effort to raise need-based scholarship money for the fully online Sustainable Design program that I direct at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) as well as to raise awareness about sustainability challenges and opportunities that we face today. You’ll be able to catch my blog posts here as well as on The Living Principles and Core77 [the world's #1 online industrial design magazine with ~450,000 unique visitors a month; needless to say, I'm stoked.]

I’ll be taking my old-school, circa 1982, silver-blue 310 Miyata -who I affectionately call “Sky”- on the journey with me. (Well, actually, it will be taking me.) I think it’s always been ready; me, not so much. We have made a few long weekend trips together, including completing the recent RATPOD (Ride Around the Pioneers in One Day) out of Dillion, Montana. RATPOD a beautiful ride through the Pioneer mountains that 650 riders raise money to help send kids that are battling cancer or cancer survivors to Camp Mak-A-Dream. This ride and the thrill of riding for a purpose inspired me to make this longer ride from MT to MN this fall.

So, why Montana to Minnesota? Because the program I direct (and teach within) is 100% online, I have the luxury of living and telecommuting from wherever I want (thanks to my incredibly supportive bosses!). I make my home and strive to live a sustainable life in Missoula, Montana. Just one of the examples of how MCAD is a progressive school. Imagine, a program director that not only telecommutes but can live anywhere? Pretty amazing and the situation affords me the opportunity to make sustainable life choices. I grow and preserve most of my own food, am an all-season bicyclist, and am able to connect with nature on a daily basis.

Anyhow, each semester I travel to Minneapolis for in-person meetings with my colleagues and other design faculty members at MCAD. Each time I make the journey I am disheartened by the ecological impact this trip makes. Then it dawned on me…I could really “walk the talk” or, in this case, ride the talk by getting on my bicycle and pedaling my way to work this fall semester. The “commute” would be a very long one but I am confident I can make the fully self-contained and unsupported journey with the right gear. I have been soliciting specific gear donations to support my ride (see a list of amazing contributors below) but all financial donations will go 100% to student scholarships which I am raising through my Ride the Talk: MT to MN Indie Go-Go Campaign.

I see this journey as a stellar opportunity to raise awareness about current issues in sustainability, to create a platform to discuss the power of making personal commitments that lead to a sustainable life, and to do something to help to raise money for need-based scholarships for students that are devoted to creating innovative product and service designs that focus on solving sustainability challenges that face humanity today.

Butterflies in the belly.

I’m a bit nervous about riding solo for so many miles (will I make myself crazy? where will I pitch my tent exactly?), about my bike breaking down in the middle of no where (how do I adjust a derailer again? how many spare tubes to carry?), and about being able to finish (um, how many miles left? how many hundred?). I am excited about what I’ll learn about sustainability and patience along the way, what I’ll see, who I’ll meet, and the potential to raise enough scholarship money to help new students join the Sustainable Design Online program at MCAD that would otherwise be unable to attend.

Stay tuned for updates!

THANK YOU to all the generous folks and companies that have already contributed gear to support my ride. Want to donate some gear? Contact me. I’d really love your help.

Backcountry Boiler: Pittsburg, PA

Bike Doctor: Missoula, MT

Bike Fixtation: Minneapolis, MN

Good Food Store: Missoula, MT

Hellgate Cyclery: Missoula, MT

Nice Ride: Minneapolis, MN

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Cindy Gilbert is faculty, student advisor, and directs MCAD’s Sustainable Design program which currently offers an 18-credit Professional Certificate in Sustainable Design (just launched!) and a 30-credit Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Sustainable Design. The program emphasizes small classes (capped at 18 students) at the graduate-level that foster interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations, global innovation, and creative leadership – all taught by a diverse faculty of practicing professionals. Learn about systems thinking, biomimicry, life cycle analysis, sustainable product, packaging, and graphic design, as well as design for social change and sustainable business practices. Interested? Contact us to learn more; we’re always happy to answer questions.

This guide should act as a general resource to help city stakeholders better understand the role rooftop agriculture (RA) can play in moving urban regions towards sustainability. It is not a technical resource with detailed data, but can be used to build a foundation to better understand the concept of RA in a systemic and comprehensive way.

Please contact the authors if you would like more information or if interested in any collaborative opportunities: