“Soft Infrastructure” Is Crucial for a Post-Carbon World

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

“Soft Infrastructure” Is Crucial for a Post-Carbon World
Santa Monica City Hall at Los Angeles County, California, United States. Image via Shutterstock/ By Kit Leong Santa Monica City Hall at Los Angeles County, California, United States. Image via Shutterstock/ By Kit Leong

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

On a recent day in Santa Monica, California, visitors sat in the shaded courtyard outside City Hall East waiting for appointments. One of them ate a slice of the orange she’d picked from the tree above her and contemplated the paintings, photographs, and assemblages on the other side of the glass. The exhibit, Lives that Bind, featured local artists’ expressions of erasure and underrepresentation in Santa Monica’s past. It’s part of an effort by the city government to use the new soon-to-be certified Living Building (designed by Frederick Fisher and Partners) as a catalyst for building a community that is environmentally, socially, and economically self-sustaining.

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