Today’s morning trip was at Sitio Roberto Burle Marx. The place is full of amazing landscape designs and has over 3500 cultivated species. The botanical collections are well presented by Burle Marx’s design in this garden. The one I like is a landscape with rainwater collection system. He uses the rooftop to collect rainwater and uses the water into the landscape. It is not only makes the best utilization of water, but also gives the landscape continuously fresh water supply. I presume this is an early sustainable concept being implemented into housing design. Right now, lots of countries are using this design for residential projects, like the seaside housing project in Sweden. Rainwater is collected by the rainwater collection system in every building and gathered into ponds or other landscape in the community. So seeing Burle Marx’s design is reminding me of that.
On the way back to the city, I noticed there are lots of multifamily housing projects in western Rio and even more are still under construction. Rio is a city with more than 6 million population so the housing demand is huge. In the western of the city, the main street is connecting many housing projects and the streets are walking friendly. There are pedestrians and traffic lights for people to across the street, which is safe and convenient. What associating with these high-density housing projects is a BRT line. It reduced about 50% commute time for people living along this bus line. BRT is a good choice for a middle or even larger size city because of its easier implementation and lower investment. With proper planning, it could help the local traffic a lot with increasing its efficiency. Columbus will have a new BRT line, which called CMAX by the year of 2017. It will connect downtown and Polaris area. COTA propose it going to reduce travel by 20%. Even Rio and Columbus are different in many aspects, the benefit of BRT line to local residents are same. Of course there might be problems showing up or people who opposing BRT projects. For example, in the US, some people oppose the project is because they think it will not have enough ridership or the station is a waste of land use. However, I think even BRT may have some sort of drawbacks, it still brings people to new areas with higher efficiency. The benefit on local businesses and city mobility is considerable.
