Editor’s Picks: Happier Cities

TECHNOLOGY
Pencil by FiftyThree
Pencil is a stylish Bluetooth stylus for the iPad that looks like a carpenter’s pencil. When paired with FiftyThree’s Paper app, it becomes a powerful tool to bring design ideas to life. fiftythree.com

RESOURCE
Earth (the website)
Earth is an online visualization of global weather conditions designed by Cameron Beccario using Java script. It is incredibly useful explaining climate phenomena to design teams, especially regional scale wind flows like the shamal winds in the Persian Gulf. You can wind back the clock to recent dates and times to track the course of weather events. Hypnotic and cool. earth.nullschool.net

BOOK
Happy City by Charles Montgomery
Award-winning Canadian journalist Charles Montgomery’s fascinating new book examines how lessons from psychology, neuroscience, and design activism can help us fix broken cities and neighborhoods and improve our quality of life in an increasingly urban-centered world. He speaks at the EcoDistricts Summit in Washington, DC, on September 25. thehappycity.com

PERSON
Kevin Cavenaugh
The owner of Guerrilla Development reflects the best of Portland’s collective values related to place-making. An architect, developer, and mad scientist rolled up into one, Kevin takes a wholly different approach to how neighborhood vibrancy is conceived. guerrilladev.co

PLACE
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Rotterdam is hell-bent on turning the image of the gritty port city on its head, using sustainability as the driver for change. Europe’s largest port and one of the world’s worst offenders when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, the city has a bold plan to remake itself through the application of green building and infrastructure strategies to enhance livability and resiliency and protect against rising sea levels.

PRODUCT
Silicon Energy Solar Panels
These are simply the best and most carefully designed solar panels to date. All are made locally in the Seattle area from almost all local materials. Plus, they come complete with an ILFI Declare label. silicon-energy.com