The end is nigh – of the year, that is. It’s been a big one, and I think we are all ready for the holidays.

We’ve worked on some fantastic projects -  the Innovation Hub in Botswana, the Memorial Acre in Sharpeville, hospitals in Mdantsane, Soweto, Parktown, Natalspruit and Phalaborwa, a traffic study in Rosebank and environmental upgrades arount the BRT here in Joburg were just some of them. We brought home an ILASA Award of Excellence from Durban. I went on a roadshow to several regional offices of the Department of Public Works around the country to tell them what landscape architecture is all about. Our founding partner Erika moved to a forest near Knysna. Molly left us, Flo and Elize joined us and Annamari went on maternity leave. The Gautrain started operating between Joburg and Pretoria, and changed our lives.

In the last month, we’ve posted an article on a beach promenade in Denmark, some new proposal sketch plan images and more pictures of Freedom Park. James did a walking tour with Johannesburg Ten Ahead author Gerald Garner for the Gauteng Society for Landscape Architecture year-end function, and posted a link to the Ten Ahead website.

With one week to go before we close our offices for the year, we are about to have our last Friday office lunch of 2011. Thank-you to all our clients and friends for your support during the year, and we wish you all a wonderful break and an even better 2012.

’til next year.

Fast forward to October.

The big news this month must be that GREENinc is one of 50 international firms featured in a new book called Futurescapes, published by Thames and Hudson. Check it out.

James put up a post on the Facebook site saying he thought he’d like to try out this capsule hotel. The lights in your capsule gradually come on to wake you up in the morning without disturbing the guy in the next cubblyhole.

Does a sleeping bag count as a capsule? I slept out in one in the Imfolozi Game Reserve last month on a wilderness trail. Everyone’s lights came on at the same time, except the guy doing night watch. And you could sit up without bumping your head.

James also posted a link to post on growing infrastructure. With a bit of patience, something beautiful and useful, too. He suggests we could use models in photos of our work, like this series of Government Plaza in Tokyo. Maybe, but I’m sure we could do better!

Check out these cool portable LED lamps that Anton posted. He also posted some new pics of the Botswana Innovation Hub.

Finally, it’s really worth downloading this short film by Alex Roman called The Third and The Seventh. But be warned, you may never be happy with your animations again. Lovely.

’til next time…

Annamari tells me that Anton has started shopping for a pram. And Andrew is going to start looking soon too, I believe.  Stroller design has come a long way, so look out, I’m sure we’ll see some posts going up! How about this one, guys? It’s a man pram, I found it on mamasandpapas.com. Is that an iPad?Next we’ll be opening a creche here at GREENinc.

The thing about buildings is that they’re usually so … immovable. But not this one that Anton posted on Facebook. I love the way it can pop up anywhere, it gives it an element of surprise and playfulness.

James posted this watering can, so we don’t stray too far from the landscape theme.

I really enjoyed this video clip by Natalie Jeremijenko. She says that we have created unhealthy environments for ourselves, and for the creatures that share them with us, so she’s set up a clinic to treat them. The environments, that is. We tend to forget that we share our spaces, even our apartments. Natalie presents some of her experiments and interventions.

And from nature pervading our cities, check out this installation of a city transported into nature.

A finally, a wine cellar annexe in France that sits beautifully comfortably with its surroundings, built and natural.

The big news is, the Institute for Landscape Architecture in South Africa (ILASA) held its biennial Awards of Excellence ceremony in Durban on 21 May, and GREENinc won its 7th Award of Excellence for Sharpeville Cemetery. This is the first project we’ve documented on Facebook, so you would have seen its evolution if you follow us. There are some great new pics there, so have a look.

GREENinc takes the stage

Some of us have also posted lots of other interesting stuff. And some pretty dodgy stuff too – James, were did you find this euthanasia coaster thing? Please take it off. I knew rollercoasters were dangerous, I once went on the cobra at Gold Reef City too many times and now I have a back problem exclusion in my insurance policy.

Ah, now the kombi tent is more like like it.

GREENinc was also featured on Italian design website New Italian Blood. Don’t ask me, I don’t know – maybe you used to have to be young and Italian to get onto it?. Anyway, check it out.

And check out this underground house. It reminds me of the underground houses I used to build as a kid. OK, just a bit more sophisticated.

Please watch the mini-documentary called Taking the Gap by SPACEMATTERS. How come more people aren’t talking about these “fields of matchbox houses” attached to every South African town and their failure to even try to make liveable urban spaces? Why aren’t there urban designers or landscape architects on these projects? Perhaps we have neglected to tell the right people what we can do to help make a better life for all.

Of course we also have potholes – at least these we can give a positive spin. I’ve seen some local ones turned into gardens and even graves, which helps keeps the drivers out.

Have you heard that Telkom radio ad that says something to the effect that Telkom lines score ten out of ten for reliability? Well – and I’m sure you’ll be astonished to hear this – it’s not true! Our ADSL line went down for nearly two days last week. So if you tried to e-mail us and got a message that our mailboxes were full, that also wasn’t true, our mail just got bounced because the line was down. We were all here, hard at work and trying to check our e-mail, honest. All of us except for Anton and Annamari that is, because they went on holiday AT LAST and were in Namibia. And even then, Anton was keeping track of his e-mail via his trusty i-Phone. They brought back some mesmerising photos, I’m sure you’ll agree.

As usual, check out the GREENinc facebook site for news.