The Slow Building

Lately I've been really interested in the Slow Movement.  Slow food, Slow travel, even Slow Cities!   Fantasies of the slow life are almost a constant for me throughout the school year, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who can imagine how much healthier and happier the world would be if massages were as cheap as coffee and nap carrels were available at the library.

Once upon a time before Kraft Dinner, people took the stairs.  Now, obesity and heart disease as leading killers in North America, change is imminent and architects have to do their part.  It takes a sexy staircase to seduce people away from elevators, but that's what Thom Mayne has included in his building for Cooper Union (above), Frank Gehry with the whimsical spirals in the AGO, and these people did in Stolkholm.  (Ironically sponsored by Volkswagen.) Either buildings become more walkable or, as Thomas Farley, New York City's health commissioner suggests, make elevators slower and smaller, leaving people with little choice.  Read more: "If You Build It, They Will Walk".

- Sarah