The Interactive Advent Calendar
When I was editor of the online business magazine Unlimited, we wanted to do a gift guide in our December 2009 issue. The catch: it had to be relevant for our […]
Author Archives: Craille Maguire Gillies
One Night in Puerto Vallarta
John Huston’s 1964 masterpiece The Night of the Iguana transformed this sleepy part of Mexico into a hot spot. By Lisa Moore Published in the September 2008 issue of enRoute […]
Man of Taste: Interview with Vikram Vij
A conversation with Vancouver chef Vikram Vij on the restaurant biz, why crickets don’t taste so bad and what he’s learned about leadership
enRoute’s Winter Hotspots
The Decemberists is a four-part winter travel package that I assigned and edited for the December 2008 issue of enRoute. The Hills Dude, where’s my snowboard? You’ll find it in […]
The Magnetic North
At Arctic Watch Lodge, 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle, explorer Richard Weber takes you on a tour of the tundra past in comfort and style. Welcome to the middle of nowhere
Raising the Roof
How the speed-skating oval for the 2010 Winter Games might just make engineering the new architecture – one two-by-four at a time. By Trevor Boddy Published in the July 2008 […]
The Green Village
Eco buildings laid the foundation. Now eco villages are the new kids on the block.
By Craille Maguire Gillies
Published in the April 2007 issue of enRoute
To see the future of the City, take bus number 68 from downtown Helsinki to a neighbourhood bordered by a nature reserve on one side and an expressway on the other. Through the multi storey windows of the mid-century modern townhouses and the shiny square condominiums, a typical suburban scene unfolds. Parents drop off children at a daycare near the town square, Kevättori, before walking to offices and shops nearby. Some head to work down the block at the University of Helsinki satellite campus. But while Viikki, a few kilometres from downtown, looks like any other Scandi-modern suburb, the technology behind it is anything but typical. This quiet community is a living laboratory for green design. The streets spread out like fingers, with surrounding small gardens and pathways – a design that lends itself to composting and water recycling. Solar panels top the roofs of rowhouses, which operate on 30 percent less water and 25 percent less fossil-fuel energy.
