I visted my little childhood village the other day, where a bastard German supermarket company called Aldi (which specialises in selling crap quality at a discount price) has purchased an entire block of little cottages. It then proceded to bulldoze them over to make way for one of its ghastly stores. The worst thing however was that every single tree - giant apple gums included - was felled to make way for this consumerist nightmare.
It got me thinking about writing a feature article about supermarket companies and how they shirk their global responsibility to build environmentally sensitive stores.
My question to Design Addicts is this: Can anybody think of ANY supermarket ANYWHERE in the world that has been built with the environment as a consideration?
whole food trys sometimes...
whole food trys sometimes they succeed sometimes they do not . But they are a great super market.
We have a Aldi here in Tulsa Okla and they suck
I do not like there cheap philosophy they charge a 25 cents for a shopping cart and they charge for bags
and there merchandise is really strange also.
Hungry for land
The link below leads to a page on Aldi's U.S. website where they ask people who know of 'real estate' for sale to contact them. They're clearly hungry to gobble up more land.
Where did Aldi buy the land your referring to, Stephen? Find and post the contact number so that everyone who uses this website give the agent a call to protest.
This sounds like a great opportunity to organize your community to stand up to Aldi!
http://www.aldi.us/us/html/company/company_real_estate_opportunities_ENU...
Stephen...where are you located?
I wish DA listed country locales for each of us, because when someone mentions something in their local area, the rest of us don't know where that it.
Aldi have stores here in the Twin Cities, but, thus far, they have only moved into smaller shopping centers, renting existing retail space.
They're still a lowlife operation, but, thankfully, they haven't been responsible for any destruction of cool buildings.
Your rant seems fuzzy to me
What are you railing against-- Germans, low-quality discount stores, the loss of fondly-remembered cottages, or the fact that a business cut down trees in order to construct its building?
Bear in mind that the same bulldozing was undoubtedly necessary to construct the businesses that you actually approve of, as well.
Why is this instance so disgraceful, exactly?
reply
Willima holden caulfield.
What i object to is the fact that in Australia, there are laws called BASIX. These laws must be met by people building new homes and govern energy consumption, shading, insulation etc.
But when it comes to supermarkets (who donate huge amounts of money to political parties) there doesn't seem to be any rules.
I'm questioning the fact that in 2007, supermarket construction still involves the total clearing of beautiful established native vegetation. And yet we have the architects and know-how to design/constuct a large building such as a supermarket, in a much more environmentally sensitive manner (the Herman Miller factory in michigan is a case in point).
Why not design a supermarket where existing trees are built around or simply punched up through the roof? (They do this with housing).
The reason? Because supermarket companies only ever consider their bottom line.
and yes, there's something extra irkesome about the fact that all this destruction is being wrought, just so people can buy lots of plastic crap, dodgy DVD players and massive packets of crisps.
evil !
they've been doing the same thing here in germany for years. now there are laws for urban areas, that force them to integrate their stores into other developments that meat certain design standards. their monkey-architecture is found only in industrial areas.
and all the annoyance just for cheap china plastic products and discount food!
I think that Paulanna's comment might have been intended as humor...
but I'm not sure. It certainly didn't strike me as particularly funny. No place on the planet should be considered expendable or of lower worth. We've got one world and it comes as a package deal. Screw up one bit and you affect the whole.
Mitigation Banking is a stron...
Mitigation Banking is a strong rule builders must follow here in Florida. Endangered trees/grasses/animals,etc take full priority over any construction. Yes it is possible to build near the Everglades, but the builders must be prepared to jump through many hoops, and pay hefty sums into Mitigation banking. It simply isn't worth the hassle. That money is then used to purchase enviromentally sensative land, and/or plant native trees. I was denied permission to expand my boat dock into the intracoastal, as I would have needed to remove a patch of red mangrove, and Johnson grass. Denial was due to Manatee's spend winters in front of my home, feeding on the grasses. It is nearly impossible to raze a historic building, but several companies specialize in moving such structures. Because of the 1928 hurricane, their isn't much in the way of historic structures to begin with.
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