"The Hawthorn Tower will, like its Milanese predecessor, be blanketed in greenery -- and it’s expected to absorb over 5.4 tons of carbon dioxide. The equivalent of one hectare of woods will be installed on the tower to create a real urban ecosystem with over 30 different vegetal species."
Wired's Nicholas Tufnell notes that Neurosurgeons successfully implant 3D printed skull at the UMC Utrecht hospital... "A 22-year-old woman from the Netherlands who suffers from a chronic bone disorder -- which has increased the thickness of her skull from 1.5cm to 5cm, causing reduced eyesight and severe headaches -- has had the top section of her skull removed and replaced with a 3D printed implant. The operation, which took 23 hours, was led by Dr Bon Verweij. The patient's skull was so thick, that had the operation not been performed, serious brain damage or death may have occurred in the near future. [...] The lead surgeon had previous experience with 3D reconstructions of skulls, but such a large implant had never been accomplished before. "It is almost impossible to see that she's ever had surgery," said Dr Verweij in the university's official statement. It is hoped this technique can also be used for patients with other bone disorders or to repair severely damaged skulls after an accident or tumour.
And here's UMC Utrecht's surgery video...
Much like the massive redevelopments of and around the Dutch Amsterdam Centraal railway station I wrote about earlier, the Utrecht Central stationarea has a major upgrade in motion as well... Here's overall masterplan and summary map... 
The UC upgrade is part of the NS Wereldstations initiative... Curiously enough, much of the work is to upgrade a shopping zone called Nieuw Hoog Catharijne which will undo the bad planning and ugly design of a previous generation something you can see here in the Dutch-language promo film for the original Hoog Catharijne and related developments... And if you're really curious how things used to look in the Utrecht stationarea, check out this older footage...
"Many cities in the Netherlands are very old. The street patterns of these cities developed in a time when traffic was very different. For centuries pedestrians, the occasional carriage and freight barrows didn’t pose many problems in the largely narrow medieval streets. But in the early 20th century this changed. Mobility increased and the vehicles that were used in higher numbers changed. Trams, bicycles and later motorised vehicles made drastic measurements necessary. For example in Utrecht where from the 1920s some through streets were widened by demolishing whole blocks of buildings on one or even both sides of those streets. [...] The 1970s became a turning point. A new generation of decision makers scrapped the old plans and the exact opposite was done. In stead of changing the city streets for through traffic, through traffic was gradually completely banned from the city centres. Large pedestrian areas with shops were created."
"...illustrating how direct cycle routes can be accommodated in both new and old towns. [...] cycle routes can be planned to be faster and more direct than the roads in the Netherlands. Some of the better examples are from Assen, Groningen and Houten. Making cycle routes shorter makes cycling a lot more attractive, and is a good part of the reason why the Dutch cycle more than people of any other nation."
"A motorway was planned on this very spot in the 1950s and 60s. When building for that road began, there were increasing protests against it and all the demolitions that went with it. The opposition became so strong, that in the 1970s the works were stopped and the road was never finished [...] It took the city 30 years to realize that it was best to reverse the situation."
