A sustainability ethos

The Artdog Images of Interest
I have a thing for "green" architecture. I'm fascinated by how it works, and the potential to build things that actually improve the environment, rather than contribute to blighting or destroying it. All over the world, I'm seeing a sustainability ethos--a sense that we have a moral obligation to do better--begin to rise up.

All over the world, but not so much in the USA. I think most of my readers can figure out why, but it's a shame. That's not to say we have nothing of the sort here. Several local projects in the Kansas City metro have included a sustainability ethos in their planning. But the cutting edge projects too often are being built elsewhere.

I recently became aware of three different sustainable projects that could be part of a solution to our climate crisis. I've shared information about them on social media, but I also want to collect some thoughts about them here. Each demonstrates an admirable sustainability ethos.

Humanscapes of Auroville, India
This sustainable housing complex (in Auroville, which has a rather extraordinary visionary origin altogether)  has already been built (from locally-sourced materials). It is a net-positive energy project, which generates more energy than it uses.

It's also part of a long-term study of how built spaces can foster community among those who live or work there. Designed for young adults, students and faculty, it features common areas that are beautiful and flexible, among its array of innovations.

The complex was designed by the local-to-that-area firm of Auroville Design Consultants. Read more about it on Inhabitat and Arch Daily.

Humanscapes of Auroville, India, is part of an experiment in sustainable living and community-building. (Akshay Arora/Auroville Design Consultants)

The sustainability element in the economic and social picture is far too often overlooked by planners and designers I've encountered or read about. But when you fail to evaluate the complete "footprint" of a project, you can get into trouble fast.

Burwood Brickworks Shopping Centre of Melbourne, Australia
Trumpeted as the "World's most sustainable Shopping Centre," according to The Sydney Herald the Burwood Brickworks shopping center won't quite be a net-positive energy project like the Humanscapes. but it will "produce a large chunk of its energy needs."

However, according to Broadsheet Media of Melbourne, it will achieve the Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification standards. "LBC-certified buildings have zero carbon footprint; zero waste; produce more electricity and water than they use; grow agriculture on 20 per cent of the site; and are built using non-toxic and recycled materials," they said.

That sounds net-positive to me, but I'll let them sort it out. Considerably more eco-friendly than conventional shopping centers is a good bet, either way. And definitely informed by a sustainability ethos.

The Burwood Brickworks Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia is designed and built with a "rooftop farm" that calls to my mind the ubiquitous rooftop farming I extrapolate for the habitat wheels of my fictional Rana Station.

Smart Forest City of Cancun, Mexico
The architectural firm behind the Smart Forest City is familiar to anyone who follows the most interesting developments in the ongoing struggle to innovate sustainable structures. Stefano Boeri Architetti is based in Milan, Italy, where one of its earlier projects, the groundbreaking Bosco Verticale, looks a whole lot like the "White Space Tree" I blogged about last May (note that Bosco Verticale was built first).

Canals will run through much of Smart Forest City, primarily to provide water for the agriculture that is designed to make it food-self-sufficient. This visualization reminds me of a Solarpunk city design like those of Tyler Edlin or MissOliviaLouise.

Stefano Boeri's latest project, the still-in-the-process Smart Forest City, is intended to be "a model for resilient and sustainable urban planning." To that end, it will be "completely food and energy self-sufficient." In other words, not only net-positive (or at least net-neutral) energy but able to produce its own food.

I'm flashing on my fictional Rana Station again. Because Rana is an island in space that is 23 hours away from the nearest planet, its very survival depends on its self-sufficiency. Every available space is used for agriculture.

That creates parallels with Smart Forest City. Between green roofs, vertical gardens, and an agricultural belt that surrounds its perimeter, the plan is to make the Mexican project capable of feeding all 130,000 projected residents from its own agriculture. Talk about building with a sustainability ethos!

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to TES and Sualci Quotes for the "Light of Mine" illustrated quote, to Inhabitat for the photos of Humanscapes in Auroville, India, and Smart Forest City in Cancun, Mexico, to QuoteFancy for the illustrated quotes from Phil Harding and William McDonough, and to Broadsheet Melbourne for the photo of the Burwood Brickworks Shopping Centre renovation project.

For Food Security

Day Five: For Food Security

I feel more conflicted about this one than I have about my previous gratitude topics. Not that food security is not a marvelous blessing--it truly is, in every sense of the word. 

But I'm aware that all around me--in my community, across my nation, and around the world, there are many, many people who do not share this blessing.

To express public gratitude for it, in the knowledge of such widespread lack, almost feels like gloating. That's not my intention at all. If I could, I'd extend this blessing to everyone in the world, so that no one anywhere has to go to bed hungry, or wonder where their next meal will come from.

Here in the USA, today is Thanksgiving. Everyone in the country is presumed to be eating their fill, then waddling into the next room to zone out in a "food coma" while watching American football games. However, despite the best efforts of community charities, not everyone will be able to do that. Statesman Jacques Diouf put it well:

Everyone alive should be acknowledged to have a basic human right to adequate, nutritious food. That this is ignored, pushed aside as inconvenient, left to the vaguaries of climate change, governmental style or unregulated capitalism, or even actively subverted so hunger can be used as a weapon is inexcusable. Yes, people have been doing it for millennia; it's a crime against humanity every single time, in my opinion.

How can persons of conscience work to fight food insecurity? Acknowledging that we who can eat well are blessed, we can make charitable donations on both the local (link to find US agencies) and international (this link: UN) level to help fill immediate shortfalls.

But we also must advocate for longer-range goals: 

• improving sustainable agricultural and fishery practices, because if it's not sustainable, everyone will starve in the future;
• increasing the efficiency and speed of global food distribution, so there's less waste;
• eliminating "food deserts," both urban and rural;
• bolstering U.S. foreign aid, and making sure it gets to the correct recipients; 
• improving the quality and scope of domestic programs that not only seek to keep everyone fed, but acknowledge their varying abilities to feed themselves (if you think "if you don't work, you shouldn't eat" is a just demand, do you then believe that the disabled and the very young should all starve?).

Creating systemic improvement is a large, difficult goal, fraught with practical difficulties, cultural pitfalls, and unintended results. It also is desperately necessary, as long as people anywhere are hungry.

Creating changes in public opinion is a way to begin. Funding empirical studies by unbiased researchers is a reasonable step forward. Involving all involved parties in design of solutions is a reasonable, respectful necessity that is likeliest to result in the best solutions. Many initiatives have already begun. We all must work together to bring the best ones to fruition.

IMAGES: The "Seven Days of Gratitude" design is my own creation, for well or ill. If for some reason You'd like to use it, please feel free to do so, but I request attribution and a link back to this post. The "Food security definition" quote by Pattie Baker is from Quozio, via Pinterest; her book Food for My Daughters is available from Amazon Smile and other fine booksellers. The Jacques Diouf quote is identified as sourced from Live58, though I couldn't find it on their site; I did find it on the website for GRIID (the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy). The quote from Ray Offenheiser of Oxfam America is courtesy of The Huffington Post, via Pinterest. Many thanks to all!

Three places to live and/or work that may change your mind about sustainable architecture

Although not everyone in the US Congress seems to have gotten the memo, in this age of impending global climate change people all over the world are seeking out new and better ways to live sustainably--and it's a very hot trend in contemporary architecture. Here are three visually striking examples you may find game-changing.

8 House in Copenhagen
Built in the shape of a figure 8 (if viewed from above), Bjarke Ingels' 8 House is a mixed-use development in a southern suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. 

The biggest innovation is the designer's idea to create an intimate kind of urban environment by "stacking the various ingredients of an urban neighborhood into layers," (Wikipedia) so the development's walkability and convenience is greatly enhanced. Other sustainable features include the strategic use of the "heat island" effect, and green roofs.

8 House, when under construction: the reason for the name becomes clear.

Everyone has an interesting view in 8 House.

Evening waterside view of 8 House.

O14 Tower in Dubai
Dubai is a product of its rulers' particular vision: wealthy from oil, but focused on making itself "cutting edge" in many ways, while the oil wealth lasts and can be used to build something more sustainable. Interestingly for a place literally built with oil money, there seems to be considerable support for sustainability in recent projects (could these guys please have a heart-to-heart with the Koch Brothers?). 

The 22-story O14 Tower's structure is specifically designed for the desert climate of Dubai, with a 16"-thick outer facade covered with circular perforations. The holes provide light and air, but the rest of the "exoskeleton" acts as protection for the windows, and a solar shield. A one-meter gap between the facade and the building inside also provides passive cooling because creates a chimney effect in which the hot air rises.

RUR Architecture's innovative design for the O14 Tower creates a visually striking building with many practical features.

The holes provide access for more than light and air, when needed.

This view of O14 Tower under construction gives an idea of its scale.

FTP University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Another example of innovative design that is much more literally "green" than our first two designs is the FTP University, now under construction in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (all the images are renderings, because the project isn't finished yet). 

Designed as something of a sustainable answer to the flat landscape and vertical buildings that dominate the city, the FTP University buildings are supposed to appear as "an undulating forested mountain growing out of the city of concrete and brick" (Vo Trong Nghia Architects). It actually will create more greenery than it is displacing as it is being built. 

An "undulating forested mountain" is coming to Ho Chi Minh City. 

It almost looks as if the forest has taken over--but looks can be deceiving Down below the "canopy," the humans will still hold forth.

Down under the trees it will be cooler and quieter. What a great place to study for one's final!

IMAGES: Many thanks to World Landscape Architect for the 8 House-under-construction image, and to E-Architect UK for the images of the courtyard and waterside view. All three photos of the O14 Tower are courtesy of Inhabitat. The renderings of buildings for FTP University are courtesy of Vo Trong Nghia Architects, designers for the project.

Will it float? Yes, it will!

Last week's Artdog Images of Interest showed photos from the island of Manhattan, when it flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The post closed with a look at the way climate change flooding predictions are challenging city planners to consider creative new approaches.

The Ultimate Flood-Proofing: Floating One of the intriguing ideas I encountered to "flood-proof" a city was to make it float. This is scarcely a new idea. Villages all over the world have been built to float, for practical reasons. Take Ko Panyi, Thailand, for example.

The fishing village of Ko Panyi is mostly built on stilts in Phang Nga Bay, but it does have a floating football pitch.

Halong Bay Village, Vietnam, does them one better: the entire village floats. Here's a great view from Getzel Photography.

No stilts for these hardy fisher-folk: they've built their village to literally float.

And it would be rude not to also mention the Uru People of Peru and Bolivia, who have hand-made 42 of their own islands (not to mention homes and boats and lots of other things) in Lake Titicaca from the local totora reeds.

The creative and resourceful Uru people build their own islands, homes, and very striking boats from the local totora reeds. 

Contemporary Innovations
Today's architects and planners are taking that idea in new directions, with new technology. Here's one example: a floating house on the Thames River by Baca Architects.




This house was specifically built to spare the damage of flooding on its flood-prone lot. 

Another example of an approach to sustainability that embraces the advantages of floating architecture is the Science Barge by Groundwork Hudson Valley.

Groundworks Hudson Valley has produced The Science Barge, a floating greenhouse and demonstration project in sustainability that is paving the way.

Visions of the Future:
Swale, the Floating Food Forest actually is a not-so-far-future concept: it's supposed to float into New York City this summer! The project's website is a cornucopia of creative sustainable ideas.

Concept rendering for how Swale Floating Food Forest will look in New York Harbor this summer (well, we HOPE the smog isn't that bad!).

Concept rendering for an interior view of Swale Floating Food Forest.

Blue 21 is a futuristic floating city concept that incorporates flood-proofing, sustainable architecture, and locally grown food.

Floating city "Blue 21" is an ambitious and comprehensive design from Delta Sync of the Netherlands. They have many other cool projects on their website.

IMAGES: Many thanks to P. Transport, for the photo of Ko Panyi, Thailand. The magnificent photo of Halong Bay Village is courtesy of Getzel Photography. The photo of an Uru island is from the website Places to See in Your Lifetime, and it includes a lot more great images of these amazing constructions. 
The informative video about Baca Architects' amphibious house on the Thames is courtesy of YouTube, via Inhabitat. I found the striking night image of the Science Barge on a page by EcoFriend, which does not seem to be online anymore! :-( The "outside view" of Swale Floating Food Forest is courtesy of PSFK. The interior view is from the Project's own website.
The Blue 21 floating city image is courtesy of Inhabitat, which offers a slideshow of other views, too. 

What's at stake? How do you see it?

Don't you agree?

IMAGE: Many thanks to Marian16rox on Tumblr.

Sun-Moon Mansion in China: Solar Powerhouse

The solar power sector of the energy market is growing by leaps and bounds--but nowhere faster than in China. Whether you see this as a positive or negative trend, it is changing the face of solar power generation.

The Sun-Moon Mansion is billed as "the biggest solar energy production base in the world," and was conceived as the headquarters of a solar energy production area that could parallel Silicon Valley as a source for development. It's certainly the most visually interesting power plant I've seen in a while. Here are some more views: 

IMAGES: The opening image of the Sun Moon Mansion is from an Eco Friend article, "Sustainable Solutions to Make Cities a Better Place to Live." The others are from the Inhabitat slide show about the place.