Friday, January 22. 2010Rebooting Britain: Transform cities into lush junglesBy Paul McAuley|01 December 2009
Photo: Peter Grundy This article was taken from the January issue of Wired UK magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online Cities may be more energy-efficient than the countryside, but we can radically enhance that efficiency with existing and achievable technology plus a little imagination, making cities carbon neutral and all but self-sufficient. Here's a four-step plan: 1 Build intelligently Construction of new buildings consumes materials and creates massive carbon debt. Wherever possible, existing stock should be refurbished and retrofitted using bioarchitectural techniques and recycled and sustainable materials to enhance energy conservation, reduce water consumption, and maximise use of rainwater. Turn office buildings into the equivalent of high-tech beehives; shopping malls into jungle bazaars; point blocks into pinnacles dripping with vines and pocket forests. 2 Go Nuclear Present experience shows sustainable sources of energy - from buildings equipped with solar panels and wind generators to plants generating biofuel and electricity by digesting garbage - will not satisfy the energy demands of large cities. A new generation of compact long-life nuclear power plants such as India's thorium reactor or South Africa's pebble-bed design will plug the power gap and produce small quantities of waste that, unlike carbon dioxide generated by oil- and coal-fired plants, can be safely stored in vitrified form. 3 Stop using fossil fuels Cities are at present vulnerable to the smallest interruptions in oil and gas supply. The first step in cutting this dependency should be a ban on private car ownership in metropolitan areas. Even a sprawling city like London can be comfortably navigated by walking, cycling, and use of public transport - powered, like delivery vehicles servicing businesses and homes, by batteries, biofuels, or hydrogen fuel cells. The great tidal flows of commuters could be reduced by rezoning commercial areas for residential use and introducing workshops and offices into residential areas, as in the human-scale, mixed-use street plans of medieval cities. At present, 30 per cent of London's carbon budget is consumed by commercial aircraft flights. In the future, all flights should use only biofuels produced by farming GM microalgae that mop up nutrients from sewage and produce ethanol and lipids. Even without genetic modification some strains of algae already yield more than ten to 20 times more biodiesel than rapeseed; the most efficient grow in saltwater, so would not compete for potable water; and fuel production powered by photosynthesis would be carbon neutral. 4 Embrace GM Parking structures and unwanted office and residential tower blocks could be converted to vertical farms where high-value GM crops, produced by open-source research rather than agribusiness, modified for perennial growth and maximum productivity, could be grown year-round using advanced hydroponics systems (drug dealers have already embraced this technology to produce crops of GM marijuana in ordinary houses). Walls and streets would be turfed with tough GM grasses and sedges; these, and thick plantings of trees lining roads, would absorb carbon dioxide and provide equitable microclimates. From the air, the ideal green city should resemble Mayan ruins poking out of a lush forest. Under the canopy, there'll be densely populated but diverse and vibrant streets humming with every kind of human life. Utopian? You bet. But unless we get a lot smarter very quickly, we'll get the future we deserve: sweltering resource-poor mega-favelas salted with the high-security enclaves of the hyper-rich. Time to choose. Paul McAuley is a biologist and multi-award-winning science-fiction author. His new novel Gardens of the Sun is published by Gollancz. Read other articles from the Rebooting Britain series - Tax people back into the cities
Online editing by Michael Conroy
Want more Wired UK magazine? Get your copy every month by subscribing online today ----- Via Wired UK Edible Schoolyard / Work ACWork AC, in collaboration with Edible Schoolyard NY and the Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Foundation, is designing a new schoolyard for PS216 that will offer the young New Yorkers a different learning experience. The Edible Schoolyard is designed as a series of interlinked sustainable systems where the building will produce energy and heat, collect rainwater, process compost and sort waste with an off-grid infrastructure. More images and more about the school after the break. The school includes a kitchen classroom and mobile greenhouse where children are brought together in a learning environment that also promotes eco-friendliness. The roof of the kitchen classroom, a room that provides the facilities for up to 30 students to prepare meals together, channels rain water for reclamation. The mobile greenhouse extends the growing season by covering 1600sf of soil in the colder months and gardens will allow the children to care for plants. A systems wall, a series of spaces that include a cistern, space for composting and waste-sorting, solar batteries, dishwashing facilities, a tool shed and a chicken coop, rests on the opposite side of the yard. The project is a great way to introduce sustainable methods into children’s lives at an early age. The “edible” element will definitely pique children’s interests and help the next generation realize the importance of the eco-friendly movement. All images courtesy of WORKac ----- Via ArchDaily Related Links:Wednesday, January 20. 2010Rainforests Destroyed as Fast as a Field of Matches
Photo via Greenpeace While the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest may be declining, it and other rainforests around the world continue to be cleared at an alarming rate. Figures that are quite alarming, like the fact that 17 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been decimated and 74 million hectares of Indonesian forests were completely destroyed, tend to lose their potency due to their unimaginable scope. Put in more manageable terms, every two seconds an area of forest the size of a soccer field is being destroyed in the world--a fact brought to life by this intriguing animation. The video was produced by Greenpeace in Switzerland, and illustrates just how quickly the world is losing its rainforests, like the oldest in Indonesia and the largest in the Amazon. But, more than just losing forest cover, deforestation devastates habitats and unique ecosystems--threatening a multitude of species found nowhere else on earth. For example, according to Greenpeace, the number of Sumatran orangutans has decreased 91% since 1991. A similar fate awaits countless other species if the rate of deforestation does not drop dramatically. In most cases, agricultural development and logging are the biggest threats to the world's forests--practices policies have been put in place to curb. Nevertheless, it continues and progress has come in fits and starts. It would benefit the concerned spectator of environmental affairs to bear in the mind the video when deciding what action should be taken to combat the problem, for there is much more at stake than a soccer field made of matchsticks. More on Deforestation ----- Via Treehugger Personal comment: Vidéo édifiante... Tuesday, January 19. 2010Event: Designing for Immobility – Amsterdam & on-line, January 21, 20.30 CETThe world-wide mobility explosion is an enormous challenge for designers. How can we convince people that current forms of continuous mobility are no longer ecologically sustainable? Should mobility simply be made unaffordably expensive? Or can we design viable alternatives
As a prelude to the ElectroSmog festival De Balie in Amsterdam will present a showcase of design proposals, practical projects and design-ideas that should persuade us to start moving less. With on-line and on-site contributions by among others: John Thackara, director of Doors of Perception, the international conference and knowledge network which sets new agendas for design, will highlight design projects that try to tackle the question of mobility reduction. Stefan Agamanolis, director of Distance Lab, Dublin, will present the specific focus of his organisation on networking rural and remote area’s. The relevant question for the ElectroSmog festival is whether we can live in a sustainable way in the green and still connect to the rest of the world, culturally and economically? David van Gent is a managing consultant for IBM on Learning Strategy & Technology, Virtual Worlds, Serious Gaming & Web 2.0. He will talk about and demo the Virtual Offices project of IBM, using open SIM technology (similar to second life): The Medialab Prado, Madrid will present their recent project “In the Air” (tbc); “a visualisation project which aims to make visible the microscopic and invisible agents of Madrid´s air (gases, particles, pollen, diseases, etc), to see how they perform, react and interact with the rest of the city. Eric Kluitenberg, head of the media department of De Balie and initiator of the ElectroSnog festival, will present the concept behind the festival. Besides exploring the critique of mobility theoretically, ElectroSmog will also address the issue practically. All international presentations in the festival will be realised by means of tele-connections between the different international locations. This program will be streamed live on the internet – for details please refer to: datum | Thursday 21 January, 20.30 hrs. ----- Via The Mobile City Personal comment:
Shall we start to move less? This question will be asked (and answered?) during this coming event in Amsterdam. Some names to follow here (like John Thackara).
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture, Culture & society, Design, Sustainability
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Defined tags for this entry: architecture, culture & society, design, energy, globalization, interferences, mobility, pollution, sustainability, tele-
Protection du climat: La Poste invite ses clients à choisir son projet18.01.2010
Depuis un an, les clients de la Poste peuvent compenser les émissions de CO2 engendrées par l’acheminement de leurs lettres, colis et marchandises en s’acquittant du supplément «pro clima», qui sera investi dans un projet de protection du climat. Par le truchement d’un vote en ligne, la Poste invite désormais sa clientèle à choisir le projet certifié «Gold Standard» qui bénéficiera de la somme réunie en 2009 à l’enseigne du supplément «pro clima». Depuis février 2009, tout expéditeur d’un envoi par la Poste peut s’acquitter du supplément «pro clima» et compenser ainsi les émissions de CO2 liées à son acheminement. La Poste n’est pas en reste, puisqu’elle applique ce supplément à sa propre correspondance. Avec les fonds récoltés, la Poste achète des certificats d’émissions issus d’un projet de protection du climat, dont la concrétisation est en partie tributaire des ses propres apports financiers. Ce modèle est la cheville ouvrière des envois sans impact sur le climat. Depuis le lancement de son offre, la Poste a déjà acheminé plus de 55 millions d’envois «pro clima» et acquis plus de 100 clients commerciaux à sa cause. Trois projets au choixAu travers de sa stratégie environnementale en trois volets, la Poste s’efforce de réduire sa consommation énergétique, de remplacer les énergies fossiles par des énergies renouvelables et de compenser les émissions de CO2 de ses besoins résiduels en énergie. Les projets présentés ci-après ont été sélectionnés par le comité «pro clima». Ils seront proposés au vote des internautes sur le portail de la Poste, du 18 au 27 janvier. Courant produit par les déchets agricoles en IndeLa centrale à biomasse du Karnataka produit de l’électricité à partir de déchets des récoltes, comme des feuilles de cannes à sucre ou de cocotiers. Cette centrale, d’une puissance de 4,5 mégawatts, peut notamment recycler une biomasse à faible indice thermique. Le courant est injecté dans le réseau d’alimentation local. En remplaçant de l’électricité tirée de combustibles fossiles, il contribue à la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Electricité tirée des gaz d’une décharge en TurquieLa décharge de Mamak, près d’Ankara, produit du gaz, du biogaz et du gaz synthétique (syngaz). Des moteurs à gaz utilisent ce combustible pour en tirer de l’électricité. Pour mettre en place cette centrale, il a fallu couvrir la décharge, installer un système de drainage des eaux d’infiltration et créer un centre de tri et de recyclage. Ces installations complètent les centrales traditionnelles de la région et, grâce à la production de courant vert, réduisent les émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Energie éolienne en ChineQuarante turbines éoliennes assemblées en Chine, d’une capacité totale de quelque 50 mégawatts, produisent 110 gigawatts par année, remplaçant des centrales à charbon a forts rejets dans le nord du pays. La centrale éolienne est raccordée au réseau de distribution du nord de la Chine. Elle favorise le développement de la production d’énergie au moyen de ressources renouvelables ainsi que celle des technologies associées. Projets certifiés «Gold Standard»La Poste soutient uniquement les projets de compensation certifiés «Gold Standard». Ce standard indépendant répond aux exigences les plus strictes. Il garantit que le projet contribue effectivement à réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre et favorise le développement durable dans le pays concerné. Jusqu’à présent, aucun projet certifié «Gold Standard» n’a été mis en œuvre dans notre pays. Related Links:Personal comment:
Initiative pro climat de la poste suisse (payer un peu plus cher l'acheminement de son courrier...), avec pour conséquence cette possibilité surprenante de pourvoir voter en ligne en faveur d'un projet "durable" de compensation (correspondant à l'investissement de la somme réunie).
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fabric | rblgThis blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research. We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings. Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations. This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
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