sustainability
March 9, 2008
March 8, 2008
First realized as an Industrial Design Thesis project at Pratt Institute in Spring 2005 by Samuel Cabot Cochran, GROW.1 employs thin film photovoltaics with piezoelectric generators and screen printed conductive ink encapsulated in ETFE fluoropolymer lamination.
February 28, 2008
February 19, 2008
BIOECOLAB is promoted by Provincia di Modena, Comune di Modena, and Promo (Modena Economical Promotion Society ).
It is thought as a place of information, training, research and experience; it interests and involves both the town-planning and housing operetors, and the final user ( the citizen).
It is also thought as a point of reference for the operators of the “sustainable planning and building” trend.
December 28, 2007
We can all be Makeadores. Anyone who can find valuable what others discarded is a Makeador. The alterego of the person that appears at the very moment he/she is about to make the action of reusing.
It comes and goes, it shows in temporary situations when we are looking for something. Makear comes from “make up”, mending, customising, personalising, repairing, tuning, adapting, sorting out… you make it pretty.
In today’s consumer society, brands are any word, name, symbol or object used for identifying and distinguishing articles by a particular producer from those made by competitors. They infer certain personality and image to the products, so that they become dependant on the brand.
Now MAKEA is born. An alternative to the “use & dispose” culture. MAKEA is a brand that doesn’t sell anything. It represents an attitude of resistance.
MAKEA is the collective intelligence and creativity that turns into useful again what the consumer society has rejected. The idea is to bring back the motto “do it yourself”, extending the useful life of products, going back to knowing how to make things, breaking with the “empty wasting commodity” that sells in boxes the consumer culture.
I bet you are curious to see what we are talking about… well, then, check out this website: makeatuvida.net
A few weeks ago, the British Institute of Structural Engineers published the winners of their international Structural Awards 07. I like some of the winning projects better than others, but there is a little bit of everything among them – slender bridges, complex geometry roofs, intelligent systems for earthquake-resistant structures, even buildings made of lime hemp blocks… but do you know what I could hardly find? Concrete… in return, the term “sustainable” appears in various occasions.
British engineers have surprised me, getting closer to the issue of sustainability, recognising the efforts of professionals who choose their materials to minimise environmental impact; professionals who bear in mind the life cycle of their structures, not only how much money the contractor can save today on a job, the future of which they don’t care about….
Steel prevails in the winning projects. I do know this is the British construction tradition, but I like to think that it is so for many reasons, some of which are positive. If it can favour future rehabilitation, dismantling or recycling of the structures, so much the better.
Despite the British society having apparently taken advantage of general concern about sustainability with their business around “carbon footprints”, I am pleased to see this effort for promoting concern about the environment among yet another group; in this case, structural engineers.
December 27, 2007
The next World Sustainable Building Conference SB08 will take place in Melbourne in September 2008.
It sounds like this event will stress the importance of industry and economy as tools for promoting a better built environment: “SB08 has a multifaceted program that builds strong and effective linkages across stakeholder groups to advance sustainability knowledge and practice through market and industry transformation”
Reading about the themes of the conference we find: “There is growing recognition of the importance of whole-of-life thinking (time dimension) in the performance of built assets at all levels – from individual products to buildings to urban infrastructure systems (space dimension) (…) Stakeholders should contribute to improved overall quality of life while minimizing adverse impacts to our Natural Capital. Sustained liveability for future generations is our challenge.”
December 26, 2007
Here is a spot made by Surconsciente. These guys never stop amazing us with their original proposals.
December 23, 2007
Today we want to welcome Ethel Barahona Pohl to eu:abierto.
‘I am an architect from Salvador and for the last 9 years I have lived in Barcelona. I have attached my professional development to technical publications on architecture and construction, such as Constructiva and Waterdrops magazines. I am dedicated to publishing and with the project Caja Negra: (www.caja-negra.com) I carry out activities for various international firms.
I have recently published the book Arquitectura Sostenible. I am a co-writer, together with architects César Reyes and Claudio Pirillo. You can have a look at it from:
www.editorialpencil.es
www.ribabookshops.com
I am particularly interested on sustainable architecture and all novelties and topics that enable a more adequate social, environmental and economical development of our profession.
Our friends from basurama have been working on their blog for a few months. It is becoming more and more interesting each day. There, we have found an eye-opening report by la2 (Spanish public tv channel). In the words of juan from basurama: a well rounded, realistic report. Not softy, nor mushy. Gives voice to those who speak without slant or external opinions. It doesn’t become patronising, nor dogmatic (something out of the ordinary in this time of the year, and we are pleased about it).
December 22, 2007
At the last negotiations about climate change held in Bali, USA, Canada and Japan were against a post-Kyoto treaty to stop global warming and are convincing other delegates to do the same.
It seems that these countries are happy to continue polluting the atmosphere as they please –and the rest of the planet will pay the consequences. Most wealthy countries had agreed to drastically reduce polluting emissions by year 2020 – a key move, according to experts, to stop climate change. Countries like China and India, and other large developing countries, won’t commit to the treaty until all developed countries do. This news is worrying. As well as USA, who did the same they did in Kyoto, now Japan and Canada refuse to even mention a global agreement to reduce CO2 and other polluting emissions.
Source: www.avaaz.org
November 28, 2007
eutv for participation!
Category: eutv+internet+sustainability+⚐ EN
We have done some changes in eutv wiki –we invite you to visit it again. This site aims to show what is being done in the project and to be a platform for participation with ideas or proposal for the improvement of all that you see necessary.
We mean it when we talk about getting involved with and taking part in other projects. We know it is unusual, so here are some examples of how you can work with us:
Companies can support, finance or offer services in exchange for visibility in the project.
Universities can do a visibility exchange, bearing in mind that professors and students can publicise their works and research on sustainability through our website.
We are particularly interested in projects that go beyond the academic approach – we would like to promote participative projects that require researchers to get in touch with all kinds of people.
Local governments wanting to do work on sustainability in their town can be publicised in our platform in exchange for local publicity of our multimedia contents.
Museums can offer events for promoting sustainability, like exhibitions or workshops that we can help organising.
If you have a website about sustainability, you can share your contents and exchange links. If you want, you can become a moderator and dynamizer of one of our sections.
November 6, 2007
Why a black google? Some studies say that having a black background instead of white helps saving energy. Based on these results, Heap Media Australia has created a black version of google they have named BLACKLE. For more info on this project, its characteristics, history, critics, you can check wikipedia (what else!). One of the advantages: there is no publicity. One of the disadvantages: it doesn’t have as many functions as google. Besides, there are different opinions about its efficiency: according to some research, for LCD screens the energy use could even be higher. Once again, energy efficiency is not all that simple. These are some of the tips that the official google site offers in respect of this matter.
October 29, 2007
We want to remind you that there are only a few days left for registering for the Sustainable Architecture International Conference that will take place in Seville during November. Some very interesting names will take part in the Conference: Jaime Lerner, Salvador Rueda, Jean-Philippe Vassal, José Antonio Marina, Saskia Sassen, Paul Hyett…. More information at www.cics.es
A few days ago, Ecosistema Urbano run one of the three workshops on Architecture & Sustainability organised by the Holcim professorship at the Architecture School in Seville.
Belinda and Domenico were very impressed by the enthusiasm and quality of the work carried out by the students, bearing in mind the workshop was only two days long. We have been surrounded by fantastic people, from Ramón Queiro de Holcim, who was a wonderful host, to: José Pérez de Lama, whom we already knew and was a pleasure to see again, José Ramón Moreno and Félix de la Iglesia, both very nice, and the sin|studio team (Paula, Ana, José María and Elena) whom we joined for some great tapas & cañas and with whom we have shared some of the best moments.
Here is the link to the blog where you can find a summary of the workshops and a photograph of the group of students who took part in the one we run.
October 14, 2007
For those reading our blog from the UK, we propose a lecture about construction and sustainability taking place in London this Thursday 18th October.
Future Perfect – an engineering agenda for a sustainable society? is this year’s joint ICE (Institute of Civil Engineers) and RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) annual lecture.
Mark Whitby, co-funder of the multi-disciplinar engineering firm Whitbybird based in London, will talk about sustainability, climate change and their impact on the design and construction of buildings and infrastructure.
October 5, 2007
Some weeks ago, Ecosistema Urbano created an account in Facebook. If you don’t know it yet, Facebook is a social network, a phenomenon that some experts think has the potential to become a giant of the size of google, Yahoo or Amazon.
The motive for opening this account is simple: we want to develop a network of creative people interested on areas related to architecture, city and design; people who constantly think about sustainability in their work, and aim to maintain and increase urban vitality.
We understand this blog as a meeting point for all this people and a social network as the best tool for them to meet and communicate.
For this purpose we have created in Facebook the group [ecosistema urbano]:abierto where all our readers can join in exchange for a text introducing themselves which we will publish in this blog.
We want to meet our readers and we want them to have the possibility to publish in the blog.
If you want to be part of the group, send us your text – write about what you want; we have conceived it as an introductory text, but you can make it anything you like. You can tell us about yourselves or about your interests.
The texts, which should contain less than 3000 characters, will be published in the blog under the category eu:abierto, and they can include links to sites you want to recommend.
For publishing and joining the Facebook group [ecosistema urbano]:abierto you can send me an email at domenico@ecosistemaurbano.com
October 4, 2007
We bring you more opinions about biodiesel. Now is the turn for an article published in the newly born Spanish paper Público: “green cars pollute too”. It talks, for instance, about the ban implemented in Norway to use the word “ecologic” in automobile publicity. Another interesting aspect is the debate that has started in the Spanish version of the blog following the previous article on this topic: bloggers’ comments, related news, etc.
On the same topic, check his link to flickr.
wiki:eutv
Category: ecosistema urbano+eutv+sustainability+⚐ EN
More on the sustainability website for expo Zaragoza2008: We decided to use a wiki site as the collective working tool. We had only to choose a wiki site. After analysing various sites, I have chosen pbwiki. It feels pretty intuitive and graphically attractive.
The address is www.eutv.pbwiki.com, we invite you to visit the site and take part in the construction of this new project.
For those who don’t yet know what we are talking about, there is more info here.
[ecosistema urbano] has been invited to take part in the exhibition “Zaragoza-Kioto architectures for a sustainable planet”, to be held in the Spanish Pavillion at Expo Zaragoza2008, together with twelve other international teams.
We have tried to find the way to make the best use of this opportunity for reaching the public, and we think it would be very interesting to let everybody express their opinions on sustainability: we want to offer our bloggers and readers the opportunity to be part of this exhibition. The idea is to develop and then “present” a new website about sustainability where experts and passionate people can share their knowledge.
It is going to be the first site about sustainability managed in web2.0 style, with inputs from anyone. On top of this, the site will be presented at the expo Zaragoza2008, a true international showcase.
It is our aim to increase participation levels, starting from the very first step of brainstorming and developing the website. We want bloggers to give their opinion, telling us how we can create a website as interactive as possible.
We have been trying to develop a system that enables an effective way for us to receive all sorts of advice, comments and critiques about this project. We will of course keep you up to date! For now, we want to ask you to post your comments through this blog.
October 2, 2007
www.agenda21-local.net
Category: sustainability+urbanism+⚐ EN
We have opened up our own media channel at www.agenda21-local.net. We are given the chance to communicate our innovative products for implementing the objectives of the local “agendas21”. We offer a range of high-quality services that can be used to improve the relationship between neighbours and the public space. We have started a new site inside our blog, next to the projects site, called products. In this space you will shortly find a list of specific services aimed for sustainable towns and cities. Some of the services, including rehabilitation of neighbourhoods, workshops for the future involving the participation of the neighbours or the eco-pack, will be carried out together with fundación CIREM foundation, an expert on this matter. We hope these services are what Spanish towns are looking for. We will watch out for your comments to improve our proposals throughout the process.
“eutv” (Ecosistema Urbano TV) goes ahead. At the office we are working on the design of a logo that will shortly be ready. Meanwhile, the collective task involved in defining the project goes on on the internet. So far, at the project website eutv.pbwiki.com we have registered a proposal by juan freire, which we find particularly interesting. Juan proposes developing a Ranking of cities to help publicising the project: Over the last few months a number of initiatives for comparing cities have come up, based on rankings that use different indices to quantify the degree in which cities are creative, green, sustainable, innovative… Despite these exercises being very criticisable for the methodology used as well as often for their consequences (sometimes they lead to a “city race” in which all cities want to be like each other), they generate great interest amongst politicians and the public, and they can have positive applications (they can point out weaknesses and define routes for change). In this project, work could be done with sustainability indices for Spanish cities, for example. A number of variables could be defined and the results could be compiled in a cooperative manner. These results could be published broadly and could be an instrument for making the project better known within the media, amongst politicians or the public. In a few days I will publish in Ciudades enredadas, a blog in ADN.es, a post with the analysis of different international city indices that have lately appeared in the media. It can be useful as a guide.
What do you think these indices could be?
The following headline in Spanish paper ELPAIS on 12th September has caught my attention:
“Biofuels don’t reduce CO2 emissions. This statement opens the interview of Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner Hartmut Michel. The interview questions the suitability of biofuel. I am not an expert, so I can simply recommend the article.
These are further extracts from the interview:
“to produce biofuel, such as ethanol, it is necessary to invest much energy in the shape of fertilizers, transport, as well as on distilling the alcohol. (…)Nearly as much energy is required as that later found in the ethanol. And if you obtain that energy from fossil fuel, you end up emitting more CO2 than you would if you simply used petrol in your car.”
“Biofuels are promoting the loss of tropical jungle in Indonesia, Malaysia, some regions in Africa and Brazil. In Brazil the issue is soya: more and more soya is being cultivated in the jungle. Burning up the jungle in order to produce soya liberats an enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”
