Module Three - CAT November

CAT’s November residential was intense; I feel I need to sleep for a week to absorb all that happened. Our first essays and practical reports were due in upon arrival at CAT, we stayed in the timber self-build again, and stayed up late adding final touches to presentations for the following day. On Tuesday, we each gave 10 minute marked presentations for feedback on presentation style, format and interim stage designs. It was great to see the range of approaches to affordable sustainable housing for the brief in Machynlleth. Duncan Roberts joined us for presentation feedback, tutorials and to give the architectural practice lecture.

With the MSc students we had four sets of lectures:

• Ventilation and cooling systems, finishing with Ben Abel from Hilson Moran showing analysis and design of systems in high rise such as 30 St Mary’s Axe, the Gherkin, through digital environmental modelling visuals.
• Water systems and services with a focus led by Judith Thornton on sewage, toilets, composting human manure and the technology to achieve this.
• Moisture and condensation in buildings, especially in walls, and exploring the issues with retrofit insulation into cavities that were not designed to take the moisture build-up created by this.
• Waste management policy and practice with Peter Wynn.

Friday was practical day; I took part in John’s Acoustical workshop inspired by results showing that the acoustical performance of green buildings is less satisfactory than in conventional buildings. Why is this? It is simply that it is a secondary concern to ‘green’ designers? Or is it a side effect of the material choice treatment within green homes? We used areas of the WISE building as case studies and split up to analyse reverberation and acoustical phenomena.

The surfaces of the Lecture theatre creates a large reverberation time, which is great for lectures when few people are speaking, however, the circular plan geometry causes focusing and ‘blind spots’ in sound resulting in difficulty with debates/discussions. Diffusion surfaces would help this but may detract from the unique acoustics of the theatre that make it a special place.

We also investigated the restaurant extension where we eat. Other groups had previously recorded extremely high decibel levels during meal times, experienced by having to shout across tables to hold conversations and not hearing words from anyone a few seats away, just noise. The room is clad in timber as throughout the building and has a large glass fronting that opens up to the courtyard. Digital acoustical analysis showed a long reverberation time and standing waves set up. The reflective surfaces, slanted ceiling and linear plan geometry meant single source sound travels to the opposite end of the room and is heard there as illegible echo or background noise, also creating a lack of conversational privacy when the room is relatively empty. Absorption may improve the situation, but solutions should keep to the style, aesthetic principles and the green credentials of the building.

Each week we also choose a structured seminar, I took part in modelling heat and moisture transfer in buildings, looking particularly at areas of condensation risk in various wall sections on a programme called WUFI. Taylor Roark at CAT is organising the sustainability zone at London Green Fair 2012 which a number of the Prof Dip students are going getting involved with, we had a lunch time meeting to discuss ideas and got the ball rolling. http://www.londongreenfair.org/

On Saturday night, Christmas came to CAT. We arrived to Christmas Dinner, the tables set out long ways with candles – Hogwarts style. In groups we had prepared mini musical pantomimes – another good excuse for the tutors to dress in drag. The lobby space outside the lecture theatre was set up with a stage area and curtains, all us prof dip students joined together to perform ‘The sound of Greece nativity’ before dancing into the early hours.

There is a lot of work to be done this winter, January brings the final presentations of the housing project, lots of drawing, CAD and model making to do in addition to researching and drafting the next essays and reports. During this week we have become a lot closer as a group despite our usual geographical separation, 6 weeks until we are back, time is sure going quickly – next time in Wales we will only have one year left.

Module Two - CAT October

This module we explored the practicalities of living in a Walter Segal inspired, self-build, timber frame house, which was the accommodation for most Prof Dip students, cosily packed into the small house in bunks, two showers to share and the luxury of a common room – the setting for discussions, drinking and games for the week. The rest of us stayed in the above-the-restaurant-accommodation, described as a chicken-coop, due to its maze of small corridors and pocket-sized rooms.

Whilst we were gone from CAT, we tried out ways to collaborate, share research and work as a team whilst being scattered across the country, Ben set up a wiki, and George set up a dropbox. We are now looking into ways to better organise the communications, after getting lost in the multiple mass of emails circulating around. Getting stuck into our design project, we agreed groups for site analysis, organised by Kirsty, we each researched one subject – Jodie and I looked at Sewage – As a year group we created a detailed book of information, something that would have been difficult to achieve alone.



Back up the slate quarry in Powys, Alison and Trish took us through a 360 degree review to share initial designs for the housing project in Machynlleth. Not a traditional pin-up, we had 2mins each to present, followed by posting feedback on peers work, leading to much discussion around central topics, “If you don’t create a reason for young people to stay in a town (such as employment and amenities) then what’s the point in building affordable housing? It seems logical to create ‘reasons to stay’ as a first priority, as housing will naturally follow this” -Charlotte on community housing. We had the privilege to speak to the dynamic, interesting and knowledgeable client of the project site, sustainable local butcher Will Lloyd Williams, who gave us a new understanding of the site in addition to turning the project into a competition with prizes.

Our lectures, shared with the MSc students, began with architectural practice; Pat Borer who described his obsession with L-shaped plans, amongst other endeavours “…these buildings are made of sticks and what they do is bring in the nature…” The talks continued on a theme of thermal comfort, full of analysis, regulations, equations and design reactions because “…If you don’t know about it, you can’t tell people what to do about it.” – Francis Hill. The tutors devised a way of really making us understand all this by a full-on day of practical workshops. My group started out in the sauna, to see how our bodies react to heat – Jason pointing his surface temperature laser all over the place to prove it – followed by a very quick dip in the 9 degree Celsius reservoir, our surface temperatures dropped by 30 degrees! Refreshed we attended Tim and Alison’s workshop to think about how a building reacts to its environment to achieve thermal comfort. The afternoon brought a U-value seminar and gadget session, devising mini-experiments using tools to measure humidity, surface temperature, core temperature, lux-levels, CO₂ levels, etc…

Spooky Saturday Night; Halloween came early to CAT. Some had come prepared with skeleton suits; others raided Mach’s charity stores for vampire attire. Some dressed in plastic, handcuffed themselves together and shuffled around claiming to be carbon dioxide…good ale, good dancing, great friends…

The dancing always takes place in the lobby space outside the rammed-earth lecture theatre, and for many reasons it’s my favourite space in the WISE building. What could have been a corridor between teaching places, bar, courtyard, theatre and bedrooms, Pat Borer and David Lea decided to merge these separate spaces together on the turning axis of the plan, creating a shared-use space that flows. The curved triangular space has light coming in from 3 directions, two on the horizontal as well as from above trickling down the staircase; one side is completely fronted by the calming drop-pool courtyard bringing the experience of outside within. From what I’ve seen so far, (and I’ve only been to CAT a total of five times now,) events occurring in this space include but are not limited to: degree show exhibitions, waiting for interviews, photography for student cards, drawing classes, day group seminar sessions, drinking, DJ and dancing, many people working quietly on laptops, tug of war games, lining up for lectures, experiments of many kinds, a luxury transition space from public to private, moving up to the rooms, people sitting quietly with a sketch book thinking… And the amazing thing is that for each and every one, the atmosphere adjusts and suits perfectly.

Sunday’s lectures concluded the week with Part-L talks whilst nursing sore heads before all falling asleep on the train home. The weight of the work to be done in the 4 weeks before our return looming, next session we need to be ready for hand-ins and presentations.

The Laws of Thermodynamics and Their Implications on Thermal Comfort in the Built Environment

The Second law of thermodynamics is the most prevalent for the explanation of heat uses within dwellings; it describes the natural direction of energy transformation and entropy. Energy “…move[s] from a highly ordered state to a disordered state…” (Cleveland, Kaufmann 2008.) Heat, as the form of energy with the most entropy, is the eventual natural result; “Entropy of a closed system increases (more exactly, does not decreases) with time.” (Prisyazhniuk, 2007.) This heat will spread until it reaches equilibrium. Within buildings this means that a source of heat, whether it be a fire, hot water system or direct solar gain will spread itself from the concentrated source point out towards any cooler area. Ideally for thermal comfort this heat energy, once within the space should be conserved, emphasizing the importance of airtightness and insulation in design as well as the importance of space economy, or: not wanting to spend the energy to heat to near equilibrium a large space, for just one person. The second law also describes how in order to produce a useful lower entropy, (highly ordered,) form of energy; the kind needed in order to generate heat within our home, that additional energy has to be applied and work done. (Prisyazhniuk, 2007.)  “…the continuous flow of oil, coal, and other fuels used to run society is converted into low quality, unavailable energy ("waste heat").” Also described by the ‘Zero’ law, “…All bodies acquire the temperature of the environment…” (Prisyazhniuk, 2007.)[1] Such laws explain the difficulty of conserving and storing energy as heat, a continuous battle against natural physics that appears to be one of the main elements of environmental dwelling design. We try to harness the high entropy form of energy to store for times when the natural pulsing environment has spread the availible warmth to near equilbrium at a localized area, working with these rules and using the importance of temperature difference to control passive heat flow we endeavour to slow the enevitable directional movement of energy for our comfort.

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[1] The "Zero" Law of Thermodynamics: the Law of Heat Equilibrium, this wording is put by J. Black (1728 – 1799): "All bodies freely communicating with one another and not subject to a non-equilibrium impact of the ambient conditions acquire one the same temperature, as determined with the thermometer. All bodies acquire the temperature of the environment."(Prisyazhniuk, 2007.)

Cycles of Energy Transfer and direction time with heat flow.

Module one – Professional Diploma in Architecture (AEES)

The past week has been unlike any other, as the 22 Prof Dip fresher’s travelled to CAT from all over the country to meet for our first meal together on Monday night in the WISE building. The tutors didn’t waste any time and started us off that evening discussing the ‘sacred cows’ of sustainability with the MSc students to challenge our preconceptions and ideologies on sustainability from a wide variety of points-of-view through role-playing.

We were really looked after at CAT, with delicious food, 3 large meals a day, teas, coffees, juices and wine. This week we were sleeping in the WISE building itself, enhanced by our lecture about the building design by David Lea. We stayed 2 to a room in the wonderfully tranquil bedrooms, timber clad, with a floor to ceiling, square glazed screen that slid open directly onto the roof top terrace, looking down to the ‘drop-pool’ courtyard and out to the west Wales mountains.
The first module took us through some information-packed lectures, from Nick Baker: “…intercepting natural cycles of CO2 for human use…”, Peter Harper: “Physics trumps Politics…is true although our whole economic and societal systems are based on entirely the opposite…” To Ranyl Rhydwen, jumping up and down on stage, electrically retelling in quick rhythms the proofs of future doom caused by humanity, then following on in a subsequent lecture “human adaptation/transformation for climate change, opportunity and a change in fundamentals…” renewing students hope, energy and ideas for our learning to design future places. Evening lectures included history of CAT and a visiting lecturer: Roddy from Ted Cullinan architects.

Studio time this week initially made us take a look at our design approach and write a manifesto to be presented in one minute, then, we were taken through a drawing journey with Trevor Flynn of ‘Drawing at work’ who ran a drawing gymnasium. It began in the hills at CAT trying to measure and draw the 5th year’s Bird Hide. This twisting, free flowing form built from standard sized timber all felled within 500metres of the site, proved incredibly difficult to work out in the mind’s eye, due to the shapes and shadows of its morphic appearance. Despite this, with Trevor’s help, freehand oblique, section, isometric, one and two point perspectives appeared before us.

Saturday bought the roundup of the drawing session in the WISE building and a site visit for design project 100.1. This was followed by a traditional evening for the postgrad students: a social with a theme, everybody became their pirate alter ego, drinking rum and playing crew games, wearing elaborate costumes and props created from any material to hand in an old slate quarry. Not sure if anyone remembers which team won…but I do remember the fantastic atmosphere in the bar, the hot wood sauna in the hills and the cool fresh waters of the reservoir lake…

We finished with a Sunday morning of thought provoking lectures, Richard Hammerton: ‘Humans in context: Environmental change’ and Tanya Hawkes: ‘Policy responses to climate change’. The general consensus at the end of week 1 from the Prof Dip student’s is that there is nowhere quite like CAT to study and we are very glad we’re here. We are inspired, very tired, bonded as a group, filled with optimism and can’t wait to get started on the rural housing project based in Machynlleth, sketch books ready, roll on the next week at CAT…

on the way to work, a sunny morning -

Sharp shadows are cast from buildings plumb and flush, strike lines and areas accross our land, I see my sillouette follow a journey line, but slip into darkness suddenly into the cool of un-sunned places. A map made of the land showing only these crisp black edges may reveal or conceal the landscape we live among.

Cader Idris and near Tal-y-Llyn

Current paradox for an ecological designer...

It is my firm belief, that the only way for humankind, to live sustainably as civilizations within this world, with the future necessity to adapt to climate change and our exponential population growth, is as mid-dense city/nexus all connected on a greened, closed loop grid. (This is due to many reasons including but not exclusive to: the one-planet living calcs for space per person, then thinking about space to leave as nature and space needed for food, adding in the efficiency of grid living and the concept that in order for closed-loop a city to work, the built environment model must be thought of as one organism, not many separate bits.)

However, it is then currently impossible to design an on-grid building that is as ecological as it could possibly be, as the grids themselves are still in the age of fast-track linearity, so, in order to design a sustainable building, or group of buildings, one cannot currently think of it as a part of the city/town organism whole, but as a separate entity that must in itself be a smaller version of the organism. It must be designed such that, when the grids finally catch up to good-looped, as they will when they have too, that the building/s could feed into it and be fed by it, thus enabaling the city to be that whole organism. But this, design not-for-the-green-grid, means that the development of it will be perpetually put-off untill the very last push. How then to design in an ecologically sound manner. On-grid, for the future grids, or off grid for the ecological singular now?

Transitions Towns St Albans

Down with Energy Bills!

Transitions Towns St Albans held an ideas generating session on wednesday night for an eco-open-house programme that might run next year. Inspired by the success of open house movement across the globe, especially the event that has taken place in Brighton for the last few years. This is BrightGreenHomes project, that one of TTSt Albans' energy group’s members volunteered at.  He gave a short resentation about what they acheived during the event, how and any outcomes from the feedback.

An interesting and animated group of people form this group who came up with many ideas and interest for the upcoming project, they meet again on the 17^th October to discuss further the practicalities and possibilities for this scheme in St Albans...good luck!

Circle...

"ANY ITEM OF WASTE CREATION CAN BE SEEN AS A FALIURE, DUE TO INEFFICIENCY IN THE SYSTEM, ESPECIALLY WHEN COMPARED TO NATURAL SYSTEMS..." (Harris and Borer, 2005)

Man is nature..?

Man says to nature: 'you are organic, you grow naturally you are unpredictable and powerful, how did you become to look so perfect?' Nature says to man: 'Nature is according to rules both mirco and macro, what is this distinction between man and nature? man is of nature, you are according to these rules too.'

SPIN, patchwork farming, transitions...

Came accross this post today on Transition Culture site: (See post here.)

Transition Cultures, whose phrase is: 'an evolving exploration into the head, heart and hands of energy descent' is about how we can action our society to transition into sustainable communities. It is a global organisation with local groups that meet, discuss, organise and action things within their community. I havnt been involved with them in the UK yet but in Alpine, Texas there is a thriving group who helped us on some of the projects at La Loma Del Chivo, (link here for post.)

Their post today is about SPIN farming group, who take a re-look at the way people think about bringing local small-scale produce into the urban place. SPIN's website 'Thinking of Farming, Think again' is an exciting wealth of knowledge and advise for creating local produce and creating an income from it; 'patchwok farming.' As is described in transition's post post today:

'SPIN farming strips out any talk of politics or ideology that underpins approaches such as organics or permaculture, stating “think in terms of a production system, not a belief system”, although it doesn employ organic techniques.  It can start on parcels of land as small as 1,000 square feet, and can be spread across a number of pieces of land.'

This method of farming could alter the ways that planners and architects are currently trying to implement spaces for small-scale farming and urban food production into the scene to one that can operate in a de-centralised and less-space-organsied way, a move from the allotment designated region and a move towards the use of SLOAP, front gardens, un-used lawns for not only the hobby-orientated veg-garden and unemployment to the local food network and self-employed work community.

Pies! The fruits of Don's Garden...

Blackberrys  (from St Albans hedges,) apples (from my mums garden,) plums and redcurrents (from my Grandpas friend Don's garden) turned into pies, although we have only used about a sixth of the fruit so far...

New Compost bins and leaf moulder...The Garden see's no waste...

3 little composts's standing in a row...The product of cutting back the paths and clearing out the pond for maintenance in the St Albans Garden...Hopefully, with the help of the kitchen remains...next springs allotment will have first class soil and mulch.

Design annoyances...

To me the design of bespoke furniture for the interior of a house that is in the design phase can be one of two things.

1) The design of furniture that is can be easily made to fit the space with the efficiency of material, storage, function and space, using the most availible resources to the client. Or better still, designing the space for the furniture that standard furniture can be created/bought to fit the space with ease, rendering ir also suitable for the future change of furniture needs (as this will hopefully be before the time of change of the house - if it is well-thought-out design.)

2) The design of furniture to fit a space that has been put in place without the thought of furniture, even though it is a new design, thus meaning, if the space is to be adequately functional in use to the furniture, that it has to be bespoke designed and built in - making future replacement difficult as well as the product expensive and time consuming to all invloved.

In my opinion the furniture can be aethetically designed to match the interior and styels of the building in both these options, so why would one opt to carry out design in the second method?

Interesting links...

www.treehugger.com
http://www.animalarchitecture.org/
http://www.anycorp.com/
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/
http://3ddreaming.blogspot.com/
http://www.oneplanetliving.org/index.html
http://bureau-spectacular.net/
http://www.bioregional.com/
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/
http://www.brunskilldesign.com/
http://www.sustainableabc.com/
http://blink.hdrinc.com/
http://www.permacultureproject.com/
www.earthships.net
http://students.autodesk.com

Waking Life Scene Quote

Richard Linklater's  'Waking Life'

Scene 15: 'We are the authors'

"..."On this bridge," Lorca warns, "life is not a dream. Beware. And beware. And beware." And so many think because Then happened, Now isn't. But didn't I mention the ongoing "wow" is happening right now? We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance where even our inabilities are having a roast. We are the authors of ourselves, co-authoring a gigantic Dostoevsky novel, starring clowns. This entire thing we're involved with called the world, is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be. Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time by moments, flabbergasted to be in each other's presence. The world is an exam to see if we can rise into direct experience. Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it. Matter is here as a test for our curiosity. Doubt is here as an exam for our vitality. Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life than write 100 stories. Giacometti was once run down by a car, and he recalled falling into a lucid faint, a sudden exhilaration, as he realized that at last something was happening to him. An assumption develops that you cannot understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely. Which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say that life understood is life lived. But the paradoxes bug me, and I can learn to love and make love to the paradoxes that bug me. And on really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion. Before you drift off, don't forget. Which is to say, remember. Because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting. Lorca, in that same poem said that the iguana will bite those who do not dream. And as one realizes that one is a dream figure in another person's dream, that is self awareness. ..."

Re:Urban, Dense sustainability.

Evidently there are too many of us, all the data proves. With rising populations there will definitely be too many to live sustainably on small-holdings in the countryside. One-planet living describes this by data showing that if everyone on the planet lived like a European, we would need three planets.

Therefore the model for eco-living off-grid, in the middle of no-where - although it has a certain charm - as an idealized sustainable life needs to be erased. Cities are currently fuel guzzling, consuming swarms of potential and individual opportunity that spread their waste and destruction far and wide, but, if re-thought, re-fitted and cycled up, (looped,) they are just what we need in order to see human society into the future of human population growth.

The grid is good. It both provides everyone in small, dense spaces with what they need as well as freeing up peoples time to be spent being citizens. (One theory for the emergence of cities – those producing things not food (ploughs and shoes) for those who produce food, allowing those who produce food time to make a surplus to feed those who need time away from growing food in order to make the things needed.) – Such as Catal Huyuk on the Mesopotamian plains possibly back to 9000 years ago. (‘Cities’ by John Reader.))

Current grids are linear, with input and output waste, we need to change this to sustainable systems that are circular and effective and that everybody can contribute to, eliminating the concept of waste and creating more self-sustaining city systems. This is why the movement to micro-renewables and feed-in-tariffs is essential to the development of our cities. But is a very small part of the over-arching theme of things that need to change.

For Better or Worse: Society it has to be.

We struggle here, in this Big Society, in his Bad Economy, to find any work, to pay any rent, to make any friends…People are happy to let me work for them for free, they like my approach to design and are impressed by my portfolio, but can they pay me? No. In this Big Society, should relative worth (money) become something else (food and company – community projects – like Wwoofing?) There is no Money to be earnt, so therefore, I cannot have a home, or even rent a room, I cannot afford public transport, let alone a car, insurance, petrol, so I am stuck to the distance of my pedals and the generosity of ever-helpful friend and  So, there is another life we discussed over breakfast with my great uncle Ray (artist.) One where with just $250 one could buy an acre in the desert, (southern USA,) and for just $500 start to build shelter, collect rain water, generate electricity, and grow food, and all this in a place where a reputation is easily built, so people will trust you and always come to you for odd jobs, after a while, one could have a home, a farm, water, food, a family, a community, electricity and a lot of time to think in a beautiful country.

The discussion; I say, so one can stick with society and struggle, or turn their back on society…live and run around in the desert and relax. Ray says it wouldn’t be turning back, instead, it would be creating a new society.

These words new society don’t seem to be the case, or would they work.

Firstly, if anyone were to start a new society, it wouldn’t be the easy life in the desert described above. A society needs laws and principles on which it operates, that is what our big society is. I know we haven’t got it anywhere near perfect, no one has, but maybe it is impossible to. The history of America, (and in fact the whole history of human migration,) is a great tale of people moving to the frontier, the new lands, in order to live in a way unrestrained by where they were, essentially to make a better lives for themselves and their children, (usually away from tax,) in other words, a new society. And people are still escaping the urban rat society to live on the frontier and cultivate land and a ‘new society’ to this day. All they managed to do was create more places that people want to escape from. Ideology and utopias are prisons, real cities and societies are unpredictable. We must stay and grow what we have, as Reader says in ‘Cities’ : “So long as cities have been […], change has been the currency that sustains them – demolition and reconstruction, the recycling of investment…” We must continue the change and development of our societies rather than starting from fresh yet again.

Sustainable Perceptions...Targets for the Mainstream

Reading Building Magazine in my local library yesterday, the 4/2/11 edition, there was a summary of a discussion on the government target of achieving carbon zero by 2016, or level 6 in the Code for Sustainable Homes. An issue with this is that the extra cost involved in achieving this level currently is too high to allow it to be the mainstream option.

H+H's Cliff Fudge says, "...We're finding that cost reducing is about taking the waste out of the building process..." and this would reduce the cost however in order to make this the mainstream want in society, (which is the ultimate cost factor,) the lifestyle wants and perception of carbon zero must be also altered in the mainstream.

Due to the way the levels 1-6 are determined - including not only the "...embodied carbon but also emissions from occupants..." activities as well as fabric losses, if mainstream lifestyle and therefore the 'occupants' activities' were also a government target to reduce to carbon zero, then this approach would seem natural and not a battle against the economy and society wants. Also we would be well on our way to becoming a sustainable community.

Later, Fudge says, "...If you are only allowed to build a low-carbon home it has to be at the same price as a second hand home, or you cannot sell it." Highlighting the fact that even if by 2016 all our new housing is carbon zero, the majority of housing stock still will not be, still will suit the lifestyle needs of the citizens and still therefore will, in the mainstream, seem the norm. Doesn't this mean that if we are truly to make a difference, the government must also try to alter existing stock such that the fabric losses and occupants' activities of all our citizens are taken into account?

Another element to the problem is summed up towards the end of the article:

"...However, it is not until 2020 that the organization predicts people will start to choose a home based on its energy performance. "I'm not sure I agree the choice will be on energy performance alone because I think in 2020 there will be a shortage of houses," says Oliver. "However it does show that there is a disconnection between when people will start to place a value on a low-carbon home and when builders are being asked to build them."..."

Question Series...from above...

Government target carbon zero by 2016 - but level 6 depends on occupants activity

- can we have carbon zero citizen lifestyle and wants by 2016?

Should the government input targets for exsiting housing stock as well as new builds for carbon-zero.

As most of our communities that will exist in 2016 have already been built.

Is it possible to change existing stock into carbon zero in terms of energy use, fabric losses and losses due to occupant activity?

City Box House

For those young single people who want to live in the center and for our centers that have limited space for new developments. Build small one-person, low-E, city boxes on top of things which aren't used currently. Here's an idea for MK:

Journey Around my Bedroom

I am taking inspiration from Xavier de Maistre, when, as Alain de Botton describes in 'The Art of Travel', page 240,  "...undertook a journey around his bedroom...in 1790, while he was living in a modest room at the top of an apartment building in Turin, de Maistre pioneered a mode of travel that was to make his name: room travel." Botton compares de Maistre's book 'Journey Around My Bedroom' to another exploration book of the same era: 'Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent', 1799 - 1804 in South America by Alexander von Humboldt which "...required ten mules, thirty pieces of luggage, four interpreters, a chronometer, a sextant, two telescopes, letters of introduction from the king of Spain and a gun..." (page 240, The Art of Travel, Botton.)

Therefore, I shall make use of this method of thinking about traveling to learn, explore and discover, instead of thinking about the travel element and feelings like de Maistre did, I shall make architectural and spatial studies. While I have been planning a great trip to investigate the dense inner cities of some of the worlds largest mega-cities, in the meantime, I shall start right here in my bedroom and slowly move further away, see what I can learn. Without plane tickets, visa's and a backpack, discover whether or not, as the Tao Te Ching says in chapter XLVII in D.C. Lau's translation:

'...The furthur one goes,
The less one knows...'

City Bird

A Birds Nest.

Some birds to create shelter to protect and warm the growing family make nests that are created out of things collected from the locality and placed together to form a whole space. The cup nest: Straw, grass, mud...woven together. They choose the location deliberately; safe from predators, sheltered from rains and winds, not too far from food. Family-sized spaces in the gaps between elements in the natural landscape.

What about a nest for the city bird, would they collect trash, compost, recycling, shards of man-made materials, all found in the locality, situated in an out-of-the-way underpass corner not seen from the street, or on the roof of a high rise, between the roof door space and the satellites? Family-sized spaces in the gaps between elements in the built landscape.

Hook into Systems

To measure a civilization:

Arrive at a city, a new city, with nothing...how to survive? Urban bush craft. Try to hook into the systems - the systems of life that are the veins and arteries of a surviving citizen. And by citizen meaning the true - a member of the city. First the fresh water systems - the pipes that steal the water from mountains far away and quench the multiplying population. Then the food, imported from the rest of the world, preserved and distributed, the first water and food must be found without money - you arrived with nothing - there are systems for these.

The systems then get more complex, more culturally bent, you must find shelter, this begins with clothing and ends with a house, there are various systems for this. You must find places to wash.

PRIMARY SYSTEMS:
        Water systems
        Food systems
        Shelter systems

Then the systems that organize the citizens must be infiltrated. You must find a way to gain relative worth, in order to trade. Money. A job, work for food and shelter directly or for a wage...play the money game.

SECONDARY SYSTEMS:
        Relative Worth
        Information systems
        Transport systems
        Communication systems

How quickly and easily can this be achieved? What is the value of the city to the citizen for life...everything if you are to live within it. And this is defined, labeled and enabled by architecture.

Sustainable Marathon...The Booklet

Here's the upload for the booklet handed out at the Sustainable Open Weekend in Marathon - talked about in another post - We compiled all the information to be discussed and places to visit during the event. The pages are added as jpeg's so click on them to view larger.