Jonas Bendiksen: The Places We Live

In addition to our discussions yesterday about alter-economies and population growth, an article on change observer: design observer gains insight into Jonas Bendiksen's work. Bendiksen, a Norwegian photographer, lived in slums for several months while recording and photographing daily life and people in slums around the globe.

Read the article
View the slideshow

http://www.ageofstupid.net/

The UN climate summit will meet in Copenhagen in December 2009 to finalise the successor to the Kyoto Treaty. If the new deal is not as strong as the science demands - massive cuts in global emissions starting very soon - then it will be nothing short of a suicide pact. Right now, the most ambitious plans being put forward by any rich nation would give us a 50% chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. We think humanity deserves better.

Green thing

"Green Thing is a not-for-profit public service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world, Green Thing focuses on seven things you can do - and enjoy doing."

>Do the Green Thing

Social lending platforms

Following on our discussion of (alter-)economies in studio today, you may be interested to have a look at 'webank,' which investigates alternative structures of finance, from lending to currency exchange.

Also check out this Nesta-related project:
>Big Green Challenge

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/

Hi guys!I found this BBC website its quite funny..have a look!

This is the link to the program for the mapping. There are others around the web but this is really easy to manage and not too heavy. It is open source and... have fun!

http://vue.tufts.edu/download/index.cfm

Greens: too radical or too conservative?

A series of BBC programmes addresses whether Green thinking and practice is either too radical or too conservative to be taken up by wider publics. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8308989.stm

Today: The Bigger Picture | Festival of Interdependence

Just stumbled upon The Bigger Picture Festival while checking 350.org for some action today, the international day of climate action. See the detailed programme here. See you there!

UPDATE: Some great impressions of the festival can be found on NEF's or Kate Andrews Flickr site.

http://www.worldmapper.org/

Thames21

Thames21 is an environmental charity working with communities to bring London's waterways to life. Thames21 mobilise thousands of volunteers every year to clean up waterside grot-spots, remove graffiti and create new habitats for wildlife. Thames21 aim to transform neglected and littered waterways into areas that everyone can use and enjoy by encouraging all Londoners to treat their waterways with care and respect.

Video : The River Cleaners
Website : Thames21

Rainwater Harvesting System

Rainwater harvesting is surely one of the most effective ways to cope with problems regarding water such as the lack of water, reducing the impact on the environment, saving money, mitigating flood, and so on. It allows to reduce water bill by up to 50%, which is used to replace mains water in non-potable applicants like toliet, washing machine, irriation, vehicle washing.

This is public interest advertising regarding rainwater harvesting by the Centre for Science and Environment in India.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWnhYIIKY0U

I am going to study on Rainwater Harvesting System and would like to produce design works that encourage people to be interested in it.

Gathering Spaces

Debate of architecture is offer the opportunity to possibility of to experience architecture. It can mix the disciple and bring things together which may bring an interesting out come together.

Architecture with no wall will allow everybody into the space and become part of the freedom in the park.

A gathering space is a structure which invite people to interact, to climb on, to go inside, start to walk around and walk pass the structure.

The two images above are the fixed open structure which allow people gather around. They bring the "new experience" to the local and become some kind of landmark and attraction. They are in different form the 1st one the structure melt into the surrounding by using aluminum plate as a roof and reflect the sky. The 2nd one just like bring something normally in indoor to outdoor which represent as bring something out to the public.

Air Forest to create the public to converge and spark dialogue across the city through innovative cultural initiatives. The structure is to create a temporary public space to be utilized in a vast array of scheduled events (such as the Yoga Health Festival, a cocktail party for the convention, a high school play, Dialog: City closing party) as well as for the general public to enjoy.

The dome expands and organically adjusts to its surroundings, be it in a field, a wooded park, or below a highway overpass. The material is a sturdy, specially-designed translucent plastic, allowing the varying events taking place inside of the shelter – dance parties, lecture series, or dinner buffets – to be entirely visible from the outside and likewise the exterior environments become the events’ backdrops.

3rd and the 4th are inflatable structure using membrane and air pump to create the form. They have a high flexibility and can be easily transport. Air forest is more close to the nature as it didn't draw any boundary. The dome create a transparent indoor space and create an intimate atmosphere.

F2H: Flood Harnessing Housing

The concept of harvesting energt from river waves to power.
VIDEO

Sustainability Now - Event on 8-9 December 2009

Sustainability Now is a virtual event which means there's no cost or travel involved in attending, thereby reducing the event’s carbon footprint. It's all accessible straight from your computer.


About the event

The event is an opportunity for professionals working across architecture, engineering, quantity surveying, project management and construction to discuss and collaborate on cost effective sustainability.

Conference programme

The event programme will be released soon and will focus on the following 4 areas:

* Refurbishment: This remains the single biggest challenge for construction. How to tackle the footprint of existing buildings.

* Passivhaus: Looking at this design technique as a solution to low carbon design, both for housing and for other building types (schools, offices e.t.c.).

* Data/embodied energy: Two overlapping themes that underpin sustainability in the built environment. Including an examination of embodied energy used in construction projects.

* Green entrepreneurs: Is the time of a recession a great opportunity to start a new business? We look at the people involved and how green thinking impacts on their professional lives.

Low2No Competition

Helsinki's sustainable future ( City as Living Factory of Ecology, Winning entry)

There is a small percentage and small scale project on new built building with "ECO" concept, but how should we due with the existing building as a whole???

Deforestation case study

Deforestation in Brazil.

Forests which consist mostly of trees are one of the important aspects in this planet. Trees are important to humans, animals and the environment. It filters carbon dioxide and also they are habitats and shelters for millions of species in this planet. In the period between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost nearly 150,000 square kilometers of forests and since 1970, 600,000 of the Amazon rainforests has been destroyed. Human activities are the main factors that this happens. Some of the main causes of deforestation are to create grazing land, subsequent subsistence agriculture, infrastructure improvements and development, commercial agriculture, logging and fuelling purposes. Deforestation effects both the environment and social life. Such effects on the environment are erosion of soil, disruption of water cycle, loss of biodiversity, flooding, drought, climate change and could lead to plants and animals extinction from the destruction of their habitats. Apart from the environment, it also effects the social life of the local people living there particularly indigenous people. Indigenous people suffer greatly where their land is invaded by outsiders and destroys their home which ends up forcing them to be forced out from their homes.

about water pollution

Advertising dealing with environmental issue_2

Advertising dealing with environmental issue-1

http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/actonco2/home.html

This is the TV advert I was talking about this morning.You can find it on the Home page of "Act on CO2" website.

The Subversive Gardener

by Vabessa Harden (MA Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art)

Mk II Agent Deployed Field Auger (A.D.F.A.)

Precision Bombing Device I

This project explores various methods of disguising gardening paraphernalia in everyday attire and accessories, drawing on influences from militaria and spy gadgetry.
Secretly dropping seed bombs on their way to work or planting flowers on their way home, these designs allow guerrilla gardeners to integrate their assaults into their everyday routine.

http://vanessaharden.com/

Animal extinction_whales

The whale is one of the best predators in the sea. The reduction in its number will first break the balance of marine life and then the larger ecosystem. Most countries recognize this matter and prohibit whale fishing but some still allow whale fishing for commercial and other reasons. I conveyed the image of a bleeding whale on a hook by using the geographical shapes of countries that allow whale fishing such as Russia, Greenland, Denmark, Norway, Alaska, Canada, and Japan.

Designed by Jaeho Lee (2008) Poster colors and Acrylic colors, 540*380mm

case study - water

LifeStraw is a great examplethat there are poor nations in many continents, especially in Africa. The people are fighting from waterborne disease, and more than 6,000 people, mainly children die each day by cosuming unsafe drinking water.
LifeStraw is an instrument which instantly purifies the water and make it ready to drink. A single personal LifeStraw can process 700 liters of water in a year and usage life is 3 years.
It could be a great sybol for developing Africa and actually aid concerts could be made to provide these life saving gadgets for families to people who need.
link
video


Most poor nations do not have water supply facilities, the lack of environment infrastructure is major obstacle to their development. Especially in rural Africa, the people have to carry water to use buckets and unfortunatly, have to go so far away by walk. Moreover, water in adequate quantities is too heavy to carry.
The Hippo Roller is a heavy-duty plastic drum that can be filled upright, then sealed and rolled like a steamroller across rough terrain. the 90 liters thank weight 200 pounds when full, but the rolling drum has a functional weight of just 22 pounds, so actually anyone can use it.
video

case study - sculpture

Nowadays, many media and newspapers are reporting problems of global environment and global warming. Artists and designers also had a strong interested in the problems, and tried to express oneself through their works. In the some pictures below, introduce a few works of them.

chinu-the black sea bream (yodogawa technique, 2007)
A few days ago, I have seen a documentary about seriousness of sea wastes. These wastes devastate ocean ecosystem and then we just eat fish and shellfish which were raised in the environments. The sea bream sculpture was made of wastes which were in the Gulf of Osaka.


overfishing-London Zoo (John Lord, 2007)
Recently, the world's appetite for fish is increasing, but at the same time, fish catches have leveled off worldwide and overfishing is threatening future supplies. The sculpture has a meanig about gread of a human.

Can't fly-City of Burnaby Eco-sculpture program for the 2009 World Police and Fire Games
The sculpture is eco design work to set up in urban park.

waterbird-London Wetland Center
The sculpture was made of used packing papers.

MARIO CUCINELLA home for 100.000 euros

Architect proposing a project: building house at zero CO2 emissions.

http://www.mcarchitectsgate.it/index.php?id=5

Sourcr Map: Open Supply Chain

Nice open source project that allows people to know where things come from and what they are made of. NICE!

http://www.sourcemap.org/beta/stage/

Waterpod: self-sustaining barge

New York artists' project for surviving rising sea levels due to climate change. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8227813.stm and http://www.thewaterpod.org/.

TEACH-IN at V&A

http://www.teach-in.co.uk/

Goldsmiths Enviro Club

"Enviroclub is a friendly, passionate society focusing on environmental and human issues around the world. Our weekly meetings act as an arena for discussion, learning and exchange of knowledge and ideas about these issues in an exciting and understnading way, as well as for progressing with our chosen projects."

SU Page here
MySpace Page here

Carrot cam

On the topic of eco-branding and green credentials, Asda has now set up webcameras in its various sites of manufacture in order to create a greater sense of transparency around its production practices. See also this blurb from The Guardian.

The story of stuff

"From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world."
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

See also the reading recommendations and fact sheets under the "resources" section of this site.

Low-carbon community in New Cross

For those of you interested in experiments in low-carbon living close to Goldsmiths, read this article in The Guardian that describes the details of their set up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/sep/16/housing-coop-sustainable-living