Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Architecture 2030
Edward Mazria from Architecture 2030 spoke last Friday at the School of Architecture. I first became fascinated with his “Passive Solar Energy Book” from the 80’s as an undergraduate student 10 years ago. Passive Solar energy was my first introduction to ecological design and provides a great example of ancient technology mixed with practical building orientation principles to save both heating and lighting. His talk however was focused on Climate Change and he gave out some striking sustitics that really made me think about where global energy is going.
Global energy demand is: 48% Buildings (heating and cooling 40%, building 8%)
27% Transportation
23% Industry
He focused his talk to his audience of architecture/design students for them to see the key role they play as designers to come up with innovative ways for buildings to be energy efficient. He also shocked us with US costal maps he has done of the effects of 1 meter of rising sea levels. (AL Gores maps were 3 meters and just one meter will do unbelievable damage) I found his mix of energy facts, sea level maps, and challenge to designers to be inspiring despite the reality of the climate crisis nightmare we face today.
Architecture2030.org
Global energy demand is: 48% Buildings (heating and cooling 40%, building 8%)
27% Transportation
23% Industry
He focused his talk to his audience of architecture/design students for them to see the key role they play as designers to come up with innovative ways for buildings to be energy efficient. He also shocked us with US costal maps he has done of the effects of 1 meter of rising sea levels. (AL Gores maps were 3 meters and just one meter will do unbelievable damage) I found his mix of energy facts, sea level maps, and challenge to designers to be inspiring despite the reality of the climate crisis nightmare we face today.
Architecture2030.org
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Migrating Animal Fence?
Border Fence
So we have all heard that homeland security has been work on building a "Secure Fence” to stop the flow of illegal immigration and drugs since 2006. The 1,952 mile (3,141 km) border between the United States and Mexico covers both desert and urban areas. Not only is this wall cutting off small towns that have always visited each other it is preventing animals from reaching water sources, migrating, reaching potential habitats.
Smugglers will always find a whole in the fence but will migrating animals?
So we have all heard that homeland security has been work on building a "Secure Fence” to stop the flow of illegal immigration and drugs since 2006. The 1,952 mile (3,141 km) border between the United States and Mexico covers both desert and urban areas. Not only is this wall cutting off small towns that have always visited each other it is preventing animals from reaching water sources, migrating, reaching potential habitats.
Smugglers will always find a whole in the fence but will migrating animals?
town center?
Main Street.
I spent a lot of my teenage years with my friends in our market square. I grew up in New England and lived in Belfast, ME as a child and Portsmouth, NH as a teenager. We always lived in walking and biking distance to down town and school. It was something important to my mom who wanted me to be independent and not have to drive me everywhere. I greatly appreciated this freedom and could easily walk from the park, to a friend’s house, to my part time jobs, to the store, and to school. My mom dug up the sidewalk around our house and planted vegetables. We had compost in the back as well. Having grown up this way I see the benefits of urban living with amenities at a close walk or bike ride away. My small city also had grocery stories, individually owned businesses in town, a post office, and library all with in walking distance. I have been think about the design of Austin and its town center a lot. Everything is so spreed out!
I spent a lot of my teenage years with my friends in our market square. I grew up in New England and lived in Belfast, ME as a child and Portsmouth, NH as a teenager. We always lived in walking and biking distance to down town and school. It was something important to my mom who wanted me to be independent and not have to drive me everywhere. I greatly appreciated this freedom and could easily walk from the park, to a friend’s house, to my part time jobs, to the store, and to school. My mom dug up the sidewalk around our house and planted vegetables. We had compost in the back as well. Having grown up this way I see the benefits of urban living with amenities at a close walk or bike ride away. My small city also had grocery stories, individually owned businesses in town, a post office, and library all with in walking distance. I have been think about the design of Austin and its town center a lot. Everything is so spreed out!
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