RESET'ing Nikki

3D printing and the Singularity University

2011-02-22T00:14:00.000Z

I found the latest copy of The Economist & Time Magazine at the bottom of my bag a little worse for wear. Not sure if the residue of a creame egg can be seen (below the S of Stradivarius), but I can assure you, it is there.

This did remind me however of two good articles worth a read....both discuss the issue of technological change and the inevitable effect on our economy, design and as Time puts it (rather dramatically) 'the rapture in the fabric of human history' when artificial intelligence exceeds that of humans.

Economist discusses how 3d printing will change the world: "A technological change so profound will reset the economics of manufacturing. Some believe it will decentralise the business completely , reversing the urbanisation that accompanies industrialisation". Lev Grossman in the Times discusses the work of Raymond Kurzweil and the three year old Singularity University (hosted by NASA and part funded by Google).

(And a photo I took last week that seemed kinda relevant to the subject)

Best of an e-eco blog

2011-02-06T17:02:00.000Z

My shameless copying from Susanne Siepl-Coates recent blog on e-architect re 'Eco Architecture':

BIGs new Waste-to-Energy Plant that doubles as a ski slope for Copenhagen by 2016.

“The new plant is an example of what we at BIG call Hedonistic Sustainability – the idea that sustainability is not a burden, but that a sustainable city in fact can improve our quality of life. The Waste-to-Energy plant with a ski slope is the best example of a city and a building which is both ecologically, economically and socially sustainable”

Bjarke Ingels Founder and Partner, BIG. More info...

SOMS's master plan for Green Tech City in Hanoi, Vietnam includes green corridors and agricultural water channels. More info...

What a lot of bananas!

2011-01-29T10:52:00.001Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! So there is a reason why it has taken me this long to make my first post of 2011, and it is called 'symposium'.

Even with Nurofen slowly becoming part of my daily diet over the past few months, it still wasn't easy organising an international conference in less than 7 weeks. In fact it was only due to RESET's amazing field partners Practical Action Bangladesh that our recent symposium (on community led housing design for the S.W Coastal regions of Bangladesh) held in Dhaka this week, was a fantastic success. If you don't believe me, just check out one of the recent articles in the Bangladesh national newspapers.

Behind the Local Government Engineering Department!

View from hotel

As I sit waiting for my transfer flight at Abu Dhabi, I am clearly in no state to write anything comprehensible, so more to follow in the coming weeks discussing the outcomes of the event and the topic in more detail (and all outcomes/ppts from the symposium will be uploaded on-line to RESET's project website: www.raft-network.net).

Current construction work in Gulshan, Dhaka

Oh, and if you are wondering about the bananas, apparently Nikita in some Bangla dialects means 'lots of bananas'. Could be worse (?)

Farm:Shop

2010-11-29T14:44:00.002Z

Something and Son is an interesting organisation who have recently taken over a disused shop down Dalston Lane. From the people that bought us the Car:Park (transforming a car in Store Street into an allotment), they now bring us the Farm:Shop.....

Taken from their website (http://farmlondon.weebly.com/):

Over the past few months we've transformed a derelict shop into an urban food 'Hub', cafe and arts venue complete with mini 'aquaponic' fish farms, rooftop chicken coops, indoor allotments and polytunnel.

Over the next year we will be growing as much food as we can on and in every inch of the building. Our produce will be served in the shop cafe (opening in November) and sold to nearby restaurants.

For everything else (meat and non-perishable veg) we've teamed up with Church Farm - an eco-agriculture enterprise (ahem..farm) 30 miles way

And here are my very rubbish mobile phone pics taken this morning - chicken popped out to say hello (see if you can spot him)....

The Pallet House & some old 2008 Biennale photos

2010-11-21T19:36:00.004Z

Last week when I was up teaching at Nottingham Uni, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture from the Vienna ex students (now teachers) and creators of the "Pallet House"

I quickly realised that I had in fact been privy to their first project, during the Venice Biennale in 2008 (see photos below). Recycled pallets are used for basic support structure, front panels, blinds and sunscreens, cellulose or any local natural or recycled material as heat isolation and the space between the pallet wall layers is used for the installation of water, heating and lighting.

Although this approach seems beautifully obvious in a European context - I am still yet to be convinced of it's potential role in a humanitarian situation. Other organisations have also attempted to deal with the pallet construction approach, for example I-Beam Designs built a prototype pallet house at the Prince of Wales Royal Gardens exhibition, in which they claim that:

Nearly 21 million pallets end in landfills each year which can house over 40,000 refugees.
Pallets are specifically designed for transport and delivery - so cost is negligible when carrying shipments of food, medicine and other types of aid to refugees. A 250 square foot 'Pallet House' requires 100 recycled pallets nailed and lifted into place by 4-5 people using hand tools in under a week.

Even if there is an abundant supply of wooden - often low quality, untreated pallets that could house up to 40,000 (assuming this would be meeting Sphere Standards at least), there are sooooooooooo many reasons why using pallet construction in a humanitarian situation could be seen as problematic. Least of which the fire hazard! Fire being one of the biggest threats in informal settlements and IDP camps - by using unfamiliar, non-vernacular style construction techniques, one would have to oversee and quality assure all construction. NOT the best approach to any form of re-construction development (community empowerment, participation, capacity building etc etc...).

Cooking fuel, is also an ongoing struggle, IDP camps in particular (see the Beyond Firewood conference 2008), and I am almost positive that within months the structural integrity of these builds would be lost, as pro-poor families dismantle the western designed, air-dropped 'solution', so that they can cook the rationed food.

I could further list other concerns I have for this approach in a disaster reconstruction setting, but in attempt not to be too pessimistic, I do think that this low-cost housing construction solution could and should be continued to be explored in a Western/European setting. Why there is a sudden need when coming up with a good design solution to jump straight into the White Mans Burdens arms, rather than looking a little closer to home, where in reality the biggest impact can be had is beyond me.

Low-cost housing in the west, is a VERY different problem to that in other realms of the world. Personally I would love to see designers solve their own problems first, before trying to solve others (often without their request).

And, as I was going through my old Biennale photos......

(my personal favourite)

One New Change

2010-11-12T19:43:00.001Z

Nouvel's first completed building in the UK - One New Change, a mixed use office and retail development sitting next to St.Pauls in central London.

According to the developer, Land Securities, sustainability was central to the design:

Drilling to a depth of 150 metres, Land Securities has installed a ground source energy system which is the largest commercial application of the technology in Europe. As a result, One New Change has received an ‘excellent’ sustainability rating under BREEAM

The design also has an outside sunken garden, along with..

'Green roof’ areas - a series of stepped terraces - that will encourage biodiversity in the centre of London.

AJ has recently reviewed the results, in particular check the aerial shot and see if you can spot these 'green roofs', took me a while! http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/retail/one-new-change-london-by-ateliers-jean-nouvel/-sidell-gibson-architects/8607977.article

(and a quick shot from Eversheds roof of the Shard climbing into the sky)

Sustainable Restoration - an Oxymoron?

2010-10-28T01:14:00.006+01:00

I was recently pointed to an interesting conversation/debate between two protagonists on the ethics and roles restoration play in sustainable development: One, questions the romantic view of restoring what we once had and the second argues the very process of restoration is a source of livelihoods and community ownership or pride.

The first entitled Transylvanian villages: conservationism, but at what price?
The interest in preservation and conservation of old, yet changed Saxon villages throughout Transylvania, often clashes with the interests of the present Gypsies and Romanians that live there today.

And in response to this article: Saxon Villages, restoration is for the future
The work of restoring the Romanian Saxon Transylvanian villages, as undertaken by the Mihai Eminescu Trust is not romantic or nostalgic: it is about establishing sustainable, proud livelihoods

Now I have to admit that I am an exceedingly biased commentator on this topic for numerous reasons, the primary one being that I in fact I conducted research and author of a report on this very topic for the trust being referenced (MET).. here is an extract from my report, Who's Heritage are we Restoring? November 2007:

WHY ASSESS THE HERITAGE VALUE?

Obviously it is not possible to survey and conserve every building, thus decisions are made that result in certain buildings deemed of greater importance then others. Conservation decisions, whether they are concerned with giving a building “heritage” status, deciding which building to invest in, or planning for the future of a historic site use an articulation of heritage values as a reference point. While the subjectivity and contingency of heritage values make it difficult to establish a clear framework of values, this is precisely what is needed to facilitate the assessment and integration of different heritage values in conservation planning and management. Assessment of values attributed to heritage is a very important activity in any conservation effort, since values strongly shape the decisions that are made.

In the case of assessing the heritage value in areas such as Transylvania, it has not been clear what school of thought and method the Trust used to approach the intial questions of what needs to be conserved, how they are conserved and what is the value of conserving them. There has clearly been input by the conservation professionals into what they deem as a culturally valuable village or structure but there seems to be no framework of heritage values that the local constituents have had input or agreed upon. The concern being there does not seem to be a clear stratergy of how / why MET’s conservation decisions are being made and who are they being made for.

Humanitarian Design - perpetuating colonialism of a new hidden order?

2010-09-27T15:09:00.001+01:00

The discussion around design and its humanitarian 'role' has had a large presence in recent design discourse in the past year or so. Having myself been involved in the movement of architecture and international/humanitarian development for the past 5 years, it is encouraging to see these more reflective discussions take place. Here is a summary of some of the conversations and comments so far:

One of the first conversations was started by Bruce Nussbaum, entitled Is Humanitarian Design the New Imperialism - Does our desire to help do more harm than good?. He uses the example of the One Laptop Per Child project to discuss that sometimes our Western perception of what may seem to be a good idea, in fact may be quite a presumptuous and naive attempt at solving what is a much more complex issue - in this case education. Nussbaum asks at the end 'Might India, Brazilian and African designers have important design lessons to teach Western designers?'

This thinking was then attacked by Cameron Sinclair (founder of AFH) on a blog that I can't seem to get access to the full response, but here is what change observer quoted:

"....Having been involved in this work for almost half my life I've seen a transformation for the 'western intervention' view played out by Bruce into a complex global network of multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural and diverse teams working locally hand in hand with communities on the ground. This new movement has striven to collaborate and partner with local designers and in our organization it is a requirement...."

Valid point that multi-disciplined teams, skills and collaboration will certainly be needed as a new 'sustainable development' paradigm develops within a globalised, more informed societies. It is perhaps important here to note that this debate is based around long-term 'sustainable' development and the role of designers, not about emergency reconstruction projects and the role of humanitarian shelter specialists - a very different discussion all together. But I can't help feeling that this comment by Sinclair is skirting around the main topic, an uncomfortable one at that - why is 'western intervention' there in the first place, and is it actually doing any good?

Emily Pilloton, of Project H, responded to Nussbaums article, firstly by..

'agreeing with his assessment that too often humanitarian design is a scattershot "fly-by-night" occurrence in which Designers (with a capital D) swoop in with their capes and "design thinking" to save the poor folks. Designers who give a damn are easily drawn to the "poverty porn" of the slums of Mumbai or small acreage farms of Africa, before walking around the block and into a homeless shelter in San Francisco.'

Emily then nobly goes on to admit mistakes in the past with projects such as the Hippo Roller Project and describes how now Project H is firmly targeted humanitarian design solutions closer to the designers home:

' It is through this personal connection to place and people that the human qualities of design rise to the top of the priority list, through which our clients are no longer beneficiaries, but experts and co-designers right there with us. In his infamous address titled “To Hell With Good Intentions,” Ivan Illich puts this beautifully: "If you have any sense of responsibility at all, stay with your riots here at home... You will know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how to communicate with those to whom you speak. And you will know when you fail. If you insist on working with the poor, if this is your vocation, then at least work among the poor who can tell you to go to hell." We all have to learn how to be citizens again: citizens first, and designers second. Citizenship is inherently local, defined by our connection and commitment to the places we best know and most love. I believe this is a point Mr. Nussbaum would agree with. '

There is a great competition entitled: Design for the First World, the rest saving the west, with 4 design categories for this years designers to address: Food Production and Eating Disorders, Aging Population and Low Birthrate, Immigration and Integration to Society, and Sustainability and Over-consumption, that I think exemplifies some of these points nicely.

Further responses to Nussbaum have followed, including Avinash Rajagopal's 'Eat Pudding, Bruce Nussbaum', who agrees that the good intentions of western designers have generally been failures, but also reminds us that some characters, such as Laurie Baker, who dedicate decades to understanding certain climates have also led to success stories. Summarising:

'Ultimately, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Design for social change is a pudding that takes a long, long, long time to bake. Inexperienced Western bakers trying to cook their first pudding in an Indian or African oven are unlikely to be successful, and will probably leave a bitter aftertaste. But there are those who are tenacious and sincere, who spend years learning how to do it right. Then who cares about the colour of the cook’s skin, as long as the pudding is sweet?'

There have been plenty more responses to this discussion - summarised much better than I have in the Design Observers blog. But having personally experienced and struggled with how good architectural intentions abroad, sadly, in hindsight, may in fact cause more problems than it suggests it solves (e.g. non-sustainable models of support, economic and environmental costs of international involvement often out-weighing the 'improved' designs proposed, promotion of aid-dependency, just to name a few of the more obvious issues) - I'd like to add some final quotes. Perhaps these might seem slightly random, but I promise, there is some logic to my madness!:

' Third World reality is inscribed with precision and persistence by the discourses and practices of economists, planners, nutritionists, demographers and the like, making it difficult for people to define their own interests in their own terms - in many cases actually disabling them to do so' - Escobar (1992)

' The rhetoric of power all too easily produces an illusion of benevolence when deployed in an imperial setting' - Said (1993)

' It [disciplinary power] presupposes a tight knit grid of material coercions rather than the physical existence of a sovereign. This new type of power which can no longer be formulated in terms of sovereignty is one of the great inventions of bourgeois society, a fundamental instrument in the constitution of industrial capitalism and the type of society that is its accompaniment' -Foucault (1980)

' 3 characteristics of colonialism: the domination of physical space, reformation of the natives' minds (particularly in terms of knowledge systems and cultures), and incorporation of local economic histories into a Western perspective' - Mudimbe (1988)

' Environmental struggles by peasant populations are not just about land or resources: these are cultural struggles in defense of cultural diversity. We should not entertain notions about global sustainability unless we know whose globe and whose sustainability we are talking about' - Banerjee (2003)

'The quality of life should be measured not by our wealth but by our freedoms' - Amartya Sen (1999)

'The plurality of life worlds to which all citizens have access, it is not merely the availability of nature as being but of alternative imaginations, skills that survival in the future might requires' -Visvanathan (1991)

Views from the roof....

2010-09-21T12:23:00.001+01:00

Last week we announced the winners of the Integrated Habitats Design Competition up on Foster designed Allen & Overy HQ, Bishops Square.....

And the week before, we held a workshop on Living Roofs & Ecosystem Services at Eversheds HQ, at One Wood Street (designed by Fletcher Priest Architects).....

Followed by a design workshop up on the roof of our offices, as part of RESET's on-going support for the Dalston Roof Park project...

All three of these projects just show what potential there is up at roof level. Although right now, think I'm roof-toped out.

Future of the World, in object form

2010-09-14T12:07:00.000+01:00

Last night saw the launch of our newest little project here at RESET - A Future of the World in 100 objects. If you head to the Building Centre in Store Street in the coming 5 weeks you will see in the window just some of the initial proposals we have received so far. There is also the opportunity for you to submit your own ideas, either in person at the Building Centre or on-line at www.futureoftheworld.org

The purpose of this project is to begin the discussion around re-evaluating what objects/systems/elements in today's built environment we will really need to take with us into the future - A future where wherever you are in the world there will be more extremes of temperature and where you are more at risk of being affected by a disaster. All buildings will be 'zero carbon' and self producing energy factories, rather than energy guzzlers. And our natural capital is finally valued appropriately, both within our built environment and within our global market.

Rice Husks
'The future requires closed-loop integrated systems thinking turning ‘waste’ into a valuable part of the resource cycle. Rice currently provides more than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by humans. Rice production is approaching 700 million tonnes annually. Of this, about 20% (140 million tonnes) is ‘waste’ in the form of rice husk or chaff - the outer shell of the rice grain. In many regions disposal of the husk is a problem yet rice husk has a very wide range of actual and potential uses including contributing to compost, insulation and construction materials, fuel and electricity generation.'

As our environment changes, the way we design and build our human settlements must too...so, the question is, what would you like to bring into this new world?

Well I'll be hum-ding-erd

2010-09-02T11:07:00.000+01:00

My amazing friend at Cinimod Studio (who do fantastic interactive lighting displays and are generally the gurus of the LED world) introduced me to the world of wind belts...and in particular the Humdinger Wind belt:

By harnessing elecrostatic flutter, a wind belt uses a tensioned membrane to pull energy from the wind as it oscillates. Taken from their website:

On the smallest scales, Humdinger has developed a 'microBelt' that can free the millions of wireless sensor nodes around the world from batteries. By sipping small airflows on the sides of highways, the inside of air-conditioning ducts, or at remote science stations, the microBelt provides continuous power to sensors that detect highway traffic, CO/humidity in HVAC systems, or geological activity. This information may then transmitted wirelessly to a central processing center -- without batteries. Smarter grids, smarter urban centers, and smarter buildings -- smarts that can now be powered by wind.


Could our railings be the new source of energy?

On the medium and large scales, Humdinger is developing 'Windcells™' and the 'Windcell Panel™'. The 1-meter Windcells are designed to work alone or in groups to provide power to lighting, WiFi nodes, micro-base stations, or any situation demanding 0.1 kWh to 1 kWh of energy per month. The Windcell Panels have a form-factor similar to solar panels and are designed for larger installations, targeting applications with 5kWh to several MWh of energy demand per month , with particular attention to cost. On larger installations, the Windcell Panels have an initial projected production cost of US$0.05 per kWh (at 6m/s average windspeeds). Cost combined with modularity, safety, and form factor gives this variation of the technology access to many of the places that wind and solar cannot presently go.

'Green' Student Projects

2010-08-27T10:49:00.004+01:00

The following is a selection of some of the projects featured in the Inhabitat blog '9 Green Architecture Students'.

FabLab House by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

Lumenhaus by Virginia Tech University

Goat Milking Shed by the University of Colorado, Denver

Be Palettø! by the Aarhus School of Architecture

Project Morrinho

2010-08-24T09:27:00.000+01:00

Phone snaps of the Project Morrinho - A small revolution installation down by the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Do The Green Thing

2010-08-18T14:21:00.000+01:00

Here's their advice on keeping the heating inside your home:

Of the total house heat lost to the ether, 26% escapes through the loft and a whopping 33% shimmies nonchalantly through the walls. Add in the fact that another 8% disappears through the floor, 20% floats out of the windows and the rest makes a break for it through any tiny gaps it can find, and you're left living in what is effectively a concrete colander. Getting your home properly insulated, installing double-glazing or filling in those breezy gaps, is like putting a big, warm overcoat round your home and buttoning it up nice and tight.

Things to help you keep that house heat where it belongs:

Before you get going, do this here online energy check “ it'll show you exactly where you can save energy in your home.
You can insulate almost anywhere “ cavity walls, solid walls, floors, the loft, water pipes and so on. This insulation guide is great if you're a keen DIYer “ but if you'd rather leave it to the professionals, the National Insulation Association will point you in the right direction.
Check to see whether the Government, your local authorities, or even some utility companies will give you money to insulate your home. And if you're over 70, you could be entitled to get your insulation absolutely free.
Installing double-glazing can cut the heat lost through your windows by half, saving nearly ¾ tonne of CO2 per year. The Energy Saving Trust or this directory will help you find a good double-glazing company in the UK. If you can't afford to double-glaze all your windows, just do those in the rooms you use the most.
Draughts “ to some a fun game that's less complicated than chess, to others a source of misery and coldness. Draught-proofing your doors, windows, cat-flaps and letterboxes is easy, and the materials can be bought at all DIY stores. If you're not sure what to do, try the Draught Proofing Association. And whilst you're at it, brighten up your room with these eco friendly, psychedelic draught excluders filled with biodegradable buckwheat husks.

Pushing 'RESET'

2010-08-12T16:22:00.001+01:00

Stumbled across a great article by Alan AtKisson a few days ago entitled ' Pushing "Reset" on Sustainable Development'.

Here's some selected extracts, the full article can be found here...

"The problem with sustainable development is that it has not been properly coupled to its actual goal: the achievement and maintenance of sustainability in every major system on which the health, well-being and stability of the world (human and natural) depends."

"Reset Means Putting More Sustainability into Sustainable Development - Because sustainability is an idealized or at least optimal system state, it can and ought to be a powerful global driver for more ambitious and accelerated change, and more honestly defined standards of achievement."

"The origins of sustainability as a concept, and sustainable development as a practice, can be found in ground-breaking studies from decades ago, such as The Limits to Growth (1972) - a book which suffered the scathing attack of economists for most of its history, but which was recently lifted up by no less than the front page of The Wall Street Journal (as well as some of its former economic critics) as both prescient and urgently relevant.....But we will not change enough if we rely exclusively on the steerage of economics as currently practiced. "

"Perhaps the word "reset' - a return to an original state, in this case the origins of our understanding of sustainable development, in terms of both systems science and social change - is the right metaphor after all"

To buy a copy of Limits to Growth, click here..

p.s. don't forget to look at the updated 'Safer Homes, Stronger Communities Handbook'

(Guiding principles number 10: To contribute to long-term development, reconstruction must be sustainable)

pps. image from RESET's recent tour of the Shoreditch Trusts Waterhouse Development:

Serpentine Pavillion & State of Design festival

2010-08-03T10:14:00.000+01:00

Passed Jean Nouvel's first completed building in the UK - this years Serpentine Pavilion commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery - yesterday. Inspired by London's red post boxes, telephones and buses, it's certainly prominent within the green landscape of Hyde Park. Sadly though, with a mass of metal, glass and polycarbonate, there seems to be no redeeming sustainable features.

Reminiscing back to when I lived in Melbourne (home of the CH2 building), take a look at the State of Design Festival that took place in Victoria in July of this year. Of particular interest is the Climate Redesign workshop hosted by Bindarri, and the rather topical 'four ways for promoting urban cycling'.

The Winchester Project, community or architect led?

2010-07-26T12:52:00.001+01:00

In AJ's Competition File this week (22.07.10) The Winchester Project competition was bought to my attention for its rather unusual brief of asking architects to 'consult stakeholders and explore social enterprise, revenue generation and long-term business plans', something an architect isn't normally seen as being involved in - but - something I fully endorse in any community led project. In my view the understanding and development of these elements of the project brief is often a much more essential part of the 'design' process than the physical one when working on Community Participatory Planning and Design projects. Although, I am not entirely sure how qualified and experienced most architects would be to develop sustainable, community generated business plans, thus not sure how successful the competition will be.

However, the plot thickens. According to The Winchester Projects website, they will also be applying to become a Glass House (an amazing charity that RESET currently works with to facilitate community-led design projects) supported project. A great idea, the Glass house was set up to provide support to community projects such as Winchester, and to train and provide expert advice on community consultation and brief development. (RESET is also currently developing our training and facilitation support for community projects that wish to produce an ecological building).

So, if Winchester are looking at becoming a Glass-house supported project, I am not entirely sure why an architectural competition to win a contract of £35k to develop up to Stage C/D is also being launched? Won't this surely remove ownership and prevent Glass-house from doing what it does best, ensuring a community-led project?

Wouldn't it make more sense to hold back on the competition, let organisations such as Glass-house develop the design brief with the community first, and then launch a design competition to the architectural community (once the project brief has been developed)? This is certainly the model that RESET has been developing with our community projects. Each to their own I guess!

You can open the windows!

2010-07-23T00:44:00.003+01:00

We (RESET) held our first Passivhaus course today at the wonderful Hackney City Farm, strawbale built, eco-classroom.

Along with finally understanding that PHPP in Passivhaus 'speak' isn't actually referring to a Psychiatric Hospitalization Privitisation Program, or Practical Hand Picking Practices (actually stands for PasivHaus Planning Package - obviously!). It was also finally cleared up for once and for all -

a) you do not suffocate if the mechanical ventilation stops working, and
b) you are allowed to open windows!!!

Solar powered Kili and the melting snow

2010-07-15T12:31:00.000+01:00

Solar panels 3,200 metres above sea level, powering most of the camps around Kilimanjaro (which you can see just poking out at the top right of this photo.

Most locals estimate that the ice cap will be gone completely within the next 10-15 years, not 20 as most scientist suggest. Although the local region is not dependent on the glacier for hydroelectricity it is the regions major water source and also an essential habitat for species that rely on snowy climates. Another, lesser known risk of the depleting glacier is the potential intensification of fire risks and its impacts on biodiversity and the local ecosystem.

As detailed in the OCDE, Development and Climate Change in Tanzania: Focus on Mount Kilimanjaro:

In theory rising temperatures should result in the upward migration of vegetation zones, as
observed in the Alps by GRABHERR & PAULI (1994). This effect however has been offset by the
intensification of fire risk as a result of warmer temperatures and declining precipitation. This risk is
particularly acute in the vast ericaceous belt in the upper reaches of the vegetation. Consequently, climatic changes have actually pushed the upper forest line downward on the Kilimanjaro.

Further articles:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-will-melt-snows-of-kilimanjaro-within-20-years-1813631.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6900015.ece

Vernacular in Tanzania

2010-07-06T23:00:00.001+01:00

Snaps from a recent trip to Tanzania where vernacular architecture still dominates most of the rural settlements, although it is becoming more and more evident that traditional houses are being replaced increasingly by rectangular, “European” style houses made from a variety of materials, including brick and CGI sheeting.

Green-roofed Containers

2010-06-18T03:16:00.001+01:00

Some pictures from greenroofshelters.co.uk's freight container with its very own living roof and habitat wall.

Consultation & Research...

2010-06-13T15:25:00.004+01:00

Bootstrap
Last week RESET intern Marko Kalik introduced himself at Bootstraps tenants community forum and discussed how RESET will be supporting the local community participate in the future roof developments at Bootstrap Company in Dalston.

As we, at RESET, also begin to develop other methods and techniques for participatory consultation and research methodologies for other upcoming projects (and for my own personal research), I've stumbled across some fantastic quotes:

"Few people are capable of expressing....opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions"
Albert Einstein

"The thought objects constructed by the social scientist, in order to grasp the social reality [of the beings living, acting and thinking within it], have to be founded upon the thought objects constructed by the common-sense thinking of men [and women!], living their daily life within the social world"
Alfred Schutz

Both remind me of the importance of identifying the role phenomenological perception has in validating any concept or theory. Obviously, the need for this clarification and validity of reasoning is most evident in international development based perspectives. My personal interest, rather crudely put, is 'can foreign architectural aid assistance ever be justified or appropriate without first the establishment of similar taxonomies of need and value?'.

Something I learnt in previous work and field research is that western perception of shelter/building/architecture is a physical construct - schools are needed, so we must build classrooms. However, in differing social realities, a built classroom may be the least valued aspect of 'a school' and often the last to be resourced (e.g Barefoot college, India, where access to solar lamps (through community renewable micro-financing) allows children to study at night when they return from working in the field. So, in this instance, light, not physical walls build the classrooms).

The GBANOOTO Programme

2010-05-29T23:54:00.000+01:00

The Get Blanche And Nikki Out Of The Office programme was developed as a response to the worrying and unhealthy obsession by RESET Directors with never leaving the office. Possibly a viral infection the doctors said, recommending fresh air and chocolate brownies (well, I may have recommended the later).

Green Works talk at the Triumph show rooms in St.Johns St.

The first of this programme involved a line-up of talks (and drinks/brownies). First was a talk by Colin Crooks, founder and CEO of the award winning Green-Works. Colin introduced the amazing work his company (and charity) does with the removal and 're-working' of office furniture, and discussed the importance of how re-using products has a much higher social, economical and environmental impact compared to just recycling its components.

The RESET team then went to a 21st Century Challenges Debate - Natural Disasters, How can we do better?, with Babara Stocking (CEO of Oxfam) and Cameron Sinclair (from Architecture for Humanity). I'm not really sure if you could call this a debate, it was more Cameron advertising how amazing AFH are in a very superficial way using some 'pretty pictures'. Babara was more relevant to the debate, highlighting the dramatic increase in weather related disasters in the past century and how these have a dramatically larger affect on poorer countries. She then, sadly, used her 'get out of jail free' card at most, nearly all of the questions raised by the audience, repeating 'yes I agree, that's an area we do need to improve on' in response to any issue that discusses how we can do better.

Most worrying thing about this debate, a part from the inability for the speakers to actually discuss the topic and not themselves, was, not once was there mentioned the words climate change adaptation, or the mention of the use of renewables, sustainable technologies/approaches to reconstruction and most concerning, was not once was there a mention of skills and capacity building IN country.

Surely without developing and supporting local knowledge and skills, organisations like AFH come across as just a weak, flawed model of architectural aid, or perhaps, a cunningly subtle form of architectural neo-colonialism?

MetaboliCity

2010-05-20T19:03:00.000+01:00

Met the fabulous MetaboliCity team today. Taken from their website (www.metabolicity.com):

MetaboliCity is a vision of a city that metabolizes its resources and waste to supply its inhabitants with all the nourishment they need and more. London based studio Loop.pH started MetaboliCity in October 2009 as a design seeding process that included the participation of over 100 volunteers from eco-architects and hydroponic experts to chefs and residents of East London housing estates, working together to co-design a diverse portfolio of solutions for growing food in the city.

Images from their Haberdasher estate from flickr:

And from their Waterhouse restaurant set:

Green Guide for Historic Buildings

2010-05-09T23:46:00.000+01:00

The Princess Regeneration Trust launched their new book this week:

A Green Guide for Historic Buildings.

"An essential and comprehensive guide for anyone seeking to refurbish, restore or reuse a listed or historic building. The Green Guide for Historic Buildings is an accessible guide with wide-ranging application for both professionals and those new to the fields of heritage and climate change."

View from the top of RESETs office roof on a fleeting sunny moment last week.

My very own Integrated Habitat

2010-04-30T10:56:00.000+01:00

I recently purchased a Postcarden (www.postcarden.co.uk) and have been growing my very own urban Integrated Habitat to celebrate RESETs launch of the Integrated Habitat Design Competition. Anyone know any good recipes using cress?

Earth Architecture in the Sahara

2010-04-16T13:33:00.000+01:00

So i spent the Easter holidays running around the Sahara Desert (Marathon des Sables) in Morocco, as one does. Sadly however, I spent most the time looking at the sand two feet in front of me, rather than enjoying the beautiful earth based vernacular of the region. I did however, manage to take a few 'holiday snaps' whilst on the run (so you have to excuse the poor quality images).

Most small settlements that I came across where constructed using rammed earth, with many of them having beautiful and delicate detailing on the windows and at roof plinth level. I did also come across a few rather lonesome houses that contained solar panels on the roof (if you can spot them on the photo....), but my out-of-breath poor quality French restricted me from finding out where they got them from and how they were financed.

I did have a very interesting conversation with a wealthy local Moroccan who was staying in the same hotel as me in Quarzazate however. He told me about how all the new buildings in the region where 'mock' earth - as was my hotel. The front facades and entrance areas where all earth rendered, but everything else was concrete based - surprise surprise. He also mentioned that the local regions houses that had been built in the 30's and 40's (concrete based) where all falling apart and where being abandoned. The older, earth constructed houses however, all still standing.

AJ's student survey on low-carbon design

2010-03-26T23:52:00.000Z

Check out the latest edition of the Architects Journal (25.03.10) and their student survey about low-carbon design education. The findings included:

- 86% of Part 1 students would consider sustainability-based teaching in their choice of diploma

- Only 15% thought their tutors placed sustainability in design projects as a core feature

Stroll around the Greenwich Peninsula with Dusty & Gary

2010-03-19T13:42:00.000Z

Last week we (RESET) held a 2-day course on Living Roofs & Ecosystem Services. This included a wonderful afternoon being shown around the Greenwich Peninsula by ecologists Dusty Gedge and Gary Grant.

Gary Grant explaining the reasons behind the green wall on the Peninsula Square.

Habitat and drainage all in one.

Model of London at the Greenwich Peninsula Business Centre

An Eco-corridor connecting the river to the park.

Ravensbourne College by Foreign Office Architects, still under construction. Key features to the design include cladding of tesselating aluminium tiles (initially going to be in clay) but sadly no living roof to my knowledge.

Ecobuild 2010

2010-03-18T22:41:00.000Z

At the beginning there was nothing....

Construction of the timber frame.

Strawbale workshops run by the amazing Amozonails.

Over the three days a rammed earth wall was constructed with the help of Rowland Keable from Ram-cast.

An introduction and some old photos

2010-03-17T19:30:00.000Z

A brief trip down memory lane - to a research trip I conducted in India and Bangladesh in 2008/2009 with Blanche (RESET co-Director). It was during, and because of this trip, that Blanche and I partnered up and really began developing RESET into what it is today.

With the financial support from the RIBA/ICE McAslan Bursary scheme, I had gone back to South Asia (having only just finished a scholarship at the Architecture Department at NUS - National University of Singapore, home of Ken Yeung and Tay Kheng Soon) to look into the shelter conditons for trafficking survivors and in particular the potential for sustainable construction training as part of the rehabilitation process. Whilst Blanche focused more on the community renewables and climate change resiliance programmes.

Here are just some of the buildings/projects/organisations that we visited....

Aga Khan Nominee, SM Sehgal Foundations IRRAD Building in Gurgaon, India.

Barefoot College, Tillonia and the Aga Khan winning, rain water collecting and storing theatre buildilng. Women come from all over the world to be trained at Barefoot as a Solar Engineer.

METI Handmade School, Aga Khan award winning building. And DESI building also part of the amazing organisation Dipshika. Both buildings were designed by the inspirational Anna Herriniger.

In the Indian Sundarbands, the Rama Krishna Mission, in association with TERI's Lighting a Billion Lives project, trains women on how to maintain and manage solar lantern hiring stations within their own homes.