This one I’m just writing for a bit of fun. The above image is by Anthony Howe as part of his kinetic art sculptures. The ideo below shows the sculpture in action:
The reason I really like this kind of thing is because I think it’s more accessable in terms of showing an interest and an understanding of art. I think it makes people think; possibly even in ways they havent previously, and what’s really exciting is that people might not even realise they’r critically analysing art. This is helpful because it takes away the notion you need to be an “arty” or even “philosophical” person to have a legitimate thought about art, or to experience it successfully.
It helps to show people that art really can be whatever it is that you want it to be, and that itcan make you feel so many different things, whether it’s beauty or whether you think it’s ridiculous. It’s all relevant and it’s all important.
This video below is just something else I found that’s a bit fun; it’s a combination of art and recycling and just a good option if people so inclined feel this way:
So I’m around about half way through this blog for uni and I have to be honest with you – I’m really loving doing this.
I see so many things every day that make me think about architecture, design and sustainability and I’ve often felt unmotivated to look into these issues, mostly due to time constraints but now that it’s little bit forced on me I’m really enjoying it. Instead of looking at something in passing – maybe even taking a photo or reading an article online I’m now critically thinking about it and finding research to back up more information and make further claims.
I think it’s had an incredible impact on my education, especially as I’m finding that there are topics to be written about all around me, and many of them are coming from other subjects. It also shows how closely linked many of my subjects are, and I’m drawing information from quite a few of them to compose my ideas and thoughts.
Having said that, my big concern at the moment is my future: how am I going to do it? Am I even going to be good at it? I’m talking about all these things I’m learning – all of these components that make a building or a community or a city sustainable, and safe, and healthy ,and habitable. It makes me question whether it’s all even possible? Can a building be universally acceptable, aesthetically pleasing, smart, low embodies energy, low energy and water use, meet all of the needs of its occupant, ideal Environmental Air Quality, properly maintained and used?
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see to find out.
P.S. the image for this post is just a cool pic of the uni that I took and like quite a bit
Obviously the issue of sustainability and creating a sustainable and habitable enviornement is an extremely complex one. Having said this, we in the first world have a huge hurdle of essentially having to retrofit current procedures, process and materials. Only 2% of buildings (in Australia) are new buildings, and not all of them (especially domestic) are being built in a sustainable manner. So this leaves us with opportunity to improve, but in reality it’s not like we’re going to go around and knock down all the of unsuatainable or high energy requiring homes. This action in itself would be unsustainable! Look at our cars and their use of petrol/electricty. We’d have to deveise a whole new system AND get everyone to pay their money to convert in order to truely achieve sustinable personal transport.
This is peak “First orld problem”. We’ve built ourselves to fail, and made it harder on ourselves than it should be.
This is where I think we have a huge potential with growth in the third world. We capable of starting from a near scrath environment, so we can develop entire systems that aresustaibale and lasting; saving both costs and energy in the process with particular emphaisis on lifecycle and maintenance costing.
Consider “BAKEYS” fist of all. A company that makes edible spoons, to replace the thousands of plastic spoons thatw ere being used, particularly in India, where there isn’t sufficient access to clean water to clean spoons leaving the massive population with little choice. The concept of starting from basic needs and creating sustainable practices in the home therefore becomes a necessity, rather than ana addition, or an act we must conciously athink about to act towards. Creating an unconcious act certianly makes it easier to follow, and therefore creates a much higher result and far more wide spread sustainabililty. The video below descibes the need and use for “BAKEYS’ spoons:
Now we look at leak proof bowls from a research team at Naresuan University that are easily made from leaves:
These are a further subsistute for plastic and have similar benefits as the spoons.
Recreating and building the third world offers us with a completely unforseen opportunity to create a better, well functioning world that will rival the existing first world in liveability and habitability. It is an incredibly enormous opportunity for a huge world wide payoff and it needs to be grasped by the right people, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Today I’d like to ask about shopping centres, in particular in conjunction with Tone Wheeler’s previous lecture “Low + Close” and the urban lifestyle it proposes. I’d like to talk about what I like about shopping centres, what I don’t like, what I love and what I absolutely hate.
I’ve working in shopping centres full time for over three years, mainly in the same one (Highpoint, VIC) but my work has also permitted me to work in other centres as well. Shopping centres are generally easy to consider as a whole because there’s not huge differences between them when you’re looking at their impact on the community, lifestyle and urban sustainability.
Some of the key things I took from Tone’s lecture was the principle of living and working in the same area, or close enough that you didn’t need to rely on transport.
Shopping centres present this idea somewhat well, as there is certainly a high level of employment available within a centre, and there are regularly found in residential areas. This theory reaches a saturation point, i believe, when the size of the centre and the number of stores it caters to makes it impossible for all employees, as well as management and the shoppers visiting the centre cannot possible live within the local area due to the sheer number.
The positive reflection if this is of course the amount of economy they pour into the area and also that it provides a requirement for an efficient public transport system in the area. Unfortunately, they also have enormous carpark areas that may push some people to ignoring the public transport available for them. This also means that the absolute majority of the floor plate of the site is paved and covered, leaving an extremely limited zone or area for plant life an greenery.
Despite these positices, which I think are mostly economic and in our current climate, generally what the government and developers consider to be the most important aspect, there are some very real negatives.
One of which that I encountere quite frequently is the issue of safety. This covers a wide range of considerations as well because you need to consider the safety on the roads and in the parking areas, for bikes and pedestrians. There is also the safety component of the loading bays, which must be managed appropriately as be well away from “normal shoppers” to prevent anyone stealing things from open trucks, and to also prevent loitering. This may also be an issue as many staff within shopping centres will take their lunch breaks in loading docks in the peace and quiet, but also the isolation.
There is the general safety of such a large space at night, including the outside areas such as the parking lots, bus stops, taxi ranks and any outdoor elevators as well as any 24 hour access routes there may be.
A huge safety consideration occurs within the centre, particularly on the peak trade day of Boxing Day where a single store can easily make upwards of $200,000 in 14 hours. WIth this brings risks of not only theft, but also health risks of dehydration and exhaustion that must be managed appropriately and efficiantly.
Overall its hard for me to say ultimately how I feel about shopping centres – the convenience is phenominal and the money made is outrageous – but is it really worth it? Hard pressed, I’d have to say no.
Designing tiny houses in a limited space was a huge component of my Undergraduate Architecture degree. There was an enormous focus on the economical use of space, proxemics and universal accessibility (easily what I and many others found most difficult to incorporate into small design).
This process involves looking at the space in 3 dimensions, thinking not just in plan view but in section and through maquettes and models as well. It is an incredibly freeing experience, to think in such constraints which I know might not make sense, but I found these exercises totally changed the way I though about an appreciated space and spatial relations. Dead space becomes obsolete.
This is particularly evident when looking at Tone Wheeler’s lecture from a few weeks ago considering the principle of “Low + Close”; small design considers many of the same considerations. The way we use (and don’t use) space has an enormous impact on the environment and sustainability.
An example popped up on my Facebook page today of “Brick House” that I was so intrigued and inspired by that I spent some of the afternoon playing around with a similar space to create my own design, using the principles in this design which is only 93 square feet and appropriate for 2 people to live there full time. These principles may be an answer to smaller community housing, such as student housing.
“Brick House” by Azvedo Design Inc. (San Francisco, USA)
Another of my favourite is this 1.8m wide apartment in Tokyo by YUUA architects, where obviously the demand for affordable housing is incredibly high, that showcases the luxury and sleek feel you achieve in these kinds of spaces, so that you’re actually creating a liveable house that people will be proud to reside in, rather than just using these spaces a an experiment that doesn’t translate appropriately in real life.
“Brick House” by Azvedo Design Inc. (San Francisco, USA)
I think these exercises in space are so important and definitely worth looking at, particularly as a way to consider urban sustainability on a smaller scale. It also becomes a great way to conserve energy, both through a reduced use in lifecycle energy, as well as reducing the energy required to create and maintain the household.
What makes a good beach? Are they the best? Most beautiful? Best waves? Busiest? Quietest? Is it a combination? Due to my limited world experience, I’m going to focus on Australian beaches which I believe I luckily have a fair bit of experience.
View of Tathra Beach
What makes people say Bondi, or Manly, or Coogee? Why not Maroubra, or Balmoral, or Little Bay?
I think people look for a combination of a whole lot of things, and it could all depend on the individual circumstance. In generally, most people would probably look for some where that is safe, both in terms of personal safety and security, as well as safety within the water. Beaches with lifesavers are an obvious choice, particularly for tourists who are maybe not as confident and also a good choice for families with young children.
Tathra’s historic wharf
Surf beaches offer an entirely different experience to those that are more calm, or those that dock boats and are an even better option when there are opportunities to learn to surf. Locals may purely enjoy a beach that is close to them merely for convenience, whereas out – of – towners may prefer a beach with a rich culture; this may include cafes or restaurants of good quality that are within walking distance. Locals may find enjoyment out of quieter beaches during the high tourist season and may be prepared to travel a little further for the serenity.
Manly beach on a Saturday morning
Parking and/or the availability of parking spaces can affect not just which beaches people will flock to, but also the time of day or day of the week that people will attend. The day’s activities will also have an impact on which beach people will attend. I will often go to a beach that also has walking trails (Such as the Bondi to Coogee walk) or rocks that I can climb.
Balmoral Beach
To me it becomes important to look at the little places, like beaches, and consider what makes them desirable. Through this we can consider different stakeholder groups and their needs, as well as the most appropriate way to adapt and integrate these needs.
This will ultimately lead to better design across a wide range of urban problems, as we start from the roots. We design what people need, and therefore what it is that they will use, and enjoy using. It becomes part of the basis of design and it becomes incredibly important that we manage to pass this concept on to the future generations of designers. It is of no use to have and incredibly personal or beautiful design, if it does not appropriately and clearly respond tot he needs of those who require the space.
I don’t drink coffee. Or tea. I’m more of a milkshake or hot chocolate kind of girl, although I’ll generally prefer an ice cream.
However this has not precluded me from an issue I see as something that is not just potentially problematic, but a full grown worldwide epidemic. The epidemic I’m referring to of course, is the use of coffee pods to home brew some coffee (is this the right term? I’ve never even made a cup of coffee in my life). This problem is quite succinctly summed up in many articles recently, but I believe “Science Alert (2016)” sums it up quite nicely:
“There’s a statistic floating around that if you collected all the single-use coffee pods sold by market leader Keurig in a year and lined them up end-to-end, you’d have enough to circle the globe 12 times over.”
This is incredibly alarming and cause of concern. My applause then goes to the inspiration behind this article: Hamburg, in Germany, has banned all use of the pods in all government run buildings , offices and institutions like schools and universities with Jan Dube from the Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy quoting:
“The capsules can’t be recycled easily because they are often made of a mixture of plastic and aluminium. It’s 6 grams of coffee in 3 grams of packaging. We in Hamburg thought that these shouldn’t be bought with taxpayers’ money.”
“Mandatory green guidelines now prohibit taxpayers’ money from being spent on nonrefillable plastic bottles, plastic cutlery, plates and cups, chlorine-based cleaning products, air freshener and patio heaters” (NPR, 2016)
2013 showed the year where the sale of coffee pod-machines outsold drip machines for the first time ever in Western Europe. 2014 then say “Keurig”, a major pod manufacturer, pledging to create a fully recyclable version (I’m assuming for a higher cost to the consumer) by 2020, giving us at least a few more years of waster to add to the almost decade of un-recyclable waste that has already been built up. This pledge also has many considering whether a fully recyclable version is even possible to create, and whether it’s creation would then require more energy than the process of recycling in the first place!
Science Alert also quotes “1 in 10 Brits said that they believe “coffee pods are very bad for the environment”, but at the same time, 22 percent of them said they owned a pod-machine” showing how this has become a social norm, and extends to apply a society wide level of cognitive dissonance, seen only on such a huge scale with drugs such as alcohol and tobacco. This creates an even bigger problem than previously imagined; not only are these small devices not recyclable and appearing with greater ubiquity, but it doesn’t appear as thee is a way to stop it. There doesn’t appear to be much headway in the invention of a safer alternative and there is not enough education available to show people not just how bad these can be for the environment, but also what alternatives are available to them to keep them from adding to the already wildly out of control problem.
John Sylvan, one of the inventors of the popular “K-Cup” (no longer associated with the brand – selling out his shares in 1997) claims that even in the early stages of its life, coffee pods were considered to be too expensive and too wasteful.
#KillTheKCup began as a means to show the world exactly the destruction everyone’s small actions were making, and the clip below makes fun of the worlds obsession with these cups. There is certainly a long way to go on rectifying this issue. (N.B. that the following video has low levels of swearing and violence, may not be appropriate at work)
Sydney is pretty hot, I’m thinking the main difference between here and Melbourne is more the humidity though. The heat doesn’t bother me a lot but I’ve started sweating from just walking out my front door! Definitely the biggest change I’ve had to make so far.
Australian Standards requires heat to be provided but there are no provisions for AC use. This to me means that there are many alternatives to cooling down and I just don’t think they’re being employed. I understand that larger places like shopping centres use AC’s as they’re more capable of regulating the temperature than having to control a huge range of windows. Trust me, i get it.
I also get the use in buses and trains where the huge amount of people using them can make them unbearably hot and making them more comfortable certainly makes them more usable and therefore gets people out of their cars. It does make me wonder if that trade off actually balances or is worth it though…
Particularly as i come to the problem that is rapidly making its way to the number 1 reason as to why i want to move back to Melbourne: it’s too cold. Not all the time. Not during the day, but certainly when the buses try to maintain their 21° temperature (i assume? ) at 10pm. Or at 4am after a particular rowdy Mardi Gras. I find it completely unnecessarily cold.
Faulty air conditioning on buses is also one of the main reasons buses need servicing (State Transit, 2010) reducing the number of buses available and possibly even resulting in cancelled lines. This is unacceptable as it increases the output effort required by other services. This can also prove fault in the minds of commuters, who may then decide a car is a more appropriate means of transport for them which isn’t fair. The bus services in Sydney I’ve found to be generally amazing and quite reliable, but there’s always room for improvement and I think this is an area where a little can go a long way.
The image above (Denso) shows the circuit for a bus mounted air conditioner on a small scale. Air conditioners on buses will generally have up to 30 ducts releasing this air into the compartment. That results in a huge amount of power and so much research already produced shows that reducing the air conditioner temperature, even by just a degree, can have massive impacts on the energy used.
In lieu of reducing the temperature, the time the air conditioner is running can be reduced, so that it is turned on later in the day and turned off earlier at night. The results of these impacts would be huge; consider the approximately 676 bus routes (Transport Buses, 2016) that run through Sydney and greater Sydney, that run on average every 20 minutes, for 8 hours (an estimate of the amount of time an air conditioner is turned on currently across the network) compared to these bus routes running every 20 minutes for only 6 hours a day. That is a reduction of almost 14% in energy! A phenomenal result, but more importantly it’s an achievable result.
Despite not being a bike rider, I find this to be an extremely important issue as a road user. This is an issue I see everywhere, and it’s particularly interesting to me to see the difference between Melbourne and Sydney in regards to bike use within the city, and the many potential remedies we have to reduce cycling injuries on our roads.This really needs to be an issue close to all of us.
What I’ve noticed
UNSW is great, offering many places to park bikes, as well as pump up tyres. There is even a weekly bike club meeting to assist with the upkeep of bike maintenance and share some tricks and tips between members.
These benefits are lost, I believe, when people then leave the university enter the street. There are no bike lanes around the uni, let alone protected bike lanes, and through my current travels around Sydney I haven’t seen very many in other localities, especially the city, either. I think this contrasts greatly with Melbourne as many main roads have bike lanes (although you’ll be hard pressed to find any protected bike lanes) and much of the city is becoming more bike friendly with dedicated bike lanes. Don’t get me wrong though – both cities still have a long way to go!
The current alternative I’m seeing, again particularly in Melbourne, is the development of many dedicated biking “paths”, which differs from bike lanes in a few key aspects. These paths are generally designed for a more leisurely ride, not intersecting with major places of work, such as the city, in a convenient way. These paths are mostly used on weekends for families and friends rather than as a method of daily commute. This is a great way to encourage a bike riding culture whilst still employing safety methods, as these paths run through parks, rather than follow the road. They’re an excellent method to be used on weekends or on holidays but we still need a daily alternative to really encourage bike riding as a beneficial alternative to driving for so many reasons.
The dream plan
The video below is an ideal new intersection style developed by Nick Falbo, a planner in Portland, based on some Dutch designs and incorporates the “protected intersection lane” as well.
N.B. This has been designed to adhere to US road laws, but the principles are transferrable.
“Protected Intersections for Bicyclists by Nick Falbo (Wired, 2014)”
The example below is of a Dutch roundabout, where the protected bike lane has been fully integrated with a protected intersection and offers inspiration for Falbo’s ideas.
Dutch round about (Stofka, 2014)
I think this is an incredible design, that considers some of the biggest issues that we face not just in Sydney, but across the country. The benefits of this type of intersection would be absolutely phenomenal. The increased level of safety would invite more people to consider cycling as it become a more feasible way of moving through the city. It would also be easier for people to teach their children in this type of environment, creating a culture of cycling. This culture can help to reduce some massive issues that face this city and country, such as the incredible obesity rate as well as reducing the number of cars on the road, impacting the incredible congestion (peak hour is now estimated to be 8 hours long!) as well as creating a more environmentally sustainable community.
NSW Government
The Cycling Safety Action Plan 2014–2016 developed by the NSW government gives the following graph to consider cycling injuries:
NSW Government (2014)
The majority of injuries, as well as the most serious injuries, occur at intersections and on larger streets, proving the great benefit that the security and added vision of the protected bike lane/intersection could have on both the biking and driving communities.
More or less, day 1 at uni and day 5 in Sydney. First impressions of UNSW Kensington are generally impressive. It’s certainly larger than my previous university although far more difficult to navigate. I’ve definitely made close friends with the many helpful maps to be found around the campus, not to mention the “lost on campus” app which is quickly becoming my new best friend.
The upper campus of UNSW can only be achieved by what I’m told is 106 stairs. In a row! Incredibly exhausting and a major inconvenience for anyone inconvenienced by stairs. It effectively cuts the university in half, restricting movement that goes so easily elsewhere. For anyone who knows me well, they’ll know that excessive stairs are a pet peeve of mine. A clever ramp would indeed open up the space.
I don’t know of it’s just because it’s o’week on campus and perhaps everyone’s being super careful but there’s no rubbish, despite there not being a huge amount of bins in major walkways. I’ll be interested to see how long this lasts; whether it’s an ingrained culture or merely a university trying to present a pretty picture for their new students. I’m certainly hoping it’s the former.
My campus tour took me to the top of the Scientia building, where I took this photo (as usual, edited in VSCOcam) which is one I’m particularly proud of. I had an enjoyable first day, pleased and excited to be back learning what I love but I’m definitely being careful not to underestimate the length and difficulty of this new path I’m embarking on.
MyArchiJourney 