C2C vs. Architecture

On the 23th of January I attended a lecture of Michael Braungart in Rotterdam. His message comes down to this:

Minimizing waste is a negative agenda and is based on guilt. If we focus on minimizing our ecologic footprint we in fact say to our children they are unwanted. The total biomass of all ants extends that of all humans and yet they do not have a negative effect on our habitat (except when they are in your kitchen). All good things in life are wealthy: a symphony of Mozart, a painting of Van Gogh. We should cherish wealth, but with a focus on recycling materials either in the biosphere or the technosphere. Then the concept of ‘waste’ will cease to exist. Waste will equal food.

 Image: Michael Braungart in Rotterdam

From all material cycles 70% is related to buildings. As a consequence, architects have a key role in the responsible use of materials. Right now we design buildings that are sealed. Toxic gasses that evaporate from building materials stay in the building, just like dust. As a result 40% of all 5 year olds already developed an allergy. We shouldn’t approach a building like a machine, but like a tree: from Bauhaus to Baumhaus. A building is not a product, but a service. Buildings should not be eternal but temporary. For the architect it is primarily not a matter of eco management, but of ego management.

Some regarded Braungart’s approach as being to limited, especially in relation to the renovation of existing buildings. His solution: demolish and rebuild. Braungart however is not an architect, and his approach should be seen in relation to his definition of sustainability. In his view, sustainability should not be seen as an overall concept, but as a kaleidoscope of approaches that together help to build a better environment.

In Braungart’s words: we should cherish mediocrity.

CCTV: Sustainable Building?

Sustainable design is not primarily about green materials. More substantially it is about a mind shift from sequential or linear thinking to cylcic thinking. In other words, from Cradle to Grave to Cradle to Cradle. The end of a process is the beginning of the next.

If our buildings are materialized processes, skyscrapers are top down buildings for top down organizations. The new CCTV building of OMA is interesting because the the building is a loop, which ables processes to iterate. The buildings provokes a mindshift which stimulates synergy, fluidity and innovation.

From this perspective, CCTV is a sustainable building.

It was worth it

Termites

This is a cross section of a termite nest. It consists of two parts. The outer skin is made out of thick ground and absorbs the heat of the sun. The nest itself is lifted, and is cooled by air that first is led through the ground water. As a result of the heat produced inside of the nest by thousands of termites, the air rises and escapes the nest through a hole in at the top. True sustainable building.

Did you know by the way, that the total biomass of all the ants on the planet is larger than the total of human biomass? Ants however blend in the planetary organism. We disturb it. We’re not overcrowding the planet. We’re just not blending in. Yet.

Rotting Apple

In addition to my previous post: the rotting apple as an analogy to the disintegrating plane.

See the new life appearing (fungus) as the apple diminishes.

Life is a Cycle

This is a scene from the movie “Lord of War” with Nicolas Cage. Listen to his commentary as the plane is stripped: “Everything that comes from the earth, eventually returns”. Life is a cycle.

Architects for a Better World

This trailer is about a movie to be released in November which will deal about sustainable architecture. Architect/mayor/governor Jaime Lerner of Curitiba, Paraná State (Brazil) will also appear in the movie.

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Destructive vs. Constructive Collaboration

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Lula´s Unsustainable Government

Allthough I like to focus in this blog on the positive, and try to avoid politics as much as possible, sometimes it is necessary to make an exeption, especially when negativity and politics intersect.

Last week, Lula´s government decided to resume the construction of a third nuclear reactor at Angra dos Reis, which had been put on hold since the 1980s because of security issues and a lack of funds. As I mentioned before, Brazil´s only commercial nuclear reactor has been haunted by problems eversince it was built, but even though the ambitious plans of the government provide in the construction of eight new reactors by 2030. One of the main arguments is a future lack of water, as Brazil is largely dependent on hydro electricity . But for a country that has currently about 20% of the planet´s clean water within its boundaries, this can hardly be an argument. Instead, the desintegration of the hydro electric network (which I already mentioned here) as a result of commercialisation is more likely to be the problem. Nuclear power cannot be regarded sustainable, not only because of the numerous accidents that have occured at Angra, but also because the generation of nuclear energy does not form a closed system. In sustainability, the output of one system should be fit to be used as the input for another system, or in the words of William McDonough, Waste = Food. But with our current state of technology, nuclear waste cannot be reused. Therefore nuclear energy is not sustainable.

One of the biggest successes of Lula´s government is the Zero Hunger program, providing the country´s poorest a minimum income to stay alive. As poverty is widespread in Brazil, the program has made the government extremely popular. But even though the program is very necessary, it is not sustainable. As in the case of Angra, it does not form a closed system, as it does not generate output. An educational program for example would eventually result in tax paying professionals, taxes that could be used for new investments. In contrast, the Zero Hunger program can only be seen as a temporary solution in addition to structural investments like an educational program. But programs of such kind have not been initiated upto now.

Lula´s government has been the first that has been formed by the people and not by the elite, and so the government had been provided a historic chance to build a sustainable society. It all started off promising, as could be seen for example with the introduction of an open source program as a new model for development (as I commented here). But the man responsible, Sergio Amadeu, has resigned desillusioned as Lula´s special adviser. Instead of executing a visionary policy, the government relaxes and enjoys its re-election, to borrow the words Marta Suplicy, minister of tourism. (She spoke these words to airliner passengers that had been stranded as a result of an air traffic controllers crisis that has been unsolved since September last year. More on the passivity of the government is discussed in this article of The Economist.)

It seems the government is loosing momentum but there is still a light in the dark. Like in Israel, numerous scandals have been surfacing lately in Brazil about corrupt politicians. This is not necessarily negative. Like the Israeli author Amos Oz said: “sewers just stink when they´re cleaned up“. Corruption has long been deeply rooted in Brazilian society. If Lula´s government will be able to deal with this problem, it will all have been worthwhile.

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Brazil and Independence

“…Before the continental networks of reinforced-concrete highways commenced half a century ago, human civilization, as seen from a low-flying air plane, was always strung out along the brooks, rivers, ponds, lakes, seas and ocean fronts. Vast real estate developments and their underground- hidden, long-distance pipelines now tend to obscure this absolute dependence of humans upon water…” – R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path

“…The Amazonian basin, where ten of the twenty largest rivers in the world are to be found … represents one fifth of the entire fresh water reserves of the planet…” – Brazilian Government’s Ministry of External Affairs, 2002

While fresh water gets increasingly scarce, about 20% of the world’s fresh water supply exists in the Amazon basin. Brazil is independent in energy as a result of the use of hydro electricity. And in April 2006 it declared itself independent from oil from the Middle East as a result of domestic exploitation of oil and the use of bio fuel. Even the uranium for Brazil’s only commercial nuclear plant is won within its countries borders. Brazil is also independent in food production, and it has proven to be independent intellectually in the field of intellectual property in relation to her social and economic development.

Brazil is in all senses a country that can define its own agenda, and can therefore have a leading role in sustainable development. Time will tell if Brazil will be able to cash such a future, so it will no longer be the country that Stefan Zweig once described: ‘The land of the future, and it will always be…’

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Public Transport System of Curitiba, Brazil

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Sustainability in Brazil: an Introduction

In Brazilian cities, favela’s and condo’s seem to be in a peaceful coexistence, but make the gap between rich and poor, the biggest in the world, painfully visible. This gap results in social tensions with an intensity that, according to the UN, is comparable to a small scale civil war. [1] São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, is polluted and chaotic, the concretized market economy and the engine of South America, an organism that came into existence without any planning or policy. Nearby São Paulo lies Cubatão, in the 1980s the most polluted city in the world, with high percentages of miscarriages, deformed children and cancer patients. [2]

[Cubatão]

From this perspective it seems irony to be talking about a sustainable Brazil. In the northern hemisphere, it is at best seen as an emerging market, a country with potential but still Third World, and for a long time ignored because of hyperinflation of sometimes 2500% a year. [3] Brazilians are Indians, Africans, Europeans and Asians and the ethnic and social coherence of the population of Brazil is both her strength and her weakness. It is a country with extreme contrasts, between the rich and the poor, nature and industry, past and a potential future. Contrasts that may end up crises, but that also seem to trigger sustainable development.

This blog aims to learn from Brazil as a sustainable role model. Upcoming issues: Fuel, Aids, Software Libre, Intellectual Property, The Amazone, Movimento Sem Terras, Rodrigo Baggio, Coopa-Roca, etc. Contributions and meaningful discussions are welcome.

[1] The Accidental President of Brazil – Fernando Henrique Cardoso – Public Affairs Books – 2006
[2]In Acrid Brazilian Factory Zone, a Fear of Disaster – Marlise Simons – The New York Times – May 18, 1985
[3] The Accidental President of Brazil – Fernando Henrique Cardoso – Public Affairs Books – 2006

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