Ecorenovation


This building is an example of sustainability and eco-design. It is a project led in a French town, to make a E-generation building: Environment, Economy, Energy, Equilibrium. The purpose is to renew a building by applying solutions found by the research, without spoiling the architecture. This building has to be efficient in terms of energy and greenhouse gases.
For heating and ventilation, the objective of consumption is 50 kWh/m2/year (now the consumption is 400 kWh/m2/year). Another objective is the “3 liters house”: an innovation of the chemistry research can make this building consume 3L/m2/year of fuel for heating (now the consumption is 20L/m2/year).
This project is also integrated in a social will: the rent will be the equivalent of 600S$ for a 3 rooms apartment, which is quite cheap in France. Such renovation projects could be interesting in Singapore, where double-glass and good insulation are not systematic.

Information extracted from:
http://www.prorecyclage.com/concepts_generaux/eco-conception/ecoconception-batiment.html

Pauline Lazareff

Roy Prince: Greenhouse

This one-bedroom and garage/workshop or studio house has been designed by Roy Prince architect. The principle is to have a very efficient and comfortable house, using passive methods. The heating and cooling is made by a sun-facing passive solar Trombe wall system. During heating season, the heat is pumped into the house and collected into the wall. Vents provide ventilation, and there is a system using convective airflows to pump the heat out of the house. In addition, a geothermal cooling/heating system can be installed.
The structure is not a wood or steel stick framing. It is made of Structural Insulated Panels, which are made of one layer of expanded polystyrene, and one layer of sprayed on concrete. This structural system is more energy efficient, more durable, and stronger than classic framed structures.

Information extracted from:
http://www.sustainableabc.com/greenhomeplans.html

Pauline Lazareff

Playpump


A good example of association between design and environment: lots of African countries face the problem of water supply. Most of times, the water is not clean, and it is far from the village. This Playpump, designed by Ronnie Stuiver, offers to children a lot of fun, while they pump clean water for the village. The water is stored in overhead tanks, on which are displayed commercial and health awareness advertising, helping to generate revenues for the maintenance of the playpump, and educating people on health issues. The system has been first implemented in South Africa, then in Swaziland and Mozambique. Maybe later it will be spread in all Sub-Saharan Africa where the lack of water is very important.

Information extracted from: http://www.playpump.org/

Pauline Lazareff

D Day: Solar Cooker


D Day was an exhibition of the contemporary art centre Beaubourg in Paris, released from 29/06/2005 to 17/10/2005. One of the themes of this exhibition was sustainable solutions for third world countries. The product presented here is a solar cooker. It is made of highly reflective material, and the lateral sides are oriented in order to reflect heat into the cooker. The user just have to put the cooking-pot in the cooker and it really works (I saw some videos showing people using it in an African village). It doesn’t require any energy but solar radiation. The advantages are: women don’t have anymore to walk for hours to collect wood to make a fire, they don’t have to look after the fire under the very hot sun and they can do other things while the meal is being cooked. It is a very cheap and simple solution and it is very efficient. Lots of ideas presented in this exhibition were amazing for their simplicity and their efficiency.

Information extracted from:
http://www.evene.fr/culture/galerie-photos.php?r=1&ic=4552&topic=d-day
My personal experience

Pauline Lazareff

Anthill Office


This commercial and offices building was designed following the structure of termite mounds (an example of biomimicry). It is located in Harare, Zimbabwe, where the temperature between night and day can switch by 10-14 ˚C. The termite mounds are built to be at the constant temperature of 30.5˚C, while the exterior temperature varies between 1.6˚C during night and 40˚C during day. To achieve that, the termite mound has is made of a complex network of galleries, opened on the lateral sides, as showed on the third picture (a 3d model of the galleries network). To maintain the temperature, the termites are constantly opening and closing this series of heating and cooling vents.

Information and pictures extracted from:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/biomimetic_buil_1.php
http://www.shadowcentral.net/2005/06/index.html
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/Stories/News35.htm

Pauline Lazareff

Saving a rare feline

One of the world’s rarest wildcats tests Japan’s resolve to save the environment. HANS GREIMEL reports.
A cat so rare, it was discovered only in 1965. So threatened, only about 100 exist. So singular, it lives only on this 282 sq km Pacific island. Yet the elusive Iriomote cat is more than just an endangered species.
Heroic efforts to save it from extinction symbolise an about-turn in Japan’s long-tortured relationship with Mother Nature. Not only does the struggle underline the country’s newfound determination to redress decades of environmental devastation at the hands of unbridled industrialisation, it proves just how tough reversing the damage can be.

“The wildcat’s barely hanging on,” says our jungle guide, Maki Okamura, a scientist at the Iriomote Wildlife Conservation Centre. “Even if we lose just one, it has a huge impact,”

(Resource : http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/11/14/lifefocus/15920079&sec=lifefocus)

Kim Jin ah

Indonesian Forest Fires Threaten Wildlife and Environment

Conservationists in Indonesia have warned that fires set to clear land have killed and injured hundreds of endangered orangutans. Environmentalists are also concerned the burning of rainforest and peat bogs is contributing to global warming.
Widespread fires in Indonesia have claimed millions of hectares of land this year on Sumatra and Kalimantan - the Indonesian part of Borneo - destroying sensitive wildlife habitat and spewing out a thick haze that has choked neighboring countries. The area destroyed this year was some of the only remaining habitat left for orangutans, a protected species with a rapidly declining population.
The only great apes living outside Africa, orangutans can only be found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, which is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Willie Smits, coordinator of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, says time is running out for the endangered primates.
(Resource : http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-13-voa22.cfm)

Kim Jin ah

Insects indicators of a changing environment


It's important to know our neighbours. And if 80 per cent of all animals are insects, then we'd better start getting acquainted.
Insects can tell us a lot about our environment and its health. But before we can learn from them, it's vital to know who they are and their role in the ecosystem. Professor Steve Marshall, environmental biology, and his research team have been working to identify insects and add new species to the University of Guelph's insect collection. They're creating a baseline from which to track species and document changes in insect abundance and
distribution.
"If you want to know what's changing, you need to know what's there," Marshall says.
The University of Guelph's insect collection is the oldest in Canada, dating back to 1863. With more than 1.5 million specimens, it ranks as the third or fourth largest insect collection in Canada and the best collection of Ontario insects. It also features world species, including one of the most important fly collections in the world.
(Resource: http://www.guelphmercury.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=mercury/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163415726236&call_pageid=1050067726078&col=1050938501375)

Kim Jin ah

Green Stewards
Southwest congregations taking a stand on the environment


A new green streak is sprouting from the pews of some Southwest congregations.
As evidence of global climate change becomes more visible, churches and synagogues across the country are starting to preach the importance of environmental stewardship.
About 250 congregations statewide had members recently sign up to host screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore's documentary on climate change.
And in Southwest, congregations are inviting guest speakers, erecting solar panels and preaching energy efficiency with an urgency never seen before.
Ten solar panels recently installed on the temple's roof help power the lights in the sanctuary, including its tamid - the altar's perpetually burning flame. It's switching to less-toxic cleaning supplies and asking worshipers to do the same at home. And it's working with other Jewish institutions to reduce the amount of trash they generate.

(Resource : http://www.swjournal.com/articles/2006/11/08/news/news03.txt)

Kim Jin ah

Africa The Most Vulnerable To Climate Change
...but the rest of the world is not far off


The world is facing its greatest man-made threat ever – climate change - and Africa is set to be its biggest target and greatest tragedy.
Africa has contributed less than any other region to the greenhouse gas emissions that are widely held responsible for global warming, yet the continent is also the most vulnerable to the consequences.
Many researchers have already warned that a three-degree Celsius rise in temperature over the next century will increase the risk of drought, wildfires and forest loss in many parts of the developing world.
They also warn that the increased periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean known as El Niño and a similar phenomenon called the North Atlantic Oscillation effect threatens food supplies for millions of Africans by reducing crop yields.

(Resource : http://www.voice-online.co.uk)

Kim Jin ah

Greenhouse gases reach record high


Greenhouse gas levels reached record highs in 2005 and will continue to build in the atmosphere in the absence of drastic emission cuts, the UN has said.
Kyoto targets are not enough to level off, let alone turn around the rise in greenhouse gases, the WMO has said
As international delegates review progress Kyoto in Nairobi, the Annual Greenhouse gas Bulletin revealed a rise in overall concentrations despite some progress on Kyoto targets.
Even if all Kyoto targets are met, the resulting 5% cut in developing countries' emissions from 1990 levels by 2008-12 would not be enough to put the breaks on the rise in heat-trapping gases, the WMO has said.
While the CO2 build-up is largely due to humans burning fossil fuels, only 30% of the nitrous oxide increase is caused by human activities. Fuel combustion, biomass burning and fertiliser use all produce N2O. Around 60% of methane emissions come from human activities like fossil fuel combustion, rice agriculture, livestock farming and biomass burning.
Although CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas it is only responsible for 62% of the greenhouse effect observed to date.

(Resource : http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=12229&channel=0)

Kim Jin ah

Reefs at Risk


According to scientists, more than half of the world’s coral reefs are at risk of vanishing in the next 25 years. Rising temperatures throughout the world are a major threat to the survival of the reefs and their inhabitants. Temperatures throughout the world are higher than usual, scientists report. Many experts believe it is part of a larger trend known as global warming. Global warming is a rise in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, caused by the greenhouse effect. This is when gases like carbon dioxide collect in the earth’s atmosphere, keeping the sun’s heat from escaping. As temperatures rise, our planet is feeling the effect. Ecosystems where animals and plants live in balance together—like coral reefs—are beginning to disappear because the higher temperatures can affect food supplies. As summer’s warm temperatures begin to drop slightly in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, scientists are hoping to see some change in the strength of the world’s coral reefs.

(Resource : http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7854)

Kim Jin ah

Birds face extinction, says WWF

Nearly three-quarters of all bird species in north-east Australia and more than a third in Europe could become extinct unless efforts to stop global warming are stepped up, a report said yesterday.
The World Wildlife Fund report said bird groups, such as seabirds and migratory birds, were very sensitive to climate change.
"Large-scale bird extinctions may occur sooner than we thought," WWF's director of climate change policy Hans Verolme said in the report.
"If high rates of extinction are to be avoided, rapid and significant cuts to greenhouse gas emissions must be made," the WWF said.
Rising sea levels, changes in vegetation and altered temperatures are among the effects of climate change linked to greenhouse gas emissions that impact negatively on bird species worldwide, it said.

(Resource : http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=ca&ie=UTF-8&q=extinction)

Kim Jin ah

African nomads face extinction due to climate change

Kenya's herdsmen are facing extinction as global warming destroys their lands.
They are dubbed the "climate canaries" the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change.
As government ministers sat down in Nairobi at this weekend's UN Climate Conference, the herdsmen likely to be wiped out by devastating global warming were only a few hundred kilometres away, trying to survive on land savaged by successive droughts.
Those people, the three million pastoralists of northern Kenya, whose way of life has sustained them for thousands of years, now face eradication, according to research commissioned by the charity Christian Aid

(Resource : http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=ca&ie=UTF-8&q=extinction)

Kim Jin ah

Rare species on fast track to extinction
When the railway opened, critics warned that it would hasten the cultural destruction of Tibet by making it more accessible to Han Chinese settlers. They did not foresee the threat it would pose to some of the world's most endangered species.
Many of Beijing's new rich have developed a taste for exotic animal hides to adorn their homes. Now, thanks to fast rail access to the distant Himalayan wilderness, they are easier to obtain, as are rare plants that are sought after for herbal medicine.

"It is horrific to learn that this train is speeding up the extinction of these magnificent animals and other endangered species. It is up to the Chinese Government to educate its citizens that buying such furs and plant medicines has irreversible consequences."

(Resource : http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rare-species-on-fast-track-to-extinction/2006/10/22/1161455611241.html)

Kim Jin ah

Treasured Trash:
Tokyo Designer’s Week 2006


This year’s Tokyo Design Week DesignTide, which is held November 1-5, claims its main theme as "Design & Peace", a particularly relevant and timely theme in Northern Asia right now. DesignTide’s main site has three exhibitions: Tide Exhibition of 53 designers presenting their interpretation of Design & Peace, Tide Market where designers sell their products and Treasured Trash, where 22 designers show what can be done with what is normally thrown away.

"Reflecting the times and the environment in which we live, it functions as a recycling station with innovative ideas for the possible brighter future.”

With this goal, Treasured Trash, a condensed program exhibition, aims at transmitting a long-term practical creation, not just producing a cool design like we used to.


A 1.5 meter wide Tide Chandelier made of plastic debris from artist-designer Stuart Haygarth.

“The original Tide chandelier is ... based on the collection of ' man made' debris washed up on ... Kent coastline...The material collected is sorted and categorized and several individual pieces of work were produced.”

Jin Yanni

Resources:
http://mocoloco.com/archives/003331.php#more
http://mocoloco.com/archives/003332.php#more
http://www.designtide.jp/06/en/

Hybrid Living: Selling Green Lifestyle to the Lexus Crowd


If you want to see how to make "eco-design-lifestyle" sexy and aspirational, have a look at Lexus's gorgeous website "hybrid living". It "explores new ideas of how we can experience our lives in such a way that minimizes our impact on the earth without sacrificing comfort and luxury" with the emphasis on luxury.
Evidently if you drive a Lexus hybrid, you will want to live in Steve Glenn's Living Home, and you will want to tour San Francisco, LA and New York, dining in fine vegetarian restaurants and going to organic spas. The green lifestyle never looked so good. Nor expensive.

Jin Yanni

(Resource:　http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/hybrid_living_s_1.php)

Technology Course


One aspect that makes this photo eye-catching is the lovely layout and plant diversity -- much more appealing than the usual green roof monoculture found in North America. Who's behind the mystery roof? Did architects and engineers suddenly get into plants? Nope, this is in the Horticulture Department in Penn State University.
Here's an excerpt from the course syllabus for Penn State's course EcoRoof Technology: "The course objective will be to examine the fundamentals of green roofs their origins, installation, maintenance, and relationship with other green building technologies. Their use in stormwater mitigation as well as their ancillary benefits will be discussed. Practicum periods will be hands-on, with field trips to local green roofs as well as the installation of a green roof on a small building".
Get a look at some student "hands on" below.

Students propagating plants for a green roof project.

Resource:　http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/center_for_gree.php

Jin Yanni

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things.

Cradle-to-Cradle is a new housing competition aims at turning ideas of sustainability into reality. Designs of C2C will lead to actual construction with the goal of achieving the new standards of sustainability set up in Cradle to Cradle: Remarking the Way we Make Things.
The honor of the first cradle-to-cradle house is given to the architects from a Seattle-based team led by Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum who are passed over in favor of a design that would be more economically viable.
"The result is a house that conjures images of mom and apple pie, backyard barbecues and front porch swings. There is nothing about this house that says 'gray water treatment happens here'" says the author Allison Milionis, and that's exactly the point, according to Gregg Lewis, the C2C Home organizer "We want to show that a green home doesn't need to cost more or look different from its neighbors," he says in the article.
For more about the C2C competition: http://www.c2c-home.org/#

Jin Yanni

(Resource: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/first_cradletoc.php)

EU Governments threatened with Legal Action over Climate Change Plans

According to the Associate Press, 15 EU nations are facing potential punishment for not being able to submit their environment plans.
The European Commission threatened its 15 member states with legal action recently if they do not provide full information on plans to reduce pollution emissions.
All 25 EU nations must get their greenhouse gas reduction statistics into the EU's head office for approval but 15 states including France, Germany, Italy and Spain have given only partial information on pollution plans.
The European Commission said it sent warning letters to these nations, urging them to inform the EU of its environmental measures and to explain why they missed a June deadline. The EU head office warned it would take them to the EU high court, where they could face fines for failure to implement the climate change law.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said reporting the plans is a "crucial part" of fighting climate change.

Jin Yanni

(Resource: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11426)

Greater Diversity of Life in Tropics


In past centuries explorers found that the further you go from the tropics, the fewer different kinds of life there are. The question became, is it because more species originated in the tropics or because older ones can persist there longer?
A team of paleontologists who studied a large group marine animal recently gave the answer: it’s both.
About three-quarters of today’s types of these creatures originated in tropics and spread toward the poles, while only one-quarter originated at higher latitudes.
As they traced the marine animals back in time, the researchers found that only 30 varieties had lived in tropics went extinct in past 11 million years, while 107 outside the tropics died out.
“The tropics are the engine for global biodiversity,” said co-author Kaustuv Roy. “What this means is that human-caused extinction in tropics will eventually start to affect the biological diversity in the temperate and high latitudes.”

Jin Yanni

(Resource: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11396)

Eco Expo Asia @ Hong Kong
27 - 30 October 2006


Companies from Hong Kong and all over the world are due to exhibit at Eco Expo Asia, Hong Kong's first environmental protection trade fair.
Issues on environmental systems and technologies will be discussed during the three-day Expo which will be divided into three main areas of Green World, Green Enterprise and Green Living.
Organizations exhibiting from 19 countries and regions such as Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, the UK and the US will exhibit wide range of products and services including solar heating, recycled stationery, composting techniques, biodegradable food packaging, biochemical oil, air purifiers, waste water treatments, solid waste solutions etc.
Eco Expo Asia will run from 27 - 30 October 2006 at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong.

Jin Yanni

(Resource: http://earthhopenetwork.net/News.htm)

There's No Such Thing As Eco-Tourism

You pack up your baggage, take off on the plane, get abroad and begin the trip in mysterious unknown countries and come back bearing photos of sharks and storms and sunflowers bigger than your head. "Man, it was great." maybe you say.

But here, Anneli Rufus, who’s an author for several books, tells us stop these kind of "eco-tourism" or "adventure travel". These planes transporting 207 million of us to giant-flowerland are causing global warming, Anneli says. Carbon emissions from aircraft into the higher atmosphere are thrice as potent as those rising from ground level. "We would need to ration the carbon dioxide produced by traveling to an allowance of no more than half a ton a year for every human being alive today." That translates to 1,000 kilometers by car a year with a round-trip international flight once every 15 years.

And as a result of the tourism boom and globalization there's "nowhere left to go," Anneli says, because "tourism has made the planet into a uniform spectacle".

(Resource: http://www.alternet.org/story/40174/)

Jin Yanni

A New Bird Species Is Confirmed in India
A new bird species has been found in India, the first such discovery here in more than 50 years.

The multicolored bird, Liocichla bugunorum, was named after the Bugun tribe which lives in the area by Ramana Athreya, who first spotted the bird in May. The bird has a black cap, a bright yellow patch around the eyes and yellow, crimson, black and white patches on the wings.

“We thought the bird was just too rare for one to be killed,” Mr. Athreya said to the New York Times. “With today’s modern technology, we could gather all the information we needed to confirm it as a new species. We took feathers and photographs and recorded the bird’s songs.”

Though the bird was discovered in May, the news was kept under wraps until the bird was confirmed as a new species. Mr. Athreya said he first spotted the bird in 1995, “but it was only this year I had a sufficiently good look that we could move into the matter.”

Jin Yanni

(Resource: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/science/13bird.html?ref=environment)

NASA Scientists See New Signs of Global Warming
Scientists have long suspected that the recent melting of Arctic Ocean ice in the summer might be a result of heat-trapping gases. But recently NASA scientists reported that higher temperatures and a retreat of the sea ice over the last two winters offered new evidence that the gases were influencing the region’s climate, according to the New York Times.

While the summer melting could be a result of a number of phenomena like the flow of warm water, the scientists said, the reduction of winter ice two seasons in a row is harder to find an explanation other than the human-caused warming.
In the past two winters, the peak of sea ice growth in the Arctic has been 6 percent below the average peak since the satellite observations began. Some Arctic experts say the most open water in the Arctic in a century probably happened last year.

Jin Yanni

(Resource: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/science/earth/14climate.html?_r=1&ref=environment&oref=slogin

School of the Future

A paperless environment; high-tech tools to support hands-on instruction; and a sustainable architecture designed to save thousands of dollars in energy costs—with all these innovations, the School of the Future in Philadelphia opened its doors to students on September 7th.

Technology is integrated into every aspect of the school building design, aiding the building upkeep and energy consumption. The school building, which is described as “smart, smart, smart” works in several ways to cut down cost. A water "catchment" system stores and reuses rainwater while a solar energy system makes use of sunlight, and a unique cooling system stores air on cool days and reuses it during warmer ones.

Concerned that continuing instability in the Middle East may lead to escalating increases in oil price, many schools are actively searching for sustainable solutions. The School of the Future has set a good example for them.

Jin Yanni

(Resources:
http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6579
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5922)

Garbage into Electricity

According to the AP, a company in Florida has a grand plan to generate electricity by vaporizing garbage. Geoplasma, a sister company of Jacoby Development Inc, says the $425million plasma arc gasification facility in St.Lucie County will be the first in the nation and the largest in the world.

While trash to power is not a new idea, supporters say the process is cleaner than traditional trash incineration. The facility, which is expected to be operational in two years, will generate heat hotter than part of sun's surface and will gasify and melt garbage by using high pressure air to form plasma. It's a process similar to how lightning is formed in nature.

The 100,000-square-foot plant is planned to vaporize 3,000 tons of garbage a day. County officials estimate their entire landfill of 4.3 million tons of trash will be gone in 18 years.

"It addresses two of the world's largest problems -- how to deal with solid waste and the energy needs of our communities," an official said. "This is the end of the rainbow. It will change the world."

Jin Yanni

(Resource: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/10/ap/tech/mainD8K1N66O2.shtml)

Baby Boom for World’s Rarest Rhinos
According to the BBC, scientists have found indications that four new Javan rhinos were born recently in Indonesia. The discovery in Java's Ujong Kulon National Park has raised hopes for the survival of the rarest of the rhino species and one of the rarest mammals in the world.
Park officials were first alerted to the new-born rhinos by tracks made by a mother and calf - a set of small footprints alongside larger ones. In the following days, they found two more such tracks - too far away from each other to be made by the same family. Then, in another location, they spotted a fourth calf alongside its mother.
A WWF manager at the park described it as a remarkable achievement for conservation.
Since 1970 the world's rhino population has declined by 90 percent (WWF). Poaching and habitat loss has reduced the total world rhino population to under 18,000 individuals today. According to the AfRSG & the IUCN, there are currently roughly 60 Javan rhinos.

Jin Yanni

(resource:
article, photo2: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5305906.stm
photo1: http://www.1770.co.uk/rhinoclimb/index.html)

Paying to Pollute
According to the New York Times, you can atone for the environmental sin of spewing heat–trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when driving. New York drivers are turning to groups on the Internet that offer pain-free ways by paying for the pollution.

There, you can buy a carbon offset in one of these Web sites. The money collected is used to help fund the production of clean electricity. Just go to one of several carbon-offset Web sites, for example www.terrapass.com, calculate the amount of carbon dioxide produced when you drive, and then buy an offset that pays for an equivalent amount of clean energy.

Compared to the old-fashioned ways of being green---driving less, turning off air-conditioners and etc---paying for the pollution decreases the sacrifice. Though it is not clear whether the system works, at least these environmentalists are spreading the ideal of “being green” in a new way.

Jin Yanni

[Ed: Unfortunately, you need to subscribe to New York Times to access the article. The good news is that subscription is free.]

Yum-yum! Delicious Architecture.
Remember the magic house made of cookies in “HANSEL AND GRETEL”? Well, we invite you to that fantastic world now.

South Koreans are enjoying this summer with “yummy” architectures in the “Yum-yum! Delicious Architecture” exhibition which is held from 22nd July to 20th August in Sejong Art Museum. 60,000 boxes of crackers are now reborn as the famous Chung-gie River with traditional Korean houses and the royal palace. 13 architectural students and lecturers of Kewon University contributed to the surprising work.

The exhibition also runs a workshop in which children can make cookie houses themselves. [The original text is in Korean but you can get a Google translation here.]

Jin Yanni

The aesthetics of recycling?
Is a new aesthetic awaiting us as we venture into the world of environmentalism? The artwork of Christine Tarkowski seems to suggest so. US born Ms Tarkowski admits to being influenced by Russian Constructivism. Quote:

"With the Constructivists, you had fine art artists getting involved in industrial design, integrating politics, decoration, and utility. It's like wearing your politics, your art, on your teacup. Decorative propaganda arts within industrial goods."

Pity it is all screenprint wallpaper. On the other hand, why not? It is probably cheaper and less environmentally destructive (the actual materials can probably be recycled for more useful purposes). The days of using recycled materials for anything handy are numbered, as they should be. In any case, truthful expression of materials is so yesterday.

ongboonlay

Earth Day in Singapore 2006
According to the Earth Day 2006 calendar, Singapore is marking Earth Day 2006 with a close-up of avian influenza, otherwise known as bird-flu. Somewhat sobering, eh? But perhaps appropriate.

But all is not lost. There is also an Earth Day picnic with the Nature Society at the Botanic Gardens. Actually, they began marking earth day since 12 March. Good on them. The Substation, Singapore's first and most beloved independent contemporary arts centre, is celebrating Earth Day for the Asian elephants. If you are driving, you can have your car cleaned the eco-friendly way at $8 per car whilst you're attending the talk and proceeds go to "Friends of the Asian Elephant" - to quote Wild Singapore. Go visit the website for the lowdown.

Of wind turbines and birds
From Gizmodo: quietrevolution's elegant vertical-axis wind turbine is, as its name suggests, quiet but can be made avante-garde with the help of LEDs. A bit of programing and you have images, perhaps even moving ones. Sorry, but ecodes is into peace and quiet...and this applies to the other senses as well as the ears.

And then there's this: Magenn Power supplies an inflatable turbine based on the magnus effect. Among other claims - more efficient, cheaper, lada, lada, lada - it is supposed to be safer for the birds.

Talking about which, if you are worried about wind turbines and birds, you can get the lowdown at treehugger. The short of it is: "small blades, low surface area, lots of dead birds possible; very big blades, with large surface area exposed to wind, very few dead birds." Go read it yourself.