Bamboo House by Elora Hardy

This semester, one of the studio choices was the "Outpost of Cambodia". A project requiring accommodation for the volunteers staying in Cambodia for a short period of time and helping locals building their houses.
One of the main purpose of this project was sustainability.
How do we build a proper house in the tropical climate, that could sustain itself and be functioning without electricity.

One of the first interesting ideas we were given by our tutors was the use of sustainable materials.
Mostly because it is a real life project, you could imagine people do not use concrete or bricks to build their houses in Cambodia. It has to be light weight construction, well cross-ventilated, elevated above the ground for the flood prone areas etc. What everybody came up with at first was the timber construction. Wood is one of our few renewable sources and is easy to build form.

But then we were introduced to the bamboo construction. With the example of the Green School in Bali.
All of us were amazed by the qualities of bamboo! It grows very fast, has a tensile strength of steel and the compression strength of concrete, it is very light weight and durable.

Here is an interesting video about a woman who has built a house made of bamboo in Bali

https://www.ted.com/talks/elora_hardy_magical_houses_made_of_bamboo#t-162829

According to Elora, bamboo is arguably the most sustainable building material available. People in South east Asia have been building with it through out their history. The technology has actually been adopted from the a long time ago. The only reason it hasn't really been used until recently is the inability to protect bamboo from insects.
With all its amazing construction qualities it can be eaten to dust it no time. And due to the climate features and cultural necessities, impermanence of the buildings wasnt an issue. But now, as we adopted that technology and learned how to treat Bamboo from being eaten by insects it can change the way we think about construction and build forever.

The challenge of building with bamboo is in its form. It is a hollow, curved pole, each one different from another, no two bamboo poles are the same. It requires a lot of attention to structural design and also a fair bit of creativity.

This examples show just how we can design without ruining our environment.

Electric cars take the fast lane

Electric cars are widely popular in Europe. Unfortunately Australia is a little bit behind on that trend
But one of the problems with the electric cars is that people do not consider them strong or fast enough.
Electric cars have a poor image of being slow, inefficient, but, yes, sustainable and eco-friendly.

However, this perception might change.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130131-electric-cars-enter-the-fast-lane

There is now a new initiative, taking electric cars to a whole new level.  Formula E holdings came up with the initiative to create electric car races.

The developers believe that showing people the roaring fast performance of a car that is 100% eco-friendly will change their attitude towards electric cars. The cars are designed to reach the speed of 320km/h

The challenge of this initiative is in the battery restrictions. In order to keep the weight of the car to a minimum, the battery is not capable of holding the power for a full 60-minute race. So the plan is that at the pit stops, instead of the mechanical adjustments the driver will switch cars.

The CEO of Formula E Holdings is convinced that the future of our cities lies in electric powered motors. The company promotes clean mobility and sustainability.

Potato power

We know that food gives us energy. It provides us with vital elements to sustain our life. But what of a simple potato could charge your laptop as well?

Researcher Rabinowitch has been working on the "potato power" theory for the past few years.
According to his research a single potato could power a room with and LED lighting for 40 days!

The idea behind the research is fairly simple. As the basic concept of battery works, in order to produce energy from an organic object, one needs two metals positively and negatively charged, like zinc and copper. The acid inside the object forms a chemical reaction which is then transmitted into an electric reaction between the metals.

The energy produced by potatoes is a very low voltage but it is enough to charge a laptop or a phone.The cost of this kind of energy is estimated at 9$ per kilowatt per hour, which, compared to a simple AA cell (49-84$) is fairly cheap.

However, there are certain limitation to the use of potato power. UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. states that using food for energy must avoid depleting food stocks and competing with farmers. In some countries, like Sri-Lanka potatoes are rare and expensive. But local scientist came up with the solution of using the stems.

Moreover, the image of a potato as a source of energy may not be suitable for consumers.
We would still want to eat our potatoes rather then charge laptops with it. The image of using a cheap source of energy like potato may not find its way to the market.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131112-potato-power-to-light-the-world

We can fix the Great Barrier Reef

There has been a lot of attention around one of Australia's most beautiful nature wonders - The Great Barrier Reef. The state of the reef is shocking. The pollution and destruction are causing people to question whether it is going to last or not?

I have heard a lot of theories about how it is too late too do anything and the Great Barrier Reef has already reached its state, where the degradation is unstoppable.

But here is an uplifting article on how the scientists state they can restore the state of the Reef, with the implementation of better environment focusing on science protection and conservation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150406121017.htm

In 2014 Australian government report has described the state of The Great Barrier Reef as "poor and expected to further deteriorate in the future." It has lost more than half of its coral cover in the past 40 years. Mainly this degradation is caused by over-fishing, pollution, coastal development, tourism and now by climate change.

All of the above mentioned stresses need to be reduced in order to save the Reef.
 
Jon Brodie from the Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystems Research at JCU states that
using scientific knowledge will help to prevent further damage. Also, giving the Reef some breathing space would allow it to recover. That would mean the necessary change in the normal Reef use and operation.

The scientists have outlined a six-point plan they believe will restore the Great Barrier Reef, including;

1. A return to the former emphasis on conservation and protection of the Great Barrier Reef.
2. Australia taking a lead role in tackling climate change by transitioning away from fossil fuels.
3. Permanent legislative bans on dumping both capital and maintenance dredge spoil within the World Heritage area.
4. An overhaul of the environmental impact assessment process for new developments
5. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) reinstated as the agency responsible for all aspects of the Great Barrier Reef, including fishing and ports.
6. A 50-year plan and adequate funding for the use of the catchment designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and agricultural run off.

Population could outpace water by mid-century

Population growth is a hot issue in all aspect of our lives.
Are there enough resources to support our lives in the future?
Are we over-consuming non-renewable sources and destroying our environment so that the future generations will struggle to live safely?

The question of water supply is probably one of the most important one.
The researches have often stated that the shortage of water will affect our future generations if no action is taken.
In the following article, scientists came up with the mathematical equation to analyse existing data and project the future outcomes.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150323182518.htm

What they came up with is quite interesting.
the model of the equation they used is similar to those, used to predict earthquakes and stock boosts and falls. The basic idea behind that model is that through analysing the fluctuations we can predict the next rise or fall.

The Outcome is that following the times when the water shortages were critical, comes a time for innovative and new ideas to ease it up and resolve the problem.
The next phase of change is most likely to start by the mid-21st century.

There is no clear knowledge on what it will be, it might be some strategy for gradual change in water supply and consumption, or some sort of an innovative technology for new sources of water.

The population growth will rise from current 7 billion people to 9.6 billion by 2050
Current methods of water recycling, like water desalination and etc. will most likely be taken to the next level and advanced in a way to avoid water shortage.

Harvesting the sun

The solar power plant in south Spain is a perfect location for research on how to collect and store the solar energy and test new technologies, with the 12hrs/day sun exposure.

The company is trying to solve one of the most important problem - storing the sun’s energy.

The parabolic shaped panels, capture the sun and reflect the heat onto the tube running across the panels. The tube is filled with oil, that gets very hot and then is transferred to the central block, releasing steam. But what is more interesting than the way the energy is collected, is the way it is stored. Part of the oil is used to give the heat to molten salts, and these salts store the heat, which is released later.

The basic explanation is that the company came up with the salt based battery to store the solar energy collected during the day, and release it closer to night-time, when the peak of energy consumption happens.

Another technology used is also involving the salt, but in liquid form, running through a tower, which receives the heat from the panels. The salt is then stored in the huge container until used later on.

Clean up the skies

We are all more or less familiar with the waste management systems. What happens with the garbage, where does it go etc.

What happens when people litter? The pieces of garbage are lying around on the ground until they are (hopefully) being picked up and taken to garbage area. We all know how nasty littered areas can be.

But have you ever thought about the space waste? What happens in the sky? There is no one to clean up the mess. 

Space junk creates risks and can cause serious damages to spaceships and satellites.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120518-danger-space-junk-alert

Surprisingly according to NASA an object as small as a baseball can be potentially threatening to the space stations.

Currently, the US Air force space command is tracking around 22000 man made pieces of junk in space. And thats only those, bigger than 10cm in diameter.

 At first, when people thought of threats of hitting objects out in space they would think about asteroids and comets. But nowadays, with the advanced development of satellite systems, the collision of satellites has been unavoidable and the pieces of remains are flying around freely, causing a snowball effect.

Kessler, a former Nasa scientist, has developed a theory that from 1966 to 1976 the amount of space junk was increasing by 13% each year!
Last year a US National Research Council study has figured out that current orbital waste has reached a ‘tipping point’ and there are more frequent collisions and spacecraft failures are more likely to happen.

Last year scientists came up with the idea for CleanSpace One.
It is a spacecraft intended to collect the junk in clusters. It will have up to eight arms that can wrap around pieces of debris.

Legally, every space objects/satellites are sovereign objects that belong to the countries that launched them. But formally, the law is not followed.
While the legal issues are still havent been sorted, the threat continues to grow.