Tutorial: Sustainable Future

The frameworks outlined in the How to Measure Sustainability lecture, where the identification of a fundamental principle, sub-principles and pattern/s aid in the generation of holistic design outcomes, was utilised by our group to start a discussion on the sustainability issues for the key future scenario formed last week.  Having chosen the Suburban theme, and therefore Paddington Central and the future of retail becoming our focus, we decided to look into the physical demands of the virtual world on the real world, and how we could more efficiently and effectively design for this. The following diagrams and figures aim to show our process over the duration of the tutorial.

Above brainstorming identified key principles

A Pattern was formed

Modern application of Pattern

Future application of New Pattern

Possible Design Outcome 1

Possible Design Outcome 2

As you can hopefully see from the above diagramming, the pattern of the modern shopping centre changed when we increased number and in-turn proximity of centres or Hubs as we now would like to call them, which resulted in the change of use of the parking areas and centre itself. What exactly these spaces will now look like in the year 2040 we haven't discussed yet, but two outcomes outlined above are two possible directions in which this project could continue.

The overall aim derived from this process, for our project, outlined the need for a paradigm shift in the way people think about and see Urban Sprawl. If we can implement 'something' now to enhance this issue, then there is no reason that Urban Sprawl can't be a very positive thing-resulting in Local Living, Cultural Hubs and the formation of rich Community Identities.

Reading Response: Urban Form and Locality

Since this article was written there has been a significant focus on sustainability when it comes to planning strategies of the built environment. Alot of the ideas put forth and discussed aren't new ot me, as DAB610 and previous Regional and Town Planning experience has made me quite aware of these ideas and discourse.

The paper evaluates current and future urban form with regard to:

• Dispersal and Concentration (towns vs cities)
• Segregation and Mixed-Use (placement and distribution of industry and commerce)
• Settlement Density (low vs high)
• Shape (depending on transport emphasis and types)

When weighing up the benefits of the dispersal of built form, it was highlighted that more and more people want to live in areas designated as 'sprawl'. Although this article is in reference to a Europian setting, I think this point is relevant to current residential trends in South East Queensland (SEQ). It is my belief however, that this is un-sustainable in its current form in SEQ, as we will eventually reach a point when our land, resources and natural environment can't take anymore strain.

I found the point that small, childless households are becoming more prominant (in Europe) quite interesting, and it got me thinking about the possible ramifications for the built environment. Alot like the movie "Children of Men" starring Clive Owen and Jodie Foster where the human race has become infertile and face eventual and certain extinction, however I believe it would offer more opportunity to evaluate this film from a design perspective.

I would have to say that the one part of this paper that really resonated with me would have to be the following quote. I just feel that it is an all-encompassing justification for action and for 'greenification' strategies to be put in place NOW, not in 5, 10, 15 years, but NOW!!

"Why should we green the cities? Because man needs beauty: he needs nature, trees, greenery, birds, squirrels, the changing of the seasons, the links to the soil. Because we need space for leisure, to recreate mind and soul, to run, play, fish, cycle, relax and socialise. Becuase the green can be productive of food, of timber, of energy, of pure water, of benign microclimates."

Reading Response to 'A History of Greenwashing: How Dirty Towels Impacted the Green Movement'

This article has some good and bad points. I found the information regarding the origin of the term "Green" quite interesting, and totally agree with the opinion that people's buying habits are affected by the environmental repuation of the companies they buy from. The article's downfall however came right at the end when the author goes on a little rant along the lines of "...annoying, sanctimonious hotel cards. They're taking credit for reducing their laundry bills." That may be how he sees it (a very negative point of view), but these hotels are in fact saving millions of gallons of water, so I see it as a Win Win situation. The hotel saves money on laundry and conserves water at the same time, just by allowing the occupant of the room to make a simple choice...a Green choice.

I also believe that companies and corporations can call their environmental initiatives whatever they choose, or use "Green" as much as they like, as long as they are actually doing what they say they're doing. Who cares what they call it! Something positive is being done and we should all be reasonably satisfied with that, not whining about what they've coined it.

Ideas so far

Idea #1: As cities have minimal to no space for food production and green spaces in the future, a 'Green Plane' cutting through the city at a certain altitude allows for a whole new horizontal plane of cultivation and recreational use. It would require 'Light Holes' to allow the penetration of light and air-flow to the spaces below.

Horizontal Plane Green Field



Idea #2: Brisbane - The Concrete Jungle 2050?

The following brainstorming conveys South East Queensland over the years from now through to the year 2050, and the possible and highly probable conflict of our built and natural environments.

As can be seen by the image above, due to increased population growth and immigration, the rapid expansion of our built environment results in:

• Urban sprawl extending into what is now 'Suburbia'
• Suburban sprawl extending into what is now 'Regional Areas'
• and Regional Areas are now pushed out even further away from CBD and surround Urban epicentre on its entire western side.

Possible extents of sprawl in 2030 (before it joins the Gold and Sunshine Coasts)



This rapid expansion would result in:

• The loss of backyards in Urban and Suburban areas as land is at a premium.
• Parkland becoming rare and highly sort after, causing conflict and fighting.
• The Urban areas and CBD becoming far more vertical with advances in technology
• The natural habitats of native species (both flora and fauna)  being destroyed and pushed back beyond the Regional boundary
• Heavy strain on Regional areas to produce enough food and livestock for growing population (unsuccessfully)
• The massive extinction of native species

I have devised a possible solution to this scenario, however would like to research and develop further until I post it for all to see.

Tutorial Activity: Future Scenarios

In a group of four, we discussed the many opportunities and constraints associated with each of the scenarios put forth for the four themes of Urban, Suburban, Regional and Virtual. The results are in a brainstorming format as follows:

Urban - Car Free CBD in 2020

• CBD lacks infrastructure (Public Transport capabilities) at the moment, therefore this would come into consideration
• Buses, trains, trams, taxis, bus-trams, and private cars would occupy City
• Would allow for change of speed limit, pedestrian oriented City
• Would need Diversion paths (pedestrian) which encourages pop-up retail, elevated walk-ways and increased surface area of built-form and porosity of City
• Less cars = less lanes needed = free up space in streets = opportunities for recreational areas, communtiy gardens etc in excess lanes
• What would happen to exisiting parking spaces? Could use as transport hubs, markets, flexible spaces or fun areas

All in all, we believed that the Congestion Charge would free-up space in the City for recreational areas and a more pedestrian friendly built environment.

Suburban - Change of Physical Retail

• Pop-up shops (has novelty of markets) and would be less rent
• Travelling circus kind of retail approach where certain retailers will be in your neighbourhood at certain times of year, and you know when they're coming so you wait and its a bit event
• What was once taken up by one shop, could now have 3 or 4 in the one building which means; more variety, less rent, storage out of CBD
• Consumeables? perhaps a kind of IKEA appraoch where you go in and try already made dishes, find what you like, go to a terminal and select dish, and it prints out the recipe and out pops a package with all the ingredients. You could shop on budget or on quantity, and this would require less floor space, which would mean more room 'out-back' for packaging service. Would most definitely have a sustainable method of packaging also, either re-usable or bio-degradable. This idea would stop food wastage and land-fill.
• A restaurant and supermarket combination in the one building

Regional - Self-sufficient community

• Own food, water and energy sources

This was as far as we got with this topic, as it raised more questions than answers we could give. It is such a huge topic that involves; governmental, political, environmental, societal, economical and technological factors that we couldn't address it appropriately in such a short space of time.

Virual - use to solve issues of previous themes

• Use internet to create user profiles, and tailor specific advertising and products to each individual (think this already happens)
• Servers used for computers everywhere can produce more money for a company than a person can per m2, therefore why not harness the heat energy from these servers?
• There is a need to design buildings and frameworks for servers, as they currently are not designed for and therefore do not run at peak efficiency
• We could re-model the Carbon Tax to crack the aforementioned 'individual profiles' and online purchasing information and Tax individuals according to the Carbon Footprint of each individual's purchases.
• Possibilities of teleportation (need to brainstorm further what it would mean for the built environment)

Second Lecture: Future Visions and Scenarios Response

The small snippets of films shown in this lecture gave us a good understanding of the direction in which we are to take our projects this semester. Metropolis conveyed the underlying theme of a future social structure; Robots of Brixton used imagery and music to show possible future threats and the built environment they play out in, and Open-Source Ecology portrayed the steps taken now by some talented people to ensure that sustainable systems are encouraged and utilised today, in order for us to have even the remotest chance of a sustainable future. The idea proposed in the Open-Source video of creating sustainable technologies and allowing the knowledge to be freely available to the public really resonated with me, and reiforced my faith in humanity.

Metropolis

Robots of Brixton

Open-Source Ecology

 With regard to our tutorial activity this week, four scenarios were put forth for each of the theme groups for our deilberation with regard to the built environment in groups of four. They are as follows and are expounded upon in the next Blog update:

• Urban Theme - London style Congestion Charge to be instituted in Brisbane's CBD in the year 2020
• Suburban Theme - all retail shopping has gone online, but the physical premises have been kept for customer experiences
• Regional Theme - the Woodford Festival site shall become a self-sufficient community
• Virtual Theme - resolve all urban, suburban and regional issues virtually

Image References:

Robots-http://moviesbuzzbackup.c10.in/2012/01/deadlinecom_25.html

Metropolis-http://parallax-view.org/2010/07/25/sfsff-2010-metropolis-restored-and-the-restoration-reconsidered/

Open-http://utopianist.com/2011/05/open-source-ecology-makes-blueprints-for-farm-machines-you-can-build-with-stuff-from-home-depot/

Reading Three: Koerth-Baker

"...bad financial decisions and blueprints for machines that weren't built until decades later. Its the important leaps forward that synthesize lots of ideas, and its the belly-up failures that teach us what not to do." This quote suggests that perhaps this is the true purpose of Archigram's experimental ideology and design responses. Maybe its the uninhibited exposing of every idea that popped into their heads that allows us to see the failures from the successes, and in turn we don't have the same failures all over again because they've already been thought out and exposed for criticism a long time ago. Perhaps it is our job then to look over and question these ideas again and see if they can now be adapted to today or the near future.

Reading Two: Tobias Revell

Absolutely love how it sets the scene and how in-depth and detailed the story is conveyed. The business talk in it goes over my head, however due to the level of detail and accompanying images, you would think it is real.

Reading One: Response

Archigram Seven: Beyond Architecture (Indeterminacy, Systems and the Dissolution of Buildings)

I have seen the term 'indeterminacy' used with regard to the design of built environments and had only a vague inclination as to what it meant and no idea as to who first coined the term. Indeterminacy - 'not a fixed extent or character, vague, left doubtful...open-endedness.' Is this what our project this semester are supposed to encompass? If so, I've found it challenging in the past to design in this way, with no limitations and a vague brief, as I believe constraints are your friends when it comes to design, and I struggle to see the point in designing impractical things with no purpose at the time of conception.

The ideas of 'Nomadic Architetcure' exemplified by the explorartory houses inspired by the lunar module in the 1960s come as no surprise to me as they were a result of the current events that were shaping their contemporary society. Archigram's experimentation with these ideas ie. Living Pod Project (left) by david Green and Underwater Hardware by Warren Chalk are merely a response to the advances in technology and space travel which were prominent issues at the time. A modern-day equivalent can be found in the climatic responsive design (Right) and disaster responsive design that we see today.



It must also be noted that when this text was set, it was also the era of the 'pre-fab', which allowed this type of design. And these notions of 'Kit Architecture' or kit design in general was permeating other areas of design as well, and can be exemplified by the works of industrial designers, Charles and Ray Eames.

The Dymaxion Bathroom by Buckminster Fuller was of particular interest to me, as it is not dissimilar to my 'Interactive House' idea in a previous post.

Archigram's designs and aesthetic remind me of the chaos and strange concepts depicted in Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' (one of my favourite movies and directors). Even the vocabulary used by Archigram and their outlandish (as it was seen as at the time) language is not dissimilar to the language/or the idea of language used in the original novel by Anthony Burgess.

Archigram continually comment on the consumerist society in which they were living, which reminds me of the protesting and passionate political movements inherent to university students. This also comes as no surprise as the 1960s were once again a time of protest, political upheaval and anti-government beliefs. Although I find their ideologies and designs interesting and even pertinent to some of today's issues, it is my opinion that due to the over-zealous consumerism of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and even 90s, the resources required to bring these ideas to life aren't as readily available as they may have been at the designs' conception. So perhaps we need an Archigram 2.0, with the same principles and ideologies to come up with awesome, outlandish ideas for our futures, but with reference and respect to our current and future climatic, environmental an economic conditions? Is that what is being asked of us in DAB810 perhaps? Are we the next Archigram?

Images references in order of appearance:

Pod-http://www.archigram.net/projects_pages/living_pod.html

Green-http://buildexpoonline.com.au/features/

Eames-http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/inspiration-eames-by-gloria-ko-54738

Orange-http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/07/20/a-clockwork-orange-the-musical/

'Future Scenario' Brainstorming

In order to get my creative juices flowing about possible 'Future Scenarios' I first calculated how old I would be in 10 year increments from now, as you can see below:

• 2020 = 31
• 2030 = 41
• 2040 = 51
• 2050 = 61
• 2060 = 71
• 2070 = 81
• 2080 = 91
• 2090 = 101

The dates and ages highlighted in purple are dates that I believe offer the most potential with regard to where I will be in terms of my career, health and family, possible technological advancements and current societal growth and change. It is a strong belief of mine that people not only of our contemporary social and class status (ie. middle to upper class, professional living in Australia) but possibly other less developed countries (at the moment) will live longer in the future due to technological, scientific and medical advancements.

So, at the age of 51 in the year 2040, I could be at retirement age, or merely reaching the peak of my professional career (where I'll have enough experience, however I will still be reasonably young and active of both mind and body). I could have a family and grandchildren, middle to upper class (depending on well my career has been going) and my parents could hopefully still be around (either living independently or in aged care facilities). Thinking about my parents at this time, and also when I'm 91 in 2080, got me thinking about what will happen to the elderly in the future? The cities and even suburbs will be densely populated, so where could we house the elderly and how will they be cared for with regard to possible future technologies? Are they going to be able to adapt? I hope to be able to answer some of these questions in later blogs, if I decide to follow this area up.

After deciding upon the year 2050, it was necessary to start brainstorming with regard to the areas of:

• Climate
• Population
• Politics
• Technology
• Environement

The following images convey the results of this brainstorming session, with summaries included at the end.



 Climate:

• World-wide "Tropical" climate would mean a total re-design of existing built environment, and retro-fitting for adaptation to new climate as there would be a heavy rain season over a long period of time, frequent cyclones, increased humidity and spread of disease, and rainforest environments. A whole new vernacular could be used world-wide.
• Vertical Cities would mean vertical and horizontal movement and therefore no need for cars as travellators, elevators etc could be used instead (electrical too-cut greenhouse emissions), higher densities on less land, protection from elements and a possibly hostile environment. Waste disposal would need some very deep thought though-alot of potential
• Protective Buildings from hostile forces (living or environmental)-shells and barriers.
• Water Storage/Melting Facilities
• Flora and Fauna Preservation Facilities
• Air Purifying Facilities
• Underwater Living and Communities

Population:

• Smaller dwellings-indivual or couple sizes
• Changeability-multiple uses of the one space or building-alot of potential
• Connectivity-infrastructure and access to amenitites
• Promotion and utilisation of other renewable enery sources
• Aged-care Facilties

Politics:

• Nuclear War-protection form and a place to wait out aftermath
• Camouflage-invisible architecture-alot of potential
• Extreme Climates-desert, ice-caps, oceans, volacnoes (need to think about food and water sources)
• Communist Government (positive or negative)
• Environmentalist Government (positive)

Technology:

• Gravity Change-tilt of Earth due to an impact, or living in space
• Interactive Houses/Buildings-alot of potential
• Prisons and Asylums-interesting
• Advances in materials, allowing to build in hostile and previously impossible locations which would combat desnsity issues

Environment:

• Catalogues of Native Species-alot of potential
• Personal Food Production
• Community Gardens (would first need to define what 'Future' community would look like)
• "Noah's Ark"
• Relocation of certain communities and nations (to provide habitat for fauna)

I need to await for further direction as to what this project requires before distilling these ideas further.