http://www.driversofchange.com/projects/the-ecco-model.php
(video)
You've seen the movie; trawled the web sites; shopped around for that green lifestyle. Like me, do you wonder if we can build enough of this green technology to keep up with economic growth and reduce our voracious appetite for fossil fuels? Alternatively, how can our society can get off the growth tread mill without wholesale collapse of our economy?
Through simple drawings, I explain how its possible to "count up" all our stuff (physical assets) using embodied energy. This is the first step to building a physically based model of an economy. I go onto apply such a model to a scenario for the UK to 2025. Finally I test my scenario against objectives for jobs, national energy security, balance of payments, consumer welfare and CO2 reductions. The scenario scores well! Have you got a scenario you would like tested in this way?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Thesis Abstract as of Dec 15th, 2009
We are now living at yield point of an Age of massive change in all aspects of the globe, in which we are becoming increasingly sensitive to our symbiotic relationship with the environment and the impact that we have on the vulnerability of the earth. This thesis will focus on the reutilization of waste as a byproduct of consumerism and how it is linked to the cultural and economic growth of society, in parallel with several systems, such as oil, environment, global warming, cultural impact, obsolescence, morale, politics, materiality, urban fabric, and cities. Where the thermodynamics of these systems integrate into an ecosystem that is constantly in pursuit of equilibrium and imparts an infrastructural framework on how we should approach these topics simultaneously in the near future. Where the notion of waste will begin to shift from something that is rejected into something that is accepted. I will focus on the diversity of waste as a material. As much of the waste we produce can be broken down into elements that are similar to the materiality that is already in existence in the field of architecture.
This thesis is partly written as a narrative that will run parallel with the research topic to allow for play and a sense of urgency, a strategy that enables all types of people and generations to act empathetically. In a dystopian setting positioned in the future of 2050 and based on the scenario of oil depletion. Where oil depletion and climate change leads to disastrous outcomes for Manhattan Island, at a time when negative political upheavals correlate an impoverished ecosystem, repressed by fear, famine, and idleness. At this time, heaps of waste will be left idle in the city as transportation by any means become obsolete. This will become an important and colossal issue to address, as there will be many implications that will affect the wellbeing of the city—health, lifestyle, infrastructure, and pollution. The intervention this thesis proposes is one that takes into account all the interconnecting global issues in year 2050 and seeks to reutilize garbage in a creatively articulate way so that harvesting natural energy, creating flood barriers against climate change become possible, at the same time remediating pollution, and reducing waste on the island
This thesis is partly written as a narrative that will run parallel with the research topic to allow for play and a sense of urgency, a strategy that enables all types of people and generations to act empathetically. In a dystopian setting positioned in the future of 2050 and based on the scenario of oil depletion. Where oil depletion and climate change leads to disastrous outcomes for Manhattan Island, at a time when negative political upheavals correlate an impoverished ecosystem, repressed by fear, famine, and idleness. At this time, heaps of waste will be left idle in the city as transportation by any means become obsolete. This will become an important and colossal issue to address, as there will be many implications that will affect the wellbeing of the city—health, lifestyle, infrastructure, and pollution. The intervention this thesis proposes is one that takes into account all the interconnecting global issues in year 2050 and seeks to reutilize garbage in a creatively articulate way so that harvesting natural energy, creating flood barriers against climate change become possible, at the same time remediating pollution, and reducing waste on the island
a brief description of how landfills + constructed wetland work:
Landfill:
About 32.5% of the trash is either recycled or composted, 12.5% is burned, and the rest, 55% is buried in landfills, however, the amount of trash buried in landfills has doubled since 1960.
What landfills generally are is a carefully designed structure built into or on top of the ground where garbage is then isolated from it's surrounding environments. The most common method is the used of a bottom liner and then daily coverings of soil to prevent flying garbage or raiding of pests, but because space is a precious commodity, many companies are now experimenting with tarps or spray on paper or cement emulsions.
There are generally 2 common types of liner, the sanitary landfill uses a clay liner and the municipal solid waste landfill uses a synthetic or plastic liner to isolate garbage from the environment. The purpose of the liner is to isolate it from groundwater so that the contents above will be kept drive and not in contact with air. Under these conditions, the decomposition process will slow, almost preserving the waste.
General overview:
A: Recycling Centres
B: Scale House
C: Access roads
D: Sanitary Landfill-
Closed
E: Municipal Solid
Waste Landfill
F: New Cell Prep
Area
G: Cell Being Filled
H: Storm Drainage
Collection
I: Leachate
Collection Pond
J: Methane Vent
K: Methane Piper
L: Methane Station
M: Monitoring Pipe
N: Run-off Collection
Basin
O: Storm Water
Drainage Basin
P: Storm Water Pipe
Q: To City Water
Treatment
A: Groundwater
B: Compacted Clay
C: Plastic Liner
D: Leachate Collection Pipe
E: Geotextile Mat
F: Gravel
G: Drainage Layer
H: Soil Layer
I: Oil Cells
J: New Cells
K: Leachate Pond
The cross-section drawing shows the structure of a typical municipal solid waste landfill and the arrows indicate the flow of leachate.
The basic parts of this system are:
- C - bottom liner that separates leachate from groundwater
- I + J - cells, both old and new where garbage is stored within the landfill
- D - Leachate collection system that collects water that has percolated through the landfill
- Storm water drainage that collects rainwater
- Methane collection system that collects the gas that is formed during the breakdown process.
- and lastly, the covering or cap that seals off the top of the landfill.
Storm water drainage that collects rainwater
Leachate pond that collects contaminants
The Leachate pond is then tested for chemicals: organic chemicals, pH, calcium, magnesium, iron, sulfate and chloride, are just some common chemicals they test for. After the testing, the water can be treated like any other sewage or wastewater and can happen insitu or exsitu. A method to reduce the volume of leachate water can be to recirculate it, making it more concentrated, but this poses a problem with the increase in concentration and possibly contamination.
It is also important to implement a methane collection system to collect the anaerobic byproducts, which is methane gas, during the natural landfill break down process in absence of oxygen. The reason for this is to prevent methane from exploding or burning, therefore a series of pipes embedded in the landfill is used to collect this gas, and in some cases, it is collected for natural energy, burned, or vented. Methane gas would then still be produced for a number of years after the landfill is capped, making it an ideal way of generating renewable energy.
The capping process is the last portion of the landfill where it will be covered permanently with a polyethylene cap and then 2 feet of compacted soil. Vegetation is then planted to prevent erosion and generally consists of shallow penetrating root type plants, such as kudzu and grass.
Constructed Wetland:
In my thesis, the constructed wetland acts as the leachate pond where the leachates will drain into the wetland for remediation.
Constructed wetlands are wastewater treatment systems composed of one or more treatment cells in a built and partially controlled environment. There are generally two types of wetlands, free water surface and vegetated submerged bed. For the wetland portion of the project, the thesis will utilize the free water surface method. Where free water surface constructed wetlands closely resemble natural wetlands in appearance and function, with a combination of open-water areas, emergent vegetation, varying water depth, and other typical wetland features. The components of this system include berms to enclose treatment cells, inlet structure that regulate and distribute influent wastewater evenly for optimum treatment, various combinations of open-water areas and fully vegetated surface areas, and outlet structures that allow adjustment of water levels within the treatment cell.
A Vegetated submerged bed wetlands consist of gravel beds that may be planted with wetland vegetation. A typical system also contain berms and inlet and outlet structures for regulation and distribution of wastewater flow. The vegetated submerged bed are not dependent on wetland vegetation for treatment performance and also do not require open-water areas. However, the success of the previous system is in view of the fact that the performance of constructed wetlands depends heavily on the ecological functions that are similar to those of natural wetlands, which are based largely on interactions within plant communities.
Sources:
Freudenrich, Craig. “How Landfills Work”, How Stuff Works, 2000, 14 Dec. 2009 http://science.howstuffworks.com/landfill6.htm
“Municipal Solid Waste”, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 13 Nov. 2008, 14 Dec. 2009 http://www.epa.gov/garbage/facts.htm info
United States. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Manual: Constructed Wetlands Treatment of Municipal Wastewaters. Cincinnati, Ohio: Office of Research and Development, 2000
Images:
1-5: Freudenrich, Craig. “How Landfills Work”, How Stuff Works, 2000, 14 Dec. 2009 http://science.howstuffworks.com/landfill6.htm
7-8: United States. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Manual: Constructed Wetlands Treatment of Municipal Wastewaters. Cincinnati, Ohio: Office of Research and Development, 2000
Monday, December 14, 2009
How to Construct a Constructed Wetland
www.epa.gov/nrmrl/pubs/625r99010/625r99010.pdf
This useful link is to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Tells you all you need to know about constructing wetlands for remediation.
This useful link is to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Tells you all you need to know about constructing wetlands for remediation.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
M1 Excess Culture: an integrated framework of systems (Introduction)
The thesis seeks to investigate waste as a byproduct of consumerism and how it affects the cultural and economic growth of a society. In fact, if you dissect consumerism, one will find that it is a correlation of several systems that are interconnected, where one is dependant on the other—oil, environment, climate change, cultural impacts, obsolescence, morale, politics, materiality, the urban fabric, and city formations. Where the principles of thermodynamic equilibrium of these systems come to play in an integrated ecosystem that is constantly in flux and at the same time, in pursuit of balance in the natural order. It becomes important too look at this thesis in multiple parallels and as parallels that converge into a whole infrastructure of networked matrices. Keller Easterling considers the idea of what constitutes infrastructure and to think beyond the traditional infrastructure of transportation, communication, and utilities, into a network that includes collective standards of shared mechanisms in order to create our own understanding of space1. Though the topics proposed can be broken down into canonical sources, the importance of each subject is not weighted individually but as a collective, and imparts an approach on how architecture should design in the near future. To change our notion of waste and shift our values from something that is rejected into something that is accepted.
Waste is a scalar thing and also has no scale—it is everywhere, from a candy wrapper to building debris and large mountainous landfills. The term waste designates the elimination of a substance that no one claims or wants ownership of and is a devalued substance at the end of its life cycle, however, there is also no growth biologically and economically without the production and discarding of waste materials. Kevin Lynch, planner and philosopher, claim that it is a process that happens naturally and cannot be controlled, ergo we must accept it and find innovative solutions. He saw that we were all headed in a self-destructive direction that has implications for virtually every profession and that we should promote his philosophy on “positive wasting” and acknowledge this as valuable and necessary in the lives of people, things, and places2.
These solutions, whether through art, architecture, or by common practice, should seek to make waste a valued substance as it will be an abundant source for a future with scarce and depleting natural resources. We should also be mindful that waste as a byproduct has scalar implications on the environmental, social, and political impacts on society. As this topic is a growing problem, only recently have we been able to acknowledge this theme through art and architectural practice and education, by some notable urbanists, artists, and theorists—Kevin Lynch, Michell Joachim, Edward Burtynsky, Mira Engler, Alan Berger—are just some of many contributors to this growing discourse.
The fascination stems from waste being a diverse material that can take on many forms, as much of the waste we produce can be broken down into elements that are similar to the materiality that currently exists in the field of architecture. Since its origins, architecture has used the “waste” of agriculture as a primary material. These inedible parts—wood, hay, reed, bamboo—are often the primary ingredients that make up a building3. So why is it not possible to utilize synthetic man-made waste, given that modern architectural practices have been utilizing synthetic materials in construction since the industrial revolution? Futurist, Alvin Toffler spoke about the waves in historical milestones of civilization. Where the first wave is that of agriculture and the second, thousands of years later, the industrial revolution, and the third wave is the rise of a knowledge based economy in which we are currently in4. The thesis will overlap between the acceleration of the second and third wave intermittently as they are dependant upon each other. All of which stemmed from the industrial age of mass production, consumption, distribution, and mass society that was made possible through the production of cheap energies—coal, natural gas, and oil as the most significant. It is this wave that inspired the disposition of writers such as Orwell and Huxley on their political and dystopic writings.
It is only appropriate that this thesis explores the option of a narrative in parallel with architectural research. The purpose is to distribute a tone of voice that would carry on throughout the thesis to convey a sense of cynicism, black humour, and dystopia, while adopting the styles of Rem Koolhaas, George Orwell, James Howard Kuntsler, as well as my own. Narratives allow for play and a sense of urgency, a strategy that enables all types of people and generations to act empathetically. In Animal Farm, Orwell experimented with this method to tell his story that was written in the type of a fable and follows the traditional pattern of telling a moral tale with the personification of animals. The premise of the thesis’s narrative will follow loosely Orwell’s Nineteen-Eigthy Four from Room 101 where Winston’s worse fear is induced. It will then follow his journey as he experiences the thesis from his personal point of view.
The narrative would set up a scenario for the project that I would like to design. The setting is year 2050, oil has depleted to be almost nonexistent, to the extent that vehicular transportation and production has halted and as a result suburban culture dissipated as those who survived from disease and famine move towards the city in search for survival. Manhattan, a city that never slept was consumed by idleness as nothing came in or out of the city. Landfills become a natural part of the landscape, weaving itself into the different layers of the urban fabric. The sorting of rubble and rubbish become a natural thing as people salvage and ransack materials for survival. Consumed with boredom and the inherent habit of a “working” lifestyle from the past, naturally, a system of sorting, recycling, putting together of “stuff”, artworks, sculptures, and projects—begin to form a new union of jobs and a sense of community. Though intentions may vary, whether to create a sense of purpose, a goal, or to better society at a time of extremity. It is believed that the underlying purpose is to rescue themselves from futureshock, a term invented by Toffler to describe peoples’ reaction to the premature arrival of the future that often results in signs of deteriorated decision making capabilities or disorientation when change comes too quickly to absorb.
The plan is to consider the different types of waste that will be projected onto the city at a time when there will be little movement. A series of projects will investigate the reutilization of waste first as a building material, and second the implementation of waste that will define the city and its new built environment. Projects like a continuous flood barrier, housing, and waste spaces (oppose to green spaces), will closely follow themes of landscape urbanism to define a place’s use and to create adaptable “systems” instead of a rigid and systematic way of organizing space. Where we can begin to see an integrated framework of systems forming a ubiquitous landscape of an environment rich in forums, trading spaces, parks, and places of enlightenment.
Notes:
1. Keller Easterling. “Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways, and Houses in America.” Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999
2. Kevin Lynch. "Wasting Away". Sierra Club Books: San Francisco, 1990
3. Yona Friedman, “Du Déchet fait art,” L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui Sept./Oct. 2007: 81
4. Ted Turner, “Executive Interview with Alvin Toffler,” AMEinfo, 22 Aug. 2004, 5 Dec. 2009
Waste is a scalar thing and also has no scale—it is everywhere, from a candy wrapper to building debris and large mountainous landfills. The term waste designates the elimination of a substance that no one claims or wants ownership of and is a devalued substance at the end of its life cycle, however, there is also no growth biologically and economically without the production and discarding of waste materials. Kevin Lynch, planner and philosopher, claim that it is a process that happens naturally and cannot be controlled, ergo we must accept it and find innovative solutions. He saw that we were all headed in a self-destructive direction that has implications for virtually every profession and that we should promote his philosophy on “positive wasting” and acknowledge this as valuable and necessary in the lives of people, things, and places2.
These solutions, whether through art, architecture, or by common practice, should seek to make waste a valued substance as it will be an abundant source for a future with scarce and depleting natural resources. We should also be mindful that waste as a byproduct has scalar implications on the environmental, social, and political impacts on society. As this topic is a growing problem, only recently have we been able to acknowledge this theme through art and architectural practice and education, by some notable urbanists, artists, and theorists—Kevin Lynch, Michell Joachim, Edward Burtynsky, Mira Engler, Alan Berger—are just some of many contributors to this growing discourse.
The fascination stems from waste being a diverse material that can take on many forms, as much of the waste we produce can be broken down into elements that are similar to the materiality that currently exists in the field of architecture. Since its origins, architecture has used the “waste” of agriculture as a primary material. These inedible parts—wood, hay, reed, bamboo—are often the primary ingredients that make up a building3. So why is it not possible to utilize synthetic man-made waste, given that modern architectural practices have been utilizing synthetic materials in construction since the industrial revolution? Futurist, Alvin Toffler spoke about the waves in historical milestones of civilization. Where the first wave is that of agriculture and the second, thousands of years later, the industrial revolution, and the third wave is the rise of a knowledge based economy in which we are currently in4. The thesis will overlap between the acceleration of the second and third wave intermittently as they are dependant upon each other. All of which stemmed from the industrial age of mass production, consumption, distribution, and mass society that was made possible through the production of cheap energies—coal, natural gas, and oil as the most significant. It is this wave that inspired the disposition of writers such as Orwell and Huxley on their political and dystopic writings.
It is only appropriate that this thesis explores the option of a narrative in parallel with architectural research. The purpose is to distribute a tone of voice that would carry on throughout the thesis to convey a sense of cynicism, black humour, and dystopia, while adopting the styles of Rem Koolhaas, George Orwell, James Howard Kuntsler, as well as my own. Narratives allow for play and a sense of urgency, a strategy that enables all types of people and generations to act empathetically. In Animal Farm, Orwell experimented with this method to tell his story that was written in the type of a fable and follows the traditional pattern of telling a moral tale with the personification of animals. The premise of the thesis’s narrative will follow loosely Orwell’s Nineteen-Eigthy Four from Room 101 where Winston’s worse fear is induced. It will then follow his journey as he experiences the thesis from his personal point of view.
The narrative would set up a scenario for the project that I would like to design. The setting is year 2050, oil has depleted to be almost nonexistent, to the extent that vehicular transportation and production has halted and as a result suburban culture dissipated as those who survived from disease and famine move towards the city in search for survival. Manhattan, a city that never slept was consumed by idleness as nothing came in or out of the city. Landfills become a natural part of the landscape, weaving itself into the different layers of the urban fabric. The sorting of rubble and rubbish become a natural thing as people salvage and ransack materials for survival. Consumed with boredom and the inherent habit of a “working” lifestyle from the past, naturally, a system of sorting, recycling, putting together of “stuff”, artworks, sculptures, and projects—begin to form a new union of jobs and a sense of community. Though intentions may vary, whether to create a sense of purpose, a goal, or to better society at a time of extremity. It is believed that the underlying purpose is to rescue themselves from futureshock, a term invented by Toffler to describe peoples’ reaction to the premature arrival of the future that often results in signs of deteriorated decision making capabilities or disorientation when change comes too quickly to absorb.
The plan is to consider the different types of waste that will be projected onto the city at a time when there will be little movement. A series of projects will investigate the reutilization of waste first as a building material, and second the implementation of waste that will define the city and its new built environment. Projects like a continuous flood barrier, housing, and waste spaces (oppose to green spaces), will closely follow themes of landscape urbanism to define a place’s use and to create adaptable “systems” instead of a rigid and systematic way of organizing space. Where we can begin to see an integrated framework of systems forming a ubiquitous landscape of an environment rich in forums, trading spaces, parks, and places of enlightenment.
Notes:
1. Keller Easterling. “Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways, and Houses in America.” Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999
2. Kevin Lynch. "Wasting Away". Sierra Club Books: San Francisco, 1990
3. Yona Friedman, “Du Déchet fait art,” L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui Sept./Oct. 2007: 81
4. Ted Turner, “Executive Interview with Alvin Toffler,” AMEinfo, 22 Aug. 2004, 5 Dec. 2009
M1 On Oil
It has been predicted with American geophysicist M. King Hubbert’s model in 1956 that the global petroleum production rates will peak just after year 2000 and has correctly predicted that production of oil from conventional sources would peak in the continental United States around 1970. Though oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, it is increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. Once the peak is passed, oil production slows and costs begin to accelerate, as seen currently in oil and gas prices. We are currently seeing the effects of the depletion of oil in our quotidian lives not to mention its effect on global warming. The issue is not of “running out” of oil, so much as not acquiring enough to keep global economy running that will lead to a collapse, that even a shortage of 10-15% of an oil dependant country is enough to collapse its economy and reduce its citizens to poverty(1).
Perhaps the most dramatic consequence of oil depletion is of agriculture. Pesticides and agro-chemicals are made from oil, commercial fertilizers are made from ammonia, which is from natural gas that will be peaking in the near future, and most farming tools are power driven by oil-derived fuels. Food shortage will be an outcome as transportation and distribution become expensive. The average transport of food in the U.S. is transported almost 2400 km before it is made available, and in Canada, the average is 8000 km (2). In the future, food prices will skyrocket and for those less fortunate, starvation and famine will take hold even on a global scale.
As well, the concept of suburbia will also be under speculation, as commuters can no longer afford to drive into the city, there will be an overflow of people in the near future looking to move closer to the centre. The growth of the city can also harvest new problems with water scarcity and also with health and sanitation. Presently in the United States, 4% of people do not drive, whether because of low income, being handicapped, or age—this number will likely rise, making driving exclusively for the elite class and most likely will harness resentment amongst the general population(3).
We will see an increase in oil nationalism when countries with the most oil is withholding its resources from the future market and then auctioned off to favoured customer relations with other countries that they want to maintain good relations with. The United States will probably tend to be less favoured amongst some of the oil producing nations. The monopoly of oil can potentially cause major warfare while nations battle over oil, not to mention civil wars that will arise from the shortcomings. Cities and nations will eventually fall apart as the consequences are unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would bring the world into a generations-long economic depression as millions become unemployed when industries implode. There will no longer be big box stores, clothing stores, cafes, and postal services—the financial economic downfall will be evident.
The financial community begins to accept the reality of Peak Oil.
"They accept that banks created capital during this epoch by lending more than they had on deposit, being confident that tomorrow’s expansion, fuelled by cheap oil-based energy, was adequate collateral for today’s debt. The decline of oil, the principal driver of economic growth, undermines the validity of that collateral which in turn erodes the valuation of most entities quoted on Stock Exchanges."(4)
When truth can no longer be concealed, prices for daily maintenance of life will escalate abruptly, and the support and infrastructure of our civilization will fall. There will be emergency summits, diplomatic initiatives, urgent exploration efforts, but the turmoil will not subside. Thousands of companies will go bankrupt, and millions will be unemployed. Democracy will be shut out, as economic hardships will bring out the worst in people. “Fascists will rise, feeding on the anger of the newly poor and whipping up support. These new rulers will find the tools of repression—emergency laws, prison camps, a relaxed attitude towards torture—already in place, courtesy of the war on terror” (5). Simultaneously, climate change will work against us, making its presence felt “with a vengeance”, while engulfed in financial ruin, food and water supplies will seize and prolonged droughts will crop up in numbers as harvesting crops decline(6).
Almost daily, we see our personal environments changing, whether with work, climate, commuting, spending—we must progress and take nothing for granted as a new Dark Era is emerging for ourselves and generations to come as growth may be coming to an end. The social and economic consequences are cataclysmic as our entire financial order from interest rates, pension funds, insurance, to stock market is dependant on growth(7). We must find new [renewable] alternatives and new ways of using the resources we already acquired in order to alleviate stress globally and especially oil dependant nations.
Notes:
1. Matt Savinar, “Peak Oil”. Life After the Oil Crash, 27 Oct. 2009
2. Stephen Hesse, “Matters of Survival in a Shattered World,” The Japan Times, 25 Apr. 2005, 1 Nov. 2009,
3. James H. Kunstler, Interviewed by Glen Hiemstra for Futurists.com, May 2008,
4. Colin Campbell, “The Financial Consequences of Peak Oil,” 24 Feb 2004, 1 Nov 2009
5. Jeremy Leggett. The Empty Tank: Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Financial Catastrophe. Random House: New York, 2005
6. Jonathon Gatehouse, “When Oil Runs Out,” Macleans, 9 Feb. 2006, 1 Nov. 2009
7. Bryan Appleyard, “Waiting for the Lights to Go Out,” The Times. 16 Oct. 2005, 3 Nov 2009,
Perhaps the most dramatic consequence of oil depletion is of agriculture. Pesticides and agro-chemicals are made from oil, commercial fertilizers are made from ammonia, which is from natural gas that will be peaking in the near future, and most farming tools are power driven by oil-derived fuels. Food shortage will be an outcome as transportation and distribution become expensive. The average transport of food in the U.S. is transported almost 2400 km before it is made available, and in Canada, the average is 8000 km (2). In the future, food prices will skyrocket and for those less fortunate, starvation and famine will take hold even on a global scale.
As well, the concept of suburbia will also be under speculation, as commuters can no longer afford to drive into the city, there will be an overflow of people in the near future looking to move closer to the centre. The growth of the city can also harvest new problems with water scarcity and also with health and sanitation. Presently in the United States, 4% of people do not drive, whether because of low income, being handicapped, or age—this number will likely rise, making driving exclusively for the elite class and most likely will harness resentment amongst the general population(3).
We will see an increase in oil nationalism when countries with the most oil is withholding its resources from the future market and then auctioned off to favoured customer relations with other countries that they want to maintain good relations with. The United States will probably tend to be less favoured amongst some of the oil producing nations. The monopoly of oil can potentially cause major warfare while nations battle over oil, not to mention civil wars that will arise from the shortcomings. Cities and nations will eventually fall apart as the consequences are unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would bring the world into a generations-long economic depression as millions become unemployed when industries implode. There will no longer be big box stores, clothing stores, cafes, and postal services—the financial economic downfall will be evident.
The financial community begins to accept the reality of Peak Oil.
"They accept that banks created capital during this epoch by lending more than they had on deposit, being confident that tomorrow’s expansion, fuelled by cheap oil-based energy, was adequate collateral for today’s debt. The decline of oil, the principal driver of economic growth, undermines the validity of that collateral which in turn erodes the valuation of most entities quoted on Stock Exchanges."(4)
When truth can no longer be concealed, prices for daily maintenance of life will escalate abruptly, and the support and infrastructure of our civilization will fall. There will be emergency summits, diplomatic initiatives, urgent exploration efforts, but the turmoil will not subside. Thousands of companies will go bankrupt, and millions will be unemployed. Democracy will be shut out, as economic hardships will bring out the worst in people. “Fascists will rise, feeding on the anger of the newly poor and whipping up support. These new rulers will find the tools of repression—emergency laws, prison camps, a relaxed attitude towards torture—already in place, courtesy of the war on terror” (5). Simultaneously, climate change will work against us, making its presence felt “with a vengeance”, while engulfed in financial ruin, food and water supplies will seize and prolonged droughts will crop up in numbers as harvesting crops decline(6).
Almost daily, we see our personal environments changing, whether with work, climate, commuting, spending—we must progress and take nothing for granted as a new Dark Era is emerging for ourselves and generations to come as growth may be coming to an end. The social and economic consequences are cataclysmic as our entire financial order from interest rates, pension funds, insurance, to stock market is dependant on growth(7). We must find new [renewable] alternatives and new ways of using the resources we already acquired in order to alleviate stress globally and especially oil dependant nations.
Notes:
1. Matt Savinar, “Peak Oil”. Life After the Oil Crash, 27 Oct. 2009
2. Stephen Hesse, “Matters of Survival in a Shattered World,” The Japan Times, 25 Apr. 2005, 1 Nov. 2009,
3. James H. Kunstler, Interviewed by Glen Hiemstra for Futurists.com, May 2008,
4. Colin Campbell, “The Financial Consequences of Peak Oil,” 24 Feb 2004, 1 Nov 2009
5. Jeremy Leggett. The Empty Tank: Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Financial Catastrophe. Random House: New York, 2005
6. Jonathon Gatehouse, “When Oil Runs Out,” Macleans, 9 Feb. 2006, 1 Nov. 2009
7. Bryan Appleyard, “Waiting for the Lights to Go Out,” The Times. 16 Oct. 2005, 3 Nov 2009,
M1 Manifesto
In addition to the oil crisis, mass quantities of oil are required for the production of things—plastics, clothes, automobiles, and modern technologies such as, computers, cell phones, electronics, and devices. We have become a consumer nation, where these “necessities” define our identity and runs our lives. We become dependant on these items where most of these things become what we need instead of what we want. It fills our closets and our garages and gauge success based on what we own and its status it provides in our lives and our communities. These things cloud our vocation as inhabitants of the earth, where instead of embracing natural environments we cover it with masses of debris and waste. Though we thought these commodities would enhance our lifestyle and existence, the majority is still ignorant that consumerism destroys our balance with nature and actually accelerates ruin in peoples’ lives.
This is due to the fact that our waste and byproducts are hidden, transported, swept under the rug and away from the public eye. However the problem is not so much ours as it is a problem with the Government. The Government of the United States orchestrated consumerism after World War II to revitalize the economy after the war(8). The productive economy demands that consumerism should be a way of life, that we take the act of buying, using, throwing out—a ritual of life that seeks ego satisfaction in consumption where things could be discarded and replaced. The market design things, cars, buildings, products that will last for a finite amount of time, things are not built to last as they used to so that consumers would be forced to upgrade and replace. It is an endless cycle of disposing, buying, working off debt only to dispose and buy again. Business and capitalism has no pity for the environment, it is there to make profit, to take from us for their own benefit.
It is human egoism that drives our will to consume and the systems that encourages it, and we are quick to adopt this system. The market puts out loads of disposable products declaring that it will make our lives easier and more convenient. North America is only 5% of the world’s population, yet we produce 30% of the world’s waste(9). We must ask ourselves, “do we really need these things?” and “can we live with what we have?” Perhaps our culture today is filled with the notion that happiness can be bought, that you could put a price tag on anything as long as you have the cash or resource and can be amongst the privileged and fortunate. There needs to be an end to this mentality that has swept our nation, we have become conditioned to expect the impossible that we have made possible through oil. To think that produce from Asia, South America are just around the corner, tastes of India and Egyptian cottons at our local market, home theatre systems and furniture from one of many big box companies—it is easy to get what you want whenever you want. What happens when these items are no longer readily available? Is our nation prepared for that?
For everything we produce there is at least an equal amount produced in trash. Waste is a scalar thing and also has no scale—it is everywhere, from a candy wrapper to large mountainous landfills. The term waste designates the elimination of substance that no one claims or wants ownership of and is a devalued substance at the end of its life cycle. Biological substances and cells produce waste, we produce waste, machines and products produce waste—there is no growth biologically and economically without discarding the unwanted. We cannot control it, therefore we must accept it and find innovative solutions to make waste a valued substance, since it is the only abundant source of the future.
This topic is a growing problem, yet majority of us are in denial. It is not so much as it being a massive object we should take care of, we should think about waste and its huge environmental impacts on our societies today. Most large de-industrialized sites are located within proximity of local water sources; naturally, this is also where majority of the people congregate. Water scarcity is already a problem, as only 3% of the earth’s water is potable and that includes contaminated waters by industries, not to mention toxicity levels that seep into our water and soil we grow our food in. We can also expect increasing amounts of water related diseases in the near future.
We have the resources now to move trash and hide problems like these, but the future does not look bright as oil depletion, water scarcity, global warming, and resource scarcity correlate simultaneously into an unforgiving future. By putting waste material to good use allows dual purposes, it simultaneously reduces the burden on natural resources and second, reduces the quantity of waste to be eliminated. We must also curve the two associated fatalities that economic growth and increase in garbage are derivatives of each other and seek to reevaluate waste as a secondary resource. Life cycle analysis tools consider the overall composition of a material from inception to usage and the environmental impacts that go along with it, from “cradle to grave”. So in construction, the stages of extraction, preparation, processing, manufacturing, shipping, then construction, maintenance, repair, and lastly demolition; new policies are attempting to shift from discarding the material to creating a “grave to cradle” scenario, where reutilization and recycling becomes an important backbone for our future economy(10).
There are of course both pros and cons with reutilizing and recycling, first, that the energy initially invested in creating the product will be more profitable with reuse, however there may be environmental implications with some materials that are classified as toxic non reusable materials. We as architects must take responsibility primarily with the safe remediation of toxic material before implementing the rehabilitation and resurrection of inanimate materials and objects. There is an immense variety of material resources in existence beyond the traditional, everything points to the direction of maximizing the value of waste. The definition between reutilization and recycling is often mistaken—recycling maximizes the value of the constitutive material, and reutilization preserves the initial form. For my thesis, I would like to focus more heavily on the reutilization of discarded objects.
In favour of reduction, reutilization lowers costs by avoiding extraction of natural aggregates and other primary elements, as well as the costs of transporting and unloading natural aggregates and waste. It also allows history to procure in an object by lessening the transformable stages in the material’s life, opposite to recycling, and at the same time maximizing its value in terms of revenue and most importantly to the environment—as there are a lot of chemical processes involved with recycling. In some ways, retaining its original form allows us to view it as an artwork woven into the urban fabric, where ideally, these objects will eventually become the norm and standard of the built environment. The problem however, lies in the psychology that—waste as a matter is useful—and people do not want to accept this. I want to shift the mentality from things that our society devalue into something of value, where people will begin to reclaim ownership of the discarded.
The reutilization of garbage in art has been a reoccurring theme for many years, since 1913 when Marcel Duchamp created his first ready-made from a bicycle wheel and called it art. He wanted to instill the idea that garbage could be art and sought to blur the fine line between art and garbage. Though the fine line is not yet evident in the field of architecture, recent attempts by various architects has sought to redefine our profession as the be-all and end-all of the future—with the sustainability of our environment in mind. While the utilization of waste in art is becoming the norm, it is not so foreign in architecture. Since its origins, architecture has used the “waste” of agriculture as a primary material. These inedible parts—wood, hay, reed, bamboo—are often the primary ingredients that make up a building(11). So instead of utilizing organic waste, is it possible to adapt it with the use of synthetic or man-made waste?
Architects are amongst the privileged when it comes to the ability to visualize a project as a whole entity and to bring it into materialization much more efficiently than any other profession. It is from our creative free flowing ideas and knowledge of the built environment and its culture that allows us to see the emerging problems as an integrated framework of systems. We also have the knowledge for sustainable construction and the use of materials in efforts to conserve resources. It should be our objective to open up the markets for secondary resource exploitations, where we advocate the vast potential for innovations in waste and its construction benefits.
Notes:
8. Annie Leonard, “The Untold Story of Consumerism,” Kabbalah Today. Apr./May 2006, 29 Oct. 2009,
9. Annie Leonard, “The Untold Story of Consumerism,” Kabbalah Today. Apr./May 2006, 29 Oct. 2009,
10. Gérard Bertonlini, “Gestion des Déchets: My Poubelle is rich,” L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui Sept./Oct. 2007: 53
11. Yona Friedman, “Du Déchet fait art,” L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui Sept./Oct. 2007: 81
This is due to the fact that our waste and byproducts are hidden, transported, swept under the rug and away from the public eye. However the problem is not so much ours as it is a problem with the Government. The Government of the United States orchestrated consumerism after World War II to revitalize the economy after the war(8). The productive economy demands that consumerism should be a way of life, that we take the act of buying, using, throwing out—a ritual of life that seeks ego satisfaction in consumption where things could be discarded and replaced. The market design things, cars, buildings, products that will last for a finite amount of time, things are not built to last as they used to so that consumers would be forced to upgrade and replace. It is an endless cycle of disposing, buying, working off debt only to dispose and buy again. Business and capitalism has no pity for the environment, it is there to make profit, to take from us for their own benefit.
It is human egoism that drives our will to consume and the systems that encourages it, and we are quick to adopt this system. The market puts out loads of disposable products declaring that it will make our lives easier and more convenient. North America is only 5% of the world’s population, yet we produce 30% of the world’s waste(9). We must ask ourselves, “do we really need these things?” and “can we live with what we have?” Perhaps our culture today is filled with the notion that happiness can be bought, that you could put a price tag on anything as long as you have the cash or resource and can be amongst the privileged and fortunate. There needs to be an end to this mentality that has swept our nation, we have become conditioned to expect the impossible that we have made possible through oil. To think that produce from Asia, South America are just around the corner, tastes of India and Egyptian cottons at our local market, home theatre systems and furniture from one of many big box companies—it is easy to get what you want whenever you want. What happens when these items are no longer readily available? Is our nation prepared for that?
For everything we produce there is at least an equal amount produced in trash. Waste is a scalar thing and also has no scale—it is everywhere, from a candy wrapper to large mountainous landfills. The term waste designates the elimination of substance that no one claims or wants ownership of and is a devalued substance at the end of its life cycle. Biological substances and cells produce waste, we produce waste, machines and products produce waste—there is no growth biologically and economically without discarding the unwanted. We cannot control it, therefore we must accept it and find innovative solutions to make waste a valued substance, since it is the only abundant source of the future.
This topic is a growing problem, yet majority of us are in denial. It is not so much as it being a massive object we should take care of, we should think about waste and its huge environmental impacts on our societies today. Most large de-industrialized sites are located within proximity of local water sources; naturally, this is also where majority of the people congregate. Water scarcity is already a problem, as only 3% of the earth’s water is potable and that includes contaminated waters by industries, not to mention toxicity levels that seep into our water and soil we grow our food in. We can also expect increasing amounts of water related diseases in the near future.
We have the resources now to move trash and hide problems like these, but the future does not look bright as oil depletion, water scarcity, global warming, and resource scarcity correlate simultaneously into an unforgiving future. By putting waste material to good use allows dual purposes, it simultaneously reduces the burden on natural resources and second, reduces the quantity of waste to be eliminated. We must also curve the two associated fatalities that economic growth and increase in garbage are derivatives of each other and seek to reevaluate waste as a secondary resource. Life cycle analysis tools consider the overall composition of a material from inception to usage and the environmental impacts that go along with it, from “cradle to grave”. So in construction, the stages of extraction, preparation, processing, manufacturing, shipping, then construction, maintenance, repair, and lastly demolition; new policies are attempting to shift from discarding the material to creating a “grave to cradle” scenario, where reutilization and recycling becomes an important backbone for our future economy(10).
There are of course both pros and cons with reutilizing and recycling, first, that the energy initially invested in creating the product will be more profitable with reuse, however there may be environmental implications with some materials that are classified as toxic non reusable materials. We as architects must take responsibility primarily with the safe remediation of toxic material before implementing the rehabilitation and resurrection of inanimate materials and objects. There is an immense variety of material resources in existence beyond the traditional, everything points to the direction of maximizing the value of waste. The definition between reutilization and recycling is often mistaken—recycling maximizes the value of the constitutive material, and reutilization preserves the initial form. For my thesis, I would like to focus more heavily on the reutilization of discarded objects.
In favour of reduction, reutilization lowers costs by avoiding extraction of natural aggregates and other primary elements, as well as the costs of transporting and unloading natural aggregates and waste. It also allows history to procure in an object by lessening the transformable stages in the material’s life, opposite to recycling, and at the same time maximizing its value in terms of revenue and most importantly to the environment—as there are a lot of chemical processes involved with recycling. In some ways, retaining its original form allows us to view it as an artwork woven into the urban fabric, where ideally, these objects will eventually become the norm and standard of the built environment. The problem however, lies in the psychology that—waste as a matter is useful—and people do not want to accept this. I want to shift the mentality from things that our society devalue into something of value, where people will begin to reclaim ownership of the discarded.
The reutilization of garbage in art has been a reoccurring theme for many years, since 1913 when Marcel Duchamp created his first ready-made from a bicycle wheel and called it art. He wanted to instill the idea that garbage could be art and sought to blur the fine line between art and garbage. Though the fine line is not yet evident in the field of architecture, recent attempts by various architects has sought to redefine our profession as the be-all and end-all of the future—with the sustainability of our environment in mind. While the utilization of waste in art is becoming the norm, it is not so foreign in architecture. Since its origins, architecture has used the “waste” of agriculture as a primary material. These inedible parts—wood, hay, reed, bamboo—are often the primary ingredients that make up a building(11). So instead of utilizing organic waste, is it possible to adapt it with the use of synthetic or man-made waste?
Architects are amongst the privileged when it comes to the ability to visualize a project as a whole entity and to bring it into materialization much more efficiently than any other profession. It is from our creative free flowing ideas and knowledge of the built environment and its culture that allows us to see the emerging problems as an integrated framework of systems. We also have the knowledge for sustainable construction and the use of materials in efforts to conserve resources. It should be our objective to open up the markets for secondary resource exploitations, where we advocate the vast potential for innovations in waste and its construction benefits.
Notes:
8. Annie Leonard, “The Untold Story of Consumerism,” Kabbalah Today. Apr./May 2006, 29 Oct. 2009,
9. Annie Leonard, “The Untold Story of Consumerism,” Kabbalah Today. Apr./May 2006, 29 Oct. 2009,
10. Gérard Bertonlini, “Gestion des Déchets: My Poubelle is rich,” L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui Sept./Oct. 2007: 53
11. Yona Friedman, “Du Déchet fait art,” L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui Sept./Oct. 2007: 81
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