Comments waterman has made

  • There is also this alternative conference which is linked to Peoples Climat Action and World Climate Community  :

    http://climatesustainabilityplatform.blogspot.com/2009/07/alternative-conference-for-people.html

    On 100 days before Copenhagen, here are 100 things you didn't know about Copenhagen posted 3 months ago 9 Responses

  • efficiency on what scale

    I think it is helpful here to point out that Arcosanti is an urban vision offering a different way of structuring our cities, addressing sustainable issues that go beyond the architectonical scale of a single-family house, such as commuter transport and its CO2.
    On Bridging architecture and ecology at Arcosanti posted 1 year, 1 month ago 4 Responses

  • more than meets the eye

    Dear green engineer,
    I don't think you are seeing the project for what it is.
    Arcosanti is the (concrete cast) physical embodiment of a vision. This vision was formed in the late sixties as a response to the rapid horizontal development of Phoenix and posed an alternative idea of a compact threedimensional city that is not based on air conditioning and car traffic, expanding across the landscape. It is documented in several beautiful books. The built result is almost by necessity a first draft with many faults and incomplete to boot. This may seem sad given the fact that it has been around and in progress since the early seventies.
    But you can't deny the impressive perseverance and moral integrity with which the project has been realised by Paolo Soleri, largely self-funded. Although it didn't serve to stop Phoenix from growing into one of the largest and un-ecological cities on earth, I think it has had an influence on  architects and planners around the world. And the model it offers at least in its 'ideal' drawn version is still inspiring and relevant. The built Arcosanti is offering a glimpse of this. It is a special place to visit and stay and enjoy for itself. I have participated in a five-week workshop at Arcosanti and enjoyed living and working in one place so close to the Arizonian landscape. Being an architect's unfinished project, the community never really has seemed to have settled in, as it has in other alternative communities. Still there is a lot happening and there is an interesting dynamic between the centre and the 'temporary' settlement close to the agricultural land called 'camp'.
    All in all it is an experiment, the success of which is defined by what we can learn from it, which each of us can do in his own way, but it takes more than pointing out the mistakes from a strictly enviromen-technical viewpoint.

    Paul de Graaf, Rotterdam, the NetherlandsOn Bridging architecture and ecology at Arcosanti posted 1 year, 1 month ago 4 Responses

  • The land of opportunities

    In Europe people on average use about a third of the water in the US without missing the other 2 thirds and basically living the same lifestyle. Also in this respect America is the land of opportunities... to cut down drastically without dramatically changing one's lifestyle should be possible (the same goes for energy).On Umbra on dishwashing and droughts posted 2 years, 1 month ago 10 Responses

  • Hummer versus hybrid on Grist

    http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/8/27/124134/961On 15 Green Cars posted 2 years, 2 months ago 27 Responses

  • sources for biofuels

    This is more of a question than a contribution to the debate:
    What about algae as a basis for ethanol as a basis for biodiesel as promoted by for example www.oilgae.com?
    On Biofuels subsidies will only lead to increased food costs and habitat destruction posted 2 years, 2 months ago 25 Responses

  • green building vs. green architecture

    The remarkable thing with a lot of the buildings on this list is that their 'greenness' lies not so much in the architecture as in their organization and use. Architecturally a lot of the buildings - especially the high-rises - look like the same old. The California EPA is a good example of this. It is impressive how they run the building and e.g. involve worm composting in their recycling program. But somehow I find it worrying that the building itself does not seem to be affected by these ideas and that the same kind of innovation is not applied to its architecture. Of course in terms of materials and isolation a lot is gained but this doesn't affect the formal monumental character of the building and its conventional spatial lay-out.
    There is so much more you can do on this level, as for example the work of Ken Yeang: http://www.ldavies.com/index.cfm?categoryname=sectors& ...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Yeang
    and McDonough & Partners (see other posts) shows.
    But I guess this is the difference between green building and green architecture.On 15 Green Buildings posted 2 years, 2 months ago 12 Responses

  • Less is more

    Dear Christine,
    I think the idea that keeping up 24-7 with the news is keeping you informed is a mistake. I have been reading the newspaper everyday for the past 10 years and though it is addictive I don't think it necessarily gives me a better overview than a weekly newspaper or magazine would give me. Watching no television certainly hasn't made a difference (save for the fact that I am not in the know of the latest gossip). News consists by necessity of a mixture of things that are of importance to our world and items that in the long run do not turn out to be so important.
    All this just to say, it is OK to leave the news the news. If it is of importance it will get back to you. Much more important things are to be learned in 3D actual reality, by a little stream.
    On Do parents lose or gain by taking kids outdoors? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 6 Responses