Biophilic Design

What is biophilic design? Architect Amanda Sturgeon tells us here in this TEDMED Talk. Discussing elements of green building and design elements to craft sustainable spaces, she talks about how using this "love of life" biophilic design strategy to bring the outdoors in, which brings our happiness, health, and creativity out! What a great way to "rewild," architecturally speaking!

"First we shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us."   ~Winston Churchill

 
Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAmbZCtNC9Um, image created at Canva.com

Green Roofs

Once, a long time ago (about 7 years), I helped to build a green roof, on the roof of the greenest school in the world. Unfortunately, about 4.5 years that school shut down. It still breaks my heart.

I did a drive-by about 2 weeks ago, and well... sadly that green roof is not being maintained well. But... I digress.

What is a green roof? GreenRoofs.org and Kids.Net.Au both have a straightforward rundown on why they are so helpful for reducing storm runoff and other perks.

Additionally, there are these videos. Seems to me, everyone would want to have one!!







Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=howO82-Fd1o and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlJoBhLnqko

Where Art, "Repurposing" & a Church All Collide

In the category of "green buildings," it's been said that the greenest building is one that's already standing. This is particularly true if that building is not currently being used. By adapting and reusing a building, you give it new life. (Hence it's common name: "adaptive reuse!"

Here's where art, repurposing, & a church collide.

Picture a 100-year old church in Llanera, Asturias in Spain. Abandoned, it could have been just as easy to tear it down. But instead, it was transformed in a unique & unusual way: into a colorful indoor skatepark. Artist "Okuda" San Miguel added geometric shapes & color to transform the church into the newly named "The Kaos Temple" with strong messages of nature:

"In general, for the last few years my work talks a bit about the war between nature's forces and the human being; between modernity and roots. Self-destruction, existentialism, things like that....I like using contradictions which invite people to reflection."

I can only imagine what the experience of skateboarding would be like in this setting!




Other buildings have come about by way of adaptive reuse.  Check them out here:

• "World's 'Most Beautiful Gas Station' Converted into Cultural Center"

• "Abandoned Walmart Turned Into Giant Public Library"

• "10 Repurposed Industrial Buildings That Were Previously Abandoned" (of which, I delighted myself in that I have been to Mass MoCA: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art!)

• "Repurposed Architecture: Finding New Meanings in Abandoned Factories, Monasteries and Homes"

Images from http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/church-transformed-psychedelic-sistine-chapel-skateboarders-okuda-san-miguel.html and http://laiglesiaskate.com/?lang=en#reservations; Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSKbgbEcjNs

From Williams to William: The Maker Movement in Malawi

With the planned visit from author Karen L Williams, I was inspired to do a little reading over my spring break, now a surprisingly 2+ months ago.  The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Daniel Kamkwamba seemed like a logical choice for a multitude of reasons: I could learn a little about Malawi—one of the central locations in Mrs. Williams’ books; I could see the innovation of the maker movement in action. I could see the integration of innovation and environmentalism through the wind power; and lastly, my daughter had read it last year, so it was safely nestled in my Kindle.

So it was here I met 14 year old William Kamkwamba. I got to step foot in Malawi and see the sense of community, as well as the the plight of poverty. Life was not always easy. Water was not always clean nor easy to find. Diarrhea and cholera were sometimes the aftermath due to polluted water and poorly-constructed latrines. Money and food could be thin at times. Deforestation was at play, intertwining with the other issues. But despite the environmental issues, spirit was strong. William led a life of curiosity, stamina, perseverance, and strength.

There were a lot of parallels between William and Karen Williams’ Kondi from Galimoto. Some of our modern day 5-11 year old students found it difficult to make a seemingly-simple galimoto out of pipe cleaner, pencils, & wire (link). Karen Williams’ Kondi’s galimoto was far more complicated than our humble vehicular creations. Some of our cherubs needed nudging and encouragement to keep going, keep trying, and keep being creative risk takers. Not to mention, our students didn’t even have to go a-hunting for the scrap materials to make these toys. All materials were provided.

Yet, then there was William, whose was determined to discover how things worked. He went much further than making toys. Tearing apart radios (much to his father’s chagrin) helped him discover how they worked. This, in turn, led to a greater investigation and an inevitable pursuit for power—legitimate “energy power,” since only about 8% of those living in Malawi have electricity. He also was on a dogged quest for knowledge, since secondary school was too expensive during difficult times. He learned physics and engineering through reading books as well as trial and error. He ultimately invented a windmill out of scraps to produce “electric wind,” making the energy to generate electricity and running water. All without the Internet (or even knowing of its existence).

And, as often happens with inventors & innovators, William's neighbors thought he was a little nuts… until he made the seemingly impossible possible!

My spring was sponsored by the inspiration of one William to another Williams—capturing the mindset of the maker movement in Malawi!

Book image from https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind-Electricity/dp/0061730335/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1491874352&sr=8-2&keywords=boy+who+harnessed+the+wind; video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QkNxt7MpWM; windmill pic from https://mannerofspeaking.org/2011/10/22/analysis-of-a-speech-by-william-kamkwamba/; quote from http://quoteaddicts.com/author/william-kamkwamba; quote from http://i.quoteaddicts.com/media/q2/33854.png; galimoto pic from http://www.karenlynnwilliams.com/galimoto.html; galimoto book pic from https://www.amazon.com/Galimoto-Reading-Rainbow-Karen-Williams/dp/0688109918; quote with visuals from https://www.pinterest.com/explore/william-kamkwamba/

Vertical Forests Are On The Rise

As our global population grows and approaches 7.5 billion, cities are becoming more crowded and dense with buildings. The urban sprawl continues outward, and building continue to climb upward, encroaching on our green spaces.

For the most part, cityscapes of our larger cities have traditionally have been a shiny collection steel towers and glass windows. Central Park, that green oasis in New York City, no longer is enough.

Visionary architects like Stefano Boeri want to change that by re-working city models to accommodate for the density of people living in those urban areas--and the pollution that comes with it. By building in a solution for sustainability, Boeri has designed buildings that incorporate nature.

Some examples of vertical forests" include Bosco Verticale in Milan, the La Tour des Cedres in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Nanjing Vertical Forest in China. He's also moving on beyond the ideo of green towers to that of a whole forested city, with drawing set up for ForestCityShijazhuang in China. His portfolio of projects is impressive!

Benefits of bringing the look and feel of nature to the over-populated cities are many:

• All "the green" will help reduce heating and cooling costs by building in natural shade and insulation.
• The vegetation of "all that green" will act as a filtration system, both producing oxygen, absorbing carbon-dioxide, and filtering "urban dust" pollution of highly populated cities (especially in China, where pollution levels are so high).
• Intentionality is put into the plant species that are placed on both the towers and in the cities. Given the variety of plants, the trees and shrubbery will become a bio-diverse habitat for many birds and animals as well.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL VERTICAL FOREST from Stefano Boeri Architetti on Vimeo.

For more on greening up our cityscapes, here are a few other links of impressive green buildings:

• Sierra Club's "The Changing Facade of Urban Architecture"
• CNN's "Garden's In The Sky"
• Treehugger's "The Vertical Forest Comes to China"
• CNN's "Last Look:  Vertical Forests Fight Pollution"

City Skyline pic from http://clipart-library.com/clipart/8izrRpjAT.htm; Vertical forest pic from https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/portfolios/the-tower-of-cedars/; Video from https://vimeo.com/77235516

There's a New Podcast In Town: Begleyesque

Just in time for Earth Day ahead, there's a new podcast in town. (Actually, at this point, it's not as new as it used to be at the start of 2017!) This one is brought to you by Ed Begley, Jr. and his wife Rachelle Carson-Begley, and is called Begleyesque. Perhaps so we can all "speak-Begley!"

Ed Begly, Jr.'s name might sound slightly familiar to you as he's both a long-time actor (anyone remember St. Elsewhere?) and a mega-environmental activist. He practices what he preaches, living in a solar powered home, driving an electric car, and currently building a LEED Platinum-Certified house for their next home ("Our Green House with The Begleys"). He and Rachelle (also an actor) co-starred in the reality series "Living With Ed," which was shown on both HGTV and Discovery’s Planet Green.

Given all the "green" above, yes, this weekly podcast is about "living green." It's a fun mix of Hollywood celebrities and environmental innovators chatting with Mr. & Mrs. Begley. There's also a Q&A segment per episode, with the gameplan being "saving the planet one person or household at a time."

You can find it on their website, or subscribe at iTunes.

Episodes, to date, include:

1. Introducing Begleyesque      (a very good place to start!)
2. Going Green W/Jeff Goldblum
3. Save Money, Save The Planet
4. Moby Reveals His Real Name & Talks Veganism
5. Green Valentine's Day Gift Ideas
6. Sharon Lawrence Talks Water Pollution & Women Power
7. Bill Nye Hijacks a Conversation With Frances Fisher
8. Air Pollution: Causes, Effects, & Solutions
9. Beth Grant Gets High Off Love
10. Mike Farrell Talks JFK Assassination
11. Michael Kaliski, Hollywood's Green Movie Guy
12. Public Transportation vs. Uber vs. Biking
13. Don Most Talks “Happy Days” & Vaudeville’s Comeback
14. Oceana’s Keith Addis On Bait and Switch in Aquaculture

May the eco-inspiration over at Begleyeque get you geared up for Earth Day, just a few days away!

Images from http://www.begleyesque.com/about/ and https://hateandanger.wordpress.com/tag/begley/ 

The Sights of Western Massachusetts

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

August in Western Massachusetts presents you with some stunning sights. A shock of red or orange in a vista of green trees is probably one of the biggest. How can the leaves be changing color already? Not many, but that hint that autumn is around the bend. The dramatically cooler low 70's lean toward that hint too...even when it seems its been a mild August with unseasonably mild month.

Other remarkable & memorable Mass sights this week:

Stacks and stacks of firewood awaiting the winter ahead of fireplaces and wood stoves. I've never seen such volumes of firewood...but then again, I've never had to prep for a New England winter!! (This pic is such a slight fraction. We passed a few establishments that had multiple piles of wood in the parking lot...the picture not captured!)



Windmills (er..."wind turbines") and solar panels everywhere. Noticeably so!! An environmental sight to behold. (More on this in a future post.). There's quite a sustainability contingent up in the Berkshires. We composted food at the end of the meals at our lodge, Stump Sprouts. (There was also an out building with a solar shower there.) We also used a composting bathroom at Hilltown Wilderness Adventures and saw other features of their Eco Village including their eco-cabin & green house; there was recycling galore everywhere we went; & we found many organic dining establishments with a wealth of vegetarian options.

The dimensionally greenness! The hills and mountains of the Berkshires gave such a rich picture of a hearty, woodlandish summery outdoors. Great hiking, biking, & swimming hole territory!! Especially beautiful was the Chesterfield Gorge, a National Wild & Scenic River.

The tallest mountain of Massachusetts (Mount Greylock) and an amazing view.

Sled dogs! They're not just for Alaska or winter time anymore. Fabulous experience at Hilltown Wilderness Adventures with Marla!! Puppy kisses for everyone!

The Eric Carle Museum, with a special gallery on Knuffle Bunny's Mo Willems. A double win for this house!!



Mass MoCA (= Museum of Contemporary Art) was another eye opening museum. Where else can you find dragons made or reusable materials and fountains made from styrofoam block?



But no bear or moose...
tho definitely signs of that a bear had been there!




And good people. Everywhere we went, people were amazing. A true climate of kindness. Kindness, sustainability, and the richness of the outdoors...a true and genuine find, and the makings of a good vacation.






Quote from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/. Pics from my camera.

Greening Your Home and Yard Routine

Spring has nearly sprung, and tonight is Daylight's Saving Time here in MD.

As the weather turns nicer, here's a great infographic to help you green your home and yard routine!!

Infographic from http://www.angieslist.com/articles/tips-green-home.htm 

TV Room Becomes "EcoRoom"

TV Room Becomes EcoRoom from Vicki Dabrowka on Vimeo.

I often tease my husband that if he is not careful, he's going to be accused of drinking the "eco-koolaid" just simply due to prolonged exposure to me. He typically laughs, and agrees with me, telling me it's a risk he's willing to take. Well, it just may be beginning to happen!

You know you have truly become a grown up when you find yourself saying things such as "For my birthday I want to get rid of the carpet in the TV room and put in hard wood flooring."  These were the words this past spring from my husband.  Truthfully, who can blame him given that the off-white carpeting has been more "off-colored" than "in" for years.  My question: who puts in white carpeting?  The eternal optimist apparently, who doesn't have kids or dogs, and moves out before reality sets in!

So, we bit the bullet and made the plan for wood flooring.  And, as I mentioned in a previous GTG post, my husband (good man that he is) agreed that we could go the bamboo, sustainable route.  Even better, we went with an eco-friendly underlayment made from recycled tires, which will ultimately help with sound reduction and insulation.  Very cool. 

So what's an eco-koolaid-drinking, edtech-kind-of-teacher to do to celebrate her sustainability home plan?  Why, make an iMovie about it, of course.  So, check it out above

For those of you on the fence about whether to "bamboo" or not, here are some interesting bamboo flooring fun facts:

✒ Strand woven bamboo flooring is one of the hardest types of wood flooring out there.  Our friends at Lumber Liquidators told us that it is the 5th hardest wood out there.

✒ Bamboo (a grass) grows incredibly fast--faster than any of our other planetary plants. It regrows and regenerates from the same roots.

✒ Fully matured, "old growth" bamboo for flooring happens after 4-7 years...as opposed to matured hardwood trees, which takes approximately 60 years to mature.

 ✒ The bamboo yield per hectacre can be up to 20 times a greater yield than a typical timber forest. Ergo, it is a much more environmentally friendly option.

✒  The species of bamboo used for flooring is not on panda's diet, so no panda will starve due to your desire for sustainable flooring.

Pictures and videos from my camera; "Determination" poster made using the Motivational Poster iPad app with our pics; iMovie made from my pics and housed over at Vimeo http://vimeo.com/46211081

Our House Meets Vision House

Ask any panda and he (or she) might disagree, but bamboo is not just for dining anymore. Nor is it just for pandas.

In my house, we celebrated our patriotic rights and freedoms this Fourth of July by heading to Home Depot and Lumber Liquidators (where, yes, there's an App for that).  There, we exercised our First Amendment Rights and the freedom of speech, by exercising our freedom of choice and the right to choose whatever kind of flooring we want for out house.

We had already decided in May that the not-so-white-anymore white carpeting HAD to go in our family room. (What were they thinking, whoever put that in?!?)  My husband, knowing the eco-nut that I am, graciously let me talk him into bamboo rather than traditional hard wood flooring.

We want what the pandas are having. We chose sustainability. We chose bamboo.  All we have to do now is choose color and type! (AKA, the hard part).

Given that it is Independence Day, and there's freedoms &  fireworks (and more), it reminds me of our last experience w/fireworks. Ironically, it was only a mere week and change ago on our Floridian family adventures to Disney World and beyond. This time my memories take me to Epcot... specifically, to our visit with their Vision House exhibit in Epcot's Innoventions.



The Epcot-ian Vision House is one of the first "high profile" green home exhibits that are "designed to get mainstream America excited about sustainable living."  Opened Earth Day 2012 (for obvious reason), Vision House (sponsored by Green Builder Media) is an example of all that can be in the world of green building.

Add in, they have a 3 great portals where you can "choose your world:" kids, grown ups, or teachers.   Three great tastes that taste great together!! Whether you want straight info, "Earth Games," ready made power point lessons, how-to videos or fun/eco-animated stories with an enviro-message, the Vision House website has oodles and gobs! The kids' page is exceptional!!

Of course after my visit to Vision House, my wheels are turning more and more of all the cool things we can do!  Some of the neat features of Vision House, from my own camera:

Check out that Coca Cola Recycle Symbol.

Soda Bottle recycled chairs above sustainable
flooring, and a refurbished dining table.

Insulation? Yes!  Levis!!

Panda pic: http://www.duke.edu/~yx6/compsci4/webpages/CWSep1.html; Vision House Sign http://www.greenbuildermag.com/VISION-HOUSE/VISION-House-in-Innoventions; all others from my trip and my camera: http://www.greenbuildermag.com/VISION-HOUSE/VISION-House-in-Innoventions

The House That ECS Built

The story of the 3 Little Pigs could have had a much different outcome had the pig family spent the day with Eagle Cove School on May 16th.  Those pigs could have gotten a lesson in sustainable building to make one heck of a wolf-proof straw bale house, had they combined their efforts and worked as a team!!

Lucky for us at Eagle Cove School, we got that tutorial and that experience from our Green Roof orchestrator, Mr. Rick Truett.  Last Thursday we were finally able to have our "hold-out assembly" from our ECS Earth Week (due to rainy weather rearing its head and causing us to postpone it).
Here's a YouTube example (to a much grander scale) of the process that Rick Truett directed our "10 yrs. old  and under" set to do.


After a short info session complete with slides of what sustainable, renewable architecture and building looks like (and how some German "wattle and daub" houses have held up for over 800 years), the PreK to 4th grade students got their assignments for the day. They all involved pulling up their sleeves and getting a little dirty (if not a little straw-prickly)!

Second through fourth graders started out around 9:30 am by splitting into 3 groups:
1). The Foundation Builders moved some pre-used sidewalk slate rectangles to the building site to form the foundation. Muscles were heavily used!

2).  The Soil Crew unloaded Mr. Rick's truck, with shovels in hand.  This dirt would be used to make the necessary mud later on.

3).  The Straw Balers moved the straw bales to the site and started laying them in place, almost as if they were laying big prickly bricks. 

Metal poles were paced in the 3-4 layers of bales to pin them in place. The kids filled the corners between the bales with excess straw to make it even more compact, filling in all the gaps.

During lunch, our ECS Sci Guy and Mr. Rick placed some top beams and roofing in place so that the PreK'ers, Kindergartners, and first graders could start the dirty part of the program:  mudding the walls.  (Of course, if it was a more traditional hut, dung would have been added to the mix for additional strength and durability, but for obvious reasons, we skipped that ingredient!!)  Based on the twinkle in a few of these kids' eyes, I think the urge was strong to hug a teacher or two while covered from head to toe in mud!

Time got the better of use (isn't that always the case), and the kids only got an opportunity to do about half of the exterior.  If given time to do it fully, inside and out and pack the mud into the outer layer of these regular Home Depot-style straw bales (as opposed to the much denser building-grade bales), Rick assured us that our structure could last up to 20 years.  Not to shabby for a structure built by our student population!!  As it is, this one will probably last a year or two before it starts to break down and biodegrade.  But, in the interim, it'll make for a fun homemade addition to our playground, teaching the kids a little bit about how eco-friendly and sturdy building can be--without the use of petroleum-based plastics which come from non-renewable resources.

I'm not sure how old those three Li'l Pigs were, but I think they could have learned a thing or two from our ECS four- to ten-year olds.  Our straw bale sustainable structure could (and maybe should) now come with not only a "green seal of approval," but also a "wolf-proof certification" too!!

All in total, reminds me a little bit about another structure ~ Check out this video from Hug It Forward.


Images from:

Wattle and Daub labeled pic from http://www.petitemartinique.com/masonry.htm, German style Wattle and Daub house from http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-033-evolution, YouTube video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUuMl75Z9UY&feature=related; Hug it Forward "How to Build a School Out of Plastic" video from http://hugitforward.org/;  all other pics from my camera!