The Revolutionn is On! USGBC 2008

Revolutionary Green

Join us at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Boston November 19-21, 2008. Boston is the historic cradle of the American Revolution and home to innovations that have far-reaching impact. It is the perfect place to celebrate Greenbuild 2008’s theme of “Revolutionary Green: Innovations for Global Sustainability.”

WE ARE REVOLUTIONARY GREEN www.greenbuildexpo.org
Check out their zoomable Conference Programme: www.zinio.com

Cant get there, dont have the cash? Tune in for free

Live streaming video coverage of all Master Speaker sessions and Friday’s closing plenary. These sessions will also be archived, so you can view them later if you miss them live.

From the yearly conference to organic growing permanent network: www.greenbuild365.org

Greenbuild365 expands the educational focus of USGBC’s Greenbuild Conference to a year-round forum, providing access to top-quality, innovative learning opportunities featuring timely and accurate information and training. Educational opportunities previously limited by geography are now available to anyone, anywhere – promoting ongoing learning for all.

Earlier related posts on this subject to Europes architectural youth on easa.antville.org

So in terms of all this ark and eco stuff, where do I start?
Think global, act local. You’ve heard it but are you doing it. Best thing is to connect with your local Transition Town network, if one doesent exist, start one off. Its exploding and bound to hit your town soon, in 2 years its exploded, ie see Europe below. for more info, audios, films etc see itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com

and from there, heres some of our dreams and actions for Barcelona:

Towards a healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona
itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com

Patcha Mama smiles again in Gracia (our local urban food garden, the first of many…)
itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com

OK, hope ye get fired up, dont just talk about it, do it!

“George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Robert F Kennedy Jnr, and Al Gore, and the call for A NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION”

Ill leave you with last years Green Build EXPO Keynote speaker (just in case you need revving up…) Paul Hawken, who is responsible for WISER Earth: www.wiserearth.org

Yes We Can!!!

AND, lets not forget what momentous event has just happened in the US, a Black man, Barack Hussein Obama, will be the next president of the USA, it might not deliver all we want, right here, right now, but its a huge step.

President-elect Barack Hussein Obama recorded a message for the Global Climate Summit, promising “a new chapter of American leadership on climate change.”

Barcelona to get its first ECObarri

In a new chapter in the BOLD urban history of Barcelona, a few days ago it was announced that there are plans to construct a new Ecobarri in the area of Vallbona.That being an eco neighbourhood on the banks of the river Besos, alongside the motorway and rail approach to the city from France. Jordi Portabella, the head of ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – republican left party of Catalunya) is confident that the project will be ready by 2011.

(View original in PDF in Catalan in newspaper AVUI 15 Nov 08 or scroll below for English translation)

Here is an interview in Català with Jordi Portabella about the plan

Jordi Portabella Feels that the ecobarri (eco neighborhood) of Vallbona will be a reality by the year 2011

The first sustainable zone of the city will have 1.800 dwellings | The criteria of construction they will approve of themselves of here in two months | The reference is Germany

The first ecobarri of Barcelona, situated in Vallbona, could be a reality towards the end of 2011. The president of the municipal group of ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – republican left party of Catalunya), Jordi Portabella, was confident yesterday that the existence of sustainable new neighborhoods Barcelona will not turn into a chimera and he dared to fix a date, even though the zone where the new housings will be constructed still has to outlined.

For the time being, the criteria of the housing will be decided in some months. The creation of two eco neighbourhoods in the city is a republican initiative that was approved of unanimously at the last municipal plenary. The proposal foresees, on the one hand, the construction of some 1.800 flats in the neighborhood of Vallbona, placed in the outlying district of the city, among the Besòs river and the motorway C-17, and awaits this very important urban transformation. The location of the other neighborhood is still pending, in spite of that ERC propasal for the neighborhood of Marina del Prat Vermell, another brand new neighborhood.

The philosophy of the ecobarri seeks to reduce to the maximum the environmental impact of cities – which are responsible for the consumption of 75% of the energy of the planet- and to achieve an optimum level of self sufficiency, regarding the supply of energy, water and foods as well as in waste management of and polluting emissions. Moreover, it incorporates more interaction with nature and agriculture, and it seeks to use more public transport and bicycle.

Building materials
sustainability will also apply to the construction of the housing, with the use of recycled and non polluting materials, the adequacy of the buildings to the natural profile their site, measures to use the utmost natural light and the water resources, and good acoustic and thermal insulation. In presenting the proposal of ecobarris, ERC was inspired by other European countries, ie: Germany, Holand ,UK, Denmark, Sweeden and Finland. The main reference for them were the ecobarris of Risefeld i Vauban, in the German city of Freiburg, where they have reduced the amount of private vehicles.

Some related links to articles in Spanish and Catalan

- Portabella proposa que l’Ecobarri de Vallbona funcioni com a pauta urbanísitca de tota la ciutat

- Vallbona acollirà un dels nous ecobarris de Barcelona

- ERC pacta amb l’Ajuntament la construcció de dos ecobarris a Barcelona

Ken Yeang and his HAIRY bioclimatic architecture

“My name is Ken Yeang, I am an ecologist and an architect. for the  future, we have to totally rethink our built environment, to achieve the simple collective objective of a benign and seamless integration of everyting that we as humans do or build in the natural environment.” 杨经文/楊經文

Last night in Barcelona, as part of Habitat Futura’s Bienel de arquitectura sostenible which focused on eco buildings and sustainable urbanism, one of the legends of green building spoke, the Malaysian architect and ecologist who studied in the UK: Ken Yeang. HF invited him to talk about his 1998 competition winning EDITT tower (Ecological Design In The Tropics) for Singapore, Malaysia. Treehugger have a short and sweet summary of the project.

He gave an excellent presentation about the wider discussion of his views as to what constitutes “ecological architecture”, being critical of last minute eco gadget add-ons, as well as describing in detail the EDITT tower. Hopefully soon, HF will make the video and slideshow of his presentation publicly accessible, in the mean time you can view a 22 minute talk he gave at this years Ecocity World Summit 2008 last April In San Francisco.

A second video worth watching is Architect Ken Yeang speaks on EcoDesign in which he shares his ideas on eco urbanism with Ross von Burg.

During his lecture, Ken raised many critical views of what buildings or cities could or should be about. He sees 4 components in his eco-architecture, each having  equal value..

Blue: water
Green: nature, planting etc
Grey: building components, glass, concrete, steel…
Red: humans (the life force? Color of blood)

He later went on to themes of urbanism and said it is not enough to only have “greenery” in buildings to help in cooling, looking nice etc, they must be PRODUCTIVE, they must be food sources. From there he talked about green threads, eco bridges etc for urban systems. He finished explaining a seafront urban project in Istanbul, part of master plan by Zaha Hadid, in which he creates a new green thread or “eco corridor” to act as catalyst for new urban areas with multi uses and spaces, mechanism to re-connect people to nature etc.

There is a fine article on Landscape+Urbanism entitled Ken Yeang: Veg.itect which talks about this joining of building to its landscape:

Rather than continue the segregation of disciplines, Veg.itecture spans disciplines, further blurring the lines of established practice regimes. This does not demark territories where only the few architect/LA dual practicioners are allowed to have this mantle, but rather it is indicative of a unique approach – one where building and landscape are not discernable as individual elements. Ken Yeang epitomizes the concept, perhaps stronger than any current architect. His concepts of bioclimatic high-rise design has been a signature of his designs – maxing aesthetic and technical principles.

ECO CORRIDOR ISTANBUL

The ideas of buildings and their surrounding urban areas being a connected space which works on many levels including food production for healthy eco cities has been explored for Dublin and Barcelona. It is now recognised that we have entered climate as well as financial crisis, hopefully we might see a massive shift toward more sustainable cities. It will definately happen, the question is when.

The Botanic Spine : A Greenway and CPUL for Dublin (eco)city

Towards a healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona

Is this what your edible city will look like tomorrow?