“Every crisis contains in itself an opportunity”

Dear Pat,                                          (Wednesday 21 January, 2009)

Strange times indeed!

Yesterday Martin Luther King’s dream was realised with Barack Obama becoming the first black president of the united States. Today sees Ireland celebrating, after much movement building based on Hope and Bold-ness of vision, the 90th anniversary since the first meeting of Dail Éireann.

But strangest of all is that we are living in times of such climate catastrophe, which threatens our collective existence regardless of nation and race, and in Ireland this fact is neither sufficiently recognised, nor is sufficient assistance given to those with visions for sustainable change.

Since time immemorial, the Chinese symbol for “crisis” has been expressed by the combination of the two words “danger” and “opportunity.” There-in lies not only a sentiment for Ireland’s present woes, but also a notion that these days could lead to something truly positive: an opportunity for our “Green Isle” to become a model sustainable community for both Europe, and indeed the world…

We must re-evaluate our understanding and use of the words Progress and Health. We must move from the idea of GDP (gross domestic product) to EPI (environmental performance index). That being, moving from how much stuff we move around the planet and at what cost, to what is the environmental impact of these actions and how they can be improved upon. In short, we need to stop burning tonnes of oil to import tonnes of New Zealand apples to Ireland, and seek ways to develop local food production zones and markets, like Seedsavers or Dolphins Barn community garden, which re-establish community and tradition, while not costing the earth.

What we are calling a “global financial crisis” is the first inevitable problem arising from a faulty economic system, built on the absurd idea that infinite economic growth is possible, fuelled by the endless supply of cheap oil. Apart from the disastrous CO2 emissions of this approach, a direct cause of Irelands recent summers rains?, scientists have made it clear; World Oil demand has peaked, we are running out of it and need to quickly build alternatives to survive. Thankfully some exist:

The Cradle to Cradle approach, which is based on the observation that in nature “Waste equals food” uses smart eco design powered by the sun, and is developing and building clean eco processes and buildings. The Netherlands is firmly embracing the concept and US architect, Bill Mc Donagh, has been asked to design 12 new eco cities in China. Can we imagine what a Cradle to Cradle island of Ireland might look like?

The Transition Town movement, originally developed out of ideas from Kinsale permaculture college, has expanded rapidly in only 2 years and sees communities coming together to imagine how they will exist with less oil dependence. Recently Sommerset county council in the UK embraced this practical philosophy.

I am an architect and eco-urbanist who left Ireland 2 years ago and now live, work and learn in the Catalan city of Barcelona. Prior to that I was involved with a group seeking to make the Botanic Spine, that being an 18km eco corridor, bikeway and linked route of food gardens joining Dublin’s 2 canals, the Phoenix park and the derelict train line that splits Cabra in two. With a bit of vision and support from the government, this ring could be a major catalyst for change that might help Ireland realise her opportunity, and take another BOLD and Visionary step, in these troubled times: to attempt to become Europe’s “Green Isle”.

Regards,

Duncan O`Cruadhlaoich, architect, EIG (eco intelligent growth), Barcelona
http://www.ecointelligentgrowth.net/eng/02duncan.html

Notes:

The above letter was sent to Pat Kenny, after a request on his show last Monday for people to send in ideas for a “Brainstorming session to try to get us (Ireland) out of this (economic) mess”, in light of the current economic crisis that has gripped the country, for Fridays show which will be a 2 hour discussion resulting from such inputs. Email Pat if you want to add your views.

Today With Pat Kenny -
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/
Email Pat Kenny at todaypk@rte.ie

(This post was first published on Indymedia Ireland)

Related links

Martin Luther King + Barack Obama
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0119/uspolitics.html

90th anniversary since the first meeting of Dail Éireann.
http://www.rte.ie/laweb/ll/ll_t15_main.html

climate catastrophe
http://climateactioncafe.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/what-…2008/

Chinese symbol for “crisis”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_translation_of_crisis

Progress and Health.
http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article250-HOW-WEALT….html

GDP (gross domestic product)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product

EPI (environmental performance index).
http://epi.yale.edu/Home
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Performance_…Index

New Zealand apples to Ireland
http://www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/rural-nz/statistics-and-f…1.htm

local food production zones and markets
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/26/cityf…print
http://transitionculture.org/essential-info/book-review…puls/

Seedsavers
http://www.irishseedsavers.ie/

Dolphins Barn community garden
http://dublincommunitygardens.blogspot.com/

“global financial crisis”
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89482

CO2 emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/05/kin…hange

Irelands recent summers rains?
http://blog.cjwriting.com/2008/08/09/summertime-and-the…oggy/

Scientists have made it clear; World Oil demand has peaked,
http://www.oildecline.com/

Cradle to Cradle
http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm
http://itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/billm…ough/
“Waste equals food”
http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/36…2706/
watch film in English: http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/36…1824/

The Netherlands is firmly embracing the concept
http://www.duurzaamgebouwd.nl/images/pdf/Designing%20Cr…y.pdf

US architect, Bill Mc Donagh, has been asked to design 12 new eco cities in China.
http://www.mcdonough.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY4o3WzCfmM

The Transition Town movement,
http://www.transitiontowns.org/
http://itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/trans…tion/

Kinsale permaculture college,
http://www.kinsalefurthered.ie/permaculture_course_leve…2.htm

Sommerset county council in the UK embraced this practical philosophy.
http://transitionculture.org/2008/07/28/something-wonde…rset/

architect eco-urbanist Barcelona
http://itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/towar…lona/
http://www.wiserearth.org/file/view/129467181ccddcda2ab…f31fd

Botanic Spine,
http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/feb2007/botanic_spi…e.pdf
http://itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com/2005/11/15/botan…pine/
Online thesis: http://www.wiserearth.org/file/view/ee418f0d85252453f94…42161

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?

Transition Culture: radio shows about transition towns and more

The advent of Peak oil and solutions to it are perhaps one of the most critical issues we are facing today. A recent movement has exploded in Britain, transition towns. It began in Kinsale in Ireland with Rob Hopkins who set up the Permaculture college there. They set up the Kinsale Energy descent plan, looking at how their town could make the transition to less oil dependancy over a 20 year time frame. From there Rob went back to Witness in the UK and from there the model has exploded. You can find out whats going on on their WIKI (with translations) and they have set up a fantastic website Transition Culture.

Here is an excellent short video made by —- as part of the Lewes Transition town movement. It was shown in the local cinema of Lewes before all the films. It starts by asking the townspeople what are the causes of climate change and finishes with a rap about how oil is now used for the production of nearly everything we use

Rob Hopkins elaborates on the origins, the growth of and the future of the transition towns movement

How we use oil

· 130kg packaging made from oil-derived plastics is consumed by British households each year. Two-thirds of it is used in food production

· 57miles is the average distance a tonne of freight now travels by road. In 1953 it was 21 miles

· 95% of our food products require the use of oil, and the supply of food accounts for 21% of Britain’s energy use

· 3.5 litres of oil is needed to produce half a kilogram of steak

But there is hope…

To get a feeling for the way this movement is growing, have a look at a typical event organised in Britain, this time Lampeter in West Wales, Pioneering Welsh town begins the transition to a life without oil

It might be fair to say that it is the most progressive eco movement in Britain today, As George Monbiot pointed out (paraphrasing):

This is the only situation where you get so many different sorts of people in the same room working together, Rich old army general types, young single women with their kids, normal working people, DIY punks. Never before would you get such a mix to be in the same room together, let alone working on a project together.

3 radio shows about Transitioning

Transitioning, from climate camp to eco villages to transition town… (30 minutes)

Transitioning from climate camp to eco villages to transition towns to eco cities

A half hour life radio discussion during climate camp UK 2008. People working with, in or living in eco communities of varying sizes half a loose free flowing conversation.

part 1 – outline some of the principles behind these eco communities
part 2 – now that we have an idea of where we are trying to get to, how do we get there…

Transition town Lewes – climate camp radio (11 minutes)

As part of the recent climate camp UK we made this radio interview with Edwin Cambell about her experiences with the very successful transition town project in her town, Lewes. The recording was made at the front line that existed beside the police, and sometimes riot squad, she outlined the origins and successs of how their project has taken off and what their dreams are.As part of their project a short film was made, which was shown in the local cinema before all films.

Transition Town Kinsale – BOLD radio (28 minutes)

This audio recording was broadcast live on our BOLD internet radio and is a discussion with David Neavyn and Alan Clayton from Europes first Permaculture course in Kinsale about the idea of transition towns and eco initiaves in the southern Irish town of Kinsale, half hour talk, nice interview, big shout out to Cathie for assisting so much.

How Cuba did it, UK is doing it and how BCN might soon be doing it

One of the films nearly always used on how we can make the change is learning from the experiences of Cuba, when it experienced its own sort of peak oil crisis due to the fall of the Soviet Bloc in 1989:
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (full film-53 min)

And from Havana, which now supplies 60% of its own fruit and veg, to the UK city of Middlesborough. Last year saw an amazing food production experiment there that resulted with a communal meal for 6000 people outside the local art gallery. Keep up do date with these greenfingers on their DOTT07 blog (Designs of the time)

An excellent article in the Guardian entitled Urban jungle asked;

As food prices soar, could a project that saw fruit and vegetables grown in town-centre planters and parks be a blueprint for the future?

Andre Viljoen (  a designer of urban spaces ,and author of CPUL`S, who worked on the Middlesbrough project, ) believes that the multi-layered benefits of urban farming make it a timely idea. He said “We need to start thinking about food production being part of a city’s infrastructure – like roads.”

In Barcelona EIG (eco intelligent growth) put together a paper, Towards a healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona alongwith GEF discussion, which proposed much of these features being applied to this city. A key strategy for the cities transition is a greenway plan accompanied with a series of CPUL, food production zones, community gardens and more.

And from there?

We will be talking about Transition towns as well as other eco trends growing in the UK and Northern Europe at our gathering in la Teixadora tonight, more info on current post: Whats all this Climate Camp stuff then?

The APSO international  Conference 2008 on Peak Oil is happening in Barcelona next week and a Peak Oil open day is being organised for Wednesday 22nd of October during which we will visit some local inner city community gardens and hopefully show some or all of the Cuba film

Tiempos de Transición

“Estamos asistiendo a un fenómeno que está tomando una dimensión cada vez más amplia en respuesta a los retos del Pico del Petróleo y del Cambio Climático: los “hijos gemelos” de los hidrocarburos. Se trata de las iniciativas positivas y constructivas que muchas personas, alrededor del mundo, están empezando a tomar para transformar aquello que la gran mayoría ve aun como un problema en una solución, bajo el nombre de Transition Towns (Pueblos en Transición).“

4 page PDF article in spanish for magazine ECO Habitar (number 19) from Antonio Scotti about the growth of the transition town movement, download it from WISER Earth

Heres a cluster map from 17n’08 of who and where in the world is checking out the TT ideas,

Towards a healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona

We, at EIG, recently proposed some BOLD ideas for how BCN might grow. We think these ideas are feasible and that many of them could be implemented immediately and cheaply. Apart from radically changing the eco performance of the city, we believe that they would hugely affect the livability of the city, and indeed enliven the very soul of this strange city.

We would like if you viewed the short PDF document, Towards a healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona of only 9 pages with many images and with that, should you agree with all or some of the proposals, give us suggestions as to how best we can realise these dreams.

Here are just 2 of the ideas proposed:

Vias Verdes BCN + Green Roof BCN

Vias Verdes BCN: greenway network for city of BCN

Ciutadella and her green routes: A series of organic root like threads come from BCN´s park, her green heart, and weave to and through the rest of the greenway network.

Parc de la Ciutadella is not only the cities strategically placed central green lung; it happens to make up one of the most deeply loaded parts of Barcelona’s, and indeed Catalunya’s, urban and social history. In short; it matters. From this much loved city space, and always connecting back to and through it, are the 3 ripples; a series of radiating greenways that form a simple orbital matrix, the spine of the network. This structure forms the organising system through which all future greenways routes (roots) weave, from within the city out to her sea, rivers and surrounding hills. And from there to the wider Euro and Global network…

Green Roof BCN

Picking a juicy orange from a nearby tree and eating it, relaxing and talking with friends on a bench, working in a community garden to cultivate food, smelling the colourful flowers. All this in a place that’s always been there, but never been there.

A vast zone of food production, solar energy harvest, water collection, a series of public parks of varying scales; this is what the roofscape of Barcelona’s old city could easily be like. A many hectored, multi islanded, connected green space, linked by a network of bridges. A very exciting new urban terrain which would help reduce the cities carbon emissions by sequestering carbon while creating clean, cool and fresh air for the city. Presently, about 80-90 % of this area is unused and inaccessible to the inhabitants below. It now acts as a huge heat island, raising the cities temperature and worsening smog levels. Green roofs act as natural rain water drainage systems and also insulate the apartments below, further alleviating need for air conditioning.

Soon Barcelona’s Ajuntament might have to pay a carbon tax; this money could be used now to offer incentives to landlords to immediately cover their terraces with planted green roofs. From there public-ising of roofspaces might begin. Take this bold urban step and make Barcelona a model urban city once again.

9 simple, immediate, intelligent steps for a healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona.

1 – Healthy cities address their rivers lovingly.

2 – Make a mesh of connected greenways in the city.

3 – Turn greenways into CPUL threads.

4 – Edible Barcelona

5 – Use the city to cleanly power its transport

6 – Barcelona has a water crisis. Time to start using water smartly.

7 – Make urban wandering ring more joyful

8 – “Let the Eixample mosaic of hidden green zones sparkle in the city”

9 – Passeig de Sant Joan Park

File location:

Towards a healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona +on WISER Earth

Related links:

Ronda Verda: new greenway for city

Spanish Greenway network: http://www.viasverdes.com/ViasVerdes

Euro Greenway network: http://www.aevv-egwa.org/

Bill Mc Donough outlining C2C architecture with greenroofs

Vias Verdes en España

William McDonough on Ecocities in China

The Paper was an appendix to a White Paper delivered by EIG, July 2008.

Themes of Paper:

- Urban Greening systems : page 2

“Buildings as Trees, Cities as Forests”: 2 slides

- Urban Greening systems: page 3

Infrastructure and Participation + Botanic Spine

- What are greenways? page 4

- CPULs – Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes page 5

- Edible cities, Middlesborough, UK page 6

- 9 simple, immediate, intelligent steps for a page 7

healthier, happier, eco-effective Barcelona.

- Reworking the Building and the Block page 8

to make Barcelona a model urban city once again.

- Via Verde BCN: A series of greenway ripples, page 9

radiating out from the green heart of the city.

Dolphin’s Barn community garden under threat

Is this the DEATH of (y)our garden ?

Builders and machinery have moved in, trees and plants have been taken up and it looks like it might be the end for the Dolphins Barn Community Garden, which celebrated its first birthday on Wednesday the 12th of April. Presently the garden crew has 54 people on its mailing list and there have been at least twice that in the garden.

After nearly a year of what turned out to be a really positive experiment in sustainable urban gardening, re-establishment of community, healthy use of derelict space and the creation of new friendships, things have taken a change for the worse… but it might not be the end. There is the possibility of revisiting matters later in the year, but the gardening project has been put on hold for the moment after a number of meetings with the owners of the land where the garden is established.

On Sunday the 19th of March, 2 days after a very successful open day: Paddy’s Day spud planting, we were visited in the garden by one of the directors of the White Heather Industrial Estate, on whose land the garden exists. He had received a letter from the City Council stating that their estate needed to be cleaned up or else they would receive a fine. We had made unsuccessful attempts to establish contact with the owners at the beginning of the project. After that discussion it was felt that “His only real request was that we tidy up a bit”, he mentioned that there might be building work in the future and that we might have to move our newly planted orchard. He also stated that no planning submission had been made at this stage but that they were looking at “development” of the area. Curiously enough at the same time on Indymedia, someone quite irate called Concerned resident Dolphins Barn appeared out of the blue and stated that “One of the factory owners at the moment is very disturbed by these trespassers”. From that time on communication was kept up between the garden crew, the industrial estate and the council, who had already given some months previous a €600 grant to the garden. A deadline of the 10th of April was agreed on for a final decision from White Heather as to whether we would be allowed to carry on working in this space, which for many has become a very special space to spend time living, learning and working simply as a human being.

Unfortunately we have not been successful in getting permission from the industrial estate to keep gardening but we have permission to watch the spuds grow. But the story is not over yet, join us this Friday for the first birthday party of the garden and we’ll see how things unfold. We are currently in discussion with the council about looking for another more permanent plot to set up a garden, if you know of any please let us know.

Brief timeline
(Quotes taken from garden email list, many different contributors)

-12 April 2005 – Dolphins Barn community garden comes to life; ground broken, trees planted, dreams realized.

2006:
-19th March – Garden crew meets in garden with and has initial discussion with one of White Heather Industrial estate directors, on whose land we have worked on for nearly a year with no problems. Outcome of that: “His only real request was that we tidy up a bit.”

-26th march – Meet again in garden with same director, a different tone this time: “While he acknowledged that there had been some improvement in the garden’s appearance compared with last weekend, he told me that at this point he considers that our use of the land is trespass and that we are going to have to leave. He recommended that we remove anything of value.”

-2nd April – First sighting of “a number of workmen on the site from JC Devereux, including a skip, a mini digger and a small loader.”

-3rd April – Meet same director again, this time: “I asked him expressly if we could do any further planting and he said no. We are free to come down and ‘watch the potatoes growing’ (exciting!!), but nothing further should be done.”

-7th April – By this time a series of discussions had been set up between the garden crew, the city council and the industrial estate director. Mainstream newspapers wanted to run a story about what was happening but the garden crew decided through consensus that it was preferable to put this off until after the 10th of April, which was the date the director had given when he would have a final stand on things.
”I’ve just spoken with Willie Morrogh (City Council) who had a meeting with the White Heather director and the litter warden this morning. Anyways, the litter warden signed off on the cleanup. Despite this, it appears that the White Heather director is not prepared to allow us to continue to use the site (apart from watching the spuds…….feckity feck). The primary reason given is security (and liability).”

-10th April 2006 – No change of view from directors: “time to take action.”

Where to from here?
It must be stressed that the White Heather Industrial estate have kindly permitted us to use the site throughout 2005. but that due to the landscaping plans for the site, the fruit trees and bushes have been relocated to the Phibsboro garden. We still hope that there will be a community garden in the future where the present garden now exists, but if not there are other avenues open for exploration. In conjunction with the long term plan that prompted the picking of the dolphins barn patch we hope to find somewhere along the botanic spine and with that try to encourage more people to get involved with the result of creating more gardens throughout the city.

So if we have to move there are other possible locations on the Botanic Spine that we are thinking about:
1- The empty green lot, 200m down the canal after Margaret the gardeners, at Donore bridge.
2- IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art); the gardens, this was discussed and some artists said they would help make an official proposal to IMMA, that was originally to be an independent garden if there were numbers.
3- War memorial gardens and accompanying lands, very nice on banks of Liffey: a new Liffey valley plan is being drawn up at present.
4- Phoenix park, huge, definite space there to be used.
5- Phibsboro garden- support what is there and build on it, lots of land up there, that’s where the dolphins barn trees are at present.
6- Sheriff St, I haven’t been there in a while, but that was the catalyst for all this to begin with, we started the tree walk there and planted a good few trees there, there is room in the empty green patch, seeing as the razor fence came down last year, the ground is not the best as it is reclaimed land.

Sites outside the spine:
Landsdowne Valley (some spare land by the Dodder)
Drimnagh Castle.
Also, some of the allotments by Sally’s bridge are unallocated.

Development plans for the Dolphins Barn and Rialto area
Planning consultants from the UK came over late last year to carry out a consultation exercise with the local community in relation to the redevelopment of the area. Although the emphasis was on a large triangle of land north of the South Circular Road including the former John Players factory, there will be some attention given to the canal bank area. A harbour and footbridge are currently planned for the area where our garden now is. However, seeing as a community garden is undeniably good for any area, bringing as it does considerable social, educational, ecological and health benefits, we ought to be included in the plan and given our own patch. (http://www.indymedia.ie/article/72988 )

The bigger picture
Although on the global scale the garden has not changed the world, it has been an attempt to turn a simple idea into a reality. For 12 months now our garden has existed, grown and taken on a life of its own, from a small number of rain soaked beginners clambering around a fence to stick a few hazel trees into the ground there are now a large and ever widening crew who have shared their workload, stories, food, skills, jokes, dreams, time together. For many it has already been a beautiful experience. In today’s age we are fast approaching a peak oil crisis, resource wars are already happening as our demand for consumption escalates with the result of ruthless pirating for oil like we have seen in Iraq for the last few years. One major pull on oil reserves is the energy needed to transport the food you eat on your table from where it was grown; food miles.

Botanis Spine, a greenway and CPUL for Dublin City
A recent idea has emerged to remedy this, the CPUL, continuous productive urban landscape, which are local food production threads in cities. Dolphins Barn garden was the first node in what we hope will become a CPUL for Dublin city; the botanic spine, so named as it is a circular feedback loop which connects with the botanic gardens in Glasnevin, which we hope will act as the brain of the network as ecology becomes more of a critical matter in cities. After dolphins barn a second community garden node was created in Phibsboro and there are a series of other spots along the route, which could be turned into local community gardens. Perhaps the city council might embrace this idea and become a leader in sustainable city development. We submitted these proposals to both the head city architect and the head city planner and were twice scheduled to meet the planner, Dick Gleeson, but on both occasions he was pulled away at the last minute.
We also envisage this thread being a greenway, a non motorised transport route, a bikeway or walkway, which would act as a connecter of the communities that the spine threads through. Last year we organised a forum in the community centre in Sheriff Street to discuss all these ideas with one community, but unfortunately that was cancelled, plans are underway for another one. We organise bike rides along the route the last Sunday of the month and there is one scheduled for the end of this month.(http://www.dublin.ie/botanicspine/ )
Heritage council – what are greenways http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/walkways/project7.html

So what next?
(taken from gardener email)

a) I have tried to contact Willie Morrough but so far was just able to leave a message. I would like to get a more formal stance from DCC -

As DCC have established the 60 feet set back for buildings along that part of the canal perhaps we can use that to our advantage. If (long shot) someone in the council is supportive of community gardening initiatives like ours they could consider asking White Heather to allow us to stay as a more active, productive, positive way of landscaping the canal edge. White Heather would be under no obligation to do this probably but if it was suggested to them by DCC who knows?

b) The whole planning process can take ages so possibly we could keep gardening for months if White Heather were agreeable. They may just be using it as an excuse to get us out though.

c) If we are definitely out on our ear I’d be interested to know how many people in the Dolphins Barn area would be willing to campaign for a new space. I think we could find spaces in other parts of the city but it would be a shame to look like we were turning our back on Dolphins Barn at the first obstacle – that is if there is truly local interest. Time for people to show their true colours. We could circulate a flyer in all letterboxes telling people the situation and asking for support.

d) Be it Dolphins Barn or some other part of the city, we have formed a large and ever expanding group of people who are willing to put lots of energy into making their environment into a better place. It has been wonderful to watch people just turn up and ask what they can do – and get stuck in! If all that energy gets funnelled into a more
legitimate, secure place so much the better. We have the pictures to prove how great it can be!

e) I think we should think about putting together a submission to DCC highlighting the need for collectively run ‘productive urban landscapes’ – places which yield food at a local level but also as places which are social centres and points of interaction between people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. If the Dolphins Barn garden is no longer an option we can use the opportunity to find a properly accessible space without two walls to be climbed!

I know I, and a lot of other people, have left that strip of ground beside the canal behind after a days activity there, fingernails dirtied and totally energised by the experience.

It can only be good.

Related links:
Bringing Nature To Mans Domain – http://www.indymedia.ie/article/69689
Its gardening Jim, but not as we know it (Ireland from below, November 2005, page 5) -http://www.irelandfrombelow.org/
new community garden up and running in Phibsboro – http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74524
CPULS – continuous productive urban landscapes – http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0750655437/ref=sib_dp_p…68643
That eco idea is beginning to kick off in china – http://easa.antville.org/stories/1294501/
Greening the city Dublin – http://easa.antville.org/stories/960542/#1054312
City farmer’s urban agricultural forum – http://www.xaia.ca/cityfarmer/
What will we eat as the oil runs out? – http://www.indymedia.ie/article/70245
Convergence 7- feedback :building healthy communities, inspiring culture, redefining progress – http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69638&sea…gence

Audio:
-Ruth gives a history of the garden 8mins – http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/garden-tooth.wav
-Mixing the muck 7.5 mins – http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/garden.wav

Related Link: http://www.dolphinsbarngarden.org/

dolphins barn community garden birthday party on good friday

(This article was first published on Indymedia Ireland )

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

THE BOTANIC SPINE: an 18 km long orbital linear park that threads through the city of Dublin, a series of pocket parks,  some existing, some proposed.

View A3 PDF of concept here.

View full architectural Thesis “Catalyst @ Botanic Spine“, in 2 parts here 1 | 2

Dublin inner city has historically been defined as that land which lies inside the two city canals. Recently that sense of city has been lost, this project aims to remind the city of its lost identity.

The Spine acts as an eco corridor and greenway that threads together the 6 existing city waterways, the Phoenix Park (Europe’s largest city park) and the Botanic Gardens, which serves as the brain of the network that uses the spine as a constant feedback loop to output ecological projects and thinking into the wider city. The Botanic Gardens become the Dublin node in a global ecological system, greening the city, improving plant and animal life along green corridors, raising awareness and getting citizens involved with exciting eco initiatives.

The Spine is also a CPUL (continuous productive urban landscape) with a series of organic food gardens along it

The Spine mimics somewhat the structure and function of the human spine: a network of different systems flowing through the spine; plant and animal life, people, water, cycle route, metro line, digital info, hurling fans heading up to Croker for the big game?

View Botanic Spine detailed plan PDF here

The Architecture, Urbanism and Art of Duncan Crowley

Read that eco city idea is starting to take off in china

Have your say in the botanic spine communication space

heres what the land around Drumcondra could look like

greening city, connecting communities update:
architecural thesis “catalyst @ botanic spine” successfully completed in june.

vision : creating the botanic spine an 18km orbital eco corridor/ greenway for dublin city. a green thread that connects up a series of pocket parks, organic food gardens, local amenities, cities waterways and a new city metro underground.
locally produced fruit and veg is a huge part of this project, we started dolphins barn community garden in april which has been a wonderful project to be part of.

botanic spine mimics somewhat the structure and function of the human spine. A network of different systems flowing through the spine; plant and animal life, people, water, cycle route, metro line, digital info, hurling fans heading up to Croker for the big game?
It connects up to the botanic gardens and this acts as the brain of the scheme, as a node in a global ecological network: greening the city, improving plant and animal life along green corridors, raising awareness and getting citizens involved with exciting eco initiatives.

international velo-city conference happened may 31st- june 3rd here in Dublin.
“Dublin is delighted to welcome people from all over the world to the 15th Velo-city conference. The Velo-city series of conferences is unlike any other transportation conference worldwide”.
As part of this there was 1st Docklands City Cycle

as part of this conference there is a european greenways conference, which is an ideal opportunity to further try to make the botanic spine a reality.

dublins first greenway cycle

international greenways and velo city people come to support grassroots initiave

that eco city idea is starting to take off in china

past links: