Casa Folha

Another beach house that caught my attention...by Brazilian architects Mareines & Patalano. For more information go to their website by clicking here.

No Handrails!!

Earth's last dinosaur

Leatherback turtles are critically endangered across the Pacific ocean. Their nesting habitats are disrupted by humans in many ways: light pollution, egg hunting, trash and mere curiosity. These magnificent animals can reach weights of 2,000 pounds and 9 feet from beak to rear flippers. They can travel distances of 4,000 miles in the ocean, spend most of their lives without coming to land and are amazing navigators. They are also capable of the most deep and lengthy dives: 1,000 meters deep for as much as 80 minutes of total duration! For these and many other reasons I feel that we are obligated to protect these animals. Their decline is principally due to by-catch from the fishing industry and egg hunting. There are many scientists working on saving these animals and most of the current effort is located at Playa Grande in Costa Rica, their major nesting grounds. I first fell in love with these animals when reading Carl Safina's "Voyage of the Turtle", a book that describes the Leatherback's habits, biology, conservation efforts and habitats. It also discusses conservation efforts and current research into tracking their movement across the ocean. It is a very inspiring read. 

 "The only surviving species of its genus, family, and suborder, the Leatherback is an evolutionary marvel: a "reptile" that behaves like a warm-blooded dinosaur, an ocean animal able to withstand colder water than most fishes and dive deeper than any whale."

There are lots of information out there on these amazing creatures and if you are curious about them or how to help click here. Or watch the video below

Suspension Bridge!

This bridge was built at The Trift glacier in proximity to the Swiss Susten pass, one of the most quickly melting glaciers in the Alps. Ladders as well as a path along the glacier provided access to the local lodge. In the meantime, however, a lake formed at this location. Since a detour would have been significantly longer and more difficult, the decision was made to cross the gorge with a suspension bridge.

This very delicate structure employs a parabolic underspanned suspension system to stabilize the delicate construction and prevent uplift at extreme wind speeds. Two U shaped steel elements each placed at one third of the entire span provide additional stabilization and also stiffen the suspension cables. After two years of planning and six weeks of construction the new, approximately 170 m long bridge spanning the Trift gorge at a height of almost 100 m above the lake was opened. It simple terms, it just looks amazing, and what a setting!

International Year of Forests - Crisis in the Amazon

"In the Amazon rainforest region, deforestation impacts around 30 million people and 350 indigenous and ethnic groups. Yet the Amazon, and other forests like it, are fast-becoming major casualties of civilization as growing human populations increasingly threaten these important biomes. Forests currently account for approximately one third of the Earth's land mass, and 2011 was declared International Year of Forests by the United Nations."

There has been a lot of attention give to the Brazilian Amazon in the news recently. Unfortunately, most of them are not good. In the past month 5 local activists have been killed over land and logging disputes. The rate of deforestation has risen 5 times in the months of march and april, based on the same period in 2010. A new forest code is being discussed (and has been approved by congress, with only the president now with power to veto it) and it promises amnesty to all illegal logging to date. A new hidro-power plant (Usina Belo Monte) has been approved for construction - big yes for renewable energy - but this project has very serious impacts that may undermine any positive outcome: the displacement of local indigenous populations; flooding of more than 256 square miles; the creation of a huge dam in one of the most important rivers in the area - the Xingu river... the impact list is long and they are expecting its maximum output to be only 33% of the built capacity! It made our most vocal and active indigenous tribe lider Raoni cry.

With this year being declared International Year of Forests by the United Nations I hope that it will bring even more attention to the issues of deforestation, social inequality, labor, energy and land use. The situation in the Amazon is so critical and the area is so huge that it is hard to imagine what really goes on there. Knowing how the Brazilian government can be, sometimes I have to hope for some miracle... but despite it all, many are still fighting and all I can think of is how can I contribute.

For a good source of Amazon related news, click here

For more information on the Hidropower plant and to sign a petition, click here

Rush Hour

Another one from the Netherlands...

Morning rush hour in the 4th largest city in the Netherlands. Streets look like this when 33% of ALL trips are made by bicycle!

This is an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. Original time was 8 minutes that were compressed into 2 minutes, so everything is 4 times faster than in reality. The sound is original.

This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 22,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here.

These cyclists cross a one way bus lane (also used by taxis and municipal vehicles), two light rail tracks and then a one way street that can be used by private vehicles.

Behind the camera is a railway (you can hear the squeaking sounds of the trains passing) and the main railway station is very close too. A number of rental bikes from the station pass and many of the cyclists will have come by train for the first part of their commute.

For those who frown upon the total absence of bike helmets in this video, consider these findings from a US study:

"Cycling in the Netherlands is much safer than in the USA. The Netherlands has the lowest non-fatal injury rate as well as the lowest fatality rate, while the USA has the highest non-fatal injury rate as well as the highest fatality rate. Indeed, the non-fatal injury rate for the USA is about 30 times higher than for the Netherlands.

Injury rate per million km cycled: USA 37.5; NL 1.4
Fatality rate per 100 million km cycled: USA 5.8; NL 1.1"

Earth Day 2011

On April 22nd, 1970, senator Gaylor Nelson founded Earth Day as a way "to put the environment into the political ‘limelight’ once and for all." Now, 41 years later we are still struggling with conservation and sustainable development but there is a lot of momentum going on. People from all walks of life are moving towards achieving more healthy life styles. Scientists, designers, businesses, teachers, politicians, you and me and so many others. Action is the key, from the big picture to small acts of every day life. What will you pledge to help reduce your impact on the planet?


Check out some great information and initiatives by going to the EPA website.
Or Google "Earth Day" to see all the news, events and information about today's celebrations.

Samba and Sustainability?

Ok, you are probably thinking: "What does music has to do with sustainability?" or "Of course, she is brazilian so samba has to be woven into anything". Well, both of these thoughts ran through my mind. Mostly, this connection happened by chance for me. I just recently finished reading "O Misterio do Samba" by Hermano Vianna (there is an english version, for those interested click here) and was amazed by how he describes the "mystery" of how samba went from being rejected by society into becoming a symbol of brazilian nationality and pride. Samba was not only frowned upon, it was banned from being played and danced in public and musicians and enthusiasts were gathering in secret places. What really stuck for me was how culture at the time was in a sense manipulated to reflect the growing sense of nationalism that the current president (Getulio Vargas) was trying to instill in the population. The shift from outcast to spotlight happened with a lot of help from a Brazilian anthropologist Gilberto Freyre who believed in the beauty of the expressions of the african and indigenous people and in a sense rejected all american and european influences in the brazilian culture.

And what about sustainability? Well, a book that I am reading right now is the 2010 State of the World report on "Transforming Cultures" (click here for more info and to download free chapters). Yes, that is the connection, transforming cultures. In this report, several scientists and professionals from different areas discuss the impact of consumerism in our planet's ecosystem. The current levels of consumption are so high that to sustainably support the world's population we would need a third more of Earth's capacity than is available. In other words, humanity now uses the resources and services of 1.3 Earths, undermining the resilience of the ecosystems that we depend on. This report proposes that we curb consumerism and stop shopping for "unnecessary" items. This is a very hard thing to ask. Transforming cultures is no easy task but the samba example gave me a glimpse into a cultural shift that happened when politicians, artists, social scientists and the population were willing.

"Preventing the collapse of human civilization requires nothing less than a wholesale transformation of dominant cultural patterns. This transformation would reject consumerism - the cultural orientation that leads people to find meaning, contentment and acceptance through the way they consume - as taboo and establish in its place a new cultural framework centered on sustainability. In the process, a revamped understanding of "natural" would emerge: it would mean individual and societal choices that cause minimal ecological damage or, better yet, that restore Earth's ecological systems to health. Such a shift - something more fundamental than the adoption of new technologies or government policies, which are often regarded as the key drivers of a shift to sustainable societies - would radically reshape the way people understand and act in the world."

So I wonder if this shift is possible, can culture change at this scale? Can people as a whole (and not just in some specific places) have a sense of pride not by what they own but by who they are and what they stand for?

Talking Trash

"...if everyone lived like Americans, Earth could sustain only 1.4 billion people."

"...erecting an average home of 2,000 square feet results in roughly 8,000 pounds of construction waste and 136,000,000 tons of demolition waste are tossed into landfills in the United States every year."

That means 4,610,000 standard shipping containers of 40 feet in length!!! What does that mean for architects and designers when the basis of what we do it utilizing materials to build a project? We rely on a steady stream of materials that not only get discarded at the end of their life cycle, they also come from somewhere and require a lot of energy and resources to be produced. Based on the premise that the world is a finite element and we are already running beyond its capacity, it is time to rethink how we design.
A great example comes from the Netherlands (of course!). Jan Jongert and Jeroen Bergsma of 2012Architects have designed a house where 60% of the structure is comprised of reused materials found within a 9 mile radius from the building site. This number goes up to 90% when it comes to the interior. Some of the materials include broken umbrellas and chopped up billboards.

For more images and information click here