Is Human Sustainable?

Is Human Sustainable?

This maybe a stupid question, but is it worth thinking? If sustainability is calculated as number that if we dispose something that need a large time to restore, the number drops; on the contrary, if we contribute something to the environment, the number raises. Under this condition, can we ever get a positive number? Or just get a balance?

From the day we born to the world, we have been using the resources on earth. Maybe in ancient times, we just breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. But in this age, we have a doctor and few nurses to get us out of our mother’s uterus. That doctor and the few nurses eat, breathe, take thousands hours to study to get the qualification to do the surgery. There will be air-conditioning and lighting in the surgery room, thus there will be electricity used. In addition to this, for the scissors that cut our umbilical cord, we need alcohol to sterilise those equipments; after the surgery, we need water to clean them as well. Afterwards, there will be enormous energy to light up the warming chamber. Just the moment we are brought to the world, how much energy that has spent on one individual, how many points has been deducted?

And as we grow up in the school, everything we do is not sustainable. We eat food from plastic packed products bought in supermarket, we study with light that is operated from electricity generated by unsustainable resources, we study with lots of books papers that are made from chopping off thousands of trees. In addition, we get to school by private car motivated from fossil fuels. None of the things that we do is sustainable, or at least for me.

Until the day we die, that our body with nutrients stored in tissues and organs can return back to the ground (just limited to those who are not burnt, if we are burnt, there will be air pollution), we can gain ourselves back some points. But of course that cannot compensate the food that is eaten by the doctors and nurses who did the surgery for us. Therefore, for me, human is never a sustainable creature. On the world’s point of view, we are even a group of cancer tissue. What we can do is to minimise the points we lost on the day we born. What a tragedy….

Carsssssss

Carsssssss

My friends come to an age of buying cars. And two of them have bought second hand cars. Both car costs around $5000, which is an affordable price for us as a student. And I thought of the lecture given a week ago, it seems like having a car is really a representation of individual status and it has become a trend in Sydney.

I live in an apartment next to Anzac parade and every Friday night, there are always continuous engine starting sound accompanying my study. Since I just moved in for four months, I took nearly a month to get used to this noise. In addition to the sound pollution, the dust staking on my balcony cannot be get rid of. The handrails and floor of the balcony is full of dust one day after my cleaning. I just cannot believe that the air quality can be so bad that the dust can refill in such a short period of time.

I know everyone has an option to choose where do they live, and it is my mistake to choose a random place to live without a deep research on what I will encounter. But the government should stop people from using those engines with powerful sound instead of speed and encourage the use of public transport. The condition is still not the worst as there are still not many tall buildings around. If there are too many tall buildings that natural ventilation cannot function, the situation will be a lot worse than now.

I would like to talk about the design of this building as well. The design of putting balcony facing the main street is totally absurd. Firstly, as I mentioned above, the air condition is bad. Secondly, the air condition is bad. And thirdly, the air condition is really really bad. I, as a pre-architect really learnt a lesson after living in here. I will never design a building like this I swear. =]

Bes… Glenn Murcutt– part c

Bes… Glenn Murcutt– part c

Alright, this has become the Glenn Murcutt series. Glenn himself is already a sustainable man considering his age of 78. He is still monitoring the graduation studio for the third year architectural studies and is a man worth respecting. This entry will talk about the significances of his houses.

Taking Walsh house built in 2005 as an example. This house has an elongated floor plan along the east-west line, minimising the annoying western light in the evening and maximising the northern light. He done this by putting the garage on the west and living room to the north east. This elongated feature is seen in nearly every houses by Glenn. Houses such as Berowra Waters Inn, Magney house, Simpson-Lee House, etc., all have this elongated floor plan to maximise the northern sunlight for winter. On the other hand, this long shape facilitate cross ventilation to every part of the house, providing an effective cooling effect.

Glenn tends to use adjustable louvers in his houses. The Walsh House does include this common feature. The interior space is conceived as a series of connected spaces, each clearly identified from outside with the adjustable louvers system. The louver system allows inhabitants to adjust the daylight penetrating through the building according to different services. This flexibility promotes the sustainable feeling of the house due to its ability to adapt change.

References:

Modern House: Walsh House

http://www.modernhouse.co/listings/walsh-house/

Best Sustainable Architecture – part b

Best Sustainable Architecture – part b

I just cannot stop talking about Glenn Murcutt once I started. And in fact he is really an innovator of sustainable architecture. Therefore, just keep talking about him. Glenn restated that his architecture is nothing about style, it is site relevant piece of enclosure that provides the best living condition utilising the existing values on specific location. Sun light, wind, rainwater, trees are all elements to support his works other and concrete and steel.

In his houses, the interior temperature is always around 25 degree no matter it is 42 degree outside without a need of air conditioning. And the whole house can be opened at night time without a fear of dramatic temperature drop as the thermal capacity of materials has done the heating work for us. This cannot be done by just combining discrete elements in a building; it is achieved by a careful study and combination of site condition such as sun orientation and cool wind direction. This makes the houses from Glenn more of functionality and less vivid compared to other Pritzker Prize winners. The style is not much complicated and the value that such architecture conveys is effective. When we, as a architecture student, studies his building or taught by him, we will know and understand his way of thinking and convey them to next generations.

When I was camping with Glenn in last year to the South West Rocks, the thing I learnt from him is more than what I read from books or from the internet. He understand the tidal change totally through the colours of oyster shell, read the prevailing wind through the grass declining direction, the tree types and the significance of the local ecosystem. This is mainly because his childhood. Before four, he lived in a natural place that does not have any people within 15km. This raise his ability to harness and care about the environment. Therefore, protecting our green space is important to breed another “Glenn Murcutt”.

References:

Glenn Murcutt

http://www.ecocitizenaustralia.com.au/glenn-murcutt/