MIT using Permaculture Design « Punk Rock Permaculture E-zine

Shared by tzm
US FEMA Trailer Redesigned using Permaculture Principles.

The “Armadillo” is a “green” converted travel trailer that was originally one of the thousands of surplus FEMA trailers purchased for deployment on the Gulf Coast as temporary housing in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Armadillo is the result of the year-long collaborative art project, the MIT FEMA Trailer Project in which faculty and students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Visual Arts Program transformed a surplus FEMA trailer into a “green” mobile composting center with vertical gardens, rainwater catchment system, permaculture library, and indoor multipurpose space. The trailer has been dubbed the “Armadillo” for its ribbed retractable shell.

ArchitectureWeek - News - Buildings and the Climate Bill - 2009.0624

While it is fashionable to talk about wind farms and hybrid cars, buildings are the "elephant in the room" seldom discussed, though they are responsible for almost half of U.S. energy use. Climate scientists have concluded we must cut global warming emissions by at least 80 percent within just 40 years, or face catastrophic climate disasters. If we don't start making better buildings now, we have no hope of meeting this goal.

An open letter to the Oxford Conference - Building Design

BDonline green columnists Jon Goodbun and Karin Jaschke step into the debate on architecture,... If architectural and design education is to meet this historic role [of sustainability], then it will need to free itself from the constraints of the professional bodies to which it is shackled, or it will need to transform those bodies entirely. Let the students redesign the curriculum, and not only will you find that sustainability issues are suddenly at the core of all subjects areas, but that some very interesting shifts in pedagogy, content, and indeed definitions of architecture and architectural work would materialise. ... Sustainability is in its broadest form grounded in values that are antithetical to those underpinning the architectural profession and architectural education in most institutions today: the importance of authorship, the premium on individualism, an idea of creativity that is still fundamentally rooted in 19th century romantic and idealist artistic thought. Instead sustainability thinking, at least tendentiously, foregrounds co-authorship, co-creation, and an agency oriented rather than ego-centric approach to design.

TUMEKE!: Population/Immigration - Auckland/Tamaki

...Permanent immigration to keep the population at net growth every single year is the thickie's way to prosperity - invest all your earnings in property instead of industry - and because it is premised on the policy continuing - it is a type of pyramid scheme....

Green building makes common sense a reality

if elevators can generate some electricity as they're operating, then why shouldn't they be incorporated in every design? If you can use rooftop gardens, rainwater filtration systems for toilets, skylights to reduce the need for lighting, and glass insulation to regulate interior temperature, then why wouldn't you want that as a part of a building's deign? This is not just innovation for it's own sake - it's innovation that makes common sense a reality.

The Sustainable Habitat Challenge

Challenge to create eco-homes

Beyond Green Building & Smart Growth

Plant Room Launch Party

Tomorrow's Houses Today

SHAC Teams Announced

House of Straw Central Entry

Save energy, eat roast mutt

Green edge to houses: Getting back to basics could be the building concept of the future.

Housing for the future

The Plant Room

Teams to make affordable houses

Cheaper, greener buildings on show in Australia

Sustainable habitat challenge projects entered

Tomorrow's Houses Today

SHAC Teams Announced

Housing for the future

House of Straw Central Entry

Beyond Green Building & Smart Growth

Save energy, eat roast mutt