Interdependence is Sustainability

The Mesh by Lisa Gansky is a recent book on the business of sharing. The consumption economics is being rewritten in the current global scenario where everyone is looking for an answer that could sustain the future of mankind. This book gives numerous practical examples where new business models are reducing human consumption, increasing community usage and improving quality of the products. The planet should move away from use and throw tendencies which are a drain on our resources and reuse/ recycle is making sense more and more sense. In poorer countries it happens naturally as the very poor of society can make a living out of trash collection and recycling (though the methods adopted may not be very sustainable). While in the rich world, it is hard to make recycling feasible with higher costs and lack of will associated with it. The Mesh talks about products that are essential but seldom use and can therefore be brought into the public domain for sharing from the private domain of individual use. The book gives examples of old product types from cars to clothes to tools to real estate being available for shared usage. 


A recommended read to keep oneself updated with business strategies in the new cyber-age.

Green Roofs as strategy to mitigate city problems (Part 2)

Following to what we said last week, about how good green roofs worked to mitigate Heat Island Effect, one of the biggest challenges of cities nowadays, we want to continue explaining how good they perform as well, when we talk about another huge city problem:
Water Storm Management.

Climate change is altering the natural water cycles and the rain patterns in mostly every part of the planet. It is increasing the seasonality of rainfall and risk of flooding. When this happens in a natural environment, the native soil by absorbs and filters the water thru its permeable condition, but in urban areas the impervious flooring materials and buildings structures send all the water directly to the underground drainage causing peak flows that damage dramatically the infrastructure. The risk of localised flooding effects is bigger therefore in the cities. Images of flooding all around the world are common now in our daily newspaper cause climate change, and the amount of them will just increase.

Green roofs reduce the amount of storm water run-off and mitigate the peak flow rates. In summer a green roof can typically retain between 70-80 % of the rainfall run off. (Living Roofs and Walls Technical Report. London 2008)

In cities, "green roofs" are a great method to help out reduce the Heat Island Effects and the Water Storm Effects, but beyond that, green roofs are excellent for other reasons. They increase the biodiversity of a place and they enhance the quality of the space. If combined with Solar Panels, they increase the efficiency of the photocells as they help keep them cooler thru the evapotranspiration. 

The fact that there are being installed mostly in temperate climate places such as Germany, doesn’t mean though that they perform worst in desserts or in other climates. In fact, as insulators, green roofs have a very high efficiency in hot climates, reducing the cooling loads of a building that would save energy demand.
The cost of the green roof in this case with the irrigation system that needs should be measured against those potential annual energy savings and the reduction of the cooling system. Intensive roofs perform as good as extensive roofs, but the cost, the irrigation demand and the maintenance is so high that is not recommended on dry climates.
In tropical climates, in places such as Singapore, green roofs will be great efficient since there will be no need for irrigation system and very little maintenance. Intensive roofs are more cost efficient here and they will provide their own benefits as enhance biodiversity and amenity space to increase the value of the property.
In cold climates such as Germany, green roofs are not so efficient as insulators but in a city context and done extensively they do contribute to mitigate heat island effects, water storm discharge and in the summer time help to reduce the cooling loads of the building. They don’t need irrigation system but they need insulation panels. Extensive roofs can be used as much as intensive roofs as they are both liable.

In Mediterranean climates, if done in a large scale, green roofs can help thru evapotranspiration to increase the amount of precipitation inland, as they raise the amount of humidity in the air, which is another big consequence of the dense urbanization in the coast areas. (Estudios Ambientales del Mediterraneo studies done by Millan Muñoz)

In general terms, we can say that Green Roofs are good for many reasons and they should be considered to be used almost in every situation. 

Go to www.livingroofs.org for further information. 

Image from ACROS Fukuoka Project in Japan.
Source: http://www.metaefficient.com/architecture-and-building/amazing-green-building-the-acros-fukuoka.html#more

Green Roofs as strategy to mitigate city problems (Part 1)

In the 21^st Century, the human species have chosen cities as the dominant place to live. In 2008 it was the first time in history of human kind that urban population equalled rural population. By 2050, urban population is expected to be the 70% of the total. This data means that nowadays almost 4 billion people live in cities and by 2050 will reach 6’5 billion. (Source: United Nations “World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision)

Giving the number of issues most world cities present, and knowing that they will continue to increase in size, it is essential to research and work on possible strategies to mitigate city problems. 

The use and promotion of green roofs right now is essentially focused on the mitigation of two mayor city challenges: Heat urban effect and water storm effect.

Heat Island Effect is essentially the result of an increasing of temperature within the city area due to the high mass paving and the buildings covering the natural soil. Recent studies done by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 2008) show that the temperature of urban areas rises up directly proportional to the number of people that live in them.

When choosing materials to cover the urban grid and to rise up its buildings, human have created a very extended impervious surface that act as radiators absorbing sun heat during the day and radiating it at night. Nowadays with climate change and the increase of the world’s temperature, urban heat island effect is becoming so much more prominent and intense. It causes in humans a high level of thermal discomfort and is directly proportional to the increase in the usage of Air Conditioning systems in the cities.

Green Roofs are presented as one the best solutions to mitigate Heat Island Effects. They provide a pervious surface that traps the heat and thanks to their evapotranspiration they cool up the air.

The design and installation of a green roof, must be done by a professional who would recommend what type of green roof to use, extensive, semi-extensive or intensive, what type of plants to use (better native adaptive species) and what are the extra needs for it to work properly. Normally in a cold climate, it is necessary to install insulation panel in addition to the green roof. And in hot and dry climates, it is necessary to intall irrigation system that can collect water from the rain.

If every city in the world had this ancient technique, which romantically means that you return the stolen soil to the Earth after placing a building over it, the temperature peaks would be more moderate reducing the cooling loads during summer, and the heat island effect would not be the big problem it is now.

Green Roofs are worth it. 

Review the climate chart with green systems benefits and conditions that GUASL has prepared after doing an extensive research on how well Green Roofs perform in different climates to make sure you know what you will get depending on your region.

Will Shrinking Our Wealth Shrink Our Footprint

While on a recent trip to Mumbai, I found myself stuck in a traffic jam. Nothing unusual about the traffic jam, but unusual was to find my compact taxi surrounded by three luxury cars. This strange congregation of cars was a reflection of the change India has seen in the last decade by generating immense amount of new wealth. This prompted the driver to break into a conversation. He sighed with a little frustration on not being able to move and remarked,” Saheb (for Mister), you know these rich guys sitting in these big cars, they must have spent millions to buy large apartments in high rise towers, and their homes must be stuffed with all kinds of expensive items, but still unsatisfied, they come down in their big cars and jam the roads. Why don’t they enjoy their large air conditioned apartments and leave the roads for the taxis.” (This sentence has been edited for a few abusive words which show his level of frustration).


It took me a while to understand the real meaning of what he meant. This uneducated (this I found in further conversations along my trip) driver had understood the crux of our problem, which is our ‘consumption footprint’. And as the world economies are generating more wealth, lead by the Asian economies, their environmental footprint is swelling tremendously. In 2007, China overtook USA to become the leading emitter of carbon-di-oxide in the world, much faster and earlier than anyone had predicted.

The relationship between increased wealth and consumerism is a no brainer. When we have more money, we will spend more. A report published in Women of China magazine shows that Chinese women (in 10 Chinese Cities) spent 63% of their income on shopping last year as opposed to spending only 26% of their incomes in 2007. I left India for higher education almost 7 years ago. And in this short time, most middle class urban families now have homes that are air conditioned, equipped with flat screen televisions, dvd players and music systems, have multiple cellphones, own a car or two and travel on vacations more often. Even though the cars have become more fuel efficient with stricter emission norms, but their numbers have risen phenomenally keeping the city air quality still at dangerous levels. I on the other hand have moved across three countries in this period of time and have tried to keep my consumption similar as before. However, my footprint has still increased substantially on a per capita basis by living in consumption oriented economies. My ecological footprint increased by 11 times when I moved from India to the United States and is currently 5 times that of India when I am in Singapore.


The point is that as consumption increases, production follows to fulfil the demand. Environmental degradation is an externality of this process of consumption and production. The most visible of this externality is the increased deforestation and industrial pollution. According to a study by Norwegian University of Technology, a 100% increase in per capita expenditure, increases the CO2 footprint by 81%. In a world where a mere 2% of individuals hold more than 50% of the global wealth ( 2006 study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University), imagine their environmental footprints and the impact of which is borne most by the poorest 50% who own only 1% of the global wealth.

Now, the other side to this is the book titled Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalist: A Conservative Manifesto. Published in 1999, Peter Huber’s hypothesis is that wealth leads to environmental conservation. According to him, this is primarily achieved because wealthy nations and wealthy individuals spend their money on environmental conservation. There can be some degree of truth here, but the fact remains that the spending on environmental conservation comes only after one has amassed the wealth through production processes which are environmentally damaging. A recent list by CNN on top 10 green corporate giants has Honda, Continental Airlines and Suncor on top. CNN defines these as firms that have gone beyond law and reulation to operate in an environmentally responsible way. The irony is that all these firms for decades have either produced energy in a harmful manner or have given us options to consume the same by causing environmental damage. Taking similar analogy forward, the United States has for decades enjoyed a lifestyle of extreme consumerism and has been the biggest contributor to environmental harm in the world. At the same time, it has come to establish a system of environmental laws which are amongst the most stringent in the world and has institutional bodies that are leading global research on eco-friendly technologies. India, China and other growing economies are going through a similar cycle of generating wealth and increased consumerism. As per Huber’s hypothesis, they may someday in future start to spend a fraction of their wealth towards environmental conservation and mending the damage to the planet. A recent study by the National University of Singapore rates Singapore as the worst environmental offender amongst 179 countries. According to the study, in past 30 years of economic growth in Singapore, it has lost 90 percent of its original forest cover, 67 percent of its bird species, about 40 percent of its mammals and 5 percent of its amphibians and reptiles. At the same time, Singapore is also a model for other global cities for sustainable development with its affordable public housing, greenery, cleanliness, efficient public transportation system and high quality of life.


Can the entire world afford to take the same path to development which the countries in the past have done? In 2008, 1.2 billion people resided in regions defined as more developed by the United Nations. We know what has it cost the planet earth to give these people their current lifestyle. Can the remaining 5.5 billion people go through the same cycle of consumption, production and environmental damage? Many like me fear the consequences of our aspirations. Should we then stop generating new wealth and let the world be in a status quo of rich being rich and poor being poor? Or should we all start to get poorer and arrive at the threshold of sustainability? None of these are correct answers and possibly there isn’t one. There may be a way out if we can redistribute our wealth and overcome our desires to consume.

Credits: Mumbai Traffic image by tr!ckster. http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick_tully/277283831/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Why Architecture must move towards sustainability? (Part 2)

A few weeks ago we started this “post series” explaining the big impact architecture had in the environment and the reasons why we must work on designs that recover its architectural essence and avoid the big emissions buildings produce now a days.

But, the question is:

HOW DO I MAKE A SUSTAINABLE BUILDING?

Besides the conditions and premises that any building with different uses states (is not the same to design a single house than a hospital building), there are several identical rules every architect should be able to apply to any of their designs.

1.    Understand the environment of the site. Climatology, orientation, local available sources for materials, traditional local construction techniques, etc. and design in order to adapt the building to those surroundings. Usually, the traditional local construction techniques have been improved and developed thru years to adapt the buildings to that area in particular.

Please, abandon the idea that you can design anything you want and then fill it up with high consuming machines to acclimatize the rooms. This is a mistake. We must consume less energy in our buildings.

2.    Never over dimension a building just for the fact of making the “King Size” effect. Bigger doesn’t mean better.

3.    Investigate deeper on design strategies that help to make buildings more and more efficient and environmental friendly. There are thousands of amazing solutions and techniques, and thousand more that are coming up everyday. In the Diagrammatic Section GUASL has made for this post, you can find a few of them, some very basic, some more sophisticated, but all of them out in the market to be used and improved.

4.    You can go for a Rating System such as LEED, BREAM, GREEN MARK, GREEN STAR and let them guide you thru the process of making a sustainable building. Those Certifications are made to standardize and give you a rating based on the performance of your building compared to a baseline. Taking a look thru any of its checklists and reference guide books will give you a very extended idea of how could you design greener. After achieving an award on any of this rating system, your building will be internationally recognised for its sustainable performance and you will save a lot of money afterwards in consumption.

5.    There are other fields that are actively investigating on new things for design strategies. Biomimicry Guild is a science that takes solutions from nature and applies them to solve human problems. They have fascinating stuff. Here you can find an example and see what I am talking about.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/12/10/building-modelled-on-termites-eastgate-centre-in-zimbabwe/

The Architecture Revolution has begun. Come on in.

Electricity vs Paper

I was chatting with some friends this weekend when the discussion transformed about sustainability and green design. One friend posed an interesting question, " each time in a public toilet after washing my hands, I always think if its better to use the electric hand dryer or the paper towels. Do I cause more harm to the environment through increased electricity use or by consuming paper." This almost ended the discussion because none of us had an answer. I guess the answer lies in a life cycle analysis of the two acts. For example, the footprint of paper would be much larger in Singapore than many other countries where most products are imported. A quick search on the internet reveals the answer at Slate Magazine. The conclusion, the net difference in long term carbon emissions is miniscule between the hand dryer and the paper towels. This study is based in USA and hence there could be regional differences. I guess, it would be impossible for us to ever determine the most sustainable way forward. Somehow, traditional lifestyle practices, such as using handkerchiefs are unbeatable. There is no harm in going back if its for good.

City Profile- MedellÍn

As an urban designer, I am often asked by clients, colleagues and friends to tell stories about Cities. Here's an interesting one, that I came across in The Straits Times, dated 31 July, 2010.

Its about Mediellin, second largest city in Colombia and its transformation from being the murder capital of the world to a bustling metropolis in less than a decade. Though the direct impact of police forces in curbing crime cannot be understated, urban planning, infrastructure development and revitalization strategies play a critical supporting role (they even lead from the front as in the case of Bilbao). Medellin has built new transportation networks, parks, libraries, museums and schools to uplilft its neighbourhoods. What stands out is the iconic character of Parque Biblioteca Espana which has helped create new opportunities for the low income community that surrounds it. The library that looks like giant boulders on the hills among the low rise surrounding houses creates a level field and encourages all citizens to learn and educate. The article states that "some kids wait in line for the library to open", which signifies the potential of good design and its contribution towards improving community lifestyle.

Sustainable Design ideas come in all shapes and sizes and in this case its contributions can be measures by the ques outside of the Parque Bibioteca Espana.

Amazing Movie that helps understand!!!

We want to share the link of a movie that is not only incredibly shot, but also tells a real story: The story of the humans in the Earth.

Is a ¨must watch¨ that will help you understand better what is the real state of our planet nowadays and maybe, after all, will encourage you to take action!!

Enjoy it and share it!!!

Link: HOME: the movie

Why Architecture must move towards sustainability? (Part 1)

Picture by Julian Hewitt

Architecture is everywhere.

There is not any modern civilization without architecture. It’s everywhere. Everyone needs a shelter, needs a house. Architecture has been present thru the history of human kind adapting to different climate zones, to different uses, to different aesthetic styles, etc.
Architecture has been always in evolution since the man settled down after the discovery of agriculture. It always had a bonding with the site it was placed.

So, what is happening now with the globalization? Why do we find the same type of skyscrapers in the desert of Dubai than in the cold city of Shanghai? Architecture is losing its essence of belonging to a place, so is to say, is losing what it took us so many years to learn: how to adapt our buildings to the different geographic conditions and make the best use out of them.

Architecture nowadays emits 60% of the worldwide emissions to the atmosphere. We, architects, are responsible for the CO2 that buildings produce and the climate change it causes. We, architects, have great power in our hands, the power to change things with a great impact.

The revolution of Architecture starts now.

We must go back to its essence, understand it, and then, in order to adapt to the new modern world demands, we must use technology to make it happen without harming the environment.

Cause Architecture is not made to harm the Earth.
That’s is not what Architecture is for.

Welcome to Guasl

Welcome to the GUASL blog, this is our first post.

This blog is dedicated to sustainable living, architecture and design.