The striving of a record-breaking structure

Do you have a second amazed by the thinness, the length and the height of the bridge. It is actually a built project in Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon which is made of glass!!!! It is 300 vertical height from the ground, 430 meters long, and 6 meters wide.

The construction of the skybridge that stretch 1,410ft between two cliffs

This is the second glass bridge built in the national park in China. The first one attracted a lot of tourist to the national park which brings quite a lot of economic benefits to the Chinese government. In order to build this "super" structure, many trees are cut down and the nearby landscape has been affected. Also, there is water pollution problems caused by the construction. Despite all the air and water pollution created from the production of glass, the glass may needs replacements once a while. The wildlife habitat in the area was affected in the construction stage but what caused me worried is the number of tourist attracted to this tourist attraction. Also, the future development to the area such as housing, hotels and other related developments to boost the tourism.  In 2011, there are 30,410,000 tourist travelled to Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon in a year. This is already a high number of people that caused a burden for the environment in Zhangjiajie . I believe more developments like hotels and housing are coming in the next 10 years, as there are only 854 hotels (55,300 beds) in the area.

As a fast growing country like China, the economic development are happening rapidly over the country and less attention were paid to the natural environment and the sustainability issues, people are designing taller buildings, longer bridges. And with the development of technologies, lots of the materials and structures are prefabricated, decisions were made within a shorter time-frame, consequences to the nature were not put into account while these decisions were made.

In conclusion , I think a developed countries should be reflected on the result of education e.g How people perform as a part of cities and respecting the nature,  but not striving for a taller buildings or longer bridges to break the world records.

Reference:

World's highest glass bridge in China to include three crazy swings. (n.d.). Retrieved June 02, 2016, from http://inhabitat.com/worlds-highest-glass-bridge-in-china-to-include-three-crazy-swings/

(n.d.). Retrieved June 02, 2016, from http://www.zhangjiajietourism.us/press-factsheet.html
(n.d.). Retrieved June 02, 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/articles/Grand-Canyon-threatened-by-development/
(n.d.). Retrieved June 02, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_Skywalk#Environmentalists

100% renewable energy powered state

Have you thought of the electricity of a state can be 100% powered by renewable energy? Perhaps you may think that it is feasible, but it is not possible by using the technology not. However, the fact is - Tasmania achieved this great result, at least temporarily, in May 2016.

The state-owned energy provider, Hydro Tasmania, reported in early May 2016 that their fossil fuel generators had not been used since 1 May. Instead, they relied on hydro, wind and solar energy.  In particular, their hydro generators were running at maximum capacity and contributed over 80% of the total power in the state, due to significant rainfalls over the weeks before. As a result, the wholesale prices had fallen below to mid $40s/MWh, which compared to nearly $300/MWh when it was forced to rely on gas and diesel.

It is an encouraging news because Tasmania demonstrated the feasibility and practicality of renewable energy, especially the use of hydropower. However, there are two sides to every coin, the use of hydro-power may cause other problems too.

The extraordinarily large dams and reservoirs usually have a significant impact on the land use of surroundings. The flooding destroys forests, habitats of wildlife animals, agricultural land, and even historically scenic places. Not only the flooded area is affected, Impact could be seen on the environment of the downstream, as the reservoir is basically a pool of stagnant water, which changes some key factors which affect the habitats of downstream, such as the nutrient level, oxygen level, sediment level, and flow rate.

Finally, although it can be seen that hydropower is possibly the most economic renewable energy, blindly using hydropower may not be a remarkably better approach than using fossil fuel. Yet, I hope that the government of NSW can put more effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels, like what other state, such as Tasmania and South Australia, are doing.

References:

Environmental Impacts of Hydroelectric Power. (n.d.). Retrieved June 1, 2016, from http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/environmental-impacts-hydroelectric-power.html

Nag, S. K. (2016, May 25). South Australia tops the list for renewable energy. Retrieved June 1, 2016, from https://mozo.com.au/energy/articles/south-australia-tops-the-list-for-renewable-energy

Parkinson, G. (2016, May 11). Tasmania back to 100% renewable electricity as dams replenish. Retrieved May 23, 2016, from http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/tasmania-back-to-100-renewable-electricity-as-dams-replenish-55955

Tasmania powered by renewable energy for 'first time in months' (2016, May 11). Retrieved May 23, 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-12/tasmania-completely-powered-by-renewable-energy/7408148

The terrifying air pollution in Beijing

Chai Jing, who resigned from her position as a prominent news anchor at China's state-owned CCTV after the birth of her daughter. After she became a mother, she realises the impact of the air quality to her baby and all the people who are living in Beijing. She combines research, data visualization, investigative reporting and her own personal experiences to the issues of smog. Jing states that she will not take her daughter out when the air quality is bad in Beijing, which in 2014 was nearly half of the days of year.

This video spread out quickly on the social media and draws a lot of attention, but after several months people started to forget about it.

The video mentions something that most of us would probably comes to mind when we talk about air pollution : industrial factories, car, the lifestyle of the people. The sadly facts is we all knows about it but who really cares and take actions on it. I personally don't think it is the responsibility solely on the government. But every single one of us who are living on earth. It is our values and lifestyle which caused the problems.
 
A photo taken in Beijing which show the dense smog in the city of Beijing

The Columbia University and Chongqing Medical University's study shows a clear connection between children conceived and raised near a Chinese coal-fired power plant and reduced neurological development when assessed at age two because of the particulate matter, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and heavy metals. The particles are really small that it could enter our body directly.

   
Wang Renzheng, a Chinese performance artist better known as Nut Brother, with the industrial vacuum cleaner he uses to suck up smog.

The artist, Wang Renzheng has used the extracted dust from the city’s atmosphere and transformed them into a dark brown “smog brick”. I am interested in whether this concept can be applied in the future as the pollutants can be collected and turned into a building materials that probably can reduced the pollution. However, the dust collecting progress is slow and not cost effective. Therefore, it is a solution not for now. But I think what he is trying to do is meaningful as it shows how much pollutants we breathe in everyday and we are responsible to clean our city. Hopefully in the future, there are ways that can really turn the pollution to something useful. And we can develop a healthier lifestyle with less cars, less waste and less pollution.

Reference:
Grassheling. "Chai Jing's Review: Under the Dome – Investigating China's Smog." YouTube. 2015. Accessed May 26, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6X2uwlQGQM.

"New China Study Reveals a Link between Air Pollution and Brain Development in Babies." TreeHugger. Accessed May 26, 2016. http://www.treehugger.com/health/new-china-study-reveals-link-between-air-pollution-and-genetic-mutation-babies.html

Phillips, Tom. "China's Vacuum-cleaner Artist Turning Beijing's Smog into Bricks." The Guardian. 2015. Accessed May 26, 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/01/chinese-vacuum-cleaner-artist-turning-beijings-smog-into-bricks.

10cents back for a drink bottle

What do you do after you finish a can of coke, or after a bottle of juice? Throw it away? Clean it and re-use it later on? There is another option for you from July next year.

The Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird, announced to support the Container Deposit Scheme, a community-backed recycling scheme for drink containers on 8th May 2016. That means, from July 2016, ten cents will be paid for every drink container (150mL - 3000mL, and displaying a NSW CDS label) when returned to a depot or reverse vending machine. The aim of it is to reduce street litter by 40% by 2020, as there are 160 million drink containers of this type end up in the litter every year in NSW.

I think the scheme is brilliant. Although some manufacturing giants, such as Coca-Cola and Schweppes, have threatened they will need to increase the drink prices by 20%, the impact to the environment greatly outweighs the impact to our wallets. This is because the increase in price makes people more mindful before buying bottles of drink. Also, the increase in price will encourage people more willing to claim the 10 cents back.

It was announced that containers could be returned to a depot or reverse vending machine. However, in order to facilitate people recycle the bottles, the government must have a very user-friendly network to collect bottles. For example, it would be very great if there is a vending machine per apartment building to replace those current yellow bins. Furthermore, if the scheme is successfully launched and properly run, the government should extend the range of acceptable containers to other recyclable products, one example would be the plastic takeaway boxes we use every day.

References:

Bhole, A. (2016, May 09). 'A historic win for the community': Cash for cans to start in New South Wales - but will it make your beer and soft drinks cost more? Retrieved May 24, 2016, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3579075/New-South-Wales-cash-cans-scheme-start-despite-fierce-opposition-beverage-industry-giants-Coca-Cola-Carlton-Lion-Schweppes.html

Code, B. (2016, May 08). NSW to refund 10 cents for cans under new scheme. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-08/nsw-to-refund-10-cents-for-cans-and-containers-cds/7394408

Needham, K. (2016, May 8). Cash for cans decision a tipping point. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/baird-backs-kids-over-big-beverage-10-for-every-drink-bottle-you-can-find-20160507-gooqih.html

Virtual imagery for chickens

The SECOND LIVESTOCK eliminated the need for the physical space needed for free-range livestock. It claims to give livestock the experience of Free Range life while it is all happened in a small cage. The animals spend their whole lives in a virtual world, light pipes are used to illuminate the building during daylight hours as sunlight.

The actual device and cage of the SECOND LIVESTOCK 

I will not be talking about how inhuman the SECOND LIVESTOCK is. As I want to focus on the sustainability of the SECOND LIVESTOCK project. As they claimed that they have minimised the ecological footprint compare to the free-range chicken and allowed an increased production density. As the chicken waste will also be collected as fertilizer, the facilities are claimed to be highly energy efficient. 

It's time to discuss about their claims are true or not, first, the company claimed to keep every process sustainable,  the facilities might not work perfectly as they claimed and the maintenance cost will be high since each chicken has its own device. Second, there is a high chance where some of the device might not work properly and causes problems. Thirdly, the handling the chicken waste can actually create a lot of water pollution if a single part in the process went wrong. Also, all the facilities from the virtual headset to the cages needed a high level of energy to maintain and might create a large amount of electronic waste to the land.

The waste of free range chicken can go the the natural environment directly. There are natural air for ventilation, there will not be any energy needed to create a virtual electronic device for the chicken. Therefore, I do not support the concept of SECOND LIVESTOCK.

Reference:

Ecologically Sound. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2016, from http://www.secondlivestock.com/public/eco_s.php

Oculus Rift... for chickens?! (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2016, from http://www.cnet.com/au/news/oculus-rift-for-chickens/

Housing homeless people and teaching them to build a house

On the coming May 10, Lamon Luther the founder of this charity will give away a tiny house to launch its charitable foundation to offer housing for its homeless employees. The tiny house was built by a bunch of homeless employee. It is made up of 50 percent reclaimed wood which kept hundreds of thousands of pounds of old houses, barns and pallets out of landfills.

The interior of the tinyhouse showing the recycled timber fittings

The exterior of the tinyhouse showing the recycled timber cladding

The money they received from the entries in the giveaway event will be used to hire more homeless employee and the housing for the homeless employee. 

I think this project is a great idea because it not only empowered the homeless people with building skills also its goal is to provide shelters for them. Moreover, over half of the building materials they used were recycled materials. As I mentioned in the previous blog, we should reduce the construction waste, this project is an excellent example that is beneficial not only to the earth but also to the society. 

In one of the guest lecture, the guest speaker mentioned what is the resilient measures to help people who suffered in disaster. Instead of donating a large sum of money to them where most of the money goes to other peoples' hands, we should empower the people and giving them confidence to start lives again. Same with homeless people, we empower them with skills and they work as part of the society. It is a sustainable workforce where the skilled homeless employee can pass the skills to the other homeless people. Also, the tiny houses has given a new value to the abandoned timber and steel from other construction site which is help to reduce waste for our environment. Therefore, I totally support the Tinyhousegiveaway program.

References:
Lamon Luther to Give Away a Tiny House to Raise Money for Homeless Employees. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2016, from http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/lamon-luther-to-give-away-a-tiny-house-to-raise-money-for-homeless-employees-2112375.htm

Home. (n.d.). Retrieved May 17, 2016, from http://www.tinyhousegiveaway.co/

Giving a new life to the old building

Recently there is a rising number of old building transformed into a new and educational buildings. For example, the River Cottage which located in Devon of southwest England, was successfully transformed from a disused farm building into a sustainable farming and cooking school that promotes organic cooking and sustainable farming practices.

The interior of the River Cottage

The exterior of the River Cottage

There is another example where the old cellar of a 7th-century landmark building in Spain was transformed into a local gallery showing the history of wine making. The cellar also includes a wine shop, a kitchen for visitors to take cooking classes, and spaces for lectures and concerts. 

The interior of the cellar showing the wine jars

Despite the historical values of preserving the old buildings and giving it a new identity to the space, it is also a sustainable method to minimised the construction waste produced in the demolition or reconstruction process. In Hong Kong , my hometown, most of the old buildings( even buildings with heritage value) were pull down for new skyscrapers or offices. There are tons and tons of constructions waste produced in Hong Kong every year. The demolition process and the construction process were speeded up by the improvement of technologies. All the construction waste were sent to Hong Kong landfills, the limited size of  landfills in Hong Kong has already reached the maximum capacity. 

As the urbanisation and the growth of city continues, more and more landfills will be needed in the future. But instead we should think how can we minimise the construction waste, transforming the old buildings is definitely one of the ways. Or recycling building materials like timbers and steels is also a way to reduce the construction waste. One may say it is difficult to turn an old building with its original layout to another layout, but I think it is the challenge where all of us as an architects should be able to tackle and create something creative like the two projects above.

References:
Historic 7th-century cellar in Spain renovated to celebrate the history of wine-making. (n.d.). Retrieved May 16, 2016, from http://inhabitat.com/historic-7th-century-cellar-in-spain-renovated-to-celebrate-the-history-of-wine-making/

Disused farm buildings are transformed into a sustainable farming and cooking school. (n.d.). Retrieved May 17, 2016, from http://inhabitat.com/disused-farm-buildings-are-transformed-into-a-sustainable-farming-and-cooking-school/

A mobile gaming app to change you lifestyle?

Have you ever imagine one day real world can actually linked up with the virtual world. What you did in the real world actually reflects in the digital world and vise versa. Noe it may become true.

The mobile app: Airnergy

Airnergy is a mobile app (Red Dot Award) that merges the features of gaming and utility. Your real-world energy consumption data will be reflected in the virtual world and affects the in-game environment to encourage users to minimise daily energy consumption and  air pollution, eventually create a better place to live.

The interface of the mobile app Airnergy

It is a good idea to attract the young people and educate them as well. Because many things that we think are difficult to do can seem easier and have more motivation when turned into a game.The game also have the competitions features between friends which stimulate people to continue playing so that they can achieve better scores and win , also the in-game environment will change according to users’ real-life energy consumption data. What I think the game developer is really smart is users can earn bonus points to buy in-game products by attending green activities, such as tree planting, or purchase energy-saving products. 

Here comes the negative side of this design concept, games usually cannot keep ones' passion for long, maybe one month, one week or even just one day. Also usually young people are living with their parents or friends, unless they can affect their parents of friends to reduce the energy consumption or they may give up very soon. 

However, I think in this digital stage, it is always good to promote the sustainable lifestyle using the mobile app. Instead of focusing on the immediate result of reducing energy consumption, we should focus on the long term development. How reduce the energy consumption in the future 10 years? By making sustainable living as a easy and fun topic definitely is a good starting point. It may even applicable on topics like waste management, water management etc.

Reference:
Airnergy _ Innovating Mobile App for Reducing Daily Energy Consumption. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2016, from http://www.red-dot.sg/en/online-exhibition/airnergy/