With the “financial crisis” lingering on, it has been interesting getting into high level dialog about the future of, well, the World! But more specifically, what lies ahead for the design and construction professions. Never mind that Green Building is really the only piece of the AEC world still logging positive numbers; the rest of the building industry has pretty much shut down. A San Francisco building official  recently told me 100% of new building applications in the SOMA district of that city are proposed as LEED buildings. That’s a good thing, to be sure, but what does it suggest for the future of our planet and our economy?

Financial Crisis aside, all construction starting now could be done to LEED Platinum standards and yet we would not be solving the environmental crises before us. I love LEED, and at Design Ecology we like to say we can produce 14 credits, so the goal is not to criticize but frankly to be realistic about the task at hand. LEED is a tremendous tool, but we need to do more.

What we’ve been exploring at Design Eco, and what we are quite certain about at this point is that the AEC trades are in posession of the technology necessary to create regenerative projects. This means not only Net Zero or “sustainable,” but actually reversing environmental damage; generating energy, filtering air and water, providing habitat, producing food, sequestering carbon. Those who work with us know we are always looking for ways to do these things, and to give ourselves some credit, we do them successfully.

Every great concept needs an acronym, and we’ve got one: ENPIRS. It stands for Ecologically Net Positive Inhabited Restoration Site, and we intend to build ENPIRS as fast as possible. The beauty of this approach is that it opens the gate to unchecked development without damage to the Earth’s ecosystem. If every new project could be Ecologically Net Positive, the tension between economic growth and environmental sanity would relax and we could all get behind the idea of rebuilding our cities and our economy as quickly as possible. Every new development project would be mitigating climate change, protecting species, and otherwise restoring the global ecosystem. From a practical standpoint, to meet that lofty goal suggests turning our focus to urban infill sites while preserving intact ecosystems — but then that’s just common sense at this point.

Help us build ENPIRS, and stay tuned here for examples of such projects as well as more information about specific tools. Better yet, get in touch with us to discuss how we can bring this approach to your project right now, today, actually.

Filed under: Information, Uncategorized, AEC, development, economy, ENPIRS, future, Green Building, LEED, regenerative | Post a comment

Mixt Greens is an organization whose philosophy is rooted in environmentally conscious and equitable business practices. Restaurants are being built in newly renovated buildings with a cradle to cradle design, construction and business model approach. Serving local, organic and healthy meals these entrepreneurs recognized the value in visually conveying a message to their customers about the importance of healthy and sustainable consumption. These edible hydroponic living walls convey that message and serve as the company brand.  They are growing their own produce from seed to be served to customers. The walls act as art pieces attracting customers and media attention. Four of these walls are currently built and provide fresh, year round veggies in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Here are some more photos of our living walls we had on display at the Water Conservation Showcase. We have been experimenting with many species of native and edible plants in vertical applications. At our main office in Petaluma we have a 55 acre ranch and native plant nursery. The space and access to plants and nursery facilities enables us to create mock-ups and demonstration projects to test the new and innovative systems we are working with. Currently most living walls designed and built are using a pretty typical palette of plants that are extremely common and used throughout the country and the world. These plants include things like wandering jew, clivia, ivy, liriope, boston fern, philodendrons and flax. These plants are consider “no fail” options and designers are using the same palette regardless of location. At Design Ecology we use the natural systems specific to each project location as our guide in  all our projects. Looking at “reference ecosystems” in nature we can determine how to design our built ecosystems. We have been studying naturally occurring living walls to try and determine some of the best native plants to use. We also use the characteristics of these native plants as a guide in finding other natives with similar characteristics that will be successful in vertical systems. I have included some images within these blogs of those natural systems I’m talking about.

We have had some very surprising results from tests in our nursery. Plants that we never thought would make it are doing great (like ceanothus) and other plants (like asarum) that we thought would be a sure bet, are not adapting. The walls are a hydroponic system (there is  no soil). The growing media is an ultra-light weight foam. Water is applied through drip irrigation and so the system always remains a bit moist. But the constant wet conditions makes it a challenging environment for some CA native plants. That is why we were surprised at the happiness of the ceanothus, it’s a very drought tolerant plant that doesn’t need much water. Although we do think the constant water might shorten the life-span of the plant.

Through this experimentation we hope to compile a list of our own “no fail” natives, we already have some shoe ins! This will enable us to build walls that not only look amazing  but also create small habitat islands for all types of birds, butterflies, native bees and more. We’re using some great habitat species, like the hummingbird sage and penstemon. We are also very excited about the potential for growing food. We’ve had success with a variety of perennial herbs and are looking forward to testing more edible plants in the system.

Lastly, the most common question I answered at the showcase, was “how is this living wall considered water conserving, doesn’t it actually use a lot of extra water?” Of course, I was ready for this question. Yes, the living wall needs water. But the hydroponic media acts a lot like a sponge, minimal water is applied and absorbed evenly throughout each modular panel. We dial in the irrigation system so that it only runs long enough to just soak each panel. Very little runoff, if any, actually occurs. It is much more water efficient that any of the other systems I have seen or experimented with.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Come check out the 7th Annual Water Conservation Showcase tomorrow! Design Ecology will be showcasing native plants in a water efficient, light weight living wall system. It’s at the Pacific Energy Center in downtown SF, hosted by the USGBC www.usgbc-ncc.org/wcs We have plants for shade and sun, beautiful succulents, herbs, blooming irises, coral bells and more…

Filed under: Uncategorized, http://www.usgbc-ncc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=248&Itemid=272 | 1 Comment

Design Ecology is a donor for this year’s Gala Dinner to benefit GLOBAL GREEN, at the invitation of EcoFabulous. The event is this Tuesday evening, December 8 and includes a Patron Dinner, VIP Lounge, Eco Fashion Show, live music, and Green Cocktails. In other words, a great party!

We are excited to participate and will be creating a luscious living wall of culinary and native plants at the ballroom entrance. It’s a great honor to be participating in this event at the W HOTEL, and if our California native hummingbird and butterfly wall is not enough to bring you out, maybe you’d like to hob-knob with esteemed attendees including Gavin & Jennifer Newsom, Jeremy Piven, Celebrity Iron Chef Mourad Lahlou, singer Matt Nathanson, actor Peter Mensah, and of course supermodels Angela Lindvall and Josie Maran.

We hope you’ll join us in supporting the great work Global Green is doing in New Orleans and around the world. Click here for tickets.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Design Ecology is proud to be a sponsor for the largest green conference on the west coast, to be held this year at Fort Mason on the San Francisco waterfront. Over 10,000 attendees are expected, including architects, designers, policy-makers and eco-heads from across the western US. Look for our garden and stage displays, and stop by our booth or the “landscape lounge” in the tradeshow, which will feature our partners providing materials and support for the show gardens.

Josiah has participated for the past three years and is pleased to be a featured speaker again this year, on the topic of integrated water management. In his usual entertaining fashion, he will disclose our systemically dysfunctional water infrastructure and talk about proposed solutions via ongoing projects that are addressing these issues at multiple scales. Expect compelling discussion on green roofs, living walls, graywater, rainwater harvesting, stormwater control, all in a context of habitat restoration, cultural change, and an optimistic future vision.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Damselfly Competition Image

It was a great honor for Design Ecology to be invited by the For-Site Foundation to submit a proposal to display an ecological sculpture representing an animal native to San Francisco’s Presidio. While our entry was not selected as a finalist, we have no regrets giving it up to such luminaries as Ai WeiWei, Don Chadwick, and CEBRA, and look forward to their product.

For now, here’s our ‘Avid Dancer’ submittal, intended as a sculpture that is also habitat for this elegant damselfly. Damsel flies and dragonflies are voracious consumers of mosquitos at all stages of life, from the water dwelling nymph to the airborne creature we are all familiar with. We liked the idea of raising awareness about the fact that mosquito fish (Gambusa sp.) eat native frog and amphibian eggs in addition to mosquito larvae, thus disrupting the balance of local ecosystems and actually depleting naturally occuring mosquito predators. Placing a damselfly ‘nursery’ next to stowe lake would help control the mosquitos that are there, demonstrating that the creation of beneficial habitat is a better solution than trying to control negative habitat.

Our sculpture was to be created with a matrix of flexible new solar tile and film technology, running a pump during the sunniest parts of the day in order to recycle water in the fountain — signifying the synergy between passive modern technology and natural ecological health.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Urban Re:Vision has announced winners for a design competition for an urban block of Dallas. The program challenges competitors to create a zero net energy, mixed use development that will house and provide for about 900 people. Among the top 3 is the local firm of David Baker + Partners, with whom Design Ecology is currently working on 22 units for Habitat Humanity in Oakland. Entries by LITTLE and MOOV/ATELIER DATA also made the top list. A developer for the site is already in place and participated in the judging process, increasing the potential for realization of the project.

Re:Vision will be posting complete winning entries soon, and have some images up already: http://www.urbanrevision.com/ReVision-DALLAS-Results. It will be interesting to see how the difficult and leading edge environmental design and self-sufficient resource systems program is met with these projects — as well as to see whether they pursue a modern approach such as DB+P’s reflective glass moves or the more european gestaldt of the MOOV/Atelier Data submittal. 

In either case, it appears alternative energy, on-site food production, and vegetated architectural systems are in Dallas’ future downtown plan.

jrc

Filed under: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Rooftop Vegetables at Noble Rot Restaurant, Portland

Just when you worry that Green Building has gone to mainstream and is being compromised by excessive greenwashing and commercial interest, an event comes along to remind us all that there is great progress to be made, and great people pushing the envelope.

The annual Living Future Conference, hosted by the Cascadia chapter of the US Green Building Council was once again an enlightening, authentic, and frank look at Green Building. Cascadia encompasses a large region from Oregon, Washington, and BC all the way to Alaska. Cascadia has long been the progressive wing of the USGBC and this group of long-time ecologically focused engineers, designers, and professionals pulls no punches (nor does the self proclaimed “militant arm of the chapter,” the Emerging Green Builders). They also have a lot of fun.

It was inspiring to surface issues such as “how do we address the fact that a LEED Silver building can be greener than a LEED Platinum Building?” This is absolutely true, since any green features that exceed the required minimum do not result in additional points; the LEED system rewards diversity of green over being thorough. For example, using 100%of lumber from responsibly managed forests garners no more points than using 50%. It follows that there is no reward for exceeding the minimum compliance. It’s well understand why this is so, and arguably a good strategy, but there needs to be a mechanism whereby a building is recognized for going the extra distance.

I presented on the concept of “Resilience,” something Sim Van der Ryn and I have been discussing for over a year now and have done some preliminary writing about. In particular, we feel that Food & Water are critical issues that are not being addressed adequately. If we cannot find ways to create infrastructure around these fundamental needs for life, the near future cannot be viewed optimistically. Our current Food and Water delivery systems are far too dependent on energy and centralized supply chains that we all recognize as tenuous. The current 1500 miles an average morsel of American food travels is indefensible from a sustainability standpoint, and the fuel and water associated with industrial agriculture is not possible to continue.

To create resilience in these systems, they must be localized and connected to natural cycles and climates. This means disentangling the often questionable adjudications and political arrangements resulting in waste and misuse; indeed, rethinking some of the more dysfunctional institutions and industries delivering basic services throughout our society.

This may appear at face value to be radical thinking; in fact we are witnessing the failure of these institutions before our very eyes, and indeed they are being rethought in this moment. What we are proposing is broader thinking that will create lasting resilience rather than short-term fixes that amount to an attempt to shore up a clearly outdated approach that is only viable due to subsidies that fly in the face of a free market.

On the ground, the goals need to be localized stable economies based on regional infrastructures that can withstand failures in larger infrastructures and institutions that seem likely in our future. Contrary to some agrarian idealism, Resilience relies upon the most proven passive systems for water and agriculture optimized through synergy with the most current technology. Hydroponic and aquaponic (integrated aqualture and agriculture) rooftop greenhouses and integrated site water management systems that intelligently select from multiple water supplies including graywater, rainwater, and recycled wastewater.

Scratching the surface is all that can be done here, but there will be much more to come on the topic of Resilience, and in particular how passive ecological systems can produce resilient local infrastructure to ensure food and water are available to all as we charge headlong into an uncertain future with failing infrastructures and an ailing economy.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments

I could not miss the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s official entrance into the arena of green design when I received an invitation to the recent conference on “Ecological Urbanism.” Late to the conversation, the GSD was not about to tiptoe in through the backdoor, instead coining a new term and challenging cities to address sustainability at scale. To tee it off, Rem Koolhaas was scheduled to deliver a keynote address, ushering in what could be a new era with Mohsen Mustafavi as Dean.

When an architect is as famous as Rem Koolhaas, it’s not difficult to be controversial — people try to make a controversy out of everything you say, and Sanford Kwinter certainly did his best to create one from thin air as he moderated a discussion between Homi Bhabha and Rem. Credit goes to Koolhaas for sidestepping both that challenge and Bhabha’s seemingly boundless sentimentality for his home city of Mumbai, India. I have no idea why Bhabha was on the bill giving what he called a “key footnote,” or why Kwinter had any part in a conference bearing the word “ecological,” but I did appreciate Koolhaas’ genuine attempts to address what he accurately refers to as a “serious topic” and keep the conversation on point amidst much resistance. It would have been nice to hear more Koolhaas at the Koolhaas keynote.

Certainly it is difficult to find a genuinely ecological “starchitect” and Koolhaas is no exception. His humble opening remarks to this effect were to some degree countered by a skillful, if not inspiring, account of how we got to 2009. I for one much appreciated Rem reminding us all that we are on the cutting edge of 2500 year old technology — after all in the days before engineers and utility grids, architects had to design buildings that actually performed well using passive systems to interact with the environment — I know, this sounds extreme — there also was no AutoCADD and no internet research!

Starting with the early passive architecture of Vetruvious, Rem reflected on how the Enlightenment and Modernism movements have resulted in architecture based on form at the expense of ecological integration and the role of engineering rather than design to achieve building performance. He went on to discuss his early exposure to Tropical Architecture principles, admittedly not a big influence but apparently something that has relevance now that building sustainability is a mainstream topic. I’m not sure there was any big revelation there, but this simple history is itself a revolutionary topic of discussion at the GSD.

In a sense, Rem has done just what the Harvard GSD has done — entered into the conversation on green with a philosophical reference point that positions itself to be an innovator in an area it has turned it’s back on prior. I am not one to lament participation by anyone in this important movement, less so the leading edge of mainstream architecture! Nevertheless, the conference was contextually challenged by a focus on making cities “less bad” along with the sense of an institution grappling with its own historical disdain for the prioritization of an environmental agenda. It will be interesting to see if the GSD can make that turn fast enough to  be relevant to a rapidly advancing agenda for healthy ecological cities. 

Filed under: Uncategorized, ecological urbanism, Green Building, green city, harvard gsd, homi bhabha, mohsen mustafavi, rem koolhaas, sustainability | Post a comment