'[re]designing nature' at k/haus Vienna

Currently you can see an interesting exhibition at Vienna's Künstlerhaus. '[re]designing nature' presents 'Current Concepts for Shaping Nature in Art and Landscape Architecture' featuring work of contemporary landscape architects, architects and artists. 

The exhibition aims to 'inspire thought about our current relationship to nature, and infuse life into the most recent debates about socially fair, ecologically sustainable, and aesthetically up-to-date environmental design.' [source]. 

[re]designing nature was initiated by Maria Auböck and curated by Susanne Witzgall, Florian Matzner and Iris Mede. The exhibition in k/haus has just been EXTENDED until 27th of February.

Reading table at the exhibition entrance.

There are as well some nice events scheduled alongside the exhibition:

January 21st, 7 pm: Lecture by Natalie Jeremijenko: 'On engineering biodiversity, improving environmental health and wrestling Rhinocerous Beetles' This event is organized in conjunction with the ÖGFA series 'Solidarity - How do democratic spaces come into existence?' See my short report about it.

Another event is still going to happen: 

January 23rd, 3 pm: Artist talk with Regula Dettwiler, Anna Detzlhofer, Jochen Koppensteiner, Christian Phillipp Müller (asked) 

Establishing the Bedford-Stuveysant community garden. Ken Smith, New York City.

A view onto 'Ashar macha / Platform of Hope', a small pocket garden integrating a library which serves as a platform for exchange between slum residents and students who work on realizing the project. Khondaker Hasibul Kadir, Dhaka Bangladesh

N55 - 'City Farming Plant Modules, Museum version', 2010.

Peter Latz: Sketches for the amphitheater Ariel Sharon within the Hiriya Landfill Transformation, 2009.

Field Operations with Diller Scofidio + Renfro - 'High Line', 2004-2011. Models of ground structure with benches, 2005.

Lois und Franziska Weinberger - 'Mobile Garden', 2003.

Observatorium - 'Into the Desert', 2010.

Reiner Maria Matsik - 'Urban Wasteland', 2010.

Balmori Associates - 'St. Louis Riverfront', 2005-2015

Vincent Callebaut - 'Physalia Amphibious Garden', 2010.

Metagardens - 'Monstruosa', 2009. Installation from EPS and Drosera sp.

Paula Hayes - 'Living Necklace', 2007

R&Sie(n) - 'Symbiosis Hood', 2009.

Natalie Jeremijenko - 'Urban Space Station, model #001', 2010

Mark Dion - '(Tooley Street Hanging Garden) Vertical Garden', 2006.

Gross.Max - 'Tooley Street Hanging Garden', 2009.

Regula Dettwiler - 'Untitled (Rüdiger)', 2010.

Seeing 'Living Concrete / Carrot City'

I finally managed to visit the exhibition 'Living Concrete/Carrot City' which elaborates on design and planning works related to the topic of urban agriculture. It is still opened until the 15th of December at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, NYC.
'Living Concrete / Carrot City' stems from a dialog between the project 'Carrot City - Designing for Urban Agriculture' at Ryerson University, Toronto and the project 'Living Concrete' at Parsons', Eugene Land College.

In a collaborative, cross-institutional way the exhibition shows:
How increasing public interest in agriculture, food supply and food security influences urban design and how design can facilitate a better urban food system. 'Carrot City'
Design interventions and pedagogy that reconnect people to food production while positively influencing neighborhoods, public health and environment. 'Living Concrete'  


'Living Concrete/Carrot City' aims higher than solely providing a nice exhibition and thus created a space of exchange for people and communities which are active and interested in urban agriculture.

Imageboard for food and agriculture related events in NYC to connect stakeholders.

Interactive, non-virtual board with questions and answers related to urban agriculture.

Alongside the exhibition, Parsons hosted a series of public panels to discuss different issues related to urban agriculture. Yesterday I attended the last panel of this series which focused on the role of universities in researching, supporting and employing urban agricultural practices.
The panels were luckily streamed and documented by Parsons' streaming culture project (thank you!) so we can access videos of the 'Living Concrete/Carrot City' panels online.
Additionally, the book 'Carrot City' will be published in March 2011 and provide a prominent amount of the information presented in the exhibition.

Here are some impressions from the exhibition as appetizer and documentation.

'Vacant Lot Grow Bag' by 'what if: projects ltd.'

Map of urban agriculture in Brooklyn, NY. Created by Parsons-students.

'Opportunities for a Green and Edile Middlebrough' from the 'Urban Farming Project'. Bohn and Viljoen Architects and others.

Gardens from the project 'Edible Estates' by Fritz Haeg. Top left image shows the installation of 'Lenape Edible Estate' in Manhattan.

60 Richmond street east co-operative housing in Toronto designed by Teeple architects.

Rendering of the 'Via verde' project Melrose, South Bronx, NYC. 

'True Nature Foods Rooftop Victory Garden' in Chicago, IL by Urban Habitat Chicago.

If you are in NYC you still have time until 15th of December to go and visit the exhibition.

ASLA Awards 2011: Call for Entries

The American Society of Landscape Architects has released their call for entries for the 2011 ASLA awards in the categories professional and student awards.

The prestigious awards are opened to professionals and students from around the world. See the web to reference winners of the 2010 ASLA professional awards and the 2010 ASLA student awards, as well as winners of previous years. This is anyway a nice resource for design ideas and successful projects. ;)

Flickerlab New York

This Friday I was able to visit Flickerlab in new York City which is a media design and production company concerned with 'storytelling for people and planet'.

Still from 'A Brief History of the USA' in 'Bowling for Columbine'. [image courtesy of Flickerlab]

I was attracted by the outstanding philosophy of Flickerlab and my interest in a company working at the cutting edge of latest media technology to create environmentally and socially responsible content for digital media. During my visit I was interested in the Flickerlab working routine (under the aspect of digital craftsmanship); their current projects and future endeavors as well as motivating forces.

Flickerlab is headed by Harold Moss and Tammy Walters which set up the company in 2000 and merged with the Danish animation company Gonzoft in 2009 creating Flickerlab, LLC.
Flickerlab's services include design of interactive media, technology development, media production and content creation. Their clients encompass the BBC, Michael Moore, Hooked on Phonics, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Greenpeace, MTV, or, The United Federation of Teachers, amongst others.

Still from animation for Repower America. [image courtesy of Flickerlab]

Still from 'The Wildlife Present: Climate Cartoons' for TV2, Denmark. [image courtesy of Flickerlab]


I was talking to Harold Moss of Flickerlab to find out more about how Flickerlab is supporting environmental and social change on several levels. 
Firstly, Flickerlab is using the medium itself (ebooks, internet, film etc) to create content which is powerful enough to change perspectives in people's minds. Interesting here is the future potential of ebooks which may be an unprecedented opportunity for providing high quality education for mass audiences.
Secondly, in their own practice the company aims to be as sustainable as possible. So when it comes to production, Flickerlab is emphasizing green industry principles and 'cradle to cradle' design with their business partners. In their own office, electricity is entirely coming from New York's renewable share. Moreover, the consumption of hardware and office supplies is dedicated towards a minimal use of resources.
Thirdly, Harold Moss emphasized that it is important to act as a change agent in every aspect of what you're doing, not necessarily only during your work life.
I agree on that: We can't greenwash in our practices and still live a life like the most resource wasteful consumers. It is about working with and cultivating a new understanding.

 Recycled coffee from neighboring Star***** helps the plants in the Flickerlab to grow. 

During our talk I was interested in the importance of craftsmanship in the practice of Flickerlab a question which stemmed from reading Richard Sennett's 'The Craftsman'. Sennett argues that the 'abuse' of digital tools (his example is CAD as used in architectural design) can create a situation of separated hand and head in which the head is suffering in the sense that it is not any more informed by a creative and learning hand.
So how does a digital animation laboratory answer to this challenge? My visit showed that modern tools are going beyond what Sennett described in his book. There is not necessarily a divide between the hand and the head any more. The drawing pads Flickerlab associates are working on are digital drawing boards and screens at the same time. So the head and the hand are connected again. For sure the tactile sense is a different one and you can erase indefinite iterations but this enhanced interface can be seen almost as new form of paper.

 Wacom pen-tablet workstation at Flickerlab. An advanced hands-on digital interface. 

Still from 'St. Joseph's Hospital - Many Roads', drawn completely digital. [image courtesy of Flickerlab]

In this aspect it is as well interesting to state that Flickerlab's 'Go Real-time Animation System' employs the human hand to create animations (such as 'The Nelly Nut Show') in real time with a two-hand game controller (see images below).

An interesting aspect came up during the conversation with Harold Moss. There may be other means than drawing for establishing the creative relationship between head and hand. Inside the Flickerlab are some devices which make that possible. Toys are located on the main meeting table (image) or books used to represent the concepts for ebooks.

Building blocks for new ideas on the Flickerlab meeting table.


We were as well talking about how to maintain a good working environment (something of deep interest for a company concerned with social and environmental change) for successfully producing creative solutions(products). Seen as a workshop, the leaders of any creative work environment (working under the regime of deadlines) have to balance the 'conflict between autonomy and authority' as Richard Sennett put it in 'The Craftsman'. This role of the guiding authority may be in the case of Flickerlab represented by the creative director (Harold Moss). 
For Flickerlab it is firstly important to work with people who bring in their own strong vision and talent (this is not a guide for your cover letter!). They then try to find out what is in the heads and minds of collaborators and associates to leave certain autonomy open. It was noted by Harold Moss that usually some kind of common language is developing with collaborators Flickerlab worked the most with.
So it is important to sensibly cultivate a climate in your workshop in which people feel free to author, not left alone, can be guided, include their skills and surely also credit for their work. I felt that Flickerlab a very attractive workplace as there is a very professional but fair and relaxed atmosphere. 

The Flickerlab couch. A place to have a rest for cultivating creative unrest.


Inspiration for the environmentally and socially conscious practice of Flickerlab stems as well from two books.
'Cradle to Cradle Design: Remaking the Way We Make Things' by William McDonough and Michael Braungart is a book held up by Flickerlab and a frequently gifted present for business partners and friends.
'Blessed Unrest' by Paul Hawken is a book portraying the worldwide movement for social and environmental change. 

Still from 'Tek Jansen' produced for 'The Colbert Report' [image courtesy of Flickerlab]

You can visit Flickerlab's you tube channel for examples of their work. Warning: Including explicitly hilarious material!

I wish the whole team of Flickerlab a very bright and interesting future and the best luck for their upcoming endeavors.

Terreform's Self-sufficient Skyscraper

Recently I visited terreform, a non-profit dedicated to research into the forms and practices of just and sustainable architecture and urbanism, located in Manhattan, NYC.  I wanted to find out more about a specific project, the 'self-sufficient skyscraper', which terreform presented during the 2010 Venice Biennale in the US 'workshopping' pavilion. 

Terreform's contribution to the US pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2010. [image courtesy of terreform] 

In relation to a 'self-sufficient skyscraper', I was interested in questions of how to achieve self-sufficiency, technological feasibility, social implications and a research-based design process integrating life-cycle concepts.   

The 'Self-sufficient Skyscraper' is part of terreform's ongoing investigation 'New York City (Steady) State' about the possibility of New York city becoming entirely self-sufficient within its political boundaries. The issues concerned in the study are: food, energy, water, waste, movement, buildings, air and climate. 

'New York City (steady) State' features urban prototypes for (almost) closed loop systems at different scales, such as, the districts, neighborhoods, building blocks, barges on the water or detached single family houses. 

The self-sufficient skyscraper extends this investigation to the realm of high rise buildings. In a nutshell, the project can be described as a habitable and sociable vertical urban farm in the dimension of a skyscraper. 

The 'Self-sufficient Skyscraper' is a re-use proposal for the Verizon building North of the Brooklyn bridge landing in Manhattan. The building is conceptualized to house 500 people and follows the approach of creating vertical neighborhood supported by an agri-cultural production system which is largely closed (in terms of water and resource cycles) and tied to on-site energy generation (solar and biomethane) and minimized energy consumption (food, building and lifestyle needs). The 'self-sufficient skyscraper' houses various urban functions to support the social life in the city. Residential uses, farming areas, commercial floors, institutional programs as well as adaptable spaces are featured to bring the self sufficient skyscraper to life.

Diagram of water and waste cycles (click to enlarge). [image courtesy of terreform]

As a habitable vertical farm, the building is a homage to Dickson Despommier, advocate of the vertical farm concept. The agricultural layout integrates aeroponics for growing of vegetables (at lower water demand), aquaponics producing proteins (tilapia sp., the 'queen' of farmed fish) and small scale chicken husbandry (open air).

Agricultural concept for the self-sufficient skyscraper and technologies used (click to enlarge). [image courtesy of terreform]

The farming area of the building is calculated based on a dietary energy intake of 2000 kcal/person/day assuming a half-vegetarian low-fat diet for the residents. This conceptual approach reflects the discussion of how to mitigate the 'developed' countries' carbon and ecological footprint by limiting dietary energy uptake to a more modest level. This would result in a reduction of the footprint of the 'developed' world, which is currently over-feeding itself and wasting huge portions of the food energy available. Such a reduction will not necessarily be a limitation in terms of quality of life, rather a healthy alternative to increasing obesity and food-related illnesses. 

 Diagram of energy generation and use (click to enlarge). [image courtesy of terreform]

The 'self-sufficient skyscraper' features some interesting examples of green technologies and strategies. Most of the technologies in the project are market-ready at hand and could therefore be integrated in building in the near-term future. This could happen either in a rather condensed way as a vertical, almost machine-like urban farm (as the project described here), or as extensions and benign parasites for existing urban structures. In this sense the 'self-sufficient skyscraper' is a feasibility study for high-density urban farming.

The 24 levels of the building feature three water cycles, each with a 'living machine' (biofilter) for a cluster of eight floors, to clean the water before being recycled. The system is modeled after John Todd's version of the living machine, called the 'eco-machine'.

Detail view of an 'eco-machine' designed by John Todd Ecological Design for indoor wastewater treatment. [image by John Todd Ecological Design]

Wind turbines are integrated on some floors of the building to generate a fraction of baseline energy use. Wind Turbines for small scale urban applications are market ready but their real energy generation capacity still needs to be assessed. 

Vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) for urban application. [image and turbine by Urban Green Energy]

Helium balloons coated with photovoltaics are designed to power the biggest part of electrical energy for the building. The concept was suggested in 2007 by Geotectura for the 2007 re:volt competition about how to power an urban block. The approach seems intriguing and technically feasible but will have to be developed further to solve problems of wind and directional positioning. 

Experimental prototype for a photovoltaic helium balloon within the 'SunHopes' project of geotectura. [image by geotectura]

Methane digesters are market-ready and widely used. Urban applications and integration of methane digesters into buildings has yet to be adopted on a larger scale. We still waste huge amounts of nutrients (and thereby energy) by uncoupled nutrient cycles leading to dangerous nutrient levels in the natural environment. 

 Diagram showing basic function of an anaerobic biogas digester to manage human feces (separation important!) [image by Unesco via PlanningPool]

Scheme for a methane digester integrated in an agricultural system to produce fuel gas and fertilizer. [figure by John Fry]

Aeroponic farming is widely used in commercial farming worldwide and by a community of small scale farmers interested in pushing climate and spatial limits to urban agriculture. Aeroponics can create a good income for urban farmers by producing cash crops with limited space in urban settings.

Aeroponics support root growth and nutrient uptake by plants leading to high growth rates at a lower water demand than conventional plant growing. [image by trendgrinder]

Aquaponics unifies fish cultivation with hydroponic plant growing in a symbiotic system (nutrients traded for the cleaning of water). The concept is applied in community-based gardens in the US and worldwide.

 Scheme for an aquaponic system to cultivate tilapia sp. and various vegetables. [image by UVI Aquaculture Program]

Next to the above mentioned technologies and strategies, the 'self-sufficient skyscraper' as well features state of the art green building technologies such as passive ventilation and double facades to lower energy demand of the building. 

Technically the self-sufficient skyscraper is less utopian as in its social and economic functioning (Do New Yorkers really want to become part-time farmers? (I tend to answer: Yes, for enough of them to potentially fill a vertical farm.) How can a vertical farm compete economically with non-stacked farming practices?).

The economic feasibility of the 'self-sufficient skyscraper' has not been assessed yet but possible starting points for such a project would be public funding as a lighthouse project or a project run by a cooperative. As stated above, urban farming of cash-crops, especially if grown organically, can bring significant revenue.

The project of terreform shows that architects and designers have an important role in re-shaping imaginary representations of our society, especially under scenarios of diminishing resilience of ecological systems and limited energy availability. The 'self-sufficient skyscraper' can therefore be an opportunity to exemplify state-of-the-art green technologies, urban farming practices and social narratives so they may be discussed and further developed. This conversation will ideally be informed by wonder and excitement to nourish a debate about patterns of our food and energy consumption which sits at the very heart of issues such as climate justice, public health or social and environmental justice.

During my research for this post I didnt find any evidence of how efficient vertical urban farms are (energy and auxiliary input versus food output) if you take into account the construction process of the farms and on-site energy inputs. I still miss a full life-cycle assessment (in terms of energy) comparing vertical farms with for example community gardens or rooftop gardens. Nevertheless the concept is intriguing, provocative and obviously very attractive for designers who want to go green. It will have to be discussed what form of urban farm is the most efficient and in which way can and will society be part of such an endeavor. This discussion should only be teasered here, I will elaborate on that in a subsequent post focusing on vertical farm projects which have been proposed for NYC.