Small is Beautiful

The economics of permanence implies a profound reorientation of science 

and technology, which have to open their doors to wisdom and, in fact, have 

to incorporate wisdom into their very structure. Scientific or technological 

'solutions' which poison the environment or degrade the social structure and 

man himself are of no benefit, no matter how brilliantly conceived or how 

great their superficial attraction.

Ever bigger machines, entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic. the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful. 

Peace, as has often been said, is indivisible - how then could peace be built on a 

foundation of reckless science and violent technology? We must look for a 

revolution in technology to give us inventions and machines which reverse 

the destructive trends now threatening us all. 

excerpts from Small is beautiful by E.F. Schumacher​​​

image: Tree House Froschkönig by Baumraum​​​​

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BIOLOGICAL APPARATUS NO.1

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. However nature is not so idyllic in its becoming as E. Gittenberger states “The current biodiversity is the result of a very irregular, in principle an unpredictable evolutionary process, characterized by numerous consecutive extreme asymmetric developments”. Next to our role as humans of safeguarding, monitoring and/or managing a healthy biodiversity we should have a more profound relationship with nature which is not only based on mimicry. According to Slavoj Zizek, to begin dealing with the immense reality of obsolete matter that is calculated to conceal our world, we need more artificiality and less nature.

By embracing the idea of artificiality we come to realize that we generate an artificial living environment that is more a biological apparatus. With this duality in mind I designed a Living Cube with a Green House on top. The interrelation between the Living Cube and the Green House form a synthetic environment in which production and consumption are locally in a perpetual exchange. The Green House has the following functions: it generates energy through solar panels, the accumulate heat is storaged and re-used, the hot air keeps the airflow in the air shaft moving, it contains rainwater storage, it provides food, it can re-use the biological waste generated by the house-hold, it’s a place of leisure. 

project by p-851 architecture

to READ MORE about this project click HERE

Design with Nature 

The cities will grow as they have, enlarging the pathology of their hearts, growing into necropolis.

There is a model which contains the possibility of an inventory of all ecosystems to determine their relative creativity in the biosphere.

-The first is negentropy, the increase in level of order

-The second is apperception, the capacity to transmute energy into information and thence meaning- and to respond to this.

-The third is symbiosis, the cooperative arrangement that permits increase in levels of order and requires apperception.

-The fourth is fitness and fitting- the selection of a fit environment and the adaptation of that environment, and of the organism, to accomplish a better fitting.

-The final criterion is the presence of health or pathology- the evidence of creative fitting, requiring negentropy, apperception and symbiosis.

This Suggests an ecological value system in which the currency is energy….The biosphere does not consist of a pyramid of organisms but of ecosystems in which many different creatures coexist in interdependence, each with its own process, apperception, roles, fitness, adaptations and symbiosis.

The economic value system must be expanded into a relative system encompassing all biological processes and human aspirations.

In the quest for survival, success and fulfillment, the ecological view offers an invaluable insight. It shows the way for the man who would be the enzyme of the biosphere- its steward, enhancing the creative fit of man-environment, realizing man’s design with nature.

excerpts from Design by Nature by Ian L. McHarg. SEE BOOK   SEE LECTURE
project by Adriana Barra. SEE MORE

the Friendly Logics of Earthships

". . . the Earthship is the epitome of sustainable design and construction. No part of sustainable living has been ignored in this ingenious building."
Earthships can be built in any part of the world, in any climate and still provide
electricity, potable water, contained sewage treatment and sustainable food production

1) Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling
Earthships maintain comfortable temperatures in any climate. The planet Earth is a thermally stabilizing mass that delivers temperature without wire or pipes. The sun is a nuclear power plant that also delivers without wires or pipes.
2) Solar & Wind Electricity
Earthships produce their own electricity with a prepackaged photovoltaic / wind power system. This energy is stored in batteries and supplied to your electrical outlets. Earthships can have multiple sources of power, all automated, including grid-intertie.
3) Contained Sewage Treatment
Earthships contain use and reuse all household sewage in indoor and outdoor treatment cells resulting in food production and landscaping with no pollution of aquifers. Toilets flush with greywater that does not smell.
4) Building with Natural & Recycled Materials
House as Assemblage of by-products: A sustainable home must make use of indigenous materials, those occurring naturally in the local area.
5) Water Harvesting
Earthships catch water from the sky (rain & snow melt) and use it four times. Water is heated from the sun, biodiesel and/or natural gas. Earthships can have city water as backup. Earthships do not pollute underground water aquifers.
6) Food Production
Earthship wetlands, the planters that hold hundreds of gallons of water from sinks and the shower are a great place for raising some of the fresh produce you’d like to have in the winter, but find expensive or bland tasting from the supermarket.

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Biological Apparatus

All things in this world are a product of the formula: (function x economics) so none of these things are works of art: all art is composition and hence unsuited to a particular end. All life is function and therefor not artistic. The idea of the “composition of a dock”is enough to make a cat laugh! But how is a town plan designed? art or life????

Building is a biological process.
Building is not only a piece of machinery for living in but also a biological apparatus serving the needs of a body and mind.

text: Hennes Meter, Building 1928
building: Taller de Arquitectura by Ricardo Bofill

Green Building

Green building is ultimately about the relationship of a house and its occupants to the world around them. It's a process of design and construction that fosters the conversation of energy and other natural resources and promotes a healthy environment.

Green from the ground up by Johnston & Gibson.