ReSustain Magazine, Issue No2, University of Nicosia, January 2021

Title: Resustain Issue: #2 Supervisor: Christos Papastergiou Authors: Anastasia Milonas Andrei Sipos Ario Racho Christos Savva Elena Tsolaki Elma Adele Dube Maria Seliniotaki Narcis Laurentiu Sala Date: January, 2021

2

RESUSTAIN #2

CONTENTS: 4 ................... INTRODUCTION 6 ................... AN INTERVIEW WITH A PERMACULTURE DESIGNER 18 ................... CHINA AND THE DILIMMA OF ENERGY “TOP OF THE PYRAMID” APPROACH OF RENEWABLES 26 ................... ARCHITECTURE & FASHION COMMON SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE CO-EXISTENCE 34 ................... SCALE AND ACCESSIBLE SUSTAINABILITY USING SCALE TO PROPOSE WAYS SUSTAINABILITY CAN BE MORE ACCESSIBLE 42 ................... THE SPIRIT OF GAIA IN NATURAL BUILDING ‘BIOPHILIC’ AND ‘VERNACULAR’ APPROACH IN ARCHITECTURE 52 ................... THE NEXT STEP IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN BRINGING THE WEATHER INDOORS 58 ................... SUSTAINABLE PARK IN ENGOMI, NICOSIA BY 4

TH

YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIC, ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT

68 ................... AN INTERVIEW WITH A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

3

INTRODUCTION COURSE OBJECTIVE RE-SUSTAIN #2 was realised as a collaboration process between eight architecture students at the University of Nicosia, developed under the course ARCH-441 History and Theory of Sustainable Design. The aim of this course is to promote a view of architecture that transcends constricted and arbitrary self-expression and instead shifts the focus on environmental sustainability and on an ecological collective. It is also important to give students a comprehensive understanding of the principles of sustainable architecture within a historical and socio-developmental context.

The course also asks the students to detach from overusing umbrella terms such as ecological and green and learn to recognize valuable, environmentally-responsible features that do not require trendy labels to distinguish them) The concept of ‘Sustainability’ is undoubtedly one of the most discussed matters of our times, due to the rapid decline in environmental and socio-economic conditions. In this topic, however, the question of what is actually considered as ‘sustainable’ or how the limits are set around this term, are debatable. Due to the overuse and misconception of the word, it has been converted into a trendy label.

This issue is looking through the spectrum of modern day sustainability, exploring different aspects of it through a number of unique approaches and subjects. The aim is for the reader to attain a higher and more substantial understanding around that matter. While reading, questions will arise, concepts will be brought to light and solutions will be found.

4

RESUSTAIN #2

5

AN INTERVIEWWITH A PERMACULTURE DESIGNER

By Christos Savva

Keywords:

• synergies • food and shelter • biodiversity • sustainability • permaculture • self-sufficiency • ecological and cultural resilience • agroecology • mycology • dealing with waste • earthships • green buildings •

evelopment of our current world is almost unD stoppable while technology helps to frame unethical ways of getting things done fast, having a negative impact on our environments.

Over-consumption of resources and our propensity to divide, separate and over-exploit, are some reasons why our cities fail to contribute to balanced ecosystems, leading us towards a course of unstoppable destructions.

Diverse synergies between food and shelter, as well as sustainable processes of providing food and shelter while having less negative impact on our environment could assure a more resilient future regarding the environment and our health and could be the basis of balanced ecosystem. For a brighter and more meaningful future and It seems to be for our best interest to establish food and shelter producing systems through ecologically sound and sustainable methods while choosing ethical ways of developing life-creating synergies.

These opportunities to make a better world open up new fields of resilience for activism. A great example of a multi-disciplinary design methodology is Permaculture. It was introduced by Bill Mollison in 1978 originally meaning ‘permanent agriculture’. It’s a set of design principles utilizing resilient patterns observed in natural ecosystems to design healthy and self-sufficient environments as well as building community resilience.

Mollison has said: “Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of pro-

6

tracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.”

At first it was difficult for the founders to establish the discipline and get it certified. There were a of lot concerns and misconceptions about those people, that were merely activists or socially isolated people. Time proved otherwise and it is evident in many examples that these people were actually designers being able to design land and communities in a very healthy way. Nowadays there are countless permaculture institutes/academies offering a degree in permaculture. People have worked in very tough environments and transformed the most dry, arid or life-less lands, into lands with productive life by implementing these principles.

RESUSTAIN #2

Fig. 1 The twelve Permaculture Principles first described by David Holmgren in his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (2002).

7

AN INTERVIEW WITH A PERMACULTURE DESIGNER BY CHRISTOS SAVVA

To further my understanding about combining permaculture with architecture as a response on how to live with positive impact on the environment I conducted an interview with a very important person for me and the development of my work as an architecture student, my dear friend Panikos. He is an anthropologist, philosopher, permaculture designer, specialist and master. When I met him and described my field of study and interest, he asked me to join him in an Erasmus+ Youth exchange in Portugal for a Permaculture project in an off-grid sustainable community. The project (2019) included various guided meditation and awareness exercises, story telling, discussions, workshops about permaculture, ecology, ethics, sustainability and healthy lifestyles while promotic holistic health and being well. A lot of nature trail walks while cleaning up trash from forests, and various practical activities

Fig. 2 Permaculture Workshop: Solar Cooker

8

like planting, harvesting, compost making, forming swales, cooking. We were learning about socio-cultures and how decisions are taken in such communities, as well as about closed-loop systems. This program was a life-changing experience for me and immediately I dove into learning more about permaculture and meeting more people working with it.

RESUSTAIN #2

For the interview, I went and stayed over with Panikos for one day, we sat under trees for hours, and in front of the fireplace during the whole night, while tirelessly discussing about anything that concerns us and relates to the issues we are facing today.

The next morning I decided to hold the interview with specific questions based on specific subjects of how to create healthier and more productive living and food producing processes as well as waste management.

After having prepared a series of some ten questions and after finding a nice spot in front of the fireplace, while drinking a herb beverage, we started discussing. I started with the first question accompanied with a short introduction about what I was researching and the discussion went smoothly. The questions were formed to sequentially and gradually gather information about:

Fig. 2 Photo of Panikos Petrou

1. Panikos’ background and relationship with permaculture, his involvement with it and why.

2. His viewpoint whether there are potentials of linking permaculture and the city – a compacted environment – and more specifically the food and shelter providing synergies.

3. Gather information and viewpoints about the ideas of integrating fruit forests in cities, the earthship, specifically its potential if introduced it in the city.

4. Discuss about dealing with waste and garbage.

5. Ask if he himself imagines a permanent city.

6. Engage him to share a message, hope, or a feeling.

The discussion turned out to have been developed with a particular, positive flow so I decided not to mix or change the sequence of what has been said between us. The discussion was recorded and documented as below:

9

AN INTERVIEW WITH A PERMACULTURE DESIGNER BY CHRISTOS SAVVA

Part 1 – Biography, personal background.

Hello Panikos, We are here today for an interview and discussion as a chance to write a text for a magazine that we will prepare and publish as a class under our course ‘History and Theory of Sustainable Design’ where we were reading, discussing and writing about sustainability issues. So, to get started, I wanted to ask from you to tell us a bit about you. What did you study and why?

What did you want to know more about when you were younger?

Those two weeks were life changing for me, mind-changing, soul-changing, everything was stirred up inside me. I decided to continue my studies by staying in Spain for as long as I felt like. That was roughly for an extra year, studying with my permaculture teacher, working with another organisation and living with the community in the mountains.

Right now, why is permaculture for you important for you and how do you implement it? What do you want to I studied Anthropology and Educational Studies in the UK, achieve with it?

London, and the reason why I chose these studies was that I felt that there were in general better ways for people to In permaculture, I feel lucky to recognize and find 99% of live and experience life. I could see that there was a lot the answers of all the questions regarding sustainability, of suffering, discomfort, pain, a lot of people going hun- organisation and lifestyle. Permaculture is also able to angry or being unhealthy, physically and mentally. I kind of swer new questions, which it’s basic because it gives you felt deeply that this wasn’t the way, or at least the only abilities to organise yourself and your life in a way that way that we could live and that there were better ways for is closer to your well-being and the environment’s. It’s a us, as one organism altogether, the environment and the combination and a realisation that without permanence planet. So I was trying to gather answers to my questions. – which is where the word comes from, Permanent & AgriAs of why things are the way they are and how we can culture, and an extension is Permanent & Culture – human improve them. civilization cannot continue to exist if we do not have a safe food source. Without adequate food production, huHow did u get involved with Permaculture? Did you study man civilization cannot exist unchanged. Maybe we can Permaculture? continue on some level but it’s going to be radically different than what it is today. It’s importance is kind of obviSo after I finished my studies in the university, which gave ous now, for myself and the planet. It’s the tool for as they me a lot of answers for what I was looking for, I felt that say thinking globally and acting locally. Thinking of how to road could only take me so far, and to go further I need- deal with global issues and how to face them, and acting ed to dive in some other disciplines. One of those thought in your local community, organizing and if possible taking processes, philosophies, practical philosophies, method- it further by bringing new people in, organizing on a larger ologies, design methodology as it’s defined to be, that I scale, always though through the grass roots. The people found, was permaculture. After I found it I saw that there themselves should be educated and be able to make the was a lot to be learnt, so I decided to go on a project in choices and be responsible for their spaces, places and enItaly for 2 weeks. It was a Permaculture and Earthworks vironments. project were we were learning about Permaculture and working with the earth to shape it so the land can be more sustainable. The experience in Italy helped me to realize that the information was crucial for what I was looking for, I saw the importance of it and I was sure that it was the best way to continue. I then went to Spain for a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) for 2 weeks to get the certificate.

10

RESUSTAIN #2

Part 2 – Permaculture and its applications.

As I understand Permaculture is a very sensitive practice, but can it be linked with cities and production processes as well as construction? Can we invent new ways of providing food and shelter in the city, with permaculture principles?

To answer this question let’s define Permaculture. We mentioned it briefly before, the definition of Permaculture by the founders is a design methodology. It’s a method, α body of methods of design. The commonalities of these methods are the permaculture principles, the practical and ethical ones. The founders, for what I understand, have the ethical principles as a base and as the most important part of Permaculture. If you don’t follow the ethical ones you aren’t really doing permaculture. Those are: earth care, people care and fair share. Meaning taking care of the people the earth while providing, or allowing a fair share of the resources accordingly divided not only to humans but to the plants, the trees the animals and to all creatures of nature which take part in this process. We don’t only take things for ourselves, but we rebuild, regenerate the ecosystem through sharing the surplus of our labour.

To set a common ground considering the concept of sustainability, as well as to question it, it should be noted that permaculture teaches that for something to be sustainable, it means it produces more than it consumes (self-sufficient). If the resources are equal to the consumption, it means that in case of a lack of a resource, the ecosystem will collapse.

Can we create city environments though that right now are important for development to happen, in this let’s say fast pace and to create diverse living environments in cities for many exchanges of knowledge, products, culture. Of course, this means great and fast networks, unstoppable movement, over-consumption, waste. Do you think that by using permaculture principles we can appropriate the city environments to make them more sustainable in terms of producing and providing sustainable and healthy food and shelter production processes?

Personally, I see it as a great possibility and potential. Just by seeing the definition of Permaculture we understand that it is widely applicable. It can be applied in any garden, forest or any type of landscape, but as a design methodology in general it is something you can apply in any design, including the design of the city. One of the issues I guess with implementing permaculture design in the city is that the city has already been designed. Since it’s already designed, permaculture can radically improve its situation but up to a point I think, at the moment. We can try and improve the cities, make the best out of the resources we have or have used, but I don’t think we can make them sustainable, as it is. Simultaneously we can design and build new environments for people that might resemble a city or it can be a better example of human existence.

By combining elements from the past and the present as well as elements that we would like to have in the future.

By designing a city from scratch with permaculture principles can definitely secure a healthy human existence for the future.

Fig. 3: Basic Permaculture Ethics

11

AN INTERVIEW WITH A PERMACULTURE DESIGNER BY CHRISTOS SAVVA

Part 3 – The potential of architecture combined with permaculture.

Do you think the quantity of people living in an area is affecting a lot the health of the environment? I mean, can we design using permaculture principles compacted environments for many people?

Yes being around green is super important and in our nature, that we somehow tend to forget. We’ve seen many examples of the idea of the earthship, which tries to introduce nature and food production into the building.

What are your thoughts on that? Is it sustainable? Can I think it can work but I am not sure if it’s necessarily worth we appropriate it for the scale of the city? Would this be the energy to make it work. In permaculture we like to un- even necessary? derstand, observe and connect with our environment in such a way that what we’re doing is flowing in synchroni- Earthships are designed by an architect, Michael Reynolds. zation with the environment. We don’t try to force nature He saw that the way we create housing wasn’t sustainato produce only for our favour. Kind of what conventional ble, he also noticed the large amounts of waste that exfarming is doing today, not caring about the ecosystem ist, and we produce, so he tried to solve both problems of where they are, and growing the same plants, trees, at the same time. What is basically done, is a design of a spraying the same poison chemicals and so on… space, which more or less addresses most permaculture principles. Like taking to consideration the orientation of As I understand there are ways to make our shelter and the building, percentage of light penetration for heating food providing synergies more permanent but is not a and cooling in winter and summer, very thick walls for stamatter of density and quantity. Regarding food produc- bility and insulation, water treatment systems, energy coltion systems, can you tell me a bit more about the idea lectors. To address the issues of repurposing, reusing, and of the forest garden? Can we produce food in cities by remaking, the house is constructed by introducing trash generating the environments of the forest garden? like tyres filling them up with rammed earth, covering it with cement and creating a wall with great insulation In cities, I think if we want to play around with buildings properties. Another way to construct a wall is by placing and larger building structures, the green buildings – which horizontally glass bottles within the wall creating a natural are being studied a lot now – are one of the best ways I lighting system, and using tin cans by pressing them and personally see it to go forth in that specific thought pro- inserting them within the wall mix. The idea and practice is cess. So, building buildings. Having a green building that a lot more beneficial than the conventional building pracproduces no waste, no pollution and emission, and being tice with concrete. People still use a lot of cement when filled with trees, plants and maybe gardening areas. It’s constructing an earthship and cement doesn’t usually have productive in terms of food, water and energy, while pro- an ethical source to it. It’s not the best resource, especially viding green spaces which I think are necessary for the when we have other options. In general, the thought and health and well-being of humans. design process seem to be sustainable up to now.

There are many concerns regarding the use of garbage materials to creating architecture. Horticulturists and scientists suggest that the use of tyres for landscaping or gardening has a negative effect while leaching toxins over time. Unhealthy compounds are released constantly, and more intensively with rainfall, putting at risk the health of soil, crop and human.

12

RESUSTAIN #2

It seems like it’s a great way to deal with waste, by puzzling a living device. It sounds sustainable enough, but will these structures though start to break down in the future exposing all the waste used, out in nature?

exposed out in nature, especially with the help of other organisms and micro-organisms but we can do this faster if we choose specific strains and try to train them to consume larger amounts of plastic. Of course, these organisms have much higher intelligence than what we underThat’s a possibility but of course if you take care of it and stand, maybe even more than ours, and we as humans can try to maintain it you can extend the lifespan a lot, but I never force them to do things for us only. am not sure how long these structures can last. Another way to deal with waste though is by introducing mycelium.

There are strains of mushrooms and mycelium organisms which consume plastic. If we spend a lot of energy in labs testing these experiments and developing the mycelium, we can promote the degradation of our plastic waste. In theory the mycelium in the future will degrade the plastic

Fig. 5 Earthship

13

AN INTERVIEW WITH A PERMACULTURE DESIGNER BY CHRISTOS SAVVA

Part 4 – Visions of a Permanent City.

Do you imagine a PERMA-City? How can we imagine it? energy to more than that means it’s too intensive, stressDoes it even exist? ful, energy consuming, and lastly unproductive for the self.

So talking about sustainability, human communes more I do imagine it, but I also think that it’s a radically different than 150-200 are not sustainable socially and there’s more picture of what the city looks like today. So different that potential for theft and violence, less closeness and underif I drew it people wouldn’t recognize it as a city but more standing among people, less trust between relationships. like a forest with some structures integrated within it; if Smaller and more sustainable communities work autonothey are even visible. I guess the definition of a city would mously with common goals, resources and collective enerhelp to understand if what I actually have in mind is more gy outputs, producing almost all food and energy. The idea of a city or something else. goes deeper and suggests that within these communities, old people and the youngsters are being taken care of alI understand, we could expand more on the definition ways by someone without the need for babysitters and reof the city to more specifically answer these questions, habilitation centres.. but generally I refer to the city as a place of diversity in terms of people, culture, uses, production processes. I understand the city is something very compacted, but I think it can also be broken down in smaller fragments and submerged as you said within a forest. Maybe it’s more sustainable to design smaller living areas for communities while having in mind and setting some limits.

We saw many projects winning competitions that within their design strategy they take into consideration the notion of the limit. Claiming and consuming as much land as the community needs for a healty existen and then cease to sprawling.

What I was thinking is interesting to mention, a side note: it’s very good when disciplines work together synergistically. For example, when architecture, biology, anthropology, psychology, permaculture work together as one, and having a better understanding of the human I think we would be able to design better city environments. What I wanted to mention, was this number which is known in academia as Dunbar’s Number. Robin Dunbar is an anthropologist, and through his studies he came up with this important number which is roughly one hundred and fifty. His studies and experiences with various human cultures and tribes showed that the ideal number of a human settlement is 150 to 200 max. We can’t connect and actually give energy to more than that. Let’s say the average social organisation of a human is to have 15 to 20 very close people and then having roughly 150 more people in an outer cycle. To care and give 14

Fig. 3: Dunbar’s Number as described by Robin Dunbar.

RESUSTAIN #2

Part 5 – Final Message.

This is as far as I have prepared some questions. So I was thinking that maybe you can give us, a message as a closing. It can be a realization, a dream or a hope. It can be anything.

My advice or suggestion is: be like a mushroom.

Meaning?

Expand exponentially, grow outwards continuously, expand our consciousness and ways of being, inoculate any substrate that we can, form vital underground connections, but not necessarily visible. Propagate ourselves, ideas, the planet, and when the time comes, lets produce spores, millions and billions of spores to continue this networking of mycelium. So we can form the fruiting bodies of the mushrooms which for us are going to be sustainability, living together as one, feeling as one organism working for each of our best interests. Living and expressing Humanity.

Thank you for this. I think if we try to mimic mushrooms we will get there.

Fig. 3: Reishi Mushroom, a very medicinal one helping to fight cancer.

15

AN INTERVIEW WITH A PERMACULTURE DESIGNER BY CHRISTOS SAVVA

ermaculture has many branches including ecoP logical design and engineering, regenerative de-

sign, environmental design, construction and architecture. It is linked with integrated water resources and their management, as well as energy collecting systems helping to develop sustainable architecture and self-sufficient habitats and agricultural systems, mostly modelled from natural ecosystems and processes.

Our cities fail as balanced ecosystems, concentrated centres pollute unstoppably while lands are being over-exploited to feed an intensive consumption. While we grow in numbers and more ecosystems fail one after the other, we have to deal with tons of waste as well.

During the interview, an interesting thematic concerning mushrooms and mycelium was raised.

First, to define mushrooms, we must understand that it is not a plant, animal. Classified as fungi, is a hidden kingdom of a whole multi-complex organism and its study is called mycology. They have symbiotic relationship with the fauna and flora as well as other fungi, but they can develop parasitic relationships in the environment as well.

The organism of mycelium existed on the planet from the ages when life on earth was constituted by mostly or only single-celled microbes and bacteria. It is believed that it is something like an alien form of life which came from outer space attached to a celestial body. The theory which is called Panspermia, suggests massive objects like comets or asteroids were landing on Earth, importing various minerals, a variety of organic molecules as well as mushroom spores. Mushroom spores are electron-dense making them able to survive outer space. Living spores of the organism can be found and collected in all levels of Earth’s atmosphere.

Scientists say that mushrooms are more closely related to animals. Mycelium builds cell walls made out of chitin, a material that is also observed on the hard, outer shells of insects and arthropods. These walls have a similar chemical observed in butterfly wings and on the plumage of some colourful birds.

It is also believed that mushrooms and psychedelic or hallucinogenic ones in particular, was and still is a tool and key factor for the development of the human intelligence and self-awareness. These fruits are fundamentally helpful medicine for body and mind, and used for treating mental disorders as well.

The Mushrooms and mycelium are also immunologically active. Experiments by attacking the organism showed that the mycelium increased their immune cells for protection, activated white blood cells for immune strength and regulated immune cell compounds for a balanced immune response.

Mycelium web carries thousands of freshly formed young fruitbodies, with a great potential for production of food as well as medicine.

16

RESUSTAIN #2

The existence of mycelium on our planet is invaluable for many reasons. Fortunately nowadays there is a non-stop research going on about them in order for us to can create sustainable materials out of it, such as mycelium composite. The mycelium grows in a medium, inserted in a mould and after 6 weeks transforms to a very rigid, strong, very lightweight as well as fire-and-waterproof material that can be used in architecture as a building block, thermal and sound insulation panel, wall partition, even finish. Additionally, it can be used to create utensils, furniture, packaging, even leather substitute.

One very important aspect or ability of mycelium organisms, that Panikos also briefly mentioned, is the one that can consume and decompose waste.

A specific project called Fungi Mutarium is a prototype of a lab-grown mushroom that eats plastic!

The mycelium digests the substrate then continues to digest and decompose the plastic, meaning it brakes down the chemical molecular bonds of the plastic into simpler non-toxic molecules. The mycelium is then becomes an edible product but some scientists are still not sure thought if this outcome is completely harmless for human consumption.

plastic waste. It could be an answer of how we deal with waste while growing food in the meantime.

It should not be underestimated though. Fungi are very intelligent organisms and will never allow us to over-exploit them. We must respect, praise, and embrace the mycelium kingdom if we think, we want life on Earth to be continued...

Sources: • Angelis., V. A. P. B. (2019, March 27). Timeline of Life on Earth Activity. Kristen DeAngelis. https://kristendeangelis.net/2019/03/27/timeline-of-life-on-earth-activity/ • (2015, November 23). Are mushrooms from outer space? Explorebigsky. https://www. explorebigsky.com/are-mushrooms-from-outer-space/ • Khan, S., Nadir, S., Shah, Z. U., Shah, A. A., Karunarathna, S. C., Xu, J., Khan, A., Munir, S., & Hasan, F. (2017). Biodegradation of polyester polyurethane by Aspergillus tubingensis.

Environmental Pollution, 225, 469–480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.03.012 • Sisson, M. (2014, March 27). Dunbar’s Number: Maximum Human Group Size. Mark’s Daily Apple. https://www.marksdailyapple.com/dunbars-number-group-size/ • Ketler, A. (2017, February 1). How The Reishi Mushroom Helps Fight Cancer, Boost Immunity & Improve Liver Detox. Collective Evolution. https://www.collective-evolution. com/2017/02/01/how-the-reishi-mushroom-helps-fight-cancer-boost-immunity-improveliver-detox/

While the Fungi Mutarium is grown in labs, another plastic-eating type of fungus called Aspergillus tubingensis, was discovered in a waste dump in Pakistan. It was found by Raoul Mosseray in 1934 and successfully isolated. After research they found out that the fungi could colonize a very common type of plastic (polyester polyurethane) that is being used to manufacture a huge variety of everyday objects like car tyres.

These organisms could be very complex and intruiging to work with. By unstoppable and intensive research as well as experimenting could allow us to develop and train these organisms to have the ability to degrade more toxins in less time.

It could then be introduced in waste treatment plants or even in soils which are contaminated by

17

CHINA AND THE DILLEMA OF ENERGY “TOP OF THE PYRAMID” APPROACH OF RENEWABLES

By Ario Racho Keywords:

• China • developing economy • fabricating industry • coal • CO2 emissions • renewable energy • photovoltaic • megaprojects • storage technologies • curtailment • architectural integration •

tremendous fabricating industry, fast increase in its Α population and economy, in addition to mass relocation

into major cities, have turned China into a power-hungry country. This hunger has made China influential in world energy markets, however the harm that a long-term dependence on fossil fuels has compelled the Chinese authorities to make plans to tackle the country’s power demands. And science and innovation in areas like battery advances, photovoltaics, and energy management are at the heart of those plans.

The use of non-renewables and mostly coal to satisfy the country’s starvation for energy has emerged as a seen issue, with large cities such as Beijing regularly wrapped with heavy smog. China has 48 of its cities among the top 100 most polluted cities in the world, despite endeavours to solve the problem. Many studies have shown the devastating health effects of outdoor air pollution in China, including increases in respiratory symptoms, hospitalization, and premature mortality. These degrees of contamination have led to additional measures. The Chinese government presented a development plan for clean energy In December 2016. It holds a commitment to increase the percentage of its renewable and non-fossil-fuel vitality utilization to 20% by 2030.

“Developing cheap solar and wind energy to replace fossil energy has become the core energy strategy of China to reduce air pollution,” says Hong Li, a researcher who works on solid-state lithium batteries at the Key Laboratory for Renewable Energy in Beijing, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics.1

18

China is now at the pinnacle of the renewable energy market in the world. the country is the biggest global speculator in sustainable energy. Its electricity production from renewables surpasses that of the United States and Europe. China has contributed more than anyone in renewables and has a great deal of pioneer advancements, solar specifically. From 2013 to 2018 China for five continuous years topped the world for expanded photovoltaic plate capacity. the Chinese Communist Party has laid its powerful influence behind green advancements cutting down expenses remarkably for everybody.

China plans to depend on extra electric power from atomic, renewable sources, and natural gas to supplant some coal-fired generation to diminish carbon dioxide emanations and the overwhelming air contamination in urban zones.

China is the world’s hungriest customer of power around the world requesting the energetic equal of nearly 3.3 billion tonnes of petrol last year. it has almost one-third of the world’s solar-generation capacity.

RESUSTAIN #2

Fig. 1: China Supcon Delingha 50 MW Concentrated Solar Power plant.

19

CHINA AND THE DILEMMA OF ENERGY BY ARIO RACHO

Fig. 2: Source: National Bureau of Statistics

China’s power needs are so huge that renewable provide less than 1/4 of the country’s whole energy generation. in 2018 China’s utilization of new vitality such as natural gas hydropower atomic power and wind power was estimated by twenty-two-point-one percent of the overall vitality utilization. As China’s economy proceeds to develop, its request for all sources of vitality, eminently oil and natural gas, will increment.

Its stunning economic rise has been built on unclean improvement China is subordinate on coal and nowadays it is the largest polluter worldwide accountable for about 1/4 of all carbon emissions.

Renewables solely provide 22% of China’s power utilization 59% nevertheless comes from coal unless China can win itself off coal all its ventures in renewables can as well be in vain. For the enormous sums of resources, they are investing in renewables coal stays the spine of China’s industrial economy. China’s massive coal saves will proceed to supply the biggest share of its power into the predictable future. Since 2011, it has burnt more coal than all other nations combined. And its dependence on this fossil fuel grows even more: China launches approximately one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gasses, the biggest share of any nation.

China is right now the world’s biggest photovoltaic market. And it is a pioneer in building megaprojects to produce renewable energy. From wind power to solar power China is the floor for huge-scale installations. In the Ordos deserts in Inward Mongolia, the empty dunes have been

20

RESUSTAIN #2

Tu, former China program manager at the International Energy Agency and now a fellow with the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. 2 Insufficient transmission capabilities have reduced some photovoltaic power from coming to the net. the same issue faces wind ventures, the authorities are setting arrangements to constrain photo voltaic ventures in districts that have low utilization and high levels of curtailment.

Another issue is that renewable vitality ventures are confronting land-use limitations that ensure agrarian, industrial, and urban land.

“It’s harder to merge solar and wind power with the electricity grid” than to include coal-based power, says Hong Li. Renewable energy is “less reliable and that can make the grid unstable without advanced control systems in place”.

Fig. 3: The 1,900-acre, 500-megawatt Frontrunner Photovoltaic Project, located outside of Golmud, Qinghai Province. Courtesy of Zhuong Yunfan

21

CHINA AND THE DILEMMA OF ENERGY BY ARIO RACHO

For instance, in 2017, more than thirty percent of the renewable energy delivered within the sunny, blustery territories of Xinjiang and Gansu in northwest China was never utilized. That was since it could not be conveyed to where it was required: the profoundly populated megacities of eastern China, such as Shanghai and Beijing, thousands of kilometers away.

Fig. 3: Source: US Department of Energy China Energy Bureau

This problem and the Inefficiency of energy storage technologies has driven the Chinese authorities to contribute billions of dollars in high-voltage lines, to transmit electricity created in sunny, blustery areas over the immensity of China.

To minimize the country’s CO2 emissions, specialists say it is vital that energy generated in territories like Qinghai be transmitted consistently to the industrial and populace centres alongside China’s coast. Numerous bigger renewable ventures are found in far landlocked territories like Qinghai, Gansu, and Inner Mongo. Until more transmission lines are constructed and authorities’ changes are sanctioned that better allow energy to be exchanged to other areas, far-western “battery provinces” like Qinghai will be generating energy for themselves.

22

RESUSTAIN #2

A team of researchers with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Mälardalen University, and Tsinghua University has found that all of China’s major cities are presently in a position to deliver photovoltaic electricity cheaper than can be had from the grid. In their paper posted in the journal Nature Energy, the researchers portray how they evaluated photovoltaic power costs for all the major Chinese cities, and what they found when they compared them to costs related to the grid.

The integration of renewable energy production elements can happen on both small and large scales. This strategy allows for more autonomous evaluation of energy levels needed on different scales from one person to a whole neighbourhood scale. Therefore, better planning can take place allowing for lower levels of curtailment and lower the costs to construct a wide and advanced transmission lines grid, because the elements of production and consumption are either directly attached or at a very near distance.

Fig. 4: Skyscraper covered in solar panels.

23

CHINA AND THE DILEMMA OF ENERGY BY ARIO RACHO

Fig. 5: Off-grid system renewable energy utilization.

24

RESUSTAIN #2

Another issue that can be tackled by smaller scale and localized renewable energy production unites is the Inefficiency of energy storage technologies. The inefficiency in energy storage can be minimized at smaller levels and the current technology can be effective at this level. Many examples of off-grid units demonstrate that a battery bank for a whole home uninterrupted energy flow is highly achievable.

References: t

Sources: • https://www.eia.gov/international/overview/country/CHN • https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/CHN • https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02464-5 • https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1244/MR1244. ch2.pdf • https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-chinas-renewable-energy-transition-is-losing-momentum • https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-renewables-waste/china-aims-to-stop-renewable-energy-being-wasted-by-2020-idUSKBN1DD136 • https://techxplore.com/news/2019-08-major-chinese-cities-capable-solar.html • https://interestingengineering.com/skyscraper-covered-solar-panels-europes-largest • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGs0VPKM1jU&ab_channel=MartinJohnson-OffGridLiving • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkd89Od11g&ab_channel=dubohio • https://www.irena.org/offgrid • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799473/ • https://interestingengineering.com/skyscraper-covered-solar-panels-europes-largest?fbclid=IwAR0wQzXnO4I6gQ9T_A0QtxduWnUWWm--B4ZHizF6V2G5967QJzj5HvWRIHk https://www.irena.org/offgrid • https://www.irena.org/offgrid

25

ARCHITECTURE & FASHION COMMON SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE CO-EXISTENCE

By Maria Seliniotaki Keywords:

• fashion • shelter • clothing • sustainability • materiality • CAD technology • hemp plant • architecture • dealing with waste • landfills • green buildings •

wo very different, but at the same time, similar Τ fields in category of arts are architecture and fash-

ion design. Architecture according to Cambridge Dictionary is ‘the art and practice of designing and making buildings’ (Anon., 2021), fashion on the other hand, is also a form of art committed to create clothing mainly or accessories for the human body, and not only. (Fibre2Fashion, 2007) The main difference between these two is the scale, in architecture the scale, most of the times, is big because it has to do with buildings or superstructures, in contrast, fashion design deals with human scale.

The most common relationship between architecture and fashion is that both they designing a kind of protection for people in different social extensions (Farahat, 2014).

Another thing that ourselves can learn from the earliest years of humanity was that through architecture and the way people dressed, they managed to express their cultural aspect, and the improvements as the decades passed. A main common issue of both zones is the waste that they produce, and the influence of it in the environment. In the section of fashion there is the, so called, fashion waste and the consequences of it in the world, in the environment or even in economy, are huge.

Each year 60% of clothes are throw away (YOUNG, 2020) / ,according to EPA during 2017 the amount of clothing that recycled was 15.2% out of the 16.9 million tons of textile waste (Brown, 2021).

For the field of architecture, the results are pretty terrified if we consider that the earth is overpopulated, and because of that the people live closer

26

together in big cities, so they produce more waste.

Of course, sustainability is a way that all these negatives effects can be disappeared, although it needs a lot of human effort to achieve the highest level of this process.

So, this article will investigate how can fashion and architecture collaborate and experiment in the sustainable development of our life, and how to raise awareness of building a sustainable consciousness of modern life.

There are many aspects that stand out in fashion and design, as they can work together and exchange ideas and practices, in order to build a sustainable consciousness. Three of these aspects, which they will be analyzed below are: the use of sustainable sourced materials, the use of CAD technologies, and the management of their afterlife waste.

RESUSTAIN #2

Fig. 1: Collage of architecture & fashion’ s waste.

27

ARCHITECTURE & FASHION BY MARIA SELINIOTAKI

The use of sustainable sourced materials.

It is maybe reasonable to state the environmental crisis is the biggest danger to our future society, our structures are answerable for around half of greenhouse gas outflows, both during the development cycle and in cooling, heating demands. The fashion industry is taking the second spot, after the oil industry, according to the pollution they produce (STYLE, 2017). What’s more, when purchasers discard dress in the trash, in addition to the fact that it wastes cash and assets, however it can require 200+ years for the materials to break down in a landfill. During the disintegration cycle, textiles generate ozone harming substance methane and filter poisonous synthetics and colors into groundwater and soil (Brown, 2021). To avoid all this negative impact in the environment, one solution, is to use sustainable materials in both fields, as the plant hemp.

Fig. 2: Personal research for hemp plant

The use of the sustainable hemp plant in fashion design

According to architecture field, by the use of this plant you can create a, quite old, material that called hempcrete. (photo1) Hempcrete responds to all the qualities people look for in building materials, because it’s a green building solution. This material is a carbon- negative, that means the construction which are made of it can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Another interesting fact about hempcrete is that ‘it’s estimated that three acres of industrial hemp could yield enough material to build a 1.500 sq. ft. hempcrete home’ (Hempcrete, 2020). A remarkable example of green architecture based on hempcrete is the first sustainable ‘Lego’ home, constructed in Vancouver Island, and is called ‘Harmless Home’. The exterior walls of this structure are made out of compressed hemp, lime and water, and presently, it’s being addressed as the most sustainable, economical, most secure and most energy-productive house conceivable (Stanton, 2018).

28

Fig. 3: Stanton, 2018

RESUSTAIN #2

The use of the sustainable hemp plant in architecture

Despite architecture, there is also the fashion industry which is using as a sustainable material the hemp. Hemp as a fabric has a lot of reasons to be characterized as a sustainable material. Firstly, this plant needs a small amount of land to cultivate it, and also returns to the soil the 6070% of the nutrients that took of it (Jungle, 2020). Hemp, because of its nature, is a plant that fight any competing plants, and that means it doesn’t need chemical pesticides (Hymann, 2020).Worth noting the fact that hemp requires only 300-500L of water for 1kg, in comparison with cotton, that needs 10.000L. Furthermore, it’s an eco-friendly fabric option because of the fact that it doesn’t produce industrial waste byproducts. Hemp also is quite famous for its fiber strength and durability; it was used even for ship ropes, and that means that it lasts longer so less resources are required. Lastly, some other benefits of hemp clothing are its lightweight, that is very breathable as a sense, and that is carbon negative, as mentioned earlier.

Fig. 5: Hemp Fiber Can Provide the Desired Sustainability in Textile - Textilegence, 2021 Fig. 4: Next Green Wave on Unsplash

29

ARCHITECTURE & FASHION BY MARIA SELINIOTAKI

The use of CAD technology in architecture and fashion

The use of CAD technology in architecture and fashion is very common characteristic, according to sustainability of these two fields. Modern architects in their trial to approach closer the environmental sensitive design, especially in a modern society, they are trying to use new ways of producing work. With the help of the use of computers also fashion designers have achieved to visualize any project they have without producing lot of waste, because what CAD do is to offer alternatives such as different forms or materials (Boulden, 2008).

CAD technology in architecture In general, for architecture, technology is a major aspect for designing sustainable. Architects of 21st century are more aware of technologies and their benefits to their design, dealing especially the environmental issues that our planet deals with. The technologies of architect’s primary point are to, with the assistance of new strategies and aptitudes, please the requests of people which are changing each day (Farahat, 2014) . Through technologies designers are more creative and braver to create more complex forms and experiment with them without having any bad impact in the environment. Also, materials are getting improved, and of course stronger or lighter materials are getting invented with this opportunity.

More specifically, with the help of digital technology, are being done more complex calculations without having the need to build the actual product or building. This increasing the possibilities of having the best possible solutions.

If we take a step further, we can’t ignore the fact of parametric design and how many huge steps forward we have grown with its help in architecture and not only. Parametric design has helped in many ways and one of them is how it promoted sustainability in our designs. Parametric plan’s most prominent incentive to design is in its capacity to achieve eco-sustainability. It has this capability to bring closer architects, engineers, and constructors in a plan cycle that is pertinent to the user and our planet earth. With 30

the help of some specific programs, they can control and learn many information of a site that they dealing, its climate, or even daily and seasonal changes (Caplan, 2017).

CAD technology in fashion design The influence of technology in fashion is also very interesting. Firstly, technology has a very positive impact in fashion because makes people’s life easier and also sets the levels of designs higher. Moreover, there is a chance to use extraordinary new materials and electronics which introduce a new era in world of fashion. The technology helps in numerous zones including introductory determinations through to print, decoration and finishing result creation.

It empowers style brands to reproduce practical drawings, demonstrating careful example necessities, for example, creases, print arrangement, texture cuts and paint (Black, 2020). Another benefit of CAD software is the speed of time that designers need to produce a series of clothing, and the cost they save. The 3D printing has given a lot opportunities for several projects. The issue of waste in fashion industry is huge, and will be analyzed more analytical later on this article, but 3D printing is definitely a method which can help and offer a sustainable impact. The most common material that this method uses is plastic. So, if we replace plastic with recycled plastic, and also make a good sustainable research on that, we can easily understand its benefits in the environment, scientific development and also in education. One of the fashion designers who really showed how fashion and technology work together is Hussein Chalayan. This fashion designer is known from his bravery working and bringing so much technology in his field and his experimentation because of the fact that used technology as his main element (Farahat, 2014)

RESUSTAIN #2

Management of waste in architecture and fashion The waste that these two sections are producing is growing rapidly nowadays. Is very known this issue for many years now, because world’s population rapidly expands, and each time more and more people produce waste, according to their structures or clothing, both times to provide a kind of shelter to themselves. During global population growth came an aggressive increment of solid waste (Kara, 2017) . A very serious problem is the one of landfills which they are full of textile waste and not only. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ‘In 2018, 17 million tons of textile waste ended up in landfills’, and also it takes approximately 200 years for a textile to decompose (Brown, 2021).

Fig. 6: Hussein Chalayan - Smart textiles Lights within fabric and fashion

Architectural waste There is a lot of progress in the study of architecture when it comes the managing of waste. To start with, a very small but very important, project of the owner of the Heineken beer, who consulted an architect, named John Habraken, to find him a way of reusing the bottles of beers that he produced, as a structural material. Indeed, Habraken designed a bottle that after its use it could be useful as a brick, that immediately got used for building some houses in the island of Curacao. As the architect described himself ‘the first industrial initiative to develop recyclable packaging’ (Lodaya, n.d.). Moving on, in a totally different scale’s project, that takes place in between the Noeul Park and Haneul park, which turned a landfill into a Park, called Nanjido Recovery Project. The objectives of this design were obvious, they wanted to promote the city as an ecological environment, in contrast with its fame as a victim of urbanization and industrialization. The Nanjido Ecological Park managed to reach its goal, to resource recycling functions and it’s also works as an environmental education project (GOVERNMENT, 2015).

Fig. 7: Heineken WOBO. Image courtesy: Heineken

31

ARCHITECTURE & FASHION BY MARIA SELINIOTAKI

Fig. 8: Seoul Metropolitan Government

Fashion waste As mentioned earlier on this article, the problem of landfills which are full of textile becomes an environmental problem. But let’s see why a landfill is such an issue. Research has found that 3 out of 5 pieces of clothing actually end up in landfills during one year. (Harrabin,2018) Being said that, modern fashion industry has found many sustainable ways to reduce this problem. One of these solutions is, as mentioned before, the 3D printing method, as it offers reduce of waste. By designing the whole product in a software and printing it as a complete object, there is no waste pieces that needs to be cut away. According to sustainability, this method has the power to produce clothing that last longer than a regular handmade piece, as it can be used also for multiple purposes. After a lot of research, studies, and several trials, researchers finally managed to come to a stage that no waste was produced because they knew exactly the shape of clothing they wanted (Greeninger, 2018). There are many more ways which they can fix this problem of fashion waste, that each person can do. By making our clothes last longer and not throwing them away, we offer a good impact in the environment. Also, donating, reusing, or selling the pieces that we are not interested anymore is a very clever way to stop the production of more and more clothing, instead make them functional products again (Davis, 2014) .

Fig. 9: Young, E. , 2020

32

RESUSTAIN #2

I

n conclusion, we can observe that architecture and fashion industries are using similar sustainable methods for changing the several problems they can also offer themselves in our planet. We can all agree that designers of 21st century should be more aware of the technology and environmental issues and finding cleverer solutions, but with the help of these technologies and techniques, it seems more doable and reachable. Waste management isn’t only an urban issue, however an impression of our commercialist way of life and how we treat our assets. Our buildings and our clothes shouldn’t need to cost the earth, and it doesn’t have to imperil our sense of address or aesthetic.

Yet, through being more careful about the design process and attempting to help where we can, we ought to have the option to work to approach a more ecological, and imperishable future.

Sources: • Anon., 2021. Cambridge Dictionary. [Online] Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/architecture [Accessed 10 January 2021].

• Black, C., 2020. WHY CAD AND CAM TECHNOLOGIES ARE IMPORTANT TO THE FASHION INDUSTRY. SYNZEBE MAGAZINE, 06 NOVEMBER. • Boulden, L., 2008. 3D CAD and Sustainable Design. DESIGN WORLD, 13 MARCH. • Brown, R., 2021. ROADRUNNER. [Online] Available at: https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/textile-waste-environmental-crisis [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• Caplan, B., 2017. LINKEDIN. [Online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/parametric-design-aesthetic-f lourish-sustainable-bill-caplan [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2020].

• Davis, C., 2014. NC STATE UNIVERSITY. [Online] Available at: https://sustainability.ncsu.edu/blog/changeyourstate/closets-afterlife-5-waysreduce-clothing-waste/ [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• Farahat, B. I., 2014. THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FASHION AND ARCHITECTURE, Beirut Arab University – Beirut – Lebanon: AL-AZHAR ENGINEERING .

• Fibre2Fashion, 2007. fibre2fashion.com. [Online] Available at: https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/2860/what-is-fashion-design [Accessed 10 january 2021].

• GOVERNMENT, S. M., 2015. SEOUL SOLUTION. [Online] Available at: https://seoulsolution.kr/en/content/landfill-recovery-project-transformation-landfill-ecological-park#:~:text=Along%20with%20the%20Nanjido%20Ecological,%2C%202000%20to%20December%2C%202003 [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• Greeninger, A. P. &. R., 2018. SPRING OPEN. [Online] Available at: https://fashionandtextiles.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40691-0180152-2 [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• Hempcrete, L., 2020. learnhempcrete. [Online] Available at: https://learnhempcrete.com/ [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• Hymann, Y., 2020. GOOD ON YOU. [Online] Available at: https://goodonyou.eco/material-guide-hemp/).

[Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• Jungle, S., 2020. What is Hemp Fabric?, s.l.: Sustainable Jungle.

• Kara, H., 2017. Architects, Waste and Design Research. URBAN NEXT. • Lodaya, J., n.d. Waste management and architecture. [Online] Available at: http://squareone.blog/waste-management-and-architecture/ [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• Stanton, K., 2018. Construction complete on B.C.’s first sustainable ‘Lego’ home. GLOBAL NEWS. STYLE, S. Y., 2017. SUSTAIN YOUR STYLE. [Online] Available at: https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/en/whats-wrong-with-the-fashion-industry?gclid=CjwKCAiA_9r_BRBZEiwAHZ_v15ZHtL3kNn836LufroLhbrttS4KF88LllU7ZOA4CQbUnh3FTKIMJPhoCQdwQAvD_BwE#anchor-fast-fashion [Accessed 10 JANUARY 2021].

• YOUNG, E., 2020. Fashion Waste Is Rubbish – Yes, But This Is Not The Issue. WTVOX, 05 JULY.

33

SCALE AND ACCESSIBLE SUSTAINABILITY USING SCALE TO PROPOSE WAYS SUSTAINABILITY CAN BE MORE ACCESSIBLE

By Elma Adele N. Dube Keywords:

Α

•scale • accessbility • sustainability • education • inclusion • socio-econominc • environmental• poly-scalar • initiatives • case study •

re there people who feel left out of the conversation on “Sustainability”? With the recent global push towards more sustainable and ethical living practices, it is often observed that many members of a population fail to grasp the realities of the situation.

Is this because they do not have the resources to implement sustainable practices into their day to day life? Or is it because many of the primary discussions held around sustainability can only be implemented by industries and governments on a large scale? If so, this does not give the common man an achievable map work on implementing sustainable practices into their own lives. Which brings us to the key point of this article; Is there a way to use the concept of scale to propose ways sustainability can be more accessible?

The aim of this article is to analyse how the issue of sustainability is treated at different scales and to explore how the decisions made at these different scales affect the conversation around “accessibility”. The article will conclude by looking into initiatives that focus on making sustainability more accessible at different scales.

Scales of sustainabilty

Global

Urban

Neighborhood

Scale-> scale and accessibility-> increasing accessibility.

What is scale? Basically, scale can be described in three stages: First, by the separating and categorizing of different scales of influence and implementation. Second, by the identification of strategies that work best at each scale. Third, by discussing the relationship between these scales (Tabb, 2013).

What is accessibility? The Oxford Dictionary defines accessibility as “how easy something is to reach, enter, use, see, etc…” or “how easy something is to understand”. Be it at an individual level or a community level, it is necessary for people to understand the decisions that are made for them. The use of the phrase accessibility in this article will be used in pursuit of proposing ways architects, environmentalists and policy makers can include members of society into the conversation and provide resources for education and implementation.

34

Building

System

Component

RESUSTAIN #2 The Scales of Sustainability To begin this discussion it is important to first explore and analyse the varying scales that exist. According to Phillip Tabb (2013), ‘poly-scalar sustainability’ refers to the presence of multiple scales at which sustainability can be considered. From architectural and urban planning details such as the micro “composition of floor carpeting” to the macro “regional transport systems”. He came about this theory watching the documentary ‘Powers of Ten’ by Charles and Ray Eames (1968). While the documentary took a more scientific approach and Tabb’s focus is architecture, the two both share a commonality in that they use the human as the base reference.

From this we can extract that the individual human should be the starting point of discussion and design.

It is through realizing how different the carpet and the transportation system are in scale that one can begin to understand the need for different sustainability approaches (Tabb, 2013). The author proceeds to justify the need for this approach by referencing the work of Susan Owens (1986) where she discussed how understanding differences in spacial and structural qualities would help architects and planners design spaces that are more efficient.

Owens noted that even though the micro and macro scale where different, there were a lot of sustainability and efficiency concerns and solutions that could be applied at different points along the scale. For example, the general way water needs be conserved is a discussion that affects every step of the scale while the specific way it can actually be done will not be the same between a single house hold when compared against solutions that are appropriate for an entire country. Phillip Tabb created nine scales of sustainability ranging from the global scale to the system scale. This was to help designers and policy makers to propose sustainable responses that can be appropriate to the scale they are working in. It is from this scale that we can explore where the individual can be involved and provide specific information and opportunity to the user to help them understand how essential their involvement is.

Scales of sustainabilty

Scales of sustainabilty

To further emphasize the importance of scale, scientific researcher Thomas J. Wilbanks (2015), pointed out that all efforts to create change on a global scale need to begin with micro decisions that are ‘place-specific’. This sentiment is echoed by architects in the critical regionalism movement. Architects like Kenneth Frampton and Hassan Fathy if the 20th century and Gurijit Matharoo Singh and Francis Diebedo Kere 21st century. By making this parallel one can understand that need for place-specific, micro-level decision making is a multi-disciplinary pursuit.

Wilbanks (2015) also points out that common issues explored under the umbrella of sustainability depended on so many geographic and socio-economic variables that expecting the same response that is taken in one place or at one scale to automatically apply in another would be naïve. For example, passing legislation on the development of smart eco-tech in a wealthy country and expecting the same legislation to be implemented in a poor neighbourhood with barely functioning public transport would be unsustainable.

The one has the wealth to research, develop and implement any sustainable strategies they deem necessary with minimal resistance, while the other would need to go about the same steps at a slower place. As the poor neighbourhood does not have access to the disposable income needed to distribute resources and educate the community, decisions regarding sustainability often take a back seat. The advantage of using a scalar approach to decision making in this instance would be ability to make the goal of sustainability more achievable as decision can be made incrementally by an individual and those decisions would then benefit their neighbourhood, suburb, city etc…

Wilbanks (2015) also notes that any decisions made at a specific scale of sustainability have been shaped by the decisions made at other scales and thus in turn shape how decisions are made at other scales. Therefore, even though choices made should be place specific, the relationship between this ‘place’ and another and the relationship between one level of the scale and another should not be discredited. Creating a comprehensive scale would aid in communication of ideas between policy makers and members of a

35

SCALE AND ACCESSIBLE SUSTAINABILITY BY ELMA-ADELE N. DUBE society. This also helps with the allocation of resources and different scales require different levels of government intervention. On a national scale it is necessary for the sectors of the government to be included in the decision making while at a neighbourhood or building scale, those decisions can be made by a small community of people or by a single individual.

Now that the need for a response that favours ‘Poly-Scalar Sustainability’ has been established, it is important to consider how methods of implementation change between scales and to discuss to what extent these methods include and exclude direct input from the individual user.

How Socio-economic and Environmental Decisions made at Different Scales Relate to Access.

In this section, case studies will be used to compare; 1) how cities of different sizes respond differently to sustainability 2) how access to different amounts of money and resources is dealt with at a neighbourhood scale 3) how building on-grid vs. off-grid housing changes the conversation at the building/individual scale. This comparison aims to also highlight how the decisions made are directly influenced by scale. When answering this question it is also essential to understand how both social and environmental concepts affect the conversation.

Positano, Italy

1. Urban Scale

Positano, Italy- This hillside town decided to convert a small fishing town into a harbour and tourist destination to generate more revenue for the local economy. All while ensuring the local culture and architecture where retained (social sustainability). As the place has become a tourist destination the need for sustainability became greater as large volumes of people need to be accounted for when considering how resources are managed. These larger concerns are left to the local government to make, while individual residents are putting in their own effort to be more sustainable. Accommodation websites like Eco B&B show that many lodge owners such as the owners of Vietri 360 want to generate sustainable tourism. They believe that the small contribution they make on their part affects the surrounding environment. The decision by the local government to increase the commercial output of the city has given residents an incentive to be more sustainable.

Copenhagen, Denmark- This city has “sustainability” woven into every aspect of society. The biggest push towards sustainability comes from the government in this case. The report by Urban Life Copenhagen on Sustainability (2016) emphasizes that the reason it is so easy to be sustainable in this city is because the government designs in a way that “accessible and liveable…for its everyday citizens”. It prioritizes educating citizens on all issues regarding sustainability and creating infrastructure that lines up with these goals. Sustainable efforts are considered when planning for the different types of infrastructure, such as the safe guarding of green spaces and creation of safe pedestrian and bike lanes. Decisions being made from the top are trickling down and informing the decisions of the individual. (Urbanlifecopenhagen, 2016) Generally it can be summarized that at the urban scale we can see government proposals tricking down to inform and guide the way people can live more sustainable lives. In the larger city of Copenhagen, policy, infrastructure and resources are provided by the government, where as in the smaller town of Positano, the initial push by the government to commercialize the town gave the residents the ability to include sustainability into their own lives on their own terms. In these two situations, the governments gave the citizens the access to education and resources they needed to lead more sustainable lives.

Copenhagen, Denmark

36

RESUSTAIN #2

Grow Bainbridge, USA

Villa Verde, Chile

2. Neighbourhood/Community Scale

Grow Community, Bainbridge Island, WA, USA- The community was developed by a group of investors (Asani) with the intention to create a community that was “spectacular, ecological and accessible”. (Gill, 2015) The advantage this community was that the project was high budget. All initial decisions were made by the developers. No expense was spared as each house boasts the latest sustainable tech and the availability of ample green space made the implementation of sustainable methods easy and accessible. As there was a surplus of energy harvested from installed photovoltaic panels, it allowed residents to create their own power grids to share the energy amongst themselves in small clusters of about 20 houses. As the Project Manager at Asani pointed out they wanted a community “that comes together to do its part for the planet”. The developers understand while they are a designing for a small group, the decisions they make affect the bigger scale. After the project was complete, the residents took the decision making process into their own hands and continue to implement sustainable lifestyles on their own. They are proving that when given a place to start (be it through resources or education) they are willing and able to lead more sustainable lives. (Gill, 2015) Villa Verde, Constitucion, Chile- This community reconstruction project was designed by Elemental Studios after a devastating earthquake and tsunami. The architects are socially engaged and aim to improve people’s standards of living by fulfilling social needs and addressing socio-economic and environmental issues. The style of housing proposed in this case was ‘incremental housing’. This was in response to the small budget provided by the government for the social housing project. Elemental decided it was better to build the half the houses in a way that would habitable and leave the other half for each resident to decide how they want to extend. The studio always aims to involve the community they are working with in the design process. Alejandro Araverna believes this is a more efficient way to design as you are guaranteed to give the community the resources they actually need instead of just assuming. In this case, the community stated the need for public green space and pointed out the need for access to the Maule River which is a source of income for most who live there. It is their intention to use ‘nature and common sense’ to their advantage and to empower communities. (Chatel, 2019) At the neighbourhood scale, the contrast between a privatised, high budget project and one built as social housing, shows how sustainability can be many different things. On the one hand, adding expensive and advanced technologies like heating and cooling systems and photo voltaic grids can make a home more sustainable. Yet, simply working with what is available and taking advantage of the elements, as seen in Villa Verde, is also a form of sustainability. In the first situation, the initial choices were made for the user while in the second the decisions were made with the users.

Yet after the developer/designers stepped back, the onus was on the residents to continue being sustainable, in both situations.

37

SCALE AND ACCESSIBLE SUSTAINABILITY BY ELMA-ADELE N. DUBE 3. Building Scale

One Central Park, Sydney, Australia- This double-towered project was designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel in 2014. The project has a mixed program between residential and commercial. The building can be described as a vertical landscape as 50% of the buildings facade is dedicated to growing vegetation, which is irrigated using hydroponics. The use of perennial plants allows for the vegetation to create a natural shading structure during the summers and allow for light penetration into the interiors during the winter for solar heating. Each unit has in-between indoor-outdoor spaces to allow the user to befit from the shade and coolness of the indoors while enjoying the views of the city. Design strategies like water collection, protection from noise, wind were also incorporated. All design decisions were made by the studio and all methods of sustainability utilized existing infrastructure provided by the city such as water, electricity and sewer systems. (Nouvel, 2014)

One Central Park, Australia

Huaria Cabin, Ecuador

38

Huaira Cabin, Ecuador- This small prefabricated cabin was designed by architects Diana Salvador and Javier Mera as retreat from city life. As it is located next to a river, they decided to elevate their home on gabion walls to protect from flooding. They designed the cabin using completely recyclable materials. They designed the structure of the a-frame cabin in a way that would allow for future adaptation. Its structure is small and compact to fulfil the couple’s spatial need while also being advantageous in minimising energy losses. They primarily use natural ventilation for cooling and use solar energy and have water collection systems in place. They wanted to reconnect to nature and ensure they had a minimal environmental footprint. As they are architects, it was easy for them to make the most sustainable decisions in their designs. They had the know-how and skills on how include their desires into every aspect of their home. (Crook, 2020) With the case of the on-grid vs. the off-grid building, it was interesting to note that even at a small scale, user participation is not always needed. The architects at Atelier Jean Nouvel made all the design decisions while the user’s job was just to inhabit the space once it was complete. This case exemplifies that even though the user was not involved in the decision making process, they are benefitting from accessible design. Their decision to occupy the sustainably designed space is active participation in a sustainable system. In the case of the off-grid cabin, the architects were the user and every decision they made directly impacted them. From the case we can see that the couple were able to make more specific and detailed choices that would benefit them whilst the one centre park building had to consider the needs of many users. Even at this level of the scale we have discovered the presence of subscales. Also, while the larger building made use of existing city infrastructure and the cabin did not, both are still sustainable.

RESUSTAIN #2

How Can We Make The Conversation More Accessible?

We can evaluate the design choices made in the cases above to see how each case responded to the needs of the individual at every scale. This would help create a framework on methods that work and methods that do not. It is encouraging to see that most cases attempted to educate the users in one way or another. Though the concern of limited financial resources was raised, Villa Verde proved that there are ways to be sustainable that do not that do not need to be financially intensive. The user was not directly involved in all the cases. However, cases like Copenhagen and One Central Park proved that the user can still benefit at the end.

To add to the analysis of the case studies, we can also refer to initiatives that are being presented at various scale. These all aim to bridge the gaps in knowledge for the public in some way or another: Global scale: Global initiatives like Goal 11 by The UN aim to implement social-economic and environmental interventions in every country by 2030. The aim to do so by providing a policy framework for local governments to follow, providing financial aid to countries in need with the specific aim of making all cities “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable�. Goals such as the push for sustainable urbanization in underdeveloped and rural areas or limiting the effects of pollution in affected communities. (UN, 2016) Country scale: The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication is a research initiative whose priority is understanding and researching how information on climate change is communicated to citizens in the USA. They work with the US government by giving information on how best to inform the public in a way that is clear, concise and engaging. They understand that the exchange of information is a complex process that involves everyone from institutions to individuals. They also not that it is important to understand the culture and values of the people as this helps tailor the message to the specific demographic. They believe that access to information is the most important step towards a more sustainable future.

(Yale, 2014)

UN Goal 11

Yale Climate Change Communication

39

SCALE AND ACCESSIBLE SUSTAINABILITY BY ELMA-ADELE N. DUBE

UESI

Ben&Jerry’s

Neighbourhood Scale: The Yale School of Urban Environment and Social Inclusion (UESI) created an index similar to that of the UN but for a smaller scale.

Their aim is to use the index to communicate data gathered at the neighbourhood level to community leaders to help them better understand environmental indicators in their neighbourhoods.

The believe that look at the issues at a smaller scale gives richer information and points out gaps that needs to be fixed and would be missed at the city scale. With this breakdown, they hope the can help policy makers and community leader distribute resources and services more efficiently. This approach is especially beneficial in neighbourhood that are poorer and bear the brunt of environmental burden. (Pyzyk, 2018) Small/Company Scale: Ice cream Company Ben & Jerry’s has be heralded world-over for their push to create a sustainable brand that educates its customers. They have included their stance of on their company webpage for all to read and learn about climate change and social issues that affect many communities. Along with the highlights of the current issues they have a list of proposals for individuals to take to help the cause on their own. Such as pushing themselves and others to switch to clean energy and reduce food waste. The also link scholarly articles on the topic and actively support the furthering of ones education on the matters at hand. (Ben&Jerry’s, n.d.)

The article emphasized how tackling sustainability at a poly-scalar level made the design process easier and more efficient.

Allowing for designers and policy makers to focus on scale and place specific details. The breaking down of the scale into parts also allowed one understand the importance of creating relationships between scales. All decisions will impact either the larger picture or the individual depending on which scale you start from, as was discussed in the case study analyses.

It can be surmised that policy, the education of people at every scale and fair distribution of financial resources are ways to make citizens lives more sustainable and accessible. On top of this, including the user in the decision making process has the added advantage of empowering residents as they feel they are a part of something bigger. In many of the cases we discussed above it was clear to see that when included, the user understood that their individual push towards sustainability impacted the greater scale.

40

RESUSTAIN #2

Sources: • Ben&Jerry’s. (n.d.). Issues We Care About. Retrieved from Ben & Jerry’s: https://

www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about

• Chatel, M. (2019, June 22). Spotlight: Alejandro Aravena. Retrieved from

Archdaily: https://www.archdaily.com/789618/spotlight-alejandro-aravena?ad_ source=search&ad_medium=search_result_all • Crook, L. (2020, Dember 7). Prefabricated Huaira cabin nestles within

verdant farmland in Ecuador. Retrieved from Dezeen: https://www.dezeen. com/2020/12/07/prefabricated-huaira-cabin-diana-salvador-javier-mera/?fbclid=IwAR1jNOo8oaea18ldWGmnpe-sj0BXGYL4yi0Zc4fOha5cQ7qVDSEpt8WFG6U • EcoB&B. (n.d.). B&B Vietri 360. Retrieved from Eco BnB: https://ecobnb.com/s/

Salerno?bounds=41.037346%2C15.219573%2C40.318694%2C14.271967 • Gill, B. (2015). Grow Community - a thriving, green alternative to tradi-

tional suburbia. Retrieved from Bioregional: https://www.bioregional.com/ projects-and-services/case-studies/grow-community-a-thriving-green-alternative-to-traditional-suburbia • Nouvel, A. J. (2014). One Central Park. Retrieved from Arteliers Jean Nouvel:

http://www.jeannouvel.com/en/projects/one-central-park/

• Pyzyk, K. (2018, December 4). Study: Low-income neighborhoods disproportion-

ately feel environmental burdens. Retrieved from Smart Cities Dive: https://www. smartcitiesdive.com/news/study-low-income-neighborhoods-disproportionately-feel-environmental-burde/543498/ • Rudofsky, B. (1964). Architecture Without Architects. Garden City, Ny: The

Museum of Modern Art: Distributed By Doubleday.

Tabb, P. (2013). Chapter 6: 2000s Sustainable PLuralism. In T. g. design, The greening of architecture: A critical history and survey of contemporary sustainable architecture and urban design (pp. 124-127). Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub. Co. • UN. (2016, October). Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Retrieved from Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/ Urbanlifecopenhagen. (2016). Sustainability. Retrieved from Urban Life Copenhagen: https://urbanlifecopenhagen.weebly.com/about-us.html • Wilbanks, T. J. (2015). PUTTING “PLACE” IN A MULTISCALE CONTEXT:

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCES. oAKRIDGE, usa: Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

• Yale. (2014, January). The Program. Retrieved from Yale Program on CLi-

mate Change Communication: https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/about/ what-is-climate-change-communication/

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF GOOGLE.

41

THE SPIRIT OF GAIA IN NATURAL BUILDING ‘BIOPHILIC’ AND ‘VERNACULAR’ APPROACH IN ARCHITECTURE

By Anastasia Milonas Keywords:

• biophilic • vernacular • natural building • sustainability • inclusion • natural materials • Gaia hypothesis • human psycology • human health • environmental consciousness •

Τ

imes change. People change. And while a great number of societal, educational political, economic, religious, and health related changes have taken place throughout the years, no one can deny that apart from the positive changes that have occurred, there were, and still are some negative, even detrimental ones. People have tormented and, in many cases, drained mother nature so as to benefit and evolve. Of course, one cannot help but notice that the realization of the fact that the tactics people have followed in order to profit have led to the destruction of the environment to a significant extent is mainly responsible for their constant efforts to atone for the harm they have caused.

Thus, from introducing recycling to developing biodegradable products, a plethora of scientists and experts did their best in order to ensure that our environment would eventually become a better place. Nonetheless, the majority of the most interesting accomplishments aiming to point out the importance of the environment and our natural surroundings is inextricably linked to architecture.

Consequently, a number of natural building methods emerged, methods that were widely used not only due to their efficiency but also due to the positive impact they can have on people in general.

What can be viewed as the basis of these natural building methods that were, and still are, employed by architects across the globe is called the Gaia hypothesis. The name, for all those who do not know Greek, stems from the ancient Greek goddess of earth, and it does not only highlight the fact that earth and all its biological entities are one, but also that this entity formed regulates all the negative information and feedback necessary in determining and developing conditions that are able

42

to favor and improve life in general (Lenton, 1998).

As mentioned previously, this particular hypothesis is considered to establish the basis of the movements that emerged aiming to support and promote the importance of employing natural guidelines when developing and constructing buildings. The variety of studies that followed were based on a number of geographical, cultural, creative and organic perspectives, perspectives that allowed people the chance to realize that even though architecture is indeed focused on the matter, this does not mean that the natural component cannot be integrated so as to help people develop and expand harmoniously alongside nature (Day, 2004). However, this realization was not the most important one, as there were other experts who could not help but notice that there are health, ecological and spiritual benefits related to the construction of more ecological spaces which could help feel more comfortable in their surroundings and living spaces and heal at the same time (Pearson, 2000).

Fig. 1: Gaia house approach. Source: Pearson (2000)

RESUSTAIN #2

Fig. 2: Building with natural materials. Source: Sigi Koko (2015)

43

THE SPIRIT OF GAIA IN NATURAL BUILDING BY ANASTASIA MILONAS

Biophilic

Fig. 3: Hospital with biophilic design providing open, green spaces in areas which are not required to be sterile. Source: Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (Undated)

What needs to be mentioned is that the tactics related to the restoration of buildings after World War 2 urged experts and professionals into stressing the need for a more sustainable way of developing buildings, as the physical and consequently mental problems that people dealt with due to the excessive use of chemicals were numerous and, unfortunately, perilous (Laporte et al, 2009). There were others who backed these claims, as it was obvious that while the majority of the problems that occurred could be addressed on the outside, there were inner ramifications that could not be overlooked so as for people to be able to fully heal (Simic, 2020).

The Natural Building Movement was thus considered to be of utmost importance because of its ecological, physical, emotional and spiritual benefits which were related to the replacement of machines with manpower (Kennedy et al, 2002), as well as the replacement of chemicals with materials like bricks, clay, wood and slate, and both of these plans are able to restore life and nourishment back to people as well as their environments, indoors and outdoors (Day, 2004).

It goes without question that the Gaia hypothesis as well as the Natural Building Movement that followed which is evolving to this day, helped architects, constructors and people in general realize that the development of a natural building is something much deeper than pure manpower and natural materials, and while someone can be convinced through evidence present in both Biophilic and Vernacular architectural practices, this entire philosophy should be held responsible for something much more significant, meaning the establishment of a deeper and much more meaningful relation between people and buildings (Pearson, 2000) 44

As we all know, modern cities and their residents are plagued with sky-high stress levels, a great number of mental and health issues and a constant increase in crime levels along with the detrimental effects of global warming and water pollution (Sรถderlund and Newman, 2015), all of which can be characterized at least as devastating. However, viewed as a way to battle these ongoing threats, a new set of design principles and practices emerged, known as Biophilic architecture, an approach whose main purpose is to point out that the inextricable relationship between nature and humans can be exploited for the construction of buildings and thus cities, in a more effective and beneficial way (Sรถderlund and Newman, 2015).

More specifically, Biophilic architecture is based and focused on the innate connection existing between humans and nature, expressed through the term Biophilia, which was first introduced by the psychoanalyst Fromm, whose main goal was to explore the definition of humanity, and thus the Essence of Man (Sรถderlund and Newman, 2015). As Fromm realized that humans were intimidated by their beingness and their mortality, he then went on to claim that these two are to blame for their anxieties, their conflicts and their separation from nature and that the only way humans could overcome problems like narcissism, incestry, violence and necrophilia would be to engage in Biophilia, so as to love life once again and free themselves by becoming more altruistic and healthy, mentally as well as physically (Sรถderlund and Newman, 2015).

Fig. 4: Three pillars and their intertwined relationships Source: Mengbi LI(2020)

RESUSTAIN #2 Lastly, dynamic and diffused lighting can be used, as light installed in different angles as well as ambient diffused lighting are essential to nature and thus to this architectural practice.

Fig. 5: Source: Dancing Rabbit Eco-village (2020)

Of course, one should not overlook the significance of natural analogues (Söderlund and Newman, 2015), because even though they may not be viewed as an immediate link to nature, they are able to accomplish the desired effects just as much. Thus, the use of biomorphic forms and patterns, through resorting to organic building forms and structural systems, the establishment of a material connection with nature through the development of organic building forms and structural systems once more, and the introduction of complexity and order which can be achieved via fractal patterns, sky lines, plant selection and a variety of materials, textures and colors (Söderlund and Newman, 2015), can be considered as groundbreakingly beneficial.

In an effort to improve this modern yet mechanistic and sterile world they have created, as well as to overcome the physiological, emotional and psychological problems their disconnection with nature has led to (Söderlund and Newman, 2015), people living in contemporary cities can employ the use of Biophillic architecture which will allow them the chance to form a fertile and more interactive living.

The abilities of this architectural practice are astonishing and what is great about it is the fact that apart from influencing people’s physiological and psychological state, it is also able to be performed in numerous ways as there are certain biophilic features which include a variety of interesting and inspiring patterns (Söderlund and Newman, 2015). Obviously, it is necessary for nature to be implemented within a space, meaning that different visual, non-visual and light connections can be employed. Firstly, visual connection with nature can be achieved through the implementation of plants inside and out, green roofs, living walls, water and nature artwork, all of which can prove of great importance in accomplishing the desired effects. Secondly, a non-visual connection with nature is possible through the use of sun patches, textured materials, natural pure materials and the integration of weather and nature into the design, and even though these features may not be immediately noticed by the naked eye, their effectiveness is outstanding.

Fig. 6: Sea shell structure following the ‘Fibonacci’ Golden Ratio

Fig. 7: Fractal patterns in nature. Source: Doug Wheller(2005)

45

THE SPIRIT OF GAIA IN NATURAL BUILDING BY ANASTASIA MILONAS

Vernacular

Sharing a similar mindset to that of the Biophilic approach to a certain extent, Vernacular architecture can be viewed and defined as a practice free from pretenses, which engages in a simple, indigenous and traditional way of thinking, utilizing structures which are based solely on local materials as well as forms and types which were widely used well before the Industrial revolution came along (Salman, 2018). Focused on maintaining the identity and the special features that characterize a place, it encourages a deeper understanding and acknowledgement of the variety of existing natural systems as well as the attitudes of different cultures to the assets and liabilities of sustainability in general (Salman. 2018).

What is amazing about this particular architectural approach is not only its simplistic yet thoughtful nature, but its adjustability to each region’s characteristics so as to support local communities and enhance their uniqueness and identity at the same time (Salman, 2018). Vernacular architecture takes into account the climate, the way of life, the values and the materials available to locals across the globe and embeds its physical and aesthetic characteristics to them, accepting, pointing out and celebrating their existence and their unparallel value.

Fig. 8: Vernacular Style Traditional Basotho Hut. Source: Brad White

46

A prime example of the effectiveness of Vernacular architecture is the way it has addressed the construction of buildings in hot climates, which can prove a demanding process, and what this architectural approach has managed to deal with are the different humidity and temperature rates, by exploiting air space and height indoors, through the incorporation of the old but gold mud and brick layout (Carlos et al, 2015).

Fig. 9: ‘Hubbell House’: Master bathroom made by reclaimed materials Architect: James Hubbell Location: Santa Ysabel, CA

RESUSTAIN #2

Case Study: The Spiral House, El Valle, New Mexico

Fig. 9: Elevation showing how the adobe walls blend with site. Source: Pearson (2005)

A representative project of the involvement and integration of biophillic and vernacular principles into its architectural design is the Spiral House commissioned by a couple and built in El Valle, New Mexico (Pearson, 2000). It could be further characterised as an ode to sustainability due to its design strategies, selection of resources, as well as the locality maintained into the materials and craftsmanship required for the building.

The key characteristic of the building is its spiral shape evolving from the ground to the third level, as the interior arrangement and functional aspects which flow along that shape are also following organic forms.

The idea of the spiral actually derived from one of the two occupants, who is an artist and potter and was always intrigued by that shape, so she decided to bring that interest into her home. She perceived the round walls as more natural and blended more harmoniously within the river valley landscape. As a result, spaces of natural analogies with biophillic qualities occur within the interior of the organic form structural system, evoking nature into the spatial experience.

Fig. 10: Floor plans of The Spiral House. Source: Pearson (2005)

47

THE SPIRIT OF GAIA IN NATURAL BUILDING BY ANASTASIA MILONAS

For the structural system of the building, turkish born architect Erem Burken used the technique of “Baleblocks”, load bearing straw bale walls, which combined the insulating qualities of the straw along with the structural rigidness of the concrete. Straw bales were stacked on top of the foundation while 10 cm holes were drilled vertically and filled with concrete. Then concrete ring beams tied them together, resulting to a sturdy and solid post and beam structure. Then, adobe was selected for the finishing of the walls, giving a more natural look on the exterior of the building, as well as a soothing atmosphere on the interior due to the textures of this material.

It is worth mentioning that both of the occupants, who were not professionals, actively contributed to the labor of the building process of the residence, making it very personal and remarking the vernacular character of the project.

Generally, they tried to keep the use of the materials on ‘recycled’ or ‘reclaimed’ type of solutions. Wherever it was possible, the timber used was recycled or salvaged. The stained glass for the front door was also stored from a second-hand market and the stones used for the fireplace and the finishing of certain walls were reclaimed as well. Any new timber needed was sustainably sourced and renewable resources were selected for the flooring tiles as well, such as cork.

Large south facing windows provide plenty of natural dynamic and diffuse lighting inside the building, manifesting the changes of day time and the weather conditions from the exterior environment into the interior.

This strategy also results into a passive solar design in combination of the high substantial thermal mass of the walls and floors retaining the sun’s heat inside the house. Solar panels are also installed, providing energy for further needs such as hot water or radiant underfloor heating in the winter, which is hardly ever needed due to the sufficient insulation properties of the straw bale and the interior’s high thermal mass. Natural ventilation is possible and very effective inside the building due to the stack effect created by the central spiraling stairwell leading to the roof.

48

Other resource saving systems are integrated as well, such as rainwater collector tanks beneath the building mainly used for providing water to the pond and inundating the land. There are also plans to install a grey water recycling system with reed beds to decrease the water demand further. Lastly, natural ventilation is possible due to the stack effect caused by the central stairwell leading to the roof. Thanks to this intervention a cooperative, organic permaculture farm irrigated by those systems is being developed giving to the occupants, as well as the community around. For the creation of that farm, local craftspeople and materials were used, promoting the local culture and economy.

Fig. 11: Entrance with reclaimed door and artistic tiles. Source: Pearson (2005)

RESUSTAIN #2

Fig. 12: Interior of the meditation room on top floor.

Source: Pearson

Fig. 13: Bedroom with exposed vigas on the ceiling. Source: Pearson (2005)

Fig. 13: Kitchen following the curved nature of floor plan. Source: Pearson (2005)

49

THE SPIRIT OF GAIA IN NATURAL BUILDING BY ANASTASIA MILONAS

While the significance of dealing with the variety of problems humans have created in their efforts to evolve and benefit themselves goes without question, the burden lies in the hands of experts and professionals to put their knowledge into practice and the rest of the people to raise their consciousness and change their ways of living, in order to be set free from the pain and demise they have put themselves in. This is where architecture jumps in as a savior in disguise, as through the introduction of the Gaia hypothesis as well as the implementation and use of the Biophilic and the Vernacular architectural approach, has given people the chance to see some light at the end of the tunnel. No one can deny that the Gaia hypothesis along with these two significant approaches were, and still are, able to help people acknowledge, value and cherish their relation to nature via restructuring and reforming the narrow-minded notions and ideologies humans had clung to for so long. From the realization that nature and the earth are one of the most important gifts people have been blessed with, to the exploitation of pure manpower and pure natural materials and techniques so as for people to deal with and eventually overcome the ecological, physiological and psychological problems that their poisonous decisions had led them to, one thing is certain; The bond between humans, nature and the natural elements available to them is hard to break, because we are all part of the very same thing. Gaia.

Fig. 14: Gaia, painting by Alex Grey (1989)

50

RESUSTAIN #2

Sources: • Carlos, G,D., Correia, M.R., Rocha, S. (2015) Vernacular Architec-

ture?, Escola Superior Gallaecia, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal Day, C. (2004) Places For The Soul: Architecture And Design As A Healing Art. 2nd edition. Oxford: Thorsons.

• Kennedy, J., Wanek, C. & Smith, M. (2002) The art of natural building. Canada: New society publishers.

• Laporte, P., Elliott, E. & Banta, J. (2009) Prescriptions for a Healthy House, 3rd Edition. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. p.17 • Lenton, T. M. (1998) Nature 394, 439–447 • Pearson, D. (2000) The Gaia natural house book. London: Gaia Books Ltd • Salman, M. (2018) Sustainability and Vernacular Architecture: • Rethinking What Identity Is Urban and Architectural Heritage Conservation within Sustainability (IntechOpen) • Simic, Z. (2020) How Can Principles of Building Biology Contribute to Creating Sustainable Communities, University of the West of England, England • Soderlund, J., Newman, P. (2015) Biophilic architecture: a review of the rationale and outcomes. AIMS Environmental Science. 2 (4): pp.

950-969.

51

THE NEXT STEP IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN BRINGING THE WEATHER INDOORS

By Sipos Andrei Keywords:

• weather • well-being • effectiveness • nature • effect • stimulation • phenomena • response • indoor • outdooor • experience •

YOUR OWN FOREST?

Α building’s primary purpose may be to keep the weather out, but most do such an effective job of this

No real substitute for live nature

There are many kinds of recorded natural phenomena available today. We can watch videos of gently rolling ocean waves, or fall asleep to the recorded sounds of that they also inadvertently deprive us of contact with falling rain. There are even sophisticated software protwo key requirements for our well-being and effective- grams that can generate these effects digitally. So why go to the trouble of redesigning buildings to bring these ness: nature and change. effects indoors?

1950 Donald Hebb’s Arousal Theory established that people need a degree of changing senso- To answer this question, former University of Oregon ry stimulation in order to remain fully attentive. graduate student Jeffrey Stattler and I projected a dig1980 Roger Ulrich showed that hospital patients in rooms with views of nature had lower stress levels and recovered more quickly than patients whose rooms looked out at a brick wall.`

52

ital tree shadow onto the wall of a windowless room and tested whether there was any differencein people’s responses depending on whether the electronic tree moved with live changes in the wind outside, or according to a computer program.

RESUSTAIN #2

The result of the experiment

Indoor sensory change is likely to have a much greater beneficial effect on us when we think it is natural and live. So unless we are prepared to mislead people, there is no real substitute for using the real thing.

Fig. 2: Animation of Shadows

53

THE NEXT STEP IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN BY SIPOS ANDREI

How (and why) to let weather into your buildings By now, green buildings are a familiar concept, but the article in The Washington Post proposes moving beyond green buildings as we know them today. While green building can be great in new construction, that excludes a lot of existing buildings that could and should also benefit from an intervention of nature. Ideally, buildings should actively demonstrate their relationship with nature, moving beyond simply “doing no harm.�

Adding movement to existing sustainable building techniques can help make inhabitants aware of these green features.

An example from the article involves adding a shallow layer of water to a light shelf, which is then rippled by wind, creating sunlight patterns across the ceiling. The movements of light, wind, and rain have been shown to have a calming effect on building occupants. The researchers in the article even studied whether these natural movements could be replicated by software but found that the artificially-generated movements were no substitute for live nature.

Fig. 3: Healing through nature

54

RESUSTAIN #2

Thoughts put in practice

This office building rethinks the concept of a “green wall” with a double-skin system that includes integral hydroponic trays and a misting system on its outer plant-wall façade. The vegetation modulates light and air within the building and different plant species are organized to create a seasonal aesthetic change on the building’s exterior.

Fig. 3: KMC CORPORATE OFFICES RMA ARCHITECTS

55

THE NEXT STEP IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN BY SIPOS ANDREI

In tropical Vietnam, this university building uses passive strategies to maintain comfort. Large canopies create a semi-outdoor terrace protected from the sun and rain and porous brick screens allow natural light. The small openings in the brick pattern scatter the sunlight coming through, creating constant change throughout the day. Students are protected, yet not isolated, from nature.

Fig. 4: CHUPEI RECEPTION CENTER CYS.ASDO

56

RESUSTAIN #2

Fig. 6: EDU HEADQUARTERS EMPRESA DE DESARROLLO URBANO EDU+SALMAAN CRAIG

As nature weaves throughout this office space, specific views are framed, creating shadows that mark the passing of hours and seasons as they change. The form of the building creates openness and transparency for a blended indoor/outdoor experience.

In Medellin, Colombia, the new EDU Headquarters building aims to be a “building that breathes,” utilizing an innovative type of passive ventilation. Buoyancy ventilation is better able to respond to increases in the building’s occupancy and is more reliable than wind-driven ventilation. Even without wind, buoyancy ventilation can sustain a pleasant breeze throughout the building.

Sources: • https://www.archdaily.com/878034/wind-sun-and-rain-how-

and-why-to-let-weather-into-your-buildings • https://theconversation.com/the-next-step-in-sustainable-designbringing-the-weather-indoors-80126 • https://www.igloo.ro/sustainable-architecture-answers-to-theclimate-crisis-an-interview-with-d-arch-mariana-popescu-ethzurich/ • https://talesofamountainmama.com/bring-the-outdoors-inside/ Fig. 5: BRICK PASSIVE DESIGN UNIVERSITY TAISEI DESIGN PLANNERS ARCHITECTS&ENGINEERS

57

SUSTAINABLE PARK IN ENGOMI, NICOSIA BY 4TH YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIC, ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT

By Narcis Laurentiu Sala Keywords:

• sustainability • public park • student work • experiment • diversity • future • possibilities •

Fig. 1: Christos Savva - Ambiental Section

Α

T he tradition of having a “Catalyst week” in the middle of the semester at UNIC, department of architecture, was manifested in an interesting way this year. The municipality of Engomi, togheter with the leaderboard of UNIC gave the students the opportunity to search for innovative ideeas for a new type of public space in Nicosia.

The Catalyst week is basically a focused week when the students work hard day by day on a specific project.

This year Catalysr was tutored by Ms Eleonore Zippelius and Proffesor Petros Lapithis, who also teaches the course of “Sustainable Design” The idea was to create a new type of public park, based on the 17 points of sustainability. By doing so, the idea of more ecological and responsible spaces and designs is being promoted and the comunity is shown how a design like this can significantly improove their daily life.

The surprise that came out of this experiment was actually amazing and is worth mentioning in this magazine.

Even though following 17 points of sustainability seems 58

like caging the solutions, the students found many ways of designing a sustainable park and the diversity of the approaches resulted in unique outcomes that are worth mentioning.

RESUSTAIN #2

Fig. 2: Ario Racho - Perspectival Moment

59

SUSTAINABLE PARK IN ENGOMI, NICOSIA BY NARCIS LAURENTIU SALA

Fig. 3: Ario Racho - Sectional Moments

“The idea of the project is to design and build a sustainable park by reusing different materials.”

Ario Racho

It is always a good ideea to reuse. But organising an entire park around this ideea can be a challange. Ario found many ways of reusing. His result is a very low budget, yet interesting and comprehensive public space. Surely an interesting oprion for municipality.

60

RESUSTAIN #2

“My idea of creating the park was to offer people safety both day and night by giving them opportunities to choose their paths. There are two distinctive ones, the straight ones that are marked with consecutive elements and the sinuous ones that have more shadow and are proper for day walking.�

Other students turned their attention to what sustainability means directly for the users. And so, the legibility and the safeness of the park was a main priority.

Sipos Andrei

Fig. 4: Sipos Andrei - Perspectival Renders

61

SUSTAINABLE PARK IN ENGOMI, NICOSIA BY NARCIS LAURENTIU SALA

Fig. 5: Christos Savva - Masterplan

“The opportunity to design a sustainable park in Engomi raised a lot of awareness issues and we immediately dove into finding ways and materials to design sustainably and self-sufficiently.

My proposal is a mixture of architecture and permaculture design principles for an a healthy and inviting environment for everyone to work collectively in gardens. The process of collective growing of food creates strong bonds between the community while helping us to understand how important is to grow food responsibly without exploiting our environments. Within the park one can find a small but flexible semi-outdoor Kiosk, an open, fluid amphitheatre and stage, as well as composting toilets, as a chance to raise awareness about our waste and organic/natural farming techniques, and as a response of our current, violent way of farming. The

62

vision is to create through time a forest park with fruit and nut trees, medicinal herbs, perennials, grasses and grow beds to grow fresh vegetables, leaves, flowers while maintained by the university and neighbourhood community.�

Christos Savva

RESUSTAIN #2

Chris showed us how important the process is. He told us that sustainability is not something that comes out of the architect drawingboard but something that the community develops together.

The common sense is what generates sustainability, and this proposal is more of an guide of good maners and good practice. We just have to hope that municipality understand that such a project is not something that appears over the night but a beautiful process that involves us all.

Fig. 6: Christos Savva - Concept

63

SUSTAINABLE PARK IN ENGOMI, NICOSIA BY NARCIS LAURENTIU SALA

“When I was investigating how to design an open space, I tried to bring forth a beautiful design which not only used effectively most of the given space, but also it invites different groups of people into the park.

The design was produced to improve the quality of their lives, to educate them about sustainability while at the same time, producing a structure that would respect and improve the quality of the surrounding environment.�

Elena Tsolaki

Fig. 7: Elena Tsolaki - Sectional Environments

64

RESUSTAIN #2

Maybe the project that was the most apreciated after the final presentation was the park designed by Elena Tsolaki. And for good reasons. Elena managed to touch a lot of targets in a lot of directions. One of the most interesting characteristics is the inclusivity that her park provides. As she told me, everybody can apropiate this parc because of the many activities that it can hold, but more than that, this proposal tries to teach the user about what sustainability means through the 17 points.

Fig. 9: Elena Tsolaki - Water Collecting System

Fig. 10: Elena Tsolaki - Masterplan

Fig. 8: Elena Tsolaki - Perspectival Moment

65

SUSTAINABLE PARK IN ENGOMI, NICOSIA BY NARCIS LAURENTIU SALA

Fig. 11: Narcis Laurentiu Sala - Concept and Masterplan

66

RESUSTAIN #2 The last park i want to show and discuss is my own design. Inspired by recent work of Chris Precht in Vienna, my thoughts about sustainability was mainly about being used. It is a shame that in this hard times of 2020, quality public spaces remain empty because of the meeting restrictions. So from the drawingboard, my goal was to see how a safe distanced space can work with different fucntions of a public park, such as walkways, resting points, an amphiteater and even playgrounds. Spaces that will always provide you a safe distance between you and the other users of the park.

I was never sure about the feasibility of this proposal but one thing i know for sure, the wide range of proposals, once shown to the authorities of Engomi, has to born some kind of generative process and I’m sure that our work will find the way towards construction of this park in the future, one way or another.

Fig. 12: Narcis Laurentiu Sala - Perspectival Renders

67

AN INTERVIEW WITH A

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

By Elena Tsolaki

How does landscape architecture reflect on various elements such as climate change, culture, politics or economy?

How is it affected by the recent pandemic?

In this article, we are going to acknowledge the way landscape architecture addresses issues of sustainability and gives solutions to minimize problems affecting our environment, embraced by some case studies.

Introduction I was given the opportunity to interview Dr. Anna Papadopoulou, a landscape architect, ex professor at the University of Cyprus and University of Nicosia, where she presented her beliefs and ideas. Dr. Papadopoulou practices her profession through researching and participating in competitions. That gives her the opportunity to investigate into subjects and express freely her ideas in a more ambitious way which a typical architect, who designs houses, cannot.

Dr. Papadopoulou’s research area focuses on sustainable design and pedagogy of sustainability meaning how to incorporate principles of sustainability within an architectural education and the build environment. Moreover, she investigates how designing buildings and cities can affect the relations between genders.

1. When is an open space considered to be successfully designed?

According to Dr. Papadopoulou, “…it’s not the design of the open space that necessarily affects human interaction… looking at an open space has to be a very cross disciplinary process”. It’s not about how it looks; a successful design of an open space does not lie on its aesthetics but how it is inhabited and whether it addresses or restores the environment. When designing an open space, one must consider the duration of the use, meaning, if it will be inhabited for example, 24 hours a day or 3 hours a day.

If it is inhabited for only 3 hours a day, then it cannot be considered a very successful design.

old people and even animals so, as she stated, “… the success of an open space has to do with how many different kinds of people and humans and non-humans get to use them.”

She also pointed out that, an open space design should be more than just a gathering area; it needs to be a place that addresses or restores the environment. “Every time we add something to the environment, it affects the ecological process of nature”. Dr. Papadopoulou’s competition projects for open spaces focus into solutions that could help restore the environment or Moreover, a design for an open space should address to minimize ecological footprints. different groups of people, such as mothers with children, 68

RESUSTAIN #2

69

AN INTERVIEW WITH A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT BY ELENA TSOLAKI She designs systems that help to restore the quality of the environment; that guarantees automatically the success of the design. One of such a project refers to the Pedieos River in Strovolos, Nicosia, in an area which is flooding 2-3 times a year, causing treads not only to the environment but also to human lives. Her project was based not only to upgrade the aesthetics of the area but to manage excess surface rainwater and also to introduce systems that would enhance the biodiversity of the area which would introduce fauna and flora back to the urban environment.

Before Flooding

During Flooding

Generally, “Water management in public spaces and in terms of environmental restoration is a massive chapter.”

Problems of flooding have been increased worldwide, encountering the effects of the extreme climate change.

The surrounding nature was left untouched as they wanted to allow wildlife to evolve and transform naturally. The park is a very important area for the city because it minimizes the flooding problem and permits its citizens to come closer to nature and its beauty.

Thus, there are many projects globally which focus on how to manage water resources effectively as flooding can be very destructive to the built environment as well.

Such a project can be found in China called “Qunli Stormwater Wetland Park” by the architectural firm Turnscape.

The goal was to restore the dying wetland into a sustainable park with the intervention of multiple ecosystems that will help to restore the existing environment and introduce the new urban community. The park was carefully designed in order to collect and filtrate water from storms, since the city had often problems with flooding.

70

RESUSTAIN #2 In conclusion, an open space is successfully designed if it is used by several different kinds of humans and nonhumans regularly and if it improves or restores the environment in some way.

71

AN INTERVIEW WITH A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT BY ELENA TSOLAKI

2. How do you as a landscape architect interact with issues like climate change, economy, culture and maximizes sustainability to deliver the best possible end result of a project?

Regarding climate change, both scientists and designers share their concerns and agree of the urgency to react.

Regarding economic and political issues, there seems to be a different understanding, thus a different approach towards a design. This attitude affects the perspective and the thinking of a project, as Dr. Papadopoulou noted that â€œâ€Ś our attitude and our ethics towards environment is very much guided by social economic and political systems.â€?

Whether an architect interacts with the above-mentioned elements and to what extent depends whether he/ she is a practicing architect or an architect who participates in competition projects. Someone who designs for competitions can be more ambitious as he/she is able to address some or even all the aforementioned issues and propose design ideas which can improve the quality of the environment but also of our lives. On the other hand, when designing a house for example, architects do not really have the luxury to address subjects like climate change and culture. Most of the times, there is a budget restriction which will not allow them to express freely on those issues; but will however consider sustainability if their clients are educated in a sense that they may see the economic and environmental benefits behind a bioclimatic house design.

3. Can you demonstrate with an example a project that addresses some or all the aforementioned factors?

Almost every major city has a river running through it, which was used as a highway for transportation during preindustrial revolution era. Unfortunately, rivers lost their importance once people started building proper highways.

In some areas, engineers made massive channels and diverted them to run underground. With this movement, people were not taking into consideration the environmental importance of the rivers, but they also forgot about the cultural importance, as they used to engaged in those massive open squares to socialize and come together.

One of those rivers is ChonGae which was running through Seoul in Korea.

72

RESUSTAIN #2 When the river was covered, it lost its cultural and environmental importance. The “ChonGae Canal Restoration Project”, was an ambitious redevelopment initiative to transform the urban center of Seoul. This international competition project aimed at the future reunification of North and South Korea. The winning project was designed

by Mikyoung Kim Designs, a spectacular sustainability design which emphasized on the restoration of the river.

Before

After

Moreover, this project re-establishes its environmental and cultural importance; not only it improved the water quality and reduced the problems of flooding, it also became a central meeting point where people will gather again and different events and festivals will take place, thus as Dr. Papadopoulou pointed out: “if you have a thriving culture then you probably have a thriving economy as well”.

Evolution of the water level during the different seasons

73

AN INTERVIEW WITH A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT BY ELENA TSOLAKI

4. What is the best tool that you must use to improve the culture of sustainability in Cyprus?

“The answer to that is less about design and more about culture. The way to move forward and create a sustainable future is to focus on educating people…”, Dr Papadopoulou states. By educating people on the dangers of the climate change and how their way of living affects the environment, they will understand the impact it has on the environment and appreciate designs which focus on sustainable principles. Educating people is one part of the equation. The other part is to what degree, people are willing to change their lifestyle in order to embrace the culture of sustainability. According to Dr. Papadopoulou, there are two categories of environmentalists: the shallow and the deep. The shallow environmentalists are those who care about the environment, they recycle, they do not waste water or leave the lights on but are not willing to change their lifestyle. The deep environmentalists are those who are willing to change their lifestyle. They use only renewable energy source to heat their houses and most probably they move to more sustainable areas. Such area is found in Vauban, Freiburg, Germany.

Vauban was built as a sustainable model district where all houses were built with sustainable materials, they have a low-energy consumption with solar collectors or photovoltaic cells and waste management systems. People in Vauban mainly move on foot or by bicycle. Most of the facilities, e.g. hospital, hotels, are within a short walking distance. Moreover, the transportation planning layout is cleverly made in such a way that within a short walking distance, each house can find a tram station to ride around the city.

74

RESUSTAIN #2

The transportation network is separated into 3 categories: one for cars, one for trams and one for pedestrians and bicycles. The network for cars is passing around the neighborhoods not through them. At the end of the roads, there is a connection with the network of pedestrians and bikes.

75

AN INTERVIEW WITH A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT BY ELENA TSOLAKI

5. How is landscape architecture profession being treated in Cyprus, and how do you think it has evolved over time?

In Cyprus, unfortunately landscape architects are underestimated, since some still consider them to be garden designers. Only few years ago they gained their right to be registered in order to practice their profession in architect’s category awaiting to create a separate category for them. There’s still an unawareness of the difference between an architect and a landscape architect. An architect designs buildings, whereas a landscape architect has no interest in that. Landscape architects have a set of skills that are different; they can design master plans, environmental restorations, they Vauban incorporated not only the architectural have specific knowledge on understanding ecological sustainability but also the social sustainability. For example, systems, the environment and the open space design. if there is a hairdresser, he/she will be able to serve in a radius of X kilometers around without the intervention of “For us, plants and trees are building materials. another hairdresser in order to keep a balance.

There are there to create space and to enrich the Everything is regulated in a workable way. However, although Vauban is a brilliant planned compact city, its structure cannot be applied to every country as it is planned according to German way of living. They follow rules while elsewhere some people may consider this to be fascism, not a free market since it is not allowed to open a business anywhere or to build in the way one wishes to do.

environment”

Dr. Papadopoulou said. Due to this misconception, projects for open spaces, parks and public squares are still designed by architects. However, there is hope that soon people will acknowledge this profession and give it the proper recognition it deserves.

6. To what degree will the landscape architecture be affected by the recent pandemic?

During the lockdown in April 2020, most of the citizens appreciated more the open space, Dr. Papadopoulou concluded. She noted that people reclaimed the streets in ways that they have never done, they flooded in the middle of the roads without being afraid of the cars and explored their neighborhood. Furthermore, due to the absence of the cars, carbon dioxide and nitrogen sulfide levels had subsided. Unfortunately, when the lockdown ended, they all returned to their old habits.

In Cyprus we value huge houses, expensive cars more than Landscape architecture, which deals with open space appreciating nature, thus ‘We need to realign our priorities design, will not be affected much by the recent pandemic, Dr. Papadopoulou said, as there is a certain if we are to create alternative lifestyles.’

76

RESUSTAIN #2 safety being outdoors, because the virus does not seem to contaminate people easily when they are in the fresh air as it does indoors. She believes that there may be a change in the building architecture since there is a need for ‘social distancing’, so architects will need to redesign indoor areas and further consider making more flexible spaces in order to allow the possibility of being ‘social’ while being ‘distanced’.

Conclusion Designing an open space is more than upgrading the aesthetics of the area. It is a whole disciplinary process. A successfully designed area is when people enjoy using it, where it affects positive the ecological system, where it restores the environment but also where it addresses to the cultural importance of the city.

Sources: • https://didacticdiscourse.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/reclaiming-nature-in-the-city-cheong-gye-cheon-restoration/ • https://www.archdaily.com/446025/qunli-stormwater-wetland-park-turenscape?ad_medium=widget&ad_name=more-from-office-article-show&fbclid=IwA

R3ncBiapr5cB6zG7D4UEP5lJk485J0HlQNv28J6bTWMBhNtIM-Qnu0V9Q w • https://www.archdaily.com/174242/chongae-canal-restoration-project-mikyoung-kim-design?fbclid=IwAR2fz0Dn8IiRYuCmA_r8BrREBZnfTKccj2BOsmnFAzTS2yBNwJTkUdl91s • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauban,_Freiburg

77