Kitchen Garden Forum

Problems into opportunity !
A video about;
" How can architects build a new world of sustainable beauty? By learning from nature. At TEDSalon in London, Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.

Michael Pawlyn takes cues from nature to make new, sustainable architectural environments"

Working with nature for resource efficiencey

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pawlyn ... cture.html

Who knew Ozymandias had a bald head?
Cardboard to caviar isn't exactly a closed loop, with the cardboard coming from outside of it, and a cretinously inefficient way to eat fish.
I have twice visited the Eden Project and have both times left with a bad taste in my mouth. That it's upheld as some sort of environmental totem I find baffling. If the number of BTUs needed to heat the place and keep the water pumped out from under it was widely known, all from fossil fuels, we'd all have a very different opinion of the place.

Well in my book putting our waste to work instead of in landfilll can't be bad and the schemes he described seemed to be working without the use of a lot of fossil fuel input as it was producing stuff locally. I have never been to the eden project so I would not know about that, its been around some time so it's old technology now ! At least the architecture is imaginatively trying to reduce our carbon footprint in a positive and people orientated way and working towards sustainability. How would you do it differently Felixt eiter ?

Well you have to hand it to Michael Pawlyn for one of the most slick and convincing presentations that I have seen in a long time. But like NB I have never visited there so, in view of Felix's comments, I did a bit of digging into their energy use and I can see why she was a little sceptical. But in fairness to them they are working at improving their energy usage. By way of contrast I think we are a little ahead of them at the National Botanic Garden of Wales - see
http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/news/carmarthenshire-attraction-cultivates-green-credentials/

The new boiler and the solar farm are working very well.

As for the desertification of North Africa which Michael Pawlyn mentioned, the reasons were rather more complex than suggested, climate change being the main one. But it has been shown that by careful tree planting, parts of the deserts can be reclaimed. So not all doom and gloom even without high tech.

Hi Colin,
There is an old Air Force saying which applies to Michael Pawlyn's presentation which is' bullshit baffles brains.'
Certainly there are facets of the speech that are plausible but highly unlikely and probably belong to the next millennium.
Certainly it is a smooth presentation which is really saying 'look how clever I am.' It is no good using present day problems to be solved by something that has to be so far in the future, if ever.
Remember words are very cheap and so very easily used but it is up to somebody other than him to work out the practical possibilities and by giving the example of a hotel built of the waste from salt would probably never gain approval in this country. All his other examples are simply the product of an over fertile brain.
I so dislike smart arses!
JB.

Johnboy - never leave this forum! You are the leveler in all these discussions! You are so good at weeding out the BS from the relevant research!

Westi

Actually at least one thing he talked about is happening right now and not in the next millenium
http://www.fungi-futures.co.uk/how-do-w ... mushrooms/

yes there are other methods of greening the desert, but these desalinisation techniques are old - not next millenium, and were known to Aristotle.
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2 ... riculture/

There seems to be quite a concentration on turning waste into gourmet food in this thread: cardboard to caviar, and now coffee grounds to gourmet mushrooms (£17.45 inc p & p),

Though not quite as old as Aristotle, a famous Yorkshire process of turning corpses into gourmet duck dinners is recorded in song:

ON ILKLEY MOOR BAHT 'AT

Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee,
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!
Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee?

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!

Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane|

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Tha's bahn t'catch thi deeath o'cowd
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Tha's bahn t'catch thi deeath o'cowd

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then we shall ha' to bury thee
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then we shall ha' to bury thee

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then t'worms 'll cum and eat thee oop
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then t'worms 'll cum and eat thee oop

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then ducks 'll cum and eat oop t'worms
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then ducks 'll cum and eat oop t'worms

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then we shall go an' ate oop ducks
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then we shall go an' ate oop ducks

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Then we shall all 'ave etten thee
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Then we shall all 'ave etten thee

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

That's wheer we get us oahn back
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
That's wheer we get us oahn back

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Ive been to the Eden Project - very expensive, but interesting, and some of their attempts to replicate rain-forrest etc were quite good as part of the show. There were some relevant ways of the economical use of water, but I must say I much preferred the National Botanic Garden for Wales and given the choice would go back there rather than Cornwall. It is less of a theme park, but still educational, and is a very enjoyable day out.

Just thinking about Ilkley Moor baht 'at. Our walking group were supposed to be going there last week but it was cancelled due to all the flooding. We had been joking about not going baht 'at, mac and wellies but didn't make it.

Nature's Babe wrote:How would you do it differently Felixt eiter ?

There are some good points in the presentation, don't get me wrong. I've only picked up on those which rankle.

I should like to add my appreciation of The National Botanic Garden of Wales, though, most especially because it doesn't go around making any particular claims to hugging dolphins, although it could because its environmental audit is laudable. I have visited it several times and it is always stimulating, plenty for the gardener to get their teeth into without all the vague hand-waving and poorly written, mis-spelled signs that greet the visitor to the Eden Project. I might be a little sunnier towards the Eden Project if I had some idea of what it is they're actually doing.