Our project has three goals: Bring nature to city-dwellers Design cities for sustainable living by default Mitigate Nature Deficit Disorder (see the Children and Nature Network for more information) To accomplish these goals, we created a new kind of waste bin: the Digester. In addition to collecting food waste as standard waste bins do, the […]
Author: Lucy Havens
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The Challenge of Letting Go
Existing sustainable building models emphasize control over all aspects of architecture and design. The Living Building ChallengeTM, the most rigorous sustainable building standard that exists today, encourages designers, contractors, building owners, politicians and government officials to create built environments that benefit nature. It encourages “humanity to reconcile the built environment with the natural environment” [1]. […]
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Macro Symbiosis
The Macro Symbiosis Project provides a systemic solution [1] for sustainable urban lifestyles, taking biological, ecological, social and cognitive systems into account. As climate change exposes the environmental degradation that urban lifestyles cause, researchers explore new materials and processes to help city dwellers live more sustainably. Until recently, these new materials and processes focused on […]
Last November, I traveled to my parents’ house to spend Thanksgiving with family. During dinner, my aunt recounted how terrible a day she had when her son’s iPhone broke. How could he possibly go through an entire day without it?! How could she possibly get through the day without being able to call her son’s […]
Tree Houses. That’s the theme our team, (Big, David, Francisco and me) chose for this year’s Biodesign project course. The theme conjures up a variety of images… The tree house (built from wood and placed near trees but not actually in a tree) that my childhood neighbours had in their backyard. The “Treesort” in Oregon […]