New Year's resolutions: try out Car Pooling and Car Sharing

Currently, for those who choose to embrace a sustainable lifestyle, transportation remains a critical issue. The shifts are often obliged, as people generally need to reach their workplaces by car and shops, schools and services are often located in different areas of the city. People often need to cover large distances and the transport service is not always able to provide a good alternative to driving. However, as a positive new year's resolution, it would be important to change habits, getting engaged in reducing CO2 emissions but also spending less money on fuels. A rapidly growing phenomenon is Car pooling: the service offers rides and lifts to passengers travelling in Europe. The website guides the user in finding the most suitable travel itinerary according to his needs, get in contact with the registered driver and plan their trip. The service allows you to divide the travelling costs with others and at the same time cover distances in full respect for the environment! Another useful service that we strongly advise you to explore is Car sharing. The initiative, promoting sustainable mobility, allows you to travel freely without the need of owning a car, cutting all costs and expenses, by using shared vehicles available in specific car-parks distributed across the city. The service works with a subscription, very cheap and sustainable for your finances! Give it a try!

"Earthships" spotted in New Mexico

Taos, former Comanche territory, is a county in northern New Mexico, nowadays a destination for visitors interested in green architecture. Inh this area, Earthship Biotecture, has its headquarters. Earthship Biotecture is a company aiming to raise awareness on the potential of a completely sustainable architectural design. This active community has designed and built a dozen buildings of various types with low environmental impact, (many are inspired by the typical houses of the Taos Pueblo, meaning Red Willow). These buildings are completely hidden by the earth and made of natural and recycled materials. Michael Reynolds is the architect who first conceived the project and he is now famous in the United States, but also in Europe, in particular in Edinburgh and Brighton, England, and then in Spain, Belgium and France. In the U.S., the cost per square meter is similar to that of conventional buildings, but in this expectional case the costs are virtually absent. Earthship communities are totally detached from traditional distribution channels: the electricity demand is satisfied by solar and wind power generators and UPS systems with conventional gas backup. Solar collectors, supported by gas boilers, provide hot water. There are houses of various sizes, from 60 to about 160 square meters. The Earthships are covered with earth to provide better insulation and they are also equipped with a system of natural ventilation openings on the roof to cope with the heat, while the bottles in the walls contribute to the passage of natural light. The kitchen is furnished with rustic furniture made of wood, just like the door, following the choice of simplicity.

More decorative effects obtained with a mosaic of color and bottles are on the column that separates the kitchen from the living room. Among the most interesting concepts of the Earthship houses is self-sufficiency: to be functional, the building needs not be connected to the grid or to the water system. The solar panels are able to ensure the demand for energy and heat. A water recycling system then allows the buildings to reduce water waste.

Welcome to Middle-earth... and find a sustainable house!

Welcome to Middle-earth, you would think after taking a first glimpse at the location where Simon Dale has chosen to build his original Hobbit House, entirely inspired by the unreal atmosphere and characters belonging to Tolkien’s novels… and the real issue is that this original house is entirely designed and built in line with the key principles of sustainable architecture. Dale has chosen a closer to nature lifestyle, in full respect of the environment, but also wants to show that sustainable solutions are surprisingly at everyone’s reach. After only 4 months of hard work, Dale and his family settled into their new home, thanks to the help offered by family friends, and curious passersby who have helped in the creation this beautiful fairy tale house.

Dale constructed his Hobbit House with low environmental impact, introducing a series of clever architectural elements:

• Excavations in the hills with low visual aesthetic impact
• Stone and mud taken from digging were then used for retaining walls and foundations
• Oak wood harvested in the surrounding forest
• Bales of hay as insulation for walls, roofs and floors
• Grass Roof
• Refrigerator cooled by air coming from below, through the foundations
• skylight allowing natural light to enter from outside
• Solar panels to produce electricity
• System for collecting rainwater for garden irrigation
• lime-based plaster for the walls
Dale’s challenge is to show that you do not need a big budget or large investments to build an original and sustainable house, suitable for family life and in harmony with nature.

«Life is not about having more, but about needing less» architect Paolo Soleri reveals his principle and leads us to the discovery of Arcosanti

Paolo Soleri, born in Turin, is one of the greatest interpreters of urban utopia. He is considered to be a Green Prophet who has created a sustainable alternative to the hypothesis of urban habitats, based on his Arcology, a discipline combining architecture and ecology. His concept of the ideal city became a reality on a desert plateau in Arizona, in an area located between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon. There, since 1970, Soleri began constructing Arcosanti, his ideal urban establishment for preserving the natural habitat, reducing the consumption of energy sources and limiting the natural propensity of people to isolation. This unique urban concentration is stratified, in contrast with modern cities that only focus on extensive territory exploitation.

Q: "Over the last few years, awareness on sustainable issues has widely increased. However, your theories on ecological architecture were born 50 years ago. What do they mean for you today?"

A: Probably, my concept of sustainability differs greatly from the current fashionable term that influences our lifestyle and behaviour. The importance of environmental sustainability lays within the phenomenon of life itself, and this is not a new issue, it is indeed very old... However, due to mankind’s impact upon the environment, we have arrived to a moment of crisis, where all transformations have become very rapid and often traumatic. We do not know what will happen in the future. My way of facing this problem now, is to reduce our demands, our expectancies, our destructive impact on nature, our overconsumption desire... I strongly believe that wealth is not a matter of having more, but of needing less. Especially in this country, America, the materialistic trend will reach such levels that it will end up colliding with reality, causing a collapse.

Q: "Can Arcosanti be considered a possible sustainable city model?"

A: First of all, Arcosanti  resembles a village more than a city, therefore quite modest in size: there are approximately eighty people living there, besides students, researchers and volunteers who work in the construction of new buildings. More than 5,000 volunteers have worked on the project, since the very beginning. Our main objective has always been to create an alternative solution to the growing consumerism of society, and after so many years the principle has never changed. My attempt is to try to communicate a concept, in a very simple way, through design: beauty and the essence of life does not come from owning something or from frantic shopping. Nowadays, it seems as though the pleasure of buying has become lgreater than the pleasure of using. For instance, I don’t  go around saying “hey, listen, do what I tell you to do because I’m giving you salvation...” Forget it! My research and my work are focused on "what if" scenarios, that is, what can we achieve by changing our habits and our demands? I'm not seeking for truth, but I look for hypotheses that can help.

Q: "What is the future city going to look like?"

A: The problem is that modern cities transform the landscape radically, producing enormous amounts of waste and consume time and energy in transporting goods and services to places where expansion majorly takes place. Therefore, my proposal does not lead to an explosion but to an urban implosion. A compact city. Arcology can theoretically provide positive answers to many urbanization problems, such as population growth, pollution, energy consumption, food shortages, life quality...

Q: "Many of your workshop partcipants decided to take part in the construction of Arcosanti; several chose to live there and consider you as a reference point, as their guide or teacher. What did you actually teach them?"

A: Architects of today, often want to prove their greatness; a good architect tends to produce what I call an "orchid", with the most beautiful structure that you can immagine. But we are about 6 / 7 billion people today, all searching for a roof, and to produce billions of "orchids" makes no sense at all. We need to create what society needs, not what the individual believes that he needs. This is my lesson.

Q: "You have been dedicating half a century to this project, making the american dream come true.  But … will Arcosanti ever be completed?"
A: ... Forget it!

Seeking for sustainable practices: the Great Bamboo Wall, a bridge between reality and the spiritual world

Bamboo Wall is the name of this house, conceived and designed by Kengo Kuma, one of the most renowned contemporary Japanese architects, and built in the Beijing area, entirely made of bamboo and perfectly integrated with the surrounding nature. The building is far more than a house built in bamboo... the villa looks like an artwork, designed to celebrate this material, used for both the exterior of the house and the division of the interior spaces. Bamboo, which on the contrary to popular belief is not a type of grass or wood, is one of the most sustainable materials available to architects, thanks to its rapid growth that provides unlimited reserves. It also has exceptional ability to fight air pollution: a plantation is able to capture up to 17 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year, an amount 40 times greater than that absorbed by a forest of the same extension. This is why it is considered one of the key elements for sustainable design. Kengo Kuma is known precisely for his sustainable approach to architecture and to the integration of architectural space with the surrounding environment.

Thus, the endless line of the Great Wall of China becomes an integral part of the house he built, Shuiguan-Badaling, a suggestive name: Great Bamboo Wall. However, there are some substantial differences between the Chinese Great Wall and the Bamboo Wall. From a conceptual point of view, the first was conceived to divide people, while the second was created to unite cultures and lives. Its architecture, following the traditional Japanese model, also presents elements of modernity and recalls the principles of Feng Shui. The walls are made of rice paper, a typical local material. The furniture, in minimal chic style, responds to current trends, but with references to ancient Eastern cultures. At the same time, the use of advanced technologies for the kitchen, and recreation services, meets the highest demands of the Western culture.

While the Great Wall of China remains a symbol of strength, stiffness and strength, the wall of Kuma transmits a sense of fragility given by filtered light and air currents through the bamboo structure, which, according to the architect himself, "gain their charm through such apparent image of delicacy." This is a unique house, in complete harmony with nature. Heart of the house is the tea room, surrounded by a shallow pool of water, ideal place for meditation, bringing together a strong symbolic value: according to Buddhist principles, waterways have the task of defining boundaries between reality and the spiritual dimension. The tea room is proposed as the center of social life. For the entrance floor dark slates were used, to mitigate the rigid geometric effect of the bamboo structure. The entrance overlooks the surrounding valley and consists of two open and two closed sides. The space, designed in this way, acts as the link between inner and outer environment, or between real life and spirituality.

«to wound the Earth is to wound yourself»

«To wound the Earth, he answered earnestly, is to wound yourself, and if others wound the Earth, they are wounding you. The land should be left untouched: as it was in the Dreamtime when the Ancestors sang the world into existence.»
(B. Chatwin,"The Songlines")

We stayed for 4 days in the middle of the Australian desert... there was absolutely nothing around us ...

Olive Veverbrants, an Aboriginal woman, built her reign in the west of Alice Springs. The Gloria Lee Environmental Learning Centre is a completely eco-friendly house, built on the simple idea of combining the two natural elements that belong to this arid area: the sun and the earth. In little time, a house made of sand bricks, powered by photovoltaic panels and without any internet connection, became a reference point for the local community and, in general, for all sustainable living standards.

Olive was raised in Australia during the Depression years, and ever since her childhood, she was committed to the concept of reuse and of saving essential natural elements. Water, true gold for life in the Australian desert, is consumed with great care in the house. There are two large tanks with a capacity of 22,000 liters each for rainwater collecting, as rainfall is the only water source for both internal and external functions… The sewerage system is natural style: a septic basin to gather waste products. To spend a few days surrounded by nature, approaching the Aboriginal culture and learning the sound of silence, miles away from modern civilization, was a truly meaningful experience to understand the environment fully and as well as the importance of savings and a careful use of resources in everyday life.

The project of Gloria Lee Environmental Learning Centre cannot be compared to a “city-life” context, as it represents a borderline reality, with an striking environmental and cultural diversity from our modern cities. Olive’s sustainable centre, however, remains a great example for all Western countries, as a demonstration that environment, technology and local culture can coexist in a single context and provide a life-quality standard able to meet the needs of local communities. It is amazing to think that such an incredible project was achieved thanks to the determination of a single woman who put aside any possible interest and benefit, to create her dream-house, respecting the culture she was taught as a child: recycling, energy savings and re-use… especially of elements coming from the Earth and the Sun!

Houston, we have a problem. Concrete Oxygen is here now...

This space was created today, to reach out to all those who, like us, pursue a sustainable lifestyle… this blog is a valuable tool to express our commitment to such choice and to respond to our need of sharing concrete experiences on sustainable issues…
Concrete Oxygen experiences, for us to breathe and fill our lungs with fresh air and new ideas, and to leave our footprints behind, for others to follow… It’s an awkward feeling, something like the beginning of a journey, on one hand back in time because there is a story to tell, and on the other hand, also looking straight ahead, to build together a sustainable Tomorrow. EnerGia-Da was born in 2005, as the result of a strong commitment but above all, of great enthusiasm towards innovative projects, entirely focused on energy efficiency and sustainability.
Our job is centred on sustainable architecture and design, on training, communication and the development of projects oriented towards a major consciousness of the world we live in. EnerGia-Da is not only an idea of a journey towards more sustainable destinations… EnerGia-Da has really travelled across the world to meet different realities: in Italy, thanks to our design and consultancy skills, in Europe through our coordinator experiences in projects belonging to the Intelligent Energy Europe programme… and worldwide in an amazing adventure seeking sustainable design best practices across the world. This adventure was widely described in S.O.S.tenibilità, meaning S.O.S. Sustainability, a TV format developed together with RAI, the Italian television, and our Ministry for the Environment. Now, Concrete Oxygen is a valuable opportunity to share this and many other stories…