Sam Weston: Creative Ecologies

Additionally, I forgot to determine where compost is sourced from. The regional and city councils again supply compost in bulk, this will be the source for the soil within the containers.  

What do you think of the design?

Do you believe it would work? 

per capita data on our carbon emissions: 

Here, I have done some ideation for the ‘Modular Green’ or ‘Green Arches’ organisation identity. 

To determine the success of the operation or cycle of ‘green arches’ (current working name), there needs to be clarity of how the three central ‘support’ tiers facilitate this. Plastics, Plants, and People

- Who supplies the plastics? (recycled or bio?)

- Who supplies the plants? (what type are these? how big do they get?)

- Who maintains and constructs the ‘Green Arches’ project?    

The Plastics:

After conducting some browsing, I discovered a local company by the name of ‘Reclaim.co.nz’. This collection and recycling group serves as an outlet which is employed to collect plastics from businesses or other locations. Following this, Reclaim organises for the plastics to be reused. “Reclaim collects around 350 tonnes of plastic containers and film each month and arranges for this to be made into new products” (Reclaim.co.nz).

I am going to use ‘Reclaim.co.nz’ in the process of constructing the ‘Green Arches’ as they offer the exact service with which I am after.   

The Plants: 

In terms of the flora provider, it would integral to link up with the regional councils around New Zealand. The Wellington City Council will be the starting point for the ‘Green Arches’ project. The councils possess a free native plant initiative where plants are supplied for residents residing around council reserves and road spaces.   

https://wellington.govt.nz/services/environment-and-waste/environment/tree-and-plant-services/free-plants

I am also to consider that where the ‘Green Arches’ project shifts locally and globally different plants will need to be used for three main reasons. Wellington City Council states why this is,  

“to keep the distinctiveness of Wellington's local flora

to avoid the risk of planting species that could become invasive

as local plants are better suited to Wellington's conditions and so are easier to grow.” (Wellington City Council)

The People:

After some consideration and thought around who will manage, construct, and service ‘Green Arches’. I decided that it will be an organisation that will be generated independently, thus, it simplifies the process down into three central tiers:

Plastics, Plants, People

For a quantitive measure of success for my final design output in relation to the ultimate and long-term goals, I need to have an understanding of how much carbon a singular plant of average size would absorb.

Firstly, according to ‘arbor environmental alliance’, “100 metric tons of CO2 can accumulate in one acre of forest over time.” (AEA) 

“Planting trees remains one of the cheapest, most effective means of drawing excess CO2 from the atmosphere.” (AEA)

In terms of the overall cost of bringer us closer to a ‘zero carbon’ transportation system, harnessing of flora remains to be the best most effective method of this current time.  

When referring to CO2 emissions, “25% is absorbed by land plants and trees” (sos.noaa.gov). This may not sound like a huge amount, however, in grand scale and production of these modular green stations there will be a substantial increase of this carbon uptake. In relation to my design output, there are also qualitative measures and other factors which exist. For example, the encouragement and promotion of walking, through some of my prior research in New Zealand, foot traffic journeys have been in decline. Promoting these journeys through an altered experience of urban space would bring people out of there vehicles. 

There are a number of factors which determine the gradual success of this project, the increased uptake in EV, for example, is also a contributing element. 

“But counterintuitively, because photosynthesis is more responsive to increasing levels of CO2 at lower concentrations, plants are removing more CO2 in response to increasing emissions than models show.” (TheConversation.com)

Resources Used:

https://theconversation.com/plants-absorb-more-co2-than-we-thought-but-32945

http://www.arborenvironmentalalliance.com/carbon-tree-facts.asp

What are my observations from this? 

I have chosen to use twinmotion as my renderer of choice due to their foliage and car models to situate the model far better. So, I imported my sketch up model into the program and began texturing and positioning plant life within the planters. 

I have depicted how the structures could be used along distant stretches of road. With the arches repeating themselves as the road travels capturing any of the carbon seeping out into the surrounding atmosphere. 

Okay, first blog post in a while. During this downtime I spent a lot of time conceptualising and beginning to construct my solution to the carbon emissions from New Zealand’s transport sector. I have decided to design fully customizable green arches, these have the ability to be resides as singular roadside totems where appropriate or be built in tall expandable archway systems. What has taken the greatest amount of time is designing them in a manner which shows that they can be built from the ground up, so essentially, I have designing brackets and mechanisms which can all be replaced overtime if need be. 

Since I wish for any spatial intervention I design to sustain its rigidity over time I have located some of the most prominent medium growing to low growing native shrubs which are plentiful within the Wellington region, these will be exceptionally lighter than larger growing trees and require fewer nutrients once established.  

I found a short list located on the Wellington City Council website, these are listed as follows:

Low-growing plants:

Climbing fuchsia (Fuchsia perscandens)

New Zealand daphne (Pimelea prostrata)

Silver tussock (Poa cita)

New Zealand blueberry (Dianella nigra)

Weeping sedge (Carex flagellifera)

Pukio (Carex secta)

Ginger sedge (Carex testacea)

Swamp sedge (Carex virgata)

New Zealand iris (Libertia grandiflora)

Pöhuehue (Muehlenbeckia complexa)

Bush lily (Astelia fragrans)

Medium plants:

Mingimingi (Coprosma propinqua)

Taupata (Coprosma repens)

Karamu (Coprosma robusta)

Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum)

Shrubby tororaro (Muehlenbeckia astonii)

With short growth and maturity time and serving as a high tensile resilient material bamboo is definitely of keen interest to me. It may also be grown and harvested sustainably which is a large bonus.

I found this interesting article which goes into the science of bamboo, its strengths and weaknesses as well as some processes which can take place to ensure its longevity.

“Increasing the shelve-life of bamboo to 50 years or more is certainly possible by applying the appropriate treatments which is also more economical and sustainable in the long run.” ( Stéphane Schröder, Guaduabamboo.com)

Bamboo takes roughly 3 years to mature and then continual growth is seen. 

The treatment of bamboo can be done with a wide range of chemicals processes. One example is the use of ‘Boric Acid Borax’ doe to cost, effectiveness, and how environmentally friendly it is compared to other treatments. However, this treatment doesn’t cope as well within the outdoor environment compared to others. 

Creosote, is the chemical compound used to treat ‘railway sleepers’ for outdoor use. This compound inhibits fungi and insects as well as repels water from weathering it.     

Website Links:

https://www.guaduabamboo.com/preservation/durability-of-bamboo

‘5 of the world's most eco-friendly building materials’ - by Katie Pyzyk

(SmartCitiesDive.com)

This article lists some of the best eco materials which possess a range of unique and interesting attributes.

Take, for example, bamboo which is light in weight, extremely strong and tensile. It is also highly durable, however, this is only the case when it has been treated.     

Another option the author's list is recycled materials. Materials found when dismantling homes and structures. Often there a range of materials from tiles, concrete, to treated wood which exists within the structures. This means there are plenty of materials to choose from in regards to the creation of my structures.   

Hemp is another option that I have considered. Hemp, when mixed and processed correctly, can be turned into a long lasting durable form similar to that of concrete. This is excellent due to the ease of growing and processing plant fibres.