.thirteen.

for the time being i am going to make the last post in my series of sustainability. it is a topic that is very important to me so i am sure i will come back to it many times in the future. for now i just wanted to pose this post as a question, somewhat theoretical in nature.

i was browsing through my offices sever looking at pictures that my project manager took during his last trip to dubai for a client meeting. i started to think of something while doing this. keep in mind this is a theory at the moment, but what do we know about the impact physically tha tall these mega developments are having on the world. imagine the weight of all the concrete and stone and steel that is being installed in a very small footprint. the hundreds of tons of concrete and steel that go into erecting buildings like the burj dubai. let me pose a couple questions for now they will remain open ended for discussion and futher research.

1. could the immense amount of building materials, in one location, alter the rotational speed of our planet earth?

2. what is the impact of displacing all these raw materials from where they came from, to where they are used for the mega cites and structures?

3. is this displacement a net zero of removal to finished construction? or are we creating more waste than we can handle, and removing far more than can be regenerated?

i think i may be asking some questions that are already answered, but my goal is to think about the problem, expecially for me, being a very visual person it really is interesting when you see the construction of these things and know where the materials come from. i will post some pictures below for visual aids.



this is the burj dubai, it is the tallest building in the world right now and it is yet to be finished.



imaging what the weight if all this is doing to the globe, and this is just one geographic area. india and china among others are building similarly.

.twelve.

let me continue on sustainability. just for a little longer. it is hard not to think about it, considering that not only it seems that it is the buzzword of the week, or month. recently i read about brad pitt's project, "make it right". his actions appeal to me in many ways. first, is that he invited many big name and not so big name architects, to develop new concepts of home, which to someone who is not trained as an architect, some may look undesirable aesthetically, but i bet to a family that lost everything in hurricane katrina, as well as got shunned by FEMA and the government, the gift of one of these houses would be more than welcome. aesthetics aside, another great feature of these houses is that the architects incorporated technology that increases sustainability, and decreases their chances of any future flood damage.

let me back up here for a second. brad pitt's organization has coordinated, designed, and built dozens of new homes for katrina victims, by architects from around the world. which leads me to the second thing that caught my attention about this project, and that is the generosity and initiative that mr. pitt has taken to reconcile the people of new orleans. brad pitt kicked everything into gear with his initial donation of 5 million of his own money. excuse me, mr. president, how come it takes one individual less money and less time to build new homes for the people of new orleans? these are not just factory built, ungreen, tralers that FEMA has people wait months to get. these homes are not only good for the environment, but they are good for the homeowner too. alot of these homes imcorporate passive sustainable features, so that the users can spend their hard earned money on better things, and not the electricity to power the air conditioner.

i will continue to follow the progress of this great project, an i suggest you, my few readers, check it out for yourselves. even a former instructor of mine was a contributing architect, his firm name is called constructsLLC. his project and all the others on on the link below.

www.makeitrightnola.org