“Hero of the planet” Bill Mc Donough, his ideas and how and to where they are spreading…buildings as trees, cities as forests

“Imagine a building that makes oxygen, distills water, produces energy, changes with the seasons—and is beautiful. In effect, that building is like a tree, standing in a city that is like a forest.”


The above design and the ideas behind it come from William McDonough, the green architect par excellence, who built the first solar-powered house in Ireland in 1977 and was entitled “Hero of the Planet” in 1999 by the Time magazine, this latest proposal for the Tower of tomorrow was commissioned by Fortune Magazine. Read more on INHABITAT

You can watch Bill outline his simple, revolutionary, eco ideas in his presentation: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle. These bold dreams are catching on and being realised, from clean fully C2C recylable materials to eco cities in China.

(This talk in its original very inspiring website TED TALKS )



His question:
”How do we love all of the children of all species for all time.”

His goal:
”A delightfullyt diverse, safe, healthy and just World, with clean air, water, soil and power – economically, equitably, economically and elegantly enjoyed.”

Meanwhile in ireland…



After many many years of asking and hoping, EASA is finally coming to Ireland….a long journey since the early days, nearly 6 years ago now, when Ireland recovered from being a “Lost country” and a few Paddys wandered out to participate in EASA 02 @ Samogar, Vis, Croatia…


Other interesting eco things happening in Ireland:
Convergence 13: Transition Strategies…Post Carbon Cities, Transition Towns and Eco-Villages

It seems that a lot of things have moved in the last 2 years since: that eco city idea is starting to take off in china, and even more since those special days in Banja Luka, Bosnia trying to make our first eco city.

So with all this talk and action, maybe some day Dublin city might actually get its Botanic Spine



and the aul town might become an eco city, as Torbjorn Lahti pointed out “changing the world is easy, we’ve done it”



Anyway, thats enough from EIG (eco intelligent growth) here in Barcelona

oiche mhaith a chairde

Dunk

PS

7 last things:

this picture:


and these questions:
1- What is an architect in today’s society?
2- Define “innovative architect”
3- How should one practice architecture?
4- What are the architect’s responsibilities?
5- What or where is architecture’s laboratory?
6- How can architecture be taught today?

add your answers in:
Six Simple and Hard Questions About What Architects Do Today and Where Their Profession Might Go Tomorrow: And Your View Is ….

posted by duncan
Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:26:00 GMT