Design Advisor - LEED

In the last class were discussed some concepts of LEED and we saw the website Design Advisor. This website works as a handbook for the design of affordable housing, where we can see the considerations for the design, the steps that must be followed to you project and examples of projects that have already been built.

I was looking at the gallery with the built projects, and caught my attention. I found it interesting that in them there are always a concern with community spaces and leisure areas for children and reading rooms and studies and not only separate houses for each family to isolate.

The designs are very well thought taking into consideration that in each place, in each city people are different and require different settings which ends up further enrich the designs. I found very interesting the quality of housing and the values of the them. In Brazil, for example, there is a federal program that annually builds more than 1 million homes for low-income families who often do not pay anything for it directly, but the downside is that these houses has a very low quality and those families who have nothing are condemned to live in these conditions. This is something but has a lot to improve, and I think the regulations of concepts shown in the Design Advisor could help them a lot.

This idea of the Design Advisor is really very useful and I would like to see in more places in the world. Let´s disseminate these ideas.

For more information about the Design Advisor: designadvisor.org

Ecology

               The question of how to bring ecology closer to us is often a cultural and social issue. We can see in many places in the world where a rich neighborhood is extremely woody, clean and well maintained while a poorer neighborhood is the opposite.

               I believe that one way to change that is to bring people information to encourage a change for the common good.

               During the class colleagues talked about their experiences in cultivating gardens in their own homes and this is an amazing and very simple idea. If we take the population the knowledge of how easy it is and showing all the benefits it would bring to them and the communities would be very important.

               I believe that in many cases the question of people's culture is that in some places people are not very concerned with others and does not try to help another, even does not care to improve the community where they live. If each develop itself an ecological and communal conscience I can see a much better future for the health and well being of people around the globe.

Segregation - Experience in Class

During the class of March 26 the teacher proposed an experience to do in the classroom. Where we separate ourselves from those who consider male and female and those who do not consider themselves neither.

The experience was interesting because often we do not realize how segregation can affect us in a negative way, both men and women, as between nations or between man and nature.

The manner in which we were arranged in the room, separate, gave the impression that we were enemies of each other, like we're in a battlefield preparing for war, wanting to be victorious there.

It was an incredible analogy to compare with our relationship with nature, we are away from it and act as enemies, hostile to nature. When we are together all the time we did not realize, as we used to the way things are, and only when we separate and then we turn to the mix that we realize how it makes a difference and how segregation is a big problem.

We need more communions between different people, between cultures, between academic areas, between urban and rural, between humans and nature.

Europe will build 70,000 km of bike path connecting 43 countries

A mega bike path with 70,000 km extension will be built in Europe by 2020. "EuroVelo" will connect 43 countries in a total of 14 routes of different sizes. It can be used both by tourists traveling long as by local people on the day shift.
Each of the routes received a name related to landscapes and stories found along the way. Route 14, for example, was named "Iron Curtain", an allusion to the Cold War. With 10,400 kilometers and connecting 20 countries - including Norway, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey - it is the major route of megaciclovia.
The European Cyclists' Federation, creator of the project, offers on its website information of passages that are ready. In addition to an interactive map of the routes, you can also see the main sights to be found by the cyclist.

Source: https://catracalivre.com.br/geral/mobilidade/indicacao/europa-tera-ciclovia-de-70-mil-km-ligando-20-paises/

EuroVelo Website: http://www.eurovelo.com/en

Singapore

The video presented to us in the last class was very interesting and has been complemented with the article at the following link http://www.urbanstrategies.com/blog/lee-kuan-yews-singapore-another-way-of-city-building / as I was watching I often got lost in my thoughts and imagined how it would be amazing if I could apply what was shown on video in my city in Brazil. I found very interesting the commitment that the residents of Singapore has to transform the city and further integrate with it when it is integrated with nature.

               The growth of green areas shown on the maps is very interesting.

               Well, I believe that in many cases is a little hard to turn a city or country in a drastic way because we need to change the culture of the people.

               According to the article, Singapore is one of the countries with the lowest government rate index and the government did not provide any benefits such as pension, housing or health insurance. The laws also not very rigid, homosexuality is illegal, drug dealers can be executed and users of drugs or alcohol in public can be punished.

               In a place like this is easy to understand how they were able to apply these transition measures presented in the video. All there are accustomed to fulfill their role as citizen, with his responsibilities as an individual and so the country develops, each citizen works hard, get educate, lives within the law and so the country will forward.

               My conclusion about this is that they did a very good job and I would like to see that in more places in the world and would like to practice it in the future in my city in Brazil, we need a lot of it, everybody does.

Neighborhood and Housing Innovations

I live on campus, at the dorms. I think that my building and most part of building here are not ecofriendly. There is a lot energy being wasted all the time. The heater, the air conditioner, the washing and drying machines are the most responsible for that. The indiscriminate use of such equipment is a big issue, in view of all we know about not-renewable energies which are used here. It would be interesting if it were adopted the concept of "passive house" as was done in Freiburg which the building has thermal insulation, which keeps the temperature constant, and large windows with three layers of glass and balconies designed to illuminate the environments without injure them by sun rays too much. Buildings of this type are 10% more expensive for joint works, but consume only 10% of that spend regular. This is incredible. The Vauban district in Freiburg is also an example amazing. The Vauban properties have similar thermal structures of Freiburg, however, have solar panels on their roofs, which supply at least 20% of the electricity demanded by the local population. The houses are designed to function as power plants, that is, the excess energy is transferred to the public, such action reduces price fixing by the energy company. There is a Brazilian government project to do the same there.

               Another point in comparison to the videos presented in class and the city of Freiburg in my building there is not a place where we can come together to pass the time and be in contact with the earth. While we are in the building we stay most of the time confined to our rooms and we don't have other places to spend time in the building.

               On campus there are several places to lie on the grass and stay in the shade of a tree, but I believe it would be more interesting if they had these types of spaces also in the building.

               Living here on campus is good and has a lot of cool things, but anything can improve a lot. If they made these changes as we have seen in these examples in long-term we would have much better quality of life and more benefits. Spending on energy would be reduced and thus the values to live here also decrease, it would be a huge benefit to the university and to the residents.

The Building that wants to become a landscape