Views and news from our life as it goes along - from rebuilding ruins in Portugal, adventures in Scotland through post-disaster recovery around the world where disasters and poverty are permanent overlords.
These are some of our stories and quests for transition
The adega is a single storey ruin with the roof falling in, attached to the house, forming an “L”. It’s main feature is that the back wall is the hill itself – a huge face of granite rock. The other walls are fashioned outwards from it. The roof had rested on notches at the top of this rock.
Here we will raise a new first floor – for the kids rooms. This is pretty much the only bit of new building around the main house. We want to go for straw bale construction, probably with light timber frame on the South facing side – because glazing may exceed 50%, but partially to placate the local planning office who have never seen a straw bale application or building and are likely to be slightly phased / chuck it in the REJECT pile.
On the North side we may get away with load bearing (this is where the straw bales provide the structural strength – rather than a timber frame with the bales filling in between but taking no load from the roof). This is far less expensive than using a timber frame structure because of high timber cost. There is now plenty of precedence of load bearing buildings: up to three floors high.
Time frame for this straw build is between July and September. Depends on harvest time for straw – which should be around July I’m told. Let us know if you want to participate, learn, labour, cool your roasting self in mellow river for siesta time option.
Straw is harvested in July, so the straw bale elements will probably start in late July or early August. Very hot then, so we could delay that till September. This also depends on who we can secure as the trainer / lead builder for the straw build.
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A adega é por um único piso ruína com a queda do telhado, anexa à casa, formando um "L". É característica principal é que a parede traseira está a colina em si - uma face da enorme rocha granítica. As outras paredes são formadas a partir de fora dela. O telhado tinha descansado em entalhes no início desta rocha.
Aqui vamos colocar um novo primeiro andar - quartos para as crianças. Isto é o principal construção novo em torno da casa principal. Queremos utilisar faldas de palha para construção, provavelmente com uma sturctura basico de madeira virada para o Sul do lado - porque vidros no podem exceder 50%, mas parcialmente para aplacar a camera local que nunca viram um projecto com palha ou de construção e aplicação são susceptíveis de ser ligeiramente faseada / deita na pilha REJEITAR.
No lado norte podemos utilisar palha com carga (isto é onde a palha fardos fornecer a resistência estrutural - em vez de uma moldura com a madeira em fardos enchimento entre mas tendo nenhuma carga a partir do telhado). Isto é muito menos caro do que usando uma estrutura madeira devido à elevada madeira custo. Há agora muita carga de precedência dos edifícios de até três andares.
Prazo de construir esta palha é entre julho e setembro. Depende do tempo de colheita palha - que deve ser em torno de julho estou disse. Deixe-nos saber se você quiser participar, aprender, trabalho, arrefecer seu auto ustulação no rio barrento tempo opção para a sesta.
Straw é colhida em julho, para a palha fardo elementos provavelmente irá começar no final de julho ou início de Agosto. Muito quente, então, por isso, que poderia adiar até setembro. Isso também depende de quem nós podemos garantir que o formador / construtor para levar a palha construir
There are lots of things to cool - our home, our food. Ourselves !
Here I am dealing with the question of keeping food cool.
Every kitchen has a fridge these days, well, except my dad’s. His is outdoors, but that’s another story.With the kitchen being the warmest room of the house, the fridge has to work itself hard most of the time to get cool and to stay there (bit like all those groovy people…).So we thought about making a cool room: an area surrounded by stone or marble, no light, but a good fridge like door.
Keep sunlight out and it should stay nice and chilled.
In fact if we leave a bottle of water on stone shelves in the house, when it’s hot out, the water stays cold.So it works.We are lucky to have a bit of space on the North-facing side of the kitchen we can use for this.OK the olden days word for this is a larder, it’s just that I don’t see them getting designed in anywhere these days.This will need lights, plenty of stone shelves and a good seal around the door.If it works, we can store all our fruit and veg there without stressing about the rot factor.
Heating
Heat is a fairly critical factor in temperate Europe or anywhere else that gets cold in winter.We need it in two forms: as hot water, and, to keep warm (techies call this ‘space heating’).It obviously makes sense to make use of the freely available heat coming off the sun, every day:this should be enough for most normal homes’ hot water supply throughout most of the year but will not cover space heating in the winter (unless you install dozens of solar hot water panels at mega cost).
Solar hot water panels are not cheap either.Together with the hot water cylinder, the whole set up including installation can cost 3 to 5,000 euros.This is a lot of cash, considering that the cost of hot water alone using conventional gas or heating oil is around 200 euros a year (with relatively good efficiency of above 85% let’s say). So that’s a payback of around 20 years!
However all things are not static – especially oil prices, so that figure could change.Furthermore, if you take out the cost of the hot water cylinder, which you will probably need anyway for your heating system, the investment itself goes down quite a lot. Also, in summer, when you shower a lot, it seems crazy to not capture all that heat. Why burn sunlight from 100 million years ago to heat your water when you can use today's? In other words, the feel-good factor.
If I've got my sums wrong by the way - please let me know!
Our plan is to get a good sized hot water cylinder (at least 250 litres) which has the facility to receive multiple hot water feeds. One from the solar hot water panels, another from the cooker in the kitchen which we will fire up with wood, one from a log boiler in the cave downstairs. The only issue with wood is the time/work factor for gathering, chopping, drying and loading it all in to the house. And for smallish ranges or stoves, the logs can't be too big. And small twigs burn too quick. So if I break another bone (which has been a regular occurance this past couple of years) it could be a bother.
Talking of kitchen stoves / water heaters, I got a great reply from Giles, recommending the Wamsler range - made in Germany since around Bismarck's time (late 1800s) and they seem to have about as robust a reputation as he. Cheap, they are not. Their brochure says they can kick up to 18kw of heat into the hot water system. That's the capacity of modern gas boilers for a small apartment in Scotland somewhere. That would be a lot of small bits of wood. To avoid splitting logs I suppose you could use coppiced branches, or cuttings from trees. Every woodfuel expert will tell you that the most important thing is to allow your wood to dry properly.
There is the option of a heat pump - using electricity to generate heat from an underground source, or a type of solar panels. One unit of electricity can produce between 3 and 4 units of heat, so fairly efficient. But given that most grid electricity is still produced with fossil fuels (even in renewables-tiger Portugal) it is far from a "renewable" source some people claim it to be. For those people with their own source of renewable energy - a little hydro power supply for example - it would be seriously attractive. A free source of heat, and with few moving parts the systems can go for many years with few problems. Also free from the toil of moving wood endlessly.
As for space heating, we’ll probably go for underfloor heating pipes in most walls, some floors, and have thermostats around the place so we can turn on/off whole areas depending on how it feels.
As solar panels can get super hot on a sunny day, and cooking carries on further heating the tank, it could easily reach the point of being filled to capacity with hot water.These systems have a kind of escape valve for this, a “dump load” where the excess heat is released as steam.Our heat dump will take the form of a large, octagonal sitting area, filled with water, and surrounded by a wooden deck: the outdoor tub.Our thinking goes that why not use it as the heat dump (send a heating pipe through the tub, under the benches or something). Using fossil fuels to heat an outdoor tub or pool should be discouraged everywhere, but excess super-heat from the sun: this sounds better.
This starts a series of posts I will do about our house and land project in Troporiz, Alto Minho, way up North Portugal. I will separate them out by sector, so they are not too long, but the title should show what they cover. I will endeavour to put a time frame beside each theme, so that anyone wanting to get involved / help out with that specific aspect can get in touch to see if we have space.
Bit of background First of all, I’m still not clear if we chose this land or it chose us. Back in Spring 2007 we took a quick trip to the North of Portugal, visiting as many towns and local estate agents as we could. Most were expensive or a bit miserable. Then we found this land and it was neither of these things, had many terraces, all South facing, figs, olives and quince trees, various ruins, lots of opportunity for sustainable construction / energy projects and, to top it off, a separate bit of land near a hidden river in the valley – with an old water channel and some ruined watermill buildings. And a jungle of trees that want to host tree-houses. But the land was crying out for someone too. It has been abandoned for about 25 years and it was falling into the grips of intractable brambles and other ferocious weeds-that-become-monsters. Terrace walls were uprooted, fruit trees persecuted by ivy, pathways consumed. The roof of the main house had developed a hole and the rain was working its way through the house.
So we were a good match – land needing some attention, fruits and bounty returned; we needed somewhere to learn how to build and grow things and a place to live. It probably helped that we didn’t know really what we were taking on. But we definitely wanted something we could apply in our new-found principles about non toxic building materials, passive solar design, renewable everything, the growing of our own tomatoes and basil, fruit and nuts and the possibility of living with animals. Since we have learned a little about the havoc & destruction brought about by mankind’s industrial development, the perils of climate change and peak oil, we want to try and live in a way that doesn’t actually make things worse. There is a lot to say about these issues, but they will remain for future posts.
The blog entries will cover these issues – with the one highlighted being the current post, the others for later on (or if I can figure it out, I’ll do one of those links to them, once they are completed).
Plan for the main house Biogas Cooling and Heating Adega / New build bit A note on building materials The transit camp The watermills
So, here goes.
The Main House is built from massive granite blocks, around 80cm thick. It’s situated on an incline, so if you are looking at the house from where you enter the land, you would see two floors. If you look from above it you see only one floor. The ground floor is a mostly underground bunker, with earthen floor, that was used for animals; locals say that cows and sheep brought in here would act like a kind of central heating for upstairs. Heat and smell, yum.
It’s a bit dark for bedrooms, so we thought to use this basement as the Turkish cave – library, sitting room, movie viewing zone, cosy winter retreat... We will insulate the floor, install underfloor heating. Get a small wood stove in there too, which will provide its own radient heat, but also send a hot water feed to the hot water cylinder (the mother-ship of the house heating system).
We’ve seen renovations of old houses with the granite block all exposed, sometimes varnished – not particularly pleasant. Bit bleak and cold we think. So we’re going to add a thick earth-based plaster around most of it, leaving the most interesting rock bits exposed, and possibly embed some heating pipes into this earth plaster (used for underfloor heating).
A small note on underfloor heating: some people say it’s a bit odd, almost uncomfortable to be heated from below. Studies have been conducted in Germany apparently that suggest humans have never been heated that way, and it disturbs some internal function. I have only ever lied down on heated bathroom floors in Romania after major snow sessions and enjoyed in thoroughly, but having it as the main source of heat for a house is another matter.
On earth plaster: an important benefit of earth is its ability to absorb moisture from the air (unlike cement based plaster), while it also provides a layer of insulation to the massive thermal mass rock – which would be quite cold otherwise. The aim is to find a comfortable internal temperature year round. Local people say that granite does not need insulation, but it does seem cold in granite rooms, so we will experiment with earth plaster to see how it performs.
Upstairs
We’ll build a new set of internal stairs from this library-cave to the first floor. There is a small hallway outside the cave for these steps. Chance for a curvy bit of stair art maybe. Your ideas for stair case design are welcome. Let us know. The space available is about 2.2m wide by 4 m long: it has to turn around, not exactly spiral but include a platform of sorts half way up where the stairs turn. See photo: there's a bathroom there now, but think through it.
The stairs will occupy the North side of the building – backed right up against the stone of the earth (a wall was never built here). In fact this same view of the underbelly of the land runs right across the North side of downstairs. Complicated… I’ll just add pictures to explain…
So now you’re upstairs where we envisage this first floor being made of wood – new joists will have to replace the rotting things in place, and floorboards from oak we have had drying in Romania for the last 10 years or so. Almost all local builders and architects presume we’ll lay a concrete slab / placa for the floor, but we will go for wooden joists, cork or hemp insulation, then floorboards.
New walls we’ll build with earth and straw: for sound and heat insulation. There are couple of new external walls to construct, for which we’ll build a timber frame, filling the gaps with earth blocks – or “strawclay” an almost-liquid mix of earth, water and straw that you pour into shuttering, allow to dry then move the shuttering up and repeat. The timber frame is the structural element, the straw-clay is just an in-fill.
Kitchen Carved out of three tiny rooms, a room appeared that will do for a kitchen. We are looking for a wood stove that connects to the hot water tank, so when you’re using it, you’re also heating water. This has got to make sense. Cook dinner and at the same time heat the washing-up water. Surely this should be part of every cooker design, even gas. (Tiny little heat exchangers around the gas hobs – could it work?).
Anyway, wood stoves like this are nothing new, heaps around, made in Portugal too, but we need to look far and wide first. If anyone has any ideas about where to get the best wood stoves for cooking, baking, with heat exchangers, etc. let us know!
We want to get the fridge out of the hottest part of the house – the kitchen, to reduce power demand. Surely it has to work more to keep things cold if it’s in a warm room (?). So we’re going to build a cold room out of granite, keep the light out, and get an insulated door. Hopefully it will stay at around 4 of 5 degrees C without any electrical power. We will see.
Roof The main building roof is a-gonner, and the external walls were covered in cement and harling (a mortar mixed with small stones thrown on outside of houses to keep water off), so they too need to go the way of the dodo. New roof will be made of wood (not the concrete beams more fashionable round here). Insulation in the roof itself, as we’ll probably do without a ceiling.
We are not sure which insulation to choose yet, as we have not done research on what is available locally. But it must conform to our criteria: natural material, non toxic, low processing / energy use in its production. They sell cork insulation down south, but it’s 18euro / square meter for 10cm thickness. This seems like a lot of cash.
How far the roof eaves stick out over the house is usually a big issue in passive solar design: angle them just right to let in winter sun, long enough so that summer sun can’t get in, thus less overheating. We are limited a bit by traditional building design and what will be appropriate for an old house renovation. We will have to do more with window shutters to avoid overheating in summer.
Rainwater Collection All part of building in a hydro balance throughout the year. It rains a LOT in winter and very little in summer and autumn. So we want to find a way to use the winter rains during summer. Part of this will be rainwater collection from all roofed areas. We may need to build an underground tank of some sort, otherwise we’ll have huge unwieldy barrels on each corner that will not be able to hold enough water.
From the collection tank or chamber, we will use a small solar pump to push the water uphill to two water tanks that are already in place at a high point of the land, from where we will construct a gravity-fed micro irrigation system to planted areas.
The well There’s an old hand dug well around 10m deep in front of the house. We want to build a traditional Romanian fantana – a well with a little roof, and a handle to wind up the bucket to get nice cold water. Our family is half-Romanian by the way. Small solar pump to get water from well to header tanks at top of the land is also under consideration. A thought we want to share with you all: would it be a bad idea to pipe water collected from rooftops into the well? It’s obviously not as pure, hasn’t been filtered by the rock and all, but the well seems like an ideal “storage” facility.
Ecological construction There are so many interpretations and definitions for this. Green / sustainable building, and so on. Our idea is twofold: 1) reduce energy consumption through decent insulation, low energy appliances, lighting using only low-energy LED (possibly run on 12v system with their own solar PV panel), heating without fossil fuels or grid-electric, etc. and, 2) avoid all building materials that have toxic materials or high embodied energy . This is a vital issue we need to get to grips with as a species if we have any hope of not further ruining the planet. And given that there are so many non-harmful materials it seems bizarre they are not applied. More on materials in a separate post.
Time frame: We are submitting our building designs for approval from the camera / council for planning permission this March. We hope to be able to get approval in April and start work in May. This is perhaps optimistic, but we live in hope.
This means the main house roof demolition, walls repair and new roof can happen in May and June.
for roof work between May and August this year (2009). We’ll be able to be more specific when the planning approval is granted, materials ordered, etc.
Farid is a professor of architecture at the Islamic University of Gaza, in fact he’s the Director of the architecture faculty. He completed his PhD in sustainable urban design at the University of Nottingham in the UK.We’ve been in touch over the last couple of years about potential training modules in sustainable community design.He had already started to introduce passive design and environmental construction concepts into his faculty.
I had just helped launch RESET – an NGO with grand plans to increase awareness and skills about environmental building, renewable energy and local food production in the international humanitarian and development sector.
I had worked with international NGOs in a fair few war zones and post-disaster recovery areas since 1990, doing shelter, water, health care; recovery and reconstruction.Later with the UN advising Governments and UN agencies on issues of internal displacement (people displaced within their own country, not quite refugees).
Then, in 2006 I launched into a Masters degree on energy and environment studies in Wales, at the Centre for Alternative Technology, to learn about the alternative energy and “sustainable building” sector, properly. I had become so frustrated with the aid industry’s complete lack of understanding and knowledge about the opportunities renewable systems offered, and the potential disaster we would face if peak oil kicked in (I had watched End of Suburbia and The Power of Community so I felt at least partially informed).
In my last mission, in the Maldives, I was part of an international cocktail of UN, Red Cross/Crescent agencies and local NGOs helping local people and the Government rebuild a few thousand homes, on islands that were utterly dependent on diesel for generated electricity, desalinated water supply and transport.Our efforts were part of a region wide tsunami recovery programme which received ample funding.
With such funding, we could facilitate a reconstruction process that could incorporate better building standards.Indeed, a recovery motto used then was “build back better”, but, on the contstruction side at least, it did little to trickle down to the actual construction process, which just applied the same old industrial world mistakes: disregard for passive design (solar shade, max ventilation in humid climates), ‘sustainable’ sewage treatment (don’t even talk about biogas – already hugely popular across Asia – offering both cooking gas and a much needed natural fertiliser for the sandy and salinated island soils), solar, wind and tidal energy, solar hot water, lighting, and so on.
None of these were applied.The British Red Cross at least paid for some Ozzy consultants to advise them on the solar potential for their new builds. Nice guys, we went surfing together a few times.But they actually advised that solar alone could not cover the needs.Now I know they were wrong: of course the energy needs could be covered by renewable sources.Through a combination of reducing demand, increasing efficiency and diversifying energy sources, any community, anywhere, can go renewable if it really wants.
I explained all this in a lecture in the green of Wales and we decided to launch RESET to do something about this knowledge vacuum that exists in the world of post-disaster recovery.
So when Farid contacted from the architectural faculty of Gaza, I was excited: here we may get a chance to work with a kindred spirit – someone from the construction industry who has had his own green-building enlightenment, and was already working from the inside to change attitudes and practices.
We were in touch throughout 2007 and 2008 about training programmes we could potentially run together in renewable energy, permaculture in the built environment and natural materials in construction – building on what he has already initiated at the faculty.
In brief, we proposed to expand his department for research and testing, then do a town based study on actual energy consumption, equivalent CO2 emissions and possible income from carbon removed from the atmosphere, and the various renewable systems that could be built, theoretically at first, to meet those energy demands.Involve as many local people and relevant agencies as possible.It was all security dependent, of course.
Then the security situation went from bad to worse, late last year. Then, from worse to outrageously bad.Driven to extreme measures by their estranged Israeli neighbours, elements within the local community decided to fight back at their ongoing oppression and fire a few rockets.Probably not the best idea, but I wasn’t there and don’t know what really started it off.What happened next is well known: multiple rocket attacks, by fighter plane, helicopter, tank, mortar, sniper fire upon the peopled communities of Gaza.
The destruction was phenomenal.“It was a real hell on earth” Farid wrote to me recently, after weeks of silence, during which I heard nothing and was seriously concerned.
“Nobody could image that such barbaric and drastic war can be waged in the 21st century. The shelling and bombardment did not stop any moment, day and night, the sound of blasts and explosions and the noise of F16 jet attacks was extremely distressing, especially for my kids”.
What a nightmare.I have experienced my fair share of shelling in Bosnia and West Africa, but nothing like this.A smallish mortar shell exploding nearby shakes you to your bones. It’s like a train has collided with your house.The apartment-block crunching explosions they had to endure is beyond description, and nobody should have to endure that.Especially not a city full of civilians.This is just wrong. How can we – modern society – have sunk so low?
Luckily Farid and his family survived, and despite his admission that “Gaza is the largest prison on Earth, no one is allowed in or out” he is still able to talk about the possibilities for reconstruction and recovery.
These are already underway, planned to begin in Cairo on the 2nd March.It is usual, that alongside ceasefire negotiations a reconstruction plan sketched out, a donor conference organised and inevitably, connections between rehabilitation and lasting peace manifested.In the case of Gaza today emergency shelter and basic services are needed given the level of destruction, but full recovery goes far deeper than that.
For now, however, Farid says that no building materials have been allowed in.Nothing is moving; huge piles of rubble stand where dozens of people once lived, their owners either dead or homeless.
Nathaniel, another friend now working with UNICEF in the West Bank, says that masses of workers are waiting for permission to enter Gaza, to help rebuild.They too are disallowed.
In a rousing forward by Jordan’s Crown Prince, HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal, who also represents the intriguingly named Arab Thought Forum and the World Conference for Religions for Peacesuggests that “the politics of fear must give way to the politics of peace, and the reconstruction of Gaza, which this document addresses, possesses immediate potential to initiate this transition”
This is not uncommon in post war recovery strategies: use the reconstruction funds and the opportunities they offer to undermine the divisive and corrupt resource-grabbing thiefdoms that so often caused conflict in the first place.Gaza, however, has got to be one of the most complex conflicts to hope to resolve through reconstruction.Nevertheless, Sultan, et al, have a go, proposing, among other things, that:
A War crimes tribunal be established,
A Forward base for reconstruction be in Egypt, not Israel
Depoliticise the reconstruction , to the extent possible
Launch a Gaza reconstruction commission: technical not political focus. To include multiple Palestinian actors.Which may also contribute towards Palestinian reconciliation.And better coordination.
Put forward an international focal point, to remove external political impediments, to pursue coordination of donor investments, to make sure funds follow priorities laid out by the local Gaza reconstruction commission
International agencies should offer to partner with local institutions that fall within their mandate, and help them to apply for the large grants, and, where necessary, second selected professionals for short periods to deliver training and capacity building.
They add, towards the end that inevitable, hope that “this upcoming reconstruction presents an immense opportunity to get Gaza back on the track to development, to ensure that reconstruction supports peace and Palestinian unity and to, more fundamentally, tackle the suffering which has afflicted the Gazan population”.
This is a report about process, rather than any specific sector, such as energy and as such it does well by calling for an inclusive process – that ensures all local representatives are involved – including Hamas. It refers to the mistakes made in Lebanon and Afghanistan when Western donors insisted that Hezbollah and the Taliban, respectively, be excluded from the planning and implementation of projects.Surely this is obvious, right? Clearly not, and it shows how much politics has a hand in deciding how recovery money is spent.
Getting back to Farid and the reconstruction of Gaza: let us assume that the ceasefire is maintained, that George Mitchell (Obama’s envoy) has some restraining influence over the warring factions, Israel in particular, and that the reconstruction fund now under discussion can be mobilised.
Sultan’s report describes some 17,000 damaged houses, a further 4,000 completely destroyed, not to mention the 25 schools and health facilities flattened or 1,500 shops and other small industries. This alone represents a massive building and repair process, with associated water, sewerage and power supply infrastructure needs.
So the people of Gaza sit on the ruins of their former community, but also on the threshold of an enormous opportunity to build-in local, decentralised, renewable and clean building, energy and waste systems.I have often thought that it would be easier to incorporate clean energy systems in new builds, rather than retrofit the old.Could Gaza be such a case?
In terms of power supply, the existing system could not be more inappropriate. According to a UN report in 2008, Gaza’s electricity demand is around 240MW.75% of this comes from a diesel fed generator based in Isreal, which it can turn up or down as it sees fit, to the distress of local residents. (The remaining 25% comes from Jordan and Egypt, it seems there is almost no local capacity).
So, power demand is 240MW.One big wind turbine these days has around 2MW capacity, so Gaza’s power demand is equivalent to 120 big turbines.
Portugal recently started work on one of the world’s largest solar PV (electric) array at 62 MW(peak) – at a cost of around 250m euros, on approx 130 hectars of land.Of course these are not constant power supplies, one relies on a windy day, the other on daylight and sun.But options for massive energy storage exist, such as huge flow batteries, electrified vehicles which store power and feed it back to grid when they are not being used, pumped storage, to name just a few.
But massive progress has also been made in the field of concentrated solar power: (parabolic mirrors reflecting solar heat onto a container of oil that produces steam to turn a turbine, or a Stirling engine). These are now being built in Spain, USA and elsewhere at prices that are competitive to the capital investment of diesel or coal power plants.
Recent advances have include systems that produce both electricity and thermal energy (heat) that can be used for hot tap water, heating, heat-powered air conditioning (cooling) and… desalination for drinking water.
The key here being the running costs: fossil fuels are finite and prices are vulnerable to geological limits, geopolitics and other little known but hugely influential and powerful interests.In short, it is extremely unwise to invest your community’s future on systems that depend on oil and other fossil fuels that rely on the cheap prices enjoyed for much of the past 100 years.Even the conservative International Energy Agency accept that the “time of cheap oil is over” (latest World Energy Outlook).
But I have come to understand that a holistic approach to community design is needed – that incorporates environmental building systems and as much food production as possible within the built environment.
None of this is rocket science, in fact it has been developed over many years across different continents.Although what works in one place is not necessarily suited to another: it is hugely climate dependent, and Gaza sits in a hot-dry climate zone.So passive building design (as shown by the vernacular architecture) in such settings needs heavy thermal mass to maintain a comfortable indoor temperature without the need for mechanised cooling, and small window spaces to reduce solar gain.Thermal mass can be massive concrete blocks, or, shock-horror, earth from the ground we are standing on, for smaller dwellings at least.Environmental science in building is a massive field of study and experience – which is available and willing to lend its collective hand to advise any reconstruction process, to work with local counterparts such as Farid and to be involved, but they need to be asked in.
How plants and agricultural production is incorporated is another fascinating and well developed field.Permaculture design concepts have revolutionalised how we think of home, town and community planning.Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute has proven in neighbouring Jordan that enormous productivity can take place in bone-dry desert settings, as shown in the popular Greening the desert video.
But how plants and the shade and food they offer can be incorporated into building design is something that is often overlooked by zealous concrete-loving modern architects and engineers.
Biogas is a good example of how energy, buildings and biodiversity come together.While we live, we need the toilet.You eat, you shit.This human manure contains enormous energy potential, and for decades the Chinese, Indians and others have built biogas (anaerobic) digesters into their homes.In one simple technological sweep, it deals with local sewerage (and public health) issues, collects gas that can be used for cooking or electricity production, and delivers an odourless effluent waste product that can help fertilise depleted soils, hold moisture in the ground and stimulate productive plant growth.It can also help reduce waste by consuming all organic waste: food scraps, butcher or fish waste, the lot.Tied into a municipal plan for integrated energy systems, it can create jobs that are by their very nature, long term and reliable.
How feasible is any of this in a region torn apart by conflict? Farid would be a good one to ask, as well as the architects of the reconstruction plan.Prince El Hassan bin Talal believes that “reconstruction must be viewed as only a first step towards the long-term aim of improving conditions on the ground through attention to issues such as water and energy, arms control and, above all, economic development”.
So surely, if addressing these issues in a way that delivers decentralised, reliable, sustainable energy and food supply systems, it should be incorporated if at all possible into the recovery process. And it may even help remove some of the sources of frustration and conflict.
Meanwhile, Farid writes about the reality on the ground:
“Fortunately, we have survived this all and our responsibility now is very critical to rebuild and reconstruct the Gaza Strip. As you know, the Israeli offensive has also destroyed some of [university] buildings and facilities. If the truce is started, which may happen any moment, and the entry of construction material has been allowed, major building efforts will begin”
So, the challenge is thus: how to rapidly increase local capacity and awareness of integrated sustainable community design, while maintaining the urgency to rebuild the basic infrastructure people there need just to get along.
In our humble and largely insignificant way, I have offered Farid the option of a “training break” for some of his students. To come and work with us on our reconstruction project in the mellow Minho of Portugal, to learn about building a biogas plant and testing the performance of earth compared with cement in 40 degree heat, and all the rest.
How visas and travel would be arranged is another matter, indeed we look forward to suggestions from people who are more familiar with such things to help us.
I’ve been pruning our ten old and young olive trees for a few days, and am not sure if I need to cut them all down to the 3m stumps that a few places recommend. Or if I can leave some bits tall and bushy for shade, and cut others down to 2 or 3 m height?
I had read somewhere that “a bird should be able to fly through it” once pruned, so I pretty much stuck to that. And a local gardener had told me to get rid of branches with lichen growing on them, and dead bits. So I did that too. But it leaves the trees looking a bit strange: tall high bits beside short cropped ones.
Is there a rule of thumb? Like, if you crop back some branches you have to crop them all?
Perched high above the rolling hills of Vigo lies an expansive university complex. It’s a stunning location, an inspired choice by people who must have realised what a special setting they have: a bay that forms a natural port, protected from the ravages of Atlantic winters, surrounded by hills on all sides, a city built on gentle, wave-like undulations.
The only other place it reminds me of is Sarajevo, with its beautiful streets and house-dappled views from one hill to another. Of course, Vigo hasn’t been used for sniper practice in quite the same way as Sarajevo, nor is it adorned with towers to three fundamentally different religions – once co-existing happily. But it does have another buzz, a panache, a promise of great creations.
After several visits as a family that showed us little, except a second hand shop (because they don’t seem to exist in Portugal) and a seriously styling beach front with sunset views to die for, I finally had a meeting lined up, with César.
César runs the Galician straw bale building network, and runs, or works within, a local NGO called ARBORE that buys local produce and sells it through a shop in Vigo. But they also have been asked to look after an old water mill in an old residential area, hence our gathering. So between straw and watermills we knew we had enough in common to get together, even if we didn’t speak each others language. Portuguese and Galego are so similar it’s our lingua franca.
We met at the hill top university complex and piled into his chip-fat fuelled runaround. I liked him already: a car with books and interesting things strewn about, plants ready to go in the ground stuffed in the boot. I had overdressed thinking I was meeting some professor dude. César was not dressed for a job in a bank, lets say, had huge square glasses over intelligent, sincere, pensive eyes, and a two day beard.
We drove down to the watermill. I’ve seen so many now it was just another one. In good order because the local community council got it renovated to prevent it falling to rack and ruin. But the channel was full of silt and leaves, the tailrace equally blocked. (Tailrace: a techie term to describe channel from mill / turbine back to river course, with enormous comical potential. Hard not to picture some Tom and Jerry antics involved).
I was more interested in the people that showed up. An ARBORE Commission, César informed me, to decide what to do with this mill. And if I wanted I could join (me? What do I know?). Honoured, I would be, I assured him. I was to look at the energy options and get back to them. I was panicking already. I haven’t even been able to build one of our own site yet. But the offer is good and I will be willing to share whatever I can.
I found myself chatting away, having to pinch myself. I can’t speak Spanish. What’s going on? This hybrid Galician Creole seemed almost easier to understand than Portuguese.
Moreover, we talked the same idioma, the language of transition: the horrors of modern architecture, town planners who must be either mad on the pockets of property developers, the sorry state of food supply to the region, the thermal properties of a straw bale wall; why some King decided back in 1580 that ALL the olive trees across Galicia should be cut down to avoid competition with a neighbouring state (!), and so on.
We took the conversation to coffee – in a local casa de cultura, music school. The lady in charge greeted us with outrageous gusto. Did she know us? Me not, surely. We ordered café con leches. César had an elven tea.
They were talking about something to do with economic chaos. It seems that Spain is suffering deeply: 1 million unemployed in the last 3 months alone. There are some 900,000 families with not one single breadwinner, struggling to survive. How do these people get by?
We talked about biogas, biomass, solar heating and other innovative but all really quite obvious solutions to people’s energy needs. Why, I asked, doesn’t the city take on as many of these that it can. Its swimming pools, schools, public buildings. After all, these systems exist and are proven to save oodles of cash, carbon and foreign fossil fuels – so what’s the issue here?
The big quiet guy was getting heated up to this: “They would never listen. There’s no profit there, the massive multi-laterals are not getting their cut, and they run everything”. I know this line of thinking, and he’s not wrong. I came across the same resistance in Edinburgh trying to get a primary school to change its 1970s electric heating for anything else that used hot water and radiators instead. The council, on the one hand saying all the right things, and PR drivel such as “northern Europe’s fastest greening city”, producing a stream of reports, guidelines and so on. On the other hand, when it came to a real individual project, they were terrified of the change and all that it implied. Even when we showed them the tens of thousands of pounds saving within 5 years.
Change, Monica tells me from her recent bit of inspired post-peak oil state of communities book (Sharon Astic, 2008, Depletion and Abundance) does not come from the leaders, but from the people. Our leaders, Astic apparently writes, will follow when a groundswell of public opinion sways one way. (Did Obama come in that way? Hope/Change: is that what the people wanted or did they just kinda dig the message, and the guy?).
But when, in this super modern world of multi media messages do the people, the masses, get to articulate something that’s not already beamed to them through so many televisions and commercials? I suppose this did happen recently: in the global protests against the invasion of Iraq. That was something, but as we know was roundly ignored.
And Monica has just suggested that perhaps that’s what an open democracy is all about: politics representing the views of the people, our representatives gathering our opinions and aspirations; our collective vision. But is this really happening?
I found myself scribbling down a flow diagram of sorts for my Galician hosts; attempting to articulate that now it could be different because the language used by global, regional and local “leaders” presents real opportunities to develop zero carbon communities. Look at Europe’s 20-20-20 message (by 2020, 20% of Europe’s energy will come from renewable sources while it will reduce it’s CO2 emissions by the same amount). Portugal has similar objectives, and the UK goes further in its recent climate bill with 80% CO2 cuts by 2050 and 3% per year (or thereabouts).
Surely, I argued, if we use this language, extract objectives from their very own policies we can draft some serious proposals for dramatic shifts in the way we design our communities – that facilitate these very goals.
The discussion continued. I looked over to César at some point suggesting we need nothing short of a social revolution to take all this forward. He concurred, though in his own way is already sowing the seeds for such a movement.
Revolution it is then, though this is a term too bundled up with bloodied streets and misinterpreted ambitions. Instead we need a new vision – of communities that are capable of living within their means, that find their entire energy sources (from power to food, heat and transport) from their local area. Sources that won’t drive us further into planetary climate chaos, nor survival on the backs of impoverished and maltreated workforces in forgotten sweat shops in Tropical far-far-away lands.
So it is up to us then to present to Vigo’s High Council – and representatives wherever we live – viable strategies and models for innovative and radically different ways of running things.
The alternative will be akin to Nero’s fiddling while Rome burns, referred to as “heedless and irresponsible behaviour in the midst of a crises”. There can be little doubt now that we sit on the downward slide towards economic, climate and energy crises, all unfolding more or less simultaneously.
Now would be a good time to start outlining that new vision.
This is a short summary of what I'm attempting to look at( with the watermills of Monção.
In this concelho (county) alone, there are over 650 watermills in the old Cadastro (register) from the 1940s. Even if 70% are still there in ruins, it represents an enormous opportunity.
Portuguese version below is slightly different, for the local municipality / camera.
Research Proposal
Water mills of the Minho region –
Feasibility of their rehabilitation as generators of renewable energy.
Specific Research Questions
Determine approximate energy potential (KW hours per year) from a selection of different mills along the Gadanha and Mouro rivers of Monção municipality.
Research different micro-hydro turbines that would be best suited to the “low head – high flow” characteristics found in the former water mills. Consider cost, efficiency and environmental impact.
Analyse local socio-economic factors: rural unemployment, economic migration, cultural heritage restoration (of centuries-old mill buildings) rural tourism potential and regulations relating to the use of water courses.
Assess existing Portuguese renewable energy incentive schemes and regulations to determine the best mechanism that individuals or small communities could use to sell their “green electricity”.
Context of climate and energy challenges
This study seeks local solutions to meet unprecedented global energy and environmental challenges. Climate scientists warn of dire global warming scenarios far more severe than presented in IPCC’s latest report in 2007, if we continue to use current levels of fossil fuels for our energy needs.Meanwhile, as European oil and gas field pass peak production and enter irreversible decline, demand from industrialising nations soars.With negligible reserves of fossil fuels, Portugal is vulnerable to supply interruptions to oil, gas and coal which are foreseen to meet around 80% of its energy needs for at least another decade.
Wherever possible, local communities need to assess their capacity for sustainable energy sources – that reduce both carbon emissions and supply vulnerabilities.This research project endeavours to provide that for the municipality of Monção of the Minho region, looking specifically at local electricity generation potential.
Consultant and Institution
Magnus Wolfe Murray is an energy and environment consultant from Scotland, recently arrived in Monção with his wife and two children. This research proposal would conclude a MSc in Advanced Environmental & Energy Studies from the University of East London / GraduateSchool of the Environment (Wales).
Moinhos de Monção – viabilidade da sua reabilitação como geradores de energia renovável
(Setembro de 2008 a janeiro de 2009)
Questões especificas
ØDeterminar o potencial de energia aproximado (horas em kW por ano) a partir de uma selecção de moinhos ao longo dos rios Gadanha e Mouro.
ØAvaliar a viabilidade técnica e económica em utilizar tecnologia hidráulica Alemã desenvolvida recentemente apropriada para sistemas de alta e baixa pressão – encontrada em todos os moinhos.
ØComparar os diferentes sistemas micro-hidráulicos com alguns critérios incluindo: custos, eficácia, impacto ecológico, estética (enquadrar-se nas orientações de restauro do património cultural).
ØAvaliar o regime de incentivos das normas energéticas Portuguesas existentes e da energia renovável de modo a determinar de que forma a electricidade micro-hidráulica poderia ser vendida e se a aquisição de moinhos por particulares ou pela comunidade seria encorajada.
Consultor e Institutição
Magnus Wolfe Murray é consultor energético e ambiental da Escócia. Chegou recentemente a Monção e tem dois filhos. Está a restaurar uma casa antiga e um moinho em Troporiz. Esta proposta iria concluir um Mestrado em Estudos Ambientais & Energia realizado na East London University / Graduate School of the Environment (País de Gales).
Pedido à Câmara de Monção
vAprovação para levar a cabo a pesquisa supra-mencionada.
vApoio no que se refere a informações como:
§População e Sociologia (características da comunidade);
§Mapa da região e mapas de moinhos;
§Acesso a informação de arquivo relacionada com moinhos antigos: informação técnica sobre a sua funcionalidade, socio-económica das comunidades durante o período em que os moinhos estavam a funcionar, etc.
§Informação sobre outros estudos / pesquisas levados a cabo em moinhos reconstruídos e produção de hidro-electricidade utilizando moinhos antigos;
§Aconselhamento sobre garantias / ajuda financeira que poderá estar disponível para o restauro do património cultural (moinhos antigos) e / ou sistemas de energia renováveis;
§Informação sobre o Município ou projectos de regeneração socio-económica regional que poderiam ser relevantes para uma comunidade detentora de sistemas de energia.
§Permitir a apresentação dos resultados da pesquisa no Município no final do período da pesquisa (Fevereiro 2009).
