Excess typically implies in addition to what is required, a by-product, or residue.  The continual growth model of our economic system produces a vast amount of excess.  Could excess become part of a larger productive system if it was put to work?  This meaning, is there an ecology of excess?

This notion of Ecologies of Excess was the premise of an intriguing studio taught by Eva Franch Gilabert at Rice University, that I had the pleasure of reviewing last week.  According to Franch, the ideological succession of machine for living by organism for living perpetuated the same social, political and environmental dilemmas of the previous century.  Franch envisions a new movement, Ecologies of Excess, during the 22nd century that "provide us with a guide to thinking, designing and building based on what we, human beings, produce without measure: endless amounts of energy in social [crowds], political [wars], and environmental terms [pollution].  In sum: Excess"

Set in the year 2101, the studio centered on the design of a Worlds Fair Exhibition Pavilion, deemed "Great Exhibition of the Works of Excess of All Nations".  Each studio participant was to site their project in a different country and analyze the productive aspects of excess.  The studio produced fascinating results, two projects of which are highlighted below.

[Top: The floating, tangled settlements of trash facilitate the spread of invasive species (like mussels, barnacles, invertebrates, and pelagic crabs) across the ocean. Middle: Invasive species often attach to floating plastic settlements, affecting the oceans oxygen, phytoplankton, and zooplankton production, to the detriment of native ecosystems. Bottom: The average cubic centimeter of ocean water holds about one million phytoplankton-producing-bacteria; however, if this bacteria attaches to plastic, it creates biofilm colonies on the surface of the ocean, depriving lower depths of an even distribution ocean nutrient cycling. Images Courtesy of: Igraine Perkinson]

Polymergy Waterscapes by: Igraine Perkinson

Polymergy Waterscapes looks at the garbage gyre written about by InfraNet Lab last year.  The great pacific garbage patch is comprised of floating plastics that swirl within slow winds and ocean currents.  Entitled Polymergy Waterscapes, Igraine envisions a future typology that builds upon and with this trash.  Igraine states:

Whereas traditional patterns of urbanity sought to settle away from trash, Polymergy Waterscapes creates a floating aquatic society that inverses this relationship, using garbage as a generative device for new urbanism. The pavilion adopts a labyrinthine open system of channels that brings the trash to its proximity by disrupting the clockwise currents of the gyre. These systems grow by means of compaction, reducing debris by a factor of ten.

[Siting Strategy. Top: The gyre occupies an area of slow wind currents; as a result, fishermen and sailors rarely travel through it—hence, a lack of awareness of its presence. Middle: Warm water from the south crashes into cooler water from the north, creating a spiraling current that collects the floating garbage. Bottom: Each season affects ocean water temperatures, pushing the location of the gyre about 1000 miles north and south every time. Images Courtesy of: Igraine Perkinson]

Sited at an opportune location for gathering garbage – where winds and currents are slowest – Polymergy Waterscapes not only raises awareness of this emerging continent of garbage, but also incorporates programmes that can take advantage of garbage – spas (heat generated by recycling process), research labs, and various recreational activities of play.  The accumulation or densification of the island over time slowly clears the larger mass of water.  Here, garbage is the unit of growth and the subject for occupation.

[A labyrinthine strategy of open water channels collects trash by disrupting the clockwise currents of the gyre, following a specific path typology that relates to process and program. Image Courtesy of: Igraine Perkinson]

[Accumulation Legs, View of Model. Image Courtesy of: Igraine Perkinson]

[Each program zone architecturalizes collected garbage uniquely (zone1 ex: accumulation wall, soft square, synthetic dunes, garbage whirlpool) constructing collective aspirations that result from the design process. Image Courtesy of: Igraine Perkinson]

[Sections. Top: Other water channels empty debris into the collection ponds and topography terraces of Plastic Laboratories, which can then be closed off and left to dry in order to store contents for energy or research. Bottom: Polymergy Spa is an underwater refinery that melts plastic and converts it into energy, releasing mist as a result of the process, and adding a layer of privacy for each user—the relaxation seeker. Image Courtesy of: Igraine Perkinson]

Species Indetermina by: Ashley Johnson
Species Indetermina tackles the issue of species migration in ballast water.  As globalized markets put increasing pressure on shipping, ballast water becomes a large issue.  This water is typically polluted (with the residue of the cargo) and often contains alien species, which are dumped in ports far from their origin.  These alien species often alter and eliminate parts of the local ecosystem.  Ashley Johnson takes advantage of these alien species in her project, Species Indetermina, by containing the ballast water and creating core samples of wildlife and landscape from different parts of the globe.  These contained ecosystem core samples essentially create a new zoo typology that is curated by shipping routes and alien ballast water.  Johnson sites her project in New Zealand, where she notes,  "in 2010 twenty new species of algae were discovered from samples taken in Auckland Harbour labeled species indetermina".

[Placement of a single port outside of Auckland Harbour where Ballast Water is typically dumped. Image courtesy of Ashley Johnson]

[Plan of Port at low tide. Image courtesy of Ashley Johnson]

Her containment port located outside the harbor would allow "The people of New Zealand to sail five minutes off their own coast and enter exotic new environments, on sea level with the new life, as well as up above in restaurants and observation decks." What is interesting about this scheme is that while sited in New Zealand, it could provide a prototype for dealing with ballast water at all international shipping ports across the globe.  A travelling network of contained (and contaminated) ecosystems, which introduce the public to new exotic worlds.

[Proliferation of exotic life. Image courtesy of Ashley Johnson]

[Exploded Axonometric showing public layers hovering above container. Image courtesy of Ashley Johnson]

Festival season is starting. In particular, we are excited about a slew of films that are part of the Canadian International Documentary Festival, nicknamed HotDocs, that runs April 29 – May 9, 2010 here in Toronto. With so many fascinating accounts represented in this edition, we thought it best to profile them here, for safe keeping. The tales we have selected chronicle landfills, clean energy wars, and land use ambiguities.

Waste Land, directed Lucy Walker (UK / Brazil)

[Waste Land, directed by Lucy Walker, shows May 1 and May 5.]

Lucy tracks artist Vik Muniz and his work with pickers of recyclable materials in Brazil’s Jardim Gramacho, arguably the world’s largest landfill site.

Land, directed by Julian Pinder (Canada)

[Land, directed by Julian Pinder, shows May 2 and 9.]

Burnt-out baby-boomers, Sandinistas, and ex-lefty capitalist developers clash in a wild-west showdown over land in a bucolic Nicaraguan seaside town.

Gasland, directed by Josh Fox (USA)

[Gasland, directed by Josh Fox, shows April 30 and May 2.]

Flammable tap water, mysterious ailments, poisoned land and livestock, Sundance prize-winner Gasland exposes the environmental calamities and cover-ups caused by natural gas drilling.

Into Eternity, directed by Michael Madsen (Denmark, Sweden, Finland)

[Into Eternity, directed by Michael Madsen, shows May 5 and 7.]

The scientific minds behind Finland’s massive underground nuclear waste storage facility, Onkalo, where radioactive waste must sit untouched for at least 100,000 years to neutralize its potential danger, are probed in Into Eternity.

Wistful Wilderness, directed by Digna Sinke (Netherlands)

[Wistful Wilderness, directed by Digna Sinke, shows May and 8.]

The island of Tiengemeten is getting a makeover. Originally tamed to serve as agricultural land, its now being left to the elements to revert back to wilderness. Filmmaker Digna Sinke documents 15 years of transformation.

Tankograd, directed by Boris Bertram (Denmark)

[Tankograd, directed by Boris Bertram, shows May 4 and 7.]

Chelyabinsk, Russia, once the site of a top secret Cold War atomic bomb factory, is now the most radioactively polluted city in the world. Its residents live with the consequences of catastrophic leaks and dumped toxic waste as cancers, auto-immune diseases, and undrinkable water flow freely. But the city most foul sprouts a most unlikely growth—the vibrant, inspiring Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Dreamland, directed by Þorfinnur Guðnason (Iceland)

[Dreamland, directed by Þorfinnur Guðnason, shows May 2 and 4.]

With its hydroelectric and geothermal power surplus, Iceland’s clean energy initiatives have attracted heavy industries whose pollution decimates natural vegetation. A tale of sabotage from the frontlines of the green revolution.

I Bought a Rainforest, directed by Helena Nygren and Jacob Andren (Sweden)

[I Bought a Rainforest, directed by Helena Nygren and Jacob Andren, shows May 2 and 4.]

Jacob Andren, like over 400,000 other Swedish children, remembers raising money to help save a rainforest. Twenty years later, wondering if his efforts made any real impact, he visits Costa Rica to see whether this piece of land remains preserved.

They Come for the Gold, They Come for it All, directed by Pablo D’Alo Abba and Christian Harbarak (Argentina, Chile)

[They Come for teh Gold, They come for it All, directed by Pablo Abba and Cristian Harbaruk, shows May 6 and 8.]

In a small town on the border of Argentina and Chile, the residents of Esquel are conflicted over a lucrative bid from Canadian mining company Meridian Gold. On the one hand, the mine will provide much needed work for residents, half of whom live below the poverty line. On the other hand, the gold and silver extraction requires large amounts of water and cyanide.

You can access the complete listings–time, locations, details–here. Enjoy.

Dr. Benjamin Richardson conceived of a city of health called Hygeia in 1876. Dr Richardson is an M.D., and he calculated a death rate for Hygeia of 8 per 1,000 in the first generation and 5 per 1,000 in the second generation. The current rate at the time was approximately 20 in 1,000. Hygeia anticipated a population of 100,000 in 20,000 houses on 4,000 acres, or about 25persons/acre. Hygeia was of considerable influence to Ebeneezer Howards Garden City (whose trajectory can easily be traced through to modern planning and urban design).

Here is Dr. Richardsons description of Hygeia in terms of food, water, animals, and the dead:

Our model city is of course well furnished with baths, swimming baths, Turkish baths, playgrounds, gymnasia, libraries, board schools, fine-art schools, lecture halls, and places of instructive amusement. In every board-school drill forms part of the programme. I need not dwell on these subjects, but must pass to the sanitary officers and offices.

There is in the city one principal sanitary officer, a duly qualified medical man elected by the Municipal Council, whose sole duty it is to watch over the sanitary welfare of the place. Under him, as sanitary officers, are all the medical men who form the poor law medical staff. To him these make their reports on vaccination and every matter of health pertaining to their respective districts; to him every registrar of births and deaths forwards copies of his registration returns; and to his office are sent, by the medical men generally, registered returns of the cases of sickness prevailing in the district. His inspectors likewise make careful returns of all the known prevailing diseases of the lower animals and of plants. To his office are forwarded, for examination and analysis, specimens of foods and drinks suspected to be adulterated, impure, or otherwise unfitted for use. For the conduction of these researches the sanitary superintendent is allowed a competent chemical staff. Thus, under this central supervision, every death, every disease of the living world in the district, and every assumable cause of disease, comes to light and is subjected, if need be, to inquiry.

At a distance from the town are the sanitary works, the sewage pumping works, the water and gas works, the slaughter-houses and the public laboratories. The sewage, which is brought from the town partly by its own flow and partly by pumping apparatus, is conveyed away to well-drained sewage farms belonging to, but at a distance from, the city where it is utilised.

The water supply, derived from a river which flows to the south-west of the city, is unpolluted by sewage or other refuse, is carefully filtered, is tested twice daily, and if found unsatisfactory is supplied through a reserve tank, after it has been made to undergo further purification. It is carried through the city everywhere by iron pipes. Leaden pipes are forbidden. In the sanitary establishment are disinfecting rooms, a mortuary, and ambulances for the conveyance of persons suffering from contagious disease. These are at all times open to the use of the public, subject to the few and simple rules of the management.

The gas, like the water, is submitted to regular analysis by the staff of the sanitary officer, and any fault which may be detected, and which indicates a departure from the standard of purity framed by the Municipal Council, is immediately remedied, both gas and water being exclusively under the control of the local authority.

The inspectors of the sanitary officer have under them a body of scavengers. These, each day, in the early morning, pass through the various districts allotted to them, and remove all refuse in closed vans. Every portion of manure from stables, streets, and yards is in this way removed daily, and transported to the city farms for utilisation.

Two additional conveniences are supplied by the scientific work of the sanitary establishment. From steam-works steam is condensed, and a large supply of distilled water is obtained and preserved in a separate tank. This distilled water is conveyed by a small main into the city, and is supplied at a moderate cost for those domestic purposes for which hard water is objectionable.

The second sanitary convenience is a large ozone generator. By this apparatus ozone is produced in any required quantity, and is made to play many useful purposes. It is passed through the drinking water in the reserve reservoir whenever the water shows excess of organic impurity, and it is conveyed into the city for diffusion into private houses, for purposes of disinfection.

The slaughter-houses of the city are all public, and are separated by a distance of a quarter of a mile from the city. They are easily removable edifices, and are under the supervision of the sanitary staff. The Jewish system of inspecting every carcase that is killed is rigorously carried out, with this improvement, that the inspector is a man of scientific knowledge.

All animals used for food,–cattle, fowls, swine, rabbits,–are subjected to examination in the slaughter-house, or in the market, if they be brought into the city from other depots. The slaughter-houses are so constructed that the animals killed are relieved from the pain of death. They pass through a narcotic chamber, and are brought to the slaughterer oblivious of their fate. The slaughter-houses drain into the sewers of the city, and their complete purification daily, from all offal and refuse, is rigidly enforced.

The buildings, sheds, and styes for domestic food-producing animals are removed a short distance from the city, and are also under the supervision of the sanitary officer; the food and water supplied for these animals comes equally, with human food, under proper inspection.

One other subject only remains to be noticed in connection with the arrangements of our model city, and that is the mode of the disposal of the dead. The question of cremation and of burial in the earth has been considered, and there are some who advocate cremation. For various reasons the process of burial is still retained. Firstly, because the cremation process is open to serious medico-legal objections; secondly, because, by the complete resolution of the body into its elementary and inodorous gases in the cremation furnace, that intervening chemical link between the organic and inorganic worlds, the ammonia, is destroyed, and the economy of nature is thereby dangerously disturbed; thirdly, because the natural tendencies of the people lead them still to the earth, as the most fitting resting-place into which, when lifeless, they should be drawn.

Thus the cemetery holds its place in our city, but in a form much modified from the ordinary cemetery. The burial ground is artificially made of a fine carboniferous earth. Vegetation of rapid growth is cultivated over it. The dead are placed in the earth from the bier, either in basket work or simply in the shroud; and the monumental slab, instead of being set over or at the head or foot of a raised grave, is placed in a spacious covered hall or temple, and records simply the fact that the person commemorated was recommitted to earth in those grounds. In a few months, indeed, no monument would indicate the remains of any dead. In that rapidly-resolving soil the transformation of dust into dust is too perfect to leave a trace of residuum. The natural circle of transmutation is harmlessly completed, and the economy of nature conserved.

[Thermarium Site Plan. All images c/o Daniel Rabin & Annie Ritz.]

The Thermarium is a project by University of Toronto M.Arch Graduates Daniel Rabin and Annie Ritz, that examines how to process water overflow.  The Thermarium envisions a new beach typology for the Toronto Waterfront. Responding to the lack of swimming at Toronto’s new urban beaches and consistent CSO (combined sewage overflow) closures at surrounding swim areas, the Thermarium offers new possibilities for water immersion and activity that are enabled, rather than prohibited, by the polluted run-off instigated by heavy rainstorms.

[Adapting the Silos into a processor.]

[Site Processing.]

On days when rainstorms force the city’s water flow to exceed the infrastructural limit, CSOs are dumped into Lake Ontario untreated. They cause high levels of pollutants and E.Coli, forcing beaches to post “No Swimming” signs. Ritz and Rabin state:

"We use water to clean everything; from the dishes to our bodies, water is imperative to our notion of cleanliness and purity. However, the act of cleaning transforms uncontaminated water into dirty water. This project is enabled by dirty water. On the days when the weather overloads the infrastructure, the site and silo are put into action."

[Bubbles as a pressure-programme device.]

[The (by)productive landscape of the Urban Beach created by rain overflow.]

[Project plan shows accumulation and subtraction over time.]

Acting as a processor, the silo treats the dirty water as an input and productively reuses its by-products: sediment, heat, and clean water. These outputs are used to construct new ponds in which visitors can bathe, swim, and socialize. The ponds are heated by the cleansing process and filled with treated CSO water. As the number of overflows mount, the silo site continues to grow and the lattice-like structure of sedimentation accumulates. The program on the site is based on water immersion and experience. Acting as a new type of park, the site can be navigated from within or on top of the new formwork. Pools are distributed in varying sizes to accommodate an array of uses, group sizes, and atmospheric conditions—forming a new public space for the city while cleansing its water.

[Interior view of grotto-like spaces.]

[Sectional perspective showing various pool typologies.]

[Water cleanliness, temperature, and location determine its type and ecosystem.]

[Atmospheric spaces initiated from rain overflow.]

Thermarium is one of several '-arium' projects featured in -arium: Weather + Architecture.  Click here for more information on the book launch, which will occur on Feb. 22nd, 2010 at the Univeristy of Toronto.  To purchase -arium online, click here.  We hope to see you at the launch.

If you’re planning a winter getaway to the islands this year, you might move beyond ‘eco-tourism’ to trash tourism, in this case, visiting the island of Thilafushi, just off the shores of the Maldives, an island country in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls. The country foregrounded itself on the headlines back in October, when the president of Maldives and members of his cabinet met underwater to stress the significance of rising seas.

The name conjures images of azure seas and white beaches, but Thilafushi is an island of trash, created in the early 1990s on 7km lagoon called Thilafalhu, to solve the Maldives' mounting garbage problem.

[An industrial waste-scape emerges from Thilafushi - built from, and for, trash]

The island has grown at the rate of a square metre a day, as more and more rubbish is dumped here. Mountains of rubbish – plastic, metal tins and rusty oil barrels – extend as far as the eye can see. Unlike the adjacent resort islands, the only visitors here are the Bangladeshi workers who wade through the sludge and brave the stench to burn the tonnes of refuse that arrive at the island every day, writes Maryam Omidi.

Spotting the potential to generate revenue from the mushrooming island, the government decided to lease part of it for industrial purposes. Additional terrain was created using white sand and now giant cement cones, oil drums and the skeletons of future boats can be seen dotted around. Metal compactors compress junk into blocks for sale to India. Each tonne sells for US$175.

The island has grown to such proportions that it now has a café, a restaurant, two mosques, a barbershop, a clinic, a police station and rather unexpectedly, a makeshift zoo.  Like  Wall-E's post-apocalyptic world, here is a society built around, and sustained by trash.

The garbage is collected in the capital and separated before being transferred to Thilafushi on landing vessels. However, a major concern for environmentalists around the world, is the treatment of toxic wastes, which includes both e-waste and batteries

According to Ali Rilwan, executive director of environmental NGO Bluepeace, these materials leech into the surrounding environment. "These chemicals remain forever and they are getting into the ecosystem and inside the reef," he said. "Unlike a landfill, this is a lagoon fill. It is a landfill in liquid form and so it absorbs these chemicals much more easily and this makes it more vulnerable."

[Does every island needs is trash alter-ego? Singapores Semakau island]

Singapore built itself it's the Semaku, an island covering an area of 3.5 square kilometers and consisting of two small islands connected by a rock embankment.

[Eastern and Wester Pacific Gyres]

Thilafushi,  of course, pales in comparison to Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a "plastic soup" of waste growing tenfold every decade, and now covering an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

[A new trash ecology emerges in the Pacific]

The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan. It is believed that 100 million tons of flotsam is circulating in the region, composed primarily of plastics – everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bag.

Maybe we could capitalize on this: the ultimate flea-market, duty-free island in the Pacific, for all the cruise boats..?

With almost 30 projects and proposals addressing the opportunities and challenges of water in/around/under/through the city, we are excited to announce the HYDROCity exhibition opening tonight at the Toronto Free Gallery (1277 Bloor St W).

HYDROCity  features the work of these architects, landscapes architects, and urbanists:
Andrea Abita
Bureau E.A.S.T.
Fletcher Studio
Futura Desarrollo Urbano, S.C.
Chris Hardwicke
Elijah Huge
Ghazal Jafari
Marta Jakuć
Sara Kamalvand
Lateral Office
Loomis McAfee Architects
Cara McKibbin
Brett Milligan
Shahrzad Nezafati
OMA
OSA + WIT + PROAP
P-REX
Paisajes Emergentes
RVTR
Jason Sowell, Nichole Wiedemann
University of Toronto Landscape Studio Spring 2009
Washington University Architecture Studio Spring 2009
Waterstudio
Emily Williamson

And the work is sited in such divergent locations as: Vietnam, The Netherlands, USA, Italy, Canada, Ecuador, Iran, Morocco, United Kingdom, Mexico, Ghana, Cuba, among others.

We will be featuring a few of these projects in greater detail over the coming weeks, since the show is up until Jan 5, 2010.

While the garbage workers strike in Toronto this past year promoted less tourism and flourishing populations of fruit flies, it also made most Torontonians aware of the amount of garbage they produce in a short amount of time.  Researchers at MIT's SENSEable City Lab are embarking on a research project to make people conscious of where their trash goes once it is deposited into a trashcan.  Three thousand pieces of common garbage will tagged with GPS technology and monitored.  This 'trash transparency' is hoped to provide a understanding of how far garbage travels, costs and patterns of disposal, and the various stages of disposal.

Trash Track aims to make the removal chain more transparent. We hope that the project will promote behavioral change and encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what they consume and how it affects the world around them.

[How Trash Track works, via SENSEable City Lab]

[The tracking device/ detective, via SENSEable City Lab]

While general awareness exists of the supply chain, the removal chain of objects is largely concealed.  Trash Track will be able to monitor the removal chain in real time, using New York and Seattle as test cities.  Trash track has the ability to critically examine the removal process and spark new discussion on sustainable disposal infrastructures.  In a city like Toronto, tracking trash would make residents aware of the massive distance and energy required to dispose of trash.  In 2006, Toronto diverted 696,327 tonnes of waste to Michigan Landfills.  This works out to approximately 150 truckloads of waste travelling a minimum of 300 kilometers to be disposed.  Statistics from the City of Toronto reveal that if 70% diversion through recycling could be achieved (up from approximately 40%), GHG emissions would be reduced by 25 percent (or equivalent to 100,000 cars), save 4.5 million trees per year, and save 900 kWh of energy annually.

[Following an Aluminum Can in Seattle via SENSEable City Lab]

[Following Soap Containers in New York, via SENSEable City Lab]

You can view Trash Track in realtime online, or in exhibitions at the Architectural League in New York and the Seattle Public Library.

One of my favorite films from this year’s TIFF has to be Peter Mettler’s Petrolis.  Mettler, who was the cinematographer for Edward Burtynsky’s Manufactured Landscapes, takes on a directorial role on Petropolis, which visually documents the Alberta Tar Sands.  Given the massive scale of the project, the infrastructures, and the process, Mettler had few choices but to document the project from an aerial perspective.

[Water taken from the local watershed ends up in toxic lakes called tailings ponds. © Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]

[A giant earth mover transports earth mined at an open pit for processing to separate the bitumen. © Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]

[Open mine pits in the tar sands are often 50 metres deep. © Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]

[An unnatural landscape is characteristic of tar sands development like this tailings pond. © Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]

[Air emissions from the tar sands include 300 tonnes of sulphur a day.© Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]

[The shape of the sulphur deposits – a by-product of tar sands processing – suggests a pyramid. © Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]

[A pipeline dumps toxic wastewater into a tailings pond. © Greenpeace / Eamon Mac Mahon]

The output of MONU (Magazine on Urbanism) continues to impress, and with issue #11, Bernd Upmeyer and company raise the bar. This issue is dedicated to clean urbanism and a range of responses, mostly antagonizing or shoring up sustainability and its discontents, come pouring in. An initial browse reminds me of Dominique Laporte's oft overlooked theory/survey Histoire de la Merde (trans: History of Shit) in which he charts myriad devices, urban modifications, and codes that cleaned up the contemporary city. Laporte suggests that our very identity as modern societies is intimately wrapped up within the complex management of our own waste – from language to justice to urbanism.

[The Grass is Greener by TomorrowsThoughtsToday shows a series of postcard narratives of a group of Londoners willingly separated from the rest of city inadvertently serving as a carbon sink for the rest of the inhabitants.]

Also, appropriately enough, clean urbanism can be seen as being pleasantly complemented by dirty realism. It is the systematic marginalization of shit, literally, into the hidden pockets of the city, out of view, that maintain a clean front – from buried sewer mains to sex- and drug-trades, to offshoring. One could almost argue that our urban environments are not necessarily any cleaner just better managed and with more crap out of sight. If fact, it is likely that our cities are dirtier, if calculated in aggregate with waste that has been dispersed, traded, or sunk.

[Bio-Port: Free Energy City.]

Clean Urbanism swings across of the gamut of the recent preoccupation with eco-cities, efficiency, and landscapes of power.

Here are the complete contents:
Sci-fi Greenery …or just Responsibility? – Samo Pedersen
Clean Cities – Dirty People – Matteo Muggianu
Dirty Consumerism – Nikonus Pappas
Coming Clean – Randall Teal
Domes over Manhattan – Interview with Gerd Hauser by Bernd Upmeyer
Rendering the Clean – Nathalie Frankowski and Cruz Garcia (WAI)
The Mobile Library Unit – John Southern
Where the Grass Is Greener – Tomorrow’sThoughtsToday
Clean around the Edges – Lee Altman
Bio-Port – Greg Keeffe and Simon Swietochowski
Zeekracht – The North Sea Masterplan – OMA
Scarcity: Bipolar Urbanism in the Sonoran Desert – Felipe Correa
Regenerative Ecologies – Claudio Astudillo Barra
Clean Energy is Dirty Business – Aleksander Tokarz
Dystopic Verdure – Jacob Ross Boswell
How to Win Poetic Praise and Influence Architects – Amanda Webb
The Cooperative City – Rogier van den Berg
Mania – Bryan Norwood and the Jackson Community Design Center

[OMA, Zeekracht, and the North Sea's perfect storm.]

You may browse the entire issue here:

And you may purchase it as well as back issues here.

[Breathing Earth Interface via www.breathingearth.net]

Multimedia artist David Bleja has created an interesting simulation entitled "Breathing Earth". Breathing Earth catalogues and projects birth and death rates for the globe as well as the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere… all in real time. As such, it is a simulation, but based on pretty realistic sources (including population data from the CIA World Factbook and CO2 rates from the United Nations Statistic Division).

What is interesting about Breathing Earth's organizational output, is that it does not calculate CO2 emissions per capita (which is great for finger pointing) but rather by how LONG it takes to emit 1000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, highlighting the pressing issue of time. Quickly scrolling over the animation, comparisons do emerge however; for instance, in North America, it takes 52 seconds for Canada to emit 1000 tonnes of CO2 compared to 5.2 seconds in the US and 1.2 minutes in Mexico. Compare that to 4 hours in Mozambique. While most of the 'developed world' prides itself on making things faster and more efficient, it seems that the pace in the 'undeveloped world' coincides with a reduce rate CO2 emissions. While Breathing Earth is organized around political divides, it does not account for where the atmospheric winds carry these emissions. Satellite sensor studies conducted between 2002 and 2005 by NASA revealed that pollution does indeed travel. NASA’s investigation stated that approximately 4.5 teragrams (or 10 billion pounds) of pollution aerosols traveled to North America from China over the four years of the study. This pollution could cross the Pacific in about a week, and was equivalent to 15 percent of the local emissions in North America. The data was collected by NASA’s MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Instrument, which is stationed on the Terra satellite. The MODIS instrument is able to differentiate between broad particle types in the atmosphere and records these every day or two. This allows us to understand not only where pollution is produced but also where it is going. While NASA’s study did not look at the where the pollution from North America, Europe or Australia finds its way to, it will not be long before we have a clear sense of pollution flows throughout the world.

[Chinese Industrialization and Russian Forest Fires send their pollutants across the Pacific via nasa.gov]

I've been watching this animation for close to thirty minutes, and since I've been plugged in, 6 240 people have been born, 2490 have died, and 1224000 tonnes of CO2 have been injected into the atmosphere. Breathing Earth is a gripping reminder that we have supersized the capacity of our planet.