Our Friends at Animal Architecture are launching the inaugural Animal Architecture Awards.  The competition seeks "exciting projects that engage the lives, minds and behaviors of our alternate, sometimes familiar companion species — insects, birds, mammals, fish and microorganisms – each one with unique ways of world-making. As our society re-examines its place in the global ecology Animal Architecture invites your critical and unpublished essays and projects to address how architecture can mediate and encourage multiple new ways of species learning and benefiting from each other – or as we say it here: to illustrate cospecies coshaping."

Cospecies coshaping is an intriguing ecological principle that has the potential to integrate the "human" world with the "animal" world, so in fact we can eliminate these "terms" altogether.  What interests me most is that architecture is sought as the mediator to bridge these two worlds (not just human but any species).  I am very curious to see the projects from the competition and happy that it will expand our knowledge on the relationship between form and symbiosis.  If you are interested in applying, the deadline is May 15th, and all information can be found here.

[Bat Tower Project by Jury Member Joyce Hwang]

Barrick Gold’s recent bid to acquire copper miner Equinox Minerals suggests that the bullion giant sees copper as the new gold. Both minerals are currently valued at record highs.  The price of gold has doubled in the past two years on account of investor fears of inflation and political turmoil.  Copper’s rise is even more dramatic as, in the same two years, its value has tripled.  Copper’s ductility and conductivity make it an essential ingredient in electrical products like electromagnets, wires and circuit boards.  In playing such an integrated role in the manufacturing industry, copper has effectively emerged as a proxy investment in rapidly industrializing nations such as India and China.

[Morenci Mine - Largest Copper Mine in the U.S.]

We may see demand for copper may outstrip its supply in 2011.  As demand continues to rise 21 of the 28 largest operations have no room left for expansion and 2015 marks the date were many of the globe’s largest mines will be exhausted (Salon.com).   With this supply-demand imbalance many new mining projects have been slated for development.  South American nations such as Chile and Brazil are proposing new mining operations as are nations within Africa’s Copperbelt such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

[Abandoned Copper Phone Lines, image by Chris Gordon via Flickr]

When we consider the price of copper against the price of fiber telecommunication cables, an entirely new type of mineral reserve becomes exploitable.  Andrew Cohill of Design Nine, a US telecom consultancy firm, states that the world’s largest copper reserve is in the United States and its already been dug out of the ground. Cohill is referring to the hundreds of millions of pounds of copper hanging on telephone poles across the United States.   On one hand there are the vast amounts of abandoned wires hanging from utility poles left by earlier economics where it was cheaper for telecom companies to lash new cables to utility poles without taking down the old ones.  On the other hand, the remaining active copper wires could also be up for grabs as the value of copper telecom cables is higher (and continuing to rise) than the steady value of fiber-based conduit. Other operations have also made this connection. In the past few years theft of hanging copper wire in the US has been on the rise.  Most notably three Colorado men were charged with stealing 20 miles of wire in October 2010!

Interestingly, the copper price crisis could have a beneficial spin-off effect for many rural communities in the US.  As abandoned copper wire is legally/ illegally cleared away, previously unavailable pole space can be claimed by new telecommunication networks desperate to piggyback on existing utility pole networks.

Editors Note: File under Feedback: Architecture’s New Territories, an InfraNet Lab seminar at Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design / University of Toronto. Guest post and images are by Ali Fard.

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With an estimated 1,733,993,741 users and a global growth rate of 380% since 2000 , it is easy to think of the internet as a free-flowing cloud of information accessible by all. However, unlike popular belief, our connection to the internet is not mediated by an uber high-tech network of satellites (or any of the other usual suspects). In fact, satellite links account for only 1% of all internet connections. Automatically, and incorrectly, thought of as a complex metaphysical network of information, the Internet consists of a highly physical network of lines and nodes; a simple system with inherent complexities.

Simply put, it is a network of submarine communication cables laid across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and other water bodies that connect us to information databases in other continents. Although the technology has changed significantly, the network itself does not differ greatly from the network of submarine telegraph lines which existed as early as 1901. Much like long umbilical cords, these cables are the not-so-visible proof of our dependence on concentrated sources of information. These very real and physical “communication highways” establish links between information super hubs, while controlling internet’s dissemination of information. These lines, coupled with the terrestrial network of land lines and data centers, are the medium of the internet.

[The existing global network of submarine communication cables.]

The lines and nodes of the internet, much like any other physical infrastructure, are prone to an array of politico-economic issues. Closely related to the politico-economic reading of the hierarchical structure of the world, much of this understanding of internet has to do with its very physical backbone. Areas with the least number of users get the best connections and others, like most of Africa, get nothing. We can clearly make out the users from producers. The redundancies of the submarine lines to North America and Europe have caused internet prices to plummet, which in turn has encouraged not only higher usage of internet but an active participation in the information world. Meanwhile, you can count the number of lines feeding Africa on one hand. As a result, prices are so high that even the lines that are already in place become meaningless, because of lack of use.

[Submarine cable system, from left to right: Cable + Repeaters + Landing Points + Termination Stations.]

[Submarine communication cable: 1. Polyethylene cover; 2. & 4. Stranded steel armor wires; 3. & 5. Tar-soaked nylon yarn; 6. Polycarbonate insulator; 7. Copper sheath; 8. Protective core; 9. Optical fibers.]

[Cable-laying ship.]

[A submarine cable arriving on land in Bangladesh, April 10, 2009. REUTERS/Gina Din Corporate Communications/Japheth Kagondu/Handout.]

The Internet can be read as a dynamic network, but a network which is far from equally distributed. This unequal distribution is not because of lack of potential, but lack of means. It is clear that in today’s information heavy economy, to compete means to be connected. So, areas with little or no internet connection, which are already among the most economically unstable, get left behind and cannot compete. It is clear that the current state of the network privileges the most developed countries. This outcome is merely due to economic factors and not necessarily based on efficiencies and strengths of the network. So, how can this unequally distributed network be rewired to be able to function efficiently? How is this network affected with regards to the recent crisis in the economic structure of the world? How can a more logical rewiring of the network help African countries or other poorly connected areas of the world, while improving the system as a whole?

[A current map of the global internet connection.]

[A possible re-wiring scenario in which Africa becomes an internet hub, taking advantage of its geographic location.]

One possible rewiring scenario has to do with the strategic geographic location of Africa. With cheap land, availability of natural resources and proximity to Asia, Europe and South America, Africa can provide fertile grounds for international data center activity. Big Internet companies such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, whose data center activity is mostly concentrated in North America and Europe, can start investing in the internet infrastructure of African countries by providing better connections, and in return can be allowed to establish data centers in areas with little economic activity. These companies can take on an active role in shaping the information economy of Africa by not only providing internet connections, but also by providing jobs and training. All this cannot be achieved by corporate colonization, but through an active and dedicated participation in the growth of the information economy of the region.

Although great imagination may be required in visualizing such proposition, and a great deal of analysis is required in understanding the ups and downs of such a mammoth initiative, it is in no way farfetched. It is in fact such a proposal that can bring much needed attention to how information is distributed throughout the world and provide grounds for discussion of possible new futures of the network.

Also from the Feedback seminar:
Border Economies: the Maquiladora Export Landscape, Juan Robles
Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer, Fei-Ling Tseng

Related: Rewiring (Tele)Geography

Acting as a defense barrier, these 10 massive towers form a line in the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, UK. They are the vision of Nicholas Szczepaniak, a recent graduate of Westminster, and the winner of the RIBA Presidents Medal. The project, titled "A Defensive Architecture," envisions these towers simultaneously as a militarized coastal defense and a repository of knowledge in the form of a library … a kind of smart-ark.

[Defense infrastructure within the estuary and a detail of the approach.]

The towers collectively act as a bellwe(a)ther for the environment. They are "breathing, creaking, groaning, sweating and crying when stressed." The enclosure is shrouded in air bags that inflate and deflate to register subtle changes in temperature and climate. Jellyfish-like cables dangle below the facade platform and are able to spray seawater onto the heated facade emitting steam. The project conveys nothing short of iconic enviro-veillance.

[Elevation of a typical tower with tensioing hose cables dangling below.]

[Plan of tower showing interior space of inertia with circulation core to the left and tensioning system on the right.]

[Sectional view of the reading wall.]

[Studies of the sugar curtainwall.]

A sugar curtain grows and retracts seasonally, portraying immediate shifts in the weather or climate. So sweet.

[View within the space of inertia looking skyward.]

Found via Bustler.

Where are the super-projects?  This is the question Louis Uchitelle asks in his recent article “Entering the Superproject Void” (New York Times).  In retracing the continuum of America’s greatest hits in large scaled public works (from the Erie Canal to the Hoover Dam, from the transcontinental network of the Interstate Highway System to the mega-regionally focused efforts of the Tennessee Valley Authority) it’s surprising to learn that there are no super-sized public works projects on the go (or foreseen in the immediate future).  Of course there are visions, National High Speed Rail for one, but the commitment (read financing) is hardly there.

There’s no doubt that causal relationships between superproject spending and economic growth are difficult to understand.  Nevertheless Uchitelle reminds us that ‘the strongest periods of economic growth in America have generally coincided with big outlays for new public works and the transformations they bring once completed’.

Has something changed in terms of the optimism that has accompanied these projects in the past?  Have they been discredited with respect to their economic impact?    There’s a lot to unpack in this regard and we’re looking forward to cooking up some posts in the future tackling some of the related issues.  For now, we’re wondering if the emergence of distributed projects and strategies may be hiding the ‘superness’ of superprojects thus making this class of project less easily identifiable.

What if there is a new breed of superprojects on the horizon?  The Invisible Superproject.

Uchitelle does mention an Obama driven project that approaches the super-sized – Electronic Health Care Records.   While the domain of such a project, a mostly invisible system that will primarily be accessed by individuals via LCD screens, is not as immediately impressive as some of the engineering marvels typically associated with superprojects, this project is nonetheless remarkable.  This ambitious plan will accomplish two usually disparate effects of improving the quality and reducing costs.

There must be other invisible superprojects out there or, at least, on their way.  Interestingly, the infrastructure or backbone for this breed of project – the Internet, is in itself minimally visible.

This visibility has recently been documented by Randall Mesdon in a photographic essay, “Netscapes: Tracing the Journey of a Single Bit” for Wired Magazine.  In this work, Mesdon’s images, paired with text by Andrew Blum, begin to document the marks on our environment that index the presence and operational logic of the Internet.  The image below shows a major Internet landmark (note the man-hole cover on the lower left) marking one side of the cross-Atlantic submarine cable connection.

Halifax, Canada. Photograph by Randall Mesdon

Not all of the images along the bit’s journey are as subtle.  The scale of the landmark varies from an imposing building on Hudson Street in Manhattan to tiny utility huts dotting long-haul data pipes.  Check out the entire series here.

Maybe we should call them the 'almost-invisible' superprojects?

Next week, the Space Frontier Foundation will kick off their NewSpace 2009 Conference at the NASA Ames Research Center. The opening day of the conference, entitled ‘Space Elevator Day’ will explore new technologies and possibilities associated with Space Elevators. The conference is strategically placed between an intriguing paper published earlier this month, and the Space Elevator Games, scheduled for early August.

[Space Tether counterbalance diagram, via wikicommons]

While the concept of a space elevator was first proposed by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895, more recently this dream is transforming from fantasy to reality. The functions of such an elevator are endless – from space tourism, to research, telecommunications, delivering payloads, and atmospheric monitoring. Perhaps the greatest function of such a device would be to empirically and directly witness the earth as an assemblage of interdependent systems.

[core construction options (left); detail of segment (right) via Quine, Seth and Zhu]

Recently, three scientists at York University published an article in Acta Astronautica, outlining a concept prototype for a mega-inflatable tower that would act as an elevator to space. Proposed by Brendan Quine, Raj Seth and George Zhu, the 20 km tower would be made up of inflatable modules that have their roots in the Space Tether Concept that was popularized in the 1970s. The tether concept centered upon a counterbalanced mass system wherein the counterbalance would be situated in space, with a cable extending back to earth. These tethers were proposed to connect to space stations, and could be traversed by electric means. Not only does the tether give a stable system for venturing to space, it eliminates the need for chemical rockets (equivalent to 1000 tonnes of solid rocket fuel per trip) and their associated environmental impacts.

[Space Tether Concept drawing via Digital Roam Inc.]

The greatest hurdle with building a space elevator, not surprisingly, is finding a material that is both strong and light enough to withstand the stress pressures of the upper atmosphere. This challenge incited Scientists examine inflatable modules, which are increasingly being used in contemporary spacecraft due to their simultaneous lightness and strength. Carbon nanotubes are also being explored for such a purpose due to their high strength, however, the expense and limited quantities of such a material suggests the inflatable modules are more viable. The inflatable tower would operate like a ‘telescoping wand’; each segment individually pulling out and locking into position. Pressure balancing and gyroscopic stabilization control systems would allow for a consistent position. These control systems would also enable the tower to counter natural forces such as strong winds by causing the structure to lean into the winds.

[Student concept for Space Elevator Port mixed with an Algae Farm via Mobile Earth Base Design for the Space Elevator Studio at Calpoly, Instr. Michael Fox, Project: Cecile Ortolo and Lorene Faure]

The proposed space elevator would be built up from the earth's surface in 150m pressurized segments, that are then stacked. Kevlar-polyethylene, which is already being produced in bulk, would be used to enclose and maintain the gas pressure. Gases such as air, helium and/or hydrogen would be used within the structure. The estimated weight for the 20km tower is approximately twice the mass of a supertanker. The York University scientists posit that the tower could theoretically be extended to 200km. It would take tourists and researchers around 40 minutes to reach the top of the 20km tower and offer a view of 600km in any direction.

[Student concept for Space Elevator Port mixed with a Solar Tower via Mobile Earth Base Design for the Space Elevator Studio at Calpoly, Instr. Michael Fox, Project: Adrianna]

The burgeoning space tourism industry is currently lead by ‘rocket’ ventures of Virgin Galactic and Project Enterprise. Space elevators, however, provide a more environmentally sensitive and safer route to space, inciting research by the Liftport Group and Japan Space Elevator Association. Recognizing the value of space elevators, NASA partnered with the Spaceward Foundation in 2004 to hold the inaugural Strong Tether and Power Beaming Competitions. The current Elevator 2010 challenges scientists to reach 1000m high while climbing at 5m/s (for a $2M prize!). While the ‘blue marble’ photograph of the earth taken in 1972, revealed the earth as an interdependent system of weather, habitats, and vegetation, space tourism has the power to frame both the relative complexities and vulnerabilities of earth.

The NY Times recently reported on the tendency of countries to redirect internet traffic away from the United States. Intelligence agencies have previously been gifted with the convenience of a large majority of international internet usage eventually finding its way through US cables. This trend has been reversing in the last 5-8 years, as the US falls woefully behind up-to-date submarine cable updates, and as increased intraregional networks offer an ability to keep terabytes more local.

[As submarine cables hit land, the optical signal is converted in a landing station into a terrestrial system.]

Several regions have witnessed dramatic shifts in internet use that has put considerable economic pressure (and opportunism) on expansion. Latin America, Asia, and Africa have reduced their rerouting dependence on the US to 70%, 55%, and 5% respectively.

[Intraregional networks in Asia. Asia has 501 million of the 1.3 billion internet users and it is growing by 882% per year.]

Probably most significant in that map is what is referred to as the SEA-ME-WE 4 (South East Asia, Middle East, Western Europe 4) cable route which is funneled through the Mediterranean, Suez, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean. It creates a intraregional link from Marseilles to Singapore. January 30, 2008 saw the severing of the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG network, providing an opportune moment to upgrade the network.

[The SEA-ME-ME 4 cable route is the backbone of Europe and Asia internet connections.]

[Hot-wiring the seabed.]

What appears initially as (invisible) lines on a global map suddenly can be read as the very modern day gates and thresholds that assert the power, economic vitality, cultural credentials driving competitive urbanism. Villages such as Tarifa, Spain, strategically positioned as a constricted data threshold between the Atlantic and Mediterranean hubs, become a key information harbor at the scale of the data intraregion.

[Global drifter velocity data ... or smart buoys gathering data as they wander aimlessly. In any given month since 1993, there has been an array of more than 600 drifters in the global ocean. Image via EOS.]

A week ago the New York Times expressed that we might be ailing from data exhaustion with the constantly streaming (and often conflicted) deluge of speculations, trajectories, and forecasts of environmental shifts. Citing Greenland’s ice shedding and species behavioral changes – probably the first time that jellyfish have made it on to many a front page – the public is suffering from whiplash as new information and phenomena are rumored to be a result of human-influenced climate change. The argument from Andrew Revkin’s article is that the cacophony of research findings is producing an increased ambivalence – a kind of boy-who-cried-wolf disbelief.

[Enviro-images producing a data deluge. Image via New York Times.]

Of equal interest to the reader psychology resulting from climate info, is the methods of augmenting the environment to harvest such data. Land, sea and air are increasingly monitored, likely more than at any other time in history. Like a body on life-support rigged from head to toe in a network of pinging nodes and cables continuously, every blurp and hiccup is registered, recorded, and broadcasted. Access to enviro-data is even more readily available. And with all of this enviro-dataveillance, comes a slew of augmenting devices mining information with a delicate, presumably non-invasive hand. Devices operate nodally across some larger meshwork of land or water.

In that same article an image from NASA appeared of a plot of buoys monitoring the ocean. Chasing this down, the AOML in partnership with NOAA, have a project called the Global Drifter Program that is essentially satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys. Here is a snapshot of their current whereabouts as of … um …two days ago:

[This array of 1175 buoys are ambling along monitoring surface sea temperature (SST).]

And then all this data of course is archived and linked sequentially. For example, feel free to browse through the last 27 years of of sea surface temperatures here. The augmenting technologies are often simple, almost home-tech assemblies of GPS, radio frequencies, and satellites. Remote sensing through satellites can handle the bulk of monitoring, but many projects, such as the Global Drifter program, require more haptic sensing.

[The deployment of drifters is often done through a kind of sea-faring crowd-farming. Drifter buoys are launched by Volunteer Observation Ships (VOS).]

[Topex/Poseidon satellite system provided the first continuous, global coverage of ocean surface topography and allows week-to-week oceanic variations. Image via Aviso.]

[QuickSCAT satellites record sea surface wind speeds and direction. This scatterometer operates by transmitting high-frequency microwave pulses to the ocean surface and measuring the echoed radar pulses bounced back to the satellite.]

Related Post: Vortices, Heaps, and Enzymes

]]> http://infranetlab.org/blog/2008/08/enviro-veillance-augmented-oceans/feed/ 1 http://infranetlab.org/blog/2008/08/data-island/ http://infranetlab.org/blog/2008/08/data-island/#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:48:15 +0000 InfraNet Lab http://infranetlab.org/blog/?p=98

[The continuous interior of data centers is a palace to the monolithic slabs of data storage.]

In an increasingly ubi-comp environment, massive data centers processing or storing data continue to sprout up in contexts and sites of economic and geographic convenience. In a post-Silicone-valley glow, many sites are happy to promote their contexts as ideal for these data centers. Iceland promotes itself as just such a site.

[Brochure pitching Iceland as the ideal environment for massive data centers.]

With clean water, stable power and cool air as an ideal location, Iceland is lobbying for the search engines and IT firms to come into the cold. The most alluring project within this agenda is Data Islandia. Data Islandia is a storage company based in Iceland that has tabled a green data center (link via Drunken Data) in the town of Sandgerdi in southwest Iceland. The facility will be built near a former US Naval Air Station, and will use natural wind cooling to reduce energy usage. And I am sure that abundant geothermal is figuring into the convenience to boot. The landform references Icelandic turf farms and makes extensive use of the landscape.

[The rolling hills of a proposed server farm in Iceland from Data Islandia designed by architect Robert Örn Arnarson.]

The Sandgerdi data centre will have a moss roof. Putting plants on the roof doesn't just drop a building into the landscape, it can absorb excess water, protect the materials of the roof from the sun, and increase the diversity of flora and fauna. The 4,000 m2 digital data archive is designed by Danish architect Robert Örn Arnarson.

[IBM\'s Project Big Green.]

IBM’s Project Big Green is another green data center proposal responding to the economic (and environmental) inefficiency. Today, roughly 50 cents is spent on energy for every dollar of computer hardware. And this is only expected to increase.

[Strangely religious overtones from the imagery package for IBM\'s Project Green.]