An urban project in Basque Country transformed an obsolete tunnel into a pathway for bikes.

This new pathway runs along a tunnel previously occupied by a railway that connected Bilbao and San Sebastián. The new infrastructure was built in 2009 and connects the Amara and Ibaeta neighbourhoods. In the year of its inauguration, some newspapers remarked that it was one of the longest bicycle infrastructures in the world. The bike path has a length of 2km, while the part that goes through the tunnel is 840m long. The project started when the Basque government decided to change the path of the railway and build a subway train. This part of railway thus became obsolete.
runs along a tunnel previously occupied by a railway that connected Bilbao and San Sebastián. The new infrastructure was built in 2009 and connects the Amara and Ibaeta neighbourhoods. In the year of its inauguration, some newspapers remarked that it was one of the longest bicycle infrastructures in the world. The bike path has a length of 2km, while the part that goes through the tunnel is 840m long. The project started when the Basque government decided to change the path of the railway and build a subway train. This part of railway thus became obsolete.

The project for rehabilitating the railway track lasted nine years and concluded in 2009. The project became famous when The Guardian included it in a list of the best bike infrastructures in the world. Norwegian experts have become interested in it and went to Basque country to research on the effects of this infrastructure. The project was aimed at promoting the use of the bike amongst the commuters of the area (students of the university and the workers of the factories nearby).

La entrada Morlans tunnel | The tunnel of a railway that turned into a bike path se publicó primero en More Than Green.

“Designed by” The Archimedes “, a Dutch company for research and development, ‘LIAM F1 UWT’ is a new generation of wind turbines for domestic use to produce much more energy than the current and generate no noise. A new trend in the world renewable energy.

Created to be installed on the roofs of buildings, with a diameter of 1.5 meters and a weight that is less than 100 kilos. It generates an average of 1,500 kilowatt-hours of energy per year with a wind speed of 5 m/s. “

“The design is based on a rotor captures the kinetic energy of wind to convert it into mechanical energy. Due to its form of screw, Liam automatically point to the optimum position of the wind, like a pennant and therefore have a peak performance.”

There are thousands of developments in energy-generating models. An interesting line in the extent to which they integrate and focus the energy independence in urban environments, where high rates of consumption per unit area are remarkable.

via ecoinventos.com

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La entrada LIAM F1 | Small wind turbine for urban environments se publicó primero en More Than Green.

The installation qualitatively improves the experience of public transport users by making the waiting time more exciting.

This permanent project was conducted by Chilean artist Tania Ruiz in 2010 at the Central Railway Station in Malmö (Sweden). The action is part of a larger-scale project undertaken by the administration of the City Tunnel (Citytunneln), infrastructure to which this station belongs, in collaboration with the Swedish National Public Art Council. The overall project was born from the decision to eliminate advertising in all areas of the tunnel and replace it with art installations.

“The Citytunneln administration views installation art as a strategic ally since it believes that it can actively contribute towards the well-being of its users. This, then, encourages the use of public transport and reduces traffic in private cars, effects which are fully in keeping with the Malmö urban plan which strives for economic and ecological sustainability.”

In this line, the “Elsewhere” installation makes the waiting time until the arrival of the train more exciting, improving the experience of the public transport user.

“Elsewhere is a multi-projection video art work which seeks to transform the reinforced concrete landscape of the Malmö C underground station into a wide open space.”

“Through a projection device that evokes the perceptual experience from the train, the viewers will be invited to lose themselves in images during their wait. The projections acting as windows, the station itself becomes a train that loses its spatial and temporal rails, itinerant across the earth.”

Although sometimes this kind of artistic projects may seem anecdotal or irrelevant, they are actually able to positively affect the quality of the urban space and enhance citizens’ perception of the city and its infrastructures.

In this sense, the administration of the City Tunnel proves to be aware that the improvement of public transport should not be exclusively focused on quantitative criteria (distance to station, frequency, punctuality, speed…), but also on qualitative aspects that significantly affect citizens’ decision on what means of transport they want to use.

“In terms of tempo, [‘Elsewhere’] is conceived as a release for the individual viewer. The recorded images are slowed down, in contrast with the speed of everyday urban life, in order to ease the experiential flow of time”.

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La entrada Elsewhere| Video art installation at a railway station | Malmö, Sweden se publicó primero en More Than Green.

After eight years of waiting and citizens’ demand, the elevated bike lane links the highway and the harbour bridge. Dissing and Weitling architects have reinvent a strategy usually built for cars as a new bike space. People in Copenhagen used to have complicated options to cross the river: go up and down stairs with their bikes or take long, tricky and narrow detours shared with pedestrians.

This new infrastructure, that is 4m wide and 200m long, has two main benefits: first, it makes easier to use the bike in Copenhagen and, second, it has diminished the bike presence in the lower level. Cyclers can cross this two way lane in less than a minute while enjoying beautiful views.

Copenhagen is an example regarding social awareness in relation to public transport. The importance that the bike has in this city encourages the continuous demand for improving the cycling infrastructure.  Copenhagen’s citizens have learnt to propose new ways of connecting different places of the city with bike lanes and detect the deficiencies that this infrastructure may have.

(source of the images: The Guardian.com; author of the images: Sandra Hoj)

(via The Guardian.com) 

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La entrada Cycle Snake | the new bike infrastructure | Copenhagen se publicó primero en More Than Green.

The Plastic Soup, also known as Garbage Soup, Great Pacific garbage patch or the Pacific Trash Vortex is a completely covered area of marine debris particles located in the center of North Pacific Ocean. It has a size of about 1,400,000 km². That is why it is also called the seventh continent, because it is larger than many countries.

The patch is characterized by exceptionally high relative concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. Approximately 80% of all waste comes from land areas and only 20% is waste from ships, so we can deduce this island is formed mainly by the lack of global awareness in pouring and recycling plastic waste processes.

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(Vía dforceblog)

La entrada Plastic Soup | The great Pacific garbage patch se publicó primero en More Than Green.

“Boyan Slat is a 20-year-old on a mission – to rid the world’s oceans of floating plastic. He has dedicated his teenage years to finding a way of collecting it. But can the system really work – and is there any point when so much new plastic waste is still flowing into the sea every day?”

This technological proposal tackles the environmental problem of the millions of plastic bags that get into the ocean. Whether the system works or not it does not really matter; the importance of the proposal is that makes us aware of how such a common product like this entails a serious environmental issue.

“At school, Slat developed his idea further as part of a science project. An array of floating barriers, anchored to the sea bed, would first catch and concentrate the floating debris. The plastic would move along the barriers towards a platform, where it could then be efficiently extracted. The ocean current would pass underneath the barriers, taking all buoyant sea life with it. There would be no emissions, and no nets for marine life to get entangled in. The collected ocean plastic would be recycled and made into products – or oil.“

“This idea came to him at the age of 16, in the summer of 2011, when diving in Greece. “I saw more plastic bags than fish,” says Slat. He was shocked, and even more shocked that there was no apparent solution. “Everyone said to me: ‘Oh there’s nothing you can do about plastic once it gets into the oceans,’ and I wondered whether that was true.”

Over the last 30 to 40 years, millions of tonnes of plastic have entered the oceans. Global production of plastic now stands at 288 million tonnes per year, of which 10% ends up in the ocean in time. Most of that – 80% – comes from land-based sources.” BBC journalist, Vibeke Venema.

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(via BBC)

La entrada Cleaning the oceans | Boyan Slat se publicó primero en More Than Green.

In the department of intelligent constructions of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is coming for years developing a very remarkable work, about the application of the technology to construction. These include Hydrocerámic, an experimentation about a new material that improves regarding thermal perception of space and energy consumption.

“The buildings begin to work as based on biological systems and interact with the environment and users agencies,” explains Areti Markopoulou, academic director of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and head of a project carried out with three of his students, Akanksha Rathee, Elena Mitrofanova and Pong Santayanon. Between them, they have developed a system that cools the walls alone, helping to reduce the heat on days of high temperatures and thus helping to reduce air conditioning costs. What they have done is basically make them sweat.

They called hydroceramic, and is a combination of a hydrogel with support materials such as ceramic material, which responds to moisture and heat. “It works as an evaporative cooling device that reduces the temperature 5 or 6 degrees and increases the humidity Passive intelligence makes its performance is proportional to the heat in the outside environment. Colder when it’s hot outside,” says Markopoulou to Teknautas.”

“The structure of the final prototype is like a sandwich. Begins an outer layer of clay, the surface is filled with cone-shaped holes that allow access of water and air into the hydrogel. Follow with another layer of cloth, absrobe water that works as a transmitter and liquid, to be elastic and allows volume changes in the hydrogel while holding it in position. The final layer is also made of clay, but is thinner and is perforated, increases so that the cooling.”

“The final prototype is similar to a brick or tile, which could be used to create walls or facades of passive cooling. The use of clay has been key to optimize the evaporation process;. Certainly everyone knows the passive mechanism of earthenware pitcher” Areti points. Would only have to provide water in the interlayer of that brick, which in its proposal could be done with a tank that collects the rainwater, for example, so savings is greater. The hydrogel absorbs water and holds it until hot. When the temperature rises, the water evaporates, reducing temperature and increasing humidity. Naturally, the effect is greater with higher heat.”

(via elconfidencial.com)

(via materiability.com)

La entrada Hydroceramic: Intelligent walls | IAAC Research about thermosensitivity and autonomous thermal conditioning of surfaces se publicó primero en More Than Green.

Ele is a solar bicycle desgined by Mojtaba Raeisi with solar panels on its wheels that rotate 30 degrees on both sides, to face toward sun. This is to absorb as much sun-power that it can. This hybrid bike can be charged via electricity and the sun. It works in 3 modes though: Muscle power; Semi- electric, in which electricity helps the user to ride easier and faster; and lastly, The Electric, that it functions completely like an electrical bicycle.

The Ele Solar bicycle prototype does not have date of marketing; however, has a modern aesthetic and it is sustainable, two important aspects that could propel as product market soon.

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(Via Yanko Design)

La entrada Ele Solar Bike |A solar bicycle se publicó primero en More Than Green.

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Title: The Re-tuin experience

Authors: Arantxa Lara Perea

School: Escuela superior de arquitectura y tecnología de la UCJC

Tutor: Marta Toral

Year: 2013

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The re-tuin experience is constructed from a set of strategies used in the performance over an industrial tissue from greenhouses, parting from the redevelopment of a Volkstuin.

Intervention strategies

The intervention strategies deal with the redevelopment of a Volkstuin, as it is known nowadays, and the use and regeneration of the residual spaces that are shown in the industrial tissue as well as the greenhouses that generate it.

Concepts such as self-building, economy, rapidity and simplicity in the assembly and dismantling, storing, sustainability, minimum, collective, transportable, reusable, prefabrication, standardisation, mobility, temporary nature, flexibility, operational spaces, reactive individuals, participative mechanisms, awareness of the ground’s occupation etc.

Proposal

The proposal consists of the development of a system that is able to allow all the activities that in a Volkstuin take place nowadays, taking into account the temporary and self-manageable nature of them.

This system is developed in the residual spaces that appear between the greenhouses, taking advantage of the under-use that they currently suffer and creating awareness of the “ground’s occupation” concept. Furthermore, they use the greenhouses’ modular structure in order to get some “support” and to make the most of the environmental conditions that the greenhouses offer.

The system is made of an aluminium structure which is thought as a compatible module with the greenhouses’ structure in order to benefit from that “support” when possible. This structure is able to bear the weight of other secondary elements: “cabin”, “shelter”, “continued garden”, “hanging garden”, “habitable bed” and “common elements”. These pieces are the ones in charge of providing the structure with activity. They are light structures, easily assembled and dismantled and that allow a great amount of changes so that every user can use them in a specific space. Some of these elements can be carried by a person, a carriage or a bike.

Relevant information

Location. The project, in the first place, deals with the investigation and study of the Volkstuin as pieces inserted in the urban scene of the region.
These studied pieces are situated in the “Huid-Holland” region.

Volkstuin Madestein. Five hectares complex which is divided in spite of being public ground. At the beginning it had a productive aim, but currently it is different. Activities linked to “DIY” or “do it yourself”.

Industrial tissue. Greenhouses. The Volkstuin is located surrounded by enormous greenhouses with residual spaces among them that can be used in order to develop other activities. What is more, all the greenhouses belong to the same kind and they have a structure that follows certain modules used for the modulation of the planning structure.

Structure. It is made of aluminium and it is thought to be transported through either utilitarian vehicles or vans. It uses greenhouses as support when possible and, when not possible, it is self-supporting. There is a base module in which some different modules are added according to the location. Once it is installed, it is ready for the secondary elements to be implemented on it.

Secondary elements. There are varied types but all of them are characterised by the lightness and facility in the assembly of its elements. They can be carried by a person or a bicycle’s basket. They are compatible among them and they allow multiple variations according to the needs found in each moment.

Common areas. They are located in the most accessible zones due to the fact that they have a bigger size and they need a greater maintenance. Their modulation is related to the base structure.

Bioclimatic proposals. They are varied: hydroponic crops that consume less resources and occupy less space (and their weight is lighter). Supply and exploitation of water in common spaces through recirculation.
Capturing energy through textile solar panels that are situated in the structure according to the existent needs; water pumping equipment with the help of an old recirculation pump and a bike; and electric wind turbines that are located in the common spaces structure with deposits to fix.

La entrada FDP | The re-tuin experience | Arantxa Lara Perea se publicó primero en More Than Green.

“The Original Unverpackt from Berlin came from the idea of friends Milena Glimbovski and Sara Wolf. Frustrated for excess packaging and waste that saw in the retail food industry, the girls decided to get down to work and launched a campaign in the Crowdfunding site Startnext to collect donations of money to materialize the idea.”

After securing a position in the German cultural and business sector being a finalist and even winners in various competitions of ideas, a crowdfunding campaign has achieved the goal that chased this group of women: “bring supermarkets without disposable packaging to mainland Germany.” And the success of the campaign exceeded expectations, being two supermarkets without waste which they would open.

So from criticism to a reality whose numbers are impressive as the 2 million tons of waste generated in the planet every 5 minutes, the proposal is clear: a supermarket without packaging, all sold in bulk. “You will not find a host of brands for each product in that one when it’s right, that’s enough”

The first store without waste, Wiener Straße 16 in Berlin-Kreuzberg, is underway since September 13 and has been a great success. Thanks to the spread of the initiative, are receiving many visits from multiple locations attending Original Unverpackt to know the initiative and support it with small purchases.

But as well say the authors and directors of the initiative, “however, this is only the beginning of the end of the madness of packing.”

Environmental awareness invade Berlin and this business model is a clear example. Their strategy involves market and multiply your franchise outlets across the globe under the culture of ‘zero waste’.

(via upsocl.com)

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La entrada Original Unverpackt: the supermarket without packaging | The new generation of retailing. se publicó primero en More Than Green.