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"Modern animal husbandry only looks natural from a distance in most cases."
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Selected LinkedIn Collaborations from John Cameron, South Brisbane Architect:
Comment on "How can "western" sustainable business values and design practices can be integrated into traditional Chinese businesses, schools and government processes?"
"The good works that are being done here need to be seen internationally for it to make a difference. When they're seen on a large scale they'll be imitated. How can we make that happen?" Sally as frustrated as we all must be with what looks like collective inertia regarding sustainability, I'm starting to think we cannot 'make it happen'. This is not me giving up, rather it is about focusing my personal activism strategically. I agree that there are many 'good works' happening, but there is also a lot of noise too. I want genuinely sustainable alternatives to be attractive to people, self-evidently the way to go, not hair shirts and privations. This is where I think Willi is onto something with his sustainability/religion nexus because to me that kind of thinking is about questioning our values and asking ourselves what's it all about. After a bit of that kind of reflection we might start to want something a bit different?
Consume, be silent, die is not my preferred mantra.
I think grass roots reform is where the big changes will happen. People making personal changes in their lives and their neighbors seeing the benefits and making changes too. Slowly, slowly theses grass roots become a constituency, become influential, becomes mainstream. To borrow a line from Gil Scott-Heron, the revolution will not be televised, the revolution will be live.
Hey, and if I were going to keep someone up all night I hope I'd do better than a monoculture diatribe ;-)"
Subject: New comment on "Trying to find a more economical way to power up?"
“What does a dairy farmer produce? Milk, obviously, but what else? Methane comes to mind after reading the article Malou posted. What else? Fertilizer, open space, nice scenery (maybe?) - my point is one of opening up a wide angle view to look for synergistic opportunities, not just on the dairy farm but in all walks of enterprise (and life).
I met the guy who developed heat-pump hot water systems - the idea for which came from a dairy! The farmer engaged this guy as an engineer to design a new boiler system to produce heat for the pasteurization processing of milk and hot water for cleaning the milking area. The engineer looked at the waste heat from the chiller units used for refrigeration plant, then being wasted, captured it for use as the heat for the boiler and hey presto! One plant makes heat and cold much more efficiently than the old system of a chiller and a boiler. The result is huge energy saving for the dairy farmer, plus a spin off into the domestic hot water market. I've been running a heat pump on my home for about 12 years now - I get double the hot water capacity for less than 20% of the energy used by my old electric resistance coil unit.
This is but one example of what I'm on about with synergies. Maybe the "skills" Willi could be in synergy facilitation? A bunch of green-collar workers traveling the country looking to hook up the synergies to leverage overall system efficiencies, not just for energy but all resources? The odd tax break and/or green loan facilitated by (can I say 'government here?) would help lubricate the works?
After all that I think it must be time for a latte... “
Subject: New comment on "What good are sustainability consultants anyway?!"
“I agree with Miguel - sustainability is a fundamentally a design problem first, and a management problem second. Managers open to 'Design Thinking' input are far more likely to embed sustainability outcomes in their project/enterprise than if they merely seek 'bolt-on' solutions.
And I second his question - What is a "sustainability consultant"? There are a growing number who appear keen to claim the title...”
Subject: New comment on "Does your neighborhood meet your needs?"
“Willi - I avoided listing an overt New Urbanism link, getting closest with Smart Code, because whilst I agree with many of their tenets, including walkability and human-centric neighborhoods, these are unfortunately often lost in the sidebar of a style debate.
For anyone prepared to accept that we can learn from the past without being obligated to hokey reproduction (and I am definitely such a one) please check out: cnu.org and also: newurbanism.orgthis latter being more forward looking with its language and imagery.
There is a two-part essay on my own blog in which I set out some of my reasoning for why looking to the past and (re)learning some lost or fading skills, including those associated with our patterns of settlement, are potentially important in a future shadowed by peak-oil, climate change, food and water shortages. For anyone interested, look for the post: Buena Vista Social Club Saves The Planet, parts 1 & 2.”
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Connections –
John Cameron LI | blog | web site
contact at jcarch.com.au
South Brisbane, Australia
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"Access to potable water may well be one of the defining global challenges of this century."
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The PlanetShifter.com Magazine & Networks Interview with John Cameron: EarthCheck Architect, LinkedIn Lurker, Seed Thrower!
Posted by John Cameron in PlanetShifter.com - Innovating Evolution in Homo Sapiens
Subject: New comment on "Is that Data Center Dating Your Heifer? – GreenNews from PlanetShifter.com"
“Michael, I agree with the sentiment that it is futile attempting to sustain the unsustainable, but there are a couple of points you raise that I’d like to offer a different take on:
1) The article says the manure is digested in a biogas plant not burnt, although dried dung is often used as a fuel in places where wood is scarce. Methane, the by-product of digestion, is something like 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2, so we're better off burning it than releasing it, if we're concerned about GHG. The digested solids contain loads of carbon, nitrogen, phosphates and beneficial microbes and would be returned to the soils as a fertilizer, so there is no net loss of biomass or nutrients from energy production.
2) Cows evolved a symbiotic relationship with the land when they ran free in the open savannah where predators and seasonal pastures kept the herds moving and allowed the soils a chance to rest. In modern farming the animals and the land have a distorted and imbalanced form of symbiosis which can actually be harmful in the long term to pasture. Dairy and beef production use different land management techniques - beef can be managed more like a wild herd, but dairy tends to be very locally intensive. Modern animal husbandry only looks natural from a distance in most cases.
3) The oil dependence of our present food chain is chronic and needs urgent attention, no argument there - but this biogas idea is about using the output of one process as the input of another, about closing resource loops - I think it is a step in the right direction, provided it is not a vain attempt at sustaining the unsustainable. Look at the motives as well as the machinery.
All said and done a healthy dose of skepticism is good.“
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Interview with John Cameron by Willi Paul
How is architecture a philosophy?
Architecture is a manifestation of acts of design and design is the first signal of human intention, to borrow an expression from William McDonough. For me the notion of architecture as a philosophy derives not so much from what we design but how and even why we do. When I set out to design I am imagining a thing that does not exist and making a statement of intention.
Stereotype your ideal client and project!
My ideal client is prepared to let go of preconceptions and examine with an open mind a range of possibilities for their project. I’ve had such clients and the outcome of our joint endeavours sing with what I call the ‘not only but also’; for example the building is not only a place of shelter and security but also a celebration of light, air and the people within. The client whose first words are ‘I know exactly what I want’ slams the door on creativity right there. Experience has taught me that such clients seldom do know what they want when we get down to it.
I work with both commercial and private residential clients.
There is a different dynamic with each; commercial clients typically have pragmatic objectives and tight timelines. Residential clients are emotionally involved and are often less rigid with their timing. Both benefit most when they give me a mandate to respond to their site and their brief without preconceptions – to let the project be what it wants to be at that place and time.
My ideal project is anything my ideal client shows up with!
How is the definition and public perception concerning grey water changing?
Grey water recycling reduces demand on reservoirs and treatment plants. The [Australian] public have generally been willing to accept the need for grey water recycling as a part of an overall water strategy but there is also a reasonable concern about potential health risks. In at least one instance grey water became a political issue and a fair amount of fear and disinformation was pedalled. The fact is, in this country grey water, in the form of treated effluent, is here to stay.
Access to potable water may well be one of the defining global challenges of this century. Here in Australia our past habit has been to use potable water for everything except industrial applications. We have been flushing our toilets, washing our cars and irrigating our lawns with drinking water. In response to severe water shortages and increasing demand over the last decade we’ve begun to take a closer look at our water use and management practices.
One key strategy is dual reticulation. Households are supplied with both potable and recycled water (grey water), the latter used for flushing toilets, clothes washing and external uses – gardening and cleaning. In these houses hose taps are marked ‘recycled water – do not drink’ because the water has been reclaimed from the sewer, treated to all but the final polishing and sterilization phase of potable water and returned for a second grade ‘grey’ uses.
What are the principles of a holistic building? A green building?
Holistic and ‘green’ are two sides of the same stone to me. By acknowledging the interconnectedness of things, such as in permaculture, I realised that a holistic approach to life and by extension to my buildings is the only ‘green’ way.
I find it more useful to think of a building as an organism than as a machine. Even when Corbusier spruiked the notion of ‘machines for living’ I don’t think he intended a brutal affront to Nature, rather I hope he was trying to articulate, in the trendy language of his time, the potential for buildings to be more than merely dark dingy shelter. Unfortunately like so much of Corb’s manifesto others have superficially usurped his words, co-opting them to justify cheap horrible buildings under a smoke screen of modernism.
The so-called Modern Movement in architecture ultimately had nothing to do with holistic thinking. The Post-Modern Movement was no better, since to me it was merely about greed and excess, a triumph of style over substance. When a building is holistically considered it acquires an authenticity, a ‘rightness’ that is somehow self-evident and easy to live with. Sometimes as an architect the biggest challenge is to not stand in the way of what Nature is doing and be sufficiently perceptive to sense the natural flow and work with it. Unfortunately so much of what we’re taught in architecture school requires us to dominate and control. It is considered very un-architect like to have the humility to leave the big gestures to Mother Nature since we are trained to manifest our ego on everything – clear the site, dig a hole, start with a ‘clean sheet’. The most profound and moving spaces I have ever experienced are products of nature, not architecture. I’d say the first principle is humility.
Rainwater capture sounds promising! What needs to happen there?
A quick look over your neighborhood on Google Earth shows roofs, paving and hardstand covering a fair percentage of a typical human settlement in the developed world. The rainfall that lands on these impervious surfaces quickly washes into drains and then into waterways and eventually out to sea. By contrast in a forest or grassland the rain soaks into the soil and is transpired by plants, creating a sponge-like reservoir effect without the run-off bursts that come from our urban settlements.
Streams in a natural setting receive a relatively steady flow of water with fewer extreme peaks and troughs such as occur in urban streams. In an urban stream the sudden burst of water gushing off the hard surfaces tends to purge the stream of beneficial biology, which damages the ecosystem and often leads to erosion. Intercepting and storing urban run-off from roofs and hardstand not only improves the health of local waterways but it also provides an alternative source of water that can be readily used for the same kind of ‘grey water’ applications I mentioned earlier, offsetting potable water demand.
What metaphors run through your mind when you first consider the shape and community of a building?
Robert Venturi offered two well-known choices for architectural metaphor: A duck, or a decorated shed. I choose the duck every time. The duck is a metaphor for a complete and self-contained organism. It has everything it needs for ‘duckness’, nothing more, nothing less and it relates to its environment in a duck-like way. For each building I design, I strive to discover what kind of organism it ‘wants’ to be to fit into its niche in a particular community.
What new earth-sourced building materials have you experimented with? Any results to share?
My favorite is timber (appropriately resource managed or recycled), but that is hardly new. The climatic regions in which most of my work is built are well suited to lightweight structures with careful use of thermal mass. I select materials based on the climatic and thermal parameters I’m designing for.
The possibilities of hemp and bamboo as renewable sources of building fibre (also fabric, food, bio-remediation, and crop rotation) are really exciting. Straw bale looks like fun, as does adobe and its earth-sourced relatives, but sadly to date I’ve not had a suitable brief in which to apply these to their full potential. All offers considered!
On the subject of experimentation with materials not normally used in mainstream building I often encounter two barriers. The first is cost: Unless the project has access to some sweat-equity from volunteer labor it is very difficult to deliver an outcome at a mainstream price benchmark. The cost of labor in (Western) building projects is easily 50% of the total price. Trades folk seldom want to spend any extra time on innovation, understandably, when they have a dozen or more ‘regular’ jobs on the go for which they can get in, get paid and get out. The other barrier is regulation: Often ‘alternative’ materials and/or systems are difficult to gain approval for – not impossible, just difficult and time consuming. For the mainstream time is money, so alternatives are often rejected very early in the evaluation phase, not because they are necessarily inferior, but simply because they are ‘too hard’.
What is the primary reason that you participate in LinkedIn.com groups? What are the failures of LI?
I like following and contributing to the forum and seeing a cross-section of views –networking for the couch potato, plenty talk, but little action! The whole social networking phenomenon is not the main game for me, but it does open up some new insights and gives me food for thought at times.
How can permaculture be integrated into the wider green movement consciousness?
Anybody with even a tinge of green will find plenty of inspiration from the principles of permaculture. As an amalgam of the words ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’ the concept anticipated the essence of sustainability, how to have more with less, how to work with the natural order and flourish in harmony with it, not battle against it. Permaculture principles reconnect us to the elegant efficiency of natural systems, which can provide green templates for efficient means to many sustainable ends.
I have a hardback copy of ‘PERMACULTURE a Designer’s Manual’ on my bookshelf right beside my drawing board. It is so much more than a book on gardening – so much more. In fact it is often on loan to architecture students, who at first wonder why I’m giving it to them, then don’t want to give it back!
Sustainability is key to your design mantra, but is it a new religion?
I don’t think sustainability is, or should be considered a new religion, but it may be an old one. The more I learn about indigenous peoples around the world the more it becomes apparent to me that sustainability is something they’ve always intuitively understood but we Western Europeans seem to have lost or subverted. Maybe we’re ready for another shot at an age of enlightenment?
Reflecting on Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, it seems to me that Life is increasingly tenuous given the mounting pressures of population, pollution and resource depletion; Liberty is a forlorn hope while we’re shackled by debt, and; Happiness? Here’s the crux of it – what is it that makes us truly happy? I think Life and Liberty are certainly preconditions for happiness, but there is something else too.
Consider this: ‘Is it wrong to assume that a huge step to finding solutions to global problems, and averting future crises, will be taken if we can think in the spirit of community and fraternity, not as individual entities? When we accept that this is a world of people all alike, of families all alike, of communities all alike - of countries facing the same challenges – of human beings ultimately seeking the same thing – then we will truly be in a position to foster well being, security and happiness’ The King of Bhutan (2008). The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is the home of the Gross National Happiness index.
Are you involved in any social justice projects? Do you volunteer?
I regularly volunteer in my community and from time to time my office does pro-bono work for non-profit community groups. I’ve been a member of my local Transition Towns movement for a while and we’re doing a project right now with a Low Carbon Diet program based on the work of David Gerhson.
How would change capitalism (if you could!)?
I’d try to subvert financial capital with natural capital, by which I mean evolving our (Western) value system from one of acquisitiveness to one of reciprocity; For everything received, there must be equal and fair exchange – convert vicious cycles into virtuous circles.
Wade Davis discusses something like this in his ‘Wayfinders’ lecture series, an anthropological exploration of ancient wisdom and ‘primitive’ value systems that accord prestige not to how much a person can take, but how much that person can give.
It seems to me that capitalism is a form of individualism and communism a form of collectivism and both isms have patently failed as sustainable models. I think we could use a replacement ‘ism’!
Do you see ‘saving the world’ as a top-down or bottom-up process? What are the business and NPO organizations in your vision?
I think it has be bottom up. Individually we can be incredibly clever, but collectively utterly stupid at times. Governments these days seem to be more about followship than leadership – but in a free country we tend to get the government we deserve. When individuals start taking positive steps in their own lives and their neighbors see the benefits and join in, pretty soon a ground swell forms and things start to change. We must stop waiting for ‘someone’ to do it and be the change we want to see in the world as Ghandi put it.
My vision is highly localized as far as NPO’s and businesses are concerned. National and international action is great, but my current focus is in my own neighborhood, aimed at what I call resilience initiatives. By this I mean exploring ways in which my community can better nurture itself, within our local catchment as much as possible, so that we’re not left stranded if peak-oil and climate change play out the way I suspect they will.
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