Living Machines and Sustainable Collectives
The opening scene
of the lecture discusses the disgusting state of water that sits at a typical
water retention area prior to treatment. It is a horrific site. This is
eye-opening in that it poses the questions "Why are we using water in this
way" and "This looks worse than water looks just out in nature, what
were people doing for millennia prior to the advent of modern water
treatment" and "If this looks so bad, is there another way?"
For most, we
are conditioned to believe that we know nothing about water, the government
engineers know best, so their way is the right way. DO NOT QUESTION IT.
This notion
is immediately challenged by the next scene of the lecture. A beautiful,
natural, and clean-looking ideation of water treatment on a small scale that
looks closer to something organic and natural. This does not evoke the emotions
of disgust-to-be-put-ignored that the opening shot of the industrially managed
and treated water did. Why is this not a possible large-scale solution? He says
that this natural system has processed water to suitable standards with 99.9%
purity and EPA assessed adequate levels of heavy metal removal... all through
natural means.
If these
ecological design machines can produce as good to better results for treating
water instead of disrupting, contributing to natural functions of vegetation
growth, organic compound production, and habitat all while also producing almost
zero pollution and carbon emissions, what is to be lost by changing our way of
producing water? To the common man, there are almost all upsides, but to the
corporate producer of chemicals and industrial treatment instruments, it is the
end. So until we can adjust our "necessities for profit" model of
dealing with the world, maybe all beneficial solutions to human issues will be
silenced and snuffed out. We cannot, longer, allow for innovations that will
better the world to be railroaded because it creates 'writing on the wall' for
the corporations that use up everything and everyone in sight to turn a profit.
Perpetual growth and capital gain is not a system that will end well, how can
we begin degrowth before any attempt is to the point that it is moot?
Enough of soapbox talk, how can this technology change the way we design our communities? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that we could figure out a system of internal water services on a much smaller scale than the "industrial regional treatment" of water that we currently have. Installation of these ecological water systems could be imagined to be implemented at the scale of the neighborhood or even at the scale of the household, allowing for self-sufficient on-site water that is not dependent on one centralized plant that makes or breaks the water supply for the entire population of an area. It would eliminate widespread water crises like what was observed in Jackson Mississippi last year. Think about it, if we can reimagine how we get water to be on site, observable, and able to have an active hand in the quality and quantity of water that is produced on many small scales, we would not have thousands without water for in the indefinite amount of time just because the single treatment plant for that area is down. If you have an issue, go to a neighbor or neighboring community and ask for temporary help. This is only the solution of the ideation of this framed by first-world water solutions. One-third of people in the world do not have safe drinking and bathing water. These people almost entirely live in developing nations in Africa and the Near East. Thinking about these living treatment machines as a module that can be plugged into any communal situation, there could be a natural solution to the lack of treated water in these areas without the need for expensive, large-scale industrial treatment infrastructure to be put into place. The treatment of water could be ideated in the same way that stormwater has been taught to be dealt with... "deal with issues at smaller scales closer to the source and it will be easier to manage than if you plan to deal with a large culmination down the line".
This can
change how landscape architects plan to a degree, with a higher focus on the
inward view of a community, and dealing with issues pertaining to creating a
closed-loop inward community through the planning and design of plantings and
water retention and subsequent treatment. Could these living systems and
reimagination of systems treatment on a small to communal scale with the idea
to move away from large-scale systems create a new school of planning in the
modern world that more closely resembles ancestral community planning? Could
these ideations create a more sustainable and equitable future for the
profession of landscape architecture? Could this future for the profession of
landscape design and planning create a more close-knit and utopian society of
the future?
A very cool example of a
functioning 'ecocity' is Rhuba Phoil in Scotland. They are essentially a
functioning off the grid commune that focuses on reuse and sustainance of
almost all ammenities within the site. specifically for water, their system
does not repurpose water for consumption, but it does repurpose wastewater into
a system of hydroponic tanks and aquaculture system tanks. The most
interesting water recycling technique i came across from them was a system of
constantly moving fish waste water to hydroponic tanks for plant nutrients, and
cleaned water from plant tanks to be put into fish tanks. The waste solids from
the fish tank are taken out during this process to be repurposed into compost
bins for non-hydroponic plant growth. The community is said to be self
sustaining, and I found them very interesting. Read more in the sources below.
Links to consider
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