Ideaplants

Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a relatively new science that studies nature, its models, systems, processes and elements and then imitates or takes creative inspiration from them to solve human problems sustainably.

Science writer and lecturer Janine Benyus was the one to define this approach. She believes that being inspired by nature when designing processes & systems can help us overcome challenges we are facing – in her book “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature” she gives interesting examples that show how studying the achievements of nature can help us solve us problems we face in many different disciplines.

Watch her speech at the TED conference in 2005 and you´ll discover this is an interesting way of looking at ´natural resources´:

For more information visit Biomimicryinstitute.org especially the case studies are worth a read.

Greenpeace UK just released an interesting animation called EfficienCity. It is shown how renewable energy can be used in a city efficiently. A very clear, solution oriented & somehow human approach. Well done GP UK!

Video: Treehugger

Project Status: Intermediate – active for five years

Number of Members: approx. 15 full time members, many frequent visitors and international volunteers

Current activities:
*Maintenance of organic, permaculture garden
*Development of wind and solar energy, and conversion of diesel cars to run on vegetable oil.
*Renovation of nearby houses using sustainable building practices
*Education, courses and workshops: permaculture, herbal medicine, renewable technology, anarchism, sustainable construction, etc.

Website: http://www.escanda.org/
Email: escanda-info@gmx.net
Telephone: (+34) 985493696

Escanda stands for Espacio Socaial Colectivo para la Autogestión, la Diversidad y la Autonomía. This is a collective consisting of approximately fifteen permanent members, who live together in a large house in the mountains near Pola de Lena in Asturias, North Spain. They have developed the project over the last five years. The residents come from many countries, as well as Spain, and have a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. They unite for some common goals, which are primarily political, environmental and social. They aim to develop and revitalize the countryside in Asturias, which is suffering neglect from decades of emigration and heavy industry, while reducing dependency on capitalist services and the government. In addition they seek to implement ecological, sustainable technologies and practices, such as renewable wind power and cars that run on used vegetable oil from local restaurants. They wish to achieve these goals through the principles of anarchism, harmonious team-work and non-hierarchical decision-making.

The atmosphere at the collective is always vibrant, friendly and positive, while meal-times are particularly lively. The large number of visitors (up to 300 per year) each guarantee this. They come to partake in events, courses, workshops and actions organised by the “Escandeleros” (the permanent members), or as WWOOF volunteers. Most activities centre around the large casa, while on-going projects involve renovating two smaller houses and tending the large organic garden and apple orchard. Daily tasks are performed on a rota basis, each member and visitor volunteering for cooking, cleaning, recycling etc. whenever they can. Education is a fundamental goal of Escanda, not just for the members and volunteers, but also of the local community and especially for children, who deserve the kind of future the project envisions.

Video on Escanda (in Spanish):

Fotos: www.escanda.org

Truely inspiring. Thanks to Brendan & Kim for your input!

Nature does not stop where land ends. We all have heard about reefs that are being threatened due to over fishing, water pollution and other factors that cause damage under sea level. But have you ever thought about doing something about it?

Professor Wolf Hilbertz could be described as ‘architect of the ocean’. Together with his colleagues from the Global Coral Reef Alliance (GCRA) have developed a way of recreating the reef a technique seems very simple – so simple that eventually a five year old would be able to dream it up: What do we do with all the corals and fish if their reef is being destroyed? Let’s build them a new home!

The actual execution of such a project requires however a firm technique, lots of manpower, and support of experts like Professor Hilbertz of the GCRA: A huge structure of iron bars is build on land and then transported to the reef location. Slowly and with lots of patience a group of scuba divers help to safely guide the big and fragile structure to its final location. After it has been placed they fix fractures of corals that are broken off a former reef on the iron bars of the structure.

Its not as easy as it sounds to actually make a reef ‘grow’ on such an artificial surrounding – but there is a solution: A technique called Electrolytic Mineral Accretion Technology (BiorockTM). This is a method that causes the crystallization of minerals on the outside of the iron structure by creating safe, low voltage electrical currents through the seawater. This technique speeds up the formation and growth of chemical limestone rock shell-bearing organisms and skeletons of corals. The reef starts grows rapidly.

Professor Wolf Hilbertz passed away in August 2007 but his dream still exists: The recreation of reefs which is a milestone in saving one of our biggest and for a big part still unexplored natural resources: the Ocean.

Here a case study from Pemuteran, Bali:

Images by Wolf Hilbertz; video by Rani Morrow-Wuigk.

For further details visit: www.globalcoral.org

An Earthship is an ‘earth-sheltered’ building that functions autonomously (profiting from sunlight, temperature, wind, soil, landscape and natural resources). Mike Reynolds was one of the first to design and build Earthships in the 1970s. Today there are many thousand Earthships that are build all over the planet. Different shapes, designs and infrastructures make it possible to optimize an earthship specfic climate conditions.

The interesting thing is that one of the main materials that is being used to create an Earthship are old tires which are filled with Soil (one of the best isolation materials). Old tins and bottles can be used together with clay in order to build the house.

Special are also the unique shapes that Earthships are build in. Usually people do not only spend lots of time and effort in building a selfsustained house with a water recycling system and renewable energy resources but they also create innovative living spaces.

Check out the videos to get an idea

Mira

Sustainable agriculture is also possible in cities.The website of the ‘Urban Permaculture Guild’ in Arizona, US gives you some nice images and impressions on this concept.

To mix with some of the experts, visit:

http://www.urbanpermaculture.info/

Resources on Permaculture:

Cooking with sunlight…
In many communities but also in remote farms back in West China I have seen solar kettles as an effective way to save energy and cook you meal & tea water with a solar kettle – a simple but effective installation that is especially useful in areas where there is a lot of sunlight and warmer climate. A great replacement for fire wood or other non renewable resources.

Solar cookers international has created a site called Solar Cooking Archive Wiki with detailed information about different techniques and practices of solar cooking.