"Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations."
— Albert Einstein
"Reflect for a few minutes on the large variety of materials used in building construction, the large list of materials and coatings used to decorate and furnish a building, and the large number of chemicals used during operation and maintenance of the building. How many of these structural materials, adhesives, sealants, floor and wall coverings, furniture components, and cleaning agents are selected based on the criteria to maximize the health and the productivity of the building’s inhabitants by minimizing the potential adverse impact to humans or the environment? Unfortunately the answer to this question is “very few."
— Environmental Engineering: Fundamentals, Sustainability, Design by James R. Mihelcic and Julie Beth Zimmerman
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."
— Aldo Leopold
William McDonough on Cradle to Cradle Design
Source of Inspiration: William McDonough
Sunflowers Inspire Solar Efficiency
Researchers at MIT, in collaboration with RWTH Aachen University in Germany, have come up with a design that reduces the amount of land required to build a CSP (solar power) plant, while increasing the amount of sunlight its mirrors collect. The researchers found that by rearranging the mirrors, or heliostats, in a pattern similar to the spirals on the face of a sunflower, they could reduce the pattern’s ‘footprint’ by 20 percent and increase its potential energy generation. The sunflower-inspired pattern allows for a more compact layout, and minimizes heliostat shading and blocking by neighboring mirrors.
(via mothernaturenetwork)
Inca Engineering
On display at the American Museum of Natural History is the exhibit “Highway of an Empire: The Great Inca Road.” This exhibit features stunning photographs of the 25,000 miles of roads and trails, bridges, terraces, canals, and other engineering marvels created by the Incas five centuries ago. Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca wonder, is a difficult site for such a well engineered system. Ken Wright, a civil engineer and studier of the Inca Engineering who was interviewed for NOVA, mentions the difficulties of the site which include landslides and unstable earth. He goes on to say that at this site engineers should focus on being “good stewards of the soil”, the foundations, and site preparation. The Inca engineers “did spend 50 percent, maybe 60 percent of their overall effort underground- doing foundations, site preparation- to make sure that Machu Picchu would last forever.” The Incas were not just engineers but citizen engineers because it was their priority to ensure that their engineering marvels would not effect the preservation of Machu Picchu. In short, the Inca engineers built these roads, trails, canals, etc. sustainably.
One of the key considerations was having good drainage systems. Wright states that “without good drainage, there would be no Machu Picchu existing today.” The Inca engineers built around 700 terraces with high permeability. These terraces served as a stormwater management technique; the terraces aid the water in going underground to be carried away safely. Wright states that “without terraces, the mountain would have slid terribly, so we see them primarily as the means for soil stabilization and support of building or trails.” The Incas also had a well-planned urban drainage system; around 130 drainage holes were found in the urban areas. The Inca engineers knew how to maintain pure water; they built the water supply canal isolated from drainage holes to prevent pollution. The Inca stonework also has contributed to the preservation of Machu Picchu. The buildings were built with good foundations, interconnected stones, and tight joints.
One of the reasons the Inca engineers were so successful was because they planned; they would draw plans using clay models to ensure that everything fits. To conclude, all of these engineering marvels fit together “ranging from the foundations, which would be geo-technical engineering, to site layout, which would be city planning, to trails that deliver people from one location to another without interfering with someone’s privacy, to the huge plaza which provided the space for celebrations.” The marvels of Inca Engineering prove that they were Citizen Engineers who designed and built with the people and environment in mind.
Sources of Inspiration:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/wright-inca-engineering.html
"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use."
— Steve Jobs
