Recycling timber into sexy stairs

A lovely web blog dedicated to great images and ideas about stairs, is Stair Porn
which features a section on recycled timber stairs from Garbage Architecture which is a SUPER dooper site on building out of found materials. YAY! Here are some more eye candy stairs from Stair Porn :

Not just your feet! How big is your community's footprint?

Some info about determining a community's carbon footprint from Pia Treichel- Unit Manager of
Cities for Climate Protection Australia...

There are councils in some Australian states who have used alternative approaches
to measuring their community emissions, such as the City of Melbourne in
Victoria, and the City of Playford in South Australia.

You can find an explanation of the methodology used by Melbourne in
their Zero Net Emissions by 2020 paper on their website
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=218&pa=1612&pg=1618.

Playford is involved in an Australian Research Council funded project
with RMIT (in which ICLEI is also involved) called Carbon Neutral
Communities: http://www.rmit.edu.au/cnc. This website is particularly
useful, as there are several (academic) papers in the 'research reports'
tab about community emissions and how to effectively establish a
baseline.

It's important to note that both these alternatives to CCP are
considered acceptable by CCP, but that though developed by others, they
essentially use the same premise as the (freely provided) CCP community
default data. (eg from Melbourne's paper: "Due to lack of data at the
local scale, the community inventory generally takes a top-down
approach, firstly determining emissions at a wider geographical scale
(Australia, Victoria, or Melbourne Statistical Division) and then
assigning a percentage to City of Melbourne based on the most
appropriate indicator.")

The Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA: www.naga.org.au) - a
regional grouping of councils in Victoria - have also recently put out a
tender for $100,000 to (amongst other things) establish a baseline for
their community emissions, and would be worth speaking to. I believe
they will be using a similar approach to that taken by the City of
Mebourne.

While CCP's default data is an //estimate// of each council's community
emissions, in the context that we have in Australia, in which there are
currently no national or regional data sets on local energy use (in some
countries such data is compiled by the national government) and in which
this data is often very difficult to source for municipal areas; ICLEI's
Community Energy Use Profiles provide a reasonable approximation of
municipal energy use in the absence of actual data for those councils
who do not have the kind of money necessary to employ consultants to
attempt to source this data or make more specific assumptions for them.

Moreover, while we are happy to discuss accepting alternative approaches
to community data, and there are plenty of consultants doing great work
in the climate change field; we have also seen councils hire consultants
to do greenhouse work for them (eg inventories and greenhouse action
plans) which are not of a standard acceptable to meet the requirements
of CCP.

I'm happy to discuss in more detail - my contact details are below.

Cheers
Pia

SOLAR panels on your roof in Newcastle for $2000-$3000

The great community group Climate Action Newcastle have come up with a good idea, to organise a bulk solar panel installation to help reduce the price of solar panel installation even further. They are looking for households who are interested in the deal, for a 1kW system, installed for somewhere hopefully close to $2000. For further information, check the website.

Dancefloor generates electricity at London’s first eco-disco!

NEWS! I Totally scnaffled this from Cate Trotter's article in InHabitat :

"Sustainability got sexier last week as Coldcut and Jade Jagger hosted the opening of Surya in King’s Cross. The Club4Climate project is London’s first taste of eco-friendly clubbing, making clubbers happy in the knowledge that their organic beverage-induced booty shaking can generate 60% of the energy needed to run the club. The venue’s most exciting innovation is the piezoelectric dancefloor, which uses quartz crystals and ceramics to turn clubbers’ movement into electricity!

Previously seen in the Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam, this is Britain’s first exposure to such technology. The rest of the power needed will come from a wind turbine and solar energy system, with any surplus used to power private homes in the area. The club will also be installing the latest air flush, waterless urinals, low flush toilets and automatic taps to ensure maximum water saving plus less greedy air conditioning units.

The project is clearly trying to affect behavior on a much wider scale, too, requiring patrons to sign a 10-point manifesto on entry, giving free entry to anyone who can prove that they walked or cycled to the venue, and encouraging as many other clubs as possible to adopt his philosophy."

...........................

Well when will one start up in my area!? Here is a picture of my grandparents at the Sydney's Trocadero dance club ... I wonder what they would think of dancing to save the planet? PS. SO Hansome! but don't be inspired by Grandpa's cigarette in-hand. He died of emphysema :(

Sustainable House Day

A Date for the Diary: Sustainable Homes Day...
On the weekend of the 13th/14th September, houses which are sustainable will open their doors for the public to come in and have a look, and ask questions of the residents. ANZSES (Aust and NZ solar energy Society) are organising some of the tours. Their site has details of tours which may be in your area. http://www.solarhouseday.com.au/
Your local council may also be organising something.

Newcastle city council will be running something at the GAIA Sustainable living demonstration home, which is open every third Saturday of the month generally, and well worth a visit!

Community: A small group of thoughtful ....

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has" Margaret Mead

Permaculture Central Coast ran a wonderful day of workshops on Sunday mixed with yummy food, homemade cakes and teas, and music.
The workshops ranged in the areas of Garden, Home, Natural Health, Traditional crafts and Food.
I learned some new native food and medicine plants from Jake Cassar, updated my knowledge on Composting and Worm farming from Lisa Wriley of the Kariong Eco Garden, then I gave a short workshop on Passive Solar design.
After a delicious lunch and music from Jake Cassar, I attended a workshop by Teresa Rutherford on repelling insects naturally, and then Peter Meloy talked about making his existing home(pictured) into a sustainable house. In the picture you can see the photovoltaic cells on his roof. Peter showed us his last electricity bill.. for $8.00 CREDIT!

My overall impression of the day was HOORAY for Permaculture Central Coast. Such a well organised event only cost attendees about $30 for the day, and so much information and hands on knowledge was available. Sometimes I go to similar day-long events held in fancy hotels with gourmet catering , which cost hundreds of dollars to attend, and don't learn nearly enough. I really appreaciate community groups who spend their own time to help others. Good on you.

Some Onethousandyear Buildings

Bert asked me about what other creations I have done. Here is a little cross-sample of the different kinds of houses I have designed.



This house is close to the beach in Merewether. The long thin block has its north face up one long side. So we turned the house sideways and created little courtyard nooks to bring the sun in to warm up the thermal mass in winter and kep it out in summer.

This is a 3D computer model of a rammed earth house in a rural area in the Hunter Valley. You can see the rays of winter sunshine coming in through the clerestory windows. This small house is very spacious due to its high ceilings and also living areas are partitioned, allowing the temperature inside to be controlled and offering privacy for family members.







This house is in an old suburb of Newcastle, near Throsby Creek. This addition on the back of the old weatherboard cottage allows for plesant outdoor living. The bedroom at the back left is a great way to add to a building by keeping it separate- no need for corridors, no loss of natural light for the rest of the house.






This is the bath house for a similar-style house designed for a block near Seals Rocks. The owners are building themselves. And this is not yet complete!The base is local stone and the top is mud-rendered strawbale.