“Nothing is constant but change! All existence is a perpetual flux of ‘being and becoming!’
That is the broad lesson of the evolution of the world.”
Ernst Haeckel [1]
“…the form of an object is a ‘diagram of forces’….”
D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson [2]
“…form is only a snapshot view of transition…”
Henri Bergson [3]
STATEMENT
Focusing into the increasing problem of saltwater intrution in land water sources caused by over-exploitation of groundwater sources for agricultural uses, this dissertation aim to study an efficient way to clean and use the contaminated water.
CONCEPT
Hidro-mediating Interface is a spatialization of an innovative, low-tech water desalination process.
The goal is to reveal new technologies but not for the sake of the image of technology itself.
The project is instead focused on generating technological ambience. The division between technology and culture – and building technology and architecture – begin to dissolve into a hybrid spatial sensibility.
Fluid flows, structural patterning and lighting are all combine into a coherent whole, generating an unexpectedly vivid atmosphere.
PROCESS
Recently, a re-examination of existing seawater greenhouse technologies has revealed possibilities for gradients scales, sustainable desalination using deep seawater and warm sea laminar water in an evaporation-condensation loop.
PROTOTYPE
The project is a landscape greenhouse-canopia characterized by two performative pattern logics. The first is a three dimentional meshwork of capillaries within which cold saltwater (from a local deep source) is circulated in loop. The second is a series of vascular flow intaken, which direct warm saltwater (surface layer) over the capillaries. Saltwater is sprayed into specific areas, the so called vacuoles, this warm air as it enters, increasing its water content. The trasparent lenses creates additional heat in the sub-interior space, allowing the air to take on even more airborne moinsture. Then, when this super-humidified air comes into contact with the chilled micro-pipes, it condensates.
The condensate – distilled – drips down the capillaries into pleated troughs below, which lead to seasonal storage tanks.
DESIGN VISION
The hydronic and structural processes will be legible, but in an ambient, atmospheric way. The aim is not the creation of a “mechanical landmark”, but rather the creation of natural interactive space defined by crossovers of technology, culture, and metabolic behaviours.
“Green is now not just something to simply protect
but to reinvent.”
Marco Scotini
PROLOGUE
Always the MAN-NATURE relationship is at the center of research and studies ranging from philosophy, through religion, society, up to contemporary times in science and technology.
What is nature precisely? Is it something abstract, or something transcendent?
As Vincenzo Estremo suggest in one of his articles about the Torino exposition Vegetation as a Political Agent “looking at nature as something manifest implies that artists acknowledge the value of nature’s otherness. Thinking nature’s otherness means thinking nature as a political agent.”. So nature as something tangible, something that we must re-think.
Since always I have been fascinated by the role that water constatly has in our life and how fast in the last decades environmental behaviors are changing our perspectives of our future lifes.
From 2000 Water Scarcity became a matter of global concern; in 2001 we recieved the first pictures from satellites of more than 2000 glaciers, most of them in process of shrinking. The rise of sea level directly imply that part of the usable fresh water on earth has been polluted with salt water. In 2006 in US, the Environmental Protection Agency set limits on the use of thousands of pesticides that were contaminating underground water levels. Water started to be recognize as a fragile resource, and the importance to keep it clean and pure were shared by many.
For these reasons in the 21st century water will determine new land-use for growing populations, regional political alliances, and alternative energy production. Desalinization is one important aspect of the future of water; it is already a critical social concern, particularly in arid regions. Focusing in the simple “water cycle” of evaporation- condensation, I believe, we can study and enrich our sustainable relationship with alternative water sources since now overtaken by massive desalinization plants, that has long been a heavy industrial undertaking, involving huge mechanical apparatuses run on fossil fuels.
To change the way we relate with water is not only a need but can be also a desire. Redesign daily life locally become the way to respond the environmental challenges.
Thanks to our knowledge in environmental and biological design, in parametric and digital fabrication tools we can aim and achieve goals as never happened before. My thesis will focuses in a practical way on the issue of the water desalination through design and testing prototypes.
Clean and plentiful water provides the foundation for prosperous communities. We rely on clean water to survive, yet right now we are heading towards a water crisis. Changing climate patterns are threatening lakes and rivers, and key sources that we tap for drinking water are being overdrawn or tainted with pollution.
Water demand is progressively increasing due to its use for agriculture, industries and domestic requirements. Wherever surface water storage or canal irrigation is absent or limited, there is a greater activity of groundwater extraction.
The density of irrigation wells has grown very critically in same watershed causing serious problems of water scarcity and other environmental conditions. The groundwater related problems of overexploitation have assumed an alarming position so as to require immediate remedial measures to address the situation.[6]
When the demand for water exceeds the amount available we will have water availability problems. In most of the cases this occur in areas characterized by low rainfall and high density population or with intensive agricultural or industrial activity.
Apart from causing problems by providing water to users, over-exploitation of water has led to the drying-out of water courses and wetland areas in Europe as well as salt-water intrusion in aquifers. In many areas of Europe, groundwater is the dominant source of freshwater. In a number of places water is being pumped from beneath the ground faster than it is being replenished through rainfall. The result is sinking water tables, empty wells, higher pumping costs and, in coastal areas, the intrusion of saltwater from the sea which degrades the groundwater.[7]
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How contemporary technology and architectural design can issue the environmental and ecological problem of water desalination plants ecosystemical foot print?
Can the familiar-scale design help to tackle the environmental problem of groundwater source exploitation? Can the basic Solar Still designs be rethought through parametric and digital fabrication tools?
HYPOTESIS
- Unpacking the spacial potentials of fluid, airflow and grow in salt-intrused aereas promoting water efficiency strategies to help manage the usage of clean water, through the naturalization of nowadays desalination technology.
- Rethink the so called “plug-in system” in greenhouse and urban gardens, strictly developed with engeenering approach, with architectural adding values.
- Helping prepare cities, counties and states for water-related challenges they will face as a result of climate change, and ensuring that waterways have enough water to support vibrant aquatic ecosystems.
- Rethink, through design, places where daily life could be reinvented, places where individuals and small groups could experiment their engagement with nature. Principles on which ecovillages for instance rely can be applied to urban and rural settings, as well as to developing and developed countries.
- Aiming new way of understanding the meaning and the design approach to the overscaled so called “green infrastructure”.
OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
- Understand the available desalination technology in gradients scales and their technical and ecological approach.
- Look into nature behaviour concerning water treatments, flows and physics such as in mangroves and cacti. – Design and prototyping following the trinomial algorithmic software-digital fabrication-natural material.
- Have a list of Study Cases defined in different families of research topics.
- Design, build and test a prototype in real scale1:1.
- Design first proposal of the desalination agorà in a specific and real site.
METHOD
Since this research is focused on prototyping the methodological basis adopted is the deductive scientific that will be supported by specific parameters which will serve as leitmotiv in the moment of the production tests.
The research has a binary evolutionary trend, therefore there are two axes of work: research in computational design (Axis 1) and materials research and prototyping (Axis 2).
Axis 1.
The research on form is done with software such as Rhinoceros 5.0 and Grasshopper accompanied by investigations of specific natural references in biological systems, such as behavior and growth of the mangrove, and compositions and reactions of the cactus.
Axis 2.
The prototyping in turn is divided into two sub-fields of action, experimentation in fluid mechanics (physicality of water) and bio-materials (flesh), and investigation on Solar Still designs and reproduction in working scale models.
WATER POSSIBILITIES – WHY SALT-WATER?
The origin and continuation of humankind is based on solar energy. The most basic processes supporting life on earth, such as photosynthesis and the rain cycle, are driven by solar energy. From the very beginning of its history humankind realized that a good use of solar energy is in humankind’s benefit. [8]
The use of solar energy in thermal desalination processes is one of the most promising applications of the renewable energies. Solar desalination can either be direct; use solar energy to produce distillate directly in the solar collector, or indirect; combining conventional desalination techniques, such as multistage flash desalination, vapor compression, reverse osmosis, membrane distillation and electrodialysis, with solar collectors for heat generation. Direct solar desalination compared with the indirect technologies requires large land areas and has a relatively low productivity. It is however competitive to the indirect desalination plants in small-scale production due to its relatively low cost and simplicity. [9]
Despite this, only during the last 40 years, we began to use specialized equipment for harvest and use this alternative source of energy: free and environmentally friendly.
The lack of water was always a problem to humanity. Therefore, among the first attempts to harness solar energy was the development of equipment suitable for the desalination of seawater. Solar distillation has been in practice for a long time (Kalogirou, 2005). [10]
Most of the earth’s surface consists of water: 80% of the earth’s water is surface water, the other 20% is either ground water or atmospheric water vapour. There is much more water than there is land. Moreover water can not only be found on the surface, but also in the ground and in the air. There are two kinds of water; salt water and freshwater. Salt water contains great amounts of salt, whereas freshwater has a dissolved salt concentration of less than 1%. Only freshwater can be applied as drinking water. Water moves around the earth in a water cycle. The water cycle has five parts: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and surface run-off.
WATER STILL AND DESALINATION PROCESS
I decide to collect information about Solar Still because it respects my vision of small scale impact always following the motto “Think Global, Act Local”, respecting my aim of “Plug-in” water device for small scale agricultural/urban garden use.
PRO:
- No needs of huge infrastructure.
- Use unlimited Solar radiations.
- Fabrication possibility from recycled materials.
- More than enought clean water per day (if true, this can bring to new design purposes). – Do It Yourself and Open Source philosofy.
CONTRA:
- Needs of constant radiations (from 4 to 5 hours of sun radiation per day). – Low efficiency (compared with Industrial Plants).
- Possible impact on local ecosystems (long time term).
- Problem of waste-salt disposal.
In the following pages I collected, from specific and reliable entities, different design of Solar Still devices. The papers are organized with a central diagram of “how the system works”; specific name, description, dimensions and materials used followed by the experiments RESULTS. In the end I made a map of productivity summarizing and highlighting the most productive devices from which I started the concepts of my future design.
Once I studied the Solar Still Prototypes I followed with the extrapolation of the main physical concepts behind the tests making some basic water-changes in state experiments that allowed me to have an overview of possible materials and design details related with pressure and energy used in the system. This map is followed by the two fundamental principle I adopt for my future design experiment (referencial data diagrams and materials): dew point and water flow rate.
“[Design Science is] the effective application of the principles of science to the conscious design of our total environment in order to help make the Earth’s finite resources meet the needs of all humanity without disrupting the ecological processes of the planet.“
Buckminster Fuller [5]
PHYSICALITY – BIO-MIMICRY AND CACTUS
Several site have been taken in cosideration during the first research step with a general target of “water problematic” and solutions adobted.
For example I analyzed the “Eucaliptus solution” that have been planted (or re-planted) in some areas of Iran or Israel1, to lower the water table and reduce soil salination through their natural process of transpiration.
On the Saudi Arabia’s northeastern desert coast2, a group of researchers investigate on the grow of the first commercial-sized crop of samphire, the first extensive crop of any kind ever irrigated entirely with seawater. Interesting for me was the methabolism of these plants technically called halophyte: salt-water tollerant.
I search on the astonishing engineering work in Netherlands3 for floods control. using natural movements of underwater sands, channeling, water pressurization and chemical density in a balance with salty and clean water. Or for instance how in tropical and urban areas such as Rio de Janeiro, mangroves can help in reducing flooding and coastal erosion and how they can play a key role in damage mitigation during floods disasters, in stabilising coastlines as well as contribute to aquaculture and fisheries.
Everytime I was studying articles relating to these specific topics I kept in mind one of the first methods I always thought to use for my dissertation: biomimetic.
More in particular I was interested in the so called “Biomimicry Institute’s Design Spiral” that is stated that ‘can serve as a guide to help innovators use biomimicry to biologize a challenge, query the natural world for inspiration, then evaluate to ensure that the final design mimics nature at all levels—form, process, and ecosystem.’ To identify the function of their design, this methodology asks, “What do you want your design to do?” Next is the interpret phase, which causes designers to ask, “What would nature do here?” Seeking answers leads to discovering natural models. The crucial step is to abstract their functions for architecture from which follow develop the project through the next steps: Emulate and Evaluate.[12]
Following this ispirational concept I focused and collected in the following pages three of the main nature references I followed for the development of my design concept and system: mangroves roots, salicornia anatomy and cactus morphology and methabolic behavior.
PHYSICALITY - DESIGN SIMULATIONS
Water retention, water dissipation and water storage are the three main conceptual points I decided to focus on. Using particular plug-in for Grasshopper (Agent Based Design, Sonic) I started to abstract flow simulations according to different parameters such as run-off surfaces/path, velocity, geometrical optimum path. In this way I started to build design maps concerning water-paths (1) and particular morphologies (2).
(1)Mapping: applying same swarm origin points and same physics attractors to the three different evolutive grids I could check, according the design geometry, through several tests, the average flow running inbetween the grid walls followings the prametres of time – swarm production – expansion. This helped me for the future design decision of the so called “pinch curves” technique for the “solar still device outer skin capillaries”.
(2)Morphologies map: I collected all the various exercises I was doing during the nature inspirational process. Here the orthogenetic evolution or the hypothesis that life has an innate tendency to evolve in a unilinear fashion due to some internal or external “driving force”. This with the aim of searching through design and drawings “the general law according to which evolutionary development takes place in a noticeable direction, above all in specialized groups.”[13]
Following in the design research I tryed to underline differend dimentionalities and purposes closely related with the cactus methabolism that started to underline peculiarities of how, what and why the solar still device will be designed for.
Dimension 1: transition of vascular bundles and water capillaries.
Dimension 2: materiality and geometrical mesh for collapsible/elastic membrane. Dimension 3: connection between vessels and natural tracheid geometries.
HYDRO-MEDIATING INTERFACE – DESIGN
Building skins and natural skins are generally the organism’s first line of defense to protect its interior from the exterior environment. But, a natural skin can regulate temperature and humidity, is often waterproof, yet permeable when needed, integrates systems in a very thin membrane, protects from sunlight, can repair itself and is beautiful. Plus it does all this with environmentally friendly manufacturing, done at the local level and will not be harmful to the environment at the ends of its life. Start from this concept I built up the parametres to be apply on the greenhouse design. The following points are the statement of what Hydro-mediating Interface must be.
(Generic Skin)
1.Protection from the natural elements.
2.Environmentally friendly manufacturing.
3.Not be harmful to the natural environment at the end of its life. 4.Integrated multiple systems within thin membrane.
5.Regulate transfer of heat, light, air and water efficiently.
6.Be adaptable to its local environment and respond accordingly. 7.Venustas.
(Nature Organisms)
1.Adaptable to their local climate.
2.Sequester carbon and produce oxygen.
3.Use only the water they need.
4.Efficiently convert sunlight into energy.
5.Produce waste that is beneficial to the ecosystem. 6.Venustas.
Important was the choice of the location. Analyzing the mentioned problem of “groundwater salt intrution” I decided to locate my study project in Denmark, more precisely in the north of Sealand, between Frederiksværk and Hundested in the village of Dyssekilde, one of the oldest eco-village in Denmark with a community of 170 people[14].
I focus my attention, during the research steps, on Ecovillages because their way of understanding and living the community and the strong relation with the environment. The desire to move away from the dependence of fossil fuels and consumerist practices. There is a focus on producing and consuming locally, forging meaningful relationships and living as sustainably as possible. Many initiatives are encouraged, such as reducing energy use, creating sustainable local businesses, localizing farming and creating environmentally minded communities[14].
I strongly believe that the principles on which ecovillages rely can be applied to urban and rural settings, as well as to developing and developed countries.
THE SITE
Essential was the choice of the study site, where the salt-water problem is an evidence.
Interesting for me was the “organic” urban distribution that remembered me strongly the african village of Ingorè (Guinea-Bissau) where I am developing, as mention in the prologue, a water desalination project for a local hospital.
Interesting is the architecture of the village buildings, here it is clear the choice of the community to the experimental way of leaving: architecturally, economically and socially. Important because the parametric design is still in a process of common understanding.
The chosen location is the so called Agorà that is already recognized by the community as a focal point of the village, gardening activities are organized. The site is surrounded by single family houses, a community indoor building and a natural salt-water pond, this essential for the operation of the greenhouse system.
The role of the natural salt-water pond is important because of the physics behind it: the thermocline.
THERMOCLINE_an abrupt temperature gradient in a body of water such as a lake, marked by a layer above and below which the water is at different temperatures.[15]
The main idea is to use the natural temperature gradient pushed through two separated layers in a loop cycle. The Outer water flux will be exposed to the sun radiation so to increase its temperature and will be conducted in the venous system with a slow rate. The inner water flux, instead, will be hidden within the epidermis so to conservere its lower extraction temperature and it will spreading widely through the capillaries at higher rhythm.
This will allow, for the first to have a higher entry temperature in the specific vacuoles, and drip-controlled flux; for the second to be able to best cool the special micro-pipes where the dirty water, evaporated, will condense. Everything with zero energy consumed but just environment free in-put.
THE DEVICE
HOW DOEST IT WORK
The project is a landscape greenhouse-canopia characterized by two performative pattern logics. The first is a three dimentional meshwork of capillaries within which cold saltwater (from a local deep source) is circulated in loop. The second is a series of vascular flow intaken, which direct warm saltwater (surface layer) over the capillaries. Saltwater is sprayed into specific areas, the so called vacuoles, this warm air as it enters, increasing its water content.
The trasparent lenses creates additional heat in the sub-interior space, allowing the air to take on even more airborne moinsture. Then, when this super-humidified air comes into contact with the chilled micro-pipes, it condensates. The condensate – distilled – drips down the capillaries into pleated troughs below, which lead to seasonal storage tanks.
THE METABOLIC SYSTEM
The water introduced into the circulatory system is, once completed the path, returned to the source, for a constant cycle. The pump will have two diffent pumping setting: a faster for the Cold-Water Vascular System and a slower for the Hot-Water Vascular System.
The salt accumulated in the vacuoles is withdrawn through a monthly purification cycle. A part of the desalinated water stored in the appropriate storage vacuoles is pumped in the capillary system in order to clean it from residual salts.. As it happens in cacti during dry seasons, the vacuoles will be swelled with distilled water to allow a self-cleaning process. This water, enriched with salts, once finished the monthly cleaning cycle, is pumped and drained off, through the so called NaCl Phloema[16] vacuole valve and the two vascular systems (cold and hot), into special evaporation pools. Upon completion of the cycle, the water is left to evaporate naturally giving as final product salt that will be locally cleaned and processed before being distributed in the community.
WATERING
Once the salty water is desalinated is collected in storage tanks as well as part of the greenhouse skin components. The condensed water is collected via gravity, sliding on the copper pipes, in specific canals protected within the vacuole. This clean water is than conducted through gravity in three specific “ways”,according to the needs of the plants inside the greenhouse.
1) Part of the clean water is stored in the appropriate storage vacuoles where are connected with the watering system of the greenhouse, through automatic or manual valves.
2) Most of the clean water is directly injected into the watering dripping system of the greenhouse. Distilled water, it must be remembered, is water without the presence of salts. In the long term may be not efficient for the survival of certain plants. For this reason, some of the so called H O Xylem[17], will be equipped with special dosimeters of natural concentrates that will be used to feed the plant with the necessary amount of water mixed with salts.
3) Part of the clean water is stored in test tubes for monthly monitoring of water quality from eventual contamination.
HYDRO-MEDIATING INTERFACE – DISCUSSION
Groups are trying to move away from the dependence of fossil fuels and consumerist practices. There is a focus on local production and consumtion, forging meaningful relationships and living as sustainably as possible. Many initiatives are encouraged, such as reducing energy use, creating sustainable local businesses, localizing farming and creating environmentally minded communities. This social movement closely connected with the so fast evolving technological one can be a strong answer to the nowadays ecological problem.
Data-driven future, inexpensive sensors, cloud computing and intelligent software, “hold the potential to transform agriculture and help feed the world’s growing population.” “The benefits should be higher productivity and more efficient use of land, water and fertilizer. But it will also – help satisfy the rising demand for transparency in farming. Consumers increasingly want to know where their food came from, how much water and chemicals were used, and when and how it was harvested. “Data is the only way that can be done”. “The rest of the world has to get the productivity gains with data,” .[18]
Solar still design can be pushed towards future studies with other approaches to the problem of water, thinking that study nature’s principles, utilize algorithmic software, reduce the environmental impact of fabrication can bring us to another vision of the devices. Imagine on greenhouse structure, walls, roofs, canopies build with 100% biodegradable materials (latex for instance) that can help regulate automatically light, thermal losses, humididty control, an entire athmosperich building that can produce our food and energy, that can utilize not only contaminated groundwater sources but waste water from housing: through the design, this must be the aim!
These ideas are meant to inspire an approach to greenhouse designs (and why not building) that will solve the problems of inefficiency and water management. Architecture cannot continue to attempt to solve these problems with more of the same technology.
A more efficient ventilation or rain-water collection is better, but it still does not solve the true issues of efficiency and water management. A new shift to solve these problems is needed in order to achieve a more efficient building and one that is appropriate to its place. Architects should look to cacti as well as tree/nature as a model because it is efficient with resources and is adapted to its local climate. This is just the beginning for architects.
REFERENCES
BOOKS
- EEA Topic Centre on Terrestrial Environment (2006), The changing faces of Europe’s coastal areas. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.
- Hèctor Muñoz, Jermaine Joseph (2010), Hydroponics, Home-Based Vegratable Production System. Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, Guyana.
- Hensel, M., Menges, A. & Weinstock, M (2010). Emergent Technologies and Design: towards a biological paradigm for architecture. London: Routledge.
-Joel Malcolm, Faye Arcaro (2011), The IBC of Aquaponics. Backyard Aquaponics, Australia.
- Mark W. Rosegrant, Ximing Cal, Sarah A. Cline (2002), World Water and Food 2025: Dealing with Scarcity. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington D.C. – Otto F. (1971). IL3 Biology and Building. Stuggart: IL University of Stuggart.
- Park S. Nobel (2002), Cacti, biology and uses. University of California Press, London, UK.
- Schuster-Wallace C.J., Sandford, R. (2015), Water in the World We Want, catalysing national water-related sustainable development. United Nation University, UNU-INWEH – Soteris A. Kalogirou (March 2009), Solar energy engineering: process and system. Elsevier’s Science & Technology Department, Oxford, UK.
- Thompson, D. (1961). On Growth and Form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ARTICLES
- Helga Wiederhold, Johannes Michaelsen, Klaus Hinsby, Broder Nommensen (June 2014). SWIM 2014, 23rd Salt Water Intrution Meeting. NEUE PERSPEKTIVEN, Hannover.
- Golshan Zare, Maryam Keshavarzi (2007); Morphological Study of Salicornieae (Chenopodiaceae) Native to Iran. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences,
- Ilaria Bombelli (2014), Mondo vegetale e politica. Domus online journal, Milan.
- John H. Reif (1), Wadee Alhalabi (2) (2015), Review Article Solar-Thermal Powered Desalination. Its Significant Challenges and Potential, Department of Computer Science, Duke University, Durham, USA (1); Faculty of Computing and Inf. Tech., King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2).
- Marc Van Iersel, Stephanie Burnett, Jongyun Kim (2010), How much water do your plants really need?. Greenhouse Management online journal, Cleveland, OH, USA
- Soteris A. Kalogirou (March 2005), Seawater desalination using renewable energy source: Department of Mechanical Engineering. Higher Technical Institute, Cyprus.
- Steve Lohr (August 2015), The Internet of Things and the Future of Farming. The New York Times, New York, USA.
- T.Arunkumar, K.Vinothkumar, Amimul Ahsan, R. Jayaprakash, Sanjay Kumar (2012), Experimental Study on various Solar Still Designs. ISRN renewable Energy online journal.
WEB
- Climate Adaptation; Vulnerabilities Denmark [ http://www.climateadaptation.eu/denmark/fresh-water-resources/ ].
- Fabrizio Matillana; Aeroponic Facade [ https://theopenportfolio.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/aeroponic-facade/ ].
- Graham Thompson; Synthetic Stustainability [ http://synthetic-sustainability.blogspot.com.es/2009/07/final-scheme-bio-fuel-farm-renderings. html ].
- Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) [ http://www.geus.dk/UK/data-maps/Pages/default.aspx ].
- Ministry of Agriculture; Calculate how much water is needed to water your garden [http://www.moag.gov.il/agri/English/Subjects/gan_ haschani_maim/hashvu_kama_maim.htm ].
- UrbanFarmers AG, Conceptual Devices; Globe / Hedron a Rooftop Farm [ http://www.conceptualdevices.com/2012/02/hedron-good-food- from-the-roof-taking-on-buckminster-fuller-2012-challenge/ ].
- Valentina Karga; Machine For Sustainabe Living [ http://www.valentinakarga.com/?p=340 ].
[1] Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, The Wonders of Life: Popular Study of Biological Philosophy, Joseph McCabe (New York: Haarper & Brothers, 1905): p. 197.
[2] D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), p. 11.
[3] Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution, trans. Arthur Mitchell (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1913), p. 302.
[5] R. Buckminster Fuller (US engineer and architect, 1895-1983)
[6] Bhagyashri C. Maggirwar, Over exploitation – a critical groundwater problem, 28th WEDC Conference, Sustainable Environmental Sanitation and Water Services, Calcutta, India, 2002
[7] European Environment Agency, Impacts due to over-abstraction, original website, last modified 18 Feb 2008, 12:35 p.m.
[8] S. Kalogiurou, SOLAR Energy Engngineering – Processes and systems, 1st Edition (Elsevier’s Science and Technology, Oxford UK, 2009), Preface
[9] H.M. Qibiawey and F. Banat, Solar thermal desalination technologies, (Department of Chemical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology), extract from the Abstract. 3rd January, 2007
10] S. Kalogiurou, SOLAR Energy Engngineering – Processes and systems, 1st Edition (Elsevier’s Science and Technology, Oxford UK, 2009), pp. 28-29.
[11] Janine M. Benyus (US natural sciences, innovation consultant and writer, 1958 New Jersey)
[12] BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE (biomimicry. org)
[13] David H. Lane, The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age, (Mercer University Press, 1996), p. 61.
[14] www.dyssekilde.dk _ Latitude : 55 59’ 00’’ Longitude : 11 57’ 00’’
[15] www.oxforddictionaries.com
[16] “In vascular plants, phloem is the living tissue that carries organic nutrients (known as photosynthate), in particular, sucrose, a sugar, to all parts of the plant where needed.”
“Unlike xylem (which is composed primarily of dead cells), the phloem is composed of still-living cells that transport sap. The sap is a water-based solution, but rich in sugars made by the photosynthetic areas. These sugars are transported to non- photosynthetic parts of the plant, such as the roots, or into storage structures, such as tubers or bulbs.”
From “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phloem”
[17] ”The basic function of xylem is to transport water, but it also transports some nutrients.”
“The xylem transports water and soluble mineral nutrients from the roots throughout the plant. It is also used to replace water lost during transpiration and photosynthesis. Xylem sap consists mainly of water and inorganic ions, although it can contain a number of organic chemicals as well. The transport is passive, not powered by energy spent by the tracheary elements themselves, which are dead by maturity and no longer have living contents.”
From “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylem”
[18] “The Internet of Things and the Future of Farming”, The New York Times (online journal), August, 3, 2015