By Frank Bures
"In the 1970s, environmental idealists had a vision of Ecotopia: Everyone recycled, there was no pollution, and we all worshipped trees and co-ops. Today's eco-communities are less crunchy and a lot more high tech. In addition to using renewable energy sources, these projects aim to limit their impact on surrounding ecosystems by building with green materials, promoting earth-friendly transportation, and recycling water and waste. The race for the first carbon-neutral, zero-emissions community is on."
I read this and thought, wow, the new Utopias. Communities based on an ecological ideal, instead of a philosophical one. Since utopia as a concept is certainly complex, questionable, and flawed, I felt like I was on to a good film topic.
Here's one of the projects, in China - the Guangtang Chuangye Park:
"Nature, whose status as a norm of beauty or as an ideal form waned, has since returned as a condition for the sustainability of all built environment. As such, nature plays a role in the twenty-first century that is as central as it ever was in the past. The challenges are enormous and the markets and demands seem boundless."
(Sverker Sörlin in "Nature" from Crucial Words: Conditions for Contemporary Architecture)
1 comment:
this made me think about a building in Japan I read about years ago. here's a link: http://www.takenaka.co.jp/takenaka_e/t-file_e/d_synthesis/acros/index.html
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