Design4D Blog

Nik Hilton  //  www.design4d.co.uk
Young Architect of the Year Nominee 2009, 2010, 2011
Finalist in the British Homes Awards 2009
Finalist in the Design awards 2009

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decentralisation

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Jan 26 / 9:03am

Stock Market Architecture

I found this John Vidal article interesting. It is example of centralised systems causing unbeknown suffering to people on the other side of the world. In this case it is speculation on food markets, but it did make me think about my own share portfolio and what impact a simple trade on the Internet could have on other people's lives. Carbon trading is creating an interesting new sustainable source of investment and having worked with the founder of a carbon credit trading business ten years ago I have no doubt this market will grow rapidly.

The cause and effect relationship hasn't been fully realized in our globalised society despite the prevalence of sensor technology and the Internet to share information. I would like to see more whole life costing analysis of products we specify which would give a clearer idea of their true 'green' credentials from cradle to grave. From an architectural perspective carbon trading will provide massive investment into renewable technologies but I hope it will also create a greater awareness of cause and effect relationships to make more than just architecture sustainable.

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Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed under  //  Sustainability   carbon trading   crade to cradle   decentralisation   renewable energy   stock market  
 
Nov 15 / 1:09pm

Decentralisation is the answer to sustainability?

Attending a Climate Change Conference last week made me realise that although a lot is spoken about aspects of sustainability little is said about the big picture of how we become a more sustainable society. For me the word that seems to be missing is 'Decentralisation'. I raised this with Herbert Girardet one of the great thinkers and early advocates for sustainability who agreed with my point.

The last century has seen the growth of centralisation in order to enhance efficiencies and I believe this is the main reason our lives have become so unsustainable. By centralising systems we have intensified toxic by-products and have then pushed these problems out of sight and out of mind. Without the problems on our doorstep we have then blindly gone on to exaggerate these toxic problems to a completely unsustainable scale.

As the human population continues to explode it is inevitable that cities will expand. I believe to create more sustainable cities we must find ways to decentralise our power generation, waste treatment and even politics and integrate these systems locally into the urban realm. This means designing buildings that generate their own energy and don't block off their neighbour's access to the sun. It means integrating Living Machine wastewater treatment systems into parks and it means reducing big government and providing support to local councils who better understand the needs of their area.

The image below suggests that maybe there is a more sophisticated model to be considered, 'the distributed network' but I shall save that for another blog entry!

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Filed under  //  Architecture   Sustainability   decentralisation   solar power   urban realm