FC United of Cambridge

I don’t know that much about permaculture, but what I have read intrigues me. We live in such a resource-intense world, and a lot of what we use is disposable. I like the idea of designing an agriculture system so that each sub-system’s output is another system’s input, and the loop is continuous, requiring far fewer inputs from the outside. After all, our world is a closed system (except for solar energy), and if outputs don’t get used as inputs for something else, the output becomes waste. As a future architect, though, I would like to apply this concept of interdependent systems to the built environment. Buildings require so many resources to be built, first, and then to be useful over their lifetime. While people have started using solar panels and occasionally collect rainwater, those solutions only help solve one input at a time - electricity or water. I would like to take a permaculture approach to the problem and analyze what the inputs and outputs of a building are and how one output can become the input for another system. There are some people on the web who seem to be doing that, so I’m not inventing any wheels here, but it would be nice to hear more about the study of total systems rather than just discussing the current ecological trend of the moment (ethanol, solar energy, eating locally).

Cities are desirable places to live, but the cost of housing is rising, there is less housing available, and more people than ever are moving into cities. Where can one find a place to live? On the roof! Roofs are often flat, you get the best view in the building, and you’re far away from noisy traffic. Yes, I suppose the air conditioning compressor isn’t so quiet, nor do you get the benefit of the AC, but until the penthouse owner complains, you’re the king of the castle.

Precedents of rooftop dwellings:
The Loft Cube
Soltag.net apartments

…of urban nomads:
shelter blog
Urban Nomad Shelter

…of parasitic shelters:
Parasitic Architecture
Yale architecture school project

One problem with all of these projects is that utilities are either disregarded or explained too easily away. To live, we must eat, drink, and go to the bathroom, and to have any friends we must bathe as well. In this country, extensive infrastructure makes it possible for us to connect our houses to water, drainage pipes, electricity and natural gas so that we can cook food, wash ourselves and heat our houses. While some people live off the grid, they tend to live in rural areas: they have chosen to live so rurally that there is no grid to connect to, or they want to live off the (rural) land and decide to unplug. Living off the grid in the city is much harder unless you decide to wash at the gym, eat out every night and buy bottled water all the time. You can’t dig a well for water unless you have a backyard. It’s hard to use solar panels if you live in the basement apartment. You can’t stick a composting toilet in your studio apartment. How can one become self-sufficient in the city?

By living on the roof, you solve a couple of the problems: you’re in a great location for solar panels, and wind tends to be better on the roof if you want to get wind power instead.

solar panels
Motorwind turbines

Being on the roof is also good for catching rain water.

Rainwater harvesting
humidifying water cooler

While a composting toilet may not be for everyone, it will help you deal with a lack of drainage pipe.

Composting toilets

And a composting kitchen:

I know there are ways to purify waste water by filtering it through a series of different types of plants. This would make use of dirty dish and bath water, plus it would keep a nice garden going.

Solar oven to cook in.

You can use solar and wind for power; rain water and a dehumidifier for water; a composting toilet and kitchen for waste; water purification garden for waste water; and a solar oven to cook with. You might want to throw in a gas tank for rainy days…

I love silicone rubber. I came up with the idea for silicone trivets before Williams Sonoma. Maybe this time I’ll market my idea.

Silicone rubber sandwiched between two pieces of fiber glass weave. I threw a few flower petals in there for color. Silicone is heat resistant and flexible and translucent but stretchy. Fiber glass is as flexible as cloth and is strong in tension, but like cloth it doesn’t hold its shape.

I combined the two materials to make a flexible but strong translucent material. The silicone has the added benefit of being able to encase objects within it, giving the option of adding color or opacity to sections.

I have come up with an application: a lampshade. I need a lamp under my loft bed that doesn’t take up a lot of horizontal space (to keep it away from my head).

This lampshade wraps directly around the bulb, taking up only vertical space, and because the bulb does not have an on/off switch, the silicone protects my fingers when I twist the bulb to turn it on and off.

Bonus!