THE GABION AT WORK

 

In Detail: Landscape Restoration of the Vall d'en Joan Waste Landfill / Batlle i Roig Arquitectes

Written byJose Tomas Franco Posted on February 29, 2012

The section returnsIn detailto show you more closely the intervention carried out by the architects ofBatlle i Roig Arquitectesin El Garraf, Barcelona, ​​Spain, on an old city waste dump.

Thanks to the landscape project, 85 hectares of natural concavity were rehabilitated to become a public park; highlighting in the intervention a series of gabion walls filled with recycled waste or topsoil , which recall the previous use of the site.

Images of the built project and the detail of the walls, below.

The landfill was opened in 1974 in the Vall d'en Joan, a depression in the Garraf massif, where garbage from the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona was deposited for more than 30 years.

At one point, the waste filled this concavity, contaminating the underground aquifer and

The activity developed for these many years contaminated the place; According to architect David Bravo Bordas, “it is estimated that the contribution to the greenhouse effect of the methane released by the large mass of waste from the landfill represents approximately 20% of the total greenhouse gases emitted by the city of Barcelona.”

The project began in 1999, financed jointly by Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, the Association of Municipalities, the Waste Board and the European Union, and was only open to the public in 2010, when it ended. the period of natural regeneration of the place.

The project – which became the access door to the Garraf Natural Park – respected the new topography, sealing the garbage with a waterproofing sheet, a layer of draining gravel one meter thick and a geotextile filter with a final layer of earth vegetable.

This last layer was reforested with native species, agricultural crops were planted on the terraces, and trees and shrubs on the slopes, while the ramps were reserved for the circulation of pedestrians and bicycles.

On the other hand, the liquids and gases previously produced by the mass of garbage were managed, separating the circulation of rainwater to avoid its contact with the waste and allowing its use for the regeneration and reforestation of the park.

Authors: Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, architects, Teresa Galí, agricultural technical engineering Collaborators: PROSER, Proyectos y Servicios, SA GEOCISA, RDS, Jordi Nebot, Xavier Ramoneda, Mario Suñer, architects, Elena Mostazo, agricultural engineer Project Date: 2002 Construction Date: 2010 Client: AMB, Entitat Metropolitana de Serveis Hidràulics i Tractament de Residus, Diputació de Barcelona Builder: URBASER, FCC, CESPA, COMSA, EMTE Surface: 85 Há Budget: €26,000,000 Photographs: Jordi Surroca

REUSE

 

LINK https://vandkunsten.com/en/projects/component-reuse

LINK .. https://www.habitusliving.com/series/reclaimed-construction-top-ten-sustainable-building-materials

LINK https://www.stonecycling.com/news/reuse-building-materials/

LINK https://illustrarch.com/articles/15133-rethinking-building-materials.html

LINK. https://www.archdaily.com/943293/giving-demolished-building-materials-a-new-life-through-recycling\

LINK. https://www.lunchboxarchitect.com/featured/k-valley-house-herbst-architects/

LINKS [1] - [2] 

WHO SHOULD PLAY STREET ART?

Dilettante and STREETart do not go well together. IF you do not know get out of the way and let the informed inform you. Alternatively, get informed before playing lest you risk being seen as stupid or something less kind.

Season's Greetings (2018) by pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director, Banksy, whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation.

Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencilling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians, and he says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.

Season's Greetings is a mural which first appeared in the industrial town of Port Talbot in South Wales in December 2018. Painted onto the wall of a garage owned by local steelworker, Ian Lewis, from one angle the mural appears to show a child enjoying a snow shower. From another it becomes clear that the snow is in fact ash being produced from a burning dumpster, a possible comment on the poor air quality in the area.

The work drew crowds after Banksy confirmed it as his, posting a video online along with the message “Season’s Greetings”.

Ian Lewis had no idea just how many people would want to get a good look at it; the mural attracted thousands of visitors. Lewis was keen to protect it, employing guards and building a perspex screen over the work to protect it after a reported attempt to vandalise it.

It was removed in Feb 2022 and bought for six figures by gallery owner, John Brandler. It was taken to a building in the town centre so the public could visit, but an agreement to keep it there expired and John Brandler moved it out of Wales, with the University of Suffolk thought to be the University of Suffolk. Plans to display it there “fell through”, according to John Brandler. No further information as to its whereabout is available.

“The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care to know. They are incurious. Incuriousity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is.” ... Stephen Fry

“I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact.” ... Phil Plait

MINI ESTATES WITH PROMISE

 

With adjustment that pays respect to a local cultural landscape this MINIestate in the USA might well serve as a foundation upon which to build affordable houses with the potential to be sustainable 'HOMEplaces' in lutruwitaTasmania. The current INVESTMENTmodel for housing in Australia/Tasmania arguably is broken on the evidence and the STATISquoism in evidence is clearly compounding the circumstances that cause people to lose their homes and suffer all manner of stressful situations.

Politician will tell the solution is a matter of politics and economics. However, the situation is social and cultural and communities need to take charge and it is possible to do that.

As time passes the disconnects become increasingly serious and it is especially so when 'CIVICplanners' transmogrify into 'Managers of Development' and civic PLACEmakers (AKA Councillors) fail to see the BLOODYleopard chance its spots before their eyes and distort cultural landscapes to the benefit of INVESTORdevelopers.

As all those sayings go ... great minds think alike, small minds rarely differ ... and as legend tells us, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it did burn down in one ... while politically, as always, the end justifies the means.

Who is looking at any of this anyway?

https://newtowncdc.org/news-events/tempe-micro-estates.html 

Thirteen modern and efficient one–bedroom homes create a welcoming community Each house features:

• 600 square feet of living space 

• One loft bedroom in two-story homes or first-floor bedroom in accessible home 

• One full-size bathroom 

• Open-concept kitchen, dining, and living area 

• Full-size appliances 

• Private patio and side yard 

• High-quality, low-maintenance building materials 

• Water and energy-efficient design 

• Low heating and cooling needs 

• Low-waste, low-energy construction 

• ENERGY STAR® 

Home Performance certification Common Room features: 

• 900 square feet of shared space • Indoor and outdoor gathering areas 

• Community kitchen for hosting events 

• Secure mailboxes • Laundry facilities with dedicated space for line-drying 

• Tool library 

• Book and game library 

Community features: 

• Affordable purchase price and low HOA and land-lease fees • Secure community for safety 

• On-site parking for cars 

• Pedestrian and bike-friendly location 

• Close to light rail, Valley Metro bus system, Orbit, and Tempe Streetcar 

• Edible and native plant gardens 

• Rainwater harvesting and grey-water reclamation 

• Environmentally sustainable design

AND THEN THERE WAS THIS BACK IN 1963

Link Jørn Utzon 

Built in 1959 and in 1963 respectively, the Kingo and Fredensborg houses share one same system of organic growth based on the repetition of the same residential type. In both cases, the main idea is to combine the privacy of domestic life – through individual courtyards – and community life, through shared green spaces, streets, and plazas. In this way, neighbors enjoy the sensation of living in nature while being part of a larger urbanized area. The basic housing unit adopts the universal scheme of the courtyard house, with two L-shaped wings for living spaces and a square-shaped garden. Though the geometry is strictly orthogonal, the system is organic because it has the capacity to grow, within each cell in particular as well as within the whole. .... READ & SEE MORE HERE