Ur an 8

The crafty folks at NASA have once again out done themselves. Although they haven't been able to turn water into wine (which I'm sure it's just because they haven't tried) they're pretty close: NASA has the technology to turn pee into drinking water. According to NASA, the new Water Recovery System will be able to support more people in the International Space Station with "water so pure it rivals the cleanest on Earth". The emergence of this technology is so important to the current water crisis. Imagine the possibilities, this machine could hydrate millions who walk miles for a few buckets of water that is often unclean. We already try to recycle as much as possible, why not add pee to the list?

I understand that most people are opposed to drinking urine, but we must admit it seems like a very sustainable idea. In a world quenched for every drop of potable water, shouldn't we be keeping our options open? I mean I'd rather drink purified pee than nothing at all. I'm sure most of the people who live in countries that don't have drinking water wouldn't mind drinking clean, safe water even if it is purified from urine. Anyways, the point isn't about who would drink pee and who wouldn't, but more so that we are currently facing a HUGE water crisis. With a resource so necessary for us to live approaching dangerously low levels, it is imperative we seek new, sometimes unconventional solutions.

Reflections for November 13 Class

This week was another split class. Our first guest speaker was Dr. Ted McLaughlan from the Landscape department. I found this lecture to be so useful for our current studio project of creating a city.  He started off the lecture with an example from the artist David Nash. By creating a wooden boulder, Nash was able to see how water would change the boulder over time. He kept track of this boulder for 35 years!!! This example really illustrated how everything we design is put in a state of flux as soon as it's made. Definitely a thought we need to keep in mind when designing something as large as a city. 

An urgent issue Dr. McLaughlan brought up was the depletion of our fresh water resources. He really put the situation into perspective by showing a diagram of the entire water supply of earth as a large water jug and only one table spoon of it was potable water. It wasn't all doom and gloom though,  we were introduced different methods where nature can be used to do the tasks of water retention and water purification. It seems to me that most of the solutions to the problems we have today can be found in natural ecosystems. The most uplifting story Dr. McLauglan shared with us was the return of pickerel to Sturgeon Creek. Watching the pickerel spawn will definitely be on my list of things "to do" when I have a bit more time... I also enjoyed this lecture because he pointed out something that seemed so obvious that I never realized: the progression of a stream system looks like a growing tree!

Our next speaker was also from the Landscape department. I had seen this (almost) exact lecture last year in Intro to Environmental design, but nonetheless it was a good refresher. The images of former projects he showed us were very beautiful. I was especially drawn to Snow White and the Seven Gardens because of it's cleverness. Our speaker (I missed his name) brought to light the things a garden is/could be: a place of cultivation, a moment in time. All the projects shown were so clean in their design, really demonstrating that anything superfluous should be left out.