2010/12/16
12 notes
12 notes
via ryanpanos: valentina karga: greenwashing manual recent architecture graduate valentina karga of University of Thessaly, Greece has developed the project ‘greenwashing manual’ and ‘greenwasher, sustainable active chamber’, an experimental thesis on how architectural research and design can adapt to the reality of sustainability. the idea for creating the kit comes from wanting to design a series of systems aimed at an ecologically bearable, conscious, contemporary lifestyle. Studying DIY videos and low cost manufacturing websites, karga has put together a series of elements, with emphasis on the implementation of used items that may change or adjust the use of objects. for example, a reused tub acting as a tank - aquarium in the hydroponic / aquaponic system. The first part of the manual focuses on the idea of ‘how to make it yourself’. it introduces a complete system of producing goods for modern living within your own home, such as electricity, biogas, food and biodiesel, while collecting heat from the sun and rainwater. the following characteristics make it the ideal solution for global sustainability: low-budget so that everybody can use it, local production so no wasted energy on transportation is needed, reuse of materials which attempts to apply an extra use in waste management, biological food production and green electricity, gas and diesel.
An exaggeration makes the project function in a double way: as a real proposition and as an ironic comment to this desperate human understanding of today’s condition of architecture and of ecology through an exaggeration of it. The most captivating narrative point is, I believe, the obsession of making energy out of many possible alternative sources, using banal techniques that take advantage of many alternative sources; even the shit of the inhabitants is an energy source: an elaboration of such structures composes also the walls of the proposed example. This IKEA-like cold presentation hides a passion transformed to a cold neutrality. One of the most interesting final projects in this young department of Architecture.
