Categorie: resources

‘transgressive ‘ projects: the architect 3/3

Last time I wrote about about project development, and how everything was optimized within project borders, but the effects outside the project boundaries were neglected. But between architect and client, it’s just the same, and even worse, as became evident once again when I attended a presentation about a new…

Continue Reading ‘transgressive ‘ projects: the architect 3/3

Ourworldindata: on resource quantity and the energy transition

I was forwarded an interesting column, written by a researcher from Ourworldindata, with a comparison in quantity between fossil fuels, and materials extraction. And then the thesis is more or less that the extraction of raw materials to build a renewable energy supply costs many times less raw materials as…

Continue Reading Ourworldindata: on resource quantity and the energy transition

Critical look at graphics illustrations.

Graphs are powerful images, and unlike written assertions (“opinions”), there is often little discussion about graphs. But they also claim things, and, I notice it myself, I am more inclined to accept something from graphs than from words. Probably because it is easier to recognize your own opinion in them;…

Continue Reading Critical look at graphics illustrations.

Carbon storage: the land-time relation 2/2

There are many ways you can start “accounting” for CO2 (as comments on the previous article also showed), but at the end of the day what matters are absolute CO2 emissions, from whatever activity. And cutting down a tree and using it as a column (or a table, or a…

Continue Reading Carbon storage: the land-time relation 2/2

There is no ‘end of life’ of a building… 1/2

Life has an end, but is there also an ‘end of life’, for products and buildings? Which is frequently used in science, like in building evaluations calculating with a maximum life span, but seems weird. It is understandable in trade, for product developers, that want things to be replaced at…

Continue Reading There is no ‘end of life’ of a building… 1/2

DELY : Disabled Earth Life Years

We can develop beautiful so-called scientific methods to calculate all the effects of our impact, but in the end only two data are relevant: energy and material use, and the rest is derived from that: all emissions, to air or water, pollution, disappearance of forests, , and climate warming and…

Continue Reading DELY : Disabled Earth Life Years

Kg house per kg person – material need per function

At the end of the summer season, some thoughts that came up while practicing ‘doing nothing’ on camping. And I had to think of an always nice comparison with cars: the weight of the car versus the weight of the person to be transported. In other words, how many kg…

Continue Reading Kg house per kg person – material need per function

Double dilemma? discussions as Fellow

In recent years I was a Fellow of the Technical University of Eindhoven, more precisely working with the Building Physics department, in particular with Prof. Wim Zeiler, Installation Technology. And we had interesting discussions, because we strive for the same thing, while we come from different backgrounds. Those discussions can…

Continue Reading Double dilemma? discussions as Fellow

light pole materials compared…

I am often amazed at the amount of lights in the built environment, which only seems to be growing. Everyone thinks they have to illuminate everything. Driveways, stairs, gardens, anything you can think of has a light on it. That started yeas ago with the introduction of energy saving light…

Continue Reading light pole materials compared…

Half the agricultural land for biobased materials…

Last week I published a letter in the Netherlands, in which I indicated that about 800,000 hectares of land would be needed for the construction of new homes. That’s how it works in a transition: We have to significantly reduce the impact of building. And it is becoming increasingly clear…

Continue Reading Half the agricultural land for biobased materials…