By, Zoe
Being a part of the environmental team for this project, I was interested in studying about water: where Pablo would get his water from, and how to reuse and recycle it so as to aid in living a sustainable way of life. Author Ted Carns details his experiences with adapting to a sustainable lifestyle in his book Off On Our Own. According to Carns, there are three options for main sources of water: a pond, an underground spring, and cisterns. Pablo already has an underground spring that he was able to filter and pump for us. This water was cool and refreshing, providing us with a crisp, much-needed drink while working in the blistering sun, became handy for hosing off after being caked in mud, and was useful for washing dishes.
As a future project, Pablo plans on turning the mud pit into a pond. Plants and certain kinds of fish, mainly tilapia, can be used along with an aquaponics system, to filter the water in order to make it usable. Fish are valuable for their waste, which is used to fertilize the plants, which then suck up the water and filter it with their roots. Cisterns, which can be above-ground or underground, are huge receptacles for catching and storing water, lined with filters for cleansing. One last tip that Carns included was to create a piping system to connect the roof to the sources of water so that dirty rainwater that drips from the roof can be cleansed and used
Power
By, Howee and Midori
By, Howee and Midori
We met the owner of the land on our first day on site, Pablo. He is an artist that sells his artwork on street markets. This definitely had an influence and drive on desiring to construct a sustainable house. Looking around Pablo’s land, I noticed many opportunities of harnessing power on his land. For example, in the reading “Off On Our Own” by Ted Carns, various ideas mentioned in it could be implemented on the land. This land was great for solar panels since it was an open area, also wind mills could be another option, even though it might not have been as useful because winds weren’t as constant. It is more probable for a clear sunny day to happen than a windy day.
The location of the site is in a province of Buenos Aires in a town called Ingeniero Maschwitz, or Maschwitz for short. The climate is hot and humid in the summer and cool in the winter. In the southern hemisphere, they are in their summer days. Below you will find the average temperatures during the year. During the beginning days of working at Pablo’s land, the average temperature was around 28-30 degrees Celsius with relative humidity of 65-70%. Towards the end of our trip, temperatures reached 32-33 degrees Celsius and unbearably hot.
In short, the resources are there to provide adequate water, heating, and lighting for Pablo. Power is essential to sustain life and accessibility.
