ADRIAN
CHU
SIN
CHUNG
332874
Final Reflection
When I was first introduced to the concept of sustainability several years ago, the only idea that was in my mind was the preserva on of natural resources, the reduc on of pollu on and the mi ga on of anthropogenic global warming, and this would be achieved through the energy eďŹƒciency of our systems. Later, when I started to study sustainability at the university, I learned that it also contains a very strong social and economic component to it. This is where my posi on was at the beginning at this subject. I regarded sustainability as being the preserva on of our environment by not ge ng in the way of social and economic sustainability. Depending on the socio-poli co-economic climates of the places where this sustainability is occurring, higher value would be placed on either one or several of these components. I started my first reflec on card introducing myself as coming from Mauri us, where the no on of sustainability is very dierent from that of developed countries. From someone from there, I considered sustainability to be small ac ons done by every body for the greater good. A er all the wealth of knowledge I have acquired during these past fourteen weeks, has my view on sustainability changed? Not really. It has been enhanced, enriched. But the fundamental basics of what sustainability should be have not really been changed, I just realised that it could be pushed a lot further than I ever thought was possible. The untapped poten al of what sustainability could be.
My view of sustainability a er this subject.
A er a very brief study of sustainability in my undergraduade course, what I thought sustainability was all about.
My view of sustainability when I was a kid, the current view of sustainability of my parents, and s ll that of many people.
This diagram doesn’t show a lot does it? Expect from the fact that the higher my level of educa on, the more I understand the complexi es of sustainability? Not really. Let me explain.
What I mean is that throughout the weeks, besides from introducing a series of amazing theories, the subject has taught me one thing: it is never what it appears to be - the first theory we studied, the Living Building Challenge, was suďŹƒciently dense and contained enough new paradigms to completely challenge our way of thinking. Two weeks later, we were introduced to Cradle-to-cradle, and this again raised a set of new ques ons for me and this happened every me we were introduced to a new concept. What this did was, at the same me providing us with a wealth of knowledge, created some forms of confusion. Theories overlapped, contradicted themselves, and it was some mes hard to find clear boundaries between them. Every me I thought I had a grasp on one theory, I ended up being confused again when I added another layer of complexity or tried to integrate another theory to it. It all only became clear when we started pu ng pieces back together for our final project. And even that, while it helped us be er understand how what we have learned can be applied in a realis c way, how things can work together (or not work together for that ma er), it also showed us that it is not that simple, just overlaying a set of theories on an exis ng condi on and hope that everything else will fall into place. Now back to my diagram: what it tried to demonstrate was that what exists out there, and by out there I mean in our natural world, that complex beau ful world in which we live, the interac ons and complexi es that exist are far beyond what we can possibly fully understand. Our ancestors understood how to live with nature and so lived sustainably, pollu on could be absorbed by nature and materials and the environment were self regenera ng and no one had to worry about environmental issues. When technology improved and popua on increased, the human race lost its es with nature and treated our good earth as a limitless source of material and energy, and a bo omless well to absorb our wastes. When this prac ce started to take its toll, we developed environmental strategies, and when these strategies proved to be not so eďŹƒcient, we developed new ones. And here we are today, with a set of strategies that focuses not only as minimising human impact on the environment, but to help it to regenerate itself. If we can condense this chronological change over the 14 weeks I have been studying this subject, what is it gonna show? Living Building Challenge Interconnectedness Cradle to Cradle Biophilic Design Posi ve Development Regenera ve Design
What this shows is that humans have been extremely good at destroying their environment, but they have also been extremely good at adap ng to dire circumstances. If the theories that we have been learning in this subject (which are currently the leading environmental strategies) don’t perform as well as we expect them to, we will come up with something more promising. This is why I have labelled part of the diagram ‘untapped poten al’ and have not placed a boundary to it. The more our knowledge increases, the more we will be able to be highly sustainable (however you care to define sustainable). This represents an important paradign shi - the way we usually depict the future nowadays in fic on and the media is usually highly managed and ar ficial environments. We should depict the future as being one where nature is back in the picture, some kind of a pre-Raphaelite philosophy about going back to how things used to be done in the past, only with new technology. And this is where this awesome image assumes its meaning - THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!!! The poten al we have in nature is huge, and we should not be afraid to use it. The only limita on we have is the way we think and the biased preconcep ons we have about sustainability. And this is where, we, young geniuses who have studied this subject come into play. My personal contribu on is to educate people, con nue this legacy and share this knowledge. Make people understand that the capacity to do things starts with knowing how to do these things. ‘Informa on to replace power’ as good old John Lyle would say. But most importantly, I would start being proac ve. I already have actually. One of the main focuses or my final project was to use worms to compost organic wastes. I fell so much in love with these ny wriggly fellows that I have started my own small compos ng farm in my backyard, tossing kitchen scraps in there. S ll too early to see actual compost and honestly, I’m afraid my li le worms are not thriving too well because of the cold weather, but hey, we’ve got to start somewhere don’t we? Overall it has been a wonderful learning experience, and definitely one of the subjects that I will not forget, and the knowledge I acquired from which I will always try to apply in my future subjects and ul mately in my workplace. So thank you Pippa, Dominique, Suze e and Enela for this wonderful human experience :)