Project: Green Islands - Re-imagining the Function of Nature in Urban Development
Team Members:
Belle He, Project lead
Katrina He
Summary:
This project seeks to minimize some of the environmental strain associated with urban areas by designing special green zones within existing cities and furthering research into eco-friendly infrastructure. Urban activities such as driving and manufacturing are highly carbon-intensive, as is the production of widely-used cement.
To counter these harmful environmental effects, this project calls for incorporating nature more deliberately into our cities-- both with designated areas for natural beauty and with creative solutions for replacing conventional construction materials (ex: vegetation roofs, fungus-laced concrete, etc.). It is hoped that this will allow people to enjoy nature in urban settings as well as reduce associated pollution from conventional manufacturing and construction.
Currently, many industries have begun shifting towards sustainable business practices, and consumer buying patterns suggest that many people are interested in supporting these efforts. Construction, manufacturing, and urban planning are a few industries where we feel tangible progress can be made.
Sustainable Development Goals:
Sustainable Cities and Communities
Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Climate Action
Skills & Resources Needed:
The plan for the future is to propose and implement a small demonstration project involving our proposed materials at one of our university campuses.
We definitely need more information on material costs and logistics for our proposed material changes, but more importantly, we’ll need to be able to navigate the bureaucratic process for actually bringing this project to life. It would help to have insight from people who have successfully done these kinds of projects, whether on a college campus or not.
We would also love and welcome more ideas from innovators who have similar interests in “green construction”--perhaps they could offer similar project ideas that stand a better chance of being implemented (more feasible, less scary for administration, etc).
Overall, having more insight into the process of how we can turn our ideas into reality (even in a small way) would be very helpful.
Post-Capsule Goals:
Hobby Project
Project Motivation:
Climate change is an issue that requires a widespread change to combat. That is, much of the environmental strain on the planet comes from large-scale operations and whole industries (like manufacturing and construction). We feel that one way we can fight climate change is to focus on small changes within these industries that can then propagate and lead to widespread changes in business practices.
On another note, nature and natural landscapes are generally calming for people to look at and be in; in a culture where stress-related mental health issues are on the rise, we hope that bringing some green into the cities (literally) can lead to a healthier, happier population.