Permaculture

Permaculture design principles extend from the position that "The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children" (Mollison, 1990). The intent was that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals could design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying the Earth's ecosystems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

I'd say the Gaiaship takes the Permaculture concept to a new high.  

Picking out Plants

http://www.pfaf.org/leaflets/pioneer.php

The idea of selecting plant for their desired attributes to manufacture a designed human environment is a long standing one - but it's been forgotten in recent years just how effective living walls - hedges and strips of forest - can be in shaping our spaces.  

Indoor and outdoor fireplace heatsinks

So I was kicked back with my feet stretched out toward my fire pit this early December Evening.  Flames burning brightly in the moonlit night and I thought about all that heat being radiated into space and I was humbled by an idea... 

I want to make this place really & truly self-sufficient; no matter what.  So I mentally traced how I would and could incorporate the common fireplace into the gaiaship design.  That fundamental and ancient building structure for providing heat to a human habitation.  

First; the fireplace itself could operate with natural gas supplied from waste reprocessing & syngas production; or regular old bio-mass... wood.  The combustion gasses are fast tracked up the central exhaust chimneys with multiple stages of heat sinks in play to capture the waste heat.  

First stage channels heat into the hot water system of the local house circuit.  This heat sink would be built right into the walls of the fireplace and flue system.  Hot water for the Gaiaship can be provided by a central always cycling circuit of hot water heated by power generation & boiler facilities; more traditional local loops of gas & electric hot water heaters; instant hot water made at the source and finally the re-captured heat from that pretty little fire.  

This hot water would be available for the hot tub; shower,  dishwasher or in floor radiant heating.

 Wouldn't you rather live in a place that could be totally heated by just burning a cheery little fire... no matter if you have electricity or not.  

Later stages would be channeled into the vortex heat chimneys to help generate a bit more electricity.  

Yeah; its rather pessimistic to think about how this facility could withstand the breakdown of modern society; but I honestly think if truly made self sustainable; it could and most definitely would.  And that self supporting but not contained environment could easily change the make-up of a broken society that surrounded it.  Think about a self contained outpost of food; shelter & technology in a war-torn region of Africa.   How quickly would it become a hub of economic activity?  How quickly could it change the region for the better?  There's no reason that this idea - as modular as it is - can't be built upon; expanded and applied to revolutionize entire cities.  It's knowledge of the interacting systems and a complete design on how to leverage them that's needed.  The technology only has to be brought together with a good design.  

Gismology

Podcasts are slow, sometimes boring... but this one!!!  A great discussion on green building and architecture from the American Institute of Architects. 

Yet another waste cycle being closed

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=plasma-turns-garbage-into-gas

I'm not going to get into it... but this brief article really shows the progress that is being made in closing the 'waste' loopholes in our current systems.  

Covered in Trees

The most impressive energy system on earth does not involve fossil fuels, but lies within every cell of billions of leaves.

http://www.solarbotanic.com/

http://www.ct-si.org/news/press/item.html?id=4053

Solar Botanic has designed artificial trees and plants which are so lifelike that to most casual observers they are living trees and plants.

In fact, each tree or plant is a powerhouse of renewable energy harvesting the eternal profligate power of the sun, wind and rain.

The essential element in this technology is Solar Botanic's artificial leaf (Nanoleaf) which captures the sun's radiant energy in photo voltaic and thermo voltaic cells converting the radiation into electricity.

Simultaneously as the wind blows the layers of voltaic material in the stems, twigs and branches are moved, compressed and stretched, creating electricity.

Thus as the sun shines, the winds blow and the rain falls, millions of micro circuits are activated, each making its contribution to the electrical energy of the tree.

An average tree with a canopy of about 6 sq metres can create enough energy to provide for the needs of an average household.

Solar Botanic trees can be used to service a single household or they can be used in situations where natural growing groups of trees would previously have been used, such as along motorways, in suburban streets or parks where they can make a significant contribution to the national electrical grid

Nature's Clean up Crew

Pests?

So, since we're thinking 'Au-natural' here, what about pest control and the chemicals that are involved in controlling poisonous, dangerous or ugh Animals!!?!

The usual suspects people try to keep from their homes are:

Ants

Spiders

Flying insects of all kinds but especially Mosquitoes

Roaches

Rats

Mice

Squirrels

Possums

Skunks

Bears

Big Cats

Big Dogs / Wolves

Foxes

Snakes

Lizards

Birds - have you seen the mess a flock of pigeons can make!!?

Bats

Feel free to comment if you want to throw others into the mix but lets start with these and see how to control, or more importantly, incorporate into this human landscape.

Animals and insects can be beautiful, dangerous and truly wild, even in close proximity to large populations of humans. Disease can run unchecked through populations of rats & rodents that could then be passed to humans. Looking back as recently as the 1800's, We have been taught to fear 'uncontrolled' populations of animals in close vicinity to humanity. Events like the Black Plague teach much about how to much Au-Natural can truly suck.

Lets add another factor... animals can be useful when controlled.

It's just been recently that humans have figured out how to *exclude* everything from our "inside" spaces; typically using harsh chemical substances. How do we do that with the Gaiaship? I mean come on! With a name like Gaiaship we have to take at least some 'Earth' with us inside. The whole point of this is true sustainability in a compact form. Sustainability for the human biosphere includes a huge number of lesser species, whether we like it or not.

Chemical substances cannot be allowed to concentrate to hazardous levels in the>95% Recycling that's going on here. We capture rainwater for use on site, grey water from tubs and sinks is being used to irrigate the landscaping. So, if we can't use chemicals, what are more organic methods? Ah, useful Critters! Natures pre-built 'nano-machines'.

Ants are scavengers - natures true small waste disposal system. They can be painful and problematic, example 1: fire-ants in Texas, or they can be rather innocuous like black sugar ants. These tiny critters are usually seen as little trails of moving dots to spilled foods. Ants can also be contained, and displayed to good effect. Truly natures ultimate, pint sized clean up crew. Think dead mouse: rot or be consumed by ants? Which is going to take less time? Which will smell better? Not the rotting corpse covered in flies...

So, we keep the ants and perhaps even; dare I suggest it - pick the kind we want and foster them to the exclusion of other species?  Competition for 'picking up' after humans tasks will happen; we just try and pick winners.  Fill the niche.

Spiders - the hunters & killers of the micro world.  Pest and pest control in their own right - if the mosquitoes (something we have to control) go crazy and breed out of control... the spiders fight back with methods of their own. But again; we have to fill the niche - picking a relatively benign spider (I'm not making the call on which... I'll leave that to the Biology professionals) to foster.  For a truly bizarre mental picture... think about air intakes into the base / utility areas screened for pests first by a horde of non-poisonous spiders; then of course by more conventional means like screens; sterilization etc.  But first crack at the inbound pests are our very own pet spiders.  

FYI - I'm getting shivers down my back just posting about this... I suffer from mild arachnophobia.  

Mosquitoes!!  Ah the most loathsome of flying insects simply because it feasts on our very flesh and there is little that can be done about it... Or is there.  Screens on windows and doors of course.  Control of any and all standing water; no stagnant pools.  Water is captured; re-used and controlled on campus.  And most importantly... predators:  Birds & Bats in the air; fish and frogs in the water.  

Roaches - I got nothing here.  My house is clean of them; but I know others that can't seem to keep them at bay.  Perhaps an ant that would dine on them?

Lets turn next to the little rodents.  Control of these little buggers is the purview of another level of critter.  We're intruding on macro territory here because some of these things... rabbit & squirrel for instance are welcomed in human territory for the most part.  But, mice and rats are more likely to live indoors; where the people do and this is a real health issue.  So; controlling these guys in our ecosystem:  Snakes & Lizards.  Yup I said invite non-poisonous reptiles into our utility spaces; foster them by giving them monitored dens and clear access to the spaces between the walls.  Natures own; highly efficient, self propelled & motivated snake-bot.  

Now I'm not saying that we should simply let these sometimes dangerous critters run completely wild.  Rather I'd use them for pest control; house them under lights and show them off to people in an educational center.  I'd also tag them with RFID's and track their movement throughout the facility using strategically placed scanners.  Poisionous ones would be captured & released well away from the facility. 

Now for the flying rodents.  Austin Texas has had a thing for bats.  It's very proud of it's very own; downtown colony of the largest gathering of Mexican Freetail bats in the world.  There are statues and educational field trips; a even mediocre hockey team (iceskating in Texas!?!)  In the Gaiaship we play host to our own (tagged & tracked) population of these night-flying bug eaters. 

The biggest issue I have with bats is their waste!!!  OMG that stuff stinks and the insects that thrive in it are freaky cool; but highly undesired in close proximity to healthy minded humans.  

So I propose a design consideration in particular favor of the bats: they have roosts designed for them overhead of the psudo-swamp.  Already covered for capturing methane releases from the final steps of facility waste water; the bats guano is captured by the flowing waste water; processed automatically and it's bio-mass is harvested in the methane & syngas energy systems. 

Slightly up the scale we get to nuisance critters for the Texas area Skunks; Possums and the 'little-bears of human trash-bins' raccoons.  Again; using the MO of capture; tag and release; we would attempt to keep these populations under control using snakes... and another step up the food-chain: predatory birds.

Ah; the Majesty of a hawk stooping- there's almost nothing that compares with watching a hunting bird drop from the sky, flaring at the last second to snatch it's prey at top speed.  We would encourage the sport of hawking on the campus of a Gaiaship.  Owls too have a place in our scheme.  Holes and nests for them are factored into the design of park spaces & on the primary walls of the facility.  

Song-birds too are especially encouraged.  As a natural and very pleasant addition to the trees we would focus some design effort specifically to enable their residence.  For instance planting specific attractive plants (like fruti & nut bearing) and putting up protected nests.  

Next step up the food-chain: our very own pets.  Cats and Dogs can fill their own niche as well.  Preying on snakes; birds, large bugs, mice and rats alike they were early domesticates for a reason.  However; they too can and do get out of line... and at this point we're beginning to get into possible human harm levels.  Dogs & cats would need to be domesticated and human controlled.  Dogs are more likely to be strictly controlled in the facility by human owners.  One thing we don't want is an uncontrolled pack roaming the hallways.  Cats on the other hand are prime for the line of defence the human population will need from all the other critters.  Encouraging and fostering a dense colony of 'strays' (Again tagged, fostered & monitored) would be a great method to keep the less desirables at bay.  

Another step up and we're looking at the really big animals including bears and big cats.  These are excluded from our plan because they compete directly with humans and can cause serious harm to humans if not strictly controlled.  We'll have to resort to the time honored method of human hunting to control these, though the point shouldn't have to be made that tranking and releasing is the usual 'hunt'.  

All in all; we build a true ecosystem.  Carefully selecting compatable & complementary species at each level to fill each ecological niche... no poisons required.  

Open Source Architecture

So I've been working on my business plan for Drake Eco Developments, and I've come up with an interesting fork in the planning. 

Step 1: Develop Gaiaship Presentation, 3d Visual walk throughs, digital representation

Raise  money for engineering, BIS & architectural drawing - Likely Venture Capital or government grants because we're talking a couple million here to pay the entire team to do this.  

Step 2: Develop complete Engineering, BIS & architectural drawings.  Down to the last detail if possible - including options like mountain terrain, rainforest, desert, flatland prairie and even moon-base.  Forcing the team to think about all the different terrain types will ensure that this concept is truly portable and usable around the world.  

Fork:

A. If able to find a developer willing to build - do it!!! Build one, build two, build 200 of these things around the world.  Make Billions for All Involved!

B. If unable to find a developer - Liscense / Sell plans to interested parties.  Make a million or so - hopefully pay back investors.  Be the primary consultant for projects where plans have been licensed.  

C. If unable to find a developer *and* customers for the Gaiaship are few and far between - OPEN SOURCE THE PLANS.  

Yep - I said give it away.  

And then, following the Software Open Source model, sell support and consulting services for Eco Developments around the world.  

B and C are similar enough that after the initial few sales of the plans that I might open source the prototype plans anyway.  I'd love to see what a global network of Architects and Engineers, not to mention all the studants out there could and would contribute.  

I'm just now exploring what others have contributed to Open Source Architecture, and I'm kind of surprised to find very little so far.  Amazing considering the very real benifit open source has provided the software world.  

One Gem that's really helping my search: Carmon Sinclair's presentation to TED on Open Source Architecture.

Update: The Open Architecture Network - Open Source Design with sustainable focus & developing countries.  I'll likely start the Gaiaship here since the protections are built in with publishing and collaboration.  

A poet on Call - After the Bailout

Excellent!!! I love a good poem:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95567782&sc=emaf

$700 billion is more than enough money to buy every able-bodied American a chain saw, a solar-powered generator and a stake in a communal well and windmill. Also, red dirt and plum trees. That would probably only cost about $100 billion, and you can use the other $600 billion to buy everybody their house outright.

Cleantech

http://cleantech.com/

While I'm really excited about the potential for investment from governmental sources due to the increased awareness of the requirement for infrastructure investement; private capital markets are still active even in this slumping economy.  

'Green' Jobs

INTRODUCTION

Dwindling natural resources, growing global demand for energy, climate change – these issues

are irrevocably altering our global economy. In this report, the U.S. Conference of

Mayors and Global Insight have examined the economic benefits of the 'Green Economy' -

that part of economic activity which is devoted to the reduction of fossil fuels, the increase

of energy efficiency, and the curtailment of greenhouse gas emissions. The greening of the

U.S. economy, of the global economy, is not a dismantling of the past, but a new step forward

– the next step in a continuous process of economic growth and transformation that

began with industrialization and led us through the high-tech revolution.

The economic advantages of the Green Economy include the macroeconomic benefits of investment

in new technologies, greater productivity, improvements in the US balance of

trade, and increased real disposable income across the nation. They also include the microeconomic

benefits of lower costs of doing business and reduced household energy expenditures.

These advantages are manifested in job growth, income growth, and of course, a

cleaner environment.

http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/GreenJobsReport.pdf

Note that this paper doesn't project jobs related to *new* green building development.  Obviously some of the job growth from other sectors will support the GaiaShip but actually designing doesn't count... oh well.  Just means the total numbers of 'green' jobs is a tiny bit larger.  

Dream Team

So, since I can't seem to do this all on my own; I've begun to re-think how I go about this. To date, my plan has to teach myself Architectural Engineering, with a sprinkle of aerospace thrown in for the futuristic materials design of course... not at all because flying things are just *fun* :) But, after looking at the epic amount of time it's going to take to get me my degree taking only night classes I'm finding that I'm not sure that I want to wait that long to start the work necessary to develop this concept. Carpe Diem.

Go figure. To be a Dad, College Student, and hold down a successful full time job isn't enough for me. Lets add building the GaiaShip all at the same time. Oh and I'm still simmering on the Restaurant, but that's becoming a 'boot-strap' option. "The restaurant business is too risky!" Ugh... not in my estimation but with the credit crunch and collapsing economy people are getting stingy with capital.

So, due to a long remembered axiom from my business classes & training - if you don't have the skills yourself, don't be afraid to pay someone else to get them - if it's preventing you from moving the business forward. Result: I'm going to hire the team I need!

Where's the cash going to come from? Good question!

I figure there's a little bit of 'infrastructure spending' on the horizon. (Couple More Links) So now, with the possibility of a bit of government economic intervention, a popular mandate from *both* sides of this years contenders, and a bit of luck; I'll have a bit of cash to put together a team of designers, engineers, architects and a small army of CAD developers.

OK - so that begs the question - WHO do I need?

First requirement - must be interested in Sustainability. That buzzword really gets thrown around a lot these days... but I'm talking 95% or better closed loop waste & water cycles locally to obviate the requirement of a global footprint for the modern lifestyle.

Second... well that's when we differentiate, though LEED certification for most of them would help. I'm not terribly interested in the actual certification though. Rather I like the idea that the candidate would be aware of today's standards even though I'm going to push for developing tomorrows.

1. Structural Design & Architecture
   
2. Waste-Water Engineer (With emphasis on Bio Engines)
   
3. Electrical Engineers who can design a distributed power plant.
   
4. Recycling (Municipal Waste) Engineers
• Thermal Depolymerization (human biomass conversion)
• Alternate Paths for *most* waste streams - no landfill allowed (except for toxic chemicals)
5. Small Army of CAD flingers!
   
6. Computer Network Engineer (Design & Implement - Open source software Advocate required)
7. Lawyer to handle the government interaction
8. Accountant & Business Finance - running the business and organizing multiple diverse revenue streams
   

I've got lunch with a couple of recruiters on Monday. I'm really looking forward to learning a bit more about these folks job descriptions, going pay rates, and years of experience I can expect.

(Gods that's a small army of people... outsource FTW)

Space Living Now

OK, to put it bluntly... I'm a wannabe space-geek. But not 'space' as it is today...

The Shuttle-truck
The International Space Can... er Station
Private sub-orbital roller coasters


I'm a space fanatic with more a leaning towards moon-base... asteroid belt mining... space colonies... and the ultimate in solar system wide civilization... the dyson sphere.

But... to get to the 'space' I want, We have to *live* in space. Not visit... not claim.... but call home that non-planetary void delineated by the oort cloud.

And to learn to live in space, we have to engineer the recycling and re-use systems right here on earth. We have to learn to bring in resources... and re-use most of them on-site.

This 'self-containment' and the ultimate goal of enabling a space based civilization is at the heart and soul of the Gaiaship concept. We figure out how to do this !here! and then we'll know how to do it !there!.

Dream big... and remember the end goal... save the species. ;p

(I've always been told that the best entrepreneur always wants to save or change the world for the better. I think I found my 'Entre'. )

Buzzword Mania

Leed
Green
Eco
(and all it's deriviatives)
recycle
reuse
re-animate (er... wait)

Head down (Ass Up)

So I've gone kinda incog lately... the new job, life in general and school starting back kinda makes the time fly...

That said... I've discovered the addiction that is an RSS reader (google reader FTW). I found that the offered defaults just didn't hold water for me. So I've been on a crusade to find new blogs & data sources to peruse... OMG there's a lot out there. I'm still vetting the wheat from the chaff but soon I'll have those wonderful link-lists running down the side of this blog showing where I'm currently gleaning and absorbing. Stay tuned.

If you have suggestions that further the discussion here - PLEASE post in the response feeds you're into.

Ethics and Design

In repeated recent discussions I've had with friends, as well as a common thread of interest I've seen in my architecture related searches one term keeps surfacing.

Ethics

The ethics of design, the ethics dictated by place, the ethics of environmental and social responsibility.

This essay (pdf) by Ed Akins II, AIA LEED AP - Atlanta, Georgia is a good, comprehensive foundation for the topic at hand.

Green Design, sustainability, eco-design, whatever it may be called, is a response to our current crisis of resource depletion and toxic environments. It is morally imperative to find solutions within the field of Architecture because Architecture has caused most of the problems. Therefore green design, or reparative design, is
inseparable from ethical design.

So have begun to think about the ethics involved in my drive and desire to create the GaiaShip - or rather the drive to improve sustainability in human built spaces.

Other than the obvious cycles that move waste streams into valuable inputs elsewhere, what other 'ethics' or human issues should the GaiaShip aspire to address? Looking to Maslows Need Hierarchy; we're already hitting the basics - food, shelter, safety- and we're probably even providing or enabling some of the intangibles - 10,000 like-minded people all living in similar conditions in our eco-microcity are bound to have positive social impacts. I mean you don't chose to live in a place like this (where eco-values are dominant) without some basic commonality with your neighbors, even if it's only 'caring' for the environment.

Modular Housing - 2008

As I've explored the idea of interior spaces for the GaiaShip - I've settled upon an interesting hybrid of two architectural styles. Designed to be a Modular building system - the interior would be made to 'snap' together in rich and diverse ways. Pipes and wires would be integrated into walls, ceilings and floors all held in slight remove from the concrete shell of the building.

Picture a long, warehouse like open space - with the exterior shell pierced continuously by large openings for doors and windows. Inside this shell walls and flooring would be 'lego'ed' together - with 4'x6' panels being an example standard dimensional size. Floors and walls could even be simple and inexpensive blank slates for the real do-it-yourselfer to paint or cover further.


Obvious benefits from this design that spur further thought and needed research include:

Factory construction of interior panels.
This provides a likely significant reduction of construction waste with opportunities for manufacturing line style efficiencies leveraging design standards and high quality material controls.

Easy upgrade-ability of the home's interior or even size.
If the place next to your condo becomes available for purchase - you can do so and add that space to your home with a relatively minor floor-plan re-design: replace a wall with a doorway. Of course - pulling out the other persons interior to replace with your own would be just as possible. Perhaps the other person opted for a modern interior - all blacks & whites with shiny metals... and you wanted a wood floor and paneling. Simply call the office and put in an order to have the walls & floors replaced. The order goes out to perhaps a special on-site factory where the panels are built to order, carried up and slotted into-place. No sawdust necessary. Old panels could be taken down, and if in good condition refurbished and re-used elsewhere - freecycle for the win.


You may have caught that this interior space allotment & ability to re-build is fairly similar to standard retail construction. A large space subdivided according to renter's needs. You're renting or buying square footage - not a plot of land or a building. You could see a 3,000 sq ft right next to a 1,000 or even a 500 sq ft space. Follow that with a 6,000 sq ft flat that just cannibalized three smaller spaces into one.

This mix is absolutely intentional! After starting to read Jane Jacob's Cities and the Wealth of Nations I realized that if I plan to truly re-create a dynamic & healthy hyper urban environment - I cannot segregate neighborhoods from their support-structures. By allowing dynamic subdivision based on the residents desires rather than some master-planner (with some initial % limits to prevent totally overwhelming sectors with retail or other uses.) we can encourage a dynamic and healthy 'street-life' - even inside.


A recent example of modular, factory based yet flexible construction are the LivingHomes designed by architects Ray Kappe and Keran Timberlake. Note that these are built in their entirety - rather than inside a pre-made shell. I like my pre-made shell simply because it provides structure beyond the cubical design usually mandated by this style of construction.

Check out the tour - very cool!

Love that fire-place too - Denatured Alcohol Fire in a box. http://www.ecosmartfire.com/
I wonder what else it could burn? Reminder - consumer & retail waste is being processed on-site and one normal output of that digestion is flammable gases like methane and syn-gas. I plan to use most of that for boiling water to make electricity - but if it's possible (Doesn't smell bad or render toxic fumes into homes), I'd want to route some to fire-places like this or even cook stoves.

back to boxes inside a shell... with utilities nestled between shell and interior walls. I'm still trying to figure out a sanitary drainage system that doesn't mandate restrooms and kitchens always in the same patterns or places. I want each home to be as flexible as possible - no rubber stamp layouts please. But other than the drains - the inputs could and would be routed in grids that either are part of each panel or are always in standard paths in order to be built around.

Hot fresh water will circulate continuously for space heating and hot water taps. Instant on hot water will dramatically reduce potable water waste from the tap as you won't have to run the water to empty out the pipes of cold water thats in the way. Also - warm water circulating would provide perfect feeds for on location on-demand *hot* water taps. The warm would be used in sinks, clothes washers and space heating.

Electricity especially will be routed everywhere - panels near the floor and along the ceiling will plug into the next.
It will be simplicity itself to place lighting and plugs. Note that inside this facility there will be Direct Current (DC )as well as Alternating (AC) current.

DC is more efficient and is generated by default with most alternate energy sources like Solar & Wind turbines. The average consumer already has a *ton* of DC powered devices. Every device you have that has a wall wart (black plastic bricks attached to the cable) is a DC device. Anything that can plug into the car's cigarette lighter is also potentially a viable user of this DC current. But the real draw on that power line will be the DC driven LED lighting. LEDs are typically less luminous individually than the usual incandescent bulb. So we solve that with clusters or strings of LED that together up to comparable lumen's.

Picture the interior of a science fiction star ship... panels that lock together - easily removed to view the underlying utilities. Light strips lighting up the floor and changing color depending on the situation. Think about how the light changes to red during emergencies if you're having a hard time picturing it. (Red is easier on your eyes and doesn't cause contraction of the pupils at night). However, I'm not necessarily thinking of 'mood-lighting' per say or even simply white lights, though that's definitely an option - but lighting that cycles over the course of the day though the solar spectra of early morning... afternoon and evening in conjunction with outside conditions.

Most lighting will likely be fiber-optic based with a central light-box lit by arrays of LED's. Plastic or glass cables running through each panel would route light to where it is desired and useful. An externally controlled color-wheel is simple to do in this situation, preventing the need for multiple color (and therefore more expensive) LEDs. If the light-boxes are powerful enough you could have panels without any LED's attached and instead just jump light across air filled junctions between panels.

This fiber-optic lighting fits right in with the solar light collectors that would be placed on the green-roof of the GaiaShip. These sunlight driven lighting systems use fiber-optics to route the light into a building's interior. Join the LED & Sunlight systems together and you cut the need to drive the LED systems to a bare-minimum - if at all during the day.


A requirement I set on the GaiaShip's design says that sunlight has to penetrate to *every* living space. And - I want to *maximize* the amount of actively usable living space on the ground (5-12 stories - most residential) . Now - how to do that without having shadowy and gloomy courtyards where nothing grows except really tall skinny trees or huge and horrible vertical wall concrete canyons.

The sloping walls dressed with elevated greenery and mini-gardens on most levels open up the spaces between buildings, but the interior of multi-story buildings need light too. Make them too thick and you have one-sided apartments and condos who only see daylight out one side. I wanted to avoid that if possible but still have interior public walkways in order to move between private and public spaces without going outside or 'underground' (+first floor) into the parking & utility sections.

So, Channeling sunlight where I want it in the interior becomes necessary.

I see a combination of multi-level hallways capped by skylights for the larger, higher end residential and retail spaces (think indoor mall); high ceiling hallways with 'solar-tubes' (flexible reflective tubes) spotlights for interior garden spaces; and courtyards with either open or covered roofs). These courtyards and interior hallways will be dictated by the shell of the building. Solar light tubes and fibers however will be routed between upper floor walls and down to lower levels in order to share the wealth of free light deep into the interior.


On a final note - the factory wouldn't have to be 'owned' by the developers- in fact it's a prime candidate for an entrepreneur or two or more to seize upon and provide a valued service to this mini-city. 10,000 people is a pretty sizable dedicated market - and that's only for the first one!

Architect Friends

So just today I had a great lunch with a friend of mine - Mike Chiles of Chiles Architects. If you need an architect to do some really cool buildings - hit me up and I'll be happy to connect you!

I've dropped a chat with him about the Gaiaship concept below...

Key take-aways:

1. I need a big architectural firm to draw the plans
2. Engineering all the integrated energy, food and hydro systems is going to be expensive
3. 10,000 people could easily fit in a square mile
4. I love my friends!
   

Brian: How much does it cost to get you guys to draw up plans?

Looking for an approximation

Lalli: depends on how big the project is

Brian: 10,000 units

:)

Lalli: :)

no seriously

Brian: How big a place have you guys done? I'm looking at something a square mile or so that houses 10,000 people mixed use including light industrial

and retail

Plus hotel on site

and yes I'm serious

Lalli: ah never done anything that big

Brian: OK - but could you?

I'm looking at 2.2 billion in residential sales alone

Lalli: a square mile for 10k people would eb an extremely tall building

Brian: How tall? 7 stories? 15? 40?

I don't have a good concept of it

Lalli: umm well hold on let me do some math

ok so... a square mile is 27 880 000 square feet

an average unit for say a 1 bedroom is say 800 Square feet

that would be 34850 untis

never mind then

Brian: :)

Lalli: I doubt though that you could cover the entire grounds with building though

Brian: I wouldnt want to

The areas between buildings would be green spaces - parks... wildlife corridors

streams

walking paths

The idea is to make it mixed use

so that you have retail, office and light industy all in the same square mile

Lalli: ok so typical architectural billl for order of magnitude 300 unit job ranges from 100k to 250 k depending on how intricate

Brian: Lets call this really intracate

and make it 10,000 people mixed use community - with on-site electrical generation, water & wastewater systems (self contained if possible), trash management & recycling... 1.5 million for the plans?

Lalli: I would say that is low but I am not sure

your engineering woudl be alot mroe than that

especially with all the systems you are trying to incorporate

and they are not cheap

Brian: No they are not!

But the over-arching concept here is to create a 95% self sustainable system. One that can have a grocery store on site... but doesn't really require one

Honestly, I'm thinking about this as not just a single location either...

One single square mile

I'm thinking in terms of revolutionizing the way humans live in the 21'st century... including and especially developing countries. So 1.5 million for the plans... and another 5 million for development of the fundamental systems for 5000 of these scattered around the world... seems a pretty decent investment :)

Especially if I can figure out how I'd skim my own profit off the top :)

Lalli: good luck

life long plan eh

Brian: Hey -You bet

Lalli: you are talking about a couple of hundred million dollar project

for a single one

Brian: And revenues of billions just in residential sales alone

Lalli: ok trump where you getting your money? :)

the universal rule still applies

Brian: OMG yes

Lalli: "Got to have money to make money"

Brian: I've been talking with a lawyer friend about this

he has already come up with a couple of ways to leverage land-owners levarage

Brian: And if I can find a bank willing to finance the building of the facility... they could and would be the primary lender for the people buying the residences

So... i may be able to leverage other peoples money

And again - find some way to skim off my own little share

But one of the critical components at this point is finding an architect and putting together the engineering team to figure out if this whole this is even possible

if it is... money shouldn't be a terribly difficult thing to find

I'm even considering finding governments to fund it

Lalli: 95% will be really hard to hit

Brian: It's the stretch goal

If we can break even 80% I'd be thrilled

The first threshold I'd like to ensure the place hits is energy net positive... meaning it sells surplus energy to the grid

Of course done via renewable resources as much as possible

Brian: Do you think Chiles Architects would be interested? This really would be a visionary thing to do.

Lalli: too big for us to get done fast enough for you

Brian: Fast enough? I'm looking at years before we get to this

Lalli: fast during the process

Brian: I don't understand

Lalli: ie when your investors have a big loan out to be able to pay your architect
while we are drawing

because we don't have the people necessary to do a project of that scale quickly you would have your loan out longer costing you more money

Brian: I get it - you're thinking Chiles isn't big enough to handle the scale of this thing

Lalli: if we are good at doing jobs with 300-400 untis than you would need an architect that has like +100 employees

right

Brian: And you guys have ... 30?

Lalli: right

Brian: So you're thinking that something like this would take... how long to draw?

For you... and for the hypothetical larger firm?

Lalli: umm probably over a year

Brian: Full time?

Lalli: if not longer

Brian: Good to know - thank you!

If the timing wasn't an issue - would you want a piece of this? is it attractive at all?

Lalli: not for our company no
Cook + Fox leading architect in New York for green building/renewable architecture

we would have to pull every single person in the office to do it and its would be putting all your eggs in one basket kind of thing

Brian: scary for any business

Lalli: never a good idea for any business

Brian: emphatic nod

Lalli: http://www.cookplusfox.com/

Jumpers

... Extending from the last post.

It's so far off -base from a 'normal' design configuration that I had to post it in a separate position.

So - thinking about vortex & power generation with waste heat I had the sudden thought about skydiving simulators - high power fans that humans can 'fly' at low altitudes on.
--

--

Damn that looks like fun.

Then I thought about creating an open shaft out through the middle of the vortex. Oooh - I'm beginning to see possibilities for launching small aircraft and gliders - likely UAV's of some-sort. It's a militaristic spin to the self-contained system that is a GaiaShip but hey - the military are possibly huge customers of this concept - self sustainable bases seems like an ideal for the logistics side of the house.

Then I went one step further - launching people in wing-suits and hang-gliders. Base-jumping from ground level (or at least the top of an 8 story building).
--

--

See - I told you... outlandish - but think of gliding to the next vortex updraft and being able to gain yet more altitude - jumping from tower to tower staying up for extended periods of time.

Sigh - as if! But hey, who knows. I know that from now on at the very least I'll be including a free-fall simulator in my GaiaShip Design. It's too cool not to have it :)

Waste Heat Exaust - Legged building?

As I lay sleepless tonight, with thoughts of bills and babies in my head, an interesting idea came to me. I've been thinking hard about the shape and structure of the GaiaShip and came up with something a bit 'different'. Up to now it's been a multi-level, multi-story squat building with extensive/intensive green roof punctuated occasionally by tall statuesque towers.



Issues and pain points I've been trying to address have been internal transit (especially between towers), sunlight penetration to the most living space possible (reducing internal light needs) and air & heat exhaust based purely on the principle of rising air.

I've anticipated that the waste heat needing to be exhausted from the very large building we're constructing here will be significant - major power use will do that. Since it has the natural tendency to cause heated air to rise - how to design the building to allow the heated air to rise without getting in it's way and thus requiring a fan to move it around?


Also, remember that we're moving waste heat to the base of the vortex engine. The engine also requires a source of air. The engines primary design calls for just open air from general ground level... I'm saying use the exhaust air of a facility holding thousands of people.

I suppose that the heated air rising and spiraling away could be piped to the vortex engine via water (ultimate water cooling case mod >.<) but we need to exhaust large quantities of air anyway from the underground vehicle & transit corridor to prevent any toxic fume build-up. Might as well combine the two.
I came up with sloped or vertical shafts leading to the base of the Vortex. Like so... With this configuration though there are the problem of 'pipes' arching through the air overhead - not exactly aesthetic. Then my brain jumped to wiggling the pipes into shapes... Curving them this way and that... thought about pyramids, domes, tipi's and arches... Hrm - stone arches look good and are very strong to the point of being structurally stable based on balancing friction and gravity. They are old tech and evoke classically good reactions to viewers.

Then I made the pipes fatter, added living space and found a synergy with light penetration! So, what about creating the floors in 'blocks' reminiscent of the stone blocks found in classic arch-ways. Soften the lines with decorative walls but the main structure is simply stacked blocks - stair stepping inward. People living in the arch sides.

If necessary using a central support tower leading to a disk of high end retail, office, dining and entertainment spaces suspended in the air. Very Sci-Fi, though possible eminently practical.

Oooh - I've found another synergy based on some half formed thoughts for isolating the impact of earthquakes on the structure. Being in Alaska these last few weeks really drove home the need for the GaiaShip concept to work in all sorts of environments - especially earthquake prone ones. I've let the idea of suspension bridges, hoop skirts & similar systems suspended on strong central towers (with human usable space in them of course) slosh around in my subconscious since I had a conversations with a Smart California Lawyer "David". David's status as an extended family member, fellow Physically oriented tourist, and a couple Alaskan Ambers notwithstanding, we had a fantastic conversation about the GaiaShip concept and it's ability to revolutionize the living arrangements of native and seasonal residents of the Alaskan State with food production and quality of life improvements.

Hoop skirts and suspension bridges need 'cables' or other structures to hold it all 'up'. I'm not saying that the GaiaShip buildings wouldn't touch the ground except for the towers... not at all. I'd think the base needs more typical shock absorption but that some of the structural burden would be held 'up' by the tower to provide some ability to 'sway' like a hoop cage in case of an earthquake.


Ok - back to rising heat through our now thick legs and high disk. If you are having trouble visualizing it - think spider mounted on a entomologists table .



Then I thought... how do I move people inside a curved space like this - with independent elevators able to follow a curved path?

Hrm - Circuses and Six Flags seems to do it regularly and my recent experience on the Juno tramway up to the top of a mountain probably had something to do with the idea of having an elevator on a curved 'track': roller coaster, ski-lift or cable tram style.


OK - so we now have a mechanical means of moving people though the space and a method for heated air to rise unchecked and my brain begins to calm down... perhaps to dream.

Interesting Stat

"did you know you only need a 25x25 square garden to grow enough food to feed an entire family of 5 for an entire year"

-Lalli (a good friend of mine and gardener)

I wonder if Hydroponic systems could shrink that significantly?

People in Power!

I’m sitting in the lobby of Pikes Riverfront Hotel, waiting for my bus to the airport and overhear an Alaskan Legislator and Owner of the Pikes talking on the phone about an effort to build 5 hydroponic green-houses in Gnome Alaska. Apparently they have natural gas that is just being vented / flared and a need for fresh vegetables. They are looking at getting federal, state and local funds put into this project and using it to commercially grow produce year round. Introducing myself I met Jay Ramras, and he handed me the card of the dean of University of Alaska Faribanks and told me to get a hold of her secretary for further information. Rack up points for networking at random opportunities.

Ah Alaska

Land as glorious as it is possible to imagine… With sunlight cycles that drive people insane (it’s after 10:00 pm as I write this and it looks like it would be about 6:30 anywhere else), locals who have a serious size complex (“We’re bigger than Texas!!!”), and mountains that humble everything (even the sheeple tourists and their checkbooks).

The cruise up the coast and train ride into Denali was wonderful. The most lasting impressions I’ll carry are the sheer mountainous size of a glacier, the majesty of an eagle in flight, and the fact that the ravens are as big as VW’s. Also the squalor imposed by the exceedingly high cost of living in a place where the weather can be severe enough to shape *every* decision.

Decisions that struck me most were that agriculture is a ‘hobby’ or a tourist attraction, buildings are barely different than what you find elsewhere in the US and that transit is a huge deal here – mainly because they don’t have any! Malls have hotels in them for the semi annual trips into town by locals in from the ‘bush’!

Agriculture

Repeatedly I heard laments about the importing of fresh fruits and vegetables (Tuesday the ship arrives – by Thursday the stores have sold out), and in the next breath bragging about how big veggies grow in this extremely short warm season. This of course spurs a question – what about indoor hydroponics; vertical farming!?!?! The light & temperature cycles here in Alaska provide a great juxtaposition to the more common methods of farming.

The extended daylight obviously plays a huge factor in this and I think it would be exceedingly interesting to experiment with light & temperature combinations similar to Alaska’s seasons for rapidly growing large specimens of very high producing crops. I’m thinking an 18 light / 4 dark cycle, perhaps with graduated lighting changes combined with a cool spring-like atmosphere for the seeding & initial growth phases, higher heat and intense solar quantities during main growth phase and a cooler & gradually darker ‘fall’ done in a 3-4 month period could produce a fully controllable and hyper-growth 3-harvest cycle. Done in shifts you could have a single vertical farm producing continuous harvests of all sorts of produce.

The University of Alaska, Fairbanks seems to have a priority on agriculture. I heard about their focus and a smidgen about what they were working on during the train ride into Fairbanks. And then, once in our final stop – the Pike’s Riverfront Lodge - found a greenhouse that was, with UoA’s and the Future Farmers of America’s help, putting together a hydroponic system to supply the hotel’s restaurant with veggies. Woot – what a great start!!! I’m thinking that coordinating with their Agriculture department would yield amazing results. I’ll get back to you on that after I make a few phone calls & emails.

Architecture

Why are buildings made of almost the exact same materials that I find in central USA – or even gracing the coast of Texas!? Over and over I looked for the differences and found only minor changes. Log cabins are a big deal here – lots of history in them is one of the major draws for them, but I think they are making a nod towards ‘thermal-mass’ as a method for insulation. It’s a good plan though I think some materials improvements could be made. I had the brainstorm that if we’re doing ‘concrete’ siding… what about concrete ‘logs’. Or, why not use the abundance of river rock and gorgeous slate that is *all* over this landscape as the primary building materials? I kept hearing that all the building materials had to be imported – shipped in by rail or boat in order to build their house that wouldn’t look too out of place side by side in McMansion suburbia with less brick – more vinyl siding. I’m guessing brick doesn’t do so well in -60 degree winter weather but I could be surprised. Something to research – can hard materials like concrete and stone really act as a hard exterior layer as envisioned by the Gaiaship in extreme cold & wet winter weather? I’d say yes with the proper interior layers and sod roofing.

A note about sod roofing: Apparently the true natives… known as ‘First Nations Peoples’ (FNP’s forever in my corporate Acronym Generator of a brain – also known as Native Americans or Indians in other less P.C. areas of the US)

… used sod roofs regularly in their construction of their low log houses. This was after the eastern trappers & European settlers brought new technology, guns, metal tools and the agricultural revolution with them allowing the nomadic FNP’s to settle down. The re-creation / example village / tourist trap I visited had several of these log houses with sod roofs. It seemed a logical and very efficient design that made good use of local materials and the insulating properties of even a thin layer of sod.

One comment I heard today (from yet another tour guide / bus driver) was that in Fairbanks the same codes & conventional zoning regulations found in Dallas are in use in Alaska. Lots of land = Lots of Sprawl. This is reinforced by the ‘individualistic’ and ‘frontier’ mindset of many of the residents. Everyone gets their own pieces of the landscape and does whatever they want to it. Sometimes that turns out beautifully with a 4500 square foot log cabin with private river inlet and boat dock. Other times it is trailer park trash. I saw this side by side while on the train headed into Fairbanks and again going down-river on the paddle-boat. But hey – it’s all residential so the zoning laws are satisfied – ugh.

This was less of an issue in the smaller shore towns like Skagway. These towns are hemmed in by ocean on one side and mountains on the other. Level land is harder to come by. Mixed use seemed to be ideal here but even so, I saw very little of it done. Juno did better downtown but the fact that it’s the largest city in land size in the US but by no where close as large in population means that it’s sprawl is truly out of control.

Another real wonder of this trip was British Columbia’s Vancouver. With it’s amazing focus on green building (every building must have some kind of vegetative plantings or green roof) and mixed use development. It’s a model of civic emphasis on environmentally conscious development. I’m thinking I need to look much deeper into BC’s governing principles and perhaps even begin thinking of moving Gaiaship numero uno to the artic area.

Electrical Generation Investment and Regulations

Stumbling around looking at my web history and I see under Google's "Interesting Items" category the term: invenergy. Of course the energy thing catches my eye and I click... stumbling on to the financing and construction arm of a huge number of nationwide, and more importantly Texas based wind farms. On their web site they indicate a focus on renewable and co-generation projects and are actively building a portfolio of alternative and thermal (natural gas) power generation. Very cool! If anyone knows someone in this company... I'd love to talk to them. Getting the low-down on regulatory issues for energy suppliers is something the Gaiaship is going to have to face.

Austin Ronald McDonald House

Platinum LEED in Austin!!! WOOT!

So, I called them up and said "Hey, I'm an Architecture and Engineering Student in Austin, I've just found out about your LEED Certification... "
"Ah yes, excellent" Nice guy- Danny...replied quickly. "Would you like written documentation or a tour?"

Both please!

So I head over there after a full perusal of the site and an in depth look at the public information there. Check out this Power-point presentation. It has a great high level summary of LEED and what Platinum LEED certification really means.

I was really surprised... by how normal it all looked. If you weren't paying attention all the green features fade into the background - except for the elevated gardens. Nice touch there but they still had really large amount of rooftop space floored with just a white rubbery surface. Walking out on the lower roof provided really close up access to the solar panel installations which was really cool - bit of forethought there for tours just like mine... it was simple to get there and yet secure. I even got to see the mechanical room - neat, lots of pipes and air ducts and important looking paneling - but I'd have killed to see a copy of the plans themselves. For that I'll have to get a hold of Don Echols - the building's architect.

Water & waste water was still a municipal problem - obvious and expected by a building this small, but obviously perfect for what it was designed to do... provide a shelter and retreat for families whose children are in the hospital.

Really cool bits:

• Air flow from the rooms was not intermixed - good for pathogen and pollutant safety
• Air flow had energy reclamation via a wheel based heat exchanger. Warming or cooling incoming air with the exhaust air - nice touch.
• Building placement - well analyzed and shading was exquisitely placed for eliminating this area's fierce solar heat without cutting out a good quantity of indirect solar ambient light.
• Curved site-lines. I really liked the design. The House's short and somewhat narrow hallways with a pretty severe curve in them made it feel 'closed in' and even with the bright windows everywhere it created semi private areas in front of your door.
• I'm wondering what it does to sound... Contains and channels while muffling details I would assume. It was very quiet at Ronald McDonald House. I'd mitigate it with small fountains as white noise generators in the hallways to prevent weird echoes - would also provide microclimate cooling for exterior exposed hallways.
  

Making the Case - part 2

So I figured out that the way I built the first case for the administrators wasn't quite to standard - I needed to split the builder from the administrators and show what the builder would make from the deal. Most builders do NOT become administrators, though in this case there might be an exception or two made. I mean we're talking about creating an entire township in one single swoop.

Each residential unit is going to be 'sold' like a condo. It's value will be based on the size with extra value tacked on due to the 'green lifestyle' and high technology goodies. Drum Roll please: Total in initial sales of: $2.625 Billion for the Developer - just in residential.

Condo Price	Condo Quantity	Total
$150,000	5000	$750 Million
$250,000	1000	$250 Million
$750,000	1000	$750 Million
$1.5 Million	250	$375 Million
$10 Million	50	$500 Million

Commercial property development is a whole different ball of wax - and is much more dependent upon residual income and paying off the loans long term. I'm not actually qualified to get into that at the moment so I'll have to put that off until another time.

Central Texas Solar Power

The big picture

Austin Energy has decreed that 30% of their power mix will be renewable energy by 2020. To address this requirement they’ve recently set up a land lease in west Texas to build a solar power farm. While I am wildly excited about this development, it’s not something that goes far enough in my opinion. Part of the problem with the west Texas solar farm installation is that transporting that electricity to the major cities costs about one (1) million dollars per mile. Given the size of Texas, that’s real money. Another major aspect to this situation, very substantial tax incentives are available for taxpaying companies to leverage solar power installations on or nearby their properties. Austin Energy doesn’t pay taxes… so it doesn’t make economic sense for them to pursue it – just political and environmental sense. They are getting around this by leasing land and having a company build the installation. They then purchase the energy from the company and transmit it to the big cities.

However, Austin Energy’s loss is our gain. Those tax incentives are there for residential customers as well (though not to the same degree). Taking advantage of those incentives and at the same time addressing and mitigating the demand side of the energy equation is part and partial to my plan: Having solar power and other renewable energy capture systems on every property in the Austin and extended central Texas area. That way we eliminate the transmission costs and simultaneously reduce the load on our centralized generation systems.

One of the roadblocks to having this happen is my very own Home Owners Association. The Deed restrictions have limiters and restrictions that while not explicitly against solar power installations could very easily be used to deny a home-owner the ability to install them on their roof or in the back-yard. My planned effort is to lobby the home-owners and HOA governing body to either remove these restrictions or introduce specific clauses that define allowable renewable energy capture systems, specifically solar electrical and hot water generation in our neighborhood.

The Nitty Gritty Details

In my HOA, the governing body that approves or denies planned upgrades or even changing the paint color is the Architectural Committee. While this body isn’t very active in my HOA – it still rests solely upon their personal interpretations of the Deed Restrictions. There are somewhere between 2-3 active members at any given time; though ‘active’ isn’t saying much. It’s these people opinions that I need to mitigate or eliminate from the decision making process. Usually there is some overlap with the Board members as well. My HOA is only 80 houses… and given the percentage of people who are actually interested in the governing of so small a body that leaves about 2-3 people total who are actually active at any given time. Unfortunately, those people are typically wanting to uphold their definition of ‘perfect’. Several years ago I served on the board and even became the Architectural Committee chairman. However after seeing the very nice improvements that were being denied; I was disgusted and very annoyed. At the time, I didn’t put effort into changing the by-laws. This time I’m going to.

In the bylaw definitions, several clauses stand out as primary roadblocks: In the General Restrictions sections Antennae and Tanks are the primary offenders; under the Use and Construction Restrictions the building materials section has several exclusions that could easily be applied to the typical materials used in solar installations. Antennae isn’t a big deal except that it addresses things that ‘stick up’ and the AC usually goes by the ‘spirit’ of the law rather than the letter. The primary issue is that photovoltaic solar cells usually need to be at a specific inclination to the sun – which may or may not be the same slope as your roof. If they are pointed in the wrong way or even off by a few degrees – the effectiveness of the solar installation drops dramatically. So, we have the issue of things ‘sticking up’ off the roofline- typically something that bothers a HOA.

Under the Tanks section the problem comes from this sentence: “No elevated tanks of any kind shall be erected, placed, or permitted on any lot”. The elevated clause is the real problem. In a solar hot water installation you put a large black flattened box in a sunny place – typically on a south facing roof. This box has many small pipes running through it with water circulating from it to a hot water tank nearby. Sometimes that tank is located right there on the roof (typical in commercial installations) and therein lies the problem. I think an appropriate modifying clause would allow the elevated tank to be screened from public street view if not able to be installed in the attic. The following sentence “All tanks shall be screened so as not to be visible from any other portion of the property” allows for this screening. The issue is the complete exclusion of any elevated tanks.

In the Building materials clauses there are several things that would cause the AC to deny a solar installation. Building materials like “exposed metal roof decks which reflect light in a glaring manner… are specifically prohibited.” This is primarily used to deny home-owners installing galvanized roofing materials (happened during my tenure) but could easily be used to deny a solar electric installation. Most current solar panels are highly reflective given that they are glass backed with silicon and metal surfaces.

Da plan

There are specific clauses that state that the HOA is totally in control of changing its bylaws. So my effort has to be towards convincing the current board to bring this to vote at the next annual meeting in January. Asking the board to bring something to a vote isn’t hard – I just have to write them a nice letter asking for it and probably attend the next board meeting in June to explain what I want. Once that’s done, there will be necessary legal work to do in order to change the by-laws to something that allows for solar installations. I’ll offer to the board to work with the lawyer (providing they help fund the effort) to outline the requirements and ensure that alternative energy installations are not only allowed – but encouraged. Once the lawyers are done, we’ll need to get the new bylaws put to a vote by the whole HOA.

However, getting a quorum at the HOA meeting is typically difficult, especially for things as important as changing the by-laws. To do this, I’m putting together an education campaign including writing articles in the HOA newsletters, a web site & community forum and door to door fliers. Given that there is a proxy capability for homeowners to have their vote counted even if they are not present, I’ll actively seek to gather proxies ahead of time so that my personal voting power is amplified. Yup, I’m going to be a politician :-)

Things I plan to highlight as benefits include reduced electric bills, carbon offsets and the greenhouse gas / global warming impacts, reduced electrical bills, increased home values, and reduced electrical bills. With photovoltaic systems in place it is possible to reduce the average home’s load to zero in the hottest and most expensive summer days.

Finally, I will be negotiating with power utilities and contractors to create package installation deals and loan packages for the neighborhood. By getting multiple homes to put the installations in place at the same time we can leverage efficiencies and reduce installation costs; ultimately reducing our collective energy bills. Unfortunately my neighborhood is outside the city of Austin area and we aren’t actually part of the Austin Energy district. This means it’s going to take working with the Well’s Branch MUD, local banks or credit unions and other local electrical carriers like Green Mountain Energy to create comparable packages.

My ultimate goal is to have the deals with the electric companies to contain buy-back clauses that provide credits or even cash to homes and other installations that generate more electricity than they use. Make solar installations an income source rather than a bill – that will alter the Central Texas electricity generation and load dynamic in a hurry – and all for the good of our planet and my pocket book!

Using my neighborhood as a pilot project for the future of distributed electrical generation, I plan to continue revolutionizing the way people live and even work – focusing always on a greener, more synergistic environmental interaction than Texans have historically employed.

Making the case - $$$$

How do you 'prove' the case that living sustainably really is a better way of life? What's the metric you use to gauge how much better this place is than say your average apartment, condo or suburban home?

But there are *tons* of different measures to use!!! Uh - I guess we get to pick :)
So - by what measures can we use to prove the case?

We have to look at the audiences.

Investors need rate of return, usually something higher than they can get elsewhere for risky or unproven concepts. So, measure #1 is time till the entire facility is profitable. Since we don't yet know how much this thing will really ultimately cost I can't really touch this yet.

Administrators want residual income. They want to know what's the facility going to provide each month and how much is left over after all the costs are considered. Cool thing about this place... since so much is cycled back into inputs for other aspects of the system... inputs like utilities Water, Electricity & waste management (things that cost money) are almost all minor - or, like in the case of residential trash - the bill is footed by the residents as they buy goods and dispose of the remains which then become resources that are usable and even sellable for additional income streams.

Now, ongoing income can come from a number of sources: Taxes & fees, the sale of any extra electricity generated, profit from sales of specialty goods, sales of the apartments & condos, but most especially - RENT. Rent of the retail areas, entertainment centers, parks, apartments, hotel rooms. Rent is the real profit center of this idea. Go figure... we're talking about bringing together 10 thousand people in the land area normally allocated for a couple thousand to a mere couple hundred residents. Densities rivaling, or at least aspiring to highly urban areas like Tokyo and New York.

Governments are going to want to know what the tax base will be and how much revenue it's going to generate. Mixed use development like this isn't common in most of the wide spaces of the US - especially in the south where land is plentiful and sprawl a way of life. Ensuring that the government gets it's share is an important part of this calculation. But to do that, we have to know what the property values are going to be... since a majority of the taxes collected by local governments are based solely on this measure.

Now lets look at the most important audience of all - the residents. Cost of living is a big deal and no matter how green this lifestyle is... if it doesn't appeal to a huge number of people - aka the masses - you don't have a real solution.

Examining my own 2008 monthly bills I see (approximations):

• Internet: $85 (I have a lot of bandwidth - yay for 15 Mb down)
• Electricity: $140 (hurray for low wattage CFL's)
• Phone: $95 (two cell phones)
• Mortgage: $1200 (1700 square foot building on .4 acre - 30 year loan with crappy interest rate + fees)
• Natural Gas: $125 (hot water, house heating, dryer and food prep)
  Ugh - that was $40 last year - /cry
  
• Water & Waste water: $60
• Auto: $500 (one payment)
• Gas (2 vehicles): $260
• Insurance: $180
• Home-Owner's Association dues: $200 (yes I know... a freaking steal but I don't get shit for that cash besides the occasional picture of a weed and a fee)
  

I don't have cable TV or a ground line phone - two common costs. Lets call that +$60 for the normal household considering likelihood that bundling these with the internet give a good discount.

Debt service & other costs - way too much; but as they have no bearing on the gaia ship's services or would be equivalent we're going to ignore those.

Total living expenses: $2745

Lets break this down

• Internet:
  
• It's all 1 building... if we don't run full Gigabit Ethernet (fiber) our residents would kill us. Lets just say it stays the same price though.
• Result $85 for 1000 Mb full duplex internet
  
  
• Electricity:
  
• Subsidized by our porch solar panels: (-) $30
• No AC costs - place is heated & cooled passively to a major extent: (-) $50
  
• Lights are fiber optic solar with hyper efficient LED's helping out: (-) $45
• Computers aren't insane power hogs - but we have more of them: no change in price
• Stove and other cooking is primarily electric: (+) $10
• Result: $35 bill!!!
  
  
• Phone:
  
• Phone == communicator - provided by others, not within the scope of the Gaia ship to provide... Perhaps we can tack on a small service fee for interaction with our infrastructure +$5
• Result: $100 for 100% portable communication & interaction with Gaia Ship Services
  
  
• Mortgage:
• let's just assume it's the same for a resident - it will fluctuate obviously and as some of the homes will be worth millions and others worth somewhat less. But, as we are aiming for the masses - and I consider myself a 'mass' (er...) we'll just leave it be for now.
• Result: $1200 bill
  
  
  
• Natural Gas:
• As we are trying to eliminate this particular resource from our situation, it doesn't exist as a viable bill. If you have a fire place that burns the waste gas generate from the trash and Bio machines... likely that's methane and would be vented to provide heat or electricity anyway. Let's call it a freebie given the 2ndary effects of having the residents burn it.
• Result: -zero- bill
  
  
• Water / Waste-Water:
• It's likely we'll want some cost for water usage, but this would be variable based on the amount of water collected via Rain-Water capture etc. Since it's hard to estimate - we'll keep it the same for now.
• Result: $60 bill
  
  
  
• Auto:
• We'll probably never eliminate the ever-present car payment, but if a normal resident has more than one vehicle I'd be surprised. With almost everything within walking distance - cars will be used only to leave the Gaia Ship when the light rail or commuter rail that goes into town won't work.
  
• Then again, why not cut into this with a ride-share. If you need a particular vehicle, you hit your communicator and say "I'll need a ride please" and one is assigned. No need to maintain the car, no need for a specific 'owned' vehicle.
• Result: $200 Ride Share & Tram fees
  
• Gas:
  
• Drastically cut due to locality of needs. Also, since the vehicles will be part of ride-share - we can make sure they run on our own diesel and electricity (plug in hybrid!!!) the gas costs are (within reason) rolled into ride share cost.
• Result: -zero- bill
  
• Insurance:
• Part of ride share cost
• Result -zero- bill
  
  
  
• Home Owners Association Dues:
• Yeah - we'll keep this around just because it's reasonable to have an organization that by design allows the residents say over their environment. Also, some method to pay for the cleaning and maintainence of the common areas is required. We may even need to increase this because of so much shared infrastructure - so bump it up a bit. hey, we've saved a bunch of cash elsewhere - we can afford this.
• Result: $300 bill
  
  
  
• Cable TV:
• Yeah, we'll still have TV... though likely with full gigabit connections to every household it will be more demand-pull instead of supplier-push. Lets' not change the price any though (those cable companies LOVE getting paid)
• Result: $60
  
  
  
• Phone:
• Ground line!!??! WTF!?!?! Nobody uses a ground line anymore. With individual communicators that never leave your person except maybe to shower and full video and audio communication via your insane internet connection... you don't have a ground line anymore. Poor AT&T.
• Result: -zero-
  

TOTAL GAIA SHIP LIVING EXPENSES: 60+300+200+60+1200+100+35+85

...drum roll please...

$2040

Thats a monthly savings of $725 for the average resident.

I'd say that's a pretty good deal! Totally green, luxury living - for about $700 LESS than standard suburban lifestyle. If you really want to own that car... I guess you can.
Oh and once they pay off the mortgage, only $800 monthly (now that's a sweet deal)


OK - Back to our Administrators

Since we now have a good idea of what the base 'masses' are paying ~$2000 in services. We can estimate how much the 'Administrators' are going to make off the residents for the first 30 years... (note that the admin are acting as mortgage holders here - makes the bank an 'administrator' for the purposes of this exercise)

150K
$2,000 monthly * 5,000 units = $10 million

Sweeten the deal with premium condos that sell for a lot more than $150K

$250K
$3000 monthly *2500 units = $7.5 Million

$750K
$4500 monthly * 1000 units = $ 4.5 Million

$1.5 million
$10,000 Monthly * 250 units = $ 2.5 Million

$10+ million
60K monthly!!?! * 50 units = $ 3 Million

Thats a total of $27.5 million monthly

Or - $330 Million annually
... for 30 years for a total of $9.9 billion

That allows for 1100 units of affordable housing and /or pure rental only apartments. They are worth more... but artificially restricted to allow for lower income people to live here. They are a bit of drag on profitability, but since they are embedded in the rest, it's not all that expensive to build them at the same time.

And that's only getting started - yes this place will be expensive to build, but with $27.5 million MONTHLY income just for having built the place and providing the basic services, I'd say it's beginning to look viable.

Add in retail rents, Hotel room stays (yes there is a hotel on-site), sales of electricity & left over waste oil. This is going to make a *ton* of money. Now, we have to figure out how much everything costs and if the money it can make as a result will provide enough of a ROI.

But it's almost 2:00 AM and I have to work tomorrow. Another time...

***All numbers treating inflation as irrelevant.