Students at the University of Kansas. Photo by Simran Sethi
A couple of interesting pieces from Metropolis P/O/V may seem unrelated, but in the end both of them address the idea of system thinking and how sustainable solutions need to sometimes change perceptions while innovating. Susan Szenasy in “Turn, Turn, Turn” briefly reviews her hope and disappointments in the architecture of the last few decades, and calls for designers to embrace system solutions instead of focusing merely on style. A few days later, Metropolis P/O/V profiles the efforts of students at the Univ. of Kansas as they chronicle the challenges of installing greywater systems in Oakland, CA as part of a class on water conservancy.
Reading about this project, done in conjunction with Greywater Action all at once speaks to the kind of system thinking that Szenasy calls for, and illustrates some of the cultural and policy challenges in taking the sustainability movement past recycling plastic bottles and improving fuel efficiency (not to minimize those efforts). In terms of water conservancy, the urgency is pretty clear, when we consider that out of the approx 97% of our planet’s surface that’s covered by water, only 1% of it is potable. We must come to grips with the fact that here in America each of us uses approx 160 gal per day of a resource that’s in increasingly short supply, leading to political strife here in the U.S. and increased global military conflicts. Increased use of greywater systems is one of the examples of system based thinking that can help turn the tide for this crisis. Like most eco-friendly solutions, examples of reusing and natural cleaning methods for water can be traced back thousands of years to societies like ancient Greece, Egypt, and China. Szenasy’s passage about building could easily apply to water conservancy.
“Surely they will also find the time-tested secrets of building siting, daylighting, natural ventilation, using water and plants to bring nature into action and into view—the sum total of human understanding of how to build on the land.”
Living Machines by Tom Worrell
In modern times, greywater systems (specifically wetland use) were pioneered by biologists like Dr. Kathe Seidel in the mid 20th cent, and extended in the late 80’s – 90’s by scientists like Dr. John Todd and Tom Worrell who’s companies design and install “Living Machines” for private residential but mostly commercial projects like El Monte Sagrado Resort and the Four Seasons Resort in Hawaii. As these projects gain more and more traction in the mass market it will become increasingly necessary for public policy and innovative solutions to work in conjunction to address not only technological and economic issues, but sociological ones as well.
The students at the Univ. of Kansas touch on these issues during their class and the installation trip, as they tried to decrease their individual water use, tackle how concepts like “if it’s yellow, let it mellow” affect our cultural sensibilities, and even how policies and codes in California and Arizona need to be changed to reduce the obstacles to wider use of greywater systems – an estimate 2% of greywater systems are legally installed. As they note, there’s a fair amount of work and expense, but the sometimes the costs are not as always prohibitive as most people think, considering that some greywater sytems can go for several thousand dollars. Installing a greywater system that could help your washing machine double as a part-time irrigation system can cost $100-$250. The system could be installed in the equivalent of several hours yard work with friends.
Szenasy’s call for increased system thinking is being answered in part by efforts all over the globe, but it also means that the larger design community has to increase the amount of work and effort into not only developing systems, but exploring how aesthetic, functional, and interface considerations can work with policy and shifting cultural attitudes. If we continue to build on the work of modern pioneers like John Todd, Tom Worrell, and Greywater Action we can get to the point where getting a greywater system goes from a unique profile to an item picked up at the local hardware store when it’s time to start our spring gardens.
Systems by Flotender feature fully automatic drip irrigation systems and can reduce your water usage up to 70%
