Making Progress on the project

So, the rainwater catchment is finally coming to life! We've almost got the entire gutter system installed! A few more hours this Saturday and the system will be ready for rainfall! Whoo Hoo. I'm crossing my fingers that we did everything okay and it holds the water and nothing goes wrong. This however won't be apparent until January or February when the rain really starts to come and cisterns start to fill up.

Some recent pictures of the project:

Hop-scotching the cisterns over each other along the narrow 4' pathway, trying not to crush the vegetables that line the path. 

The cisterns in their final location!  It was tight fit, but everything went smoothly, and it was a sign of relief to get them in place. 

Brian and I inside the cisterns. We were installing the pipe that runs between the cisterns. 

Me drilling the hole for the inlet into the cistern. I couldn't quite finish it, so the burly men had to step in and finish drilling... 

Ecotopia

Every summer, I plan on reading as many books as I can. It's my only time to actually sit down for an hour and read  (assuming I don't fall asleep). This venture of mine sometimes works out and sometimes fails miserably.

I have just completed my first book for the summer - called The Toss of a Lemon. It was about an Indian family and how through their growing family/generations, traditions and customs were lost, but that no matter what, family was always the most important thing. I love these types of books because I'm fascinated by other cultures and how different people live. 

Upon deciding what to read next, I thought it'd be best to read something that will benefit me in my life, future, and education. So I borrowed a book, called Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach, from my roommate. I'm only 30 pages in and it's wonderful! It's set in the 1970's and he travels to San Francisco to learn about Ecotopian villages (or minicities) - basically where everyone tries to live off the grid, recycle, ride their bikes, and live in community housing. We definitely have moved far away from this in the past 30 years, but it's the direction that most people are heading back to... 

Resource Furniture: Italian-Designed Space Saving Furniture

A friend sent me this video a while back, and I forgot about it until randomly today, I remembered it! This furniture is SO cool. It's amazing the things you can make and how they really transform spaces. I really enjoy the furniture, however I would hate to live in that small of a place to have to fold up my bed everyday or switch my bed into a couch. But if it were temporary and I had a great job and lived in a city - then I'd be ALL for it.

Enjoy the video.

A dream design competition...

There is a design competition in Santiago, Chile to design a wine museum in a famous part of Santiago called Cerro San Cristobal. What a fun competition! This would be an awesome project to work on! I was so excited to go to the website and find out more about the competition. Not only do I love wine, but combining it with architecture is the ultimate. As I read on, I get to the nitty-gritty parts. The competition is open to architects (licensing isn't necessary), and students under the direction of architects. This was discouraging, but made me think of professor's I'd love to work with on something like this. Not that a professor would have much time for this, or take on a design competition in another country. But it would awesome. 

Photo courtesy of: http://www.arquitectum.com/index.php

Sex and the City 2

What a horrible movie - I read the review for the movie this morning (actually) and it said this "Sex and the City 2: I don't even want to talk about it." Why didn't I listen to this review?? I'm very thankful that it was only $1.50. I would have kicked myself for paying full price to see it.



It was a glamour-filled, no-content kind of movie. It's crazy to think about how much money goes into these types of movies when our country is millions in debt - but lets not even go into that. So, to anyone who is "thinking" about seeing it - don't. Not worth your time or money.

Bike Tour

Friday we got to go on a really cool bike tour with Scott Hein who is one of the main city planners for Vancouver. It was great taking a tour with someone who knows the city like the back of his hand. We rode around for about 4 hours stopping and looking at the olympic village, chinatown, the new energy plant, and some of the only remaining victorian houses in vancouver (these i will post pictures of later since it started to rain at this point of the tour).

Below is a picture of one of the buildings in the Olympic Village. Scott said only one developer was hired for the job since they were short on time. It was cool hearing about the process they went through - like how they have certain requirements for the building heights in that area and limitations on how the buildings were all to look. They were in the process of redoing some of the buildings and fixing the outdoor spaces, post-olympics. May 1st is the opening date for the apartments - apparently half of the units are sold already. In the front is a glimpse of this cool pedestrian bridge all made of steel, and shaped like a bean, so in the middle it gets wider. They have a small amphitheater behind it made from huge square pieces of stone and they're planning on having concerts and stuff out there - and the stage would be a barge/boat that would come in.



Next to the village was this giant Bioswale (which is basically a ditch for rainwater to get filtered through before it hits the stormwater system). It was huge and really well done. They used big steel "C" channels that act like a slide for the water to travel down. This is also another part of the city where they placed a park to help the land that is toxic due to old industrial sites. They also created a small island in front of the village made from dirt from the excavations of the new buildings. It's all plants that help the soil and they include tall tree stumps to bring in bald-eagles.



Dad would like this part - they built a brand new energy facility for the olympic village that will also contribute to the surrounding area once it's developed. But they use the heat and energy from the sewage system and convert it for the energy for buildings. SO COOL!!! and then the steam release goes up and out of these pipes (below). There are led panels on the top that change color due to energy use (red for high and blue for low). The building is located under the freeway so when people drive by they can see the lights on. I really liked this!





The guy in the white shirt with his rain jacket unzipped is our professor Stephen Duff and in the green jacket is Scott Hein. This is on the south end of the city, looking into downtown near where we are staying now.

Week 3

Meet my new friend! I was sitting here sketching and he came up and started walking towards me. It was funny, I was reaching into my bad trying to find my camera and he was tilting his head like "are you getting me food?" haha.

So on Granville Island is a park that doesn't get a lot of people action. It's basically a mound with undulating steps (all in grass) that form a small amphitheater. Long story short, it's a parking mess on this side of the island, and doesn't attract a lot of visitors since there isn't much to do. We found out it's all toxic soil that they built up and threw some grass over! I think the whole island is this way, but this is where most of it is. It's about 30 feet tall and below is a picture of the view from the top. It's a quiet place and you can get up off the island and see the city 360 degrees around.

Last night Ali, Michael and our friend Bart packed a picnic and went down to the waterfront. It was a little chilly, but not bad at all. Such beautiful scenery looking out into the water with huge shipping boats just waiting out there and then behind is the picture below. It's pretty seeing all the lights at night - even though it is completely opposite of everything Nevada City. haha.

We had a lecture today from a man named Lance Berelowitz. He just finished a book called Dream City. It's about the history of Vancouver and how the urban planning has developed. It was cool hearing about the history and everything from old industrial-site development to how Vancouver doesn't generate a lot of revenue from retail. But people in other countries are hiring city planners from here to redo their cities! Some girl today also said that it's hard to find someone here who was actually born here - maybe 1 in every 20 - which is crazy to think about...

First couple of weeks

Greetings from Canada.

It's been a couple of weeks since we've been in Vancouver and it has been amazing. The people are so nice and the scenery is breathtaking. The only downside is that everything is much more expensive.

Finally made it all the way around Stanley Park. It's about 10 miles, but completely worth it. There are raccoons that approach you for food and black squirrels that roam around. There is only one way around the park, and people will let you know if you're not going the right way. I also never knew rollerblading was still in. Everyone rollerblades around the park!! I loved rollerblading so next weekend, that's my plan.

Below is a picture of Granville Island Public Market. This place is pretty cool. Smaller than I pictured, but lots of variety. Lots of different kinds of food, but for some reason, nothing is exceptionally good. I like my own cooking better. The island is unique - small with a large art scene. Definitely a fun place to do school work and get lots of inspiration.

In the background is Mt. Fromme where Grouse Mountain and Cypress Mountain are. This side of Vancouver is gorgeous!! You're in the city, but looking into the wilderness! I love it. And floater planes take off from this bay, so that's always fun to watch. Hopefully I'll make it hiking up here, we're still planning on how to get out of the city since we don't have cars...