Blog Action Day 2013

Volunteers assembling dwellings for Opportunity Village Eugene (photo from OVE's Facebook site)

 

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about an issue of global importance on the same day (Monday, October 15). It’s an opportunity to witness the power of participatory journalism marshaled toward a common cause. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a worldwide discussion. 

This is my fifth Blog Action Day:  For 2012 the theme was “The Power of We.” In 2011 the issue was Food; in 2010 it was Water; in 2009 it was Climate Change. 

The theme this year is Human Rights. As an architect, someone who likes to think of himself as dedicated to the betterment of our built environment for the benefit of all, I must admit a measure of discomfiture about what architects should be doing to help address the variety of human rights issues confronting our population. Certainly, one pressing issue is homelessness. 

Most everyone considers the right to shelter as fundamental, regardless of whether individuals have the wherewithal to provide for themselves or not. Humans cannot survive for long without protection from the elements. It’s incumbent upon a civilized society to care for those among its numbers who, through misfortune rather than choice, are without a place to lay their heads each night. 

This past April, the Southwestern Oregon chapter of the American Institute of Architects turned the light upon homelessness, a social problem that has resisted simple solutions for decades in America. Specifically, a panel of speakers described the valiant local effort to create Opportunity Village Eugene (OVE), a new transitional village for homeless individuals and couples in west Eugene. 

Architects know how profoundly a living or work environment can shape the imaginations of the people inside them. “We shape buildings and then buildings shape us.” But what about those who are doing without? When people lack the security, the predictability, the comfort, and the definition of a place to call their own, what are we asking them to live without? 

Dan Bryant, pastor at First Christian Church and OVE board president, outlined the breadth of the challenge here in Eugene. A staggering 1,400 people may go without shelter on any given night. Caregivers like the Eugene Mission and Shelter Care have no choice but to turn away as many as 95% of those looking for a roof over their heads. The common stereotypes about the homeless—that they are predominantly drug addicts, winos, criminals, lazy, or mentally ill—are giving way to an understanding about how diverse their population really is. 

The homeless are often well-educated. Many are caring parents with children. Others are victims of domestic abuse, or burdened with physical disabilities, or unemployable for reasons beyond their control. The vast majority have roots in our community. Most are not transients; they are our neighbors. The reasons for homelessness are as different as each person is. 

Dan explained how Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy charged the Opportunity Eugene Task Force with recommending new and innovative solutions to the issue of homelessness in Eugene. The group concluded establishing a safe and secure place for those currently without housing should be the first priority. Acting upon this recommendation, the City of Eugene approved OVE as a pilot project through October 1, 2014. 

After examining potential sites for several months, the City Council picked a vacant lot at 111 North Garfield Street near Roose­velt Boulevard as the future site for OVE. It was one five sites the council considered. The lot used to be a trailer park, so there are utilities on hand that can be repurposed. The immediate neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of residences, so the likelihood of resistance to establishing a transitional homeless community there is minimized. 

On the opposite side of the ledger, the lot is not conveniently located near basic services, such as a grocery store. However, in this regard it is nowhere as poorly sited as Dignity Village in Portland, which is located near the Portland International Airport, many miles away from everything. Perhaps the North Garfield site’s biggest shortcoming is that the City of Eugene bought the property eight years ago with the intention of using it to construct a 40,000-square-foot maintenance garage for city vehicles. Ultimately, OVE’s days are numbered because the City will one day construct its garage. 

Opportunity Village Eugene welcomed its first residents last month. What does it look like and how does it work? It’s a transitional village of around 30 people who have collaborated with skilled architects and builders to construct simple, efficient micro-houses and shared common spaces. OVE provides its residents with opportunities to build a human-scaled community while developing skills and relationships that allow them to transition to a more sustainable lifestyle. OVE’s foundation rests upon the notion that self-governance will provide residents with autonomy, responsibility, and respect. 

The building blocks of the village are compact, simple, safe, secure, and transportable dwelling structures, clustered together to encourage community cohesion and security. Panelists Alex Daniell and Andrew Heben described the various types of structures, which include Conestoga huts, deluxe and budget bungalows, roundhouses, and conic shells. The dwellings, none larger than about 100 square feet, provide basic shelter only. Kitchen and food storage, a dining area, bathrooms, bike parking, and personal storage lockers are communal. 

OVE also provides a gathering space for meetings, and opportunities for gardens and micro-businesses. Overall, the village offers a stable, safe, and sanitary environment where basic needs— food, shelter, medical care, a sense of dignity and belonging in place and community— are met. 

Mark Hubble, himself a homeless member of our community, discussed how meaningful it is to him to have an alternative to being on the streets. For Mark, simply having a lockable front door is huge. He was the first person to move into a Conestoga hut as part of Eugene’s car camping program, which allows huts to be placed on sites around the city hosted by local churches or businesses. He believes Opportunity Village Eugene provides the stability and a foundation people without houses need, as well as a sense of purpose, place, and belonging. 

Mark detailed how the ongoing success of OVE is predicated upon several core values. These include a village committed to horizontal organization and self-governance. They require resident participation to the greatest extent possible in the assembly of the structures. Additionally, the core values dictate an application and intake process based upon relationship building, and adherence to five basic, non-negotiable rules listed in the Community Agreement. 

The five rules for the Village are:

1. No violence to yourselves or others

2. No theft

3. No alcohol, illegal drugs, or drug paraphernalia

4. No constant, disruptive behavior

5. Everyone must contribute to the operation and maintenance of the Village.

Residents self-manage the village with oversight provided by the non-profit, Opportunity Village Eugene (OVE). Residents make decisions about how the village is managed and directly deal with minor disputes. The non-profit ensures that the five basic rules are being upheld. OVE also screens all potential residents and conducts criminal background checks. 

All of the panelists who spoke to local architects as panelists at our meeting last April enriched our understanding of the struggles that accompany homelessness, and provided us with a little inspiration that can shape the work we do for clients who are much more fortunate. It’s all too easy for us to overlook how architects contribute powerfully to a larger, invisible structure that builds equity and compassion into our society. 

So what can we do to help? For one, we can volunteer our time and skills. We can also contribute construction materials to OVE’s building partner, Community Supported Shelters. CSS receives donations at the Tine Hive located at 1160 Grant Street in Eugene. And of course, OVE would welcome any monetary assistance. OVE is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, so all contributions are tax-deductible.

If Opportunity Village Eugene is viewed by the broader community as a success, the nonprofit hopes it will eventually see a network of several villages throughout the city. Everyone benefits when those who are homeless are offered the opportunity afforded by needed shelter to renew their life goals and aspirations. 

 

Blog Action Day 2012

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about an issue of global importance on the same day (Monday, October 15). It’s an opportunity to witness the power of participatory journalism marshaled toward a common cause. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a worldwide discussion.

This is my fourth Blog Action Day:  For 2011 the issue was Food; in 2010 it was Water; and in 2009 it was Climate Change.

The theme this year is “The Power of We.” It is intended to be a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world, either for their own communities or for people they will never meet half way around the world. I’ve decided to profile a friend of mine who is doing what she can to make a difference.

Brook Meakins

Brook Meakins is an attorney with a solo practice in Berkeley, CA providing advocacy services for her clients.(1) While she is committed to conflict resolution and everyday justice for her Bay area neighbors, Brook's true passion is fighting on behalf of the global community.

After a near-death experience in the Pacific Ocean in 2010, Brook had an epiphany about the struggle and the imminent threat that people who occupy low-lying islands live with everyday. Some leaders in these low-lying countries now refer to climate change as a "slow-moving tsunami," or use descriptive words like drowning or disappearing. People in coastal communities have a special, very vulnerable relationship with the water. Climate change threatens to wipe out these timeless places, as well as the people who call these islands home.

Brook now spends a significant amount of her time listening and learning from those in climate-threatened communities, and then sounding the alarm about their plight and telling their stories. She has conducted fact-finding and personal story-gathering missions in countries all over the world, including the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, San Blas Archipelago in Panama, Fiji, Tuvalu, and Kiribati. She has partnered with these communities to fight global warming and to build awareness around the threat to their existence.

Brook with a member of the Kuna tribe on the San Blas Archipelago, Panama (photo courtesy of Brook Meakins)

The impact of climate change upon the people who live among the low-lying coral atoll island nations is imminent and devastating. These coral atolls lie only a few feet above the sea, rendering them vulnerable to intensifying storm surges, spoiled or depleted fresh water and food reserves, ocean acidification, an ever-lengthening dry season, and an increasingly extreme wet season. Brook asks “what happens to a country if the entirety of its landmass slips below the water?”

Rising seas have already swallowed up two uninhabited islands in the Central Pacific. On Samoa, thousands of residents have moved to higher ground as shorelines have retreated by as much as 160 feet. Islanders on Tuvalu are scrambling to find new homes as saltwater intrusion has made their groundwater undrinkable, while increasingly strong storm surges and ocean swells have devastated shoreline structures and ecosystems.

Other communities around the world, including low-lying coastal or riverside communities in the Arctic, Caribbean, Pacific, and in Bangladesh, face seemingly impossible-to-answer questions: How will these communities cope with the intensifying effects of flooding and erosion? Who pays for the increasing weather-related disasters? Where will people move if they are left with no choice but to leave their homes? Why does climate change deal its toughest blows to those that contribute to it the least?

As Brook points out, the low-lying islands are the canaries in the coal mine for what is to come. We can no longer pretend that we will forever be immune to what is happening to our neighbors. For many people, the effects are here and now. Climate change is far from hypothetical or tomorrow’s problem. It is no longer an issue for the next generation to solve.

Brook provides research and litigation support through pro bono humanitarian-focused representation to severe climate-impacted countries. Having organized and participated in several environmental law conferences, she is actively involved in bringing together the world’s leading environmental scholars in an effort to generate well-integrated and long-term solutions.

Brook also is enthusiastically and creatively committed to giving a voice to those on the front lines of climate change. As I mentioned, she has traveled widely to listen and learn from those most affected. Through her blog, Drowning Islands, Brook tells their stories, presenting firsthand accounts of lives on the edge. Additionally, she has written for the Huffington Post, Salon, AlterNet, and other online news and commentary outlets. She hopes her advocacy will raise awareness, particularly among people who can help those threatened by rising sea levels.

Coral atoll, Maldives (photo by Brook Meakins)

Brook believes she has been fortunate to walk among the residents of the drowning islands. She has continually been struck by their lack of blame and their sense of hope. They do not point fingers at Westerners, nor do they ask why we continue emitting greenhouse gases while knowingly warming the earth and hastening sea level rise. They do not talk of relocation funds or lawsuits. Instead, they simply want to share their stories with her and the appreciation they have for the land they inherited. They gently remind her that this is not just an island problem, but a global issue, as nothing is immune to the ocean.

For my part, I’ve previously blogged about the climate change crisis. As an architect, I know my profession has a part to play. We will increasingly design adaptive environments capable of mitigating the accelerating impacts of rising temperatures and coastlines. We’re on the vanguard of awareness about the strategies necessary to reduce our carbon footprint. We have a leadership role to play. We must also learn from the efforts of truly committed individuals like Brook if we are to effect real change.

Knowledge is priceless. The Power of We includes the sharing of knowledge with a wide audience in the service of a greater good. Brook Meakins is making a difference by leveraging the potential of the Internet and social media to spread the story of the drowning islands. Doing so, she is chronicling the plight of those most immediately impacted by climate change.  

(1) Brook received her Juris Doctor degree from the School of Law at the University of Oregon, which is widely known for its environmental law program. Her husband, Andy, worked with me at Robertson/Sherwood/Architects.

Blog Action Day 2011

Vertical farm design by Gordon Graff

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about an issue of global importance on the same day (Sunday, October 16). It’s an opportunity to witness the power of participatory journalism marshaled toward a common cause. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a worldwide discussion.

This is my third Blog Action Day: For 2010 the issue was Water; in 2009 it was Climate Change.

This year Blog Action Day coincides with World Food Day, a time that focuses the world’s attention on food, something we all have in common. The charge to bloggers worldwide is to talk about food. I’ve chosen to address food and architecture.

The ties between food and architecture are rich and varied. For example, both are commonly associated with culture and place. They are equally coupled with aesthetics, presentation, and intention as forms of artistic expression. Both engage our senses and bring us together as communities. In their most glorious forms, they represent humanity at its best. That being said, I would miss the point of World Food Day by blogging contentedly about how analogous culinary flair is to design panache.

For much of the world’s population, simply having enough food to eat is a desperate struggle. Famine in the Horn of Africa has reached catastrophic proportions. Drought-induced and compounded by war, corruption, and problems with food distribution, the crisis threatens the lives of more than 13 million people in the region.

Hunger is also a reality for huge numbers in developed countries, including the United States. Food insecurity for the vulnerable segments of our citizenry is universally regarded as a major threat to social stability and prosperity. Eradicating hunger is and will increasingly be a fundamental challenge as our future unfolds.

This challenge is incomprehensibly complex. Population growth, peak-oil, the industrialization of agriculture, and the wild weather that is a byproduct of global warming have all contributed to the problem. Viewed from the peak-oil perspective alone, dystopian seers like James Howard Kunstler believe today’s petroleum-fueled agribusiness is on the precipice of collapse and that our society is destined for violent upheaval. Food that must travel thousands of miles to reach our dinner tables simply isn’t sustainable.

Is there a solution? Can architecture and design make a difference?

I don’t have an immediate answer. Clearly, the means by which food is produced and distributed must change. I do agree with Kunstler and others like the organization Food First that the future lies with local agri-food systems rather than with industrialized agriculture. Sufficient production and equitable distribution of food will be the key, but how will this be achieved in a world of dwindling resources?

According to Food First every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people.(1) Certainly, this must be true in the U.S. if Food First believes it is possible everywhere else. Its claim is based upon a “bottom up” approach to solving world hunger wherein subsistence farming is the focus.

Keeping food production local minimizes reliance upon factory farming and the embodied energy inherent in processing and transporting food vast distances. Keeping things local is also consistent with the locavore movement’s interest in purchasing food close to where it is grown and keeping the environment as clean as possible. Organic, community farms that raise varied crops for local sale are tremendously popular here in Eugene.

However, it’s hard to imagine that small, local farms will produce enough food to sustain the huge population of the world’s larger cities. Vertical farming in skyscrapers as envisioned by some also seems a stretch because of the additional energy needed for artificial lighting, heating, and irrigation. This could outweigh the benefit of positioning vertical farms close to where the food is to be eaten. Regardless, architects and engineers may prove creative enough to overcome the challenges associated with cost-effective vertical farming.(2)

By itself, keeping it local is not the panacea. Local farming will not eliminate drought or erase intractable tribal disputes. The problem cannot be distilled as discrete issues accompanied by simple solutions. As is the case with so many of the other problems we are confronting, the answers will not be found by following the straight line of reductionist thinking. Rather, multivalent and integrated ideas are necessary.

How architects contribute to assuring access to food for all may ultimately boil down to how the design community deals with the daunting suite of issues surrounding the problem. Architects are on the vanguard of sustainability. We’re eco-conscious advocates for energy-efficient buildings, compact communities, and reduced reliance upon the automobile. Architects are also adept at collaboration, coordinating diverse project teams, looking at the big picture, and thinking outside the box. These skills will be the key to how architects play a part in feeding humanity.

The relationship between food and architecture is destined to become even more multifaceted. Architects will move to the frontline of the battle against world hunger. I predict that if the battle is to be won, design will have played a part.

(1) Food First believes the "free trade" economic order associated with such institutions as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank prevent this from happening. At the other end of the spectrum, the World Bank itself claims to be part of the solution to hunger, claiming that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market.

(2) Proponents argue that “vertical farming” is legitimate because the cultivation of plant and animal life within skyscrapers will produce less embedded energy and toxicity than plant and animal life produced on natural landscapes. Moreover, they claim that natural landscapes are too toxic for natural, agricultural production, despite the ecological and environmental costs of extracting materials to build skyscrapers for the purpose of agricultural production.

Blog Action Day 2010

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about an issue of global importance on the same day (Friday, October 15). It is an opportunity to witness the power of participatory journalism marshaled toward a common cause. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a worldwide discussion. I participated in last year’s event for which the issue was Climate Change. Prior Blog Action Day themes were the Environment in 2007 and Poverty in 2008.

This year's issue is Water. The increasing scarcity of fresh, potable water is soon to achieve Biblical proportions. Many scientists project that half of the world’s population may lack access to safe, potable water by 2025. It’s conceivable that hydro-politics, rather than disputes over oil or religion, will become a primary spark for conflicts between nations.

Planet Earth’s well is running dry:

• Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it's no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.
• More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.
• Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.
• It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that's just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.
• The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

The adverse effects of worldwide water shortages are too often off the radar screen for most of us here in water-rich Oregon.

So what can Oregon architects and designers do to help address this global dilemma?

We can be more aware of the “water footprint” of our projects. Architect magazine blogger Blaine Brownell recently pointed out that the production of many building materials and products utilizes large amounts of water. To date, material-related water use has not been scrutinized at the level that embodied energy and carbon footprint have. He argues that water footprint will be an increasingly important factor in determining the overall environmental cost of the materials we select for buildings.

I fully expect the U.S. Green Building Council to increase the proportion of water efficiency points required to achieve LEED certification as the urgency grows to reduce demands upon the global freshwater supply. It’s my understanding that the USGBC is presently considering modifications to the LEED rating system to better address the embodied energy of materials, their carbon footprint, and life-cycle impacts. I would not be surprised to see the USGBC explicitly factor the water footprint of common construction materials into the LEED equation.

We can also strongly advocate for the continuation and strengthening of Oregon’s compact urban growth policies. Pressures exist to expand the urban growth boundary of many communities (including Eugene and Springfield). However, the greater value of protecting rural and natural areas from sprawl and inefficient use of land, public facilities, and services cannot be overestimated. An unwelcome consequence of sprawl is a proportionately larger demand for potable water than would be the case with compact development, all other factors being equal (i.e. population).

Certainly, we can maximize water efficiency by limiting or eliminating landscape irrigation, specifying appropriate fixtures and appliances (for example dual-flush toilets, waterless urinals, high-efficiency dishwashers), and harvesting rain for non-potable uses (irrigation, flushing of toilets). Many of these water-conserving strategies are already mandated by applicable codes or are necessary to secure desired LEED credits.

I’m struck by the irony of a steady rain drumming on the roof of my house as I write this blog post. It’s too easy for those of us living in Oregon (and particularly here on the soggier side of the Cascade Range) to forget that fresh water is a life-or-death issue in many parts of the world. We cannot do this. Water is a global issue, and it affects all of us. Repeat the old saw, “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Consider the health of the entire planet and take action to use water wisely with every project you design.

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

Related articles

• Water Footprint Calculator (planetsave.com)
• Is it really possible to waste water? (slate.com)

Blog Action Day 2009

Thursday, October 15, 2009 is Blog Action Day 2009. I'm late to the game on this but I registered to participate nonetheless. Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. Past themes for Blog Action Day were the Environment in 2007 and Poverty in 2008. This year's issue is Climate Change.

The Blog Action Day 2009 website explains why climate change was selected as this year's theme:

Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees. Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.

For the organizers at Change.org, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. They have asked bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on the subject of Climate Change. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

For my part, I'm drawing attention to this social change event and highlighting my past posts on the subject of global warming and climate change. By doing this, folks that have not previously read what I had to say on the topic can conveniently find my relevant posts. I wish I had time to write more on this important subject but it just isn't available to me at the moment.

Blog Action Day is an opportunity to witness the power of participatory journalism marshaled toward a common cause. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

www.blogactionday.org/