Big Yellow Taxi

"They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot
...
They took all the trees, put em in to a tree museum
and they charged people a dollar and a half just to see 'em
...
Hey farmer farmer
put away that DDT now
give me spots on my apples
but leave me the birds and the bees
please!

1000 bil. for Recycle energy

According to Ashui.com:
Ho Chi Minh City will invest 1000 billion of VND on recycle energy during 2011-2015, based on the decision 6493/QĐ-BCT. Also in this plan, it's expected that the city will build a waste-burning power plant in the complex of solid waste treatment in North-West Cu Chi. The city will also develop renewable energy from waste, wind and solar power to not only create a new power supply but also help protect the environment.
From 2011 to 2015, HCM City will underground-ize all high voltage grid of new urban areas and industrial parks.
 (translated by R-kudo)

A house that produce its Water and Energy

Great! very practical and simple!
But...how about the expense?

By the way, I found that video from Fair Companies
They have an Eco-DIY page, very interesting. I'm digging it.

Callebaut's Coral Reef

well, another housing model. This is just my type. Read and view photos of this project in Inhabitat.com
By the way, I'm checking Vincent Callebaut's website, very impressive from the first page !

Tomorrow is a test

Sure, tomorrow is always a test. We don't know exactly what would happen and what would happen next. The only thing we can do is "practise, practise, practise", what my Toefl iBT coach said to us months ago.

Talking about tomorrow, I'm a superstitious boy ( but I'm not " the worst in the world" - Life, sung by Des'ree) and I believe 90% of theories like Feng Shui, Yin Yang, Eastern Horoscope are true. I believe that whether those are science or religious just depends on how we use them. Well, it may take a whole life to discuss it thoroughly but checking tomorrow's scope surely kills no one.And this is my horoscope result:
Tomorrow is not a very good day, just like most of the others. This year is full of ups and downs. I will have to try a lot to gain success. I should calm down when bad things happen, and I have to turn my light down low to learn more improving meself. The good point is that I have ambition, but...I will never reach the highest peak. Thus, I should not worry so much. (about that peak, but I really care about the peak I'd reach).

It's not so bad, right? I love thinking of tomorrow.

Thinking about tomorrow is coincidently a part of my job - urban designing. Imagination is a professional tool. Sometimes a professional tool can be used for past-times, totally not for" money money money". Thus, here I go again with some imaginary perspective of the future:



Autralian Pavillion at Venice Biennale 2010 - Ocean city



Aquatown - by NH architecture with Andrew Mackenzie

source: Inhabitat.com - my most favorite website about green design issues
Check this out for more.

Another cool thing I found today is an article about the Green color.
In FengShui, Green is related to Plants, Nature, Life, Growth.In Art, as I remember, Green can soothe human eyes. Green is the color of leaves, plants,...things that are clean and eco-friendly. On another point, green-yellow is the color of toxic. Green surface with grain and lack of light may evoke the image of something old, sick, mouldy. There was a time I even extremely hated Green for its causing me the feeling of vomit ( I don't know why)

Now, science says: " The colour Green is Toxic to People, conminates Recycling"
read the article here



Surprising huh ? Many shops and restaurants and producers try to convince people to buy their "green" product by using Green. I myself once design a totally green logo for customer. I have to think again now, hic.

Tomorrow is the exam - my first TOEFL iBT exam ever !

Go greeeeeen!!! ( or we'll be late)

I first read an article about Ecotect on Archiblog last year, and downloaded a portable version but I didn't have time to "research" it. I also found a site that provided basic tutorials for Ecotect new-users, in which I could notice some main features of the software. Though heard and read about some other environmental analysis softwares, I choose Ecotect to learn for its brand "Autodesk", especially after Autodesk released Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2010.

Green building, Eco-design... or anything that relates to better-environmental-design is nothing new to global design trend. But, it is, indeed, something very new in Vietnam. I can see some young firms and foreign firms are starting practising their own green-design solutions in the local market. Others are just trying to follow the trend by adding some ordinary, traditional or even fake "green" idea into their designs. However, I believe the trend will soon rule Vietnam's blooming market.

So, I'm afraid that in the period of just 2 or 3 next years, we (me and my current half-government-ed firm) will be late. Learning Ecotect Analysis and downloading some more "go-green" plug-ins may hopefully help.

I still find it difficult with this software because there hasnt been a weather data of Vietnam in the producer's database. Moreover, to those people who wanna try with cracked versions or trial-versions, Ecotect is not easy to approach. It is my first step into the world of environmental analysis, and I hope I will soon find a good tool to use in my professional career.

Here is something I wanna share with those who is reading my blogspot and also feeling "late" just like me.





DOWNLOAD AUTODESK ECOTECT ANALYSIS 2010
Thanx Shogun from Archiblog for this download link.


ECOTECT basic tutorials

Official pages about Ecotect from Autodesk
You can download the trial-version and find a list of Location data.


There are many other cool stuffs of " green design" out there. Just Google then you'll find out. Dont be late !