I only attended the last two days of Ecobuild in London this year. On the first day there, I was fully absorbed in finding the booths that shouted “this is the Landscape Architecture section,” never really bothering to slow down and take a look around. I found very few booths representing the field of landscape architecture and many displays for large construction firms. On the second day of the event, I decided to approach the event with different eyes. I stopped rushing around to seminars and took a nice slow walk through the display floors.
Wow! There was a noticeable change at this year’s Ecobuild conference. Gone were the ever so prominent green roof system vendors; replaced by the solar power industry in its grandest form. Also gone was what felt like the niceties of architecture: bathroom fixtures, interior/exterior lighting, and furniture to be replaced by the “nasties.” The less-sexy side of architecture took over Ecobuild like a swarm of locusts. There in front of me were HVAC systems, PVC plumbing pipes for industrial-sized projects, insulation and all sorts of energy fitness—the building blocks for high-tech industrial buildings of our future.
The once very green display booths were swapped for sleek, shiny displays with clubby spaces to sit and stare over the crowd on the show floor and countries vying for the attention of large corporations by exhibiting how ‘green’ they are. Ecobuild didn’t seem to be attracting the small firms or individuals anymore. It now has the attention of the major corporate builders.
I really should not have been surprised by this enormous change because the seminars on landscape architecture left me feeling flat and lacking interest; thus my reason to explore the display floor in greater detail. The lists of seminars appeared to be repackaged from the last two years: how to feed the masses and the Olympic site and all of its issues. After three years of attending this cutting-edge conference, I felt that the conference organizers left their revolutionary thoughts back in their corporate offices. After a few conversations with some vendors during lunch-hour, I discovered that their feelings were similar to mine; corporate greed found its way into Ecobuild.
Ecobuild did however have some highlights. David Nixon, partner and founder of Altus Associates in Los Angeles, CA and founder of Astro Courier Ltd (Ireland), gave a lecture called “From Earth to Water-the Sustainability of Floating Habitats.” David spoke on how the rising sea levels will affect millions of people worldwide (3.7 million in the US alone) and how floating homes in limited tidal ranges are a sustainable way for people to live. He offered several examples of amphibious housing communities throughout the world, but he particularly noted the successful Floating Homes community of Sausalito, CA. The community has been observed and studied for several years and continues to flourish. David discussed how the infrastructure for floating communities has improved immensely through the design of fuel cells, small turbos designed for ventilation and desalinization systems using photovoltaic panels. New systems for water purification from non-salty bodies of water have been created to keep human waste from polluting the bluefield by turning black-water into graywater. Floating homes also help to reduce the volume of effluent on city sewage systems. David noted that the LEED rating system by USGBC has found that many sustainable issues have continued to be met in floating homes.
The Ecobuild Conference 2012 has definitely changed from prior years with more emphasis on corporate construction vendors. I hope that once the Olympics are over, the UK’s landscape architects can focus on new topics and issues affecting the world at future Ecobuilds. The repeated landscape architecture topics over the past three years implied that there was nothing new to offer when I know the opposite to be true. Next year’s event has been moved back to its original schedule at the beginning of March (5-7 March 2013). My advice to any architect or landscape architect traveling to London at that time is that, despite my reservations on this year’s show, it’s still worthwhile to check out this free event. Register for free at http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/register.html.
Editor’s Note: As an architect, I actually find HVAC systems, plumbing systems, and renewable energy systems to be incredibly sexy, albeit sometimes tedious.
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