The Voice of Nosara


home	regional	community	sports	entertainment	surf	nature	health		en Espa�ol	English


Archives

	December 09
	January 2010
	February 2010
	Water Edition
	March 2010
	April 2010
	May 2010
	June 2010
	July 2010
	August 2010
	September 10
	October 10
	November 10
	December 10
	January 2011
	February 2011
	March 2011
	April 2011
	May 2011
	June 2011
	July 2011
	August 2011
	September 11
	October 11
	November 11
	December 11
	January 2012
	February 2012
	March 2012
	April 2012
	May 2012
	June 2012
	July 2012
	August 2012
	September 12
	October 12
	November 12
	December 12
	January 13
	February 13
	March 13
	April 13
	May 13


Media Partners

	El Pais

	Inside Costa Rica

	Costa Spirit

	Q Costa Rica

	Today Costa Rica

	El Sabanero


connect


	FaceBook

	Twitter

CLASSIFIEDS

community

	Nosara Animal Care

	Nosara Info

	Esquelita de Nosara

	Friends of Nosara

	Nosara Civic Association

	Nosara Wildlife

Green Architecture –
Recycled construction material: High tech vs Low-tech

By Oliver Von der Weid

All around the world, people are trying to replace traditional building material by recycled products, in an effort to reduce the amount of garbage filling up our dumps. Let’s look at two very different examples and see if somewhere in-between we can be inspired to make some changes to our community as well.

		High Tech The first one is a pavilion built for the World Expo that is taking place in Shanghai from May to October 2010. Over 200 countries are participating and everyone is using this platform to show the latest in technologies. And for all of these structures, architects and designers from all over the world are coming up with innovative, efficient and awe-inspiring ideas. This building is designed by Atelier Feichang Jianzhu for all the corporation of Shanghai and,, instead of presenting their products, they decided to highlight their spirit of innovation and forward thinking. The pavilion has its façade entirely composed of recycled plastic coming from old CD jewel cases. But they didn’t stop there and turned its sustainable features into the main attraction with exterior-altering LED light changing capabilities and a misting system which uses rain-collected water to cool the building as well as provide a surreal ambiance. And they also took seriously in account the fact that the exposition last only some month. So at the end of the exposition all the plastic pieces can be reformatted by melting them down again and will be eventually re-used.

		Low Tech The second example is an ecological house constructed in Honduras. The concept promoted by Eco-Tec and several other ONG all through Latin-American and Africa, is to use PET bottles filled with earth instead of blocks. This Low-tech alternative allows you to build from houses and schools to even communal water holding tanks with no steel and very little cement involved. And the structures are comparable to regular constructions for its durability and resistance. This is a great sustainable feature because you find all the material locally and the work of filling the bottles with dirt can be done by anyone with no qualification needed. This gives working opportunities to the community where these projects are done. But most important, by using 8’000 PET bottles in the construction of a medium sized house, it freed up around 12 square meters (130 square feet) in the local landfill. Each PET bottle-brick is one less bottle burned or thrown into the river or sea.

But in both these high-tech and low-tech cases, the key point is the creativity of the designers who looked at the material that normally end up in our dumps and gave them a second life.

More Nature News

Organic Gardening in Nosara –
Why, what, and how to grow Organically

Transporting produce from the central valley is costly. The food is not fresh, and chemical fertilizers endanger health. As evidenced by the enthusiastic turnout at a potluck for organic gardeners open to all at no charge, many would like to grow and eat more organic food in Nosara. Why isn’t it happening? The gathering brought twenty gardeners together to share challenges and successes. More >

ADVERTORIAL
Nosara Wildlife Wants Your Home!

As anyone can guess, running a large organization to treat injured and/or orphaned wild animals and return them back into the wild, takes a lot of time, dedication,and....money.
Several local homeowners have decided to help support this effort by donating the commission on the sale of their home to Nosara Wildlife. Bill and Nancy Kanz and Dan Ray have both said that if Nosara Wildlife brings them a buyer, the commission on the sale will go directly to Nosara Wildlife!

This is a wonderful opportunity for the seller to help make a difference in the Nosara Community by supporting the efforts of Nosara Wildlife in addition to preserving its wildlife. We're looking for more home owners who are selling their homes (or lots!) to consider this program. After all, you will be getting more exposure for your home at no extra cost to you!

Please visit: www.nosarawildlife.com to see the Kanz' and "DRay's" homes. We'd love to include yours! Please contact Steve or Vicki Coan if you would like to join our program and help make a difference!

CONTACT: 2682.1474, 8866.4652, [email protected]