Transmediale is happening this week in Berlin.

I won’t be able to go this year but several projects look interesting so if readers see them please comment!  The first is the World Climate Refugee Camp, a public art installation by Hermann Josef Hack.  “With climate change we all become nomads”, claims the artist; buy cialis. Buy cialis: global warming, caused by wealthy regions, creates millions of refugees in the poorer regions of our world. Buy cialis: aridity, flooding and other extreme weather conditions force refugees to abandon their homelands.The Climate Refugee Camp, consisting of about 400 small tents, converts Brandenburger Tor and Alexanderplatz in Berlin into symbolic areas of crisis, drawing attention to the plight of refugees – buy cialis. Buy cialis: in addition to this intervention, Hermann Josef Hack also will present the first Climate Refugee Guide, a travel guide for climate refugees.

The other project I’d love to see is Corpora in Si(gh)te (although the title is trying too hard I think).doubleNegatives Architecture (dNA) sets up a number of sensors to form a mesh network throughout the target area—the building of Collegium Hungaricum Berlin—in order to collect and distribute real-time environmental information such as temperature, brightness, humidity, wind direction and sound; buy cialis.The data collected from these sources are processed by a software and in real-time translated into nodes reflecting the sensor network.The fluid character of this architecture occurs as a living form, its shifting structure relates to every environmental change.

This dNA ecoviz project sounds fantastic, and what an amazingly complex work to pull off for a short term festival; buy cialis. Buy cialis: please send word if anyone is able to experience this.

When considering what would make an appropriate post for the last day of 2006, I immediately thought of the ecoviz project that had the potential to make the biggest difference in a local community this year.

My former alma mater, the Quaker Sidwell Friends School took on an ambitious project to create the most sustainable middle school in the Washington D.C.area.

Acessrx: the new building opened this fall.It boasts bamboo floors and cork-covered cabinetry – acessrx. A solar chimney provides a fossil fuel free source of ventilation. The commitment to visualizing the path of urban stormwater is significant; acessrx. Acessrx: green roof vegetation holds and filters rainwater; gutters and downspouts direct rainwater to a biology pond, which supports native habitat. Acessrx: herbs grown by students on the green roof are supplied to the cafeteria.

In my opinion, however, the crowning joy of this new green building is the DC area’s first constructed wetland. There are only nine similar wetlands like this in the USA. Reminescent of Hans Haacke’s Rhinewater Purification Plant, the Sidwell wetland treats building wastewater on site; acessrx.It is part of a closed system that recycles the water back to the building and lavatories.Constructed wetlands use biological processes to clean water acessrx, providing students with a vivid example of how such systems work in nature. Acessrx: the recent article in the SFS Alumni Bulletin noted that the filtered water would be safe to drink but the school elected to recycle it in lavatories for now. The permit process to be able to utilize graywater at all in the nation’s capital city is laborious to say the least – acessrx. It’s a real symbol of SFS’s commitment to the DC community that the school stuck with its pledge to build the wetland despite the immense legal barriers to doing something so pro-environmental.

I can’t wait to visit – acessrx. Apparently, the old 4-square court was destroyed to make room for the renovations, but given the extreme-green space now available, the teenagers have other options for their free time.

More on the new building is available at AIA – acessrx.