HexEarth

 Different tone for this post. I just wanted to share a random hobby project. This is a 3D model I'm building in Blender of a part of Ottawa I feel is poorly used.  This minor highway, the Airport Parkway which turns into Bronson Avenue does this ramp sprawl in this area, rendering a lot of land un-developable despite being at the convergence of several transportation corridors. It's also  complicated to navigate by foot or bicycle . I want to see if I can redesign the area for a sustainable community. I traced off of maps from Geo Ottawa to build this. Left: Satellite imagery from GeoOttawa, Right: Topographic map from GeoOttawa Blender Render.  Gray: Roads, Red: Transitway, Very narrow lines: Railways Note: the O Train overpass over the VIA line isn't included as the GeoOttawa maps haven't been updated to include it.  

Earthship Brighton   Dominic Alves   CC BY 2.0        An architectural concept that I find compelling and important to consider is the earthship. Earthships are designed to function off-grid with minimal outside dependencies. They generate on their own the small amount of electricity they use. They collect rainwater for drinking, and reuse wastewater for growing food either outside or in greenhouses. Organic wastes are reused as fertilizer.        Earthships are generally constructed largely from reclaimed materials such as glass bottles and car tires.   Some designs even employ sun-powered convection cooling that can keep temperatures under control in hot climates, without requiring any hazardous refrigerants.  Once built, the overall amount of work needed to keep the earth-ship functional and comfortable is relatively small, allowing the residents to enjoy slow-paced, relaxed life styles close to nature.     The ear...

       With rising food prices, food security is on many minds, articles and social media posts of people everywhere, including Ottawa.  My reaction to this is to wonder, how much land does the population of Ottawa actually depend on for food production?        The food we eat here comes from all over the world and depends on our ability and willingness to pay for food to be imported on top of what is locally grown, though the exact details are very difficult to nail down.  At the very least I wanted to find some general numbers, mainly how many acres does it take to feed one person.     The results one gets from asking this question through google yields understandably varied results, as the per acre efficiency of growing food varies between crop types, climates, and the diets of a given population. Nonetheless, with the caveat that I understand the data sources may or may not be reliable or relevant to my region, I've pu...