Barefoot Social Architecture: Towards a Sustainable Urban Future | Yasmeen Lari | TEDxLCWU
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAWdvYgHMXs Video ID: NAWdvYgHMXs ============================================================ [Music] [Applause] hello everyone greetings from pakistan until 2000 when i retired from my successful practice as a starchitect i had been among the most wasteful architects in pakistan i have to admit that i had indulged in an extravagant egotistic journey which largely focused on serving the elite of my country having designed architectural deficits for the one percent with the most wealth as defined by french economist thomas piketty during the 1980s and 90s i had a field day in choosing the most exotic and expensive materials such as concrete and steel along with imported granite cladding and aluminium glazing way back in 1987 the bruntland commission report had emphasized sustainable development and in particular meeting the needs of the world's poor but even three decades later prima donna architects driven by the desire to create star architecture for the select few unthinkingly continue to exploit earth's resources with little thought of sustainability i probably would also have not learned to build zero carbon structures had it not been due to a quirk of fate it was the devastating 7.6 vector scale earthquake that hit pakistan northern pakistan in 2005 resulting in 80 000 casualties and displacement of 400 000 families that transformed my architectural perceptions today all of us need to be aware of the rising levels of poverty enormous disparities within our societies the impact of global warming climate emergencies and recurring disasters climate change migrants and conflict in belt camps for the displaced as well as of the debilitating impact of covet 19. we know that worldwide building industry is responsible for at least 40 percent of energy uses 60 percentage of water usage or 3 billion tons of raw material and 15 to 20 percent of waste stream we also know that cement and steel have excessive energy requirement in production and burnt brick is not far behind we should also be aware that being responsible for 65 to 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions our urban centers will remain global warming battlegrounds unless urban environment professionals devise ways to begin creating echo enclaves with the ultimate objective of converting present cities into eco cities those are the factors that have led me to campaign for zero carbon or carbon negative movements to change mindsets of urban design professionals it has become imperative to discontinue the use of contemporary industrialized materials building materials and revert to traditional sustainable green materials in order to lower the carbon footprint and create climate responsive designs there are three strands that are consciously integrated in all my work learning from tradition and heritage community engagement for co-building and co-creation and reliance on barefoot approaches i have found that there is a synergy between social well-being and ecological justice when traditional sustainable materials are used for construction my fellow travelers are those that walk barefoot i found that walking without shoes helps us to tread lightly on the planet and use earth's resources judiciously today my life's mission is it to find ways to build for bop or bottom of the pyramid as well as to deal with the climate change impact by reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the dictum i follow is low cost zero carbon footprint and zero waste using basa mechanism we have been able to reach out to 0.84 million people or over 100 000 persons per year through provision of basic needs also we have been able to work towards 12 out of 17 sustainable development goals so there are four tenants of bazaar mother is a result of my struggle over the last decade and a half to articulate people's humanistic architecture as part of rights-based development incorporating attributes of social and ecological justice bazaar is akin to social engineering for bringing about social change incorporating environmental cultural and technical dimensions resulting in transformation of mindsets from a cycle of dependency to a culture of pride and self-reliance first the basa tenet number one which is maximizing the potential of barefoot ecosystem as you can see in the slide the barefoot ecosystem consists of barefoot economy barefoot market barefoot enterprises barefoot entrepreneurs barefoot skills and barefoot products in contrast to the market economy with its aim for personal profit based creates a parallel informal and inclusive economy that fosters collective benefit by serving disadvantaged populous now this is telenet number two zero carbon humanistic architecture fostering pride dignity and well-being this tenet encourages participatory co-building using sustainable materials and building upon age old techniques there are these are some of the slides to demonstrate co-creation activities these are houses are being decorated by women to show their pride and their ownership of what they have and this is a bamboo house and a toilet as a mark of identity you can see how beautifully decorated this is and this is a world habitat winner earthen pakistan chula this earthen cookstove provides dignity for women and assures health for children as far as my work is concerned i am an advocate of earth lime and bamboo as these are among the most sustainable materials which are the only materials i use in my current work now we come to basa tenet number three which is delivery of unmet needs through biscuits which is barefoot incubator for social good and environmental sustainability now this is a biscuit training center at zc3 or zero carbon cultural center at zero carbon campus at mukhley and here that is where we have the incubatees being trained they are provided mentoring and monitoring and these are the poorest of the communities that we are training and they fabricate products for the other poor in order to fulfill their primary needs as well as unmet needs of the surrounding communities each of the eight former beggar villages specialize in affordable good quality products consisting of green construction materials such as earth lime bamboo and thatch organic soap organic compost and natural fuel briquettes climate smart farming for food security craft products for everyday use for achieving a better quality of life now this now is tender number four which is non-engineered structures for shrinking the ecological footprint now these structures such as this one have placed pakistan in the lead as the largest zero carbon shelter program in the world as you see no carbon emissions no trees were felt 1750 villages were served and 300 000 persons were housed now this is a two-stories two-story structure that has withstood annual inundation since 2011. the ground floor is a as a shaded area is usually used for children's activities during floods as the waters rise the upper flow becomes a refuge for people and their belongings now this is an example of prefabricated structures uh it is based on a mod modular construction using prefabricated bamboo panel for ease of fabrication and transportation these can be prepared in advance and can be erected very quickly eight panels are used to build a one-room house of 12 foot by 12 foot size then addition of two more panels makes a village classroom of 12 by 18 size and by using 12 panels you add on another two a village center of size 18 by 18 is constructed while a three module combination makes into interpower center at mukhley and you can see that we've used a dome domical form which actually we've learned from mukhley which has lots of domes because of the monuments that are there here you can see that it was tested at nad university in karachi and subject sequentially to ground motions corresponding to kobe earthquake earthquake of 7.3 lecture scale levels applied were from 25 to 100 and then from 125 to 275 with no damage to the structure and later subjected to 670 which hopefully never happens but you will see that walls did not collapse which showed life safety performance under extreme conditions and here is the shaking table test itself so you will see that uh uh first it's this is a hundred hundred percent of a copy earthquake which means this is exactly what happened at the time of the earthquake and you can see nothing happened and then uh uh it'll it goes on to 275 percent and again nothing happens and we can see that it is nothing but earth walls and bamboo interlacements and bamboo lattice that has been used in the structure and when uh it didn't then collapse uh the vice chancellor there said it it's got to you've got to break it so they went up to 670 of the of the movements in my view new york or dubai with their high carbon high density glittering skyscrapers will no longer be the urbanist future beacon i'm optimistic that instead lessons will be drawn upon age-old wisdom and traditional environments found in countries such as pakistan aiming for low-rise medium density formations with open to sky terraces for families to remain in contact with nature when a pandemic strikes with pedestrian enclaves and local around the corner shopping without being disrupted by vehicular traffic also there are several lessons we could learn from the past consisting of zero energy natural devices which can provide comfortable micro climate within buildings without employing mechanical means these bring about traditional benefits uh when formulating echo urbanist strategies on the left is the zero carbon wind cooling that can be attained by the unidirectional wind catcher of tata where incoming breeze provides thermal control air movement as well as warm air exhaust on the right is the zero energy thermal comfort that is achieved by utilizing passive solar design and thermal mass the courtyard helps cool air during the night keeping the interiors cool for much of the day this is a technique that's used a lot in some parts of pakistan on the left among the best examples of zero energy water cooling is the paradise of jharbar of world heritage shalamar gardens with spectacular water displays creating a cool environment entirely by natural means and on the right water is also used in the paradisal quadrants in the shishmahal enclosure of the world heritage lahore fort we have seen that traditional urbanism is a result of local wisdom use of sustainable materials and techniques for minimizing the use of energy many of us believe the traditional urbanism equals echo urbanism and there is an urgent need to transform our present wasteful urban centers into low carbon echo enclaves so what does it mean compact cities not urban sprawl methods or models low rise medium density mixed use development not skyscrapers to keeping keeping short distances to work then vehicle-free walkable cultural activity forested streets plantation and water bodies for transforming urban micro climate low impact architecture that minimizes energy consumptive materials in construction and seeks for net energy solutions and above all saving all heritage buildings as any replacement will only add to further carbon emissions also there are good examples for for example oslo that could be emulated so we need such attributes to lead our cities towards low carbon resilience and enable us to help contain emissions to within 1.5 degrees centigrade rise stipulated by cop 21 of paris agreement of 2015. the implication of covet 19 exhort us to move towards a society that is humanistic and inclusive together we must endeavor to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as we fashion a new urban environment based on more sustainable lifestyles adopting movements such as transition design degrowth or low carbon compact cities which are becoming popular in the west and my own barefoot social architecture of basa for achieving sdgs or sustainable development goals as well as sustenance of the disadvantage of the third world in conclusion i would like to ask this question that i have asked audiences around the world and that the question is knowing the state of the planet as it is today are we ready to play a role in mending the imbalances in this world and to help stitch the highly damaged earth tapestry thank you