There are a number of innovative design features in this project that would be valuable to assess once the project is completed. For example, how successful are the various hydrological strategies employed in filtering pollutants and purifying water? How well does the cob transmit heat from the oven to the benches? How does this usage affect durability of the materials? How do different plantings and growth mediums on the ecoroofs function in nearly the same climate? How does this project build social capital and advance the market acceptance of natural building? We hope to engage students from a variety of departments to develop their own research projects which could subsequently be used in the final report along with documentation of the design and construction.
Natural building is by far the greenest building technology. By using local resources, renewable or reclaimed from demolition or deconstruction, great concerns of toxicity to the environment after decades of unmaintained wear and tear are met by using bio-compatible materials.
Experimental development of an air filtering system in connection to the falling water and convection current from the oven and bench exhaust would lend to a minimal impact on surrounding air quality, potentially recovering all soot and ash from the wood-fuelled oven, while potentially dealing with an on-site building exhaust vent.
The collection of rainwater from the ecoroofs and surrounding porous paving will lend to a natural particulate filtration of hydrocarbons and other waterbourne pollutants. It is a goal of these integrated structures to provide visual indicators of air and water quality throughout a series of natural microsystems such as marshes, sandbeds, UV concentrated ponds, oxygenating and air-drawing waterfalls, and solar distilling or steam distilling in combination with the oven exhaust, lending to near-potable water quality. This filter will also allow for natural irrigation of the native permacultural planting demonstration, and will show an abundance of ecosystem edges through intensive contouring of the waterway through the compact xeriscape.
PSUrth, by virtue of its central location on the PSU campus, is accessible to the public. It will, therefore, establish an attractive venue for educating the university community and the general public. Furthermore, it serves a critical and groundbreaking function of showcasing appropriate, human-scaled technologies in a high-tech setting of education and research. Also, it will emphasize the inherently interdisciplinary nature of sustainability by bringing into focus cultural and social issues along with natural building concepts and practices. As educational institutions look beyond the traditional organization of the university into discrete and often isolated academic departments based on specialized disciplinary knowledge, the project will offer a vibrant and living example of interdisciplinary collaboration.
As PSU is a highly visible “anchor tenant” in downtown Portland, the project offers a unique opportunity to place highly accessible facilities in a very public place. People will be able to “touch and feel” the structures, to see first hand the food-waste cycle in action, to experience the effects of gathering in a comfortable place to enjoy friends and make new ones, to learn about the history of the site, etc. Such experiences will undoubtedly lead to many other projects throughout the city, thus furthering the missions of City Repair, the Office of Sustainable Development, and the university.