Carbon-negative reform job

Proceeding in the reform job documented in one of my recent posts, we added an extra room outside the window and the wall that we removed, creating a much bigger kitchen space and a very interesting flow of energies through the whole building.

This is the view of where there was previously the window and the external wall; the picture is taken from the new room, that before was actually the outside of the building. Being this a really special client, we had an interesting request to do something that I more than gladly accomplished and documented in this post!

Under the wooden floor of the new room...

 ...we placed 20 kg of charcoal! ...and there is place for much much more, to absorb humidity and bad smell.
Indeed this is a very interesting feature of japanese traditional building used especially in the basement of wooden temples but also below households that were thought for lasting long time and for the well being of their inhabitants.
Once I met a retired japanese man in Toride prefecture who was preparing bamboo charcoal for this purpose... there are pictures of that nice meeting somewhere in my hard-disk storage, now too far to reach.

The only concern is about the source of our charcoal... home made biochar /charcoal would be the very best choice, but in this case let's say that we got close enough... anyway still effectively storing C-carbon element instead of burning it and transform it again in the CO2 that the once-trees originally absorbed.

The simple equation of the atomic weights it's the following, so according to this we can calculate that by doing this we sequestered the equivalent of about 73.3 kg of carbon dioxide... partially balancing out the ecological footprint of this reform project. 

The aim now is to prepare another device to produce biochar from the leftover wood, while cooking on top of it of course... Get really close to finish one today, but some parts are still missing. Please stay tuned and keep check it out!

Underground greenhouses

There are a few interesting ideas about greenhouses, seen as places where to grow food also in very extreme weather conditions. In this case, it's about doing it underground, using the thermal mass of the Earth to keep the inside at the desired temperature.
To tell the truth I don't really like the use of plastic materials but I definitely consider the goal as one of the highest priority of every human settlement.

"The Walipini utilizes nature’s resources to provide a warm, stable, well-lit environment for year-round vegetable production. Locating the growing area 6’- 8’ underground and capturing and storing daytime solar radiation are the most important principles in building a successful Walipini." [1]

What to say? The project looks very successful as it started and very well promising.
I am just wondering if a system of living shades (trenches with vines) and a partial green roof wouldn't do enough... anyhow attaching a greenhouse to a house it's a pretty straight forward idea but in this case it would be like attaching it... to the basement!

Keeping it mind, just in case.

Pro-vegan video

This 6minutes video is an amazing *wack* promoting awareness on meat eating. Speechless but loud and profound, brings up no other living choices rather than being vegan!
Be prepared before watching it...

Solar water distiller

Here is an amazingly useful open source device able to extract up to 5 liter of water a day from seawater: it's a solar water distiller. It works using the energy of the Sun, that makes evaporate the salty water and then condense it in the lower vessel. 

It's called the Eliodomestico, designed by the italian researcher Gabriele Diamanti. It's available to all the developing countries through NGOs and vocational training centers.

I wonder if it would work also on regularly *questionable* tap water (like in Thailand for instance) making it more *drinkable*. By all means full thumbs up for this young designer!


  

Eco dream plans

 Payaka urban development
I have had many ideas for the ecobuilding and reform project of Payaka, in northern Thailand. So while we keep up with the demolition + construction here in Japan, I have started doing some simple sketches, just to get ready and find an effective way of kindly suggesting this ideas to the one who is going to take the decisions... well we'll see!
There are good chances that this project is going to bloom and be really awesome! Indeed it is already for all the people involved in it...



This first one is just about natural passive lights, describing some rough details of a light pipe that I would like to insert in a precise spot, under the roof, passing through one room on the first floor and reach for a very dark area in the ground floor. This would be a very useful feature.



This second sketch is a selection of three other ideas, very well supported by a huge number of successful applications around the world: it's about (clockwise from the top left corner)

• grey water filtering system (with living roots, settling tanks and eventually some small fresh water pond)
• passive air circulating system (inserting a series of pipes that funnel air out from the top of the rooms and let it out of the roof, through an insulated box containing the end part of the pipe, that gets heated up in the sun and drags out air by convection)
• anaerobic compost digester (air tight, odor less tank connected to some sort of expandable vessel -car inner tubes are perfect- to contain the gas produced during the decomposition of the feed stock inserted and later burn it in a methane gas stove)

Actually on top of the list there is a "simple" solar hot water system, that in terms of efficiency it would be amazing in Thailand, delivering free hot water to the hot-tub and the showers. You don't get to see many of these devices in Thailand and I wonder why: setting up something like this, in the middle of town... it would be an amazing statement and call lots of attention for sure! But wait until we start talking about stoves ;)
Will all this be accepted and funded?...
Cross your fingers and please send your positive vibe or even better... c'mon and help out making it happen! Either way it's going to be fun. Keep checking it up ;)   

A fabulous natural brew!

Hey check this out! It's a jar of home made natural plum jam, turned into a fermenting mesh! Well... actually it was not done on purpose but it's still part of our lovely series of Ohme made productions: when I saw the cap of the jar bold tight and after opening it grew quickly into this thick foam... well there was just one thing to do: just try it!!!

So... we just mix about 10 spoons of the thick mass on the bottom in jug of iced water. Then I scooped up for everybody's glass some of the creamy foam from the top layer: it must have definitely developed some alcohol... and it was sooooooo good! It was just fabulous! Thank you full-moon!

Mmm... so good!!!

Hemp Culture in Japan

This year is the second time we venture to Japan, offering to the japanese market a selection of hemp goods, grown and processed in Italy. Some of our special goods are definitely *new* to this market, as they come from a very very special laboratory and organic farm in Tuscany; other products, besides being grown in Italy, they are not a big surprise at all for japanese people.

Hemp oil, hemp seeds, hemp nuts and hemp spice mix are quite common in a regular japanese household since there are really deep roots of hemp culture, passing all through the past generations until now, living and lasting in modern Japan as a gift of wisdom from the Past. The connection to hemp is so deep that it gets almost to some sort of subliminal level, somewhere within graphic design but closer to sacred geometry... the pure esoteric magic of symbols. I really Love this...

There are quite a few variations of the main hexagonal design, but it's all symbols linked to *hemp*.

It would equal the "usual" symbol of the seven pointed leaf, that in western countries has been used and abused to symbolize the "high" hemp, somehow referring to some other use of the plants.
Well, in Japan it's not like this, but there is some sort of a deeper level of connection with roots and traditions that brings up the awareness that we are all harmonically connected: it's just Hemp Culture!!!  

Awadori: amazing dance parade in Japan

We went to the south of Japan, in the prefecture of Shizuoka, on Tokushima island and enjoyed the amazing happening and celebration of awadori, a traditional street parade consisting of all live acoustic super trippy loopy grooves to support an incredible group dance... check out the links to the videos at the end of this post!  

The streets were jammed packed with people assisting the event and enjoying all these rounds and rounds of dancing groups for quite a few hours... actually we left at the end that the dance was still going on full power, after an incredibly long series of bands!

Beautiful colorful costumes pop up from every corner... it's like a fair in dream land!
 Please notice : when you play the following videos make sure you do NOT play it too loud: it will keep growing up possibly until the max output of your speaker when the drums arrive in the parade... beware and enjoy!!!   

Hexagonal inspiration

Here is sequence of pictures from a very special private building construction site in Japan. The hexagonal wooden blocks we are using here have been custom ordered from an external wood worker. Amazing elements to play with...

 This will be the new wall supporting the window we've just tore down.

 Inspiring deities 

The shining mark of an hexagonal sunlight window on the roof of the new room. Enlightened inspiration...

The undoing of a japanese window frame

This is a sequence of pictures taken during the undoing of a window frame of a 60 old japanese house. You'll find it long and tedious (tell you from now...) if you're not into carpentry and how to make a good house or follow any of the very many schools of ecobuilding house making... Anyway
At moments it got to look like some sort of mind game to play fair and easy... but it end up being a dusty demolition, with a big wealth of insight on the oldtime japanese building techniques, the quality and the materials of a really well made type of house.

This is the top corner of the window we have to dismantle. Notice that the vertical pieces, painted in that blue grey color, has a precisely carved notch running all through the profile of the horizontal piece... it's quite amazing and feels too bad but we are meant to do it... c'est la vie!

When we remove the roof cover of the frame and the win the fight against the top piece, this is how the left side looked like. Amazing carpentry! 

Here is couple of detailed pictures of the left corner of the base (the sill) of the window.
This notch was inside the lowest part of the piece described in the previous pictures. Please notice the nails *very well hidden* under an about 5mm-thick layer of wood... note also that the vertical pieces did not make it and ended up smashed in pieces.

The right corner of that same board of the window sill, still partially inserted in the vertical piece.

Here is a detail of the center of the window sill, showing the notch that was holding the central post.
Notice that the profile of the piece entering here was a good 7mm wider and perfectly sealed.




 Amazingly long board but unfortunately had to be cut in the process...

There is no way out of the series of tricks of multiple notches. So here is what we ended up doing to take out the top post...
Soon after starting we have always been against the nails so pretty much working with all the nail bits that you'll see later on pointing against you... 

Notice in this section that this top post is actually made of two separated pieces, one not planed on top of the one with the glossy brown finish. Between the two pieces it sticks out the inserted portion of the table that was closing the window sill box. You'll see it better in the next picture.  

 

 The central notch of the top beam.

This is the outside of the window after grinding and demolishing the external 30mm of some really hardly compacted dark grey cement layer under the peach color rendering.

What a mess of noise and dust!
In the next picture, as you can also have a look here at in the lower right corner, you can see the frame of the floor of the the room where we are connecting into.

 Other details of how various parts were connected together. Still rough surfaces but amazingly precisely cut. 

This is an interesting detail of great quality: the blue metal piece is the last bit of the top-right corner of the roof of the window box. 

As you see it's fixed under the horizontal board but was sticking out passing through the lower board, already missing in this picture... too fast steps sometimes, too fast to take good pictures at!

The second day of work we proceeded taking down the plastic cover another section of frame, the one holding all the rendering boards and the cabinet that was behind it. We are still debating on the posts to insert as we'll cut through the last section with the fan on top. Proper planning required in the next days so you'll see other updates soon.