Ultimate minimal / Chashitsu- Japanese tea house

Revisit calculus: keep dividing 1 by ever decreasing number, and the result becomes larger and larger and larger.....toward infinity. 1/0.0000001, 1/0.00000000000001, 1/0.000000000000000000000000000001......

Zero has infinite power.

Yes, zero is null itself, but by being null, it can have infinite power. This is like zen.

Japanese traditional Chashitsu (tea house, tea room) is designed to be very very small as if it wanted to be infinite by being physically null.

Discover some concepts and philosophy that are embedded in 20 square feet or so confined room where most minimal and sophisticated ceremony happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chashitsu
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/architecture/japanese-teahouse.cfm
http://www.teahyakka.com/chashitsuElayout.html
http://takatsuka-architects.com/suki&sukiya.htm

It reminds us that we don't need huge or extravagant things to be rich in mind. We can release our mind to the world of infinity by allowing ourselves close to zero, physically and conceptually.

Hooray for small house!

To Reduce Greenhouse Gases, Start by Shrinking Buildings

New Mexico architect Edward Mazria proposes the 2030 Challenge. It calls for an immediate 50 percent reduction in fossil-fuel-based energy use in all U.S. buildings and complete elimination by 2030.

This target sounds very bold. What kind of state-of-the-art, cutting and innovative green building technologies or concepts are involved in the proposal?

First step: Make a house smaller!

Again (from my previous post), it has nothing to do with technologies, it's about changing the way of life. I really appreciate the fact that he chose downsizing as the first priority.

I am from the country where average house size would only be somewhere around 1000 sq feet. Here it is 2400 sq feet. I can't stop feeling sorry to see so much energy being wasted only to heat/cool the spaces that nobody is occupying. Smaller houses also reduce your ecological footprint overall, not just carbon footprint.

I know that living in larger house is everyone's dream.

But I don't want to achieve my dream by sacrificing our children's future. We won't be worse off by living in a bit smaller house (even though Japan's case is a bit extreme). Plus, it could be a solution for devastated housing market....smaller houses are definitely much much more affordable than large houses. A lot of people need affordable housing...and now.

Photo: an example of a house in Japan. Compare the size of the house with the car parked in the garage and you will see how small the house is. Also, most houses have multiple stories just to maximize the capacity on a limited land.

Source: http://www.japanre.net/images/properties/kamiosakinewhouse/4.jpg

Incentivizing Light/Small cars

I went back to Japan in June for a couple of weeks and was surprised to see how passenger vehicles keep becoming smaller and lighter. (I have been here in US for 4 years now, so the change was pretty striking) A lot of cars are not even under "compact" category....much smaller. They are also square to maximize their interior capacity. Now it sounds totally reasonable that Wagon R by Suzuki (not Prius!) is the top selling car in Japan for so many years.

There is a category called "light vehicle" in Japanese vehicle regulations; it enjoys less taxation and cheaper insurance. Also, the parkings are required to have lots dedicated to light vehicles (I guess much smaller than the lot for "compact" here in US). Wagon R is a light vehicle.

When Japan was a flourishing economy, driving light vehicle wasn't cool at all (besides being small, light vehicle has to carry different license plate to normal vehicles) ; people wanted more expensive, normal sized cars. But now, people are less interested in buying gorgeous cars. Or in buying cars at all. Cars are losing its value as status symbol as people's values and economic situation changes (downturn, obviously) and high gas prices (it's much higher than here in US). It's rather just a tool for transportation where efficiency gets priority.

Gas prices are getting high in US as well. There is surging interest in compact/small/energy efficient cars. If it comes with some tax/insurance relaxation, it will further stimulate the interest.

Definition of light-vehicle
Max length 3.4m (11")
Max width 1.48m (4.8")
Max height 2m (6.6")
Max displacement 660 cc
Max power 47kW

Futon: Japanese minimalism in bedroom

When I first came to US, I was amazed to see that "futon" has evolved somehow and did not look like Japanese original futon.

The original futon bedding is just mattress and blanket. No frames whatsoever.

I guess the idea of futon was to live efficiently in a small country/small house.

Futon is foldable. Traditional house rule is that you have to fold your futon and put it in a closet when you wake up in the morning. You pull it back from the closet when you go to sleep. In that way, you can keep your futon clean and use the room for something else during the day.

Living in a smaller house is one way to reduce our carbon footprint. Futon will fit nicely in a small house and help you use the space efficiently.

Do you really need one of those pesky “beds” taking up space in your home?

Mimimizing input, maximizing output

Japan is geographically small and isolated. It has very little resources except for water. Up untill the middle of 19th century, Japan had almost no contact with foreign countries; it had to live on what scarce resources it had. Japanese needed to be the expert in efficient resource management....to survive.

I belive this is the underlying secret for the success of Prius (most energy-efficient hybrid vehicle) and whole bunch of other energy/resource efficient products that Japanese companies offer. For centuries and centuries, Japanese were under constant pressure to maximize output by using minimum input, which probably became our second nature.



I took lessons for Japanese flower arrangement for a very short time of period. I was totally amazed when I dawned to me that it was not the flowers that I was arranging! It is the space or dimention in between or around flowers that I had to capture and display.

You don't have to have so many flowers to impress people. Mimimum is beautiful because it's not all about flowers. Japanese flower arrangement enjoy the combination and interaction of what is there (flowers) and what is not there (nada). Art of minimum input.

photo by: YAYAYAYAYAY!

Small cars aren't fragile

Smart receives top crash scores

It seems like there is a strong belief that bigger/heavier cars are always safer.

Recent crash test reveals that the 8-foot, 8-inch vehicle received the highest rating of good in front-end and side-impact testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, helping address some concerns that consumers may be more vulnerable in the tiny two-seater.

While it is true that bigger/heavier are less vulnerable in accidents in general, there are the researches that show no direct correlation in increased mass and safety. Why? There is technical aspects such as center of gravity or the design to absorb impact. But I am not an expert so I would like to bring up a simple side of the issue. I think it is because it's all relative. Imagine:

Reckless large truck crashing with a small car on a highway at 100mph.

Small car colliding with a compact car in a narrow urban street at 30mph.

You can't really compare the risk of these two cases. Accidents are affected by many factors that are not related to car design itself. Even if you arm yourself with a lot of steel, it doesn't protect you from all the risks.

Small cars have their own way to be strong and accident resistant. Isn't it enough?

Is dish-washer eco-friendly??

I sometimes come across Japanese articles bragging "dish washer is eco-friendly."

In the meantime, I bought "the complete idiot's guide to global warming" out of curiosity. It says that the dishwasher uses as much energy as cloth dryer or freezer. That's a lot.

Are they contradicting?

The reasoning for Japanese articles is because dishwasher only uses about 3 gallons of water/load, which is much less than hand washing. Plus, the machine is energy efficient. Therefore it has overall advantage over hand washing (which assumes hot water requiring energy).

We will need hard numbers to really determine whether the diswasher is truely eco-friendly or not. But there is one obvious difference in determining "what is a dishwasher by the way?": Japanese dishwasher is tiny!

This one is only 1.8'X1.1'X1.8'. Offered by National (domestic brand of Matsushita=Panasonic)

Complete idiots guide recommends using air drying head drying, scraping dishes off....but downsizing can be another easy solution. It doesn't need any cutting-edge technology.

And don't forget about the fridge! Fridges don't have to be as big as what we have.....in my opinion.

Home appliances, go lean!.....and it will probably keep the occupants virtually lean.

Nissan Cube launced in North America?

According to Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan, 15% of world's car use is for urban transportation such as commuting or shopping. Nissan considers this as potential market for EV and compact car.

It is targeting to introduce EV in US in 2010.

It also dubbes Cube (photo), a mini multi-purposed vehicle (MPV), a global strategic car for Nissan and will start marketing it worldwise in the near future. It will get 37 MPG. Nissan expects high gas price will help boost the needs for compact/small cars.

To me, it seems very straightforward. Dragging less steel requires less energy, therefore smaller car is better.

Cars, go small!

Compact city: Sustainable urban development

A lot of people must be considering alternative transportation because of high gas price.

Bikes, motor bikes or small electric cars can be available. But they aren't safe when the cars are passing by at 40 or 60 mph. Then how about reducing speed limits to 25 or 30 mph? It is essential to safely promote bikes and other vulnerable transportation means.

There is a way where we can reduce speed limits without compromising the time needed to travel: make cities compact! Assume your town is 20% more compact than what it is now. You can reduce driving speed from 60mph to 48mph, and you still can get to the same place with same amount of travel time. Or, if the key services are effectively aligned, you could reduce your travel time even more with slower speed.











Compact city is a relatively new idea for sustainable urban development that focuses on
1) Central area revitalization
2) High-density development
3) Mixed-use development
4) Services and facilities: hospitals, parks, schools, leisure and fun

There is much more about compact cities, here are some links.
I strongly believe that making motor vehicles eco-conscious can never happen on its own. It has to come hand in hand with community planning and development.

University of Reading, UK: Compact city
Developing a compact city and a network region: Sweden
The compact city and the environment: a review: Netherlands

photo from: http://www.transport.gov.za/projects/msa/msareport/msarpt_fig82.gif

Small community with a belly button: Centre, centro, place, square, plaza

I lived in Paris for a short time.

I've always imagined that Paris must be a big big city with historic sites, boutiques, restaurants, apartments, River Seine, etc, etc.....

But it wasn't. I was very surprised and pleased to find that it was a very walkable city. Well, it's not really small, but considering the rich content that Paris boasts, it's remarkably small!

Paris hasn't been changed much since medieval era. It started to flourish from Ile de la Cite (and the Notre Dame) on the Seine and it is still the center of Paris. It is like a belly button of the city.

Paris has smaller belly buttons too; "place". Place de la Concorde, Place de la Bastille..... Those are the hubs of the streets that form radial system. Small places are connected each other with radial streets like a spider web and it was really nice to stroll around from Place to Place. I enjoyed walking following different scenes; fashion, art, cafe and bistros, marches, old, nice apartments and hotels, historic sites, different ethnic communities.....

Italy has Centro and Plaza. England has center and square. Same idea. Old cities developed centering some important buildings such as churchs and gradually expanded their radius. It's amazing to see the similarity; old cities with belly buttons and small hubs that connect them each other, forming a nice spider-web like circle.

All those cities were developed well before fossil fuel became available. In other words, those cities are inherently designed low-carbon and efficient.

There must be so many ideas and tips to design low-carbon community.

Who killed electric car? Part2

About a week ago, California Air Resources Board voted to lower the target for ZEV (zero emission vehicles) program. The target for hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicle has been lowered from 25,000 (set in 2003) to 7,500...substantial setback.

It's hard to see from the pic, but there were many electric vehicles parked outside Cal/EAP building in Sacramento, CA (where CARB is located) to protest the decision....including fancy Tesla electric car.

This is not new. CARB did the same thing a few years back which is rememberd as famous "who killed electric car?" story. It seems that there will be no leap forward on this issue.....at least for coming years.

Well, that is sad and bad, because ZEV is better than conventional cars.

But No car is even better than ZEV. And a lot better.

However, if you are a Californian who don't live in San Francisco or Berkeley (pedestrian-friendly communities), you can't really scream "I want to be green and I want to live without a car!"

Things are build sparse, and public transportation is not very convenient. If I choose to live without a car, I'd be struggling to run errands. But if a community is re-designed in a way that everything is nicely concentrated, then you can walk, ride a bike or use trams to access many different places. And owing no car is far more affordable than purchaing a cutting-edge ZEV!

Investing in ZEV is one option for reducing emission from vehicles, but investing in public transportation and re-designing community is another way to do it. What should I do if I wanted to vote for the latter?

Small is Inevitable: Transition Town Totnes, UK

This is just inspiring.

Transition Town Totnes, as it has more recently become known, is the first initiative of its kind in the UK attempting to reduce the carbon footprint of an entire community in a way that is imaginative, fun and engaging.

And that.....

‘One of the first things we did was to consult the town’s older generations, to ask for their experience and advice on how the town used to function with minimal oil dependency’
‘It is important to remember that this concept is not new. As recently as the Second World War, Totnes was almost entirely self-sufficient out of pure necessity’

I totally agree that shifting toward low carbon society is not all about technology and innovation.

Our predecessors, across the globe, have rich knowledge base on how to live self-sustained.

I definately want to learn from their experiment.

Where is my corner store?

What can you find in your neighbourhood if you walk from home?

The closest grocery store from my home is almost 1 hour away by foot. There is a park about 10 min away, but no grocery store.

This strikes me when I think "What if we cannot use our cars all of a sudden? Should we starve or what??" For example, what if we have a severe storm that stops gas supply for a few days? Is this totally impossible scenario? I don't think so. Obviously I won't starve, but the life would be very difficult in that situation.

Walking is so helpless here. You don't get anything by walking. You need wheels to survive.

I've always been wondering why community planning is so strict about use permit in residential area.
As far as I saw, in most of California's residential areas, there is no businesses. No corner stores, no Seven Elevens, no Starbucks, no post offices, no markets, no anything.

But if you have those in walking distance, you don't need wheels. I hate to drive just to pick up some milk or a cup of coffee. I would love to walk for small errands, but nothing is accessible. Poor my little feet.

Is it because of traffic and security concern? Does anybody know the answer? I am eager to know why.

Anyway, if you build a small community with mixed use (residential and commercial), then it is going to be a heaven for pedestrians and bikers. Shops don't need to have parking lots on their own, and don't have to worry about CEQA traffic element because it won't generate much traffic. As to security, I don't know. Would it generate a lot of crimes in the neighbourhood? I hope not.

Live small and give our feet more opportunities to demonstrate their capacities. This will definitely reduce our carbon footprint.




photo by sheila steele

Prius goes mini? Toyota launches iQ

Look how small this car is!

And look what this car can do!

2980×1680×1480mm --- designed to accomodate 3 adults and 1 child

Estimated MPG --- 70???? ( I took the info from Japanese news source that says 30 KPL (kilometers per litre) )

CO2 emission /mile -- estimated to be less than 160 grams (Prius is 166 grams)

Projected to be released end this year in Japan, next year in Europe.

I didn't see any information if Toyota is introducing iQ in US market in the near future.

Usually car makers don't market compact/small cars in US because there is not much demand. (By the way, Toyota does not make/sell trucks in Japan. Roads are too narrow, parking lots are expensive and not easily available. Garages are also too small..... There is no room for trucks for personal use, so there is no market.)

Given that, Toyota might not introduce iQ in North American market?? I don't know. But gas price is very high now, so there must be increasing demand for smaller, super-efficient and affordable cars in US? Probably??

iQ at Geneva auto show

Priu-sizing world, Priu-sizing life

Prius.

No explanation is needed....icon of energy-efficient, eco-friendly product.
Made the green the new black.



But where does it come from? I mean, why did Prius have to come from Toyota, Japan?

Japan has no oil and very little coal or natural gas. Almost all the oil import comes from Middle-East. Clearly, energy security has always been a major issue.

In Japan, gas price has always been high. It was around $3.5o -$4.00 for the last several years, and now it's gone up to $5.5!!
In US, when the gas hit $3.5o - $4.00 level recently, I heard people saying "this can't be possible....this isn't right...... Hey I can't drive my truck anymore!"

But wait a minute.

Japanese car makers started to develop tremendous energy efficiency technology and skills in reaction to the "oil crisis" in 1973 (Middle East oil producers sharply raised the price of the oil due to political issues). The crisis triggered a panic and fear in Japanese society; people raided grocery stores to buy all the toilet papers they could find on the shelves! (why toilet paper, I don't know....)

Faced with the high energy price, Japanese businesses desperately sought the way to be super-efficient....to survive! It was a matter of whether they could overcome the high price, or go out of business. Over the course of variety of efforts, cars became one the most successful efficient products that made Japanese brands so strong. After decades, Prius now is sweeping the world in greening the industry.

Even when faced with hardship, people always have strength and power to come up with improvements/innovation to address issues. In a sense, oil crisis helped Prius come to the world.

I am sure many creative businesses/people will come out of today's high gas price to offer product/services that maximize output with minimized input. Efficiency and down-sizing is the key to survive low-carbon society toward sustainability.

Now is the time to Priu-size world, and Priu-size life.

Gas hits $3.5! What can I do?

Here in Northern California, the gas price has recently passed $3.5 threshold. I heard that in some coastal regions it's already $4. (When I came to US about 4 years ago it was $1.99!!!)

Well I guess everybody - not only green folks - is thinking about an alternative to driving. Does your community have good public transportation? If not, probably only available alternative is motorbike or bike.

How about a bike? Honestly, I am not physically competitive. I get scared to ride a bike on a bike path because I go too slow, and everybody else goes really fast. I can be a bottleneck on a bike path, blocking others.....


I just wonder if I can ride an easy-going, electric bike like this... This model is for moms who want to carry a child in the basket on the front.

Those are rather slow, easy-going, grocery-shopping bikes which you wouldn't need a helmet. Since it is electricity-powered, it doesn't eliminate me because I am not physically strong.

There are so many different kinds of electric bikes offered in Japan.

I don't want to drive my car to go to the grocery stores in my neighborhood. But I am not physically strong and cannot ride a fast-track bike. Can this be an alternative? Would it encourage more people to choose a bike, or would it add more mess on the road?

Photo: Yamaha

What is an energy-efficient room?

In winter, we use heater for our house. In summer, air conditioner. Ordinary central heating system....nothing fancy. But is it just me who feel guilty to keep warming /cooling the rooms that nobody is using?

Typical North-American style home does not have many partitions between rooms. I can't stop feeling guilty to central-heat the house that ends up heating/cooling the space that nobody is occupying.

I don't mind living in rather a small house with doors in each room with localized heating equipments, because it is an easy way to reduce my carbon/ecological footprint. But I have never seen such a house, at least here in California. This idea wouldn't sell, I know.

So......what is the middle ground?

Japanese old style house uses fusuma (pic) and shoji for door/wall. Basically, it is a wall made of 4 to 6 panels that slide on the rail. If you wanted, you can leave 2-4 panels open, or close them all, or take them out all, depending on the weather, and the number of people you are accommodating. (With this old Japanese style, you can take the fusumas out and use two or three rooms altogether for gathering)

Most Japanese no longer live in such a traditional old style house. But I just wonder if this concept of "adjustable wall/door", hand in hand with localized heating/air conditioning system, somehow, can be Incorporated in eco-housing or energy-efficient home design.

Any views from professionals?

photo above by: yo kelley yo
photo below by: yuki yaginuma

Walkable streets are fun!

Walkable strees are fun. You don't have to repeat never ending drive-park-shop-drive-park-shop.... cycle. You are free to take time and stroll around, check this shop, buy a little snack from that place, as you feel like to.


photo by nodoca

If a town as a whole is designed walkable, you can have a glass of beer or a keg in a pub, and then walk home without worrying about DUI at all! Obviously, if the town is population dense enough, you will have a decent public transportation system that won't discriminate you even if you enjoyed a little bit of booze.

Narrower, walkable streets have safety advantage too. I learnt in my environmental planning class that the widths of the street affect how fast people drive. If the streets are wider, people tend to drive faster which increases the risk of accident.

Making the streets narrower and walkable (or making a town a bit smaller) would have many advantages; save land use, increase traffic safety, reduce your carbon footprint a lot ---- and it's fun!

This photo is Netherland that is as population dense as Japan. When population density is high and the land is scarce/expensive, people develop small but highly pedestrian-friendly, toy-box like neighbourhood that is fun to explore. Netherland has nice little lovely streets, beautifully decorated, narrow/tall apartments standing next to each other with no space in-between (which buidling was built first???) and a lot of pubs in walking distance!



photo by atsjebosma