Day 11 had a pretty chill agenda with back to back tours.
Our first tour with a local, Rob, took us through some of the cities innovative designs and green spaces. Rob took us to a park with a 3 basins that collect rainwater and prevent flooding. The coolest part is that the largest of the three basins is a basketball court. We even saw a few students playing during our tour, but they were not very good. Next, Rob took us to a sign of big block letters that spell ZOHO, which stands for the name of the town. These letters store rain water, and have a weather computer inside of them that tells the basin to flush the currently stored rainwater if the weather forecasts rain. Rob also took us to a farm built on top of an old train station and rail line. It’s a public space that holds events throughout the year and grows peaches, apples, and cherry trees. Finally, we visited Dakakker, which is a rooftop farm with a small brunch cafe. The farm grows a ton of plants and houses an artificial beehive. These plants, honey, and homemade fertilizer made of worm poop, are sold to nearby restaurants and farmers. It was interesting to see how they were able to turn this sustainable, rooftop farm into something that they can profit from.
Our next tour was through the city of Rotterdam with our chaperone Brian. We started at the city hall which is one of four buildings in Rotterdam that made it through the bombing of the city by the Germans in 1940. Because almost all of the city was wiped out in the bombing, Rotterdam is unique in the fact that its architecture is very new compared to other Dutch cities, like Amsterdam.
One construction company in Rotterdam that really commits to sustainability is Edge, who built their first carbon efficient office space in 2005. Edge had a goal to meet zero net carbon construction ASAP, which is a tall task but very respectable. Additionally, Edge built a Deloitte building in Amsterdam that can hold three times as many employees by using a flexible office space. They also used triple pane windows, which are efficient because they act as insulators. This helps regulate the temperature inside buildings that would normally require energy. From a materials engineering standpoint, Edge building are really interesting.
As we made our way through the city, Brian explained that the Netherlands used to be much more car-centric, similar to the United States. However, public protests, especially in Amsterdam, led to a shift toward bike-heavy transportation. Amsterdamers opposed the demolition of historic buildings for car lanes and protested the number of cyclist deaths caused by bikes and cars sharing the road. I think we might need to start our own movement in Pittsburgh.