Monthly Archives: March 2013

The Final Stretch

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[Implementation Progress]

Over the past few weeks, despite a most treacherous class schedule, we have persevered and are now frolicking in the sun that created the light at the end of the tunnel. With that said I believe some light should be shed regarding the steps that allowed us to be successful in completing and implementing our project.

 

From the beginning it was obvious that CityStudio was already extremely organized in carrying out a project that would benefit Vancouver in so many ways. As a result, we decided to follow in their footsteps and create something that would help them and possibly other companies like theirs streamline the decision making process regarding potential sites for their facility. Although we do not have a fully developed product, we believe our ideas and arithmetic can greatly influence tools that can help any similar projects succeed. To do this we developed a very close group atmosphere by staying in continual contact with one another and by delegating specific rolls to each member (as stated in the previous blog post). Everyone worked extremely hard to create something that was informative as well as practical. Although we would have liked to be more involved in the later stages of choosing and analyzing the appropriate site, we believe our project expresses a strong foundational starting point in which CityStudio can use and implement further when needed.

[Deconstruction Hub Project Overview]

 

It took several weeks to finally understand what we wanted our final project to accomplish/ look like. First and formost we wanted to educate people regarding CityStudios goals surrounding the Deconstruction Hub. As a result, Laura, Jae and Kyle worked extensively to fully grasp the mechanics of such a system and furthermore found ways to simply and effectively communicate this information. They further created and integrated a generalized site layout that included the necessary aspects of this system.

The second factor that we wanted to address was the location of the site within a specific suburb or city. As a result Nathaniel, Curtis and David decided to make a MCDM (multi-criteria decision matrix) based on differently weighted categories. This involved the key identification of important aspects of successful sites which required research on other sites which inevitably lead us to our decision to include a comparative analysis in our evaluation.

We finally needed an effective way to display our research and ideas. As a group we decided upon making a poster out of recycled materials that would hopefully encompass our objectives.

 

[Poster Overview]

 

[The Good Bad and the Ugly]

Overall we believe that there was a whole lot of good, and very little bad or ugly. I believe when push came to shove we accomplished our goals and objectives as a team. This resulted in an extremely well balanced project that we believe conveys and expresses our collective perspective on a project that we all believe can make a large difference in the way we treat our waste.

[Outcome]

Our group believes and hopes that by being a part of this project we have helped by bringing new and fresh ideas on how to approach potentially some of the future problems CityStudio might encounter. Furthermore, we believe that in an evolving society CityStudio’s passion for change is vital in our journey to reach our sustainable goals. We hope that by spreading the word regarding projects like The Deconstruction Hub people not only start to notice, but push these projects through to completion. The future is bright, but only if we stand together continue to look for ways to evolve and live within the constraints of our environment and not against it.

Road Less Travelled

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[Initial Thoughts]

Being a project of such magnitude, it was difficult to decide what road to take as we were not put in front of just two roads but hundreds. Ultimately, we all wanted to travel down a road that would lead us to useable results, a road that would lead us down an un treaded path, and I believe that Robert Frost put it best, as we decided to take the “road less travelled.” However, with this came many uncertainties and many due dates, which seemed to be coming way too fast. Although our time frame is short, our determination stands regardless of the tasks that lay between us and our finely polished finished product.

Okay, enough of the dramatic embellishment of what isn’t and we will try and give you an overview of the current state of what is. Here’s a tentative lists on what we are currently working on, their expected due dates and which musketeer is doing what:

[Mentor’s Notes]

I. Before I get into the thick of things, I will elaborate on some of our mentor’s points regarding our objectives:

II. She commented on the broadness of our schematic to analyze several sites and suggested that we only concentrate on one site and go in depth. By focusing on one site we could better communicate with both the client and the public regarding our findings. Finally, she commented on time allocation and that, regarding the short nature of our involvement, we should focus on perhaps not finding the perfect site, but rather on the criteria of what they were looking for and breaking it down to feasible characteristics that would allow our client to apply our criteria quickly and easily to several sites if needed.
She suggested that we compare the site given to us with an existing site that is already being used elsewhere for similar purposes. This would allows us to concentrate on the findings of what a good site looks like as opposed to us just shooting in the dark for something that looks good.

[To-Do List]

Let us focus back on the matter at hand, and that is the infamous to-do list…

1. First is our poster presentation. We have already began brainstorming on our focus points, as well the main aspects of our presentation. Although comparing the sites is important, we understand the need to focus on the site that CityStudio has provided us with, and as a result, our site assessment will be the largest factor addressed. Furthermore, above all else, making the poster aesthetically pleasing would also be a bonus. Thankfully, we have an absolutely wonderful creative gem in our midst whose name is Laura Herrera, and she will be taking care of this aspect (us engineers are always very thankful for the creative people in the world)

2. To complete this project, an extensive amount of research must be done on existing sites. Curtis Flack and David Grant have generously volunteered their time to choose a compatible site and assess its compatibility with that of CityStudio’s. They will address both the positive and negative aspects of their chosen site and determine our site’s ability to address potential problems, as well as how to handle unforeseen events.

3. We further need to begin defining the criteria that we will use in our evaluation and define the weighted scenarios of our feasibility study that will allow us to compare sites. This analysis will hopefully allow us to conclude whether this site is appropriate for the proposed project, and this will be done by Nathaniel Stuart, Kyle Gallagher and Jae Yong Rhee.

4. As a group we also still need to visit the site, and we have decided to go as a group sometime next week. This will be a large factor in setting up each of our parts and allowing us to start working towards a finalized evaluation.

5. Last but not least, a proposed timeline of Individual due dates will be discussed in the next group meeting and sub groups will begin their journey along their given paths, hopefully resulting in the timely and polished result we all are striving towards.

[Closing Thoughts]

We are aware that the tasks laid out are not as well defined as we would like, but we feel that once we start working on our individual parts after our site visit things will start to come together nicely. We came across a nice quote regarding energy the other day that we thought was very applicable to our project, so we figured we should leave you with our perhaps not-so-far-out thoughts. In respect to the ever changing world around us and our current strive towards creating a world that doesn’t fight with our environment, but, in fact, lives within it, perhaps it is not the issue of the recycling of waste, but rather, it is the generation of waste and the way we lives our lives that must be assessed. Remember: as far as we know, there is only one earth on which we can live, breathe, play, and experience so many natural, wonderful, amazing things…. let’s try to keep it that way.

 

PS: Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing ladies out there.