Page 14 RAIN May 1980 Tomorrow Is Our Permanent Address: The Search for an Ecological Science ofDesign as Embodied in the Bioshelter, by John Todd and Nancy Jack Todd, 1980, 156 pp., $4.95 from: Harper&Row 10 East 53rd St. New York, NY 10022 Several years of research at the New Alchemy Institute (NAI) have · begun to validate the concept of a bioshelter, a structure inspired by biological systems which can provide its own energy and climate, trade its own wastes, and produce food for its residents or for market. The philosophic and practical aspects of NAI's two prototype bioshelters, the Prince Edward Island and Cape Cod "Arks," are explained and illustrated in this latest book by Alkies John and Nancy Jack Todd. Using the Arks, the New Alchemists have been able to produce high vegetable and fish yields while at the same time achieving ecological stability and disease and pest control without resorting to biocides. ~ ~ &?'-~(;_·_:- _: ._ ~ ~ -- ~~~ ~ ,,. _ . - .) "'- / --- -;,✓-:· :.- - . - - / - ~ /.-~ • - ) • ,~ -~0_ • --&~ . , I~' ,f1J :, ,\ 1 '{;fa - - -. - IL ,// '• ~ft<· ;;- We feel cautiously optimistic about economic microfarms like the Ark. This is born out of several breakthroughs we've had at New Alchemy that particularly involve the Cape Cod Ark. The first of these involves our success in the miniaturization of ecological processes, such as the miniaturized terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the Ark that have been created without a loss in biological integrity . ... Secondly, the productivity of the Ark has outstripped our predictions. The yields of 8 pounds/square foot/two months of tomatoes have been described . ... The aquaculture in the solar-algae ponds is productive. Yields have been more than an order of magnitude higher than any others recorded for still-water aquaculture, going as high with tilapia as 15 kilograms/tank/year. Another benefit that was not totally foreseen has been the synergistic interaction of the functioning of the systems. The aquaculture serves not only as a food-growing system but also as an effective heat trap and storage medium, at once heating the Ark and producing a crop. Further, it provides fertilizer and nutrients for the.agriculture and tree-propagation units. Lastly, and most happily, the energetics of the Ark have proved satisfactory. The solar-algae ponds pay for themselves in contribution to the climate of the structure alone. An input-to-output analysis yielded a 5: 1 positive energy contribution of the aquaculture system . ... The Arks actualize NAI's conscious attempt to create an ecological science of design integrating biotic, structural, electronic, and appropriate technological components, "employing the strategies of nature." Feeling some confidence with bioshelter designs on the level of the individual structure, the Todds are now beginning to explore their potential applications on a community scale. Should the idea of the bioshelter catch on and become widespread, the implications are many. Economically, it could provide a decentralized source of [fresh, organic] produce the year round for a neighborhood, community or village. The reduction in transport fuels and costs that would result is obvious. There are good prospects for a solar greenhouse business in raising produce, flowers, flats or houseplants, or as a nursery for trees for market. With the renewed popularity of community gardens, a large bioshelter would open the possibility of continuing to garden in all seasons. Beyond the concrete advantages implicit in the adoption of the j bioshelter on a significant scale, which conservatively could be predicted as being economic, technological, nutritional and ecological, there is yet another hopeful possibility; that of perceptual change. ... Paradoxically, although it is derived from technology, the bioshelter removes the barrier between the human and the other living elements in the system. In the miniaturized biosphere or ecosystem, feedback is immediate and is ignored at the expense of the health of some of its components . ... This kind of watchfulness is really stewardship on a reduced scale. Along with charts and figures and scientific data, the Todds manage to convey the warmth, moisture and smells of plants and earth inside.the bioshelters. Describing the sense of timelessness that accompanies one's entrance into an eighty-degree Ark on a frigid February day, they write "Even after many seasons, with the novelty long gone, we find it impossible to be blase about being close to our bioshelters. The earthy smells and the greenness are wonderfully reassuring. The earth is, after all, only asleep. Winter is not absolute and eternal, however fierce and adamant it may seem." -MR
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