22 November 2008

Tree Tenants & Friedensreich Hundertwasser

I was first exposed to the wacky buildings of Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1994-95 when i traveled and studied in Austria. He designed some of the funkiest, nature-inclusive buildings in Vienna and is considered to be the most famous artist of Austria.

He was an ecological artist and activist to say the least. I just began revisiting some of his art in a book Jay gave me a few Xmas's ago and discovered to my astonishment that he understood back in the 70s the notion that man could not exist separated from nature and advocated for buildings to include both human and "tree tenants"... the trees would purify the air and water and the humans would provide nutrition to plants through composting toilets.

...which leads me to a future article on homemade sawdust toilets and properly and safely recycling humanure (human manure) at home... In order to close the nutrient cycle and survive when there are no industrial inputs (oil or even do-it-yourself complete organic fertilizer), we will need to understand how to re-use/recycle all our personal wastes (externalities). This will maintain and perhaps even build precious topsoil to keeps us nourished/fed.