USR HUB Micro Society Visit - Food and Agriculture Education in the green building ：The Treehope EcoHub

USR HUB Micro Society Visit - Food and Agriculture Education in the green building：The Treehope EcoHub

by林昭均、陳晶悅、劉騏甄

The Treehope EcoHub - A Reformed Shrimp-fishing Site

A green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. In this course, students were led outside the campus to know more about it. 

The targets of Taiwan green buildings are Ecology, Energy Saving, Waste Reduction, and Health. A balance between architecture and the natural environment is expected to be achieved through green buildings. The Treehope Ecohub, which was a former shrimp fishing site, is such a building. The members in the Ecohun converted a huge amount of second-hand materials into new lives of wasted wood. With the insurance of the convection of hot and cold air guided by green plants, the indoor temperature can be kept comfortable and ventilated without air conditioners. To achieve a friendly environment and ecological protection, there are also 3 ecological toilets used as fertilizers according to the principle of dry-wet separation to ferment excrement, crops, wood, and microorganisms.

Feedback by one of the participants of the course:

——“I will keep following the principles and significance of sustainable cities.”

Excerpt of the course reviewed by student Chen Jing-Yue:

I’ve heard about green buildings somewhere and I finally got the chance to pay a visit to one of those thanks to this course.

The Treehope Ecohub is such an amazing open area that I wouldn’t feel hot even without the air conditioner. And the area is composed of several containers which make it full of spatial sense.

The tutor first introduced the way to use the ecological toilet, which for me was the most impressive design in the Treehope EcoHub. This toilet is the first ecological toilet in Taiwan and it saves 66 liters of water per person per day. What’s more, it mixes the wastes and cultivates the soil after about half a year to re-fertilize and nourish the poor soil. Saving 66L water a day/person is a shocking fact to me. It means a lot to the Taiwanese government on the policy of conserving the scarce water resource. If this kind of facility is introduced to other (green) buildings in Taiwan, it will be more environmentally friendly by reducing water consumption. The most important thing is that this method can create a positive sustainable development cycle. 

The other facilities in the Treehope Ecohub were designed using the permaculture principle (energy-saving and carbon-saving, efficient, productive, self-sufficient, and interdependent with the environment), for example, recycling rainwater, designed patio for buildings, and used scrap iron and driftwood as second-hand construction materials.

Another fact about soil that I learned from this course by making miso and tofu pudding was that soybean will increase the fertility of the land. However, the self-sufficiency rate of GM soybeans is only 5%. Other soybeans are imported to Taiwan by sea from the United States or Brazil. The biggest difference between Taiwanese soybeans and imported soybeans is whether they have been genetically modified and their freshness. Although it has not been confirmed that GM food will cause harm to human health, many herbicides were sprayed during the planting process.

Do we want to eat food produced containing that many of chemical substances? If we learn the importance and origin of ingredients, will we be able to make the best choice out of the given options? This trip to the Treehope Ecohub made me reflect on whether we can change some daily lifestyles by reusing resources in a more environmentally friendly way.

Although I might not be able to build an ecological toilet at home, I will give deep thought to recycling and reusing the items that are to be disposed of. I will surely pay attention to the issues of sustainable cities and I believe that it will bring us a brighter future.