[designing for resilient] Sustainable Systems

Class blog for Parsons School of Design Sustainable Systems class Instructed by Kimberly Tate

[sustainablesyst]

­ "NO PLASTIC" -Plastic bags tend to disrupt the environment in a serious way. They get into soil and slowly release toxic chemicals. They eventually break down into the soil, with the unfortunate consequence being that animals eat them and often choke and die. The petroleum and the gas that’s used to create plastic bags is a finite resource. We only have a limited amount to use. We already have a problem with what we’re going to do in the next 50 – 100 years so why are we compounding it? There are also environmentally issues existing in their own right, when extracting petroleum from the Earth. But perhaps a bigger problem is the sheer number of plastic bags that we consume globally, (the current estimates are 500 million to 1Bn throughout the entire world). There are many places that they can be taken to be recycled, but in reality figures show that only 1% of all plastic bags are recycled, with most heading for landfill, or worse, our oceans. Over 100,000 animals are suspected of coming to this unfortunate end throughout the world every single year, on both land and in our oceans. P lastic bags which pollute our oceans have a bad habit of killing sea turtles in particular. They are by far the biggest casualty in all of this as they mistake carrier bags for jellyfish, or similar and then end up choking. Most plastics contain some type of harmful chemical, but plastic bags are one of the worst offenders. Not only do we collectively use and discard over 1 TRILLION plastic bags each year, these bags take 1000 years to full degrade, releasing chemicals the entire time. On top of that, plastic bags are the second most common ocean waste (after cigarette butts) and they harm thousands of species of ocean wildlife each year (with an estimated 40,000+ pieces of plastic floating in each square mile of the ocean!). Concerned yet? I hope so. This is one aspect of health and environmental concern that I am very passionate about and one area that we can all make a small difference in by making some simple household switches. Choosing eco­friendly and natural alternatives is more expensive in the short term, as it is hard to beat the price of a $0.10 Ziploc bag, but over the long run, alternatives can save money and help your family avoid chemicals that may be messing with your hormones! The long­term environmental impact is just as important with the rapid rate we are contributing plastic waste to our landfills and oceans. A lot of people think that paper bag are a good alternative to plastic bags but they’re not. They are actually really energy intensive and unless they are made from recycled paper products , they are cutting down trees as well. In all honesty they are really not much better than plastic bags , so give them a wide berth too if possible. The only real option is to go with a reusable bag. The so called; ‘Eco bag’. There is nothing special about an eco bag, other than they are usually ethically made and are re­usable. They are also far more study than a plastic bag and can often hold more than its plastic counterpart.In Ireland the government introduced a 15 cent surcharge on plastic bags in 2002. Within a year 90% shoppers of all shoppers started reusing their bags. Millions of Euros earned by the tax have been used on looking for new ways of recycling. In Wales, shop assistants are threatened with a fine if they hand out plastic bags free of charge.

[sustainablesyst]

Brooklyn redhook community garden -it was very great and valuable time for me to experience how food grow and how to do compost which is very important thing for gardening and farming. I did have some knowledge about compost, but i did not know how does it work and how to do compost with right ways and information. redhook community farm offers two kinds of volunteering without any form, so people can go there and be placed to farming part or compost part. I was placed into compost team and it was great opportunity to touch nature and make nature by my hands. My job was sifting so i picked up every worm and made rough input softly.

[sustainablesyst]

1. How would you describe garden? The garden is not that easy to find. It is located in lower east side which is a quiet place in Manhattan. There are various kinds of plants growing nicely. And the natural environment make people feel relaxed. People who are living in the noisy and crowded city need this place. 2. What qualities make the garden special? 3 How is the garden designed? The garden doesn't have many design elements. For example，there are no the little roads and beautiful fences that made by human，it is different with many other gardens. The most interesting thing I like is the platform, which is built above the root of the old tree. It is a nice place for entertainment or chatting. 4. What’s your personal relationship to gardens? Did it affect you? Personally I really flowers, so do ma parents. We don't have garden like this one in our home but we plant so many flowers on the balcony. With our carefully cultivating and caring, the balcony seems like a small garden, and my parents are enjoy the small garden, my father waters them every morning, for him, it is a start of one day. 5. Describe the experience of being in the garden. It was a good experience and we were in learning process. I learned some breed of plant that I never knew. And we worked together to make the “ mud ball” that was so interesting. It was my closest contact with ecology in NYC. 6. What did you learn from the community members today? I learned how do they respect the nature and protect it. Man and nature are living in harmony.

[sustainablesyst]

In my opinion, the reason people don’t pay attention to recycling is that those garbages don’t acutely bring profit to them. People know that recycling could help our environment become better, but it is only a notion. If there is no driving force, people won’t take an action. consequently, so I think design should create a driving force to push people recycling. Only show them the image that how bad environment is right now, that could works but it is only for short term. people would stop pay attention to recycling after few while. So I came up a thought that people could use these “garbages” to buy something instate of money, that might help recycling for longer term. Money is the only reason that we work. So the first design is a telephone booth. I know that every body have their won cellphone now, they don’t need a telephone booth. However, I think it is still need excited because phone might be broken, and some older generations don’t have phone. Furthermore, I hope this telephone booth could place in park, because in a big park or some area that don’t have signal tower, the place that cellphone couldn’t get signal should have a telephone like this. The way to use is user have ti paper a empty plastic bottle, Then drop it in, each plastic bottle can use for few mins. In addition, the telephone both has a little AC. When summer came, people can find a telephone both and use a bottle then the cool air will comes out, and it also can cater the sunlight. Second design is a selling machine and it should place in NYC’s apartment. We know that every apartment has selling machine, and for this one people could use bottles to buy water or snacks. Bigger bottle equal 10cents, smaller bottle equal 5 cents, and cans equal 2cents.The Third design is a selling machine for washing card. In NYC, people have to buy washing card to wash clothes, so we can use those plastic bottles to buy it. In addition, every residence would have a saving card every time when they drop a bottle the money goes in the card first then they can use card to buy, because that is impassable that people carry 100 bottles at one time, they have to saving slowly so this is long time term.

[sustainablesyst]

Letter to Future Generations

Xin Lan (Violet) Ren 

7/27/2016

Dear Future Generations

  I am writing to you as someone who lives in the 21st century and understands the consequences of climate change to the world we live in right now as well as the world in the next 100 years. 

  I hope that through the little commitments I made in order to improve the environment. I can help to improve your future, even through only a small contribution. 

  1. From now on, I will start to use eco-friendly bag so that I can reduce the use of plastic bags. Therefore, I will make my small contribution in reducing the impact of plastic bags to our environment. 

 2. I will try to transport in a car-free way so that I can help to decrease the amount of CO2 in the air . Therefore, I will make my small contribution in slowing down the increase of global warming 

 3. I will try to shut down every light if I have not used them. Since some of our electricity comes out of non-renewable resources. So it is better for our environment to try to save energy. 

Also, I want to share with you guys the three important experiences and lessons that I will remember from learning this course in the summer of 2016. 

 1. The trip to the recycling center makes me understand the necessity of recycling everything that needed to be recycled. It helps me to raise my awareness of the recycling issue. 

 2. The garden trip makes me understand that everyone has responsibility in helping with climate change. If everyone acts now, our world will be much better later than 10 years ago. 

 3. The volunteer job makes me understand that being active is not about words . Instead of words, it is more about actions that we proceed. 

 Finally, our future generations, please cherish what have left behind and learn the lesson from us so that you can live in a better environment. 

                                                                                            Sincerely Yours

                                                                                               Violet Ren 

[sustainablesyst]

Xin Lan (Violet) Ren 

7/27/2016

Research Design Activism Part 2 

Volunteer Project 

[sustainablesyst]

Xin Lan (Violet) Ren 

Project Brief

7/27/2016

Research Design Activism Part3

The social issue which I am looking at for my research design activism is work-life balance for our community today. What’s the positive impact of work-life balance on our community today? What’s the influence of work-life balance on the problem of climate change? How does it matter to me? These are the questions which I am eager to look for answers.

Work-life balance defined by business dictionary.com as “a comfortable state of equilibrium achieved between an employee's primary priorities of their employment position and their private lifestyle. ”It is a term in describing “the idea of life-choice” . The consequence of work-life imbalance will result in serious mental-health issue. Such like stress or pressure.

In terms of the problem of climate-change, the accomplishment of work-life balance is an essential element for the success of fixing the problem of climate-change. There is “up to an estimated 20% of household emissions, according to one US study.” 3 Furthermore, people maybe never aware of such fact, like “for every gallon of gasoline your car burns, 1300 times that volume of CO2 is released to the air ” If people reduce the amount of house-insulation or change the way of their transportation, it will actually help to improve the environment that we are living in right now. For example, the citi bike stations around the city help to change the New Yorkers’ styles of living. We can see more and more people riding bikes in New York City across different avenues and streets to get to their work place or to find a secret place to relax. The change of transportation-style helps to develop a positive impact for the problem of climate change because of the reduction of carbon dioxide. This is a perfect example in illustrating the impact of work-life balance to the problem of climate change.

 Moreover, in a paper written by Martin Pullinger from the school of social and political science at University of Edinburgh stated the work-life balance policy has the possibility to achieve a “ ‘double dividend’ of simultaneous benefits to wellbeing, by allowing individuals to meet their working time preferences, and to the environment, by realising an overall reduction in environmental impacts from consumption.” For example, work-life balance policies will give people more time to spend on child care. Therefore, at the same time, “this can entail voluntary reductions in income and so expenditure and consumption” . The paper explores more towards the relationship between work-life balance and climate change in order to emphasise that improving our work-life balance is possible to make changes in the climate.

 I think the issue of work-life balance is really important for people who lived in the 21st century like me. In the video called the story of stuff that we watched in class, it creates a cycle that illustrates how people’s life nowadays is mainly based on working and shopping due to their infinite desire to fulfil their needs and wants. The consequence of this life-cycle that we are living nowadays is the 99% waste that is going to landfill every once and a while. The more landfill we create, the worse our environment is going to became. Therefore, keeping a work-life balance will help people to step out of such life-cycle and become more positive towards having a healthy life style. 

In conclusion, for my research design activism, I will focus on developing the positive relationship between work-life balance and the New Yorkers in order to remind people that it is necessary to have a healthy lifestyle. Because it will not only have positive impact for yourself but also for helping to improve the problem of climate change.

I want to respond to the issue of work-life balance by not only using my own perspective to illustrate the positivities of it, but also using the surrounding environment as the supporting evidence to better illustrate the positivities. I am targeting my activism towards those people who live in New York with bad lifestyle. Therefore, I strongly hope that I can use my own perspective to influence them and educate them the benefit of having a work-life balance because bring your work to a personal level has always been the essential key to influence others around you. Also, I want to create the contrast through having a work-life balance or a work-life imbalance. The contrast will help people to see the significant of having a work-life balance and understand the bad side of work-life imbalance as well as the benefit that bought to climate change of having a work-life balance. My goal for this activism is for people to understand the importance of having a healthy lifestyle so that they can make their own contribution towards improving the problem of climate change in our society nowadays. In hoping to achieve effective influence for my activism, I will first spread around the activism with people I know and try to influence them on their lifestyle . Then I will move towards spread around the activism with strangers. For example, I can publish it on my YouTube channel or post on my Facebook timeline . So, more people can see my activism, understand the idea that I want to express and make changes in their lifestyles. Also, I can send my activism to different organisations in New York City in doing so hoping to use their resources and connections to help me achieve as much influences as possible. 

 My plan for this design activism is to shoot a promotional video for Bryant Park in order to illustrate the importance of work-life balance because of the location of Bryant Park. I remember when I first went to the park. I was amazed by the surroundings of it and wondered about how does such peaceful and quiet park exist in the busy and chaotic environment near 42nd street. It seemed to me that this park is extremely in contrast with the surrounding environment. I hope to use my visit to Bryant Park and my observation to those “white collars” as the basic content of my promotional video. Therefore, I am able to amplify the contrast of the surrounding environment for the whole community in order to better highlight the work-life balance. I am planning to go to Bryant Park on Friday to shoot my video. I will then have enough time to edit it and send it to my family and friends as well as published it on the internet. Therefore, I will get enough reviews and comments before the last class so that I am able to know how people get influenced by my activism and think about my video . 

                                                      Bibliography 

 "What Is Work-life Balance? Definition and Meaning." BusinessDictionary.com. Accessed July 23, 2016. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/work-life-balance.html.

 "Work–life Balance." Wikipedia. Accessed July 23, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work– life_balance.

 "Want to Help the Environment? First Fix Your Work-life Balance." The Conversation. Accessed July 23, 2016. http://theconversation.com/want-to-help-the-environment-first-fix-your-work- life-balance-42173. 

"How Much Does Human Activity Affect Climate Change?" Home. Accessed July 23, 2016. https://ncse.com/library-resource/how-much-does-human-activity-affect-climate-change.

 "Work Life Balance Policy as Sustainable Consumption Policy: The Environmental Impacts of Working Time Reduction in UK Households with Children." Academia.edu. Accessed July 23, 2016. http://www.academia.edu/2000794/ Work_life_balance_policy_as_sustainable_consumption_policy_the_environmental_impacts_ of_working_time_reduction_in_UK_households_with_children.

[sustainablesyst]

I went to American museum of natural last Friday. Because I think during the month, everything we have learned is about our nature, so here is good place to visit. American Museum of Natural History is the world's largest museum of natural history, natural history, one of the major US research and education centers. The museum was founded in 1869, it is located in New York, covering a total area of 7 ha more buildings for the classical form. Its paleontological and anthropological collections in the museum occupies the first place in the world, except for samples collected from outside the United States, a representative sample of South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia also has a collection. I took the subway to 81st, the entire subway station at 81 st is full of animal feelings. The museum open at 10:00, I arrived half an hour earlier, but the ladder is already filled with people.Passenger have to go through the security, people who have city pass could go right side to get a ticket. I don't have it I had to buy a ticket on the left hand side of the machine, they have discount for student (17 $) $ 22 adult ticket. The museum has five layers, each layer has distributed in to several exhibition halls, it is enough for visiting for a long time! There was a big dragon skeleton in the lobby. since that was the first time seen a complete dinosaur fossils, so was little bit excited. The first exhibition was the Akeley hall of African animals. After entering, first thing was the African elephants specimens, life like so vivid. All the animals' specimens are lifelike, and the the living environment painted on wall make viewers fill they are just standing right in the nature. Vivid animals couples with three dimensional background , It like I'm watching a immersive show of animal world, The museum also has commentators, they hold the animal furs to explain, it could help viewers understand more quickly of some species evolve and living habits. In the museum there are some interesting instrument that can shoot video, then send to mail to save! The bottom floor has exhibition about planet pavilion. As a designer we should help nature be come better.

[sustainablesyst]

RDA-Plastic Bag

Karen HL

Sustainable System

7/27/2016

Every year, around 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide, over one million bags are being used every minute and they are damaging our environment. Plastic bags are costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around hundred years to photodegrade. The plastic bags break down into tiny toxic particles that pollute the soil and waterways and enter the food chain and animals might accidentally ingest them. Our planet is becoming increasingly contaminated by our unnecessary use of plastic bags. The sense of beauty is destroyed by the hanging plastic bags from the branches of trees and the flying plastic bags in the air on windy days because they are lightweight and easily discarded. Plastic bags relate to many environmental problems and cause money to manufacture. My goal in this project is to make something that can make people aware of this problem and actually start acting on it.

From the research of the wicked problems in my hometown, I found plastic waste is a serious problem that causes water pollution. Plastic bags take hundreds of years to break down, but the most amount which cannot be burned will end up in the sea through the waterways.  Some of the plastic bags might float on the rivers and then damage the river system and increase diseases. A huge amount of animals are hurt and killed every day by discarded plastic bags, many lives such as animals and sea creature might have mistaken the plastic bag for food. This makes the plastic clog their intestines and causes their death.

Furthermore, the plastic bags polluting also relate to some economic problems. Huge amounts of energy are used every year to manufacture these bags. Big black bin liners, plastic carrier bags carrying advertising logos, clear sandwich bags and a variety of other forms are all polluting our environment. The process of breaking down the plastic bags causes carbon to become methane, which is a greenhouse gas, and it creates a lot of pressure on governments to manage, so most of the country was already replaced the plastic bag by some other products for the environmental protection.  Governments want to make some changes to make the citizens rethink their attitudes, so in some countries, plastic bags cost a lot of money to get. For example in China, plastic bags in the market cost money, and every time I go shopping with my grandmother she would bring her own sturdy bag, so we did not need to pay the extra money for these unnecessary things. While the main thing that can lower product use is the price, so it is effectual that some shop owners increase the cost of plastic bags to decrease the use of plastic bags, but it is still not enough .

To help the environmental problem and make a better future, the best solution is to change our attitude of using plastic bags and choose eco-friendly bags, to reuse large plastic sacks whenever possible. Since various of the environmental problems are based on plastic pollution, decrease the use of plastic bags will change many problems, so I come up with an idea which is easy to do and people can actually be aware of the problem and at the same time help the issues. Since my major is fashion design, I have the responsibility to design something that is innovative and useful for people and also eco-friendly. My goal for this project is to reuse plastic bag to turn these non-recyclable plastic bags into something new and even more useful than they were. From the volunteer experiment in my Sustainability class, I understood the best way to make people be aware of the problems is to start acting on it, then they will have some emotion connection about the thing they did. So I plan to knit the discarded plastic bags, and make them strong and diverse, which can be reused many times, so the plastic bags will not damage our environment. At first what I need is to collect different kinds of plastic bags, which is can be found anywhere, for example from people who just finished their food after grocery shopping. In my home, I have a huge bag for collecting the plastic bags. I reuse these bags for filling my garbages cans. After collecting them, I need to organize the plastic bags in different colors and cut them into strips, then carefully tie them together and knit them. This knitting process is available for everyone to learn by following the tutorial online. When people start working on this knit plastic project, many environmental problems can be solved. This is because after people finish making these convenient sturdy plastic bags, they will love to take their work during their shopping trips instead of using the weak thin plastic bags in the store.

Furthermore, most of the shop owners print their company logo on the bag for the free advertising, so the plastic production is a part of their marketing strategy. This knit plastic bag plan can be executed more effectively and extensively by using this point, the way to benefit the market and at the same time decrease environmental problems. Every customer can use plastic bags that they collect from their previous grocery shopping, and knit a new strong plastic bag with a store logo, which is the one they usually go to. The store logo can help the customers get discounts by carrying this unique bag every time they shop, and the discount that the store owner loses from the customers can count as the advertisement fee.

Reusing plastic bags can make a huge influence on the pollution problem. This activity is fun and valuable to do because it helps people improve their creativity, help the market economy, the store owner do not need to spend more money on importing the plastic bags, and the most important point, it helps more and more people start being aware of environmental problems during the bag’s production process. After people finish their knit plastic bag, it is not only about saving money or having some fun, they actually did something effective that helps the world’s wicked problems. This experiment will change their attitude, so the environmental problems will not be ignored.

Tutorial link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=remeOwY3DcI

Citation:

SANG, ANITA NG HEUNG. "Plastic Bags and Environmental Pollution." Art Education 63, no. 6(2010): 39-43.http://www.jstor.org/stable/20799853.

McLaughlin, Jacqueline S. "The Kingdom Fungi, Food Chains & Plastic Pollution." The American Biology Teacher 70, no. 4 (2008): 201.http://www.jstor.org/stable/30163243.

[sustainablesyst]

Dear future generation:

l am writing a letter in my Sustainable System class and want to tell you I and my classmates are helping the world’s environmental problems. The various wicked problems, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions… are damaging our planet and killing animals. I am feeling guilty and sad about theses issues because they are all made by the human. The Sustainable System class which I took in this summer is valuable that helped  me know all these serious things that are I ignored before. After I finished my first class research about the wicked problems in my hometown, I noticed that the problems are serious and I have to do something to save our planet. In my second class time, I with my classmates went to the recycling center and Material ConneXion for our redesign products. It was an impressed experiment that helped me learn a lot of information about how to choose the material to make the product useful and recyclable. This experiment opened my creative thinking and made me consider the product design more comprehensively. I will remember this experience and always think about the product’s applicability, and the process after the products have been used in the future before I design something. Furthermore, I also like the volunteer experience in the gardens, the process of making the mud balls and dig out the invasive plants was helpful and made me be more aware of the environmental problem. I am so happy to using my little effort to help our environment better. The volunteer activities were the important lesson I learned in this class, it helped me understand the best way to help the problems is to start acting on it. I hope the plastic bag project that I did for my final project could make more people be aware of the world’s wicked problems during their production process. In the future, I will take everything I learned from this class with me in my daily life and my design process, because I do understand even a little effort can make a huge change. I would call more people to start acting on it to help the world’s environmental problems and save our planet.

                                                                                        Best,

                                                                                        Karen HL

[sustainablesyst]

Week 5: https://goo.gl/ntXFjb

Children’s Garden 12th street and Avenue B

Research Design Activism Storytime

Mudball Toss

LUNCH BREAK   -  Integral Ecology reading

Discussion

Semester Review

Reflection / Discussion / Evaluation / Assignment Submissions to blog

Closing with other class

[sustainablesyst]

Water Quality Result : 

Plate#1:Sterile Water

Therefore, the plate is transparent because sterile water has zero contamination 

Plate#2: Animal Coliform

Therefore, the plate is pinkish because the bacteria in animal coliform called citrobacter produces pinkish colour when it eats lactose. 

Plate#3: Human Coliform 

Therefore, the plate is purplish because the bacteria in human coliform called sewage produces purplish colour when it eats glucose and lactose.

Plate#4: River Sample 

By looking at the river sample, we can understand there are more animal bacterias in the water than human bacterias because the colour is more pink. 

[sustainablesyst]

Week 4: https://goo.gl/qIOhIZ

Mindful arrival - resilience practice

RDA part 3 peer reviews

10am @ UC r618 : LAB part 2 - scientific method

11am @ UC 4th flr : RDA part 3 individual feedback

Lunch Break - in-class work time

RDA part 2 presentations

2pm in class : Energy systems

[sustainablesyst]

MUDBALLZ!!

[sustainablesyst]

Q-A’s for El Jardin del Paraiso

How would you describe El Jardin del Paraiso?

It’s a considerably quite large community garden in the 4th street, between Avenue C & D. The title of the garden deserves it. It is actually a relaxing paradise away from the trashy streets of East Village. It has a calming vibe as soon as you enter it, when you see the earthy treehouse that has an amazing design. However, the famous artist who did it kept it’s entire natural beauty and earthy essence. With so many more spaces like growing fruits and vegetables, a lake that annually fills up, to the chickens it’s an significant garden to have in your neighborhood.

What qualities makes the garden special?

Specifically, from my perspective, the treehouse adds a significant value to the garden. The fact that it was donated to the garden community for the sake of environment, by an pricey treehouse designer adds so much more value to the garden and the bigger cause itself.

How is the garden designed?

It has a almost-hidden entrance that is not too eye catching or fancy. As soon as you enter you see the table, the bank and the treehouse. When you walk further more into the garden you realize its bigger then it seems to be. Its has a semi-large meadow that could be hosted by events. Than in the further end some chunks of wood to sit on and the lake that fills up time to time. With less amount of money and extra care, the community of the garden has managed to keep this place neat, functioning and beautiful.

What’s your personal relationship to gardens, and did El Jardin del Paraiso affect you?

I liked the fact that these people came in every day, for years of time, to these community gardens and give their time and care to keep it alive. El Jardin del Paraiso is one of these escape of city that is still has managed to survive and laying there between Avenue C and D. But mostly yeah, the treehouse.

Describe the experience of being in the garden.

It was amazing, relaxing at the same time. I felt like I have just stepped out of the crowded, dirty city of New York and came into this garden.

What did you learn from the community members we met today.

Like I’ve said the care and thought put on to these community gardens and spaces are so much more than it looks. It is nice to see these parts of neighborhood functioning as a community and as a environmentalists.

[sustainablesyst]

Personal Blog Reflection-El Jardin del Paraiso Garden

1. How would you describe garden? The garden is unique in Manhattan, which is located in the lower east side. When compare with other garden in Manhattan, this garden is more nature. The plants seems all grow by themselves in El Jardin del Paraiso Garden. There are varies different kind of plants in this garden; some of them are good for human body, and others are good for different kinds of insects. It creates big contrast with the urban area and gives people a place to feel the nature and relax.

2. What qualities make garden special? New York is like a concrete jungle, but this garden is designed as a rural area, which is not only without too much concretion that made by human, but also the plants are grow by themselves, which creates nature environment.

3. How is the garden designed? El Jardin del Paraiso Garden is designed by the community members. It is not only design for human, for insects and animals as well. The design of the garden is followed a rules that the plants which are planted inside of the garden is good for insect and which are planted outside is good for human. This is for when human and insects are try to get the plants that they need, they are not disturbing each other. Also there are tones of chairs and bench in the garden for people to site.

4. What’s your personal relationship to gardens? Did it affect you? Personally, I was grown up in the city and a year ago, I went abroad and studied in a city. So for me, I should not have much experience with “garden”. But my parents and I are big fan of plants. When I was young, there was a back yard in my house. We had lots of plants in there; most of the plants are not eatable. I was enjoying watering them with my mother and inviting friends to come over when flowers were blooming. But with the development of the city, my family had to move into an apartment, which do not have a garden and our old house was removed for building the higher building.

5. Describe Experience. During the first couple minutes that I walk into the park I thought I went to the wrong place. It not seems like a park or it is so different from all the other parks that I had been to. This park creates feeling of nature environment. It is designed but at the same time it is wildly grow. It is very thoughtful that a lot of benches and chairs in the park. The giant and old trees create big shadow and it is very cool to stay inside of the shade especially in a sunny day. 

6. What did you learn from the community members today? I think the most important lesson that I learnt from the community members today is to protect the city from becoming to a concrete jungle. The help is little for the whole saving the whole city but they never gave up.

[sustainablesyst]

Personal Blog Reflection-El Jardin del Paraiso Garden

1. How would you describe garden?

The garden is located in lower East side of Manhattan. I would describe the garden as a little green square in the city. People describe New York city as a Concrete Jungle, but concrete is grey, it is not real jungle. So If we look the city from sky, we would see the little green square.  

2. What qualities make the garden special?

The first quality is that the location, because people in New York don’t see grass and many bugs often. The second quality is the freedom that the garden create. People could do many things in the garden like their back yard.

3 How is the garden designed?

The garden doesn’t have a big and fancy gate, Its entrance is just a rough and simple steel gate, somehow it makes the garden little bit mysterious. After enter it, the first thing appear is the big tree house. The tree house is so well designed, because the artistic design, more importantly, it can hold many people keep them away from the heat. Furthermore, there are lots of empty space for human activities.

4. What’s your personal relationship to gardens? Did it affect you?

My family don’t have a garden or yard, but my grandparents love grow flowers. Though they don’t have garden, they grow flowers in home or in balcony. Since soil breed a lot insects, and Im really scared of it so I don’t like growing flowers in home. I wish we could have a garden. 

5.Describe the experience of being in the garden.

 The experience of being in the garden was great. I haven’t play mud since after six years old I think. Making mud bulls not only teach me the way to clean the polluted water but also bring back the childhood memory. I could feel that spending time with classmate in the garden is much meaningful than siting in the classroom and watching videos.

6. 6. What did you learn from the community members today?

From community members I learned that being a garden is a very very hard job, they fight so hard for this little green square so that we can enjoy it. I also can tell it by garden's skin, they must have been working under hot sun for long time. The mud ball was the most impressive activity, I learned how mud ball helps pollution.