Headline August 11th, 2012 / "Chance Favors The Prepared Mind!"

"Chance Favors The Prepared Mind!"

Professor McDonough's great work is projected on the world stage exhibits what his Firm has done for the city of Liuzhou, in Southern China: Think about Paris with farms on the roofs. For those who saw it could only elicit oohs and aahs. 

The audience saw a bird's-eye view of a prospective, beautiful downtown Liuzhou. Scores of buildings are crowned with orchards, crop rows, and rice paddies, taking the place of hot, ugly roofs. It's an alluring vision; the city as a dense 'forest' with each building supporting literally --farmland made of native soil.

The Professor has lifted up the earth and put it several stories above the streets. So that Green Roofs help to prevent water runoff and pollution problems -water feeds plants, instead of running into sewers, as well as heating and cooling problems, since the roofs absorb solar heat. 

Picture a habitat for hundreds of species of plants and animals, instead of an overheated platform for an air conditioning unit. Remarkable!! In context what I stated above, try imagining the state of practise as late as 80s. 

Hear what the Prof says in his own words: an early commission, 84, for the Executive Headquarters of the Environmental Defense Fund, was really an assignment to create a healthy, workplace. The Team started looking hard at materials and systems for their effects on human and ecological health. McDonough discovered that the profession didn't know anything. 

The team started asking manufacturers questions about their products. 'What's in this paint?'. 'Is there mercury in the light fixtures?' 'Can this furniture be recycled?' And the answers they typically got were: ''it's proprietary! It's legal. Go away just now!!'' Therefore, in Cradle to Cradle, McDonough discloses: We did the best we could at the time.

Whats truly exquisite is that ever so often McDonough loves to play the Professor: Designers must become leaders, and leaders must become designers. And he is a great admirer of the Great American Architect President, Thomas Jefferson. 

So, let me conclude this Post with a quote from President Jefferson's great wisdom: The Earth belongs to the living. No man may, by natural right, oblige the lands he owns or occupies to debts greater than those that maybe paid during his own lifetime. Because, if he could, then the world will belong to the dead, and not to the living! 

Will the World heed this advise? The truthful answer is, Alas, No, Never! Mankind is its own biggest enemy!

Good night & God bless!

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