Friday, September 19, 2014

Embracing Your Future: Natural Swimming Pools

NSP-Ecohome
You step out of your Point Grey house and stroll down to the Hydrogenase Hub at Kits Beach in Vancouver. Youre heading out to visit your ecologist friend Michael, who has been renovating his property on Galiano Island. You helped him design his place, which included an outdoor natural swimming pool. The work is finished and Michaels invited you over to see what theyve accomplished.

You reach the floating station, which serves as an algal farm to capture biological fuel. At the gate, you give your personal landing coordinates and then board a Hydrogenase airship--essentially a tall seed-shaped "algal balloon". You settle in one of the viewing rooms with a Chai latte. Because the Hydrogenase can effortlessly land and take off in the roughest terrains, their service includes "on demand" to "your doorstep". This is a good thing, you ponder, given that many people live in more remote locations--like Michael. The sleek vessel glides over Georgia Strait toward the Gulf Islands and you watch the view, reflecting on the history of NSPs in North America.

The first Natural Swimming Pools were developed in Austria ten years before you were born. Known as schwimmteiche the first one was built in the early 1980s by DI Werner Gamerith in his private garden. NSPs spread throughout Europe in the 1990s, where thousands were built by companies like the Austrian firm Biotop Landschaftsgestaltung and the German firm BioNova. But it took almost two decades for the NSP concept to catch on in North America. The first public NSP in North America was built in 2014 by BioNova in Webber Park, Minneapolis. The NSP featured a shallow end with a beach and a deep end, a waterfall, lap lanes, a water slide, and a natural stone jumping cliff. The pool is used in the winter for skating.


That same year, your mother (Nina Munteanu) wrote a book about water. Published in 2015 and entitled Water Is… the book explored water from a range of perspectives. Spanning points of view from limnology to human health, spirituality and metaphysics, her book touched upon the importance of good, clean “living” water for ecosystems generally and for human health specifically. 

You consider that your mom would be delighted at the present statistics. In 2014, only one commercial NSP existed in North America. Today, just two decades later, it’s hard to find one chlorinated pool amid the thousands of private and commercial NSPs in North America. And why not? Old fashioned pools relied on chlorine and other harsh chemicals to maintain sterile, algae-free water. They lacked character or aesthetics. Research showed that chlorine-treated swimming pools caused asthma and other breathing problems in swimmers. Chlorine was also hard on the skin and hair. Swimming in a chlorinated pool often left you with itchy red eyes, dry skin or wanting a shower. NSPs provide excellent water quality through chemical-free water treatment; they create habitat for wildlife and flora and the maintenance costs are far less than the old conventional pools.
NSP Robins Nest Aquatics


The Hydrogenase descends to a clearing past the end of Bodega Beach Road on Galiano. You spot Michael waiting in the clearing. The hydrogenase briefly touches down to let you off and Michael greets you with a rakish smile. He's happy to see you and show off his new creation. Michael leads you along a forested path to his summer property near the northern cliffs of the island, overlooking Porlier Pass and Georgia Strait.


As you turn a corner and the forest opens to the cliffs on which the house is perched, you see the pool and glance at Michael with a sideways grin. Surrounded by a constructed shoreline of large and small rocks and wetland plants, the pool forms a kind of figure-eight in front of the house you designed for Michael. A gazebo made from local wood sits cozy by the natural shoreline, its inviting diving board overlooking the sparkling water. It's all so beautiful. And serene.

You both wander to the pool and you bend down on your knees to look into the deepness of the sparkling clear water.
NSP schematic


Natural swimming pools are balanced living aquatic ecosystems, you reflect. They are designed to look and function like a natural pond. Plants, microorganisms and nutrients together create what's called “living water”. Michael points to a water strider, dancing over the water surface--a sign that the water is clean and "alive".


You glance over to the wetland portion of the pool. Although you don't see them all, you know the components: a set of bio-filters, UV filters, and mechanical aeration in combination with lush aquatic plant filters that form a regeneration zone—the signature feature of an efficient NSP.

The regeneration zone maintains the water quality in Michael's natural swimming pool. It connects to the open swim zone through an ongoing circulation system. Water flows out of the swimming area via overflow channels through biological filters that catch large debris and particulate matter before reaching the regeneration zone. A circulation pump then draws the water out of the regeneration zone through layers of gravel substrate and returns it, pristine but living, back to the swimming area.


It's Nature's elegance at its best, you think; according to architect Thomas Woltz, embracing the complexity of modern life while seeking meaning and narrative in both natural and man-made environments.


The regeneration zone relies on the surface area of the plantsroots and the gravel substrate to create a home for beneficial bacteria that filter the water. You recognize floating, emergent and submerged plants: water lily, sedges, rushes and grasses. And below the surface, you see the fluorescent green whorles of Ceratophyllum, a rooted submerged plant that helps oxygenate the water.

You stand up and scan the whole set up. At the edge of the regeneration zone, the natural look continues with a wetland gradient of native plants that thrive in the periodically inundated soil. They provide a rich habitat for birds, dragonflies, frogs, turtles, newts, and a host of other fauna, some of which share the swimming pool with fellow swimmers. Michael, who is an avid birder, points to the cattails, where some blackbirds have already made nests. He tells you that he spied a wood duck checking out the pond yesterday.

You ask him if he is pleased and know what he will answer from his zealous grin.

You glimpse a dragonfly and follow its irregular path into the cattails. Twenty years ago, when NSPs first gained popularity in North America, you recall the concern over mosquitoes and other nasty insects. But the moving water and the natural predators of mosquito larvae that live in the chlorine-free water make natural swimming pools practically mosquito free. In fact, researchers found that NSPs actually helped reduce the population of stinging insects by attracting dragonflies and other natural predators of fully developed mosquitoes.

You remember your mom lamenting twenty years ago about people's lack of ecological knowledge and connection to the environment. A lot has happened in twenty years, you consider. Today, no one would think to use nasty chemicals in the water to kill everything; people somehow have learned to cherish life more. All life. Including the frogs and that little water strider for their role in providing a healthy ecosystem. 

The prefix eco- means "home". So, taking care
Kevin Klassen
of our ecosystem is really like taking care of our "home", where we live and belong. Natural swimming pools are just one example.

Michael grins with sudden inspiration. "Kevin, let's go for a swim!" he says. You nod. Why not? Can't leave it to the frogs.





Resources:

Do it Yourself:

      www.schwimmteich-selbstbau.de  In German
      www.naturalswimmingpools.com -construction images
      Natural Swimming Pools Book by Michael Littlewood www.amazon.com

Builders of Natural Swimming Pools:

EU:

      Biotop since 1984 with more than 3,500 satisfied customers. Their partner network covers 17 countries. Head Office: Austria www.biotop-natural-pool.com

      BioNova® is a global network of Partners on 6 continents who work synergistically to push the state-of-the-art of Natural Swimming Pool design, construction, aesthetics and maintenance. Head Office: Munich www.bionovanaturalpools.com

      OASEwww.oase-livingwater.com


UK:

      GartenArtwww.gartenart.co.uk

      Woodhouse Natural Pools with BIOTOP™ have been developing and building naturally filtered swimming pools in the UK since 2000: www.naturalswimmingpools.com

      Clear Water Revival: www.clear-water-revival.com  sell KITS as well...


France:

      Bioteich Baignades Naturelles: www.bioteich.fr


U.S.

      Total Habitat, Kansaswww.totalhabitat.com
      Expanding Horizons, Calif:  expandinghorizons.biz
      Pond Doctor Dave, Arizona - does conversions: www.pond-doctor-dave.com
      Water House Pools, Massachusetts: www.waterhousepools.com
      Rin Robyn Pools, New Jersey & MA: rinrobyn.com
      Kane Brothers, Illinois: kanebros.com


Canada:

      Genus Loci Ecological Landscapes, Ont: www.genus-loci.ca


New Zealand:

      Natural Poolsnaturalpoolsnz.com


South Africa:


      www.naturalswimmingpools.co.za nice designs!




Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Hot-Desking Dehumanizes Work Place

In my 2006 science fiction short story Virtually Yours, Kathryn works, drone-like and faceless, in a corporation where workers like her typically find random virtual workstations and access virtual support and form virtual relationships. Anonymous to even her own overseer—she is just a number to him—Kathryn pines for a sense of place, identity, recognition and purpose. I won’t tell you how it ends. In any case, it’s just a science fiction story. Or is it?...

In his September 11, 2014, article in the Financial Post, Garry Marr introduces professional services firm Deloitte’s intention to rid itself of offices and have no permanently assigned desks in what’s called hot desking. Described as a “growing trend” in the corporate business sector, the model mandates a worker—including the bosses—to stow their personals in a locker and get assigned a random desk to occupy that day (never the same one—that’s what random means).  The concept, according to Mark Whitmore, managing partner with Deloitte, creates more meeting rooms and collaborative space and less personal room, presumably taking advantage of a fairly large office vacancy (30%) during any given day (due to field work, meetings, etc.). The idea is to cram as many workers as possible in an open-space concept where they do their so-called creative thinking and use their locker—down the hall—as their main resource-centre. Whitmore likens it to high school—when students showed up at school, put their stuff in a locker and then figure out what they had to do the rest of the day. “You had gym, you grabbed your gym stuff. You’re going to the library, you’d grab your books,” said Whitmore.
The workers and the machine


This is utterly ridiculous. And extremely ineffective. It also lacks “heart”.

Promoting hot desking demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of—or consideration for—the importance of “a sense of place” in engendering a creative working experience. Just as recognition of identity and merit in the work place promote a productive and meaningful working ethic.

The argument against hot desking is not about “territoriality,” as Adam Wasilewski, head of design at Toronto-based W designlab Inc. suggested in the Financial Post article. What is at stake here is something much larger; our very sense of place, of belonging, and of humanity.

Metropolis Tower
Deloitte and other corporations who promote the hot desking model have re-invented the migrant-worker. Someone, who wanders from place to place, never able to ground herself. Never sensing her place—or giving her loyalty. Hot desking destroys worker morale and camaraderie. It also annihilates the ground-breaking creativity that arises spontaneously from co-worker discussions. The creative discoveries generated through casual co-worker interaction cannot be planned by booking a boardroom. You can’t compartmentalize creativity. 

I predict that hot desking will not only reduce creativity at work, but it will exacerbate worker absenteeism, sickness, a cavalier attitude and lack of loyalty. In effect, hot desking will produce someone who doesn’t care: at the most, a “rubber-stamping” drone and at the least a slacker who cheats.

The Australians created the term solastalgia to describe the terrible sadness caused by environmental change or loss. It is a very real distress caused by the lived experience of the transformation of one’s home and loss of a sense of belonging. It’s like feeling homesickness when you’re still at home. Given how much time and effort people regularly put into their workplace, this is Germaine to the office experience.
 
Drone workers of the Metropolis machine
Metropolis, the 1927 classic dystopia by Fritz Lang, is about the social crisis of a world where the selfish “dreams of a few had turned to the curses of many” (Fritz Lang, Metropolis). 

There is a scene in this evocative film where creative men of antiquity decide to build a monument to the greatness of humanity, high enough to reach the stars and reminiscent of humanity’s hubristic construction of the Tower of Babel. Metropolis is a world dominated by technology and greed, where the bulk of the people are dehumanized workers, who more resemble machines in their jerky rhythmic movements and laconic faces than the oppressed humans they are. The “heart” is missing between the “brain” and the “hands”.

worker drones in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis"
When a corporation removes “the heart” of the workplace from the worker (citing increased efficient use of space) the cost is the very humanity—and productivity—of that place and ultimately the worker in it.

Hot-desking is just another version of Metropolis.

References:

Marr, Garry. 2014. “Hot desking trend grows: no offices or assigned seating at new Deloitteheadquarters”. Financial Post, September 11, 2014. 

Munteanu, Nina. 2002. “Virtually Yours”. First appeared in Issue 15 of Hadrosaur Tales (Dec., 2002); reprinted in Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine (Issue 3, Spring 2004); translated into Polish and reprinted in Nowa Fantastika (January 2006); translated into Hebrew and reprinted in Bli-Panika (2006). Selected for The Best of Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine Anthology (Bundoran Press, 2006); nominated for Canadian Aurora Prix and the Speculative Literature Foundation Fountain Award. Reprinted in “Natural Selection: a collection of short stories” (Pixl Press, 2013). Reprinted in Amazing Stories (Amazing Stories, 2014).

Munteanu, Nina. 2008. "Climate Change--Part 2: Solastalgia". The Alien Next Door, April 1, 2008.

Lang, Fritz. 1927. "Metropolis". Paramount Pictures.



Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.