Environmental Challenge Organisation's ECO-House

A day as Mumbai Rubbish picker

2008-04-05T21:43:00.002+08:00

Very happy to see that we have collected a lot of materials over the past 2 days @ Defu Lane & Tay Paper Recycling Plant. At the recycling plant, there were trucks offloading cardboard & bulldozers shoving the pile of cardboard to a conveyor belt. Then among all the ruckus were 2 rubbish pickers - Ariff & myself, looking like 2 rubbish pickers from Mumbai. Ha ha. Good fun!

Anyway, back to the materials. Thanks to Peiting & Sharleen, we got 8 tyres & some thin pieces of wood. Then, today, Ariff & I got cardboard (abt 50cm high pile), 11paper core (various sizes), 11 tins (big hole: good for use as pigeon hole). See attached image. Also, there is a spoilt wooden chair, some styrofoam & fabric.

The stuff is all (except for fabric) at Mun Yee's wonderful place.

Also, there is a pile of unwanted chairs & tables at a nearby bar. Can take if we really want them.

Next sat, construction starts!

Recycled Living Space: Full steam ahead!

2008-03-24T17:11:00.002+08:00

For those who not aware, Recycled Living Space is the part of EcOasis that showcases how "old/ used/ waste" materials can actually be turned into functional & FUNKY furniture & accessories!

Our team consisting of Peiting, Hanisah, Didier, Mun Yee, Jie Wei, Sharleen and myself have been coming up with lots of interesting ideas for this space. For myself, I've always been in the engineering & sciences field, so its certainly enlightening when those in the team who are more design oriented share some of the things that can be done with old junk. However, even the volunteers who are not in the design field impress me with their creative ideas!

Currently we plan to have a dining table made from leftover wood & tires. We have various designs for chairs which would involve using cardboard, tin cans etc. We will be getting materials from various sources such as recycling companies & factories.

If you have lots of old stuff to throw away, or are interested to share your ideas, pls contact me at yihan666@gmail.com

Thanks!
- Yi Han

Coming Soon @ Science Centre

2008-02-27T17:39:00.004+08:00

Catch this banner being put up at the ECO House building site.

Proudly done by our volunteer designer, Hong Kiat.

EcOasis!!! Lets GO!! This weekend!

2008-02-27T01:25:00.001+08:00

Hey guys!

Wonderful to have met up and see such enthusiam for the project. I believe I have a great bunch of pple to make this EcOasis a success!

We are starting on the Green Roof and carrying on with our RWHS (Rainwater Harvesting System) this weekend!

Would like to invite you to the sessions below. Pls revert your interest to me asap (1 or/and 2) as i need to gauge if we are having too many hands for these sessions.

First come first serve!! =)

1. Stud Plants Preparation

Date: 01 Mar 08 (this Sat)

Time: 9.30am - 12.30pm

Venue: 100 Dairy Farm Rd.

Brief: Our Landscape Architect will be getting the friendly garden aunty to teach us the transplanting, propogation techniques, etc. Singing to the greens will come in later sessions.

2. RWHS + Greywater Trial Systems

Date: 02 Mar 08 (this Sun)

Time: 10am onwards

Venue: 100 Dairy Farm Rd.

Brief: We're carrying on with the testing of rainwater harvesting & greywater system. Our lead water-men will go thru the basic ideas with new volunteers and start to get the hands dirty!

Thanks! Hope to hear from you soon!!

Feel Free to sms me @ 98236252 for any queries.

Ah Yao~

First Round of Rainwater Harvesting System (RWHS) Experiment

2008-02-17T22:05:00.004+08:00

And now we get our hands dirty!

Last week we did some shopping, now we took couple of those GIANT dispenser bottles for some experimentation.

In deep thoughts of how it should connect together.

Well...eventually the joints and fixtures weren't enough so we went out to get more.

Yeah! More shopping! :P

And finally, we produced the FIRST RWHS Prototype of EcOasis! :

Hm....not too shabby. :)

Well...at least we got the prototype up and running. We will leave it over the next few weeks to see how the trial works out. And we'll improve on it further when we come back.

Looking for some internal components

2008-02-01T23:37:00.003+08:00

It was a day of "Shopping" for the internal components of the ECO House.

We started at about 1pm, the team went down to Geylang to the various hardware shops there to buy the required components after recommended by Uncle Kiong.

Yes...the above picture is none other than Ah YaO~ . The one who manages volunteers who wants to get their hands dirty on the internal component of the ECO House.

Here is LJ posing at the site that Jia jia, our main volunteer Architect, has offered to use to build our prototype. The Green Roof and walls will be done here as well. ;)

And so we transport the stuffs we bought there.

Around evening, we turned to IKEA to do some shopping. To get some materials.

Before that, we had ourselves a meal first. And the picture above, you will see the SUMPTUOUS FOOD from IKEA! Bon Apetite!

Then we "shopped" around.

Picture below: Checking out a sink. Ah..inlet and outlet. How can we pipe in the rain water source and where does the grey water goes.

As we went around, we were pretty excited and wished our kitchen could be like IKEA's. Or we can do something like that.

And then suddenly...EUREKA!

LOOK! We realized that the various display sets in the IKEA Show room matches out allocated dimension of the "kitchen". We were thought for awhile and it triggered us to perhaps approach IKEA to get a set for our kitchen.

We liked this kitchen set! Well...and many others!!!!

Afterall, IKEA is a green brand and has a culture of not wasting materials.

This particular display caught our attention. :)

And now...we were looking around at some other furnitures (below picture) such as having a living room with materials made from reused materials.

But yeah...we were only dreaming. We don't have space for that. The rest of the house is intended to be used for conducting training and really used reused or recycled material to decorate it. It will be a creative area.

Now, the next thing we need to do is to find a chance to meet up IKEA and propose the idea to them and hopefully they will support our ECO House.

*Fingers Crossed*

Looking for Volunteers: EcOasis - Getting your hands dirty

2008-01-28T08:08:00.000+08:00

EcOasis

Finally, the dream becomes reality.

On 16 Jan 08, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Finance & Minister for Education, planted the seeds for EcOasis at the Singapore Science Centre. Together with our generous sponsors, the team saw the beginning of EcOasis.

This project was conceived in 2006 as a tangible showcase for environmental technologies. Located in the Eco Garden of the Singapore Science Centre, the EcOasis will be useful as an educational platform for casual visitors or teachers bringing their students for field trips.

In addition, the EcOasis will also be part of ECO Singapore's Enrich! Programme on environmental sustainability. This program aims to instill the fundamentals of sustainable living and motivate the participants to start taking actions in their daily lifestyle

We Want YOU!

From now till the completion of EcOasis in April 08, we need 10-15 volunteers to help with the trials and construction of the various systems within the EcOasis. Key Systems include:

Rainwater-Harvesting
Green roofs & walls
Bio-diesel
Grey-water recycling
Recyclable Living Space

Volunteers will need to commit about 2-4 hours per week for these two months. No prior knowledge is required but passion for the cause is highly recommended!

To volunteer, pls email volunteer@eco-singapore.org or sms YaO @ 94233204.

PS: Please help forward this to as many people you think might be interested as possible.

ECO Singapore Speech (With ENRICH! Video Clip)

2008-01-17T08:43:00.000+08:00

Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Sponsors
Friends

I would first like to thank the Minister for taking time off his normally hectic schedule, now his doubly hectic schedule, to be with us this afternoon for the groundbreaking ceremony of the EcOasis.

The EcOasis a good example of what can be achieved in a partnership between government, non-governmental organisations and the private sector united in a common purpose.

To this end, I would like to thank the Singapore Science Centre for their support in providing the site for this unique and meaningful project.

I would also like to thank all our sponsors for all their support and encouragement.

This project was conceived in 2006 as a tangible showcase for environmental technologies. Located in the Eco Garden, the EcOasis will be useful as an educational platform for casual visitors and teachers bringing their students to the SSC for field trips.

In addition to its use as an ad hoc educational platform for casual visitors, the EcOasis will also be part of ECO Singapore’s Enrich! Environmental Foundation Programme, which will be launched next month. This half to one-day customised programme, intended for students from Primary Five to Secondary Four, will highlight fundamental issues on sustainable living. Comprising six modules, it will complement and reinforce what students are already learning in school subjects like geography, science and social studies, while weaving these subjects together within an environmental context.

I would now like to share with you a short video clip on what an Enrich! Programme offers to students.

(Video of Enrich! Programme being screened as below)

I am delighted to announce that ECO Singapore will offer this programme to schools without charge in 2008.

Thank you very much.

ECO House: EcOasis Ground Breaking Ceremony

2008-01-16T21:03:00.000+08:00

Today is the day!

Here are some picture shots of the event.

Above: Completed ECO House Model

Below: Technologies that can be found in the ECO House:

Turn Out for the Ground Breaking Ceremony:

Speeches:

Explaining the ground breaking procedures and its meaning:

GOH and Sponsors doing their part to plant the "Stud" plants that will eventually be on the Green Roof:

Mitsubishi Explaining about their PV Cells:

BCA Explaining the concept and reason for green buildings:

Sharing more about the Green Roof and how it works also as a rain water harvesting system:

Guests being explained by the volunteers on the expected ECO House and its components:

Well done team!

Debrief at the end of the day.

One day BEFORE the Ground Breaking Ceremony

2008-01-15T23:55:00.000+08:00

The tension starts to build up. We are working hard on a couple of things for the ground breaking:

1. Final Stages of the model for display on the ECO House.

We were still running to buy some last minute materials for the ECO House on some touch up part. Both Joelle, Jiajia and myself did this until about 11.40pm at night. Way past Joelle's bedtime. By the time we were done, she was really whacked.

NB: Well, we WERE watching Heroes Season 1 while we were doing the model. :)

2. Checklist on all possible guests that will be down.
Have invited friends and partners whom we are in touch with. Who have been supportive of ECO Singapore's activities and has keen interest in what we do. Thou this was a humble event, they were very forth coming and supportive about what we do. A total of 35 Guests were confirm. This list does not include staff from the Science Centre and our volunteers from both ECO Singapore end as well as Tanglin Secondary School.

3. Certificate of appreciation to all sponsors.
The frame for the certificates finally arrived at the Brash Basah Complex Porpular bookshop! We went to collect it. But when we reached, it was closed! We had to buy the next day.

4. Editing of the video footage that was done on Friday to be shown during the launch.
Here is the first cut which we had to work on:

Total of 4mins 15 seconds. It would be too long and it is. Ryal went down to Christine's place to help do the edit. We have to reduce to at least HALF of it.

5. Confirmation if there is any press at all to cover this event.
This is a mile stone event for us. And as much as possible, we hope to be able to get some coverage about the project. Thou there is no physical structure, we really look forward to have media coverage to share more about this project and hopefully this will help us raise mroe awareness about our humble project and find more sponsors for this initiative.

A Facebook note...

2008-01-15T06:29:00.000+08:00

Title:

ECO House: EcOasis Ground Breaking Ceremony

Dear All,

We are proud to share that tomorrow afternoon at 3pm, at the Singapore Science Centre ECO Garden, we will have the ground breaking event for the ECO House: EcOasis.

This humble project has been brewing for a long time between volunteer young architects, engineers, marketeers and various individual from different walks of life. It has came a long way and finally, we are going to see it take shape starting tomorrow.

The event will be graced by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Finance and Minister for Education.

This project is a milestone for us, ECO Singapore as a whole which YOU are part of, because the ground breaking marks the beginning of this unique project bringing together various partners from the public and private sectors.

Last but not least, the essence of its becoming are the relentless efforts by the youth.

For those who are interested to learn about the progress of it, please feel free to visit it at:
http://www.eco-singapore.org/ecohouse/index.html

We hope the story of ECO House: EcOasis will inspire more of you to realize that dreams can come true if you stick to it and believe in it, and along the way be willing to learn and adapt to changes.

Alot of challenging situation and decisions were made, but it was all worth it.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY:
Starting tomorrow, we will be going forward to BUILD the ECO House. We will need all the manpower we can get to help out and the commitment level will start somewhere end Feb till end Apr where the ECO House is targeted to be completed. and YOU can play a big part.

- Hands On volunteers
To help in the MAKING of the ECO House. For those who want to ge your hands dirtied and also improve on the ECO House internal components.

- Volunteer ECO Trainers
You will be trained to bring children through the ECO House and the ENRICH! Program that will be held at the Singapore Science Centre ECO Garden.

Interested? Email to volunteer@eco-singapore.org

Warm Regards,
Wil

Two days BEFORE Ground Breaking Ceremony

2008-01-14T01:11:00.000+08:00

Two days before the Ground Breaking and we have a whole list of things that still needs to get done. Visiting Mr Richard Tan from Enviro Space on the ground breaking ceremony planting for the GOH and sponsors.

Upon reaching down to discuss about it, realized that there was a need for help on the plants. Mr Tan needed help to prepare it.

Mr Tan brought me around to see the green roofs and walls he has designed. Also, he also showed the green roof cross section.

Here is a short clip:

Model Making for Ground Breaking

2008-01-13T03:17:00.000+08:00

Jia jia and Joelle are rushing over the weekend to build up a model of the ECO House at Joelle's place for the ground breaking ceremony.

Above: Joelle cutting the part of the roof structure.

Above: Jia Jia making the Green Walls of the ECO House.

Above: Both Jia jia and Joelle concentrating hard on the model to make sure it looks good.

Above: Short Video on the new ECO House model for the ground breaking ceremony.

As time approaches to THE ground breaking ceremony, we are getting all excited. This has indeed been a very long journey for us to make it this far.

Next thing to get prepared if the ground breaking METHOD. To allow our GOH and sponsors to do something symbolic and meaningful for the initiation of this project.

Floor Space Marking

2008-01-10T02:55:00.000+08:00

Today marks a very significant day of our ECO House building. At least to me.

The contractors are down at the site today to do some testing if there are any cables below the site that we will be doing the piling for the building of our structure.

And also, the contractor also marked out the floor space of the ECO House. The exact location. As we watch the contractor slowly placing the pegs onto the floor, a sense of satisfaction was felt down the spine. We have finally made it this far. The gush of excitement and immerse satisfaction went to my head. We are seeing the fruits of our labour coming into shape. Our perseverance made it through, we are on our way to build the first ever youth led ECO House in Singapore.

Going on CNBC

2007-12-29T18:24:00.000+08:00

We are in the final works of the ECO House. We just got an email mentioning that we would be featuring the ECO House and the efforts done on it on CNBC. This is part of a documentary that Mitsubishi is in.

This is a good coverage for us as we manage now to get a good form of publicity and recognition from the public to know the education efforts and strong partnership between Mitsubishi Electric Asia Pte Ltd, Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and ECO Singapore.

Truly a good 3P (People, Public Private) partnership.

Updates on the Egineering Calculations

2007-12-15T14:16:00.000+08:00

Time is running out....

We are doing our best to race the clock to firm up everything as much as we can to be submitted to the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

We had a quick meeting with the YOUNG Engineers at ARUP Facade Engineering to work out all the necessary details.

Here is a video clip of the discussion.

And one more:

Things are going well. With the support from all the relevant agencies, we are good to go.

Internal Structure

2007-11-16T00:32:00.000+08:00

The recent week has been very fruitful. We have managed to hook up with more sponsors here and there mainly for our materials.

With the main infrastructure safely taken care of, the internal structure required a team to look into it. We recalled the team to see whoever are still interested to drive it all the way.

Wee Chang will be leaving his job, a marketing one because he want to pursue his interest in Engineering. A true blue engineer! And he has committed to look into the internal structure using his skills to focus and actualize the ECO House. His background was an engineer from NTU. To be exact, his major is on Environmental Engineering.

LJ is currently working from home. Committed further into the project to see it come to life before flying off somewhere next year Feb.

It was only within three days after I have informed them about this plan. They quickly called in the team that are still in this to work on the volunteer involvement component. mainly the internal structure.

They came in for meeting today straight after work at about 7pm. And the meeting ended about 11.30pm. Just in the nick of time to catch their last train or buses.

A time line was fixed to concurrently run while the main infra is on the making, the internal components will be assembled by various volunteers in their field of interest.

Some snap shots:

GOH for Ground Breaking:Confirmed

2007-11-10T17:59:00.000+08:00

Today was South West Clean & Green Singapore Lifestyle event. Mr Tharman was the Guest of Honor and Singapore Science Centre was providing the venue for the event.

Dr Amy Khor was hosting the event as the Mayor for South West CDC. Had the opportunity to correspond with Mr Tharman directly and shared with him about our ECO House. Briefly shared with him that we would love to have him as the Guests of Honor for the ground breaking/unveiling ceremony to recognize our partners in this ECO House initiative.

This is great news. We have just confirmed our GOH with him directly and he has agreed. We will be planning to have it on January 2008 so we can invite schools to be around and go through the program which we will be running upon completion of the ECO House. This would be a preview of the ECO House and also the ENRICH! Program that goes with it.

Now, we need to follow up with the specific dates to de-conflict his schedule.

Well done team!

ECO House Model

2007-11-09T10:34:00.000+08:00

After the initial agreement with Jia Jia, our volunteer Architect from Akitek Tenggara, she has been busy putting together the mock up for the eco house. totally excited when I went to meet up Jia jia to pick it up.

Brought it back to our new office and took couple of pictures of it.

And here they are:
Our model based on the scale 1:50. Check out the welcoming doors.

Side view: You can notice the green roofs, solar panels and also the green walls.

The other side view: Check out the kitchen and composting area. You can also notice the tube to collect water from the green roofs when it rains.

With the roofs removed, you can see clearer the interior of the kitchen.

Closer view up in the kitchen. Check out the sink which will then have its grey water system pumped over to the decors on the right to process the water.

The other side of the ECO House. Mock up of a possible room. This will also be the part of the training room.

And finally, the back view of the ECO House.

ARUP dedicating a team

2007-09-20T12:48:00.000+08:00

Concurrently, we are running into a couple of busy people's schedule. One of which is with our dedicated engineer for the project, Mr Russell Cole. We worked out an idea to have his company dedicate a team of youth engineer to this project. And he did.

He allocated a small team led by Wee Keong. And currently, they are taking in all the necessary information for the calculation of the ECO House and some modification of its "greeness" to ensure it is both stable and sustainable.

This spells great news as we can now move faster forward with a team of engineers.

Followed up, we will be scheduling a meeting up between the engineers and the relevant parties.

Securing the exact site for the ECO House

2007-09-19T09:42:00.000+08:00

Upon an initial agreement with the Singapore Science Centre to build the ECO House there, we needed to work on the location. A few emails were exchanged during this time to allow us to carry things forward. However, due to the upcoming National Science Fair, our counterparts at the SSC were very taxed.

Nonetheless, we went down to the site several times to finalize the location and conduct soil sampling to ensure the selected location did not have soil problems and that extra money was not required to pound the earth.

Program Learning Cycle

2007-09-18T09:37:00.000+08:00

Finally, thanks to our Chief Development Officer and his partner, we have developed the program and called it ENRICH!

The general overview of the Enrich! programme is intended to provide a holistic learning experience for participants during their environmental learning journey. Designed for mature learners, the programme will emphasize experiential and hands-on learning, and facilitate retention of key principles through action and critical thinking.

For organisations seeking a more in-depth learning engagement process, the programme may be customised to include visits to learning sites.

More funding proposals

2007-08-18T09:23:00.000+08:00

Been busy dealing with the Live Earth Concert and after that preparing for the NDP 2007 event. Finally after all these months, we are able to get back on track with the ECO House.

Have been working on developing the training program with our Chief Development Officer, Dr Ryal Wun, and his associate, Ms Cheung Kar Onn. Having secured some funding for the infrastructure, we needed to look into the overheads.

The development of the programme was also crucial in securing better outreach and value for participants and sustain the maintenance of the Eco House.

We have also been working with BCA to get their support for the ECO House. BCA had recently launched the Green Mark Scheme to label buildings that are of certain green standards. However, it is only on the infrastructure. Hence, we wanted to increase awareness of this scheme and compliment it by promoting its worth and value in our strive for green lifestyles.

Locking in the steel

2007-07-05T04:14:00.000+08:00

After the ceremony with our naming sponsors, the steel prices are rocketing up.

The current situation is:
1. Steel prices going up
2. Sand prices going up
3. ARUP is in the midst of calculating the ECO House loading
4. Pending approval of NEA funding
5. Pending approval of BCA funding

We really have to move forward. Need to secure at least some of the steel before the prices go up further. Need to pump in at least 70K to secure the base amount of steel and sand required for our structure.

We got Mitsubishi Electric Pte Ltd to provide us the funding of 80K for the ECO House.
Mitsubishi will also sponsor the purchase and installation of PV cells on the ECO House.

With this funding, we managed to lock some amount of steel and sand for the ECO House.

We are also working on other fundings to support this initiative.

Information REVEALED (Naming Sponsor)

2007-06-24T19:19:00.000+08:00

Finally!

We attended the naming sponsor’s 30th anniversary dinner where we were presented with a $100,000 cheque for our ECO House: EcOasis Project.

Here are the pictures. And I am sure you can tell who was the kind corporate partner who has sponsored us as part of their 30th Anniversary.

Just a few days back, we rushed to make a plaque with Peter Kiong (AKA Uncle Kiong) to present a token of appreciation to our Naming Sponsor for the ECO House.

And we concluded that this looked the BEST!:
The cheque was presented by the Managing Director of Mitsubishi Electric Pte Ltd, Mr. Takashi Fujii, and he too received the plaque that we specially made for them.

I must say the spirit of this company was very clear. They are a very humble and sincere. This is truly reflected by the MD himself when he took the lead to walk down the aisle. They appreciate every one of their clients that has helped them grow all these years.

Here is another other picture of the dinner:

A close up on ANOTHER eco effort that Mitsubishi Electric Pte Ltd embarked on. Check this out:

With this, we've finally confirmed our naming sponsor commitment.