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tv   Tomorrow Today  Deutsche Welle  December 12, 2022 4:30pm-5:01pm CET

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body and soul houses that daniel leaders can to construct for more than just buildings. he is the son of jewish holocaust survivors. working that i was able to build with his architecture is a celebration of democracy and an architect of emotions. daniel starts december 25th on d, w, or scientists suggesting their feet wet all in the name of making hydropower back to for the environment. more on that coming up. we'll also be looking at efforts to reduce the harmful impact to the universal building material concrete. but 1st life in the concrete jungle, we all know city living can be stressful. is there
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a way to make it more manageable? welcome to to maurice's aid, the science sion on d. w. a busy, noisy, dusty city living can be stressful and it's not just down to environmental factors . there is social stress factors to people living in close proximity to one another while at the same time feeding, socially isolated. a recent study shows that comes with an increased risk of mental health issues. what's clear is that more research is needed into house if it can become healthier places to live for people of all ages. because young urbanites ought so feeling the effects of stress. as
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a super lout. yeah. it's incredibly loud here. i can feel my heart rate shooting up at this junction. yeah. that's what i just wanna get out of here on my i have on, are you a vic? it's a real pit to go go stud law. i die, i feel totally uncomfortable, and i'd rather be somewhere with a different atmosphere in the snow on. most of i don't understand, well housed love i saw was a lot of work. but i'm also now wondering what the impact is on our bodies. the non stop noise, a sensory overload. right? but a few days ago, jemila moved and she is absolutely delighted with her new apartment. it's in one of her favorite parts of town. hello. i got a roof and i'm standing by my window. show her and i love having trees slipped down on from the sato shayhan does that your farmer shone. come windows, it's really reassuring to be able to be in a safe place,
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auto cost and have this feeling of com owns. yeah, just because it's our lessons that you have this place to withdraw to who are hot and quickbooks and come here. as we navigate our way through the cities hustle and bustle, our brain is exposed to stress that something klaus common is investigating. he's a professor of biological psychology here at the technical university of berlin. he's monitoring brain activity in action. using electrodes attached to the scalp with contact gel. they measure tiny electrical signals, giving researchers vital insights into events in the brain from one millisecond to the next. one remarkable new development is that test subjects can now move about freely up to now they had to sit completely still, 2 doses, which bills that's not what our brains evolved for women because the brain developed in order to optimize our behavior, was to him prove our chances of survival in a potentially dangerous environment,
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and a lot of that involves motor skills. and that's exactly what this test is supposed to assess. in the 1st part, the test person is presented with a virtual room. inside it, she'll see 3 different doors, one after the other. one relatively wide, the next normal sized, and the 3rd impossibly narrow. she's not been given any instructions and is just observing her surroundings. meanwhile, the electrodes are recording her brain waves. in the next part of the test, the doors reappear, but this time, this subject is asked to walk through them. while the researchers again monitor her brains responses they then analyze and compare the resulting data. most importantly, the 1st few fractions of the 2nd. amazingly, whether they just looked at the doors or walk through them,
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the brain signals and all test subjects were near identical. in the real world. this means that our brain is constantly checking the options available to us in a given situation and a matter of milliseconds. so in an urban environment, the brain is kept busy pretty much all the time. a process that runs automatically, and unconsciously, when facing labyrinthine underpasses or intimidating modern buildings. our brain is always on the lookout for potential dangers. and wondering where the closest escape route is. and that permanent vigilance can trigger stress damage to the director. that means there's a direct link to our health. so i'll urban planners and architects have a design related task. they also have to create an environment that's appropriate for people and gave him the style. but as for designing
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a city in which our brain would be able to relax, research is still in its infancy. you think a hoot is a philosopher. he's conducted some preliminary tests into how we perceive architecture of the design studio. if we wanted to manipulate public interior spaces by creating both straightforward and more complex variance of a space, x of, of i am, the one here on the love is very simple. these are with only one exit in the back, i think, and relatively few architectural elements, amenta and the room on the right is more sophisticated compared to with more passageways and more vistas before. and one of our primary conclusions was that space is like this one are perceived as more interesting. i saw, i know the hall spaces that are more interesting and more complex. are the ones that people want to explore more time owns a mere online. that is all i meshes interesting spaces that provide
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a variety of views and thanks and options are seen as something positive. dance, an important finding. because whether indoors or outside this type of architecture encourages people to socialize and maybe linger and relax. a little architecture can help create more relaxed city and say, can plants plentiful greenery can improve actual as he to even at the highest highest. but some city dwellers would rather stay down to earth in homes reminiscent of the hobbit houses in the lord of the rings. welcome to the world of underground living. seen from above, you probably wouldn't know that underneath this little green hill is a rather sponsors building. here the 2nd one,
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this is the b and t animal rescue and shelter one. and it's special because it's in an earth house which we bought in 2005, 4000 for the scope. 300 square meters of the shelter in the south. western german city, a filling in is completely under ground. like a labyrinth in cave, with many chambers, the building sprawls under a green roof. and just as in a real cave, it has no right angles or straight walls. there are several passageways that lead out doors, so the cats can step out for some air. so what's it like working under ground and under them up food, how it's very pleasant and relaxing. so we have a steady room, temperature and humidity and plenty of light because of the cube killer up there. have the head of those to cooper hill or on basically you feel freer in these buildings, cliffs. globule doesn't matter if i have food and isn't, has
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a lu in addition to providing a pleasant work atmosphere? the earth house also saves energy and leaves lots of space for greenery. integrating houses into the environment has been this swiss architects aim for 50 years now. peter fetch has built about a 100 earth houses across europe. job, i mean these are bow as it goes. construction method requires a lot less material and i don't have to be so exact like when having to measure a piece of timber down to the centimeter. it's more intuitive was i saw this house was built the way a child builds things in the sandpit. it can be moulded them. you can make the roof a bit higher and more. it's creative. his today a thief, peter fetch, makes his earth house is out of concrete. other architects only use natural materials. the transition between the buildings and their surroundings is fluid. they become part of the landscape lead to mileage, but it's only here, for example, it's covered by about 50, the meters of earth,
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of him. but that increases to up to may be one meter 20 in the roof from 2. that means there's a lot of green glass ground area is seal to really for siegel, the green spaces remain. oh, instead of built up urban areas, green mountains. but what about the light climate and heating in these subterranean buildings? oh, garrett hansen has been designing earth houses for 30 years. he works with wooden modules covered with a thick layer of earth rather than concrete. that's how it's built as a passive house with very good windows and insulation. i'm it and. but the soil also regulates the temperature here in the lower area, the earthen bank. mit is 4 meters thick and blossomed, it's not just a green roof, but a very thick layer of earth ice. it stays pleasantly cool in summer and in the winter as you're never battling icy temperatures and energy consumption for heating is sensationally low in any please. and ah,
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and ignore. and her family have been living in an earth home for 6 years now. it was love at 1st sight it's 10 meters wide and under its earth mantle, there's a water proof and root proof membrane. the front and back windows are triple glazed as it as good bottom. when we built the house, we were concerned that it might be a bit dark. does the south? yes, i think that's the 1st thing you think when you hear us house that it's dark and cramped soon, but it's very light and you automatically have this connection to nature. my side entry oh to my dish network up in the wooden shell for the house was provided by the architect and garrett hanson's company also carried out the earthworks packing the barrels shaped structure and soil. the canoes, then did the work on the interior themselves. the unusual building ended up costing
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barely more than a conventional detached home. but what's life actually like under a layer of earth. ready vacant, burned as of mid they can, we can tell how well the roof works from a very low energy and heating bills. a 60 year as a month for heating into a mortar on the how ot. so our house doesn't heal, shop and temperatures rise because it's covered with earth, front and in the winter. the layer of soil keeps us warm from. so a passive earth house saves about 2 thirds of the usual energy costs. and the earth mantle stores rain water and minimizes the buildings ecological footprint. hm. ones on our school. i'm doing very good chips. the earth that we allocated on to the rear of and used it to recreate growing a pamela, dull surfaces her with her and see good on the current. even with all these benefits, it's still not possible to build multi story earth hounds. the structures would
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take up far too much space for garrett hansen. that's one big disadvantage. this is an i'm from, you know, awesome. it's a single family house and they're grouped together so that less land is used. but of course, it's not a model that we can adopt in cities. really we need to live closer together and, and build smaller apartments with that. but the earth house is an example of a detached home that you can build responsibly today. i'm 40 bundle 1st homes are still rare in germany. but the idea of embedding homes in nature like this conserving energy and introducing greenery to offset the land use could be one model for ecological architecture in the future. concrete buildings or anything but eco friendly. that's mainly the is of how
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concrete main components cement is produced. the cement industry is responsible for 8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, wildlife, around $4650000000.00 tons of the men to produced every year. that one researcher in switzerland has now found a way to make ferment that's less harmful to the environment at the swiss federal institute of technology in laws on karen, scribner and her team have been working for years to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete. scribner is a chemist who has specialized in construction materials. focus is really the best material to house the world. but of course we need to make it better and we can do it. here karen scriven, her and her team are using cement water, sand and gravel, to develop
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a new kind of concrete. there's nothing unusual about that in itself, but what's different here is the makeup of the cement. normal cement is made cheaply of calcium carbonate, which is heated to over $1400.00 degrees celsius that produces a lot of c o. 2 from the fuel and the breakdown of the calcium carbonate, 90 percent of the emissions of concrete come from what's called the clinker. this produced in this big cement kill. and by taking out as much as possible of that thinker you, would you, c, o. 2 experiments have shown that this can be done by simply adding fired clay to the mix. along with calcium carbonate that has been ground to a powder. but not heated. calcium carbonate has to be heated to $1450.00 degrees celsius. but clay only to $800.00 degrees,
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that saves on fuel. and the clay doesn't generate carbon emissions. unlike calcium carbonate, overall, that means 30 percent less c o 2. well, i think the potentials enormous because the amount of clay available is virtually unlimited. which means we can easily go from us substitution level on average of 20 percent to day to 40 percent. that would mean saving $400000000.00 tons of c o 2 per year. and to put that in perspective, that's 10 times the entire c o 2 emissions of switzerland. and as i can see like yeah, yeah, yeah, numerous tests have shown that the experimental concrete has the same properties as conventional concrete. and it's equally strong 1st and 2nd, but the construction industry tends to be quite reluctant to launch new materials. it's hard work,
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convincing industry leaders to try out the new concrete known as l. c. 3. and then that to you. so the scientists in switzerland have teamed up with institutes and other countries to spread the word. they began by focusing on india. india is today the 2nd largest user of conk, a concrete in the world. but if you compare it with china, which is the largest, the amount of cement use per person in india is like 5 or 6 times lower than china to day. and so i think we can really see how things are going to develop china is going to go down, but india is really going to go up. and if we're going to have an impact, we need to get in there before things are built. the scientists in india worked with the industry to produce initial samples of the lc 3 cement. as a pilot project, a building was constructed for the swiss embassy in india. the new material has proven itself. the excellent thing about the cement is that after you've produced
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the same and you can use it in the same be as we have been using ordinary portland cement it's performance, is the same. now, by doing that, we create a solution that is commercially viable. and at the same time, good for the environment. the team in switzerland has linked up with scientists in other countries to the areas marked here in green. our factories have produced batches of l. c. 3, or are due to start manufacturing. the countries and yellow are very interested in l. c. 3. those mart orange show where the scientists have made initial contacts. this small initiative in switzerland could so have a big impact on combating the climate crisis. hydro power is a renewable energy source that that doesn't automatically make it green. in fact, if you study worn is that dams and dress was causing vital habitats disappear and interrupting the flow of nutrients and sediment. we met some german
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researches who are helping to make hydro power, more environmentally friendly. to do that, they're working with a fish farm in the countryside. it's feeding time at this fish farm and central germany. for henry la maya conditions here are ideal. fresh, clear water from the nearby ada river constantly flows into all 18 fish ponds. are these also ideal conditions for a hydro power plant? harvey harbor and slightly kaiser are researching how water bearing facilities such as fish farms and waste water. ready plants could generate their own green energy. ready listen here and understand, we're going to check out this site and see where we might be able to install hydro electric turbines. young ice will do an on site inspection and take measurements to see where it would make sense to install them. susie and i've also mafia, i'm so bomb without harming nature. just was under the years here on to list or
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through what makes this interesting is that we're in a man made facility. we're not out in the natural environment. we're a hydro power unit would disrupt the ecosystem and the fish that live there. it's yeah. dunden fishing dog named shaun hood henley la maya wants to use green power to make his fish farm fit for the future is of a cheap had to relative. we use quite a lot of energy by operating cleaning equipment, an electric powered smoking of interest for high and some electric heaters to i'd. so lemme tavar close. so it makes sense to draw an energy from the water and what's it so mm hm. does it in our energy needs will continue to rise over the next few years. so it would be great if we can counteract that event was awful. he leads the scientists to where the water drains from the fish breathing ponds. they want to investigate whether installing a turbine here would be worthwhile. first they measure the speed of the water
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flowing from the fish farm back into the ada. on the water travels through a one meter wide channel flowing with surprising force expensed enough to almost sweep the scientist off his feet. the researchers want to do more than just help the fish farm. their data will be given to a research network called neva, which supports water and energy management projects. if you me, that was one of us. i was one this guy that did, i thought they check how fast the water is traveling. it's 9.6 meters per 2nd, a good reading, but only one of several factors that decide whether it's really worth installing a turbine. here, the researchers still have to calculate the flow rate from their data.
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the gradient also counts and that varies depending on the water level of the ada. it's currently rather low, which helps i forward new to high. you hear the drop is 3.6 meters enough to make a turbine here, worthwhile. infomercial marvin's food. i'm deep, cbs, i'm yes, of course we'd prefer to have a 100 meter radio. alba, but anything over one or 2 meters is a decent number. gave us a number, we're hydro power becomes a viable option. the researchers believed that almost every fish farm could generate hydro electric power, though not in very large amounts. there around 2000 fish farms in germany. even if every german fish firm had a hydro power plant, they would only generate as much electricity as about 12 average size wind turbines
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. at best, that would only cover their own energy needs or supply about $20000.00 single family homes with power. but unlike solar and wind power, hydro power doesn't depend on the weather. this turbine was installed by henley kilometer grandfather 40 years ago. it's been running around the clock ever since. and it's hardly ever required repairs. unlike in a river, there are no branches, fish, and other objects in the water here to damage the turbine. the old turbine supplies almost all of the companies, electricity, but like his grandfather handling law, my always has an eye toward the future. my goes, my daddy, me dig, my grandfather installed the turbine on it, but we're always thinking about how we could generate more energy. also in conversation, how does, on oftentimes some of the water still flows unused back into the river. the sound. maybe you can see it rushing maniachi doesn't. there's a lot of energy in it. well, by vimovo legal fight. if we're thinking of converting part of our fleet to electric vehicles, then which would increase our energy consumption of you hope all of that. so con,
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good. since fish farms and germany can supply only a modest amount of electricity, the researchers are looking at other types of facilities with flowing water that might be suited to hydropower setups. for example, sewage treatment plants like this one in central germany. good to mila to gun. one of the engineers behind the facility believes it's design, makes it especially suited to a hydro power installation. but in the market logon, dobby least with ordinary sewage treatment plans. there isn't much of a gradient to do business with this type of plan. so taking the technical design provides up to 3.5 meters. then there's the drop till it reaches the discharge points here. that's 13 meters, which is good for hydropower. i got so unusual, much soil water flows through the pipes at the push of a button, so it could generate electricity at times when conditions aren't right for solar, a wind power,
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as efficient as this is pretty amazing. it was in more and more waste water plants are being built here in germany. loudon endorse schlander and looking at the pipes here and there's plenty of room here to install various different types of turbine design. so ball migalia militia, alt, so how much electricity could set up like these generate? if all sewage treatment plants and fish farms in germany installed hydro power systems, they generate just 0.5 tara watt hours of electricity. amir 0 point one percent of the electricity generated in the country. so is it really worth it? yeah, hm. yeah, no model, not here in germany, we use a lot of electricity. and so of course we're unlikely to meet that need with just aquaculture and our more sewage treatment plants at almost $1.00 to $2.00. we need to keep looking for other options. isaac, missouri, but we need to take advantage of every opportunity we have to produce clean energy over mine. the researchers are convinced that there is still
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a lot of untapped hydro power in other water bearing facilities, such as locks and sewers. so they still have plenty of work to look forward to that. so for this edition, if tomorrow to day join us again next week when the dw science show, till then take hamp with, ah, ah, ah, with
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