Category Archives: history
Publication of the Year: Shit: A Survival Guide
Our SHIT lab at PNCA has spent the last two months putting together a publication on emergency sanitation. Right as I was headed out the door to go to our final critique I got an email from Carol McCreary of PHLUSH about a survival guide on shit put out by COLORS (yes as in United [...]
Eight Rungs on a Ladder of Citizen Participation
This is a chart from page 42 of Colin Ward’s book “Streetwork: the Exploding School” first published in 1973. the original reference is to Sherry Arnstein’s “A Ladder of Citizen Participation in the USA”, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, July 1969. Streetwork is a great book on environmental education. Nils Norman runs a [...]
Compost-heated Greenhouse c.1750
Ním Wunnan points us towards the Lost Gardens of Heligan, where they have restored to operation a “pineapple pit,” a compost-heated greenhouse in fashion in the mid-18th century for growing pineapples in Britain. It is, as far as is known, the world’s only operational pineapple pit.
Pail Collection and Composting in Skaneateles!
This is the longest-running pail collection system I’ve seen in the Western World. Run from 1908-1998 around summer cottages in upstate New York, 5-gallon buckets were picked up from public outhouses and private summer cottages. Sewage was banned to protect the watershed. PDF article here. Continuous interaction with cottage owners has been essential to the [...]
Now you can Buy
Our posters are now up on cloacina.org, along with a buy button.
Links on the history and future of toilets
History Kris De Decker is one of my favorite technology writers, and up on Low Tech Magazine he has a great new article on re-use of human excrement, resource crises, and a 19th century Dutch and French vacuum sewers I’d never known about. Vacuum sewers are making a comeback. Future Both EcoSanRes and SuSanA (Sustainable [...]
The Other WTO
The World Toilet Organization. Check out this amazingly comprehensive 158 page compendium (PDF link) of toilets, sanitation, and sewage technologies.
Public Urinals of the July Monarchy
Happy May Day! I’ll be at Washington High School Park after 6. These public urinals were built between 1833 to 1848 by Rambuteau, Préfet of Paris, for his anti-miasma “water, air, shade” campaign. Although he is now more famous for his fountains, in Rambuteau’s Paris these urinals were christened with name. A wonderful article [more [...]
