Water
IMAGE: Lake Ontario and the Toronto skyline, viewed from Mimico on a summer evening
PHOTO: The Right Angle Journal
Water is an essential component to life on earth. Many scientists believe that it is critical to life throughout the known universe. Our primitive ancestors emerged from the oceans about a billion years ago, and to this very day, as a reminder, our first nine months of existence are spent in an aqueous fluid that is 98 per cent water. Our grown-up bodies consist of about 50 to 60 per cent water. The planet we live on is 72 per cent covered with water.
Who could ever have imagined that we – all of us together – could convert this valuable commodity into a source of grave concern: too scarce or too copious and frequently unreliable.
This issue’s feature recognizes the challenges of climate change, as they relate to the world’s water supply, and offers other relevant thoughts.
The Architecture of Water
Water is both the architect’s biggest liability and a rich design material: on plumbing, concrete, sea level rise, and the fountains in between.
Water Has Power
After Katrina, New Orleans rebuilt its shotgun houses on stilts and lost their street life; amphibious foundations could save both the homes and the neighbourhoods.
The Bathroom - An Introduction
From Neolithic Orkney to the S-trap: a brisk history of the bathroom, the room that drinks 65 per cent of household water while 2.6 billion people lack safe sanitation.
The Importance of Bathrooms
In new small townhouses the bathroom now claims 14 percent of the floor area. What the growing bathroom says about how we value domestic space.
Locations - Venice
Venice has survived seventeen centuries of sieges and occupiers; now it faces rising water, cruise ships, and mass tourism. A dispatch on the Floating City’s latest inundation.