Solar Architecture
&
Envaluation
Chartered architecture practice and environmental evaluation
Contact: tel: +44 (0)7838 155739 eml: envaluation@icloud.com
THIS PAGE HAS A FEW MISCELLANEOUS IMAGES I LIKE
'Somewhere' in England or Wales.
Typical countryside scenes and typical climate conditions.
From a bygone era
The pensioner ladies of the village sitting out. No longer to be seen in northern, but still to be seen in southern Europe - in this case N. Portugal.
Oldest living rocks - stromatalites
Pre-cambrian living organisms - stromatolites
are an example of the earliest record of life on earth. They are found around sea shores like here in Hamelin in Western Australia and are living examples of structures built by cyano-bacteria, which are direct descendants of the oldest form of photosynthetic life on earth.
These ones are similar to the other 3,500 million year old stromatolites n the Pilbara area of W. Australia, in the Pilbara area.The single celled cyanobacteria are similar to the first forms of life on earth. They are the simplest life forms to use photosynthesis to provide food and oxygen. They provided the early Earth with most of its oxygen atmosphere billions of years before plants appeared 550 million years ago. .
Dinosaurs appeared 230 million and humans only 2 million years ago. The stromatolites live in communities at densities of 3 billion individuals per square metre. The outside of these 'living rocks' is a thin strip of the active bacteria having a sticky film which traps and cements drifting sand and shells with calcium carbonate produced by the bacteria to slowly build up layers which harden into rock.
The elephant in the garden
Someone with imagination and a sense of humour has created a lovely sight to behold in north London.
Local materials
Left, flint used with stone to created an interesting wall because the area has chalk hills.
Below, vines supported by granite 'columns' because stone is more available than wood in the locality.
Our foundations - water and rock
The two jagged Skellig Islands off the south west coast of Ireland, are a sight of wonder as they rise out of the ocean. They are about 350 million years old from the Devonian period. Skellig Michael was famous for it's 1400 yr old monastery but such fame has perhaps been recently eclipsed by its controversial use as a location for the film Star Wars.
Another venerated 350 million year old rock - Uluru
Uluru originated from the erosion of huge mountain ranges by rain washing the eroded material into alluvial 'fans'. Around 500 million years ago, the whole area became covered in sea. Sand and mud fell to the bottom and covered the seabed. The weight of the new seabed turned the two 'fans' into rock. The sandy fan became sandstone (Uluru) while a second rocky fan became conglomerate rock.
Aprox 300 - 400 million years ago, the sea disappeared. The softer rocks eroded away, leaving the spectacular form of Uluru behind. Like an iceberg, there is much more of these rocks below the surface.
The surface is actually flaky red with grey patches. The flakes are rock left after water and oxygen have decayed minerals in the rock. The red is rusty iron that is found naturally in arkose, and the grey behind the rusty exterior is the rock’s original colour.
On the beach
A natural formation of rock looking like a causeway leading up from a beach in Scotland.
The beach has some interesting looking stones on it . Are they all natural or has one of perhaps two had human intervention?
Ancient shells make unusual building blocks
Simple sea shells compressed together over the ages, but no longer on the sea bed, have been quarried and used as blocks for building.
Somewhere different in Australia
The first aboriginal settlers of Australia may have started to arrive 100,000 years ago. The Australia landscape has not changed much since. The scenes in the photographs will have been familiar to those who are thought to have settled in this area 30,000 years ago.
Ancient enigmatic monolith
Maybe this monolith is a gesture to the Roman conquerors of Lusitania or perhaps it dates from long before.
For more information please contact: Michael Buckley tel: +44 (0)7838 155739 eml: envaluation@icloud.com