Society for the Promotion of Culture and Art

SPOCA Bangladesh

Bartolome de las Casas and Hans Knoepfli

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There is another way to go about it

by Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch / IPC


Bartolome de las Casas (1484-1566) worked in Central America and Hans Knoepfli (1927-2023) in the Cameroonian grasslands; Both were connected to the organization of the church, but both are committed to preserving the traditional structures. De las Casas worked against enslavement, Knoepfli against the selling off of traditional values. Both worked on location - Being recognized for their work was not their main concern!

In our present time of global-digital-unification, it is of utter important to preserve the traditional-analogue-system, - without taking into account the influence of mass tourism, job creations, pseudo-inter-relationships, - the pseudo-values of the current time!

Academic institutions and their allies cannot carry out this task, - their stubbornness hinders and prevents them!

For this purpose and for this reason, there is a need to make efforts and carry out in-depth research, ignoring the prevailing and adopted values in order to create awareness about traditional values!

Please see the literature here and here.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:23 AM, ,

The Friends of the Society at the Turn of the Year

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Experiments and Experiences with Alternative Techniques and Adapted Building Methods

Background – Examples – Affects / Conclusion

Professor Doctor Norbert Pintsch

Architect, Civil, and Industrial Engineer

IPC, FBTC, FPAC, RUC


BACKGROUND

Various activities were undertaken in the Berlin period by the IPC (Charly, Johnny, etc.), which can be disregarded in the present consideration. A special project was the Power Box, a joint effort between Germany and Malaysia (see: www. ...).

With increasing international activity from 1990, which started in Pakistan and then continued into Cameroon, Colombia, etc., new challenges were encountered in the field of construction methods and technology.

EXAMPLES

In the TTTC of the AeFeA (NGO) in Pakistan, solar cookers, solar dryers, windmills (Savonius principle), hot water heaters, also a power box, for applications in rural areas and able to be locally produced, i.e. also without electricity and special tools, were made available and accessible not only to the villagers, but also to student visitors for educational purpose.

The objects were made in small quantities, distributed and sold and explained in lectures and workshops - from Adamkot in the south to Bahawalnagar to Abbottabad.

In the case of building methods, foremost the “women's center”, a competition for building samples was carried out, with a jury, awards and an exhibition. Not only experiences from excavations in the ancient city of Harappa by M. Kenoyer (three-layer wall construction used 5000 years ago, today referred to as passive solar architecture) were used, but also tests carried out in the wind tunnel of the TU Berlin before building, in order to ensure natural ventilation and air circulation cycles; The village and the planned development were modeled in accordance with the results of the study.

Different materials were used for the buildings (mud bricks, hollow bricks, solid wall and combinations with insulating material, also upside-down clay pots). The temperature was measured regularly at fixed points in order to use the experiences for later buildings (Lahore, D.I.K.). The experimental buildings in Lahore (PCC and BNU) were financed by the German Embassy and the IPC, the one for DIK (flood victims) by the Rotarians and with the help of the SES. The objects for the flood victims also considered results of developments in adapted technology. The building experiments in the BNU led to establishment of an Institute for Experimental Buildings (IEC, see www. ...).

The requirements for AT (alternative technology) and AB (adapted, climate-friendly construction) were different in Pakistan, Cameroon, Colombia, but similar in prevailing conditions (lack of tools, lack of electricity, etc.).

In Bamenda/Cameroon a permanent exhibition for AT and AB was created in the Center for Adapted Techniques (CAT, NGO), with workshops, lectures and presentations from Douala to Bafoussam to Maroua. A cooperation with the BUST led to the founding of the IAM; CAT's work has received several awards and it has been praised in press articles, the crown was thereby the establishment of RUC / Royal University Centre.

With the support of the then GTZ, as well as the IPC, also with the support of the SES, Misereor, etc., CAT-clubs were established in the districts of the former NW province; the Kids-Club in Bamenda conducted and still conducts environmental workshops, despite the turbulent situation in the English-speaking areas.

In Colombia, TM (ONG) Saboya was able to bring awareness about AT to the people in the town; Through cooperation with a workshop in Chiquinquira, equipment was manufactured for schools (to explain and raise awareness of the students about AT) and remote Fincas (independent of power supply) and introduced for use. A particular success was the branch in Leticia on the Amazon with the assistance of the National University in Bogota (including a course for environmental technology as a run-up to an exhibition in the Museum Leopoldo Rother with material from Germany ). IdEpeT, an institution for like-minded people, was established in project and partner locations. In Colombia, the project work was supported by IPC, DGFK, Misereor and SES.

EFFECTS If one asks about the achievements of the activities outlined, then, according to spectacular reports in the media, they are visible in everyday life. Everyday life includes coping with the normal demands of life and dealing with other developments. People in rural areas in particular are subject to enormous information pressure from the cities. In order to appear open minded, ideas are being adopted which are usually not compatible with the environment. There is a certain tragedy in the subsequent realizations of the townsfolk, whose previous influence on the rural population had already had a negative impact on the environment. A certain traditional conservative attitude can be helpful here, but it will be difficult for the willing and affected to maintain it.

A remarkable example was the experience in a Pakistani village - one lived there, in today's sense very environmentally friendly, was economical with water and fuel! And all this without much dependence on the urban areas.

CONCLUSION

All in all one can say: Good ideas require the right point in time and a minority that lives what it considers right and environmentally friendly!



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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:29 AM, ,

Message to the friends of society

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Spending-oriented leisure activities

Income-generating measures

A long overdue lesson

to the DGFK societies

by

Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch / IPC-DGFK


The circle of terminologies is closing!

It is not easy to remain focused in the sea of meaningless terminologies and constantly repeating everyday occurrences.

The progressive fragmentation of society and the consequent development of new terminologies suggests a new development , which however on closer look proves to be merely a changed look.

The past in the form of the old generation seems to be losing its justification.

The youth representing what is still to come is pressing for recognition.

Between them the army of middle-aged persons.

One has to deal with everyday issues, living like a beetle between tree and bark and cannot really do how or what one would like to do.

Awakening, progress and future, these are the battle cries of the army leaders at the zenith of the overview, but they cannot perceive the emerging fog; the mixture of feet on the ground and reaching for the sky prevents this!

While the forefathers understood only the principle of work, in the course of industrialization this evolved into a mixture of working hours and free time, from which non-industrialized countries remained less affected.

Until then, life was still shaped by local character and was actually analogue, but with time it became increasingly international and also affected the less industrialized countries.

Actually escape from the limitation in own country by venturing into foreign lands.

Meanwhile, it is no longer possible to escape from the digital, global village. Even traditional work methods exist lesser and lesser and is iincreasingly infected with occupations of trivialities.

The sense of achievement through well defined tasks exist no longer and they are replaced by occupations that no longer lead to sense of achievement in the traditional sense. Free time exists no longer, the entire time becoming a conglomerate of income-generating measures and expenditure-oriented employments.

Classic profiling is becoming less well known, training and further education is part of consumerism. Despite the calls for growth restrictions, the environment is ruined - not without constant, but quite entertaining Cassandra music.

Nature, for some, a mystical power, for others - they prevail as terminology and pseudo-scientific curiosity occupy the content of their heads ... SEQUITUR ET It goes on and on - Et ca continue, encore et encore - Lo sigue y sigue.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:08 AM, ,

Greetings from FPAC

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Dear colleagues and dear students, On behalf of the FPAC, I am sending the very best greetings and wishes for a happy new year! Enclosed here 3 essays for suggestions and passing on.

3 Essays Booklet by Norbert Pintsch on Scribd

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:41 AM, ,

The belief in Imports is ruining the independence

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The belief in Imports is ruining the independence 
About the loss of the local initiatives

What comes from abroad, that must be good, - and if it is also funded, then you must go for it!

Subconsciously (hopefully) and unintentionally (hopefully) we have adopted the system of western construction models. Nobody has forced us. We should have realized that the energy required to maintain the buildings according to these models is immense and important resources are lost. The loss to our local building traditions is irreparable. As university teachers, we do not dare to point out these serious mistakes, but rather continue to work hard so that our graduates are able to work worldwide. In the long term however, we have done no service to the environment. We have also opted not to work towards developing local customized solutions.

The thawing water from the mountains and the flooding waters from the Bay of Bengal have flooded vast tracts of land in the past. We should have developed local solutions according to old practices. Instead, our answers are the energy-consuming and environmentally destructive high-rise hotels on the coast lines!

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:25 AM, ,

About the Think Tank Project

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by Norbert Pintsch IPC, FPAC

TTP / FBTC and FPAC are networked with SPARC-SPAET-SPATH-SPOCA-SEMOL-SUTOL

After sketching the topic HOUSING in three publications (Housing, Population and Housing, Systems and Housing), TTP is now entering a new phase.

Although the topic of communication and information has been treated in various essays over the years, experience has also been gained with contemporary techniques, but now the problems arising from the cultural model and its inter-dependencies, as well as system considerations on general housing meed to be discussed.

There are misunderstandings from small groups to large groups, and it is more than a miracle that an exchange is possible at all.

It is not only the basic communication, which is a problem.

If one were to orient oneself towards Wittgenstein (which one is not supposed to talk about, one has to be silent about it), then hardly any communication and information should be taking place.

In the assumption of better understanding, new terms are invented, which instead of closer definition create still new questions and thus new answers with new terms and for improvement with the same, similar or different concepts or ideas.
Already the analogue exchange of ideas on earth is more than problematic, but when the digital exchange comes into play with additional time or distance factors, then arise the real problems!

Housing in the closed system is the protection, the material protection, - the immateriality that demands the traditional humanity!

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 3:32 PM, ,

Informal Think Tank

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By Norbert Pintsch, IPC, FPAC

The idea of cooperating with others, i.e. to exchange ideas with others and to stimulate each other, this thought is not exactly new!

In the United States of America (USA), company representatives came together and established privately funded socalled Think Tanks!

In the 20th century, this idea was implemented under president Franklin Roosevelt and a new form of advice emerged.

In politics, technological and economic interests are transferred into governance process in a lobby-like manner.

Such examples are presently implemented in many countries for selfish interests and they influence politics, usually with a certain lobby in the background.

The DGFK is an altruistic example of an informal Think Tank in which SUTOL, SEMOL, SPARC, SPATH, SPAET, SPOCA, but also FPAC and FBTC exist; however they operate in a subtle and discreet manner!

An interesting project is the so called Closed System, which outlines possibilities and tendencies, also of an uncomfortable kind, which is characterized by financial independence and the personal refrain from self-projection by the co-thinkers.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 5:53 PM, ,


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