Day 4

Final rush on technical problems.
Good rehearsal on presentations and... Reaching YUTPA and Life Principles.

The day felt similar to the one before: still work group.
However, the individual tasks were quite clear, meaning less time wondering and doubting about the possibilities of the project and more spent for the practical implementation, which apparently felt more rewarding.
I personally found technical information about employment of geothermal energy: coefficient of performance of heat pumps, depth reached by the pumps themselves, heating of rooms through hot water below the floor.
Also cooperation with other groups and people got going: group tasks got more defined and linked as, for example, I cooperated with Francesco from the Water Group to scout hot water for the heating system.
In the afternoon instead, we dropped technical things and disappeared from the “Duty World” for a 2 hour visit at the botanical garden. No wonder that the oldest faculty building was located there: ancient things had always been linked with beauty and emotions. Among interesting things, I can name the chocolate and coffee plants, whose products are so common but not their origins, and the banana one, which made me feel like a small animal hidden in the grass: it is in fact considered an herb rather than a plant.
Once back in class, some more technical things were adjusted, but we mainly focused on organizing the presentation: just after two days I saw gigantic improvements both in my attitude toward group mates and in the final output as well. Adjusting to Professor suggestions and letting everyone participate with its best skills, we came up with a strong final presentation: colorful, dynamic and meaningful structure, coupled with good timing and organization of our exposition. There were also some precise calculation and information. Finally, links to Life Principles’ were made, as well as with YUTPA: only at this moment we got a clearer understanding of its valence and meaning.
Unfortunately, connections with Biomimicry principles lacked.
Trying to defend ourselves, we just said that having little time and considering the need to come up with real solutions, we shortcut on hardcore innovation and relied on already existing technology: however, in the end, this is strongly linked to Life Principle. Living being always do their best in order to survive and divide their energies in the smartest way possible. If time lacks, then the best someone can do is to exploit the already existing resources, whose defects are already known, and organize them with the best synergy.
No doubts that there is anything more efficient than nature itself: next time, when there will be time, we’ll start from that.

Giacomo