The quest for humane buildings

Buildings account for a whopping 50% of global warming pollution, recent research in the American publication OnEarth (Summer 2005, see www.nrdc.org/onearth/05sum/livgreen.asp) revealed. To carefully plan and execute an edifice will therefore result in huge savings. Compact buildings can combine various functions and tasks, which leads to surprising possibilities and organic solutions.

While these 50% offer numerous opportunities to build more sustainable, there is a much easier and quicker way to contribute substantially to a healthier environment. When the really big construction projects are designed using eco-friendlier principles like Cradle-to-Cradle, bio-mimicry, the Natural Step, or cleverly applied natural laws, the necessary shift to sustainability suddenly becomes an achievable possibility.

INGENIOUS AIRPORT DESIGN

A staggering reduction of national eco-footprints is particularly attainable when megastructure projects, such as airports, are redesigned from the ground up. The Starrport, a more humane airport developped by the American environmental designer Jim Starry, is exemplary for this endeavour. Its most noticeable feature are inclined airstrips. Planes are gently stopped when landing. The extremely polluting taxiing is no longer necessary. Normally, screaming thrust reversers ask a heavy toll from the jet and the surroundings, while the engines emit numerous half-burnt noxious substances, until the planes come to a forced standstill. With the Starrport design, this has become a thing of the past.

Instead, a progressively slant runway leads directly to the top of the terminal. Passengers alight right from the gates to parking area or public transport. Security checks can be done in elevators. Boarding will become literally a matter of minutes. Departing airplanes leave at scheduled times, without idling in penalty boxes, smoothly rolling down a decline for a comfortable take-off. A stark difference to today's overcrowded runways, as USA Today published in August 2009 in a cover story. Passengers were held for more than four hours in a departing airplane before they were allowed to unboard. It led to a call for governmental restrictions, because ten years of self-regulation obviously still did not work.

A Starrport brings cleaner air for passengers, personnel, visitors, and surroundings as a direct result. This ingenious design causes considerably less noise and saves half of the fuel generally used during landing and take-off. Multiply this by the number of daily flights, and you begin to understand the hidden cost of common airports. The Starrport's unique characterisitics create an enormous space for businesses, handling, services, amenities, shopping and cultural activities. Compared to traditional airfields, a third of the land is used at half the cost, generating four times the commercial income. These impressive figures allow a Return-on-Investment time of less than two years.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS: MEASURED TO SCALE

Peak Oil, environment, price, and emotion will have impact on any airport. To address varied needs, we present now specific solutions. Worldwide challenges, augmented local requirements and emerging car airplanes did let us conceptualize three grid levels, leading to three scale options for Starrport: 1. EXEC, 2. ZENO and 3. MINI.

1. StarrPort EXEC

Intercontinental airports with a grid density of approx. 300 miles (worldwide some 500 airports) can fully take advantage from  StarrPort EXEC techniques and design components. These airports benefit from the most sophisticated methodologies such as inclined runways. They include 123 patent-pending sustainable technologies and advanced design components. The unmatched features of StarrPort EXEC allow for savings that are almost inconceivable: the 30 biggest airports alone will account yearly for 10 billion gallons saved kerosene during landing and take-off.

2. StarrPort ZENO

The Greek Zeno of Elea (ca. 490 - 430 BC) became famous for his contemplations on the Arrow: Which particles stay still in relation to each other, while the arrow moves through space and time. By sixth-dimensional thinking, when science and emotion are recognized as a two-dimensional vector, the air, the arrow and its landing place (The Airport) are presently in chaos, but neverless in transition. Plato and Socrates commented on Zeno's arrow: "If being is many, it must be both like and unlike, and this is impossible, for neither can the like be unlike, nor the unlike like."

Starrport ZENO enables regional airports to reach an ecologically positive footprint. Multi-functionality and infrastructural features upgrade this type of airport for a grid density of 100 miles nodes, servicing national travelling with the likes of Airbus 310 or Boeing 737. StarrPort ZENO techniques support new and renovated airports with design or re-design, and present cost reductions in construction, maintenance and operations. A thoughtful selection of 123 patent-pending Starrport technologies dramatically lessens the environmental impact and allows to upgrade the economical feasibility.

3. StarrPort MINI

Recent developments in airplanes the size of cars (like the Terrafugia Transition Roadable Aircraft) create a demand for Starrport MINI's at the corners of cities and counties. StarrPort MINI's will be built along the highways within reach of approx. 30 miles. A hill-like structure can be combined with tourism services and eco-malls for more profitability. A combination of public and business facilities with the Starrport MINI will ensure a fast payback of the initial costs.

THE QUEST

The Starrport does not stand isolated, but is part of an advanced scenario to create a future that works for all. Airports have to become once again shining beacons of progress. The search for the most eco-friendly solutions will become a common quest. To inspire the practical realization of such mega-size infrastructural projects, we will elaborate more extensively on some of the basic principles behind Starrport.

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Contact details:
Starrport
P.O. Box 63123
NL-1005 LC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T / F: +3120 - 6839 606
E: info@starrportcorp.com
www.starrportcorp.com