Magnus Larsson: Turning dunes into architecture

Translator: Helena Bedalli Reviewer: Dita Bytyci

It's a bit funny to be

Eshte zbavitese te jesh

at a conference dedicated to things not seen,

ne nje konference qe i kushtohet gjerave qe s'i sheh,

and present my proposal to build

dhe te prezantoj projektin tim per te ndertuar

a 6,000-kilometer-long wall

nje mur 6000 km te gjate

across the entire African continent.

mespermes kontinentit Afrikan.

About the size of the Great Wall of China,

Afersisht sa Muri i Madh Kinez,

this would hardly be an invisible structure.

do te jete veshtire te jete i padukshem.

And yet it's made from parts that are invisible, or near-invisible, to the naked eye:

Dhe prapeseprape eshte bere nga pjese qe jane te padukshme ndaj syrit te njeriut:

bacteria and grains of sand.

bakterie dhe grimca rere.

Now, as architects we're trained to solve problems.

Si arkitekte, jemi trajnuar te zgjidhim probleme.

But I don't really believe in architectural problems;

Por une nuk besoj ne problemet arkitekturale;

I only believe in opportunities.

Une besoj vetem ne mundesite.

Which is why I'll show you a threat,

Prandaj po ju tregoj kete, nje kercenim,

and an architectural response.

dhe nje pergjigje arkitekturale.

The threat is desertification.

Kercenimi eshte shkreterizimi.

My response is a sandstone wall

Pergjigja ime eshte nje mur guri ranor

made from bacteria and solidified sand,

i bere nga bakteria dhe rera e kalcifikuar,

stretching across the desert.

qe shtrihet mespermes shkretetires.

Now, sand is a magical material

Rera eshte nje material magjik

of beautiful contradictions.

me kontradikta te medha.

It is simple and complex.

Eshte e thjeshte dhe komplekse.

It is peaceful and violent.

Eshte paqesore dhe violente.

It is always the same, never the same,

Eshte gjithmone njesoj, asnjehere njesoj,

endlessly fascinating.

nje mrekulli pa fund.

One billion grains of sand

Nje miliard kokriza rere

come into existence in the world each second.

krijohen ne bote ne cdo sekonde.

That's a cyclical process.

Ky eshte nje proces i mbyllur.

As rocks and mountains die,

Ndersa guret dhe malet shkaterrohen,

grains of sand are born.

grimcat e reres formohen.

Some of those grains may then cement naturally into sandstone.

Disa nga keto kokrriza mund te cimentohen natyralisht ne gurin ranor.

And as the sandstone weathers, new grains break free.

Dhe, gjate erozionit te gurit ranor, clirohen grimca te reja.

Some of those grains may then accumulate

Disa nga keto mund akumulohen perseri

on a massive scale,

ne shkalle te gjere

into a sand dune.

ne nje dune rere.

In a way, the static, stone mountain

Keshtu, malet e gurit, te palevizshem,

becomes a moving mountain of sand.

behen male te levizshem rere.

But, moving mountains can be dangerous. Let me try and explain why.

Por, malet e levizshem jane te rrezikshem. T'ua shpjegoj sepse.

Dry areas cover more than one third of the Earth's land surfaces.

Zonat e thata mbulojne me shume se nje te treten e siperfaqes tokesore teTokes.

Some are already deserts;

Disa jane shkreterira tashme;

others are being seriously degraded by the sand.

te tjerat po degradohen seriozisht nga rera.

Just south of the Sahara we find the Sahel.

Tamam ne jug te Saharase kemi Sahel.

The name means "edge of the desert."

Emri do te thote "fundi i shkretetires"

And this is the region most closely associated with desertification.

Dhe kjo eshte zona me e prekur nga shkreterizimi.

It was here in the late '60s and early '70s

Ne fund te viteve 60 fillim 70 ne kete vend

that major droughts brought three million people

thatesira e madhe solli qe 3 milion njerez

to become dependent upon emergency food aid,

te varen nga ndihmat ushqimore te emergjences,

with about up to 250,000 dying.

dhe rreth 250000 vdiqen.

This is a catastrophe waiting to happen again.

Kjo katastrofe pritet te ndodhe perseri.

And it's one that gets very little attention.

Dhe i kushtohet shume pak vemendje.

In our accelerated media culture,

Ne kulturen tone te medias se pershpejtuar,

desertification is simply too slow

shkreterizimi eshte thjesht shume i ngadalshem

to reach the headlines.

te arrije ne titujt.

It's nothing like a tsunami or a Katrina:

Nuk eshte si cunami apo Katrina:

too few crying children and smashed up houses.

ca femije qe qajne dhe shtepi te shkaterruara.

And yet desertification

Dhe prape shkreterizimi

is a major threat on all continents,

eshte nje kercenim i madh ne te gjitha kontinentet,

affecting some 110 countries

duke prekur 110 shtete

and about 70 percent of the world's agricultural drylands.

dhe 70 perqind te tokave buqesore te thata ne bote.

It seriously threatens the livelihoods

Eshte kercenim serioz per jetesen

of millions of people,

e miliona njerezve,

and especially in Africa and China.

vecanerisht ne Afrike dhe Kine.

And it is largely an issue that we've created for ourselves

Eshte nje problem qe ia kemi krijuar vetes

through unsustainable use of scarce resources.

nepermjet perdorimit te paqendrueshem te burimeve te pakta.

So, we get climate change.

Papritmas kemi ndryshimin e klimes.

We get droughts,

Kemi thatesire,

increased desertification,

shkreterizim te pershpejtuar,

crashing food systems, water scarcity,

shkaterrimin e sistemit te ushqimit, mungese uji,

famine, forced migration,

urine, levizjen e detyruar,

political instability, warfare, crisis.

pastabilitetin politik, luften, krizen.

That's a potential scenario

Ky eshte skenari politik

if we fail to take this seriously.

nese deshtojme ta marrim seriozisht kete.

But, how far away is it?

Por, sa larg eshte?

I went to Sokoto in northern Nigeria

Une vajta ne Sokoto ne Nigerine e veriut

to try and find out how far away it is.

me qellim qe te kuptoja sa larg eshte.

The dunes here move southward at a pace of around 600 meters a year.

Dunat ketu zhvendosen drejt jugut me nje ritem rreth 600 metra ne vit.

That's the Sahara eating up almost [two meters] a day of the arable land,

Ne kete menyre Saharaja po mbulon gati 2 metra ne dite te tokes se lerueshme,

physically pushing people away from their homes.

duke i shtyre fizikisht njerezit nga shtepite e tyre.

Here I am -- I'm the second person on the left --

Ja ku jam une --i dyti ne te majte--

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

with the elders in Gidan-Kara,

me te vjetrit ne Gidan-Kara,

a tiny village outside of Sokoto.

nje fshat i vogel jashte Sokoto.

They had to move this village in 1987

Atyre iu desh ta zhvendosnin fshatin ne 1987

as a huge dune threatened to swallow it.

ndersa nje dune kercenonte ta mbulonte ate.

So, they moved the entire village, hut by hut.

Keshtu, ata levizen te gjithe fshatin, kasolle mbas kasolle.

This is where the village used to be.

Ketu ka qene me pare.

It took us about 10 minutes to climb up to the top of that dune,

Na u desh 10 minuta te arrinim ne maje te dunes,

which goes to show why they had to move to a safer location.

qe tregon sepse ata duhet te zhvendoseshin ne nje vend me te sigurt.

That's the kind of forced migration

Ky eshte nje lloj levizje e detyruar

that desertification can lead to.

qe drejtohet nga shkreterizimi

If you happen to live close to the desert border,

Nese jetoni afer kufirit te shkreterires,

you can pretty much calculate how long it will be

mund te llogarisni disi sa kohe duhet

before you have to carry your kids away,

para se te merrni femijet me vete,

and abandon your home and your life as you know it.

dhe abandoni shtepine dhe jeten qe njhni.

Now, sand dunes cover only about one fifth of our deserts.

Dunat e reres mbulojne vetem nje te pesten e shkretetirave.

And still, those extreme environments are very good places

Dhe prape, keto ambjente ekstreme jane vende shume te mira

if we want to stop the shifting sands.

nese duam te ndalojme zhvendosjen e rerave.

Four years ago, 23 African countries

kater vjet me pare, 23 vende Afrikane

came together to create the Great Green Wall Sahara.

u mblodhen per te krijuar Murin e madh te Gjelbert te Sahares.

A fantastic project, the initial plan

Nje projekt fantastik, plani fillestar

called for a shelter belt of trees to be planted

propozonte nje brez mbrojtes pemesh qe do mbilleshin

right across the African continent,

mespermes kontinentit Afrikan.

from Mauritania in the west, all the way to Djibouti in the east.

nga Mauritania ne perendim, deri ne Djibouti ne lindje.

If you want to stop a sand dune from moving,

Nese do te ndalosh nje dune rere te zhvendoset,

what you need to make sure to do is to stop the grains

duhet te sigurosh qe ke ndaluar grimcat

from avalanching over its crest.

qe te rrokullisen nga maja.

And a good way of doing that, the most efficient way,

Dhe nje menyre e mire per kete, me eficientja,

is to use some kind of sand catcher.

eshte te perdoret dicka qe e kap reren.

Trees or cacti are good for this.

Pemet ose kaktuset e bejne mire.

But, one of the problems with planting trees is that

Por, nje nga problemet me mbjelljen e pemeve, eshtge qe

the people in these regions are so poor

njerezit ne keto zona jane aq te varfer

that they chop them down for firewood.

sa i presin ato per dru zjarri.

Now there is an alternative to just planting trees

Por, ka nje alternative ndaj vetem mbjelljes se pemeve

and hoping that they won't get chopped down.

dhe shpreses qe nuk ato do te priten.

This sandstone wall that I'm proposing essentially does three things.

Ky mur guri ranor qe propozoj ben kryesisht 3 gjera.

It adds roughness to the dune's surface,

I shton ashpersine siperfaqes se dunes,

to the texture of the dune's surface, binding the grains.

tekstures se saj, duhe ngurtesuar grimcat.

It provides a physical support structure for the trees,

Krijon nje strukture mbeshtetese fizike per pemet,

and it creates physical spaces,

dhe krijon hapsira fizike,

habitable spaces inside of the sand dunes.

te banueshme brenda dunave te reres.

If people live inside of the green barrier

Nese njerezit jetojne brenda barieres se gjelbert

they can help support the trees, protect them from humans,

ata mund t'i mbrojne pemet ndaj njerezve abuzues

and from some of the forces of nature.

un

Inside of the dunes we find shade.

Brenda dunave gjen hije.

We can start harvesting condensation,

Mund te prodhosh kondensim,

and start greening the desert from within.

dhe te gjelberosh shkretetiren nga brenda.

Sand dunes are almost like ready-made buildings in a way.

Dunat e reres jane si ndertesa te gatshme ne nje menyre.

All we need to do is solidify the parts that we need to be solid,

Duhet vetem te ngurtesosh pjeset qe do te jene te ngurta,

and then excavate the sand,

me pas germon reren,

and we have our architecture.

dhe ja ku kemi arkitekturen.

We can either excavate it by hand

Mund te germohet me duar

or we can have the wind excavate it for us.

ose mund ta beje era per ne.

So, the wind carries the sand onto the site

Pra, era e sjell reren ne vend

and then it carries the redundant sand away from the structure for us.

dhe me pas e merr reren e tepert, e largon nga struktura per ne.

But, by now, you're probably asking,

Por, tani, ju ndoshta doni te dini,

how am I planning to solidify a sand dune?

se si planifikoj te kalcifikoj nje dune rere?

How do we glue those grains of sand together?

Si i ngjis keto grimca rere se bashku?

And the answer is, perhaps, that you use these guys,

Pergjigjia eshte, ndoshta, perdorim keto,

Bacillus pasteurii,

Bacillus pasteurii,

a micro-organism that is readily available in wetlands

nje mikroorganizem qe eshte ne dispozicion i gatshem ne tokat e lagta

and marshes, and does precisely that.

dhe kenetat dhe ben saktesisht kete.

It takes a pile of loose sand

Kap nje grumbull rere te shkrifet

and it creates sandstone out of it.

dhe e transformon ne gur ranor.

These images from the American Society for Microbiology show us the process.

Keto figura nga Shoqeria Amerikane e Mikrobiologjise na tregojne procesin.

What happens is, you pour Bacillus pasteurii onto a pile of sand,

Ajo qe ndodh eshte, hedh ca Bacillus pasteurii ne nje pirg rere,

and it starts filling up the voids in between the grains.

dhe ai fillon te mbushe boshllekun midis kokrrizave.

A chemical process produces calcite,

Nje proces kimik qe prodhon kalcite,

which is a kind of natural cement

qe eshte nje lloj cimentoje natyrale

that binds the grains together.

qe lidh grimcat se bashku.

The whole cementation process takes about 24 hours.

I gjithe procesi i cimentimit zgjat 24 rreth ore.

I learned about this from a professor at U.C. Davis called Jason DeJong.

Une u njoha me kete nga nje profesor i U.C. Davis i quajtur Jason DeJong.

He managed to do it in a mere 1,400 minutes.

Ai arriti ta beje ne 140 minuta.

Here I am, playing the part of the mad scientist,

Ketu jam, duke lozur rolin si shkencetar i marre

working with the bugs at UCL in London,

duke punuar me viruset ne UCL ne Londer,

trying to solidify them.

per ti ngurtesuar ato.

So, how much would this cost?

Sa kushton kjo?

I'm not an economist, very much not,

S'jam ekonomist. aspak,

but I did, quite literally, a back of the envelope calculation --

por bera, nje llogaritje shpejt e shpejt--

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

-- and it seems that for a cubic meter of concrete

--dhe duket sikur per nje meter kubik beton

we would have to pay in the region of 90 dollars.

na duhet te paguajme aty te 90 dollaret.

And, after an initial cost of 60 bucks to buy the bacteria,

Dhe, pas nje kostoje fillestare 60 dollare per te blere bakterien,

which you'll never have to pay again,

qe nuk kemi per te paguar me,

one cubic meter of bacterial sand

nje meter kubik gur ranor

would be about 11 dollars.

do te jete rreth 11 dollare.

How do we construct something like this?

Si e ndertojme dicka te tille?

Well, I'll quickly show you two options.

Do tju tregoj dy mundesi.

The first is to create a kind of balloon structure,

E para duke krijuar nje lloj strukture si tollumbac

fill it with bacteria, then allow the sand to wash over the balloon,

te mbushur me baktere, e le reren te grumbullohet mbi tollumbac,

pop the balloon, as it were, disseminating the bacteria into the sand and solidifying it.

e plas ate, sic eshte, duke shperndare bakteret ne rere dhe ngurtesuar ate.

Then, a few years afterwards,

Me pas, ca vjet me vone,

using permacultural strategies,

duke perdorur strategji permakulturale,

we green that part of the desert.

e gjelberojme ate pjese te shkretetires.

The second alternative would be to use injection piles.

Alternativa e dyte eshte me tuba injeksioni.

So, we pushed the piles down through the dune,

Pra, i fusim tubat ne brendesi te dunes,

and we create an initial bacterial surface.

dhe krijojme nje siperfaqe bakteriale fillestare.

We then pull the piles up through the dune

Me pas i terheqim tubat mbi dune

and we're able to create almost any conceivable shape inside of the sand

dhe jemi ne gjendje te krijojme gati cdo forme te konceptueshme brenda reres

with the sand acting as a mold as we go up.

me reren qe vepron si forme ndersa i terheqim lart.

So, we have a way of turning sand into sandstone,

Kemi keshtu nje menyre per te transformuar reren ne gur ranor,

and then creating these habitable spaces inside of the desert dunes.

dhe per te krijuar hapsira te banueshme brenda dunave te shkretetires.

But, what should they look like?

Por, si do te dukeshin ato?

Well, I was inspired, for my architectural form, by tafoni,

Per formen arkitektonike, une u frymezova nga tafoni,

which look a little bit like this, this is a model representation of it.

qe duket pak a shume keshtu, ky eshte nje model i paraqitur i tij.

These are cavernous rock structures that I found on the site in Sokoto.

Keto jane struktura shpellash guri qe gjeta ne vend ne Sokoto.

And I realized that if I scaled them up, they would provide me

Dhe kuptova qe, nese i zmadhoja, ato mund te krijojne

with good spatial qualities,

kushte te mira hapsinore

for ventilation, for thermal comfort, and for other things.

per ventilim, konfort termal dhe gjera te tjera.

Now, part of the formal control over this structure

Ne realitet, nje pjese e kontrollit mbi strukturen

would be lost to nature, obviously,

do tja leme natyres, natyrisht,

as the bacteria do their work.

ndersa bakteria ben punen e vet.

And I think this creates a kind of boundless beauty actually.

Mendoj qe kjo krijon vertet nje bukuri te pafund.

I think there is really something in that articulation

Ka dicka ne ate artikulacion

that is quite nice.

qe eshte shume terheqese.

We see the result, the traces, if you like,

Ne shikojme rezultatet, gjurmet,

of the Bacillus pasteurii being harnessed to sculpt the desert

qe le Bacillus pasteuri duke skulpturuar shkretetiren

into these habitable environments.

ne keto hapsira te banueshme.

Some people believe that

Disa njerez besojne qe

this would spread uncontrollably,

kjo do te shperndahet ne menyre te pakontrolluar,

and that the bacteria would kill everything in its way.

dhe gjate rruges, bakteria do te vrase gjithshka.

That's not true at all.

Kjo s'eshte fare e vertete.

It's a natural process. It goes on in nature today,

Ky eshte nje proces natyral. Po ndodh ne natyre tashme,

and the bacteria die as soon as we stop feeding them.

dhe bakteriet vdesin sapo ndalojme se ushqyeri ato.

So, there it is --

Pra, kjo eshte--

architectural anti-desertification structures

struktura arkitekturale anti-shkreterizuese

made from the desert itself.

te bera nga vete shkretetira.

Sand-stopping devices, made from sand.

Pajisje rere-ndaluese, te bera nga rera.

The world is likely to lose one third of its arable land

Bota duket sikur do te humbase nje te treten e tokes te punueshme

by the end of the century.

deri ne fund te shekullit.

In a period of unprecedented population growth

Ne nje periudhe te rritjes se paparashikuar te popullsise

and increased food demands, this could prove disastrous.

dhe rritjes se kerkeses per ushqim, kjo mund te jete katastrofike.

And quite frankly, we're putting our heads in the sand.

Dhe sinqerisht, po fshehim koken si struci ne rere.

If nothing else, I would like for this scheme to initiate a discussion.

Te pakten, do te doja qe ky projekt te fillonte nje diskutim.

But, if I had something like a TED wish,

Por, nese do te shprehja nje deshire per TED,

it would be to actually get it built,

do te ishte qe te ndertohej vertet,

to start building this habitable wall,

te fillonte te ndertohej ky mur i banueshem,

this very, very long, but very narrow city in the desert,

ky qytet shume shume i gjate dhe shume i ngushte ne shkretetire,

built into the dunescape itself.

i ndertuar ne peisazhin e reres.

It's not only something that supports trees,

Nuk eshte vetem per te mbeshtetur pemet,

but something that connects people and countries together.

por dicka qe bashkon njerezit dhe kombet se bashku.

I would like to conclude by showing you an animation of the structure,

Dua te perfundoj me nje animacion te struktures,

and leave you with a sentence by Jorge Luis Borges.

dhe tju le me nje fraze nga Jorge Luis Borges.

Borges said that "nothing is built on stone,

Borges ka thene qe "asgje s'eshte ndertuar ne gur,

everything is built on sand,

cdo gje eshte ndertuar ne rere,

but we must build as if the sand were stone."

por ne duhet te ndertojme sikur rera te jete gur."

Now, there are many details left to explore in this scheme --

Tani, ka shume detaje qe akoma duhet te eksplorohen ne kete projekt

political, practical, ethical, financial.

politike, praktike, etike, financiare.

My design, as it takes you down the rabbit hole,

Projekti im, ndersa do ti futemi thelle,

is fraught with many challenges

ne realitet eshte plot me sfida

and difficulties in the real world.

dhe veshtiresi.

But, it's a beginning, it's a vision.

Por, eshte nje fillim, eshte nje vizion.

As Borges would have it, it's the sand.

Sic Borges do te thoshte, eshte rera.

And I think now is really the time

Une besoj se ka ardhur koha

to turn it into stone. Thank you.

ta transformojme ate ne gur. Falemnderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)