Lexicon

Abject
Accretion
Actant
Aeration
Aerobic
Algae-boosted
Animal
Anthropomorphism
Anti-Continuous Construction
Apocalypse
Aquaculture
Aquanaut
Ark
Artificial Intelligence
Autopoiesis
Assemblages
Asymmetry
Atrophy
Attraction
Autarchy
Automata
Automation
Autosymbiosis
Bambassador
Bathyscaphe
Bioconurbation
Biomedia
Bionics
Biosphere
Biotechnique
By-product
Capacity
Actant
Coisolation
Composting
Conservative Surgery
Consumer Envelope
Consumption
Continuous Construction
Conurbation
Correalism
Cultural_Memory
Cybernetics
Cybertecture
Cyborg
Dispositif
Diving Saucer
Dross
Earthship
Ecocatastrophe
Effluvium
Egosphere
End-use
Entanglement
Eutopia
Feedback
Foam
Folk
Gadget
Garbage House
Green Cyborg
Heuristic
Hoard
Holism
Homogenization of Desire
Hostile
Human Affect
Hybridized Folk
Hydroponic
Hyper-Materialism
Information Economy
Inner Space
Interama
Intra-Uterine
Maque
Megalopolis
Min-use
Mobility
Monorail
Multi-Hinge
Non-Design
Oceanaut
Oppositional Consciousness
Organic
Ouroboros
Panarchy
Parasite
Perceived Continuation
Permanence
Place
Prototype
Post-Animal
Reclamation
RI: Data Farms
RI: Garbage and Animals
RI:Shipbreaking
RI: Toxic Sublime
Sampling
Scale
Sensing Structure
Simulacrum
Simulation
Soft Energy
Spaceship Earth
Submersible
Superwindow
Symbiosis
Synthetic Environment
Technocratic
Technological Heredity
Technological Sublime
Telechirics
The Sublime
Thermal Panel
Actant
Thing-Power
Thinking Machines
Tool
Toxic Withdrawal
Turbulence
UV-Transparent Film
Vibrant Matter
Waste
Work

Min-Use

Min-Use (n.) Min-Use is a concept Buckminster Fuller developed for submarines. Basically, it decreased the water usage for bathing in submarines to a minimum.1 When Amory Lovins started the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in 1982, he adopted this idea and applied it to showers. RMI was considered as a test bed for efficient and sustainable living in the harsh climate of Snowmass, Colorado, which conventionally requires a higher level of energy than normal to maintain a comfortable living condition. The “Min-Use” showers propel the water with a blast of compressed air, and thus provide a wet and tingly shower, while each using only half a gallon per minute – 5 times less than a low-flow showerhead and eight to fifteen times less than a standard one2. However, the Min-Use shower was one of the passive design strategies installed in RMI. Through all the passive strategies, Lovins was able to achieve astounding energy and monetary savings3. To me, unlike other ecological designers, Lovins was not interested in fitting an artificial ecology into a building, but designing and considering all facets of the project in a much more subtle way, which is, however, a much more reliable way.

1. Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute Visitor’s Guide (Rocky Mountain Institute, 2007), 38.
2. Ibid.
3. Jeffery Ball, “The Homely Costs of Energy Conservation,” The Wall Street Journal, August 2009.