Solutions

MEGA PROJECT “EnneaAnkh” – make your future flourish!

“EnneaAnkh” is a massive project established for the need of global transformation. The name of the project symbolizes the ninth wonder of the world – the human mind. My idea is inspired by the current situation regarding environmental pollution, people inequality and life sustainability. My main aim is to show that through sustainable methods of building, education of people and technology usage the planet can again be "free" from the pollution prison.

Worldwide, more people are living in slum areas rather than normal cities. Most of the people living in these areas are illiterate and poor. Not to mention that all the slums are unclean, full of garbage and waste, decrepit housing units, consisting not normal conditions of living.

My idea aims building an eco-friendly bank central in a slum area. The new Bank would be called “Bankissimo” and would be the first eco-friendly built bank in the world. I am thinking of a more sustainable future where our buildings will be fed by the forces of nature rather than fossil fuels. By building a bank institution in such an area it would definitely help for the development of the region, people’s education and surely it won’t be that expensive to buy a parcel. Having a lot of people in the slum areas provides cheap manpower.

The building of the bank would be called Energy Flower Building. The structure of the building will be created depending on the use of minimal amounts of energy. The Calla Lily flower is the inspiration behind the design of “Bankissimo”. The building will feature zero carbon emissions and will have zero energy ambitions. The main office building will be 200 m. tall and will be surrounded by laboratories in the form of leaves. The building aims to occupy more space in height so it cannot harm the environment.

Constructing consumes 40% of the world's energy and the same percentage of raw materials. Over 70% of building materials are simply disposed of after the end of their useful life due to the impossibility of being recycled. That’s why natural materials are characterized by much better performance and that’s why the bank would be built of 75% raw materials.

Considering the fact that we spent 90% of time indoors, the harmful effects of the environment
at home or in the office
are just as damaging to health as toxic ingredients. For a building to be ecologically and biologically balanced, it must be capable of creating balance and exchange of air and humidity similar to the lungs of a living organism. Breathing walls are an important element in the ecological building
they are so to say the skin of the home. The stiff wall cannot filter and clean the air, and thus favors the development of mold and condensation. The built-in natural wall helps to achieve an optimal microclimate and maintains a constant level of room humidity.

The walls of “Bankissimo”will be made of straw bales. Straw is a cheap material that does not require much processing and is easily transported and placed. In this way the forces of nature and straw waste will be used. The straw is a very efficient isolator, with the help of which the electricity bills can drop to 90%. Also that type of buildings can be built for the population using the same technology as well. The use of straw walls also can be an easy solution to the lack of affordable housing in the world.

Plastic Timber are alternative construction materials made from recycled plastics, wood waste and clay. Plastic Timbers can be assembled and dissembled at will, which makes it portable and easy to transport. Other building materials like cement, wood and steel are expensive which makes building projects capital intensive for middle and low income earners. Plastic Timbers and Bricks can be also the solution for urban housing problems in the slums of major African, South Asian and Pacific cities.

The plastic timber would be used as a beam for building support of the bank and the straw bales can be used as “bricks”.

The sustainable building is designed in a way that it will provide its own shade in the summer. The roof of the flower consists of solar panels for generating energy. Rainwater is collected in the bowl and used for water supply in the building. The characteristic pistil consists of vertical wind turbines to generate wind energy while the edge of the bowl forms a sunroof designed for heating and cooling of the building. The building is on the principle of natural ventilation. There will be recycling and water purifying stations located near to the main building. The round shape of the building complies with the wind platform as well as the solar panels. The need of energy will be supported by the installation of 2 wind turbines.

The walking floor would be made from panels which will accumulate energy by the walking of the personnel.

Replacing asphalt with fully recycled plastic will also lead to pollution reduction - asphalt contributes to 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere each year. Plastics are much more efficient than current street coatings. Roads can be built into large pieces in a factory and then just mounted, which reduces work from a few months to just weeks. In addition, the hollow interior of the plastic paths allows cables and pipes to be made, facilitating even their maintenance.

That kind of building will help for the fight with the environmental pollution and in the same time will give new working positions for the people in the slums. People who have no education will also be able to work for a bank. How?
by collecting waste and garbage in the area and transporting it to Bankissimo’s recycling stations. Of course, people will receive reward for this and as an advantage from recycled materials there would be built houses for them with the same eco-friendly method as the bank’s. Also by doing this the bank will be fighting at the same time with the global housing crisis.

People in slums will also have the opportunity to work together men and women, which will stimulate the reduction of gender division and stimulation of work and personal development. In this way the region will undergo tremendous development and at the same time it will be cleaner. Living conditions will also improve. By providing employment the number of the slums will be reduced.

For the girls in the slums there would be provided free seminars of self-defense techniques and offer psycho-social support to victims of abuse as the violence rates are one of the highest in slums.

There would be free seminars of teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Anyone can learn CPR and the training gives person life-saving skills. Age, sex, color, religion of person is not important for saving a life!

My idea includes creating a new phone application which will eliminate usage of paper money as all the payments will be done directly from our bank accounts via “SmartBuy”. Firstly, a person needs to have an available bank account. Having that, allows you to register to the new application called “SmartBuy” which will be universal for all banks worldwide. That means that there will be no more paper money, cards, checks etc. and your phone will become your one and only way of making payments.

All goods offered in a shop must have a specific digital barcode which a person has to scan with the application on his/her phone, automatically creating an online shopping cart.

The payment will be done automatically from the phone as the person walks out from the shop’s special column transfer systems. Regarding online shopping, the same procedure with scanning barcodes will be attached.

The people will be free to make purchases in every currency without worrying that they have to change their money in the local currency before arriving to their destinations.

The new application is specifically designed for people living in the megacities but will also positively boost literacy among people in rural poor. Removing paper notes and coins entirely will oblige people to learn to work with a mobile device and the Internet, to read and write. Free seminars will be organized by the bank in favor of literacy.

By paying only online, invoices will be send online to the given e-mail addresses. Moreover, if your phone is out of battery for some reason there would be special kiosks with temporary phones only for inside shopping in which you will have to enter only your phone number and again continue shopping. The money for your purchases would be taken automatically with the opening of the application.

Another privilege is that the bank institutions will also stop using paper documentations but only online ones which will reduce the cutting of trees even more as the banking sector is one of the main sectors using a lot of paper for documentation and record storage.

Every person making a transaction will pay additionally 1% of his/her total purchase sum which money will be income for the banks. If a person wants an invoice on a paper format he will have to pay additional taxes for it.

Being a banking institution, a variety of new banking products will be offered. This will be the first of its kind bank with a strong environmental and social concept. People with disabilities with the necessary knowledge will be ahead of others when applying for a job.