Federer faces Melzer in Australian Open
Roger Federer will on Monday play in his 18th Australian Open against Austrian Jürgen Melzer (ATP 296).
Melzer, a former top ten ranking player, fell to ATP ranking 550 after a number of shoulder injuries and is now on the arduous way back to the top. Federer has won three out of four games against Melzer but was beaten by the Austrian six years ago in Monte Carlo.
If Federer wins Monday's match, which takes place in the evening (10.30am Swiss time), he will face another player from qualification: the winner of the match between Bjorn Fratangelo (ATP 114) and Noah Rubin (ATP 197).
Other games on Monday: Stan Wawrinka against Martin Klizan (9am), Viktorija Golubic against Kristyna Pliskova (around 3pm) and qualified player Stefanie Vögele against Kurumi Nara (around 5pm). The first rounds between Belinda Bencic and Timea Bacsinzky will take place on Tuesday.
Successful project “Encourage”: a future-oriented house at Basel SBB
A house made from recycled material that is completely sustainable: this is the future, and it is happening right now in Basel. Project “Encourage” is constructing a building at the Bahnhof SBB in Gundeli that produces its own energy entirely, a pioneering project that should become reality in early 2017.
Two people is sometimes all it takes to turn fantastic ideas into reality. Sara Schwarz and Lukas Biry are two such people: in 2015, the alternative practitioner and the cultural manager asked themselves how they could realise the dream of successfully creating entirely sustainable building project and a large, communal office. Now, more than a year later, they are standing on the threshold of realising the idea with the project “Encourage”.
The progressive project centres around a building where everything is entirely renewable and is built from recyclable material. How does this work? Take a piece of land, for instance directly at the train station entrance to the Bahnhof SBB in Gundeldingen, then add oversized old shipping containers and all achievements in modern energy technology. Six 40-feet-containers form the core building of “Encourage” on two levels. The outside of the building will be decorated with permacultures from local plants.
Wide support – and already nominated by the IWB
Solar panels secure the energy supply, which in turn can be powered via new energy storage systems. Some of the water used in the building will come from rain and supplement the normal water supply via rainwater tanks – things do not work entirely without external water. Even the toilets, however, are sustainable: compost toilets without wastewater loads.
This all sounds and is a bit adventurous, but it remains entirely within the realm of the possible. All materials and technologies are available and have been developed, Sara Schwarz explained in an interview with barfi.ch.
The project is financed by the project leaders’ own money, as well as foundations, public donations, and even with crowd funding. At the end of last year, the crowd funding campaign on wemakeit.com finished very successfully – 33,000 Swiss francs were donated. “We are currently in talks with further supporters,” Ms Schwarz states. Crowd funding provided around a quarter of the total financing. “Encourage” is also generously supported by the Basel City Gardeners and the Industrial Works of Basel (IWB) – the latter has already nominated the project for their “KMU Award”.
An example for a future Basel
“The environment is a vital matter for both of us,” alternative practitioner Sara Schwarz states. Lukas Biry has been the other crucial driving force for the building project, and had provided the necessary ideas for container buildings after having been on a world tour by bicycle.
The “future house” will offer mainly alternative health services, such as courses on yoga, pilates, meditation, massage, and other health-related activities. The location at Bahnhof SBB is ideal: perfectly accessible to public transport and in a lively city quarter, which already has sustainability projects in Gundeldingerfeld, for instance.
Furthermore, the “Encourage” project will offer a meeting point and space for public events on sustainability both inside and outside of the building. “Encourage” does not see itself as self-serving, but – as the name suggests – aims to encourage people to realise other, perhaps even more daring projects.
And so, a project that many see as a pipe dream of 'green thinkers' is becoming reality in Gundeli. Its managers worked swiftly, too: from the project idea until its planned opening in early 2017, it took them only 18 months.