Eco Architect Ken Yeang

Ken Yeang is an extremely innovative architect who creates mostly skyscrapers with Bioclimatic design. Bioclimatic design is designing a building with hypersensitivity to local conditions in order to minimize the impact and energy usage. It also incorporates the idea of strengthening the local environment around it, rather than detracting from it.

"If the bioclimatic skyscraper's architecture is to be justified as a new genre of building type, it must transcend being a clever reorganization of external building forms and superficial changes to facades. Essentially, the skyscraper's design must create a new and significant form of internal life for its inhabitant that has not existed before in other genres of the same type."

Carl Sagan: Who Speaks for Earth?

In honor of earth day last weekend, here is a link to Carl Sagan's infamous episode of Cosmos Who Speak's for Earth? While he is mainly concerned with nuclear proliferation, still a pertinent threat today, his words can also be easily applied to the environmental crisis.

http://tinyurl.com/4yjsz9r

Biomimicry for Improved Design

Nature through its infinite iterations over generations, provides us with an amazing knowledge of the most efficient outcomes in the face of certain environmental stimuli. It seems every time we seek to find the best solution to a problem, the answer has already been incorporated by an animal or plant in nature. Two examples of recent discoveries include the physical technologies of gecko's high friction feet and shark's self-cleaning antibacterial skin.

We have an unfathomable supercomputer of data that has been running a monte-carlo like simulation of the conditions in our world and still we destroy it little by little everyday and with increasing magnitude.

Algae Biofuels great for CO2 Power Plant Symbiosis

Algae is a small organism that can be grown quickly and efficiently for biofuel production. There has been a lot of research done in this field and it is becoming more economical as a means of fuel production for large industry. There is a specially interesting application in pairing the algae production facility with a carbon producing power plant, as algae generally consumes twice their weight in CO2 while growing, sometimes called Carbon Algae Recycling Systems (CARS). Humans seem to habitually produce CO2 in both life function and economic activity, so it is interesting to see research in reciprocal plant evolution.

China's Role in the World's Environmental Future

The developed world can dramatically change their behaviors, and it still would not make a difference to the overall future of the planet. The economic activity that China  and other developing countries stand to produce in the next 100 years will greatly outweigh any efforts made by the western world, and the method in which this economic activity is produced will largely decide the fate of the environment. The West and China are much like characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, with the Western world as the Ghost of Hamlet's father and China as the center of the plot as Hamlet. The Ghost itself can only serve to warn Hamlet of the troubles in the future, and has no physical body to accomplish anything while Hamlet is left to manage the revenge of his father and treachery of his mother. The west can only serve to act as a model for the developing world, and transform itself into the model that it wishes the developing world to emulate, but doesn't really have the ability to impact the outcome of the planet. Hopefully the world will not end up like the conclusion of the play.

China: from Red to Green, great documentary about China and how it will affect the future of the world's environmental impact.

Big Dig House by Single Speed Design Firm

BAHAUS like modern home made from recycled materials, notably steel and cement slab from the elevated portion of the I-93 expressway. This is located in the Six Moon Hill neighborhood of Lexington, Mass. dedicated to the ideals of modernist architecture and living. Interesting how these projects come about.

Banksy in Detriot

Shipping Container Art Studio

Really cool studio in the woods somewhere made from reclaimed shipping containers.

Aerogel Skylights

Aerogel is the lightest and least solid material on the planet. It was developed by NASA to catch space dust for research and is basically solid smoke. Because it is mostly air, it is also a great insulator. It allows about 20-30% of light transmission while maintaining a high insulation value, a perfect application in skylights.

Good read: How Bad Are Bananas

Really easy to read book on the small measurements we all incrementally add to the atmosphere in our everyday lives. Puts an interesting insight into daily life that hopefully will help to change habits and behaviors.

Solar Water Heater

Solar water heaters are a great way to increase efficiencies in warmer climates by harnessing the sun to create warm water. This technology can be very cost effective depending on your location. Many homes in developing countries use this to meet most of their hot water needs.

Kirei Board

Made from reclaimed post-harvest stocks of the sorghum plant and no-added formaldehyde adhesive, this particleboard veneer is great looking and really exotic as well as sustainable. It is being used in a lot of green interiors these days.

Drain Water Heat Recovery Plumbing

If you're like most people in the developed world, you start the morning with a hot shower. Think of all the thermal energy that we spend so much energy to produce, just to let it wash away down the drain and warm our sewers. An innovative way of arranging the physical structure of the plumbing will allow the shower to capture the thermal energy of the hot grey water in a process known as counter-flow heat exchange. Essentially this will take less new hot water to create the same effect as the old shower by incorporating the heat from the drain water into the cold water supply of the shower.

Best Book on PAHS

Passive Annual Heat Storage: Improving the Design of Earth Shelters by John Hait
Great book on Earth Shelters and the incredible efficiencies you can achieve, but also general lessons on thermal management and the application of PAHS in super-insulated homes. Old book from 1983, cant get info like this anymore!

Interesting depiction of all the ways thermal energy is universally transferred, in this case through a window.

SIREWALL Rammed Earth Walls

Probably the most sustainable walls you can make, made from literally nothing more than the dirt of your property mixed with some cement for structure and water repellency with steel reinforcement and insulation panels, SIREWALL is an example of how sustainable building can be environmentally friendly, aesthetically beautiful, and scientifically/ economically efficient.

Eco Architect Antoni Gaudi Casa Batllo

Beautiful apartment building by Gaudi in Barcelona. Gaudi is perhaps the best example of an architect that creates beautiful structures from natural inspiration and manages to preserve some of that natural intelligence into his work.

Ray Kappe Waterfall house

Really nice statement that a house construction can create natural environment as well as human environment, also providing a great focal point for most of the views of the home.

Lotusan Biomimicry Paint

Using the same physical technology that lotus flowers use to keep dry and clean while growing out of murky water, the paint adds a texture to the surface of a material which causes water to form into droplets and bead off, taking dirt and bacteria with it.

Suppose Design Office House in Moriyama

Very light and green space despite the underground location and very small footprint. Very innovative design work where real estate comes at great cost on the island of Japan. Does a really good job of channelling light down to the basement floor.