The Biggest Loser (of infrared radiation)
What if the google street view car were recording in infrared, too? What would that do for public awareness of energy inefficiency from leaky building envelopes? Even more than energy meters running backwards, this could provide a concrete image of heat loss, that might encourage the use of tighter standards like the Passive House certification?
We’re [...]
POWERleap Flooring
POWERleap Flooring is a cool concept. It’s the brainchild of Elizabeth Redmond, a 22 year old recent grad from the
University of Michigan School of Art and Design. The glass and concrete tiles use the POWERleap utilizes the phenomena of piezo-electricity [electricity from applied stress] discovered in the 1880’s by the Curie Brothers to convert [...]
Energy Generating Train Station, Tokyo
“Kohei Hayamizu has a bold vision for the future: a city that is in itself an electric power station. A place where all its roads, bridges and sidewalks generate electricity from the vibrations produced by the cars and people that move over them.” – Vimeo.com
Producing energy by walking on Shibuya station. Tokyo, Japan. ????????? from [...]
Natural Swimming Pools: The Sustainable Pond
Natural swimming pools (NSPs) are a way to blend the sustainability and natural beauty of a pond with the functionality of a swimming pool. NSPs use biological filtration in lieu of the more common chemical or chlorine water cleaning systems used in most artificial swimming pools. The pools generally consist of a swimming area and [...]
Eco Friendly Apps
An ongoing guide to some eco friendly apps for your IPhone or ITouch. This is by no means a complete list so feel free to add any good ones that I missed!
CycleTracks Free!
A new app released by the SanFrancisco Transportation Authority based on the assumption that people don’t always go where you think they [...]
Eco-Goats and the Clearing of Invasives
(Eco-Goats and the Clearing of Invasives is part of an ongoing series of posts about a planned LEED-NC 2.2 Platinum project in Baltimore Maryland called The Center for Parks&People at Auchentoroly Terrace)
The Parks&People Foundation had a big problem. The site for their planned LEED-NC 2.2 Platinum project, after many years of being unused, was overgrown [...]
Vertical Food Gardens
Recently the Baltimore Office of Promotion and Arts hosted a Baltimore Infill Survey to track proposals for solutions to the many vacant lots that are scattered across the city. A recent look at the current entries show quite a few focusing on community gardens as a viable solution. And why not? A garden would [...]
The Human Body’s Heat Plume
Sometimes I forget that we live in an ocean of air. I take for granted that the open space in front of me, or filling our buildings, has a profound affect on my very existance. The gasseous medium we swim through affects thermal comfort, energy movement, and air quality through complex molecular interactions described most [...]
Phytoremediation-a safe alternative?
Recently I had the benefit of sitting in on lecture about using plants to treat environmental problems. The lecture was given by Dr. Lee A. Newman, who has been conducting research in the area of phytoremediation for the past 16 years. Her work at the University of South Carolina focuses on using plants [...]
IES Sketchup Plugin: A Quick Tool for Building Performance Simulation
Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd (IES) has developed a building performance simulation plug-in linking ‘Virtual Environment’ to Google’s Sketchup that ‘empowers energy, carbon, daylight and solar analysis, and much more to be undertaken at the touch of a few buttons, right from the earliest stages of the design process, where the maximal difference to sustainable design [...]
Energy Certificates: Nutrition Facts for European Buildings
Energy Certificates, also called Energy Passports, are documents that profile the energy performance of existing and new buildings within the European Union. The program was initiated as part of the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings in January of 2006 and will be mandatory throughout the member countries. The goal is to provide [...]
FerroFluids: Physics is Beautiful
Immanuel Kant, in 1790, described beauty as ’sensory, emotional, and intellectual,’ a synthesis of data which we as humans process when evaluating objects. More recently Abraham Moles, Frieder Nake and Jurgen Schmidhuber, leaders in the field of aesthetics and information theory, described beauty as ‘the option with the shortest description, given the observer’s previous knowledge [...]
Environmental Racism: Baltimore’s Toxic Tour by Urban Environmentalist Glenn Ross
Baltimore has a vocal champion for urban environmental issues. His name is Glenn Ross and he has only recently embraced the label of ‘environmentalist.’
You see, Mr. Ross had spent the previous 20 years dealing with sanitation, public health and decent housing as a community activist on the behalf of his East Baltimore community (and other [...]
ECOTECT (Building Performance Simulation Software)
ECOTECT software is designed to aid in the simulation, analysis and optimization of high performance buildings and systems. It is especially useful in the design and delivery of sustainable ‘green’ projects because it allows architects and engineers to test, evaluate and respond to a variety of strategies. The design and performance analysis tools also take [...]
Ivanhoe Reservoir: Solving a problem / Illustrating another
Problem
Ivanhoe Reservoir (Los Angeles, California) has a problem. Bright sunlight, chlorine and natural bromides combined together to form the carcinogen bromate and now Ivanhoe Reservoir is contaminated. The only way to effectively remove the chemical is to drain the entire body of water and clean the bottom surface to remove all the bromate. In the [...]
The Vulcan-Project: Carbon Dioxide Generation and Movement Visualized
The following film, produced by the Vulcan-Project, superimposes carbon dioxide emissions onto a map of the United States and animates them over time. It is fascinating to see the areas where carbon dioxide is produced and have a short description of their source. Watching the emissions over time, especially the implications shown for daytime vs [...]
An Overview of SPeAR by ARUP
SPeAR, the Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine, is a sustainability performance evaluation tool developed by ARUP for use in their projects. The software was developed by ARUP as a way of breaking down sustainability into constituent parts so that issues could be dealt with on a discrete per instance basis rather than as a conceptual ideal. [...]
What is (Plug) Load Analysis?
Plug analysis is a method of understanding the energy needs of an individual, family or group. It is an essential part is selecting, sizing, and designing an appropriate renewable energy system for a building. The method is especially significant because of the relatively high cost of many renewable energy systems. Sizing the system to meet [...]
Greenwashing: Thoughts and How It Is Changing the Industry
Greenwashing is everywhere these days. It is hard to pick up a magazine without being introduced a myriad of products, services and opinions that are tainted green in one way or another. Let’s be honest, it is good to be associated with the latest trend. At the moment it happens to be sustainability. I for [...]
Air-powered scooter leaves city centres cleaner!
An inventor has created what he claims is the world’s first motorcycle powered by fresh air.
Jem Stansfield says his converted Puch moped produces cleaner air than found in many town and city centres and so can actually reduce pollution.
“It actually fires out cleaner air,” said 37-year-old Stansfield, who used to be a sheep herder.
The University [...]
Walk Score – New Web Site Helps Locate Walkable Communities
A fellow architect here at Ziger/Snead tipped the green team off to this great new web site. Go to www.walksite.com, type in an address and watch as it tallies up amenities within walking distance to calculate your “walk score.”
Testing out our office’s location near downtown Baltimore revealed what I already know — We’re in [...]
Where did all those balloons come from?
Enjoy this commercial is produced by the Alliance for Climate Protection. It has a refreshing twist on the old carbon dioxide/greenhouse gas emission message… a highly visual one. I bet if people saw black balloons filled with greenhouse gas coming out of their appliances the world would have no problems with global warming. At least [...]
Catholic and Sustainable?
Absolutely! In a wonderful example, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) used the concepts of sustainability to renew the vision of their community. In clear and purposeful words the Sisters proclaim:
“[that] Today’s IHM community is at a unique and historical moment. Through research, discernment and study, we came to a [...]
