Playing the Building: Harmonics and Transparency of Building Systems
David Byrne, co-founder of the Talking Heads, has turned the New York Battery Maritime Building into a musical instrument. Sitting at a old pipe organ, any ‘musician’ is able to sonically explore the complexity of the building’s system without ever leaving the composers seat. A heavy sound may be for structure. A light sound could [...]
Kelvin’s Conjecture: The Sustainability of Optimization and Integration
”to make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible“ -Definition ‘Optimize’
The National Aquatic Center in Beijing achieves sustainability through the optimization and integration of its structure, envelope, and building systems. In doing so it tells the story of how a little known problem of theoretical physics, Kelvin’s Conjecture, influenced the design of a prominent international [...]
World’s First LEED Museum Complex: Grand Rapids Art Museum
The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) has just completed a $60 million expansion of its facility which makes it the world’s first LEED certified art museum complex. The 125,000 sf facility is three times larger than it was previously and now includes 18,000 sf of exhibition, an auditorium, a children’s education center, art studios, study [...]
San Francisco’s Green Building Nightmare
The idea of “green” buildings is a terrific marketing concept. But some argue that some green buildings can be a nightmare for those having to work inside high-rise structures lacking heat or air conditioning. (Greenline recently introduced the San Francisco Federal Building by Thom Mayne in an associated post) The new Thomas Mayne designed Federal [...]
Oventrop Solar Systems
Oventrop Solar Systems is a complete line of solar collectors, solar controls, radiant floor systems, and solar hot water storage tanks. The main components of the Oventrop Solar System are the evacuated glass tube collectors, The collector tubes have aluminum absorbers mounted in either 8 or 16 evacuated glass tubes. The absorber, coated with [...]
Danish Smart House Eco (Prefab) by Valbaek Brorup Architects
All photos by Mikkel Strange
The Danish Smart House Eco is an environmentally friendly housing system which can be optimized in a number of ways to meet the space needs of both individuals and families. Creators Eva Kristine Borup and Stefan Valbaek of Valbaek Borup Architects, designed the system to be flexible to the needs of [...]
The San Francisco Federal Building: A High Performance Sustainable Workplace?
The U.S. Federal Building in San Francisco is one of the General Services Administration’s (GSAs) most visible attempts at designing a high performance government building. The project is one of many started following the 1993 adoption of the “Design Excellence Program,” in which the federal government sought to “reach into the private sector to find [...]
Zollverein School Building: Active Thermal Insulation
30°C Coal Mine Water + Radiant Exterior Wall System + Structure = Active Thermal Insulation
The Zollverein School of Business Management and Design building is a model project for systems integration. It uses a sophisticated Active Thermal Insulation system consisting of preheated water circulating through the facade which allows for thin exterior structural walls perforated [...]
Smith House: A Passive House in Illinois
The Smith House, located in Urbana Illinois, is an all electric house built to the German Passive House Building Standard. To achieve the passive standard, architect and owner, Katrin Klingenberg, created a clean, efficient and comfortable house design using many of the passive house design strategies used in German model buildings. She describes the house [...]
Waldsee BioHaus: First Certified Passive House in the U.S.
In 2006, the Waldsee BioHaus became the first building in the United States to be certified with the German Passive House Building Standard. The house, built at the German Concordia Language Village of Waldsee in Bemidji Minnesota, uses about 85% less energy than a house designed to meet the Minnesota Energy Code. For that reason, [...]
Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center
This story naturally falls into a category of posts Greenline has been exploring over the past few days focusing loosely on adaptive reuse and preservation. For more on this topic please take a look at recent posts: The Green vs Preservation Debate, Historic Preservation in Raleigh Hits LEED Platinum, The Greening of Montgomery Park, and [...]
Solarsiedlung by Rolf Disch
“Maximizing the use of solar energy and minimizing heat loss” – Rolf Disch
The Solarsiedlung or “solar village” is Europe’s most modern solar housing project. Solarsiedlung is the housing portion of a larger development which also includes an office/housing block called Sonnenschiff (solarship). The project’s goals are to follow both the German Passive House and Plus [...]
The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Can the new breed of energy-saving fluorescents hold their own against incandescents? Popular Mechanics ran seven bulbs through their optical course to find out.
The compact fluorescent light bulb revolution nearly occurred back in the early 1990s. When CFLs first hit the market in force, consumers bought them in large numbers — but they hated them. [...]
Marmol Radziner Homes (Prefab)
Marmol Radziner Homes (MRH) are factory-built volumetric modular units. Mr. Radziner states that the homes:
are created with the environment in mind and are built to make LEED certification. Materials, methods and lifestyle is chosen in such a way as to have as little impact on the environment as possible. For long-term sustainability, the module structures [...]
FlatPak House (Prefab)
The FlatPak House is a factory-built house designed by Charlie Lazor. The house design is based on principles the designer acquired while doing work for his award winning modern furniture design company, Blu Dot. Furniture is of course increasingly being designed to minimize the cost of material, labor and transportation which are the major [...]
The Greening of Montgomery Park
In 2003 the doors were opened on the renovated Montgomery Park building in Baltimore Maryland. The 1.3 million square foot building, formerly a warehouse and distribution center for the Montgomery Ward retail chain, stood vacant for over 15 years and was illustrative of the plight Baltimore faced with many older industrial buildings near downtown.
The [...]
Adaptive Reuse of a Pigsty
Take a look at this adaptive reuse of a Pigsty! The building was originally built in 1780 and used as a pigsty (Saustal in German) for most of its life. The structure was partially destroyed during the Second World War and was only reassembled for minor use in the period since the war. The building [...]
2010 Olympic Village Using Sewage-Heat Recovery
After looking at a number of alternatives, the city of Vancouver chose to follow the example set by the city of Oslo, Norway and will implement North America’s first sewer heat recovery system for the 2010 winter games. It is scheduled to be completed in 2009.
An enormous amount of thermal energy is lost when the [...]
Historic Preservation Organization Promoting Sustainability
When the largest historic preservation organization in the United States starts it’s own sustainability initiative, others take notice. Founded in 1949 as a national organization dedicated to the preservation of historic buildings and communities, The National Trust for Historic Preservation is now 270,000 members strong. Started in 2006, the Trust’s Sustainability Initiative [...]
WattStopper
“(WattStopper / Legrand)… makes buildings and homes more efficient through lighting controls.”
WattStopper / Legrand is a company based in Santa Clara, California, that designs and markets lighting control systems for both commercial and residential applications. Their website cites their convictions about “the importance of providing energy efficient, convenient, and accessible controls for the work environment.”
The [...]
DuctSox
DuctSox is an innovative product designed as an easily installed, cost effective and attractive alternative to metal ductwork. The ducts are constructed of fabric shaped into shapes including cylindrical tubes, half-rounds or quarter panels. The DuctSox is used to distribute and diffuse heated, cooled, refrigerated and make-up air into a space. A variety of product [...]
Chicago’s Pervious Pavement Alleys
A recent article in the New York Times describes the challenges posed to Chicago by the thousands of small alleys snaking through the city. The nearly 2,000 miles of back alley service streets are an important part of the city infrastructure because they alleviate trash and parking problems on the main, frontage, streets. The [...]
LV Series – Rocio Romero (Prefab)
The LV Series home is designed and produced by Rocio Romero LLC. The design seeks to maximize livable space and minimize clutter. The homes are factory-built as a kit of parts by Branstrator Inc. that is delivered to site as a flat pack by trucks. Rocio Romero states that the homes employ the principles of [...]
Clinton Library Gets LEED-EB Platinum
The William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum was recently re-certified the USGBCs highest honor of Platinum as LEED-EB (previously the building was rated LEED-NC Silver). The original building by Polshek Partnership was upgraded with the help of The Leonardo Academy, The Rocky Mountain Institute, and Powers of Arkansas to meet the Platinum standards of [...]
