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 [...]
The Reinvention of Wood through Sustainable Tech
Wood, arguably the most timeless of materials, is being reinvented (re-engineered) by sustainable technologies to meet the challenges of building in the 21st century. These new wood products attempt to match the desired properties of conventional pressure treated lumber without any of the associated negative environmental and health impacts. Beyond sustainability, the re-engineering of wood [...]
greenPIX: The Zero Energy Media Wall
Energy in = energy out. Only the format changes. Now that is sustainable.
greenPIX, ‘the Zero Energy Media Wall,’ uses architecture and technology to absorb, store, amplify, translate, and display data, both natural and manmade, in an organic system that responds dynamically to the local environment. Creative programming adds even more layers to the already rich [...]
‘Community Greens’: Greening Baltimore’s Alleys
Above is an aerial photo of Baltimore showing some official green space and some potential alley green space – in green – quite a web if coordinated to work together!
‘Community Greens‘ is an organization which supports the ‘development of shared green spaces inside residential blocks in cities across the United States’ by taking the stand [...]
Alkemi Recycled Surface Material: Sustainable to the recycled core
Alkemi is a recycled aluminum solid surfacing material made right here in Baltimore (Maryland). The product is composite of a polyester-based medium and post-industrial scrap waste soft-alloy aluminum flake fillers for texture. Recycled content is 35% by weight or 60% by volume as certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS). In addition, Alkemi’s manufacturer, Renewed Materials [...]
Life Cycle Assessment: Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES 4.0)
The Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES 4.0) software is a free Life Cycle Assessment tool developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with the aim of empowering designers with a ‘robust’, user-friendly tool for making informed material decisions. Analysis is broken into two general categories, economic and environmental, which can [...]
Radiant Heating: GCS Modular Radiant Flooring Panels
GCS Radiant Flooring is a modular, hydronic radiant floor system which is designed for easy installation, simplified maintenance and energy efficiency. Like most energy efficient radiant floor systems, GCS panels heat space using a network of plastic tubes circulating preheated water (or a glycol/water solution). Think of this system as a grid of pre-milled slots [...]
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 [...]
Sino-Italian Energy Efficient Building (SIEEB): Covering the Basics First
Sustainability is a simple concept with a varied and challenging means of execution, and it is easy to falter, especially when faced with the myriad of devices, controls and systems designed to make buildings more sustainable. Searching for the latest, most sophisticated strategy for increasing a project’s sustainability does not translate into a sustainable building. [...]
Architecture School: A Documentary Series
Medical interns, fashion designers, criminals, apprentices, lumberjacks, crab fishermen, ice road truck drivers, have-been celebrities, and pet whisperers have all found a place in the bizarre world of reality television. We have followed their lives season after season and can now relate personally and emotionally with their struggles. Why is it that I can now [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Sustainability at the Museum of Art
Recently I was asked to do a presentation on ‘Sustainability’ as it relates to a Museum of Art. The presentation was geared to the museum facility board and included the definition of sustainability, sustainable decision making, unique considerations special to museums, case studies and a conclusion about sustainable metrics and LEED. My co presenter, Mike [...]
BLDGBLOG Comes to Baltimore
This week Geoff Manaugh, creator of BLDGBLOG among other things, lectured here in Baltimore. He was invited to speak through the AIA’s Michael F. Trostel Lecture sponsored by Preservation Maryland. The lecture was generally angled to cover historic preservation, but to my delight, Manaugh managed to move the discussion well outside the traditional boundaries [...]
Sustainable Museum: Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Downtown Provincetown, Massachusetts, has a new sustainable art center designed to promote the health of its occupants, art collection and the indoor and exterior environment. The 19,500 sf expansion of the existing Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) building “created new galleries, new storage areas, and an expanded museum school” and accomplished these programmatic goals [...]
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 [...]
Exploding Wind Turbine Video
Here is a great video of a wind turbine self destructing during a wind storm. The strong wind causes the turbine to spin very quickly and eventually bends the blades backward, hitting the support structure. The result is a frightening example of what a poorly designed or malfunctioning wind turbine can do. Turbines are actually [...]
Google Earth for Air Emissions
(above) Air Polluters in Baltimore – Can you guess where the Constellation Energy plants are?
Now along with mountain ranges, roads, restaurants and tourist destinations, you can search for air pollution production levels around the United States! That is right, the EPA has created an dataset for Google Earth which allows you to map the six [...]
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
The long sighted Scandinavians have done it again. In an effort to plan for major global food crises, planetary catastrophe, or species extinction, the Nordic ministries have built the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to safeguard specimens of the world’s seeds. A Noah’s Ark for plant species. The Vault is located on the extremely secluded Spitsbergen [...]
Big Dig House
(above) Unused material from the Boston Big Dig
What does 600,000 lbs of recycled materials look like? Pretty good actually.
The Big Dig House by Single Speed Design (SSD) is built with unused or recycled materials from the Boston Big Dig project. All in all, a total of 600,000 lbs of steel, concrete forms, roadway sections, and [...]
What is Energy Recovery Ventilation? And why should I care?
Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) refers to the recapture of energy typically lost through the building ventilation process. Conditioned air that is routinely being exhausted from both residential and commercial buildings contains significant energy in the form of heat or coolth and humidity which is lost into the exterior environment. As part of a preconditioning process, [...]
Defining Sustainability: Five Statements
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.”
-World Commission on Environment and Sustainability (Brundtland Commission, 1987)
“A dynamic process which enables all people to realize their potential and to improve their quality of life in ways that simultaneously protect and [...]
