Going back to Green!

Finland Embassy, Washingtong DC 

Happy Friday Everyone :)

In 2010, the Embassy became the first green embassy in the United States, designed by Heikkinen – Komonen Architects.^[2][3] It celebrated their LEED Gold Certification, with a party co-hosted by DC's Pink Line Project. The party featured art and musical entertainment.  - wiki


^Jeff Tabaco- flickr/cc license

The Embassy of Finland in Washington D.C. was designed by Heikkinen-Komonen Architects in 1994. It's immediately what you would expect out of Finland: clean minimalism and greenery.

The daylighting of Alvar Aalto is evident as light penetrates through the tall reception space and other strategic areas. The visitor greets blocky geometric forms and a variety of transparencies. Once inside, the visitor peers through metal and glass out into the planted forests of the site. There is a close connection to nature and a value for well-lighted, large work spaces.

Spherical shapes inside, such as the curved staircase, bring more complexity, also suggesting an exchange of cultures at this important site inside the United States capital. Compare with D.C's Swiss Embassy. - architecturerevived


^Jeff Tabaco- flickr/cc license

^Jeff Tabaco- flickr/cc license


http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/20/finnish_embassy_awarded_for_going_green

Go Back to School Before you Go Back to School!

Go Back to School Before you Go Back to School!

Do Enjoy Y.our E.nvironment O.f the W.eek

The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 announce CODA (Caroline O’Donnell, Ithaca, NY) as the winner of the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) in New York. Now in its 14th edition, the Young Architects Program at MoMA and MoMA PS1 is committed to offering emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects, challenging each year’s winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation at MoMA PS1 that provides shade, seating, and water. The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling. CODA, drawn from among five finalists, will design a temporary urban landscape for the 2013 Warm Up summer music series in MoMA PS1’s outdoor courtyard.

The winning project, Party Wall, opening at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City in late June, is a pavilion and flexible experimental space that uses its large-scale, linear form to provide shade for the Warm Up crowds, in addition to other functions.

The porous façade is affixed to a tall self-supporting steel frame that is balanced in place with large fabric containers filled with water, and clad with a screen of interlocking wooden elements donated by Comet, an Ithaca-based manufacturer of eco-friendly skateboards.

 The lower portion of the Party Wall’s façade is capable of shedding its “exterior,” as 120 panels can be detached from the structure and used as benches and communal tables during Warm Up and other diverse events and programs such as lectures, classes, performances, and film screenings.

 A shallow stage of reclaimed wood weaves around Party Wall’s base to create a series of micro-stages for performances of varying types and scales. At various locations under the structure, pools of water serve as refreshing cooling stations that can also be covered to provide additional staging space or a shaded area from the direct sunlight.

Party Wall’s steel-angle structure is ballasted by water-filled “pillows” made of polyester base fabric that will be lit at night to produce a luminous effect. Party Wall acts as an aqueduct by carrying a stream of water along the top of the structure. The water is projected from the structure, via a pressure-tank, into a fountain that feeds a misting station and a series of pools.

The other finalists for this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program were Leong Architects (New York, NY, Dominic Leong, Chris Leong); Moorhead & Moorhead (New York, NY, Granger Moorhead, Robert Moorehead); TempAgency (Charlottesville, VA, and Brooklyn, NY, Leena Cho, Rychlee Espinosa, Matthew Jull, Seth McDowell); and French 2D (Boston, MA, and Syracuse, NY, Anda French, Jenny French).

For more information and picture credits:

http://momaps1.org/yap/view/16

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/codas-party-wall-debuts-at-moma-ps1/

Microalgae Facade? Really!

The following is an article about The BIQ house which will become the world’s first pilot project to showcase a bioreactive façade.  Why? I'm glad you asked.  Reportedly, the microalgae harvests solar thermal heat and algae  in a closed loop to be stored and then fermented to generate hot water.  How would you push this technology further??  

The world’s first full-scale bioreactive façade at the BIQ house in Germany is going ‘live’ as microalgae are fed into the system for the first time.

The tiny green algae will play a huge role in determining the future potential of this technology, which aims to provide shade and a renewable fuel source for the experimental apartment.

The BIQ house was built as part of this year’s International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg. With 200m² of integrated photo-bioreactors, this innovative passive-energy house generates microalgae biomass and heat as renewable energy resources. At the same time, the system integrates additional functionalities such as dynamic shading, thermal insulation and noise abatement, highlighting the full potential of this technology.

The microalgae used in the facades are cultivated in flat panel glass bioreactors measuring 2,5m x 0,7m. In total, 129 bioreactors have been installed on the south west and south east faces of the four-storey residential building. The heart of the system is the fully automated energy management centre where solar thermal heat and algae are harvested in a closed loop to be stored and then fermented to generate hot water.

Known as "SolarLeaf", this innovative façade system is the result of three years of research and development by Colt International based on a bio-reactor concept developed by SSC Ltd and design work led by the international design consultant and engineering firm, Arup. Funding support came from the German Government’s “ZukunftBau” research initiative.

“We’ve done the research. We’ve got the units in place. Now as we add the microalgae we will see for the first time how the bioreactor façade operates in a real life situation. It is a test for the technology, but it also represents a huge step forward. If we can demonstrate that microalgae biofaçades can become a viable new source of sustainable energy production, we can transform the urban environment, as well as providing architects with a new source of inspiration.”

—Jan Wurm, Arup’s Europe Research Leader

The microalgae biofaçade goes live on 25 April 2013 when the technology will be presented in detail to the media and the team will publish comprehensive documentation on the system.

This new system is going to be distributed through Colt International.

http://www.arup.com/News/2013_04_April/25_April_World_first_microalgae_facade_goes_live.aspx

Post-Tsunami Housing by Shigeru Ban

TGIF!

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban developed these timber and earth houses for the rehabilitation of a Sri Lankan fishing village that was swept away during the 2004 tsunami.

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Developer Phillip Bay asked Shigeru Ban to design a prototype house that could be built cheaply using local materials and would be suitable for the tropical climate. The house was to form a template for the construction of 100 replacement homes in Kirinda.
"This was not going to be a traditional disaster relief effort where we go in and make homes really fast and leave," said Bay. "I wanted to treat this like a development project."



Ban's design comprises a single-storey structure with walls made from compressed earth blocks and a pitched roof made from locally sourced teak and coconut wood.
Each house has two bedrooms, a hall and a sheltered courtyard, which residents can use as a dining room, social space or simply as a place to repair fishing nets.



Adaptable wooden screens divide the rooms, to suit a Muslim lifestyle. "This is the first time I've worked for the Muslim societies," said Ban, "so before I built the houses I had a community meeting to find out what has to be carefully done depending on the generation, for example, we had to separate the man's space and woman's space."
Ban also designed furniture for the residence, using wood from the rubber trees that are common to the region.

The Post-Tsunami Housing was completed in 2007 but was recently named as one of 20 projects on the shortlist for the Aga Khan Award 2013. Other projects on the shortlist include an Islamic cemetery in Austria and a reconstructed refugee camp in Lebanon. Five or six finalists will be revealed later this year and will compete to win the $1 million prize.

Shigeru Ban has also worked on a number of other disaster-relief projects. He devised apartment blocks made from shipping containers for victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011 and was one of several high-profile architects involved in the Make It Right housing project in New Orleans. See more architecture by Shigeru Ban.

Here's a project description from the Aga Khan Award organisers:

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Post-Tsunami Housing
This project provides 100 houses in a Muslim fishing village, in the region of Tissamaharama, on the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, following the destruction caused by the 2004 tsunami. Shigeru Ban's aim was to adapt the houses to their climate, to use local labour and materials to bring profit to the region, and to respond to the villagers' own requirements through direct consultation. For example, kitchens and bathrooms are included within each house, as requested by the villagers, but a central covered area separates them from the living accommodation, as stipulated by the government. The covered area also provides an entertainment space from which women can retreat to maintain privacy. Local rubber-tree wood was used for partitions and fittings, and compressed earth blocks for walls.

Site plan - click for larger image

Location: Kirinda, Sri Lanka (Asia)
Architect: Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo, Japan
Client: Philip Bay
Completed: 2007
Design: 2005
Site size: 71 m2 for each house - Total site area: 3'195 m²

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Click here for full article:
http://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/03/post-tsunami-housing-by-shigeru-ban/

Thinking Outside the Concrete Box Friday, June 28, 2013 More items for Building Envelope

Imagine constructing a concrete building in less than an hour. using only air and water. That’s the idea behind the new Concrete Canvas Shelter developed by UK-based Concrete Canvas, which touts "rapid concrete infrastructure." The semi-permanent structure is constructed using a flexible fabric material that contains all the elements of concrete; the material hardens when wetted down. National Geographic / YouTube The cost of the shelters ranges from $23,000 to $30,000 a pop. A recent video report by National Geographic demonstrates how the “building in a bag” works. The video has garnered the attention of more than five million viewers. National Geographic also interviewed one of the innovators behind the technology and described the invention as having “far-reaching” potential. The full interview is available here. Applications and Price The structures are being used and tested by armed forces around the world, including the United States military. The company says the structures would also be useful as temporary shelters in natural disaster situations. Concrete Canvas The concrete canvas shelter comes with an inflatable plastic inner to lift it until it can support itself. Once anchored to the ground and sprayed with water, the concrete-material curves into the shape of the plastic creating a semi-permanent shelter. The fabric material behind the shelter is called “Concrete Cloth,” in the U.S. and is licensed by Milliken & Company. It is being used in a variety of applications, including lining water channels, according to Peter Brewin, director of the Concrete Canvas Company. The cost of the concrete shelters range from $23,000 to $30,000, the prices go down when volumes are purchased, according to the company.