the New Solar Architecture

From archinect.com

FreeForm Solar Powered

My goal is the active skin, whose base element (Solar module) is a flexible material in the process conceptual architectural design and construction.
Convert solar array to a material with which to compose and build architecture.

Overall, from photovoltaic laminated glass, I have developed a number of details and construction systems, such as Ventilated Façade, Curtain Wall and Monolayer Structures
that host the facilities inherent in any PV system and the different architectures that build proposals, with particular interest in the design, effective input method of this technology in the urban scene.

I try to convey the idea that the generation of clean energy can be part of the beauty of its major consumer, THE CITY.

Specifically in the photovoltaic industry, until now largely developed by engineers must entry into the industry figure of the architect to develop their integration into the urban scene.

The complete project:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/THE-NEW-SOLAR-ARCHITECTURE/823641

Solar powered parking lot concept gets huge grant

from cleanenergyauthority.com

Scott and Julie Brusaw are ready to show the world that we could build solar-collecting, energy-producing, safe and smart roadways.

And by ready, they mean everything is in place. The Sagle, the Idaho couple’ s Solar Roadways enterprise, received a $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the federal highway administration last week to fund an ambitious second phase of their project that will result in a complete and functioning solar parking lot outside of Brusaw’s lab.

Solar Roadways had already made inroads with the highway administration when the concept gained serious traction at the GE ecomagination competition last year.

Now Solar Roadways is getting some attention, and it’s becoming easier to find needed resources, Scott Brusaw said.

The greatest roadblock to seeing the idea through to the end has been finding the right glass to cover roadway solar panels, Brusaw said. The glass has to be clear in order for the panels to work, but textured enough to give drivers traction.

to read more click here

The Perfect Airport

Architecture
Barajas, Madrid, Spain
Richard Rogers’s exuberant interiors for the new Terminal 4 at Madrid’s Barajas Airport. The terminal is structurally familiar, but it is executed with a refreshing warmth and flair. There is nothing revolutionary in the terminal’s effective use of wood or in its vibrant, Almodóvaresque color scheme, but in the context of an airport it feels decidedly new. Here, the intent is to ease the transition from the air 
to the actual place.

Nice, Eh!

Leave it to the Spanish, with their rich tradition of cutting-edge architecture, to build a terminal that conjures a cathedral-like vault drenched in natural light. Two-thirds of a mile long, terminal 4 at MAD won the Stirling Prize for architecture when it opened its doors in 2006. We like the way the color-coded beams that support the undulating bamboo ceiling help passengers get their bearings when they wander off to the newsstand or to grab a bocadillo (traditional baguette sandwich).

For more information please see link bleow.

The Perfect Airport -- National Geographic Traveler
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/city-guides/perfect-airport/?source=newstravel_travel

Read more: http://www.dwell.com/articles/an-introduction-to-airport-design.html#ixzz1qbevOfVi

Wikado Playground is Built From Recycled Wind Turbine Blades in The Netherlands

From Inhabitat:

What do you do with retired wind turbine blades? Why, you turn them into a super fun playground of course! Wikado Playground in The Netherlands is a renovation of play area in desperate need of attention. 2012Architecten handled the design and renovation of the area for Kinderparadijs Meidoorn and made use of five discarded rotor blades to create a maze-like play area with slides, towers, nets and plenty of interactive elements

click here to read the rest.

2030 Carbon Targets May Be Within Reach

from Green Source:

Source: Architecture 2030

The Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows progressively lower energy consumption predictions. 2011 projections are the most recent.

Architecture 2030 says new energy projections from the federal government show the building sector is on its way to achieving long-term goals in energy and carbon reductions.

 

The organization’s 2030 Challenge asks architectural firms to meet progressively rising standards in building energy use and emissions, with the ultimate goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) issued a report last year showing projects in 2010 achieving energy use reductions of only 35 percent, discouragingly far from the year’s target of 60 percent. (The report also suffered from a lack of data, making the results difficult to interpret. See Despite Efforts, Many AIA Firms Fail to Meet Their 2030 Commitment.)
New projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) are more encouraging. Architecture 2030’s triumphant report on the new federal numbers says, “Improved building design and efficiency has put the 2030 Challenge energy reduction target within reach".

EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) predicts, among other things, the total energy use of residential and commercial buildings; that section of the AEO has been lower each year, with 2011 projections nearly 70 percent below estimates reached in 2005. This is due in part to revised projections about new construction rates: the 2005 AEO predicted that total U.S. building floor area would grow by more than half by 2030, with energy consumption rising by 44.4 percent and CO2 emissions by 53.1 percent. But with total floor area projected to grow by only 38.6 percent and greater efficiency taken into account, those numbers have plummeted to 13.7 percent and 4.6 percent respectively, a drop in projected energy consumption amounting to a difference of 21.3 quadrillion Btu (QBtu). Architecture 2030 predicts that energy use for the building sector would actually decrease by 2030 if “best available technology” were used—with projected energy consumption at –9. 2percent and CO2 emissions at –16.5 percent compared with 2005.

These promising results have led the organization to declare a redoubling of its efforts, including promotion of advanced building energy codes.
Copyright 2012 by BuildingGreen Inc.

Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest)

from io9.com

We've seen a lot of amazing concepts for urban gardens — green-roofed cities, gardens that stretch high into the clouds — but this pair of vertical forests is more than just a concept design. It's currently being built in Milan.

The brainchild of architect Stefano Boeri, Bosco Verticale (simply "vertical forest") is currently under construction in the form of two residential towers. The goal of Bosco Verticale is not only to beautify the cityscape, but also contribute to the creation of an artificial microclimate and improve air quality:

The Bosco Verticale is a system that optimizes, recuperates and produces energy. The Bosco Verticale aids in the creation of a microclimate and in filtering the dust particles contained in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants and their characteristics produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust particles, producing oxygen and protect from radiation and acoustic pollution, improving the quality of living spaces and saving energy. Plant irrigation will be produced to great extent through the filtering and reuse of the grey waters produced by the building. Additionally Aeolian and photovoltaic energy systems will contribute, together with the aforementioned microclimate to increase the degree of energetic self sufficiency of the two towers.

It's so lovely to see one of these projects actually coming to fruition. Perhaps this sort of preplanned urban landscaping will start a trend.

Bosco Verticale [Stefano Boeri via This Big Cityvia The Awesomer]

Artist turns Hirshhorn’s exterior into ‘world’s greatest screen’

From the Washington Post:

The continuous visual loop will fracture images, swirl, swoop and transform the modernist cylinder into a 360-degree panorama.

Hirshhorn Museum /

Doug Aitken had made multimedia spectacles out of modern landscapes before. His mesmerizing images of solitary lives playing across the glass of the Museum of Modern Art exterior created a singular urban mood, experienced by thousands of passersby. A more recent piece playing on screens on dark, slow-moving barges in the Aegean Sea was seen by far fewer.

When Kerry Brougher, the Hirshhorn Museum’s deputy director and chief curator, saw the 1999 Aitken installation that won him the International Prize at the Venice Biennale, he invited him to do a piece in Washington.

“He stepped out the taxi and looked up at the building and said, ‘This is the world’s greatest screen,’ ” Brougher recalls.
“I really had this visceral response to it, ” Aitken says of the Hirshhorn’s famous round building on stilts.

“I was impressed by its enormity. I thought it was just a fascinating architectural structure. It’s very rare to find a continuous curved plane like that.”

He knew at that moment that “the museum itself should really become a work. It felt like there could be a way possibly to activate it,” he says.

After two years of discussion and planning by the 44-year-old California artist, “SONG 1” will be projected onto all sides of Gordon Bunshaft’s striking modernist cylinder beginning Thursday at sunset and running from dusk to midnight through May 13.