Green ArchiTEXT

Green Roofs Over Tokyo

Standing on one of the streets of Tokyo, visitors will be amazed by the soaring gleaming skyscrapers.

But if you were airborne, you will get a completely different view – many of these highrises are topped with plots of soothing greenery. Tokyo has been sprouting green roofs, alongside green walls, since the launch of its 10-year project for Green Tokyo in 2006.

via thestar.com.my

If I Were God of the Climate

Standing over a tabletop computer screen depicting a dark and stormy sky, I become the Climate God, tasked with reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and saving humanity from dangerous climate changes. At my will I wield my climate-crushing powers by choosing a “solution card” and throwing it on the screen, thereby enacting policies and making the world a brighter place.

Choosing the Wind Energy card, I place it in the stormy sky, and a ray of blue light shoots from the card into the small bright spot in the corner labeled “Energy Supply.” The ray of light passes through three barriers that diminish its strength: Electric grids still can’t handle lots of wind power; energy policy still favors more carbon-intensive electricity; and the public still isn’t sold on the idea. With the mere click of a button, I resolve these barriers and watch as global greenhouse gas emissions drop from 36,284 to 34,686 Gigatons of CO2 equivalent (Gt CO2e).

via blogs.worldwatch.org

Price fixing: Why it is important to put a price on nature

The insight that nature provides services to mankind is not a new one. In 360BC Plato remarked on the helpful role that forests play in preserving fertile soil; in their absence, he noted, the land was turned into desert, like the bones of a wasted body. The idea that the value provided by such “ecosystem services” can be represented by ecologists in a way that economists can get to grips with, though, is rather newer. A number of the thinkers who have made it a hot topic in the past decade gathered at a meeting on biodiversity and ecosystem services held by the Royal Society, in London, on January 13th and 14th. They looked at the progress and prospects of their attempts to argue for the preservation of nature by better capturing the value of the things – such as pollination, air quality and carbon storage – that it seemingly does for free.

via www.economist.com

Bruce Mau on a future without oil

Q & A: Bruce Mau

The Massive Change designer on a future with less dependence on oil, losing weight, and why corporate social responsibility is a bad idea...

Bruce Mau, who started out as a graphic designer in the 1980s, uses design principles to develop strategies for a range of major clients—from big businesses (Coca-Cola, MTV) to governments (Guatemala). The 50-year-old, who moved from Toronto to Chicago two years ago, cemented his global reputation as a big thinker in 2004 with Massive Change: The Future of Global Design, an exhibition of the latest innovations in everything from health and warfare to transportation and manufacturing (a follow-up is planned for 2011). Mau, whose theories are the subject of Warren Berger’s new book, Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World, will be speaking at a symposium associated with Toronto’s Interior Design Show this week about a world less dependant on oil.

Q: So what does Bruce Mau’s world without oil look like?

A: It’s not a world without oil, but a world with an ecology of energy sources, where oil is used when it is the absolute right tool.

via www2.macleans.ca

Tomorrow's Projects: The Future of Education

Interview with Sharron Van der Meulen, Interior Designer and Principal, ZGF Architects LLP...as interviewed by Paul Makovsky, Editorial Director, Metropolis Magazine.

Paul: How has education design evolved in the last five or ten years?

Sharron: Students are learning in a different environment today. A focus on collaboration, technology and sustainability are all key to modern education design. While independent study spaces are still important, the priority is on creating more spaces for students to interact with one another in small and large groups, as well as with professors. At Duke University, we designed a central atrium that also functions as a work/study area and social gathering space. Students can pull up a chair and plug in their computers, or meet in small conference rooms off the atrium space for impromptu discussion and study. Five years ago, spaces like this were primarily used for circulation and socialization. Today, our design efforts focus on extending learning outside of the classroom by incorporating features such as wireless internet and comfortable furniture, and create a place to sit, study and interact in groups. These areas become, in essence, a "learning living room" for the student.

via tomorrowsproject.hunterdouglascontract.com

Forget eco-towns - real green house-building is already happening

By Eifion Rees

Cambridge University's expansion plans could change the face of sustainable building in the UK. In 2012, construction begins on the greenest development of its size and scope in the UK

As far as trailblazing green building initiatives go, the development known as North West Cambridge (its official name as well as location) looks rather uninspiring at the moment, merely fields bounded by busy roads on the outskirts of an East Anglian university town. There aren't many clues to suggest that, when construction begins here in 2012, it will change the face of sustainable building in the UK.

via The Ecologist

Austin's ZeroHouse is designed to be the greenest of them all

It looks like it could take off. And the two Austin architects developing a prototype for an off-the-grid house designed to save as much energy as it consumes hope their project does just that, figuratively speaking.

Trademarked as the ZeroHouse, Scott Specht and Louise Harpman's compact modular structure shouts "futuristic," from the composting unit beneath it to the solar panels on the roof. It looks as if it could be housing for space pioneers, but Specht and Harpman have their sights set on planet Earth for its first occupant.

The ZeroHouse design is on the cutting edge of the green building movement: so-called net-zero houses that generate as much energy as they use over the course of a year and handle all or most of their own water and wastewater needs. They are built with renewable materials and advanced energy- and water-conservation features.

via www.statesman.com

A New Vision for Dallas

If all goes as planned, a self-sustaining, mixed-use project conceived by a team of Portugese architects will be constructed on a city block in Texas.

In December, Portugal-based Atelier Data and MOOV were named the winners of Re:Vision Dallas, an international competition put on by the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation (CDCDC), an affordable housing organization, and Urban Re:Vision, a national nonprofit group dedicated to responsible city planning.

Launched in January 2009, the competition brief asked entrants to design a complex with residential, retail, and commercial space that would be built on a 2.5-acre site across the street from Dallas City Hall. The scheme needed to offer a new “urban framework” and address issues such as energy, waste, transportation, sustainable construction, and the health of local economies.

via archrecord.construction.com

Bob Berkebile: On Responsible Design, LIving Buildings and Restorative Communities

The latest issue of Cascadia's terrific Trim Tab magazine features an interview with Bob Berkebile of BNIM. See "Bob Berkebile: A true pioneer in the sustainability movement".

Hoberman’s "Transformable Design" Gaining Momentum

By Joann Gonchar, AIA

“Transformable design” is the term that Chuck Hoberman uses to describe the focus of his multidisciplinary practice, Hoberman Associates. The 19-year-old New York City-based firm fuses sculpture, engineering, and product design to create objects with the ability to change size and shape. It is perhaps best known for the Hoberman Sphere, which relies on a series of scissor-like joints to collapse from an open polyhedron to a tightly packed sphere. It has been fabricated in many sizes, all the way from a palm-sized toy to a giant sculpture found at the Liberty Science Museum in Jersey City. But Hoberman’s oeuvre also includes retractable domes, medical instruments, and a stage for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

The firm is also applying its expertise with kinetic objects to buildings in order to create automated and responsive enclosures that can provide shading or ventilation. Facades are ripe for such adaptive components, according to Hoberman. “The envelope plays the single largest role in building performance,” he says. “Not only in relationship to energy consumption, but also with regard to occupant comfort.”

via archrecord.construction.com