STATE FAIR TRANSIT MAP

As part of the Minnesota State Fair’s Eco-Experience exhibition, we designed and built a base for a transit map of the Twin Cities using salvaged wood and delivered to the Fair, in part, by bicycle. The map charts bus lines, bike routes, and car sharing sites.
More images at Exposure Evidon.

BUILDING SCIENCE.COM

“building science.com provides objective, high-quality information about buildings. This resource combines building physics, systems design concepts, and an awareness of sustainability to promote the design and construction of buildings that are more durable, healthier, more sustainable and more economical than most buildings built today.”

A wonderful resource with great building design strategies and details. Highly recommended.

REVERSE GRAFFITI

“San Francisco’s Broadway tunnel is a highly traveled thoroughfare in the heart of the city. Over 20,000 cars, trucks, and motorized vehicles pass through it per day. Its walls are caked with dirt and soot, and lined with patches of paint covered graffiti from days gone by. It set the perfect canvas to create a beautiful work of art showcasing the talents of reverse graffiti artist “Moose”…”

More examples at inhabitat.com

BAN DEMOLITION

An article at treehugger.com makes the case for the banning of demolition. While a few buildings probably should be demolished for health and safety reasons, I like the idea of having to make a case for any demolition - even for small scale remodeling projects.

One scenario would be to make it mandatory to calculate the embodied energy of a building as part of the permitting process for demolition. The free EcoCalculator from the Athena Institute could help to these ends. This would really put things into perspective and perhaps begin to convince people to save what they have.

Of course old buildings have issues - energy efficiency and moisture control chief among them. Solving these issues is a difficult and ever-changing design problem. I just seems that simply tearing something down and building new is the easy way out…

HAULING STEEL

Michael Sobol delivers 166lbs of steel from the powder-coaters by bicycle - from Hopkins to Saint Paul.

THE BICYCLE

Once again, I am hooked. The Bike bug has got me.

It all started when I went to sharpen my daughter’s skates at Bicycle Chain. A 2006 Breezer Freedom commuter bike was on sale and I was hooked.

For the past 10 years, I’ve been riding an old 1968 Schwinn Racer. It’s heavy and rusty and gets me from place to place - a completely utilitarian no-frills affair. I hadn’t given the bike much thought in quite some time. This is saying a lot, actually.

To be completely unselfconscious of the bike you were riding was one of my unattainable goals back when I worked at bike shops in the mid 1990s. To be relaxed and not worried about how fast or how slow you were going was the penultimate biking experience. The problem was that most of the bikes being produced at the time were copying the models that the professional racers were racing with. Light, fast, uncomfortable, and not very durable. Utility was out of the question.

When I eyed the Breezer, I realized that aspects of bike culture in the US have evolved. Here was a bike, rustproof, comfortable and completely non-descript that would get me where I needed to go. As an added feature, it was about 10 pounds lighter than my Schwinn and as responsive as a mountain bike. It suffices to say, I was sold.

A month or so later I purchased the bike and began modifying it to make the ride as comfortable and close to my experience on the Schwinn Racer as possible. Moreover, I’m close to making it happen.

I friend of mine pointed me toward with Rivendell Bicycle Works out in California and another friend alluded to a place called Velo Orange. Here are dedicated folks making simple, durable and dependable bikes. I lot has changed in 12 years. I’m stoked.

One more thing. It’s now the dead of winter in Minnesota. The last few days haven’t risen above zero degrees Fahrenheit. And for some weird reason, my enthusiasm hasn’t been curbed. Or my riding – thanks to the inspiration from folks like these: Icebike, city of Minneapolis

ALDO LEOPOLD LEGACY CENTER

This is a place I would really like to visit – a building that attempts uphold the principles of Mr. Aldo Leopold:

“The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center has received Platinum LEED ® Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Following a rigorous assessment, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program awarded the Legacy Center 61 points of 69 possible points, more than any other building yet rated in the world.

The Legacy Center helps us to envision how we can use energy more efficiently and develop positive relationships to other people and the planet. Through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and an ongoing commitment to land stewardship, the Legacy Center became the first carbon neutral building certified by LEED—meaning annual operations account for no net gain in carbon dioxide emissions.

The Legacy Center is a net zero energy building, meeting all of its energy needs on site. Despite the contrasts of Wisconsin’s four-season climate, the Legacy Center uses 70 percent less energy than a building built just to code, and the center’s roof-mounted solar array is projected to meet 110 percent of the building’s energy needs on an annual basis.”

SOLAR DECATHLON

Some exciting news.

The University of Minnesota is putting together a proposal to compete in the 2009 Solar Decathlon. As part of the proposal, they will be offering a number of Decathlon related courses and I have been tapped to run an associated seminar at the College of Design’s School of Architecture.

There is an incredible amount of enthusiasm among students and faculty for the project and across multiple disciplines. You can chart the project’s progress here.

Image from the University of Maryland’s, Leafhouse

CONCRETE CANVAS SHELTERS

“Concrete Canvas Shelters are rapidly deployable hardened shelters that require only water and air for construction. The 16m2 variant can be deployed by 2 people without any training in under 40 minutes and is ready to use in only 12 hours.

The key to CCS is the use of inflation to create a surface that is optimised for compressive loading. This allows thin walled concrete structures to be formed which are both robust and lightweight.”

ESPRESSO BOOKS

On Demand Books has taken on-demand publishing to the next step. From an online archive of open-source book titles provided by the Open Content Alliance, you can have your own copy printed and bound in a manner of minutes. Until a user friendly and affordable electronic book interface is introduced, this is a great next step.

“The EBM’s proprietary software transmits a digital file to the book machine, which automatically prints, binds, and trims the reader’s selection within minutes as a single, library-quality, paperback book, indistinguishable from the factory-made title.”

video of process

BAG BAN

Cities and municipalities across the world are wising up to the plague of plastic shopping bags.

San Francisco is the first city in the us to ban non-recyclable or non-compostable shopping bags.

Many cities and companies are implementing a plastic bag “tax” charged to customers who require a plastic bag: Melbourne, Hong Kong , Kenya, IKEA