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

SEE LEVEL

A number of artists are taking their work to the streets to examine and map future flooding due to climate change.

Eve Mosher is mapping water levels throughout Brooklyn with chalk - the kind used for baseball fields. More information about her project can be found at highwaterline.

A group in the Bay Area called future sea level are using stickers in a similar fashion.

Here’s a Google-hack that maps possible flood-lines.

WHAT THE WORLD EATS

A compelling book entitled, “Hungry Planet,” that documents families from around the world pictured with their weekly ration of food. Some of the photographs are featured on the Time Magazine webpage.

Reminds me of the the Peter Menzel book, “Material World: A Global Family Portrait“

BEES

There has been a lot of speculation as to why the bee population has plummeted. Theories abound - from cel phone transmissions to pesticides. No one really knows what’s going on. The NY Times has a great piece outlining the mystery.

All the while, bees have been helping humans make art - from inhabiting shoes to creating a vase.

ZED

ZedFactory works to create zero energy, zero carbon projects in the UK. They have a great collection of PDFs to help guide and inspire.

It looks like they will be offering some of their products for sale at their ZedFabric store sometime in the future. I’m looking forward to purchasing one of their wind cowls.

FUTURE HOUSE

An informative piece by the Star and Tribune about the future of housing - imagining what housing might be like in 2037. Some really great concepts and techniques to help make dwellings carbon neutral.

Utilizing new construction to meet these goals really isn’t that much of a stretch. The technology and methods of construction are already here. The real challenge, and what ALM Design Studio is focused on, is how we take our existing building stock and fulfill these goals. A much more difficult and technically complex endeavor.

OPEN ARCHITECTURE NETWORK

The Architecture for Humanity folks are at it again. This time, they’re proposing a wiki-like collection of projects available to all - licenced, of course, through Creative Commons.

“The Open Architecture Network will be a gathering place for community designers and all those interested in improving the built environment. Here designers of all persuasions can post their projects, browse projects posted by others, comment and review projects, discuss relevant topics, contribute to shared resources, collaborate with each other and access project management tools to support their work. Designers work will be protected by a licensing system developed by Creative Commons. This will enable designers to share their work freely, while protecting their intellectual property rights and shielding them from unwarranted uses of their design.”

via Worldchanging

MITOPENCOURSEWARE

As an educator, I am simply amazed at what M.I.T. has done with their Open Courseware initiative.

Allowing everyone access to the courses taught at M.I.T. - from syllabi to final projects - is simply inspiring. While we all can’t take classes at M.I.T., sharing the outcomes and the process is the next best thing. As of this entry, they have over 1,550 courses posted.

QUIETREVOLUTION

A UK company has begun production of small vertical axis wind turbines. These would be ideal for urban use and are said to be much quieter than traditional horizontal axis turbines. While their current model is around 12′ tall, they are planning a smaller unit for production sometime in 2007. quietrevolution

BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK

I’ve been searching for a black nontoxic exterior wood stain for some time now and have found a few products that might fit the bill. In particular, I’m interested in traditional finishes made with tar that give the wood a black earthy finish and I have seen examples in projects from Finland, Scandinavia, and in traditional Japanese wood buildings. Creosote was often used around here to treat posts and farm buildings but is no longer available due to its toxicity (thankfully).

I found a finish called Velvit Cabin and Deck Finish, which has a relatively low VOC for a exterior wood finish, but still seems a bit toxic - especially because I would like to have the option of burning the siding for fuel when it is eventually replaced.

OS Color Interior/Exterior Wood and Concrete Stains might fit the bill - though the one coat application makes me a little nervous. In my experience, you really want the stain to soak into the wood and typically want a minimum of (2) coats.

The best stain I’ve found so far is called, Utah WoodSafe from Eco-House wood products of Canada. It is supposedly 100% natural and could ostensibly be burned. I’m not certain how deep the color is and am planing on ordering a sample to test it out. I’ll definitely post the results.

10×10

“Every hour, 10×10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. After this process, conclusions are automatically drawn about the hour’s most important words. The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from the source news stories. At the end of each day, month, and year, 10×10 looks back through its archives to conclude the top 100 words for the given time period. In this way, a constantly evolving record of our world is formed, based on prominent world events, without any human input.” 10×10

HOUSE OF THE FUTURE?

“Zurich Insurance today (Wednesday 6 December 2006) launched a study in association with Arup’s award winning architectural practice, Arup Associates, investigating the implications of environment, social and energy-source changes on future house design. The study has been produced by Zurich to help the company better understand the future needs of homeowners and business.

By around 2080 our relationship with our home might have changed beyond all recognition. Working in partnership with Arup Associates, Zurich has identified what the house of the future might look like…” arup

WALDSEE BIOHAUS

First certified PassivHaus in North America

Modeled on Germany’s Passivhaus standard, the residential and classroom spaces use 85% less energy than comparable U.S. structures: under 120 kWh per square meter per year for heating, warm water, ventilation and electricity! Waldsee BioHaus significantly exceeds platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) energy criteria – the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest building ranking.

Located in Bemidji and certified by the Passive House Institute, BioHaus is the first of its kind in North America: a sustainably designed building that maintains comfortable temperatures with astoundingly low energy requirements during winter and summer. It joins over 6,000 others in Germany.

Using primarily local building contractors and mostly (85%) commonly available U.S. building components, cutting edge approaches to energy conservation and innovations in this building include:

* compact footprint and volume
* highly insulated building envelope
* optimal daylighting and passive solar gain
* green roof
* ground source heat pump
* high efficiency ventilation and heat recovery system
* solar hot water system
* future photovoltaic system to exceed building electrical needs
* low-emission building products

Citation from, Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network

Passiv Haus Institut

ON THE CHEAP

An interesting low-cost passive solar heater. Low-tech and simple to build. I wonder how successful it would be in colder climates (such as Minnesota.) The author is definitely clued in and provides honest post-occupancy data. Build a Simple Solar Heater

$100 LAPTOP

One Laptop Per Child has unveiled their first working prototype. Its been fascinating to watch the project evolve. OLPC

PACKAGING AS PRODUCT

I’m obsessed with ways to create something of value with plastic packaging. I have a diverse collection spilling out of our garage, much to my spouse’s dismay. I cannot bring myself to throw the stuff out - our local municipality won’t recycle it and with my recent visit to the Elk River Landfill has emboldened my obsession. I’ve tried casting concrete into the molds, with minimal success, and am actively researching ways to re-utilize the molds.

It’s heartening to see projects such as zero thick that are attempting to creatively employ this waste. While still not completely eliminating the stuff, they are offering some pretty neat ways of utilizing it. I like the idea that the product can’t function without the packaging.

FREE SOIL

I discovered this blog through a recent visit to futurefarmers.com - a great collection of projects/ideas/proclamations concerned with an awareness and alteration of our environment.

“Free Soil is an international hybrid collaboration of artists, activists, researchers and gardeners who take a participatory role in the transformation of our environment. Free Soil fosters discourse, develops projects and gives support for critical art practices that reflect and change the urban and natural environment. We believe art can be a catalyst for social awareness and positive change.” freesoil.org

LANDFILL

Working on a project in South Minneapolis, we discovered that the existing structure was sided in asbestos panels. Thinking that the disposal of the asbestos would be a safe and streamlined endeavor, I called the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to see what they required for proper disposal.

To my surprise, only one facility, located in Elk River, Minnesota, accepted asbestos products from the Twin Cities. I imagined a state of the art complex in which asbestos and other refuse is carefully monitored, cataloged, and stored.

I was confronted with nothing of the sort. The Elk River Landfill is, essentially, an enormous pile of garbage 50 to 100 feet tall and spanning as far as I could see (map.)
Seagulls circled overhead and huge earth moving equipment busily plowed over the debris from a steady stream of semis and dump trucks. I felt a little out of place in my little red pickup truck. I had already wrapped the asbestos siding in plastic, sealed all the seams with duct tape, and filled out a manifest as required by the facility. I was instructed to drive up into the center of the landfill and dump my payload in a recently carved out section of garbage. “This is where I put the asbestos?” I asked the heavy equipment driver incredulously. “Yep. I will plow over it in a second.”

So the asbestos will be entombed in the landfill - buffered by 6mil plastic and tons of household garbage. Hi tech.

After seeing the landfill, my studies into minimizing construction waste have been emboldened. Is it possible to create an architecture in which waste is eliminated? What would it take to remodel and existing structure while producing zero waste? And what about substances like asbestos? Food for thought.

MOVING MOUNTAINS, ALONE…

A retired construction worker from Flint, MI has found ways to move huge and heavy objects by himself - no mechanized machinery of any kind. The Forgotten Technology

EDIBLE ESTATES

“Edible Estates proposes the replacement of the American lawn with a highly productive domestic edible landscape. Food grown in our front yards will connect us to the seasons, the organic cycles of the earth and our neighbors. The banal lifeless space of uniform grass in front of the house will be replaced with the chaotic abundance of bio-diversity. In becoming gardeners we will reconsider our connection to the land, what we take from it and what we put in it. Each yard will be a unique expression of its location and of the inhabitant and their desires. Valuable land will be put to work.”

Prototype gardens are underway. Edible Estates

ECOCATHEDRAL IN MIDLAM

“For more than thirty years, Louis Le Roy has been working on an enormous structure in a meadow at the Friesian settlement of Mildam in the Netherlands. There, on a two-hectare site, he piles up with his bare hands paving bricks, paving stones, kerbstones and other discarded street rubble while allowing nature to proceed about him unhindered. Le Roy calls this fascinating jungle populated by large stacked edifices an Eco-Cathedral.

The ideas underpinning Le Roy’s project are the importance of the time factor in spatial processes, and working with complex, dynamic systems and networks. Inspired by the Nobel Prize-winner Ilya Prigogine, Le Roy pondered the following question: ‘What can one person achieve working with nature in space and time?’ Le Roy’s position on these concepts is at odds with the often rapid, super-efficient, function-hugging approach to greenspace and nature in the Netherlands. The Eco-Cathedral is a place where time regains space and space regains time. Le Roy expects it to be continued by others at least until the year 3000.” (citation from slowlab.net) Ecocathedral in Mildam