“…while the rulers of Dubai are interested in sustainability, any near- or even medium-term changes will be superficial at best, as more significant programs would likely jeopardize Dubai’s status as a celebration of consumption. This belief would be confirmed, time and again, as I explored luxury and leisure in Dubai.”
A Futurist in Dubai: Green Architecture in the World’s Least Sustainable City Matt Sollenberger Changewaves 3/11/08
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Sustainability
David Fisher, the Israeli architect who is designing a rotating skyscraper, held a press conference yesterday and launched a new web site today, promoting what he calls Dynamic Architecture.
“Along with swimming pools and gardens, the buildings will also be fitted with car elevators so that residents can park right outside their homes.
The towers are expected to generate enough electricity for themselves and other nearby buildings from solar panels and wind turbines fitted horizontally between each floor.
People who own an entire floor will be able to simply speak to control the rotation, with speeds varying from an hour to three hours for each full rotation.”
Rotating skyscraper plans for Moscow, Dubai — N.Y.? Sinead Carew Reuters 6/24/08
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Architecture News · Sustainability
Japan’s Spectacular Floating Airports Travelcounsellors.co.uk 6/3/08
“At present there are four such constructions in Japan (there are also examples in Hong Kong and Macau), each built on its own artificial island offshore and each backed by the community it serves. The first of these incredible engineering wonders to be built, and the first of its kind in the world, was Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay… In total the project has so far cost around $20 billion but has already saved some expense by surviving both an earthquake and a typhoon in the last 15 years, in addition to being open 24 hours a day due to its location.”
Related: Shibuya subway station
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Land Use · Sustainability
Via SCSU: Join us Wednesday, May 14, 2008 , 1:00 p.m, to discuss and share ideas about green libraries and campuses.
Conveners:
Mary Carr, Dean Instructional Services, Spokane Community College
Dr. Debra Rowe, President of the US Partnership for a Sustainable Future
From a library/librarians’ perspective, how are our library resources when it comes to sustainability? Are we supporting the college’s curricular efforts? What about the “greening” of the library and the campus? Can we practice sustainability? Can we promote it by speakers, presentations, etc.? What can we do within our library associations, and other professional groups?
Suggested background readings:
-Inside Higher Ed blog “getting to green” http://insidehighered.com/views/blogs/getting_to_green
-Do Colleges Need Green Czars?” Inside HigherEd. April 15, 2008. http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/15/sustainability
-Greening your library blog http://greeningyourlibrary.wordpress.com/
NOTE: All ACRL OnPoint chats are free and open to the public. Sessions are unmoderated, 30 to 45 minutes long, and take place in a Meebo chat room. While no registration is necessary to participate, ACRL recommends creating a quick and easy Meebo account for the best experience while participating in ACRL OnPoint discussions. Full details are available on the ACRL Web site at www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/acrlproftools/OnPoint/onpoint.cfm.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Libraries · New Haven Events · Sustainability · Uncategorized
With a total floor space of 2.5 million square meters, Norman Foster’s Crystal Island, will be the world’s largest building. At 450 meters high (height of the Empire State Building), it will be one of the tallest too.
Via Foster + Partners: “Rising from a large public square, the entire development is enclosed within a vast tent-like superstructure, with one of the tallest inhabited buildings in the world at its heart…Providing accommodation that is flooded with daylight, this second skin will seal itself in winter to minimise heat losses, and open in summer so that the interior can be cooled naturally. Efficient energy management is at the heart of the design, with strategies including on-site renewable and low-carbon energy generation.”
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Sustainability
Calgary Leveen/Photographer
How important are LEED rankings? The Malone Center (pictured above) received a gold certification even though many of it’s lights are left on at night.
An apparent discrepancy between environmental efficiency and the popular environmental rating system’s allocation of points has generated lively debate among architects and sustainability experts around the country, and now Yale officials say they are evaluating the value of seeking LEED certification on University building projects.
For Yale, there are no clear answers. Robert A.M. Stern ARC ’65, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, emphasized the importance of a system that holds everyone accountable through standardized measurements.
University questions LEED rankings Paul Needham and Nora Wessel YaleDailyNews 2/8/08
Read about the first LEED certified parking garage in the US here.
And more on LEED rankings at this old post.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Sustainability · Yale News
“We have seen four different interpretations of the pyramid - they are all interesting concepts,” Rem Koolhaas said.
“In the West, we have been very phobic about death, but because of demographics, death will be imposed on all of us.
“There is a constant ageing process - it’s important that this issue is addressed and it’s a very graphic way of dealing with the topic of death. I’m curious to find out what happens in the end,” Mr Koolhaas said.
Germany plans ‘cemetery pyramid’ Tristana Moore BBC News 3/12/08
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture News · Miscellaneous · Sustainability
In D.C., green Yale takes national lead 4/4/08 Yale Daily News
“As Levin pointed out in his testimony, more than 60 environmental courses are available to undergraduates — and are further embedded in graduate programs across multiple schools, from architecture to business. As always, the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the recently formed Office of Sustainability is leading the charge nationwide, albeit indirectly, and undergraduate groups such as STEP are …
“Well, not so fast.”
Posted by: Tanya
Categories: Sustainability
Outside Seville in southern Spain, an impressive concrete structure stands bathed in sunlight.
Power station harnesses sun’s rays David Shukman BBCNews 5/2/07
“It is Europe’s first commercially operating power station using the Sun’s energy this way and at the moment its operator, Solucar, proudly claims that it generates 11 Megawatts (MW) of electricity without emitting a single puff of greenhouse gas. This current figure is enough to power up to 6,000 homes.”
A lot more info here and find out more about solar power towers on wikipedia. And visit the website of ALTAC, the designers of the tower.
Plus, check out an article about alternative energy from Yale Scientific.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Sustainability
Summit to focus on ways to make campus ‘greener’ March 21, 2008|Volume 36, Number 22 Yale Bulletin
“Actions the University has already taken to become a ‘greener’ campus and work that has yet to be done will be discussed during the first Yale Sustainability Summit taking place Monday-Friday, March 31-April 4.”
Find out more information at the website for the Yale Office of Sustainability.
Posted by: Tanya
Categories: Sustainability · Yale events
Bryon Thompson
Very good, comprehensive article in Metropolis Magazine last month on the greening of American Universities.
Carbon Neutral U Andrew Blum Metropolis Magazine 2/20/08
Infrastructure is hot—hotter arguably than research or teaching about sustainability. It is as if the ivory tower has looked out to the world and seen a choking planet, and its first response is to look inward again at its own activities—building designs, power plants, and transportation systems.
“Ivy Plus” refers to an existing loose confederation of the nation’s top schools: the old Ivy sports league plus Johns Hopkins, MIT, Stanford, and the University of Chicago. As sustainability increasingly became a topic of conversation among the institutions’ leadership, Levin convened the group last year to shape a shared sustainability agenda.
A couple recent articles on the relative importance of LEED rankings here and here.
Plus, check out this great blog that covers all things sustainable and collegiate.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Climate Change · Recommended Articles · Recommended Sites · Sustainability · Yale News
This innovative building, built by Sanyo in Japan, not only collects an impressive amount of energy from the sun, it also functions like a giant lite-brite.
The World’s Coolest Solar Collecting Building? Ecoble 1/7/08
“The so-called Solar Ark has over 5,000 active solar panels generating over 500,000 KWh of environmentally friendly energy. Nearly 500 multi-colored lighting units placed between the various solar panels can be activated to create a variety of shapes and letters on the sides of this enormous structure.”
More on the Solar Ark here.
And check out a live display of solar energy created at Yale here.
More info about Yale’s solar energy system here and read about Yale’s solar racing car here.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Design · Sustainability · Yale Resources
Waterstudio
The Dutch government is listening closely to architect’s plans to re-design Holland, a country particularly susceptible to a rise in sea level, to deal with potential crises caused by climate change.
Dutch Architects Plan for a Floating Future Joe Palca NPR 1/28/08
“The momentum is just right. Because of the climate change, because of the Al Gore story, because of New Orleans, because of the financials of this moment, everybody is waiting for new innovations.”
Also, read President Levin’s views on confronting climate change here and check out the Forestry School’s Project on Climate Change.
And read about what a UN report had to say about architecture as it relates to climate change here.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Climate Change · Sustainability
Check out this great photo essay of David Yocum and Brian Bell’s architecture office in Atlanta in this week’s New York Times Magazine.
Stylish Blight Dwight Eschliman New York Times Magazine March 5, 2008
More here.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Sustainability
Charles Lane explores the motivations of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as he undergoes a massive project to move the poor of his country into Utopian ’socialist’ metropolis’.
Chavez challenges nature as well as democracy Charles Lane The Morning Call 12/02/07
“Chavez acts on an ideology that anthropologist James C. Scott of Yale has called ‘high modernism’…Central to high modernism is an aesthetic sense that prefers straight lines and right angles to the crooked pathways and sprawling gardens of spontaneous rural development…Architecturally and ecologically unsustainable, high modernist projects always collapse of their own weight sooner or later.”
More on Chavez’s planned ’socialist cities’ here.
Posted by Chris
Categories: Architecture · Land Use · Sustainability · Urban planning
