“…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.”
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.”
“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.”
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?
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.
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.”
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.
“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.
“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 …
“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.
“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.”
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.
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 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.”
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.
“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.
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 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.”
Over a decade in the planning, the new Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library in the Paul Rudolph Building reflects and meets the changing needs of teaching, research, and learning in the arts at Yale. Arts Library collections and staff, currently housed in a number of buildings across campus including the swing space at 270 Crown Street, will move into the Haas Family Arts Library later this summer in time for the fall semester. The Library will house the collections of the Art + Architecture Library, the Drama Library, and the Arts of the Book Collection, as well as staff and services for the Visual Resources Collection, and will become the physical and intellectual center for the pursuit of research, teaching, learning, and practice of the arts at Yale.
The Haas Family Arts Library will feature a variety of spaces for individual study, group study spaces, a large teaching space, and secure reading and teaching spaces for Arts Library special collections. The Special Collections Reading Room, a dramatic feature of the central two-story atrium, enhances interdisciplinary studies by realizing the long-planned consolidation of the many important special collections of the Arts Library, including the Arts of the Book Collection, one of the largest special collections at Yale and one of the most important book arts collections in North America. The Special Collections Exhibit area, which will continuously showcase exhibitions of the Library’s treasures, will feature a plaque recognizing a significant gift from William H. Wright, ’82.
More information on Arts Library services during the planned move period will be made available over the coming weeks on the Library's web site: www.library.yale.edu/art/.