“Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.” - Le Corbusier

Whatever good things we build ends up building us.

"Jim Rohn "

Trashing Batteries for Brighter Side Walks

We all know alkaline batteries are really bad for the environment if you don’t dispose of them properly. The right thing to do is send them to special recycling centres but hundreds of tons end up in landfills where their toxic innards seep into the earth. Perhaps a good solution is the Energy Seed, an LED lamp post powered by trashed alkaline batteries.
The idea is to encourage people to throw their batteries away into the Energy Seed. There’s a slot for nearly every size battery. The unit combines any left over juice from all the batteries to power a super efficient LED ring.
Of course once the bins are full, we’re left with the same original problem. Somebody has to collect all those spent batteries and recycle them.
Designer: Sungwoo Park & Sunhee Kim

• Biolamp

  by Peter Horvath

  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  The object that Peter has designed aimed cleaning air and the production of fuel.
  This solution is combined with street lamps because there are many of them on the streets. Inside the streetlamp there is a liquid, alga mixed with water, which transforms CO2 to oxigen. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  How does the lamp work.
  At the upper part of the lamp (pipe1) a ventilator is sucking the smog inside - which streams into the alga liquid. This liquid is being circulated in a spiral system thanks to a pump,which helps the alga absorbing the CO2 better.
  In the other pipe (pipe2) this progress stops.
  If we leave the liquid in a standing position it hands down the oxigen .
  Thanks to the frequency of the street lamps the air cleaning is more effective.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Extra function
  The sunlight , CO2 and water transforms the alga into biomass. It is known that fuel can be made out of biomass. After the alga liquid is saturated with carbon-dioxid it needs to be led to tubes, which are under the ground. The tubes lead the biomass to the closest filler station. Here, biofuel is made of that for the environmentally friendly cars. After this the street lamps should be refueled with alga.

Shipping Container Design 

 This has been catching my eye for a wile now. Every time I do research I see more and more grate ideas coming through with these container designs. I find that the possibility of ideas are endless and so much can become of the concept, for house holds to block offices.  

The recycling an re-use of the shipping containers really has no end. The container are structurally design to take large amounts of force so all is needed is for one is to come up with so funky idea, one really needs to think out side the box. One can use this idea in any contexts, one just need to look in-depth on how they can relate to context, may it be bush, urban or even commercial development.  
 I am really looking forward to the up coming students and what they can do with this concept.

Cross-Ways Dairy 

The dairy design was our 2nd design for the year. the brief required us to come up with a modern tech dairy  that will be milking a heard of 500 cows twice a day. 

The existing site is on the Crossways Farm Village, where they have an existing old dairy that needs to be replaced. With a beautiful mountain to the north and a moderate slop ground level with stunning green grass lands covering the surroundings.

 After so in depth research on the different  needs and requirements of a modern dairy, I then went on to a number of site visits. This was grate for my research on how to see, first hand, how working dairy's in South Africa are designed and constructed. Speaking to the farms and asking them on the good and bad aspects of there dairy's so that I now can accommodate there in-site into my design so that it can now work efficiently and effectively.

The Design  

I want the stick into the concept of the farm and the way and life of a farmer with a public approach and sensitivity. I have shown this is the different spatial  functions and areas. My use of raw material such as water, on site stone, metal sheeting and timber was use to tie into the concept of Farm (off site).

The design was structured around the 60 seater rotary, as the main axis pull off and around the strong cycler form. the public side is show by the main court yard space the spills out onto the grass land then up onto the mountain view. All of the public activities (milk bar, coffee chop & expo space) feed off the court yard. 

  

Adventure lodge Crossways 2013

B-Tech project 1

INTRODUCTION
The brief requires the design of overnight venue and gathering point ( adventurers lodge) .
The type of event will be mountain biking and possibly king swing or zip line base, hiking.
The structure need to support overnight accommodation for 5 couples and storage ablutions
plus a communal gathering venue.


THE DESIGN
The structure needs to be very lightweight and needs to sit on the slope or landscape lightly.
It also needs to generate its own power and reintegrate any waste into the environment.
Parts of the structure can be suspended etc.
You can use manufactured steel components and timber, rope etc. Combinations of
material .

A zip-line (also known as a death slide, flying fox, zip wire, aerial runway, or aerial ropeslide) consists of a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on an incline. It is designed to enable a user propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bottom of the inclined cable by holding onto, or attaching to, the freely moving pulley

 Bungee jumping  is an activity that involves jumping from a tall structure while connected to a large elastic cord. The tall structure is usually a fixed object, such as a building, bridge or crane; but it is also possible to jump from a movable object, such as a hot-air-balloon or helicopter, that has the ability to hover above the ground.
 

My Design

I have decided to go with the concept of " Zip Line and Bungee Jumping". In this design we were given a number of different sites to pick from, all of the sites where on the Crossways Farm Village, just outside Port Elizabeth.

The site witch I chose was next to an old unused mail main track bridge, which sat at the foot of the mountain in the corner of the farm. The site has amazing views of the van Stadens River and the N2 van Stadens bridge. The Site is on the boundary of the van Stadens Natural Park. It has amazing wild life and one can't ask for more of a get away!

Buildings Sprout Living Walls 

White Rock, a small suburb outside of Vancouver, Canada can now boast to having the largest green wall in North America thanks to Green Over Grey, Vancouver, Canada-based company that design and install green walls (also known as living walls). The once bare 3000 square foot wall is now a lush garden of a wide variety of plant life. It is located on the facade of the Semiahmoo Public Library and RCMP Facility.

This living wall is literally a breathing, photosynthesising skin. It consists of over 10,000 individual plants representing more than 120 unique species. Among these are ground covers, large perennials, shrubs and small trees. This self-sufficient vertical garden is affixed to the exterior of the building, although it is also possible to grow such a garden in an interior space. The technology developed for this method is soil-free, and plants receive water and nutrients from vertical supports along the facade rather than the ground. This mimics the capillary action that plants use naturally to grow vertically on cliffs, bluffs, branches or along waterfalls.

BAHAR TOWERS

A quick glimpse at the upcoming weather for Abu Dhabi will show a week of intense sunshine, temperatures steadily above 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 0% chance of rain. In such extreme weather conditions, even architects listing environmental design as their top priority are up against a tough battle. Never mind that the sand can compromise the structural integrity of the building, the intense heat and glare can render a comfortable indoor environment relatively impossible if not properly addressed. For Abu Dhabi’s newest pair of towers, Aedas Architects have designed a responsive facade which takes cultural cues from the “mashrabiya”, a traditional Islamic lattice shading device.

Completed in June 2012, the 145 meter towers’ Masharabiya shading system was developed by the computational design team at Aedas. Using a parametric description for the geometry of the actuated facade panels, the team was able to simulate their operation in response to sun exposure and changing incidence angles during the different days of the year.

The screen opperates as a curtain wall, sitting two meters outside the buildings’ exterior on an independent frame. Each triangle is coated with fiberglass and programmed to respond to the movement of the sun as a way to reduce solar gain and glare. In the evening, all the screens will close.

At night they will all fold, so they will all close, so you’ll see more of the facade. As the sun rises in the morning in the east, the mashrabiya along the east of the building will all begin to close and as the sun moves round the building, then that whole vertical strip of mashrabiya will move with the sun,” said Peter Oborn, the deputy chairman of Aedas.

It is estimated that such a screen will reducing solar gain by more than 50 percent, and reduce the building’s need for energy-draining air conditioning. Plus, the shade’s ability to filter the light has allowed the architects to be more selective in glass finished. ”It (the screen) allows us to use more naturally tinted glass, which lets more light in so you have better views and less need of artificial light. It’s using an old technique in a modern way, which also responds to the aspiration of the emirate to take a leadership role in the area of sustainability,” added Oborn.

NASA Ames Sustainability Base, Building N232

AECOM worked with design architect William McDonough + Partners, guiding NASA to achieve a LEED platinum rating for the new N232 office building. The 50,000-square-foot, two-story facility, known as Sustainability Base, officially opened April 20, 2012.
When NASA planned to add the first new building in 20 years to the Ames Research Center, home to much of the agency’s most innovative technology, the goal was that the facility be an exemplar in sustainability. The result is a working environment that prioritizes user health and comfort with natural daylight, fresh air and temperature control while making minimal environmental impacts. Sustainability Base will save more than 60 percent of the energy and more than 80 percent of the water typically used by a facility of its type.

AECOM’s High-Performance Buildings group provided the innovative engineering

behind this model facility. An onsite fuel cell, roof-mounted photovoltaic solar panels, a geothermal heat pump, passive and low-energy HVAC systems, and intelligent building controls that interact with users are among the building’s advanced engineering features.
AECOM served as architect of record, engineer of record and landscape architect of record for the project, while William McDonough + Partners led the design vision and sustainability goals for the project. The team also included Loisos Ubbelohde (lighting consultant), Siteworks Studio (landscape design), and MBDC (materials assessment).
Awards

• San Jose Journal 2010 Green Building of the Year
• U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) 2010 Real Property Award in the category of Green Innovation
• Nominee, 2010 Presidential GreenGov Award
• Nominee, 2011 Presidential GreenGov award 

Arnulf Park

München | Germany | Completed 2005