Sustainable Design Update

On the heels of my Mumbai rant, I present a parking deck that the City of Santa Monica hopes to become the first LEED certified parking Structure.

From a Santa Monica press release:

The six-story, 882-space structure at the Civic Center features photovoltaic roof panels, a storm drain water treatment system, recycled construction materials and energy efficient mechanical systems.

The $29 million structure — which sits near the entrance and exit ramps at the end of the 10 Freeway — also features ground-floor retail, art works on every floor and sweeping city and ocean views.

City officials hope the 290,000-square-foot-garage will become the nation’s first parking structure certified by the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

The structure’s photovoltaic panels — which cost $1.5 million — will pay for themselves in 17 years by generating $90,000 a year in electricity,” said Craig Perkins, director of Environmental and Public Works Management for the City.

 This structure is busy looking, and it has a lot in common with the Mumbai building.  But it has a clear portfolio of green features including a very large photovoltaic array.  While this is edgy, and unusual looking, it looks playful and appropriate for its function.

Comments?

Just ’cause it’s called “Green” doesn’t make it sustainable. This building is proposed for the city of Mumbai, India (the city formerly known as Bombay). I have a couple of issues with this structure. First, the Architect’s (Perkins and Will) description of the green features focuses exclusively on the vegetable covered exterior. There is no information on the materials, solar energy, indoor air quality, just a “green” skin. They may yet publish a specification that has more information at a later date but to call something sustainable because it has growies on it is a laugh. LOL

My main concern is that this towering mass of chlorophyll is really ugly. Take a look. There are more photos over at Inhabitat. Don’t let Architects tell you what is good design and what isn’t. Use your senses. Does this look like a building you want to spend some quality time in? Buildings should feel good to be in and to be around. If I saw this, I’d walk the other way.

Just a quick update.  This looks like a thousand miles of smoke.

Via ::NASA: California Wildfires Continue to Grow: NASA Satellite Images Show Fire’s Immense Size (agency website), ::The Great Beyond: California fires from space (blog)

NASA Images of LA Fires

Many friends and colleagues are packed and ready to head out in southern CA.

NASA has some amazing photos of the smoke here. (the above photo doesn’t do justice, these are like the oil well fires of the first Persian Gulf war)

Drought in Atlanta, record fires in southern California, the Northwest Passage open for the first time in recorded history and record levels of CO2. Hmmmm…..

Southern California Wildfires Burn Out of Control: New NASA Satellite Images Show Fires’ Rapid Growth 10.22.07

Powerful Santa Ana winds have fueled more than 10 large wildfires throughout Southern California, stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

This pair of images, depicting the area around Los Angeles on October 21, 2007, shows just how quickly the fires grew.

The left image, captured by NASA’s Terra satellite at 11:35 a.m. local time, shows several fires giving off small plumes of smoke. Just over 3 hours later, at 2:50 p.m. when NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead, large amounts of smoke were pouring from blazes northwest of Los Angeles. Actively burning fires are outlined in red.

In the right image plumes of smoke can be seen blowing off the coast, indicating the intensity of the winds and the presence of additional fires farther south.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, these blazes have burned over 84,000 acres since they began over the weekend. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes and a state of emergency has been issued for 7 California counties.

+ View larger images above with titles (120Kb .jpg)
+ View full resolution, left image (1.2 Mb .jpg)
+ View full resolution, right image (1.2 Mb .jpg)
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response. Story credit: Laura Spector, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

GaiaLux World Light

Thanks to everyone who clicked on my NASA Design The Future entry last week. (If you haven’t yet please check this out) My design entry is a very simple light that works in areas where there is intermittent power, specifically targeting squatter cities (see Robert Neuwirth, Shadow Cities Here).

Very little is currently designed for the billion people on the planet who live in these unplanned communities. Power is often bootlegged or available for only a few hours per day. In my investigations I found the most common appliance used in these areas is a single 60 watt incandescent light bulb. When the power goes out people revert to using kerosene lamps. Kerosene is the only lighting technology that is even less efficient than incandescent lights! People in squatter cities pay about $75.00 per year for kerosene. Much cheaper and healthier, not to mention less polluting is my GaiaLux World Light.

The following is from an email I sent out to my mailing list:

I have entered the NASA “Design The Future” Contest, a product design competition, with a design for an energy efficient LED light fixture that uses recycled cell phone chargers as the power supply.

See the light design HERE

This design is intended for the billion people who live in parts of the world where power is intermittent, like in “squatter cities” and in places where war makes access to electricity difficult.

My design charges batteries when power is available and provides light when light is needed. The batteries can provide light for days between charges. It also shuts off when the batteries are charged and has very low stand-by power loss. (we measured this)

One of the ways the contest is judged is by the number of page views each entry generates. I would appreciate it very much if you looked at my entry and checked out the graphics (click on the thumbnail images on the left of the screen)

If I win anything it will go exclusively toward supporting The Appropriate Technology Design Collaborative, a not for profit that designs new technologies for less economically developed countries.

The link: http://tinyurl.com/yphjlu

or:

http://www.createthefuturecontest.com/

-John Barrie

My colleague and Uber Blogger Cathrine Laine at AIDG sent me this link to several videos of Shawn Frayne, inventor of the Windbelt. The videos go into greater detail on the windbelt design and also cover another of Shawn’s inventions. Check out the links at AIDG.