Sustainable Design Update

The Copenhagen Wheel – Coast Uphill!

MIT researchers displayed the “Copenhagen Wheel” at the Copenhagen summit. The Copenhagen Wheel (look for a quick re-brand soon) is a revolutionary new bicycle wheel that not only boosts power, but can keep track of friends, fitness, smog and traffic. Though it looks like an ordinary bicycle wheel with an oversized center, the Wheel’s bright red hub is a veritable Swiss army knife’s worth of electronic gadgets and novel functions.

“Over the past few years we have seen a kind of biking renaissance, which started in Copenhagen and has spread from Paris to Barcelona to Montreal,” says Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT SENSEable City Laboratory and the Copenhagen Wheel project. “It’s sort of like ‘Biking 2.0′ — whereby cheap electronics allow us to augment bikes and convert them into a more flexible, on-demand system.”

The first goal of the Copenhagen Wheel project is to promote cycling by extending the range of distance people can cover and by making the whole riding experience smoother so that even steep inclines are no longer a barrier to comfortable cycling.

Toward this end, the Wheel can store energy every time the rider puts on the brakes, and then give that power back to provide a boost when riding uphill or to add a burst of speed in traffic.

“The Wheel uses a technology similar to the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), which has radically changed Formula One racing over the past couple of years,” says Ratti. “When you brake, your kinetic energy is recuperated by an electric motor and then stored by batteries within the wheel, so that you can have it back to you when you need it. The bike wheel contains all you need so that no sensors or additional electronics need to be added to the frame and an existing bike can be retrofitted with the blink of an eye.”

“Our city’s ambition is that 50 percent of the citizens will take their bike to work or school every day,” says Ritt Bjerregaard, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen. “So for us, this project is part of the answer to how can we make using a bike even more attractive.”

But there are also a variety of extra functions hidden within the hub of the Copenhagen Wheel. By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user’s iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle’s speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider’s friends.

“One of the applications that we have discussed with the City of Copenhagen is that of an incentive scheme whereby citizens collect Green Miles — something similar to frequent flyer miles, but good for the environment,” says Christine Outram, who led the team of MIT researchers.

The project also aims to create a platform for individual behavioral change.

“The Copenhagen Wheel is part of a more general trend: that of inserting intelligence in our everyday objects and of creating a smart support infrastructure around ourselves for everyday life,” says Assaf Biderman, associate director of the project. “For example, the Wheel has a smart lock: if somebody tries to steal it, it goes into a mode where the brake regenerates the maximum amount of power, and sends you a text message. So in the worst case scenario the thief will have charged your batteries before you get back your bike.”

The initial prototypes of the Copenhagen Wheel were developed along with company Ducati Energia and the Italian Ministry of the Environment. It is expected that the wheel will go into production next year, with a tag price competitive with that of a standard electric bike. According to Claus Juhl, CEO of Copenhagen, the city might place the first order and use bicycles retrofitted with the Copenhagen Wheel as a substitution for city employee cars as part of the city’s goal to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025.

More at: MIT

(Thanks Tucker!)

Sustain Design Studio MiniHome

I recently posted on pre-fabricated green designs and I’ve received several questions asking for us to expand on how pre-fab homes can be green and better than traditional “stick-built” construction.  Several years ago I worked on a series of homes that could be shipped in a standard shipping container.  The container itself was made up of Structural Insulating Panels (SIPs).  When the container arrived at a jobsite it was taken apart and turned into the finished product.  Pretty nifty huh?  No returned container (many return to the US empty)

I found the following list of pre-fab advantages at the Sustain Design Studio website.

Exploded View

1. ‘Green’ Materials

Renewable & non-toxic choices minimize life cycle environmental impacts such as global warming, resource depletion and toxicity.

2. Energy Efficiency

Energy loads are reduced by correct solar orientation, a small building “footprint” and a highly insulated building envelope; renewable energy resources are used when appropriate and possible.

3. Durability

Long lasting materials and quality construction ensure an enduring home.

4. Operation and Maintenance

Systems are simplified to ensure easy operation; making sure you get the most out of every feature while materials and hardware are selected to be long lasting and low maintenance.

5. IEQ

Indoor Environmental Quality is improved by eliminating the possibility of mold growth and using non-toxic materials and finishes.

6. Site Integration

Works with natural assets and conditions to reduce energy footprint and increases comfort with minimal impact to the surrounding environment.

7. Fresh Air

Passively cools using natural ventilation.

8. Daylight

Naturally brightens and warms interior spaces by optimizing solar orientation.

9. Water Conservation

Landscaping using indigenous vegetation reduces run off and irrigation demands outside, while efficient appliances help limit water waste inside the units.

10. Off Grid Potential

Optimization of all of the above with the use of renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass and geothermal)  makes it possible to become completely self-sustaining!

I’ll add that construction in a controlled environment reduces materials exposure to the elements.  (studs and plywood shouldn’t be soaked before closing in a building).  The time it takes to put up a pre-fab is just a fraction of the time it takes to build by hand in the field.  Also a pre-fab shop has tools to make everything square, plumb and true.  In the shop you have much greater control over tolerances.

Aptera – Production Model

Aptera Motors unveiled the final “for real this time” production model of its super efficient tricycle wheeled car today.   Aptera reports that it is getting closer to financial stability and the car should be on the road – next year.  While prototypes have shown up in various high profile venues over the last two years, this just may be the final pre-production announcement.

The Aptera 2e is an electric car that is extremely lightweight and aerodynamic. While the company is several months behind schedule company CEO Paul Wilbur says not to worry. He says Aptera Motors is in line for fresh cash and it has lined up key suppliers for the two-seater.

The Aptera is in line to challenge for the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE is a $10 million competition to inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that people want to buy – not concept cars or science projects but real automobiles. The competition kicks off in April at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI.

The Aptera 2e is now scheduled to hit the market just after the Nissan Leaf, the Chevrolet Volt and possibly the Coda from Coda Automotive. So it is possible that all the groovy green air will be taken up by the advertising budgets and superior timing of the competition.

Related Posts:

Cool Cars of 2009 and Beyond

Aptera at TED

Aptera Rolls Into NYC

Automotive X-Prize Contender

Automotive X-Prize

Aptera Electric Hybrid Car – Revisited

Empire State Goes Green

Even if every building built from this date forward consumed zero energy, the built environment would still produce enough greenhouse gasses to raise the carbon level dangerous new heights.  What we need is a new dedication to retrofitting existing buildings with the latest in energy efficient technologies + a change in occupancy.  Tenants need to feel comfortable wearing a sweater in winter and not wearing a suit and tie in summer.

The Empire State Building is undergoing an exceptional renovation.  From their website:

Built during the Great Depression, the Empire State Building symbolizes America’s limitless potential.

Today the building is undergoing a major sustainability retrofit to become a leading example of economic and environmental revitalization.

Consulting, design, and construction partners Clinton Climate Initiative, Johnson Controls Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute recently completed an eight-month modeling and analysis project which will save 38 percent of the building’s energy and $4.4 million annually.

Creating a leading example for the design of commercial retrofits was at heart a learning experience for the team. In the process of developing specific project recommendations, the team uncovered several key lessons for the retrofit of large multi-tenant commercial office buildings. Read more “Lessons Learned”

More at: Empire State

Related Posts:

Empire State Bldg Goes Green

Living Homes PreFab

There is a growing number of environmentally responsible high quality home designs available as pre-fabricated structures.  The advantage of prefabrication are many.  First, your home is made in a climate controlled factory.  (I’ve had clients panic as torrents of rain and hail assailed their dream home before the roof was complete)  Prefabs don’t have water damage before they are complete.

Prefabs can bring the price of design down to a level where more people can afford a name brand architect.  Check out Living Homes.  Designs by Ray Kappe usually don’t come at pre-fab prices.  Prefabs also go up much faster than their “stick built” counterparts.  This means your $ start providing shelter sooner, saving the cost of maintaining your existing home/apartment while you are shelling out the big bucks for constructing your dream home.

PreFabs have the unique advantage of providing a physical model that you can walk through before you move in.  Many fabricators also can customize your design for a small additional cost.

Note:  The PreFab above is LEED Certified.

From Living Homes:

LivingHomes is inspired by the school of modernism initiated by the Bauhaus and widely practiced by great architects like Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, A. Quincy Jones, and Ray Kappe, our first architect. These architects’ designs integrated form and function, presenting materials authentically, devoid of adornment or dress. Their homes expanded space through open floor plans, and invited the outdoors in through floor to ceiling windows that bathed interiors with natural light.

We believe these ideals align coherently with an environmental agenda that directs us to only use what we need. We don’t believe in dressing things up unnecessarily. Focusing on what we like to call “warm modernism”, our homes integrate the light, volume and linear forms you expect (and hopefully like!) in a modern space – as well as the warmth and detail you find more typically in a Craftsman home.

LivingHomes partners with world-class architects to create our homes.

More at:  Living Homes

Related Links:

Fabulous Pre-Fab at Dwell on Design, LA

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taleisin Pre-Fab

Low Cost Paper House for Slum Dwellers

10 Tips for Building a Sustainable Home

Mcube – Green Home Design

Bamboo – Abundant and Renewable

In my past life I studied lots of different mixes for concrete and reinforcement.  Good concrete is easy to make but without some sort of reinforcement it lacks tensile strength.  Concrete by itself can’t make a beam or span a distance.  Beams want to deflect under load which causes the bottom of a beam to stretch (slightly).  Concrete doesn’t stretch – instead it  cracks.  In Haiti a lot of structures failed due to a lack of proper reinforcing.

Bamboo grows naturally in Haiti (I checked).  Its cheaper than steel and when used in concrete it stores carbon.  Bamboo can be used as reinforcement for concrete in a manner similar to how re-bar is used now, or in some cases it can be chopped and added to a concrete mix to give seismic strength.

A great paper on Bamboo Reinforced Concrete:  Bamboo Reinforced Concrete

Photo: Darwin Bell via Flickr