Photovoltaic links

PV links:

Laser dotted PV glass

Integrated Concentrating (IC) solar facade system

BIPV

Solar spray

Companies:

Sulfurcell

Alanod Solar

Applied Solar

Konarka

EnSol AS

Smarter Skin

University of California engineer Luke Lee and architect Maria-Paz Gutierrez are developing an advanced “skin” for buildings that would regulate temperature and humidity through the physical properties of the materials used, dramatically reducing the need for electricity. Their project, called Self-Activated Building Envelope Regulation, or SABER, would regulate how much light and temperature enter and the building and how much humidity escapes by way of a membrane made of alternating rows of cells activated by light from the outside or humidity from the inside. Says Gutierrez, “the material has become the system.”

Inspired by compound eyes found on insects, Gutierrez and Lee’s SABER system is composed of light-sensitive cells composed of micro-lenses and pockets of photosensitive gel. The gel contracts in the light, opening up tubes that, in turn, allow more air to flow into the building in stronger light. The humidity regulation models itself on nature’s water-moving mechanisms. A polymer expands with increased moisture, opening up tiny tubes to increase airflow.

So far, only the lenses have made it to the prototype stage, Gutierrez told Inhabitat. Part of the project’s innovation will be working with companies to get the technology out the door and available.

story via inhabitat & greenbiz

Melbourne's Future Wheel - Australia [Buro North/Squint Opera/Peter Bennetts

Images via Buro North blog

A team of designers have crafted a futuristic reuse concept for Melbourne’s ill-fated Southern Star Observation Wheel, envisaging the wheel as a tram depot in the sky for “flying steam powered punk trams”.

Featuring wind turbine blades and solar panels, the sci-fi windmill would generate power for a fleet of flying trams, alleviating congestion in the city. The adventurous reuse proposal for the “heat-damaged and conceptually flawed” wheel, which closed 40 days after it opened in 2009 when cracks appeared in the frame, features landscaped platforms elevated above a newly-greened Docklands.

The detailed visualisations were created by architectural photographer Peter Bennetts, multi-disciplinary design form Büro North and film and media production studio Squint Opera. Soren from Büro North says: “There are some serious ideas and questions amongst the madness. How to efficiently adapt, reuse and re-function outdated infrastructure as we move to a more sustainable future.”

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story via Australian design review

Oceanscope observatory - Incheon, South Korea [AnL Studio]

Images via Dezeen

Unused shipping containers have for some time been recycled as shelter. Although this can be "green" and inexpensive, many have not been successful in their attempt at a responsible architectural solution.

AnL Studio (Minsoo Lee) has created this observatory as a precedent for the prevalent ongoing usage of shipping containers in rural South Korea.

Dezeen has a story on OceanScope observatory here

Flying Bicycle Lane

why not?

Kolelinia

The Future of Detroit - Largest Urban Farm Worldwide

It is a curiosity what will be the future of this distraught city. John Hantz has plans for a large scale for profit urban farm, which will be the largest in the world. He plans to begin the enterprise in the spring of 2010.

Read the story on Fortune

Sinosteel - Tianjin, China [MAD]

I recently came across the model from MAD which has a simple and artful facade. Construction is underway and is planned for completion in 2012.

From their website:

The varied honeycomb also improves the building's energy efficiency. Although the façade pattern appears random at first, it actually responds to the climatic conditions of the site. By mapping the different air-flows and solar direction across the site, and positioning the windows accordingly, it is possible to minimize heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.

Sun and wind studies (above) which organized the shape of the hexagon facade.

The base of the tower

The skin is also structural, freeing up the interior from columns.

image credits MAD

Director Park - Portland, Oregon [ZGF/OLIN]

image credit OLIN

Visiting Portland, Oregon, I was able to get a view of the nearly completed OLIN design for the south park block 5 in Portland, Oregon.

From the OLIN website:
With the redevelopment of an entire city block - a former parking lot - a significant urban plaza, built entirely over structure, will be introduced into the heart of Portland this fall. OLIN’s design creates new open spaces with a range of microclimates, amenities, and places for activity that will become a unique destination and landmark for residents and visitors. A key feature of Director Park will be an open, glass and wood canopy, accessible from the adjacent sidewalk and sitting high along the street’s edge, offering views over the plaza. The canopy will incorporate innovative stormwater techniques to capture and reuse runoff on-site to support the irrigation of plants during the dry months.



The design allows light into the park but provides shelter in the rainy Northwest.

The canopy - 25 ft tall, 40 ft wide, and 150 ft long - will drain its stormwater into raised planters, mostly by means of gutters concealed in the columns but also by "rain chains," which will make the storm drainage visible in a playful way.



The rain is harvested by flowing down the shed canopy into a stainless steel gutter. The rainwater flows from the gutter down cables and into a planter that provides a seating edge to the park.



Overflow from the planter flows out of the spouts shown above.



Some attractive new urbanist strategies are implemented which benefit the experience of the pedestrians and make the vehicular traffic secondary. No curbs exist, but ground texture mark spaces along with bollards and trees. The planters also take on stormwater. Street parking is only on the business side of the park street.



Granite stretches from one end of the block at the base of the Fox Tower to the base of the buildings to the west.

Manitoba Hydro Place - Winnipeg, Canada [KPMB]

The new headquarters for Manitoba Hydro Place by KPMB architects is under construction. KPMB and Smith Carter and Transsolar have launched a great website that details the sustainable strategies used. The project used 100% fresh air year round in a very cold climate. It also utilizes a tall solar chimney seen in the above image, a double curtain wall facade, one of the largest geothermal systems in North America, special humidifying water features, green roof...and the list goes on.

I suggest reading more about the project on the KPMB website.
A 115 metre (377 foot) tall solar chimney marks the north elevation and main entrance on Portage Avenue, and establishes an iconic presence for Manitoba Hydro on the skyline. The solar chimney is a key element in the passive ventilation system which relies on the natural stack effect. The chimney draws used air out of the building during the shoulder seasons and summer months. In winter, exhaust air is drawn to the bottom of the solar chimney by fans, and heat recovered from this exhaust air is used to warm the parkade and to preheat the incoming cold air in the south atria.

Harvard Design Magazine article on Manitoba Place

Thin-film product uses cylindrical module

One of the newer thin-film products out there is Solyndra. Currently they are not manufactured for vertical application, but I wonder if these could be on a facade?

From Solyndra:

Solyndra's panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity. Solyndra's panels perform optimally when mounted horizontally and packed closely together, thereby covering significantly more of the typically available roof area and producing more electricity per rooftop on an annual basis than a conventional panel installation. The result is significantly more solar electricity per rooftop per year.

Images via Solyndra

Amazon Court, Prague [Schmidt Hammer Lassen]

This building by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has an intriguing light filled atrium. Daylighting played a major role throughout the design. The key design element being the central void appears to modestly open up to the green space.

From e-architect:

The atrium in Amazon Court is 32m across, seven-storey high and 2000m. in size – a highly distinctive court, involving an innovative intervention. The roof is designed using transparent lightweight material which, dispensing with heavy beams, is supported by slender rafters on the underside of ‘mullionless’ sheeting.

From the shl website:

Throughout the design process, there has been close collaboration with engineers in order to reduce the building’s energy consumption. Amazon court is predicted to have approx 50 % less energy consumption than a standard office and approx 65% less maintenance cost.

Read more here

image credits SHL

Gardens by the Bay, Singapore [Grant Associates]

Designs have been released for Gardens by the Bay (official site here) a major landscape project for Singapore at 79 acres (32 hectacres) in size. Grant associates won the competition in September 2006.

The Supertrees are particularly interesting as they display tropical flowering climbers, epiphytes and ferns while collecting solar energy and water in their canopies. The video on the Grant Assoc. website diagrams these trees.

From Grant Associates:
The Supertrees are magical vertical gardens ranging from 25 metres to 50 metres in height. These structures are an iconic landmark for the Gardens and Singapore. They are also the environmental engines for the Conservatories and Energy Centre, containing solar hot water and photovoltaic collectors, rainwater harvesting devices and venting ducts.

Images via story on world architecture news

Elisabeth & Helmuth Uhl Foundation - Laives, Italy [modostudio]

Modostudio has won the competition for the Elisabeth & Helmuth Uhl Foundation (a private art & science organization) in northern Italy town of Laives.

The building blends well into the hillside and will reduce the amount of resources by utilizing the same footprint as the existing buildings. The demolished building material will also be used in the new construction, which would appear to be comprised primarily of stone. Modostudio writes that "an innovative photovoltaic + solar system will be experimented for the first time," which is not clearly seen in the renderings.

The building hugs the landscape and has a circulation spine running through it that connects the earth to the sky

image credits: modostudio

Another design that should blend well into the hillside is TT-Villa by we architecture in Phuket, Thailand

image credit: we architecture

New developments in translucent concrete

LUCCON has created a translucent concrete product that is thermally insulated. This might allow the material to be used on facades to allow diffused daylighting into the building where an opaque material would be used otherwise.

From the LUCCON press release:
Translucent concrete can be considered one of the most beautiful, noble and mysterious product innovations in the last years. Translucent concrete cannot be described, one has to experience this mystical material in order to understand it.

LUCCON Lightconcrete is a combination of modern concrete and embedded fiber optic cables. Fiber upon fiber light is projected through the construction element – for example images beyond a wall appear pointwise or digitized on the opposite side, regardless if they are shadows, light, colors, projections or displays. The dimensions of the construction element are basically irrelevant with one exception:
With increasing thickness the experienced image on the hidden side appears increasingly peculiar and strange.
Photo credits: LUCCON