A moment to reflect on the world

In our lecture a couple weeks back our presenter talked about his project that was not a place but rather a moment to reflect on the world.  I think that is a pretty amazing way to think about things.  If every time we changed our environment we thought of it in this way we would all take care of our places better.  Instead I believe we think of our spaces as just places and think long term, maybe thinking I’ll do that next week or next year.  If we thought of every place as simply being a moment in time then we would be more aware of how we were interacting with spaces all the time.  We would no longer think it was okay to drive an undesirable commute to work because all our way their we would be thinking in this way and then again all the way back.  We would be compelled to make a change to the things we interact with and that is environments.

- Brock

Design like you give a damn…humanitarian architecture

I just wanted to mention a book that I stumbled upon while looking for inspiration for our latest studio project: Design Like You Give a Damn. The book showcases humanitarian designs from the world over.

I was reminded of just how rarely we tend to think about the underpriveliged. We are always designing for the wealthy, our clients, the people who can afford to pay. We are not thinking about those who can’t pay for our services, for those whom a huge architecturally signifigant home is not possible. But we could be, and we should be designing for these people, because everyone deserves a basic quality of life, and who better than designers to lead us towards this goal?

- Beth

What About Winnipeg?

This states exactly what I was talking about in my last post.  (http://www.canada.com)

Urban gardens cut the mustard

Hellmann’s urban garden plots

Kelvin Browne, National Post

It’s easy to be cynical about companies that suddenly announce they’re green. The suspicion is their products aren’t as environmentally friendly as they should be and the motives are more capitalistic than altruistic. Particularly when PR types chase you with potential green stories, you’re on guard.

A story that’s been brought to my attention is about an initiative by Hellmann’s (as in Real Mayonnaise). It has made 94 garden plots available across Canada this year to gardeners who wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to plant vegetables. It calls the program Hellmann’s Urban Gardens.

Each of Hellmann’s urban gardens has about 10 plots, 8×4-feet in size, located on larger existing sites run by local community gardening organizations in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Wannabe gardeners submit explanations of why they should receive a free plot, the winners get one along with a gift bag of seeds and other garden-useful supplies. In Toronto, plots can be found at the Emmett Avenue Community Garden (at Jane and Eglinton) and Fort York Community Garden (Lake Shore and Bathurst).

Each of Hellmann’s urban gardens has about 10 plots, 8×4-feet in size, located on larger existing sites run by local community gardening organizations in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.

For the second year of this program, Hellmann’s is collaborating with Evergreen, a not-for-profit organization that makes cities more livable and is making thousands of similar plots available across Canada. Hellmann’s says, “Evergreen’s 17 years of experience in urban

the program to another level by providing plot winners across the country with increased access to gardening experts and centrally located plots.” Access to gardening expertise is a good idea. If you haven’t grown vegetables before, and don’t have parents or grandparents close at hand who have, you need help. Reading the instructions on seed packages is not enough.

Everyone I spoke with about the project said it was wonderful, from the project co-ordinators to people enjoying the plots. However, when naturalization projects is taking I complimented Jon Affleck, marketing director, Unilever Canada (Hellmann’s parent company) on the company’s clever promotional idea, he seemed to bristle at the suggestion Hellmann’s was doing it for any other reason than, as he said, “because we’re doing well by doing good.”

Then he stayed on message: It wasn’t merely promotion but rather giving Canadians, or at least 94 of them and the people that eat the produce from the plots, the opportunity to shorten the distance from field to table and introduce more locally grown fresh vegetables into their diets. I didn’t say, take a hint from your mayonnaise and get real. It’s a good program that benefits many and it’s a nice fit with a product that is about as genuine as you’ll find at the grocery store but — it’s still a marketing program. I was almost provoked to say how easy it is to make your own mayo. (Besides I never do, I buy Hellmann’s.)

Ian Busch, brand building manager, Hellmann’s Canada, was more real. We joked about learning to plant lettuce so you didn’t end up with a truckload all at once. He mentioned that urban garden plots are a significant community building opportunity. The plot gardeners I spoke with told me about the camaraderie of those on-site and how it appeared also to strengthen the communities where the garden patches were located. “When I harvest tomatoes, I have my neighbours over to share, and we might make spaghetti sauce together on a weekend,” says one plot gardener. I recall growing up that most people on the street had a vegetable patch and would trade the surpluses of various varieties.

Bravo to Hellmann’s and Evergreen. One shouldn’t be cynical about something that’s helping re-establish the benefits of local produce, especially when it takes people off their cellphones and couches and gets them digging in the soil.

It’s still exceptional to have home-grown vegetables and it used to be the norm. For decades, veggies have been trucked in, conveniently wrapped in plastic, in tins or frozen. Now the tide is turning. At fancy dinners, the hostess will say she grew the lettuce herself or got it at the farmers’ market. Perhaps a fad but at least one with more substance than most of what we do because it’s cool. The best is yet to come. I can’t wait to drive down the streets of Rosedale when there will be neat rows of vegetables where there are now exotic hybrids blooming. I look forward to cows grazing on the greens of the Bridle Path/Post Road area. Finally, these immense lawns are put to good use.

© National Post 2008

- Amanda

Gardens

I’ve really been on a garden kick lately.  I find the idea to be very feasible for high density urban settings.  I believe that it is VERY important to have urban agriculture and would love to introduce it more prominently in our city.

In the final project for Ecology class, my group did a project of this nature.  There is a lot of great stuff out there both historically and modern.  Floating gardens is something I really find intriguing.  They started out in Babylon for agricultural purpose and extending space.  Floating gardens can also be coupled with flood architecture.  The class about green roof was great.  In fact I’ve found this course to be very useful for knowledge and inspiration!

The info we got about green roofs and weight is definitely useful.  I also looked up root depths of different vegetables to see how much soil would be needed to provide urban agriculture on roof tops which varies from 1 - 2 feet.

I would definitely like to see a law passed that encouraged urban agriculture in the city.  It would reduce sprawl, cut transportation costs, and thus our carbon footprint, potentially boost the economy by providing local products, and be empowering to those individuals who would produce their own food.  The benefits are endless.

- Amanda

The Heated Sidewalk

The other day Jae and I were talking, and he mentioned heated sidewalks. At first I was totally shocked. I mean, think of the energy, and the waste that could be created by something like that. In my mind, it was the equivalent of just shining a light strait up to the sky: not necessary and a waste of energy(as well as creating pollution). After this, I had to go look it up. Generally it seems that the heating is created by either hot water pipes under the sidewalk, or geothermal (which can also be let into the air through vents)

when utilized this can create a walkable atmosphere, or just melt snow off of the ground.

Those seem alright, but there are also electric ones, and also portable electric heating mats

one interesting site I found was this one where a school has reused it’s chimneys waste heat to warm the front walk, and clear it of snow.

I’m still not sold on the idea, although i do like that it might bring people outside more, and to the streets. One thing that I asked Jae was the impact on weather conditions. I assumed that a created warm area meeting with the cool air could create atmospheric changes. He said that yes, there would be a bit. So I guess it’s a choice, warmth vs clear air.

-Megan

Green roofs

This lecture was about the benefits of green roofs and how they are classified.  Green roofs have many benefits ecological, economical and social.  They create biodiversity, and reduce air pollution when placed in urban areas.  Green roofs help insulate a building and increase the overall lifetime of a roof.  They also collect water.  Green roofs provide a place for people to socialize with one and other.  A green roof can be transformed into a cafe or be a peaceful place to relax during the day.   There are three types of green roofs; a basic green roof, a hybrid and a Roof top garden.  The basic green roof is low maintenance, low cost, and does not require gardening.  A hybrid roof has some maintenance, the amount of soil used creates a little more weight and watering is necessary to support the plants growing.  The Roof top garden is high maintenance, high in cost, and the soil usually means the roof has to be specially designed.  The green roof usually only grows things like moss or short grass where as a roof top garden can grow a large variety of vegetation.    

Devan

 

 

You know the enviroment is on everyone’s mind when…

There are LEED certified, green roofed McDonald’s! Yep, thats right, you can now get your big mac and still feel good about helping the enviroment (atleast in theory). The first “green” McDonald’s debuted in Chicago, but now they are going up across the country, in places like New York.

 

- Beth

Variation in natural roofs

I appreciated in the last lecture her talk about different types of natural roofs and their functions.  It is one thing to have the idea of a natural roof but entirely another to really understand the system you are putting in place.  She mentioned three types: Green roofs, Green roof hybrids, and Roof Gardens.  Each has benefits and limitations.  Basically the more intensive the green system is the more maintenance it requires but it is actually quite a bit better for the environment.  But this problem forces designers and builders to constantly have to choose between cheap and green.  And traditional North American development shows a remarkable lean towards the cheap.  I believe what needs to be done is to make every garden design essential to the design of the building.  This could be done in many ways but if it is an accessible space that is an undeniable promotion of function in the building the choice would be a no brainer.  We would have better designs, greener buildings, and a connection to nature as a result.

- Brock

Hybrid Design

Hybrid design is the idea of not just designing for people but for everything that is going to use the environment.  The only way that this can be understood is by talking to your client and understanding what they want in their home.  The house that Jai designed for the (cancer lady) sorry about the name, had to accommodate for 14 cats, 2 dogs, an area for medicinal cannabis, and a paranoia of know what is going on around her.  The reason that this was all know is because Jai took the time to understand the client and give her what she wanted.  Otherwise she may have got a typical Victorian home as she requested.  The use of cut outs in the wall became windows for the lady to see through to her yard but also places for her cats to perch.  Her bed was also a multi cat play area and her walls had trap doors to allow her to go to a secret area.  Multi-functioning design ensures that everything is well thought out to serve specific purpose.  I would say that this design was successful and allowed this lady to live in the home she invisioned 

Devan

Green Roofs

Anna Thurmayrs’ lecture the other day was very interesting. One of the main points I took away from the lecture was that In Germany green spaces/ Roofs must be put into place to make up for building up on the land. This made me think about Winnipeg, and it’s green situation. We all know, or feel, that Winnipeg is at the precipice of change. It has reached the point where we can only change what we’re doing, and we might as well change for the better.  I like the idea of in-between roofs, green roofs combined with garden roofs. however, because of snow fall, a green roof like that may not be practical weight wise. I’d be interested to see how Anna’s research on Winnipeg’s roofing turns out, and weather or not this is feasible. We do however have large spaces of concrete which could be augmented by garden spacing.

-Megan

In Search of Green Roofs

   With last lecture being on the topic of green roofs, I decided to look the one up that was in the presentation. It was this whole town near Switzerland that has green roofs spanning the entire area. Seeing this picture it almost looked fake because it was like nothing Ive seen before in design.

   There is now a vacation business that plans vacations around visiting famous green roofs. One of these is…… the Hundertwasser Waldspirale. When I first saw this picture I had to take a second look to see if it was real or not. I think this shape and use of the building is amazing. If I am seeing it right i tlooks like the public can walk the entire stretch of the green roof from the ground up. Having a building like this is not only environmental and also draws people in and I know if i saw this building I would have to go and check it out further just bceause of its design.

     My hope is that soon more green roofs will be popping up in Winnipeg. I know that research is still required to find if having green roofs really benefit the buildings due to Winnipegs climate but I do really hope that they start being implemented more through out the city. They can do so many things for the environment including,

“

• stormwater mitigation
• reduction of the urban heat island
• energy efficiency for buildings
• improved air quality (including removal of particulate matter)
• extended lifespan of waterproofing
• habitat and biodiversity
• improved quality of life” (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/green-roof-vacation.php)

Just from seeing all these benefits and that with them, buildings can be deisnged beautifully makes me hope that this next generation of designers and architects will really take this into consideration and more green, beautiful buildings will be built in Winnipeg.

    Jess

5 Tantalizing Designs of Awesome Architectural Insanity

I think the title really says it all. Practical? Sometimes not. Safe? again, depends on the project. Whatever you want to call them, Check it out. If nothing else, they ‘re different, and they look cool.

-Megan

Last Lecture

     So today was the last class for human and natural systems and i must say I think it was a good way to end the semester for this course. The first lecture on landscape design was just one of the many that make me condiser this as a career choice. It is really helpful to see presentations like that because they really open my eyes up to what people in each option are doing.

     I always thought before that if you went into landscape architecture that all you would focus on is gardens and pure landscape. I see now and also from touring the landscape studios that it is much more complex then that and actually you do a variety of really interesting things.

     The presenter was also very interesting to listen to. She seemed very enthusastic about what she is doing and designing and seemed genuinley interested in talking about it to us. I liked seeing all the different projects she has worked on and what kinds of things those projects emcompass.

     Hearing Jae speak was really exciting for me. He has very interesting things to stay about architecture and one thing that he mentioned that stuck in my head was how people design for things that are not around. For example when he talked about how the greeks designed for “the gods” and the egyptians built their pyramids for the dead. It was a very different way at looking at different types of designed and I think it was a great way to tell us how to approach a design when under different circumstances.

     Overall, I think this class really opened my eyes up to a lot of new things. I have enjoyed hearing from so many different people from all parts of the world. Being able to get a glimpse into what they are doing with their lives and how much they enjoy it just reinforced my decsion to come into this faculty.

Jess

Flood Architecture

Eds talk on flood architecture brings up some very interesting points.  Especially with water levels rising it brings up some interesting points, for instance the fact that we barely design with floods in mind even in areas that are below sea level.  I searched online for some new projects and there are a lot of very interesting ones.  I narrowed it down to this one called the Bigfoot Stadium, it is basically a stadium built on a naval carrier.  This floating stadium could withstand any flood and actually move to different parts of the city.  And if the team is sold to another coastal city you simply take the stadium with you.  It is interesting atleast for me to think about what it would be like to have an entire city on barges like this.  Your city would move up and down with the tide and eventually you would simply move to a more desirable location.  I guess it would cancel out any form of sustainable living we are chasing and make us less connected to our environments but it sure would be cool. Link Below

- Brocl

Architectural Accoustics

“Architecture is Frozen Music”, what a fascinating quote.  Most of our building are exactly this, but it doesn’t stop at just buildings it is everything we do.  And either our environments are a slow introduction of the song or the climax, or maybe even an encore presentation.  I think we need all these types the difference in a lot of our building is the quality of the song, and the fact that to provide a sense of place you need to be playing the same song as your neighbours.  I never thought of it this way but on my bus rides since this lecture I have thought of each building on the journey to and from school as a piece of frozen music.  As you fly past together they form a song, whether it is a good or bad one it is leaving some sort of impression.  This is a way of designing I believe could be very useful, if you think of your projects in this way your sure not to miss a beat.

- Brock

striated space versus refuge sites

This is an interesting website, and I recommend taking a look.

It is “an interpretation of the modern architecture in the fifties and sixties ” taking a look at the disappearing body of modern architecture and the capsule as a habitual space.
one quote that was used on the site was:

The capsule is cyborg architecture. Man, machine and space build a new organic body which transcends confrontation

I feel this is very much in relation to what we have been learning about in class.

-Megan

Another thought

just another note on Acoustics. I came across this page, and I think it’s definitely worth a read.

enjoy

- M

Disaster Resistant Design (2 for 1)

 

This is titled 2 for 1 because I am reflecting on the class as well as providing something interesting relating to the lecture. 

Recap:

Your brain on music?  I’m going to be blunt, I found this extremely boring.  Sound vibration, tone stimulation all seems self evident.  However it is good to be mindfull of sound within a design, especially if the function of the building calls for it.  I very much liked the quote “Architecture is frozen music.”

As for Ed Epps presentation, I never realized the beauty in designing for disasters such as flooding.  It alsways came across of designing to serve a purpose (to controll nature) rather than working with it and at the same time creating a social infrastructure around the concept.  Some of the images of the people bathing, washing fabrics, etc at the water front was stunning.  It had such a cultural ambiance to it.  I wish that Winnipeg would step it up this department.  There is always a better way than just diverting the problem somewhere else.

Cool:

I found some interesting pictures for flood architecture homes as well as a design for a hurican resistant house.  The design intention has produced some pretty creative and aesthetically pleasing outcomes.

(last 2 images)  The Dutch have fought their marshy surroundings with clever engineering since the country’s inception, and we’ve seen some impressive “floating architecture” from DuraVermeer and WaterStudio. Now that global warming is fanning the flame: melting ice-caps and raising sea levels, more and more Dutch designers are getting into amphibious architecture. Builder Hans van de Beek’s amphibious houses are an obvious yet genius solution to rising water levels. He explains; “They are pretty much just regular houses, the only difference is that when the water rises, they rise.”

http://www.inhabitat.com 

- Amanda

Koen Olthius

     The picture above is of a design by Koen Olthuis. After listening to Eds presentation on flood architecture I decided to do some research of my own on different designs. Olthuis has designed houses that actually detach from the ground when water rises and then can float until the water lovel goes back down to normal. These designs are called amphibious houses. The thing that caught my eye abour his designs is that they beautiful designs. They do not like look houes that are built to float, they look like normal houses that anyone would want to live in. I think his designs could really come to life because of the fact that they blend in and do not stick out from the rest, well only in a good way.

     I think houses like this would be a great introduction to Winnipeg, especially along the river bank. Houses around my community have actually fallen into the water and if they were designed to float, these houses might have been saved and a lot of heart break would have been stopped. Alothugh Winnipeg does not have big floods every year, the river bank does get smaller and smaller and i think that soon water front houses could be a lot closer to the water than they want to be. By bringing in amphibious housing designs into river front houses, houses could be converted so that people can still live close to the water while maintatining the safety of being on land.

  Jess

http://www.inhabitat.com/2005/10/04/amphibious-houses/

“shoebox” shaped concert hall

Today the ideal idea for a musical venue is the “shoebox” design.  It is a small venue usually about 50′ to 80′ wide where the symphony or band play at one end to a relatively small audience this makes sound crisp and non distorted.  This is because of the close quarters, sound waves do not bounce of the walls as much and the sound remains crisp.  Some examples of good concert halls today are Vienna’s Grosser Musikvereinssall (built in 1870), Leipzig’s Gewandhaus (1885), the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (1895) and Symphony Hall in Boston (1900).  All of the halls seat about 2000.  A challenge today is creating a concert hall with the acoustic quality of these halls that seats a number of people in the 10,000+ range.

- Devan

  

Sound in architecture

Both lectures in this class were interesting the first lecture was the second part of through the eyes of the skin by Shauna Mallory-Hill and the second was about flood architecture done by Ed Epp.  The first lecture was about human reaction to different sounds and designing for acoustics.  An interesting concept was the “cocktail effect” which is a person’s ability to pick out specific sounds in a loud environment.  I realized this works when I had my head phones playing music to the point that I could hardly hear any noise around me but when my name came up I heard it almost like I was not listening to music.  It is amazing how your brain is trained to react to specific noise.  I enjoyed the part about humans being considered musical animals, since the early humans we have had music in our culture, weather used for pleasure or communication sound and music have been instilled in human values.

Shauna then talked about different structures throughout time have increased acoustics.  Although it is always brought up I think the roman Coliseum is an amazing example of this.  It’s oval design and high stands amplify a human voice so that everyone within the coliseum could hear the gladiators fighting.  To finished Shauna mentioned that sustainable design today rarely considers building acoustics.  I think it is something to consider when designing.

“Architecture is frozen music” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Devan

Flood Architecture

I found Prof. Ed Epp’s lecture on his travels and flood architecture, to be incredibly informative and thought provoking.

It was certainly interesting to hear about his travels overseas to places like China, and how they are dealing with floods over there.

As well, I was very interested to learn of the International Centre for Flood Architecture, which I had never heard of before. It was quite exciting to realize that such an organization is being operated right out of our own city and directly involved in the faculty. Knowing that this kind of cutting edge work is happening here certainly piques my interest and makes me want to look into flood architecture more closely.

- Beth

Acoustics

I had never really considered the way sound and architecture  coincided. I guess I knew that some spaces created more white noise than others, and that some spaces carried individual sounds well. And I’ve always admired how well thought out cathedrals and the like were , especially through light and sound. I decided to look around, and foundthis a very cool listening room. This site, and the lecture have given me something new to think about design-wise, very cool.

-Megan

Ed Epp and Flood Architecture

     Last classes lecture was by Ed Epp and it was centered around flood architecture and his trips surrounding the theme of flood architecture. This lecture was very interesting to me because my recent studio project was centered around how to embrace floods that Winnipeg endures. It was interesting for me to see how in India, they have steps that go straight down into the water and how people from all generations come to the steps to bath, play  and do many other things. In the city my group designed, we had a system of canals that had steps going into them so that when the river gets too high, flood gates can be opened and the canals can be flooded through the downtown.

      I think the ideas that Ed presented because they all seemed to embrace nature rather than try to control it. I think it is time that designers start to work with nature and incoporate it into their designs rather than try to avoid the problem and keep the”problem” out of the city. Ed’s lecture was probably the most interesting one so far and i think it was great for out class to see another side of what design can be about.

Jess

Sound and it’s effect on people

Dr Shauna Mallory-Hill’s lecture on sound was very interesting and enlightening. I certainly agree that sound has an incredible effect on our emotions and therefore sound is something which needs to be thought about when we are designing spaces.

The radio recording that she played for us of an interview on CBC was really neat, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it (although admittedly I was a little sleepy at the time).

As her other lectures have been, this one was certainly applicable to our studies in this field.

- Beth

Natural Playgrounds

Last weeks lecture (the 2nd half of it) got me to thinking, about gardens obviously, but also about other green spaces and our treatment of these.

I had been looking into the concept of natural playgrounds or “playscapes” for another class and this lecture was really inspiring and interesting, causing me to really think about what makes a “garden” or even a “playground”.

When someone hears the word garden they tend to get a mental picture, typically of a well groomed landscape, filled with perfectly ordered flower beds and maybe even a fountain. But as we were shown, a garden can be so much more. Similarly, when we hear playground, we tend to envision a plastic/wooden structure, with slides, and swings, and maybe some climbing apparatus. We do not tend to picture trees, and streams, and hollow logs.

But these trees, streams, and hollow logs, are part of a new movement towards natural play for children. With growing concern that children are spending too much time indoors on computers and sheltered from the outdoors, this movement is encouraging a move back to natural outdoor play, with an emphasis on unstructured play.

- Beth

This is Great!  I’ve included the full link, http://blog.nola.com/stephaniestokes/2008/10/green_pavilion_a_new_waterrecy.html because I honestly want you to be able to check this out in more detail.  It is a very innovative and thoughtfull design.  I’ve done some searching and there are many interesting and innovative ideas, similar to this, out there however, this is my favorite.  I will mension that I stumbled across a design system that heats water and uses it to heat the home for cold climates.  This is also something you should look up if you have the time.  It would be quite usefull for Winnipeg.  Potentially, I think, rain water as well as snow (melted) could be used for this system!

Anywho, here is the actually article I wanted to post! Enjoy.

When the New Orleans Botanical Garden opens its gates Oct. 18 for the Fall Garden Show, guests will discover all the attractions from years past — plant sales, soil testing, seminars and a scarecrow trail — as well as something new: the Green Pavilion.

The Green Pavilion, a permanent addition to the garden, is an edgy contemporary interpretation of a classic garden gazebo, the kind that for centuries has offered a shady place to sit and relax and take in garden views — the kind, in fact, that already dots the Botanical Garden grounds.

This modern interpretation, however, by designers from Buildingstudio, a local architecture firm, and Tulane City Center, the School of Architecture’s urban research program, has a more cutting-edge look and function: It is also a collecting, filtering, retaining and recycling machine for rainwater. The concept has future applications for the home, as a way to clean and re-use gray water — that is, outflow from washing machines, dishwashers, sinks and such.

“The idea for the project started when Daniel Etheridge, a colleague at the Tulane City Center, was looking at ways people could recycle gray water from their homes for reuse, ” said Coleman Coker, an architect with Buildingstudio who is also on the faculty at the Tulane School of Architecture. “The idea changed over time, and eventually we came up with the idea of creating a garden feature that would collect rainwater, use plants to cleanse it and a wetland to store it, all so that it could be recycled into irrigating the garden.”

- Amanda

Drinking from the toilet?

In the last lecture a great point was brought up.  “Why do we use drinking water in our toiletes?”  I know that the question was answed as follows, “because by regulation, anything that a child can access must be safe,” but this must be out dated.  Surely there are now ways to get around this.  We could create a closed loop cycle (up-cycle) that recyles other used water such as shower, tap, dish, etc, that could make its way to the toilete and then be flushed away.  Seriously, what a waste.  I remeber discovering that the traditional toilet flushes away up to 9 gallons of water from doing the metabolism journal.  Surely we use that amount in a day from the above activities.  A design that facilitated this concept would not only save water, re-use and recycle it, but also save money.  I would love to see a studio project that got us designing something of this nature!

- amanda

The Garden

I enjoyed the lecture about “the garden”.  Although the German accent was thick and made him hard to understand he brought up many good points.  The part of the lecture that I was most interested in was the garden designed in Shanghai.  A huge problem in Shanghi right now is the lack of green space due to over population.  I like the concept of world vegetation mixed with local vegetation.  It incorporates local culture with domestic; I think this creates an attraction for people in the area but also tourists.  Tourism is becoming a part of Shanghi economy; this garden will attract many people visiting the country.  The design was so technical in order to sustain both natural and domestic vegetation it had to be taken from similar climate conditions around the world.  It shows the research that is done to design a park of this size.

Seeing how he designed a landscape of that magnitude give me ideas for our current studio project.  He said “Concentrate on an original idea in the form of a graphic.  The key is to hand draw don’t use a ruler or compass”.  Doing this while designing our sections of the city has helped me to understand the section better. 

Devan

Gardens

I like the idea of having small, yet frequent gardens around the city. One thing I really liked from our last lecture was the temporary gardens, almost like an installment. I think this is very much what you get from a garden anyway. They are (or should be) always moving and changing, and creating something new or different.
Looking around I found this site about temporary gardens in Berlin. here’s what the site says about the project:

The Temporary Gardens were initiated in 1997 with the ambition to discover potentials in the urban space of Berlin and make them visible. Other goals were to stress current positions of landscape architecture and to reestablish public space as a place for communication and interaction. The Temporary Gardens want to raise and encourage public interest for the topic of developing urban free spaces. They are a creative contribution to the discussion about the future appearance of Berlin’s public space.

Locations that are normally hardly noticed by the public are highlighted for four days with imaginative installations, interactions and performances that offer different views on the place. These locations often suffer from a negative image or are subject of controversial political discussions. The Temporary Gardens interpret the existing situations. They try to encourage new ways of looking at places, try to emphasize their characteristics. A Temporary Garden is an invitation to make new experiences.

Initiators are Daniel Sprenger and Marc Pouzol, both landscape architects from Berlin. Many other supporters and partners work as volunteers on planning and realizing the project.

or what about a moving forest?

Another interesting thing Dietmar showed us was the series of gardens he designed, each specifically made for different types of people. I like this idea, generally when we think of, or plan public green spaces, we try to make them fully inclusive. It’s interesting instead to have many more personalized spaces.

-Megan

Our impact

It was a pretty eye-opening point during the first part of the last class how much effect we as designers will actually have on the environment.  To think about it in a way that more than just affecting our immediate surroundings is a new way of thinking for me.  I have thought of aesthetics and sustainability in the past as two seperate and equally desirable things.  But his example of having to cut down a rainforest to put in a hardwood floor gives them a new and very interconnected meaning.  What we have to do for the aesthetics we desire needs to be considered on a world wide basis before we can just go ahead.  I believe this is the real problem of our time that we are not aware of a lot of our own mistakes because they are “away” from us.  But as has been mentioned in our ecology and design class before in nature there is no away.  It is part of a bigger system that we effect in everything we do.  The other thing in that lecture I liked was when he talked about how we are trying to make human solutions for natural problems and how it does not work.  We need to reconnect with nature in an extreme way to understand the world we have “created”.

- Beth

Future City?

So studio today involved a lot of brain storming about what we would want our perfect city to be like and what things we value in our city? Most people in my studio group kept on talking about futuristic cities in the sky as their ideal kinda of city but to me, I really appreciate what the modern city has to offer. I think the feel like big cities give like New York and I dont feel like changing a city completely is the right way to go about it but maybe drastic change is needed?

     After thinking about this I decided to research a little about what other people might view as the perfect new city. I stumbled across this one “pyramid city” which if built wil be 12 times bigger than the great pyrmaid of Giza. This city is actaully contained within a metal pyramid shape that has 8 different levels. There will be skyscrapers on this pyramid and residentaial areas, even personal rapid transport. Yes this city may be carbon neutral and provide a new way of looking at the city but  I think if people start trying to reinvent the city so it is unrecongizable to society, it will only make our situation worse. Cities are built the way they are for a reason and that is because most of the time they work!

     I am very curious to see if cities like this ever come to life and what my own personal city from studio will turn out to be. People have so many ideas of the perfect city but from my point of view, when “utopia” is tried to be created, it usually ends up in failure. People should concentrate on improving what we already have. Not scrapping everything and starting from new.

Jess

(http://www.geekabout.com/2008-01-21-444/arcologists-dream-7-proposed-futuristic-sky-cities.html)

Landscape forms and Process

     Todays class was taught by a landscape prof named Ted. There was two presentations today but I had already seen the last one before. The thing that I really appreciated about Teds lecture is that he really brought up environment issues and easy ways to solve them.

     For example, when talking about run off water and how cities are the exact opposite of what the water systems need. I never before really thought abbout what run off water might all contain like the oils from our car. He made it seem so easy to change our surroundings so that they can positively impact the environment. Lectures like this make me think about things that I want my future house to have. I think the idea of having your entire yard permeable so you can contain all the water in your yard and have almost no run off.

     Another thing I liked about his lecture was thart he mentioned example from Winnipeg. Most people only ever see the good designs that happen around the world and dont really touch on good design close to home. Teds example of how Sturgeon creek reversed its harmful effects on the environment. Things like that make me see what small changes can have such a big imapct on the environment.

     I think sturgeon creek was a great example to give the class. It made me see what altering a river/water system can do to the surrounding environment and how it can be reversed. By doing this to help reverse the negative effects of it, it actaully made the river look better to me and more natural when before it was too perfect and groomed.

      If i ever get into landscape architecture I hope that I can make changes like that to Winnipeg that both add aesthetic appeal and help the environment.

Jess

Community Gardening

 

The last lecture was based on gardens; I decided to look into the purpose of gardens.  Aside from being aesthetically pleasing a garden can serve many purposes, a few of them are a major source of food for an individual or family, become a monument, and they can serve an implied boundary.  The gardening type that most interested me was the idea of community gardens.

The concept of a community garden is that a whole community works together to sustain a garden.  Anybody within the community is welcome to help out in maintaining the garden as well as use the resources he garden produced.  The unique thing is that the resources produced are a secondary benefit.  Community gardens allow people within the community meet one and other and build relationships.  This can lead to a decrease in vandalism.  Children can learn about sustainability and how much work it takes to produce the food they consume.  Overall it instils a sense of community in everybody that helps out increasing self of esteem and moral.

Devan    

Harbinger House

So recently I was looking through the stuff that went on at this past September’s west coast green event. If you haven’t heard of this, i recommend checking out the site – it’s a 3-day annual conference about green innovations, it has new ideas, and great speakers. One interesting thing I found on the site was the Harbinger House designed by The Lawrence Group using shipping containers called SG Blocks. The blocks are quick to assemble, and make good temporary homes, or storage sites.

The Harbinger House can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes, and is fitted with solar panels, rainwater recycling, and an Agilewaves resource monitoring system(this monitors electric, gas and water use and calculates your buildings carbon footprint).

The same local skilled workers who repair the containers are hired to repurpose them into house modules, which can then be easily shipped on trains. This process translates into a miniscule transportation footprint and blazingly fast build times: “when you deliver the finished components to site, you can install up to 12 containers using one crane in one day – that’s the equivalent of a 5,000 square foot house that is set in place in one day”.

pretty cool stuff I think, and it doesn’t look too shabby either, considering it’s 5 shipping containers.

If you’re interested, here’s a video of it being put together (warning – this is almost an hour long, and yes, it is just this being put together)

I also recommend looking through The Lawrence Group’s site if you have time, they do pretty much everything(Architecture, Landscape Architecture, ID,Graphic Design, City Planning) and have some neat projects going on.

-Megan

Archigram and the Walking City

In thinking about our current studio assignment I began to think about the city not so much as a stationary object but as a living/”breathing” organism. While looking at this idea I stumbled upon (actually I re-stumbled upon) Ron Herron’s idea of the Walking City (Archigram)

The very basic idea of the walking city was that it would be a robotic city, able to move to wherever needed resources were located. The cities would be modular, so that mulitple robotic citites could be joined together to make one giant mega city.

I found this concept intriguing, mainly for it’s idea that if you can’t bring the resources to you, why not bring yourself to the resources?

Beth

Site Planning

Our last lecture was given to us by Jean Trottier, and covered the basics of planning a site for developments, as well as how to pick a successful site. This is obviously the place to start for any design. One prominent point I took from the lecture was to not build on the best point of the land. Why would you destroy the part of the land which attracts you, when you could add your project somewhere else, perhaps making it better, while conserving the interesting parts for views, or explorations.

Another thing many people do is to close themselves off from the outside.   wants to look at their neighbours, or be seen from the outside of their homes. But why? Especially if you have a good view. Jean talked to us about the Barnes House in BC. Obviously it is on a location with wonderful views, and the open, and windowed design offers a prime look out over it.
Another thing this project does is that it was designed for the owner. The property was developed on for a retired couple looking to fully utilize the land, with a house useful to them. Because of this, the house is built into the rocks, and is also smaller than the houses we often see. Because there are only the two of them living there, this works well. The house not only looks unique from the outside, but from the inside as well. outside it is quite subtle, and an interesting shape. Inside it is quite dramatic with a stairway to greet you, and huge open windows. It is very unconfined, and a bit distracting. I know I’d always be looking outside instead of doing something productive.

this lecture also put into perspective the use of mapping layers of a site, and then creating a composite to show the best place to put something. The people around the area are a huge factor. If it isn’t something they will utilize, then your project will fail.

Here’s more info on the Barnes house. Make sure you check out the models. They are really cool, and also really detailed.

-Megan

Japan…the City of the future (William Gibson)

Although only very (very) loosely related, last classes lecture on city planning, and site plans reminded me of author William Gibson and his imagined world.

Gibson writes science fiction, but before you become uninterested realize that his science fiction is in a league of his own. Gibson has created a world of his own, a world full of architecture and design, a world much like todays Tokyo (see My Own Private Tokyo in Wired Mag).

So back to my point…I would like to raise a thought, if tomorrows city looks like todays Tokyo, then how do we plan for that. What is it that makes Tokyo this futuristic ideal?

Beth

Abondonalia

Yo, these pictures are intruiging because they are so typical of human development.  As soon as something gets old we build somewhere new and cover more and more land while leaving our old land ruined.  We NEED to start reusing and redeveloping instead of using and developing.  It is the only way to strive for a sustainable planet in our time. Looking at these pictures, such as the one I have attached below I wonder why it was abandoned.  Nothing would be wrong with fixing it up and it would most likely be more beautiful then what will replace it or what is more desirable based on current development practices. This site shows Amazing photographs with a lot of meaning with a very relevant message about our relationship/dominance of environments we abandon for “progress”.

- Brock

Producing electricity from body heat

Our blog group decided to write our final project on producing electricity from body heat.  I like the concept and think that if it was implemented into our university campus it would reduce the net cost of electricity.  As of right now it is possible for each person to produce 200 millivolts, in a room of 300 students that is 60 volts.  A laptop takes 1-2 volts.  That means that it could be charging 60 students lap tops for the entire class.  If the technology improves this could lead to excess energy and potently a net 0 university campus.

For more information on the topic

http://hubpages.com/hub/Generating-Electricity-From-Body-Heat

Devan

Smart Growth

     With the recent presentation about Vancouvers design I have been thinking a lot about smart growth and what positive impacts come along with having this in mind when designing. Driving down Portage avenue the other day, i realized what the downtown could be if we took concepts from smart growth like BC did.

     There are many blocks down portage that have many old falling apart or abandoned buildings on it. These do nothing good for the street or the city as a whole. Even redeisgning one block of Winnipegs downtown could really make a big impact or at least i tihnk it could.

    For example, taking one of those unused blocks and building high rise apartments with retail on the ground floors would be a great way to transform it. Like in the lecture last class, by having retail on the main floor it is approachable to humans and people feel comfortable going into the building. With having a high rise on top brings in thousands of people into the downtown and also helps with the idea of having eyes on the street. Having so many people living in the downtown area makes other feel more comfortable to walk aroiund knowing that people are around if something happens.

     Winnipeg street could also use an update in the retail and stores that line the downtown. Having more stores and boutiques and little coffee shops would make the area a destination instead of just a street to drive down. Place like Minniapolis that have roads like nicolette mall with many shops, bookstores, and restaurants with patios have the right idea in mind by bringing people to the downtown which in the end has many other very positve impacts like less car use.

     Jess

City Planning

Our lecture on thursday was very thought provoking, it made me think a lot about what I think is good city planning.  He talked quite a bit about “The Design Complex” which involved needs, behaviour, values, technology and bio-physical context.  I decided to try to figure out which of these I find the most valuable to address and maybe find something out about my own standards for good city planning.  Of course all of these things are completely essential in designing anything, but for myself it took a realization about the designs that I subconciously am drawn to for me to understand.  What all of these designs I like have in common is a distinct connection to nature, in a way that almost duplicates a nature system in a human form.  I find projects that have this connection to be the most innovative and memorable.  I guess it is not innovative in a creative way since you are just copying something else but it seams to me to just be smart.  It is obvious that we should be copying the one thing in our world that is reliable and that is the natural environment.

- Brock

Jean Trottier Lecture

I found Prof. Trottier’s lecture to be one of the more helpful (or at least immediately helpful) lectures we have had to date. I really enjoyed (okay, maybe enjoyed is the wrong word), but I did find it very informative.

Finding out some actual,, applicable, knowledge about how to deal with site planning was super useful. Jean’s explanations of things like how to calculate slope and the highest legal ramp slope you can have (6 degrees I believe) were things that I actually have used since his lecture, or at least considered

All in all, I found this lecture to be one of the ones that I found most helpful, perhaps it was not the most exciting, but it was one of the most useful.

- Beth

Drainage

Dual Purpose Drain Tile

Drain tile systems serve two purposes. Water removal away from the house and water injection into the soil foundation during drought. Drought conditions can cause the soil of your foundation to shrink, causing foundation and footer to fall.

www.askthebuilder.com

…sustainable function to!!

- Amanda

Recap

In the last class we recieved another outline to approaching design.  I find these lectures to be substatially helpful towards studio.  It is aiding me in my own design process, provideing a slight method to the madness!

I would also like to point out the usefullness of the discussions regarding water drainage.  It does not have to be the traditional trough on the side of yor wall and it can provide multiple functions (i.e. watering plants).  The demonstrations really help get my mind going…as they should be!

- Amanda

Site Planning – Jean Trottier

 

After this class I don’t really know what I want to talk about, I will say that it seems like every time we have a class we are given a new design process.  It shows that without a good process good design is not possible.  Jean Trottiers process consisted of 4 major steps.

1.      Development Programme – take an inventory; all the things that need to be considered in your project.  Create a functional diagram to determine spatial relationships.

2.       Site Analysis – When you take the functional diagram and the Inventory and attempt to put them together.  Usually the original layout will need to be changed.

3.      Go over you site analysis with your client, explain the situation and work with them to change and develop your initial site analysis.

4.       Create concept plans:  Several different layouts and decide which plan is the best for the situation you are in: take into account green space, cost, number of units ect.

At this point the best concept needs to be discussed with the client and modified until they are happy.

I like this process because it works with the client.  I think this is important because it allows you to understand what the people you are designing for really want to see.  Often your opinion may differ from the client and regardless of what you may think of their ideas it is important to ensure that they are happy with the final product.

Devan

Vancouver Discussion

Yesterdays lecture about landscape architecture and design realyl made me think about what i want to do next year for my option. I know that i am 99% sure going to try to get into interior but i was never sure about my alternative. After listening to the profs lecture on landscape design it made me realize what i would be able to do with a job like that.

When he was showing up pictures of Vancouver and talking about how great of a design the city has, it made me think about all the things I would like to change about Winnipeg. FIrst of all, we have no places are that pedestrian friendly. Of course we have the usual ones like the forks, corydon, and osboune but besides that there are not many places that really draw people to them.

    I know that many people are trying to change Winnipeg as we speak but i think that if we could really get some motivated people in the field of trying to turn the design of winnipeg around, things could really turn out great and seeing what good design can do to a city really makes me want to change WInnipeg even more.

     When people take into consideration the landscape of the city and how it will intereact with people, good deisgn can be rather “simple”. When i say simple I mean that you can take simple ideas of public spaces and really turn them into something specail. These are things that IWnnipeg really needs.

     Overall, yesterdays lecture made me realize what i could do if i  went into landscape architecture and that interior design is not my only option. Maybe i will go into landscape architecture… that is if interior doesnt work out!

Jess

Innovation

As designers we always have to be aware of the newest ideas in design.  I found a few that  I think deserves a mention  the first is privacy glass.  It is transparent glass that can turn foggy by flicking a switch.  This is done by using liquid-crystal optics; two pieces of glass are compressed together then covered with a liquid- crystal film.  Once a current goes through the glass the liquid-crystal particles move around and the glass becomes foggy. 

The second idea is Sunlight transpots; the use of a fiber optic cable that can make a basement feel like it is being lit by natural sunlight without the use of windows.  It can also be used in any working environment where there is a lack of natural sunlight.  The best part about this technology is it can be used with solar panels to create an energy efficient fossil fuel free environment.

For more information on these and othere innovations visit

http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/09/06/green-building-101-design-innovation/

Devan

LEED

Perhaps I am the only one who missed the memo in regards to LEED, but I am pretty sure I am not…so what exactly is LEED? We all hear about LEED silver this, and LEED Platinum that. But what exactly is LEED?

LEED, or The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, is a independent certification program which measures a projects sustainability. There are 4 LEED certification levels, going from certified, silver, gold, and platinum.

To achieve a certain level of LEEDS certification, a project must get a certain number of points, with points being given out for an incredible variety of things.

I know that this is a very general overview, but hopefully it helps someone else brush up on their LEED knowledge as it did me.

For more information check out this link

- Beth

Alot of Stuff

In our last class we had two guest lectures. Personally I really enjoyed the first speaker better, not to say that the second speaker was bad, but in comparison, his lower energy talk couldn’t keep my attention. Even with Carmines’ fast speaking rate, I found myself taking pages of notes, thus It has taken me a while to go back through them, and pick some key points to write about. First I would say that I appreciated his blunt approach. We’re often not told what to expect from our lives after we graduate. It’s almost as if we don’t need to know that the real world exists.
He also made it quite clear that we are entering a new era. With so many things to think about while we design. He mentioned the very important bill 15, this bill stresses that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is essential for the protection of human health and our environment and stated that almost all electrical power generated in Manitoba is derived from renewable energy sources,if we can keep this continuous we could have the cleanest energy. This bill will also make energy more cohesive throughout the province.
The “Structured Process” he introduced to us would be another good point to retain. it’s six steps, but it leads to defensible decisions. It was interesting to see that The number one reason that decisions fail, is the lack of a process, and now we have been presented with one. We may not need to stick to it exactly, but it’s a good starting point.
I think the main thing I took from the lecture was to plan for the things you don’t know you know. There is always going to be something you haven’t thought of, but to simply be aware that this exists is going to help exponentially.

I would like to touch on Dr van Vilet’s lecture as well. I am really interested in the landscape/urbanism option of our program, and it’s always good to see what future years have been doing. Although I had seen some pictures from the class trip he talked about before, it was really cool to see/hear about it from the professor. My favorite thing from the lecture was the pyramid greenhouse. That’s something I had never seen before, I would love to look into the difference between domes, pyramids, and general house shapes, and the amount of heat they retain and disperse. I like the idea that you can get the same effects, and save money/time by using the pre-made pieces and creating an angled building. The size of the greenhouse was also very awe-inspiring. I would like to learn more about the construction of it.
I feel I should also touch on the Dockside Green subject. Being from Victoria, I’ve heard alot about the project, and have followed it for quite a while. Although there have been many problems along the way, I support the idea because that is one of the uglier areas of the city.  It seems strange to put a development of that type in the spot they have chosen, but it is near a lower-income area, and will bring a nice community feel to the city, or at least that part of the waterfront.

-Megan

Water

So I came across this idea which made me think of our metabolism journal. Since then I’ve been really aware of just how much water I am using. So when i heard about Tap Aerators I was really interested. You attach these to your tap and they add air to increase the power of the flow, so that you can use less without ending up with a week water flow. Interesting.

some more water saving ideas

-Megan

Live Small

As the world becomes more and more focused and concerned with the environment and our impact on it, it is interesting to see that we still seem to be so fixated on living “big”. By living big I am referring to the size of the homes we live in.

Everywhere you look you see large homes. We have 3 car garages, 3 stories (counting the basement), and more space than we know what to do with. Meanwhile we are considering whether to buy a hybrid car (not that isn’t a good thing). Instead of looking at other ways to reduce our impact on the earth, perhaps we should be thinking about downsizing our homes. Very few people actually need the square footage of their current home.

By simply scaling down the size of our houses we will be reducing our footprint by a large number. Smaller homes mean lower heating costs, less building materials, and perhaps even a smaller lot size.

With the number of unique and interesting prefab small homes out there today there was never a better time to live small!

For more information on this trend, check out the following links:

NYtimes article on small scale living

Metropolise Magazine M-Ch article

Inhabitat feature on 5 small prefab’s

- Beth

Last class recap/Don’t just google…

Last week’s dual lecture class was certainly enlightening and thought provoking. That being said, I have to admit that I personally found the first lecturer (from Stantec) to be much more engaging, and therefore I got much more out of his lecture.

I definitely understood what he was talking about when he was discussing the modern phenomena of google designers. I know that I will often google something if I am unsure about what exactly it is, or to gain a more concrete understanding of a concept. I think that it was a good reminder to me that although google is great, we may rely too heavily on it and perhaps we should stop google’ing everything, or at least reconsider it. Just because you can read medical research studies on-line does not mean you are a doctor!

I also found it interesting to see a documented planning/problem solving process laid out for us, and clearly discussed. The speaker talked about communication and how important it is for us as designer’s to be able to clearly explain our work to people and to be able to tackle problems in an effective manner.Speaking of designer’s and communication, I had stumbled across an excerpt from a talk given by a web designer and I felt that it was very relevant… “There’s this perception designers are creative and therefore irrational people that can’t explain what they do and why they do it. Rarely do we find a designer that can explain. We, the designers, have to make things clear and we have to make sure we can explain our decisions along the way. Designers aren’t just making applications pretty, we have to make them useful. We have to inject usability and sense into an Interface Design. And while doing this, we have to always keep in mind WHY? We have to open the door to conversation and make an effort to explain ourselves rationally.” – Ryan Singer, Future of Webdesign Conference, 2008.

- Beth

Metal and Rubber Combined?

Over the last few weeks I’ve come across various sites with information about this substance. Now, this isn’t a new substance, but I’ve never really realized it’s possible potentials. This site eludes to it’s possible use with aeroplanes. Now, I don’t know How much weight is generally held in an aeroplane, but I’m not sure that even the strongest rubber could contain/suspend that weight

“We can stretch it to about 200 to 300 percent of its original length, and it relaxes back,” says Claus. “It’s very tough. We can expose it to chemicals. We can put it in jet fuel. We can hit it with acetone. We can boil it in water overnight, and it doesn’t mechanically or chemically degrade. We can heat it up to about…700 Fahrenheit. It won’t burn. We can drop it down to about…minus 167 degrees Fahrenheit, and it maintains its properties.”

one hope is that this material can make aircraft which morph as they fly.

(link)

This seems like the substance (or a version of) that we’ve seen car made from (I believe we saw this in the garmenture input)

I wonder now what else we could build from this, could a building be created, and then changed as necessary? Perhaps a room could be expanded to increase capacity. We could live in a practical size home, and expand one room for a party, or add space for relatives when they come to visit.

-Megan

stantec

 

Here is an actual project by Stantec in aiding the environment. 

Restoring ecosystem health and functionality requires a deep understanding of the subtle physical and biological processes involved.

In recent years, society has begun to recognize the full value of healthy, functional ecosystems and has increasingly supported ecosystem restoration projects. Stantec offers a multidisciplinary approach integrating the expertise of aquatic biologists, wildlife biologists, plant ecologists, engineers, hydrologists, fluvial geomorphologists, and other specialists as needed to develop and implement sustainable, cost-effective restoration solutions.

 

Parry Sound, Ontario

Stantec’s Environmental Management team collaborated with Royal Botanical Gardens to restore two hectares of wetland that had been destroyed in the clean-up of a train derailment. Following the clean-up, a restoration plan was developed by a team of ecologists and landscape architects.

An important concern in wetland restoration is avoiding the introduction of invasive species that are harmful to native ecosystems. To address this concern, Stantec’s innovative restoration plan used only native species and minimized the importation of soil. Native plant material was collected at the derailment site, propagated over the winter at Royal Botanical Gardens’ wetland nursery, and planted in the spring.

The restored wetland now provides habitat for numerous species of aquatic and terrestrial animals and is consistent with typical landscapes found throughout the Canadian Shield.

http://www.stantec.com

- Amanda

helpful

The lecture we recieved from Carmine Militan from Stantec was quite different from any other thus far.  He was very enthusiastic and brought about the practicle side of things.  His lecture seemed like a business mans sales pitch.  However, I did enjoy it.  The Risk Assesment along with the Context Sensitive Solutions outline will be very useful for upcomming projects.  It is almost like an outline to an essay for design projects.  1.  Be commited (always do something you believe in and that interests you), 2.  Frame the problem (as we are all now aware of, every design posses a proble that we must solve), 3.  Develope Goals, models, and alternatives (brilliant!  Set a design goal/intention, make study models to see how it will function and be aware of the fact that it may be neccessary to come up with an alternative.  I think the later is the hardest part.  That is to say, I find myself getting attatched the origional idea and not wanting to make alternative designs of it),  4.  Collect valued info (very neccessary, otherwise what are you really going to accomplish?),  5.  Manage risk and decide (there will probabably always be something that isn’t as feasable as we thought initially.  It would be very productive to be aware of that risk from the start in order to make valued dicisions in regard to that),  6.  Develope implementaion plan  (now that the outline has been istablished, begin to execute it).

I think following these steps will help to make me a better designer, not to mension save valuable time by being well prepared.

- Amanda

In the very least look at the photos

The pictures shown in the link below are by Caleb Charland.  These photos both show and try to exceed the relationships of human and natural boundaries and their restrictions.  Using a lot of ordinary things such as candles, ice and magnets he shows the flows of energy and light in systems.  Looking at these pictures will almost certainly get you thinking about the connection between natural energy flows and the perceptions of the way we interact with environments.  What I mean by this is that we take a lot of things for granted and the pictures attempt to understand and bring these more static interactions of materials into focus.  Plus these are some ridiculously beautiful photographs!!

- Brock

Decision making

The class on Thursday was interesting, the second lecture made me realize how much can be done to change community.  All the different innovation can make any community sustainable.  The part that really interested me was the first part of the first lecture be Carmine Militano.  He brought up the idea of logical decision making using a six step process.  He told us that we need to do all these steps before we form a final plan.

1.       Leadership and commitment

2.       Frame the problem

3.       Develop goals – Models and alternatives

4.       Collect valued information

5.       Manage risk and decide 

I am going to try this process next time I have a problem to solve and see how it goes.

On a side note I made some simple problems and experimented with excel logic functions.  I agree with what  Mr. Militano said, when information is properly entered  the logic function can make decision making easier.

Devan

Innovative Houses

With our new studio porject underway and all the walking through urban/suburban areas we have to do, it has made me really start to look at building and houses more carefully. For example, today walking around academy and looking at all the beautiful old houses made me see what an impact even houses can make and how many of them really are in just Winnipeg. With all of these houses being around me I started to think about green homes and what kind of options are out there that maybe houses in Winnipeg could incoporate into their designs to make less of an impact on the environment.

     Strawbale homes is one of the green ideas I came across. Barley, wheat, rice, flax and some other straw can be put into houses to actually build their walls. These components are compacted to together to make bales that can stack on top of one another. These act as building blocks for the walls of any building like homes and garages.

     Building with strawbales has many positive factors that make it a great choice-

The high R factor of straw homes has the added benefit of keeping the house cool in the summer!

Straw bale homes offer a more solid look and feel and allows for greater artistic designs. All of which contribute to a more enjoyable and comfortable home.

Straw homes utilize an annually renewable agricultural by-product.

The interior plaster of straw bale houses increase the “thermal mass” of the home, which helps to stabilize interior temperature fluctuations.

Big thick walls mean nice quiet places.

Conventional foundations and roofs can be used with straw bale buildings.

Straw bale homes are low maintenance. The final coat of plaster can be mixed with a die to provide colour. As such, the owner may never have to paint it. When built with a steel roof and high quality windows, a straw bale home may have a virtually maintenance free exterior.

Building with straw provides added income to struggling farm families.

Finally there is the community factor. People can be more involved in the building of their straw bale home, a process that increases the owner’s sense of satisfaction with the product.

As you can tell their are many reasons why building this way is a great choice. I like the idea that we can make homes more green in such simple ways and I think that even doing this could really benefit the enironment mainly in the way of cutting back on destroying forests for lumber.

Jess

http://www.greenplanethomes.ca/about_strawbale.htm

Class recap/Matthias Schuler lecture

Our first speaker in class today had some pretty interesting points, it is definately neat to see that we have this sort of innovation going on in our city.  What I am really going to blog about today is the lecture I saw last night by Matthias Schuler.  The speaker today and Matthias do very much the same thing, I just feel that Schuler does a much more interesting and thorough job, this may explain why he is working with Frank Gehry and our guy from Stantec is not.  The fact that everything Schuler does is so innovative intrigues me, he is not running by any code simply looking at nature and letting it form his designs.  The fact that he actually mentioned certain desert animals that he used as inspiration in forming the carbon neutral city in Abu Dhabi for me says it all.  And of course it is a remarkable connection to this class be it human and natural systems.  Matthias Schuler has inspired me to think that it is possible and not scary to innovate based on nature and not on human whims.  The lecture was certainly very inspirational, I just hope the city in Abu Dhabi actually becomes carbon neutral.

- Brock

Stantec and Sustainiblity

     So todays class was the two lectures given by Carmine Militano and David Van Vilet. First off was Carmine and I actually really enjoyed his presentation. I thought he was going to be just another guy talking about design and would be kind of boring but to my surprise he did a great job of presenting! He seemed so enthuastic about what he was teaching and seemed genuinley happy about being in our classroom which was refreshing.

     Although I enjoyed his whole presentation the things that I listened extra closely to was when he was telling about like the importance of following a structured process when designing and how to go about it. I feel like those things could actually be very important to my education and things I can use right now. The way he presented his information made it seem important and relevant to us.

    The second presentor did not catch my attention like the first. I did find that what he was talking about related directly to what are class is all about in how to design for people! and how good design can really change a community.

Jess

A neat idea

I was randomly searching the Internet and found a site about energy  harvesting.  It dealt with the idea of converting rain into electricity.  “The system works with raindrops ranging in diameter from 1 to 5 mm, and simulations show that it’s possible to recover up to 12 milliwatts from one of the larger “downpour” drops.”  While this seems like a great idea the problem is 12 milliwatts is not a large amount of electricity.  If the researchers found a way not to lose as much energy while converting energy into electricity this could be a great way to produce electrical power in places that receive high amounts of precipitation during the year.  If we could find a way to convert snow into electricity it would be an option to produce power in Winnipeg  The like below goes into to greater details and shows a picture of the device.

http://www.physorg.com/news120216714.html 
 

Devan

Cool window “alternative”

Our trip to Jeld-Wen reminded me of a window option that has been around for many years but that still seems to be a great option for homeowners, especially today when we are trying to be more energy efficient in our day to day lives.

They’re called “Solar Tube Skylight” and they are basically a long angled tube with a “porthole” at either end that is installed in the roof of your house just like any normal skylight. The neat part is that the Solar Tube has mirrors in it that are able to reflect and amplify the light shining in…allowing a small skylight to light large amounts of space naturally.

This kind of lighting would be a great option for interior corridors of office buildings or inner rooms in any building where traditional windows are not an option. It has been proven that natural light is extremely beneficial to our overall mental and physical health. Solar Tubes are an amazing way to provide that natural light in a low cost, simple way!

Beth

Well…

Really it’s just us. We do terrible things. Recycling tin cans isn’t going to cut it. Let’s redesign our world.

*warning – really long article*

-Megan

environmentally friendly?

I came across this the other day. An environmentally friendly drilling process? I feel as though too much time and effort went into this. The damage on the environment during extraction, while bad, is not the main problem we are having with fossil fuels. It’s the sustainability pert that’s slightly more pressing in my opinion. Maybe we could spend our money on alternatives instead.

-Megan

What About Daylight?

So, this past class we visited Jeld-Wen, which was interesting.  I like that presentation, because the guy was fairly blunt when the answer to a question was no, and nothing really seemed to throw him too much. Obviously he wanted to make his company sound good, but he didn’t skirt around the questions like MANY of the other people who speak to us.  I found the handouts a bit more patronizing though, but that’s just my personal opinion.  I’m glad we went on this outing, I knew next to nothing about windows and doors before this. It’s interesting that the last few classes have tied together so well. Last week our two guest lectures brushed on light, and how we can use it, and the energy costs lights need. This left me thinking why are we working so hard to find alternative energies, and ways to “save the world” by using slightly more efficient lights. Why can’t we just incorporate more natural daylight into our buildings. Obviously some lights are necessary, but could we not just plan our window placements better? We saw earlier in the course a building which Jae and his associate had build for a man in a wheelchair. They had sections of the walls missing so that light could penetrate through the entire building. This seems so ideal for our lives. Why don’t we do this more? I guess this is the same as the neighbourhood issue – we live in suburbs, but we would like to go back to the 50’s and have communities. The overlap between this class and our ecology and design class is very exciting. In fact, if I remember correctly, we discussed natural lighting for buildings in that class as well. If every solution is to go back to before we had “miracles” and to where we lived practically, I guess we really just need to work our way backwards and start this growth thing all over again.

some Tips on daylighting your home.

-Megan

Personal Thoughts

I REALLY enjoyed the field trip to Jeld-Wen.  It was very refreshing to hear that there are businesses that are considering the environment in every step of there operation. 

I was chatting with the guy who gave us the lecture and asked if the company was going to be promoting their practices more.  He said that it seems as though more customers are concered and impressed about there environmental considerations and that they definately will be promoting it more.  He was enthusiastic about the idea that sustainable design will become more prominante in the up comming years.

For now the company deals more with residential products.  Hopefully in the future it will be feasable for them to brach out into commecial services.

This was definately a trip that gave me hope for the future of design! 

The more people and businesses that are aware the faster the progress.   Sustainable design should be considered in all circumstances.   If the benifits of sustainable design are common knowledge, initial cost would/should not be an issue.  It would be great if our generation was the generation that changes the view on cost versus efficiancy and made green design common place.  It is definately my goal!

By Amanda Hamilton

Jeld-Wen

I was looking at Jeld-Wen’s website and found some great information on thier Green Initiatives!! 

In 2004, JELD-WEN became an ENERGY STAR® partner in Canada. In 2006, JELD-WEN won the ENERGY STAR promotional campaign of the year.

JELD-WEN is on the leading edge of energy efficient home development in Ontario through its partnership with EnerQuality and the ENERGY STAR® for New Homes program. The Ontario project is largest green housing initiative in Canada.

 

JELD-WEN Moulded wood fiber interior doors and garage doors are Scientific Certification System (SCS) certified, which means that the door facings contain at least 51% recycled materials.

 

 

JELD-WEN is proud to support a better way to build.

JELD-WEN is a member of the Green Building Initiative (GBI), a non-profit organization that accelerates green building practices by promoting environmentally progressive approaches that are practical, affordable and accessible to mainstream builders, architects and developers.

 

 

Green Building

Green Building is not the latest fad; it is a positive industry direction. In a green building, the materials, design methods and construction techniques are carefully reviewed for their environmental impact. Initially focused on commercial building, sustainable design elements are now being incorporated into residential projects.

JELD-WEN has always believed that making quality products that save energy is good business and good for the environment. We are proud of the fact that we are recognized as an integral part of a new revolution in healthier, lower ecological impact, and resource-saving building construction. In addition, we know that our customers are increasingly demanding green products for their homes, whether they are remodeling or building a new home and it is our goal to provide them with those products. For example, JELD-WEN is replacing historic resins with new formaldehyde free resins.

It is clearly in our interest, in our customers’ interest, and in the industry’s interest to accelerate the adoption of building practices that result in more energy-efficient, healthier and environmentally sustainable buildings. To this end, JELD-WEN will continue to participate in the development and implementation of Green Building certification programs that promote credible and practical green building approaches for residential and commercial construction products.

JELD-WEN is proud to be a member of the Green Building Initiative (GBI), a nonprofit organization that accelerates green building practices by promoting environmentally progressive approaches that are also practical, affordable and accessible to mainstream builders, architects and developers. JELD-WEN’s membership in GBI helps grassroots homebuilder associations develop local green building programs that make sense for their own regions. These programs help builders develop homes that are energy-efficient, healthier to live in, and better for the environment.

 

http://www.jeld-wen.ca/

 

By Amanda

 

 

Jeld-wen

Our second field trip of the year was to Jeld-wen’s downtonwn Winnipeg showroom.

I must admit that although the informational lecture we were given was informative, and the man giving it was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, the part of the field trip that held my interest was Jeld-wen’s building restoration and the fact that they attempted to restore and keep as much of the original detailing as possible. Where this wasn’t possible they worked with an architecture firm (Sasha and Johanna’s I believe) to keep the look of the building intact while making necessary replacements (such as exterior windows).

I found it heartening to see such a beautiful restoration of a building that according to the Jeld-wen man, had been sitting abandoned for years before being purchased by them.

- Beth

Jeld Wen

The trip to jeld wen was quite interesting, it made me realize how important windows and doors are to design.  And also how horrible they are for the environment when their purpose is to connect us to nature, kind of ironic I guess.  Even tho this company seemed to be making great efforts to lower their environmental impact I realized how much these features do have an impact by the amount of things that are manufactured to make these things fit into place.  And then how these are the most vulnerable parts of the house in terms of heat loss/gain.  Personally seeing a design with lots of windows usually strikes me as quite beautiful, but at what cost is this to or impact on the earth.  I certainly do not know real numbers as to how much this impact is but it seems to me even with all these efforts it just isn’t enough and we need to keep working harder and harder to make this work.  By no means am I saying not to build windows, they are necessary for a sense of space and aesthetic design, but maybe we need to rethink how they are used and are thought out more?  I am not sure at this point what this might be but I will definitely be thinking about this in the future.

- Brock

Pile up house

This is a really interesting way of designing houses that adds apparently no extra costs.  The reason I bring it up is mainly simply because it is a different way of looking at space.  All the spaces use each other to form what is their own form.  I like it because they are all so perfected interconnected and build off one another.  I feel as if this subjective design is the future of our design lives and that we should all take a good look at what it is they are doing makes it such an impressive thing.  I think for me it is the fact that all my live I have been learning that it is desirable to have your own defined space, and this design at least in theory has a very connected to feeling to the whole.  I guess in essence I feel as if it gets its inspiration from nature in the way it relies on every other part to survive as a whole.  In this way it relates to our ongoing idea of human and natural systems and the way they inter-react.  In this example the design takes its inspiration from nature, it might not be something the designer had in mind but I think at least at a sub-conscious level it has been considered.  And I definitely see it in the final product of the design.

- Brock

Jeld-Wen Windows and Doors

This past Thursday our class was had the opportunity to visit JELD-WEN.  Once again it was another part of architecture I never really considered.  After hearing the speech given by the representative I think that windows are an important thing to consider when designing.  I found the part about Aura Last to be the most interesting, I like the fact that people are still working on improving technology like windows even know they have been around for so long.  I think that this is a very innovative and environmentally friendly solution compared to the used of Petroleum.  The part that I think could have been improved is the viewing of the showroom, it would have been nice to have a tour guide to explain the reason behind some of the designs.  Overall I enjoyed the field trip, it opended my eyes to another aspect that needs consideration when designing buildings. 

Unlike wood treated by conventional methods (B), AuraLast wood (A) guarantees nearly 100% penetration of active material in JELD-WEN wood window and doors.

 

 Devan

Plastic aiding the environment?

You might recognize this building from the recent Olympics in Beijing where the swim competions were held. When I was watching the olympics this past year I was curiouc about this building because it is so eye catching and unlike any kind of building you would see here in Winnieg so I decided to find out more about it. I was surprised to learn that this building is actually covered in plastic bubbles made of of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) plastic.  Many people these days are agianst plastics and even personally I do not view plastics as a good material for the earth but this building is helping prove that wrong ( well somewhat.) Having these plastic bubbles on the building actually trap heat in the building helping in reducing heating requirements by 30%. Even thought this kind of building is not pratical for many buildings ad situations but I thought it was new and different to see people thinking in different ways and trying to stretch the normal and make people think about alternative methods.

Jess

(http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2008/07/31/beijing-water-cube-makes-plastic-environmentally-friendly/)

Light & ARCHITECTURE

concepts

LightArchitecture is an attempt to join two apparently irreconcilable worlds: the virtual and the real by chasing what is on. The goal is the creation of a new branch of architecture in constant communication with the Village integrating the real and the virtual within a public communications strategy through the use of innovative technologies that expand the space in which images and ideas are presented. This architecture of vision evolves from both the special effects techniques deriving from cinema and from the principles of digital interactivity, resulting in projects that are highly hyped and are the very foundation of LightArchitecture: close interaction. and. LightArchitecture proposes a blending of the imaginary space, made of images and ideas and of a world that wonders about its future, while maintaining a cohesive perception of reality within multidimensional spaces. LightArchitecture is weightless architectural design. Metamorphose In the biological process of metamorphosis, the animal’s change of form or structure cell growth and differentiation is accompanied by a change of habitat or behavior. In pretty much the same way, a building is subjected to metamorphic mutations that change its appearance but especially its use. LightArchitecture metamorphose is a process in which architecture is integrated into the urban space in a mimetic way so that the life of the city changes from day to night seeminglessly. What during the day can be used as information surface shall become an iconic sign in the night, offering an intelligent alternate building use, according to natural light-darkness cycle. LightArchitecture operates to diffuse on a large scale this alternate metamorphic use in order to contribute to a fast and sexy redevelopment of dismissed or technologically obsolete structures.   LIGHT LightArchitecture is light architectural planning magic of the light information architecture real-virtual synthesis soft integration with digital systems format yard for territorial marketing development of spectacular interactive media solutions for info-mobility I think this is an interesting concept.  It is a creative spin on light and architecture.  However, it doesn’t really seem to take into account the human eye or the human scale.  A lot of these designs are massive and dark.  As we learnt in class, the human eye needs an adjustment period in order to absorb light reflections.  This stuff looks pretty cool but I’m not sure how usefull it really is.  It seems like a lot of big bombarding advertisement (or at least that is just the initial feeling I get when I see it).  Once you get past the wow factor, how good is it?        - Amanda

 

 

Second Fieldtrip-Jeld-Wen-Red River

So we just got back from our feild trip in the exchange and I decided to write the blog with my memory still fresh. While listening to the Jeld Wen presentation I did not find it too captivating, at least for me that is. I know windows are complex and a big part of architecture and design but for me, i only feel I need to know the basics of windows and how they work to incoporate them into design but maybe im wrong. Anyway, the part of the field trip I liked best was Red River. I love the Red river building mainly of how the new and old are mixed. I am a big fan of renovated old buildings and they are by far my most favoirte space to be in. In the future I would love to be involved in designing lofts and condos/retail out of old warehouses and buildings. I think taking something that nobody wants any more and making it beautiful is a specail thing. Those old buildings have such character and that needs to be taken advantage of more often!

Jess

50 Ads/materialism

On the site listed below are 50 beautifully done ads from the 50’s and 60’s, they are really pieces of art convincing people to buy certain products.  I was sitting admiring these ads and how we no longer take this time on our ads by the looks of some of the cheap things we see.  But then I realized how much money must have been invested in these ads, and how much companies are still spending.  I realized that if all this money had been but into trying to find a better and more sustainable way to make these products, we probably wouldn’t be in this world crisis we keep hearing about.  I hear time and time again that we are ruining our planet, while knowing I am part of the problem but don’t know what I can do.  Meanwhile more money that could be used for sustainable development gets pumped into advertisement that attempts to make us more and more materialistic.  This is where we have gone wrong, we went from a society with decent values to one that is “living the dream” and ruining our natural environment along the way.  While these advertisements were alot of fun to look at I now realize they are a big part of the problem we are faced with as designers today.  If I were in government I would pass a law saying that for every penny spent on ads an equal amount has to be spent on sustainable development, but that’s just me.

- Brock

Apeture Studies

I loved the lecture we recieved on Right to Light Carving.  There were some very thought evoking statements made.  For example, “what really drives the form?  It is not just artistic will & creativity, it is sustainability, function, thermal massing, etc.”  The example we were giving seemed very considerate. 

In order to allow the current buildings that exist on a site that you develop to continue to receive the same amount of sunlight throughout a day, as the designer, you must account for that.  I thought it was amazing the way that the building we were shown in class took its form on account of sun light.  Removing “chunks” from the original design as not to interfere was brilliant.  It can really give the form a substantial impact and purpose.  I never thought of designing for function at this level.  I always concidered it to be simply the intended use/function of the building.

- Amanda

Context and Parameter

So the program that guy showed us was freakin ridiculous, I was in awe of the things that program could accomplish in such a short amount of time.  I am excited to get to a point where we will be able to get to use programs like that in our work!  But thats not what this blog is about, it is about the discussion we had involving context and parameters at the end of last class.  More specifically the point that it is impossible to consider everything in a design.  It got me thinking about what would be the most important things to consider in our projects, it is a very hard thing to do.  Trying to rate importance on a bunch of things that seem equally essential is almost impossible.  It seems the best we can do is not good enough to create the perfect design, something will always go wrong.  I think being inspired by human, natural and technological systems all at the same time is the best we can do.  If any of these are missing nothing can be done that is up to par, this topic was simply another reminder that we must interrelate all systems to get a true picture of how design is perceived.

- Brock

Our Ideas Realized*

I know this is kind of from our ecology and design course but thinking back to our assignment of re-inventing a item to make it sustainable I rememeber one group talking about “Wheat for your Feet”. Their idea was to make disposible sandels out of wheat that you can throw into your recycling bin or compost. While surfing the web I stumbled upon these:

These are sustainable sandels made out of MELFLEX plastic which is a reyclable plastic. These sandles are prodcued in a factory that recycles 99 % of its water and waste. I think these are a great idea realized beacuse when you think about it, during the summer people can go through flip flops like nothing. They are usually cheap and broken easily. This way when summer hits, all those plastic sandles wont end up in the land fill but end up recycled and maybe even recylcled into new sustainable sandles.

(http://eco-studio.blogspot.com/2008/06/sustainable-showes-brazilian-chic-sin.html

Jess

Cervelo P4

I was looking at time trial bikes and decided I would talk about the design of the newest bike that Cervelo has developed.  It is called the P4C, a bike made up of carbon fibre and aluminum, this makes for an extremely light weight.  Each component is adjusted to a specific angle taking into account the comfort of the rider but still keeping the bike streamlined as much as possible.  All the small details are investagated    Cervelo has invested millions in the aerodynamic design; it is one of a kind.  In order to perfect it they bring the bike to low speed wind tunnels and do extensive tests to ensure the bike has very little wind resistance.  To top it all off the bike has a built in hydration system (water bottle) which means a bulky aftermarket water bottle does not need to be mounted and potentially increase wind resistance.  

 

Devan Pohl

Architecture and Light!

So todays class was all about light + architecture and how these two are intertwined in so many ways. When listening to the first lecture I was most interested in all the pictures she was showing of buildings from around the world and how they incoporate sunlight in them rather than just artificial light. I think these ways of designing and building should be applied more to Winnipeg. For me when there is no real sunlight from the outdoors I feel very confined and not very comfortable. I need to have windows around me or even just a hint of natural light. Just knowing that I am not completely closed in by walls makes me a lot more relaxed. A lot of buildings in Manitoba and all around for that matter do not incorporate sunlight enough. Especially in a place like Winnipeg when in the winter it is too cold to be outside for long time periods, buildings with lots of natural light are a necessity!  Also, having large amounts of windows and skylights letting the sun in on cold winter days willl help heat the buulding and create the sense of warmth from outside. Another little thing I would like to mention is how cool that software was that was shown to us. Being able to see how different shadows will fall on a building through all times of the year was pretty impressive to me and i could see how beneficial that would be to know when designing a building and the postition of its windows and doors.

Jess

light and the human eye

The class today was very interesting, the first lecture talked about how our eyes see light and the way it can affect design.  The part I found most interesting was hear the different strategies used to manipulate natural light in order to keep structures properly illuminated.  Seeing an architectural structure that used a post and beam, archway, vault, cross vaults or a dome shows the advancement in light technology.  I was surprised to hear that a single hole in the top of the dome can be used to light the entire structure.  It just goes to show that design has to be considered to the smallest detail, it is not only about aesthetic quality.

The second part of this lecture the prof showed us many different types of lights and explained the pros and cons of each.  From this I think that in the future LED lights will become a big part of building lighting.  They use low amounts of energy, illuminate extremely bright when many are used together and have a long life span before they burn out.

 

Devan Pohl

Solarcity, Austria

SolarCity is a brand new town for 6,000 inhabitants that will be powered almost entirely by solar energy. Established in Linz-Pichling, Austria, SolarCity is based on a collaborative architectural master-plan by Auer+Weber+Architekten.

The highest possible level of compactness, diversity and multipurpose facilities, as well as the development of low-cost municipal housing, also feature in the plans.

SolarCity will be powered almost entirely by solar energy.

The development was nominated for the Best Environmentally Sustainable Project in the LEAF 2005 awards.  

 

Gardens for tenants, tranquil areas, children’s playgrounds and spots for communal activities divide up the construction areas and lend them an air of small scale individuality.

SOLAR-POWERED TOWN

Together with a wide access boulevard, the centre of this future solar-powered town will form a functional and spatial link between the town’s districts, including various commercial, cultural and general service providers which will be attached as modular elements.

A linear supporting frame is being erected in the streets and courtyards to provide transparent roofing. A variety of lighting effects will be created by the use of coated, coloured and polished glass, while the roofs of the modules will be used to create solar energy.

The plan is for the central square – a ’social magnet’ that can be easily reached on foot from all areas – to be the centrepiece of life in the new town.

www.designbuild-network.com 

Wow!!

This is very impressive.  Imagine if we did something like this in Winnipeg.  I would love to visit this place and it would be great to speak to the design team about their vision and methods. 

We are definitely a privileged generation to be able to have this kind of technology and opportunity at our fingertips!  Imagine what we will be able to do in 5 to 10 years. 

This site not only uses renewable energy as it only source, but also incorporates color therapy.  It would be interesting to hear the response from the people who inhabit this space and how it affects their lives.

I intend to do things of this nature for Winnipeg when the time comes.  It should be possible to have an entire city that functions off the grid.  There are so many options for sustainable design and it really is catching on.  By the time we are all ready to begin our careers, green design could (and hopefully will) be what the public is craving!

Amanda

                                       

Color Changing Textiles

After last classes lecture on color and the effects it has on our mood I thought it would be interesting to do some research. I hunted around online looking for any everyday objects we use that was specifically designed to play with color.

I came across many different project but my favorite was the color changing textiles by textile artist Kathy Schicker. Schicker designed the fabric to react under sunlight, changing color and revealing pattern only then. Therefore the changing position of the sun during the day (and year) would influence what pattern/color your bedding or textile would appear to be.

The idea that my bedding could be blue and flowered during the day (while the sun spilled in through the window) but white at night was appealing to me. Imagine the flowers “blooming” or appearing as the sun shines in each morning.

Beth

Pause.

So, improve everywhere has been around for awhile, but if you haven’t heard of them, let me show you one of my old favorites here.
I love the way this makes everyone stop and take a moment to see their surroundings, and it gives passersby something in common. This is something we don’t do enough, we walk the same route, take the same buses, ignore the same people, and never realize how much is going on around us. Not only are our paths designed to take us places, but they are filled with interactions and stimuli which we could be taking advantage of. Next time pause, think about how you’re using the space, whats around you, and most importantly realize that you are surrounded by people, not just obstacles, and that these people are doing the same thing as you. It shouldn’t take a time freeze to make you realize how many people you share your time with, and how much they affect your day.

-Megan

Heliotherapeutic Spa

Last class, Vikka gave as another lecture on colour theory.  I thought that the Heliotherapeutic Spa was one of the most interesting things that she mentioned.  I’ve heard before that colour can heal, cure or evoke emotion.  However, I was under the impression that these were ancient practices that were relatively lost in the present day.  It’s amazing that these techniques are still popular (to an extent) practices.  I would love to experience true healing through colour therapy.  It would have to be an interesting experience. 

Colour causing emotion is someting I have experienced for sure.  I always thought that it would be interesting to design a space that was intirely based on evoking emotion through colour.  Imagine if we completely understood the meaning of each colour (in relation to the culture).  We could create spaces where people could experince it through feelings.  Or it could be used to the advantage of the design based on the intention or use.  For example, if you were to design a daycare, you could use a colour that brought about the feelings of joy and safety.  For the napping area, use a colour that promotes comfort and relaxation and so on. 

I think colour choice is more then aesthetics. However, I do also feel that it could potentially be a form of brainwashing whether it be positive or negative.

Amanda

An interesting connection of human and natural systems

In the spirit of connecting human and natural systems in everyday life I was searching the web for some inspirational blogging material.  I found this very simple little design that represents a shift from human made to naturally utilized materials.  It is a regular planter you could put in your home but is made out of a tree stump.  This is interesting in a number of ways, in an ecological sense it is one less thing (a pot) that we will consume energy making and then throw away.  And even more interestingly it provides a change in thinking that is more connected to nature and I think could have some real affect on the people inhabiting the space where it is placed.  Now this is a very small design but if we designed everything we did with this attitude our lives would be filled with a more rich and engaging feeling of the natural environment and our connectedness to it.  Many small changes can instigate a revolution.

- Brock

heat/comfort zone

A house maintains an interior temperature that sustains human life in the face of exterior temperature’s that wouldn’t.

A house craetes a seperation from the outside that protects both the house and its inhabitants from destructve forces.

With the exception of volcanoes, geysers and other heat origionating from geothermal sources, the sun creates and maintains our planet’s temperature.  In a very real sense, the sun also create’s the heat within the human body.  Through photosynthesis, plants turn sunlight into edible energy that is consumed by animals and metabolized into tissue.  Human’s, in turn, burn plant and animal tissue in their metabolic furnaces, creating a temperature that stays consistantly in the area of 37 degress celcius.  How close the earth’s air temperature is to this human temperature at any given place on the planet is the main deteriming factor in human comfort, and in many cases, survival.

One of housing’s primary functions is to maintain indoor air that has a temperature closer to that of the huan body than the air hanging around outside at any given moment.  To do that, a house must be capable of first creating and then maintaining a comfortable temperature. 

However you create temperature, all that effort is moot if you can’t maintain it.  There are 2 basic techniques for maintaining temperature: (1)storing it and (2) slowing its movement. 

From the book: Green Building.  By Clarck Snell and Tim Callahan

The lecture we recieved on Body temperature and comfort zone was very insightful.  I think it is interesting to apply a common comfort zone temperature to all humans.  I say this because I am an individual that feels much more comfortable when it is warm/hot (overbaringly warm/hot to others).  However, I do realize that this temperature (the average comfort zone) is a majority.  It is extremely interesting to realize just how much detail and cosideration is neccessary to design the perfect “green building.”  Furthermore, I’m sure that we are only begining to scratch the surface of the multitude of factors that make up the “green building.”

I always associated temperature or heat control with the little thermostate that sits on the wall!  It makes perfect sense however, that the temperature of a building can be maintained and controlled through the design and materials.  The position/location of the site, the direction the building faces, the climate and the materials used all determine the interior temperature of the building.  Beyond that, there is also the need to be mindful of the building type (what it will be used for or, its function).  That is to say, a home may need different considerations due to the average amount of bodies that will occupy it.  If the human body gives out or radiates a certain amount of heat, that will also affect the interior temperature.  Where as a public space (say a movie theatre) would require different considerations to maintain a comfortable temperature due to the fact that multiple bodies will flow through this space, each radiating a level of heat and thus altering the temperature.

Ventilation, condensation, convection, radiation, etc. are all details that must be considered in a design. 

Now imagine considering the above factors combined with other details such as color, ergonomics, anthropometrics and whatever else we will learn throughout our journey as designers!

Amanda

Sunlight

So in the last class Vaike was describing the design process behind a healing centre, and mentioned healing through sunlight, and through colour points. Now, at the time that wasn’t what I was focusing on in the lecture, however Throughout the past few days it has trickled through my head, and left me wondering just what that was all about.
Now, I’m not going to say my personal opinions on natural healing, but I will say that the extremes, and the way ideas are presented often leads me to small fits of giggles. It’s really just the way things are phrased. Because of this, I have never looked into “natural solar healing”, or “sungazing” before. But there is a first time for everything, so I did some quick searches.

I found the Solar Healing Center which claims:
“One can get rid of any kind of psychological problems, and develop confidence to face any problem in life and can overcome any kind of fear including that of death within 3 months after starting to practice this method.”

according to the site, after 6 months you will be illness free, and after 9 months you will win your battle with hunger.
Man! The sun is pretty sweet.

I also found a bunch of stuff about healing Cancer with sunlight
heres a page I found: cancer

This made me think of a story I once saw on the news about a woman who’s cancer subsided after her husband advised here to start taking Vitamin D. Now because you get Vitamin D form the sun, these two ideas tie together.
It also reminds me of The Truman Show, where if you look closely, you can see that the inhabitants of the town take vitamin D supliments, because there is no sun.
I have also heard (although I can’t remember where, so it ay not be reliable) that there are certain vitamins, etc that you can only absorb from the sun through your eyes, so sunglass wearers are not able to absorb them. (if i remember correctly they would get tired faster)

More info, and lots of links found here

Unrelated, I also found it interesting that When we were discussing the emotions we felt/saw when we pictured colours, many people had the same difficulties I did, which was that we pictured objects instead of just the plain colours. It seems that each object evoked a different emotion in me that the plain colour might, and yet it seemed to be the stronger emotion of the two. I feel as though this is because my remembered feelings are much stronger than my instinctual reactions to the colours while I am in a relaxed state. Perhaps this is because we learn from our mistakes, injuries and fear, therefor causing our reactions to move from instinct to ‘life lessons’

-Megan

Colours

It seems the use of colour in design has greater implications then I first realized.  It is interesting to think about how colours can dominate the feeling of a space and how that can be used to determine how space is felt.  For instance most people I know dread going to the dentist office, but our dentist offices looked anything like that one in Berlin maybe our feelings of getting a check-up would be far different.  I think these ideas are definitely valid if used correctly, but I think they can easily be overused.  For instance if you spend alot of time in one place that has a particular dominant colour that controls the space you could very easily become annoyed with that certain emotion it evokes in you.  You may even after time become numb to that feeling, and if the building/room is designed to evoke that certain feeling all the time it becomes useless to you.  This is where I think the idea of the dentist office is successful, because visits to the space are short and infrequent you would not get particularly tired or numb to the emotions of it.  So the use of colour therapy in design I believe has its’ place it cannot be overused to be successful.

- Brock

Wind farms and Weather change

We have been dealg with crazy, and sometimes extreame weather patterns alot lately. call it natural change, freak luck, or global warming, it’s definitely happening, and it’s effecting our lives. But what if we could change the weather to help us instead?
Shanghai has created rain to help them cool down, and save energy And now studies show that wind farms could possibly help to move storms away from an area (or into one). This could be great from an architectural/urban design standpoint as many projects are often put on hold because of strange weather patterns.

-Megan

Farms in the Middle of the City?

After searching the web for awhile, looking at new energy methods and ideas I stumbled across a website about “vertical farms”. This means that people are designing buildings that can actually grow vegetablse and grain on their floors while having the whole building self suffient by doing things like collecting its own water from rain water or “gray”water

http://weburbanist.com/2008/03/30/5-urban-design-proposals-for-3d-city-farms-sustainable-ecological-and-agricultural-skyscrapers/

The idea of these structres is to be able to feed thousands of people from them while maintaining a small foot print on earth. It states that “A light-shading skin wraps around the structure and opens to admit sunlight at particular locations for various functional (and aesthetic) purposes. The building’s air, heating and cooling systems are wind-driven and circulate oxygen and carbon dioxide between growing and living spaces. The simple but reinforced structure is designed to handle additional dead loads from the weight of growing floors and also serve to make the entire building more durable (and thus sustainable).” All of this makes the building sound very promising but after I kept on reading I began to develop some questions of my own like where do the roots go? for example. I am all for designers coming up with new and innovative technologies and buildings like these but is there a point where it becomes too unnautral and just too far?

Jess

Colours in Class and Design

So todays class was taught by Vika ( very sorry if the spelling/name is wrong!) and she went into depth on her own projects and other designers projects that revolve around color. I agree that color can really impact a person and have effects on their moods. Even in my own house i see how colors can impact a person. My whole house has a variety of colors and tones – all teh way from light green to warm reds and browns and going from room to room can give you a different feel. I think some designers can take colors too far. I mean that in a way that they think colors can do magical things to people and even heal them. I agree to an extent but i do not think that colors alone can heal a person. Yes maybe being in a nicely colored room can have a positive impact on people  and that light (sunlite) rooms can make a person content but i do not believe that it can have such a profound impact on a person. I know that I have not studied color in depth yet and maybe my point of view on this subject will change as I go through my studies but I found some parts of the presentation to be rather “far-fetched” in a way and seem somewhat unrealistic. The thing I did appreciate about the presentation was all the photos of different buildings around the world. Seeing how schools in places like Germany look and comparing them to the schools I grew up in I was actually jealous of the kids that get to learn there! Those places look so intriguing and innovative and especially in a place such as a primary school I think it can have a great impact on the kids having such cool design around them and the building where they learn and spend so much time. I want to move to Germany now just to send my future kids to those schools.

Jess

EQ3 (yet again)

I found that our tour of EQ3 was really interesting/informative but I think it was also a bit of a needed reality check for any design student (or at least for me). I know that at least for myself I tend to forget that studio is seemingly of a much more expressive and open ended nature than “real world” jobs will be.

When we are working in studio we don’t really have budgets, or actual clients, or the demands of figuring out how to mass produce and sell products on a large scale. Our tour of EQ3 was therefore a great reminder that eventually we will be working withing these “constraints” and that unfortunately we may not also be able to do exactly what we would like.

I can’t remember which EQ3 designer made mention of/recommended getting involved in independent design competitions outside of your day-job, stating that these would give you a chance to really stretch yourself and explore without boundaries.
I also just really enjoyed getting to have the design process explained to me and see it go from rough sketches all the way to finished product on the showroom floor.

All in all, EQ3 was a valuable experience and I admit it was also really nice to get away from the studio and off campus!

Beth

EQ3…

So, I guess I should add my thoughts on the field trip. I hadn’t actually heard of EQ3 before this trip, so I had no preconceptions or expectations. I think that was probably good, it meant that I actually was interested in the presentation. I was a bit disappointed in the tour, I felt like we were really in the way, and I didn’t really see anything that I hadn’t before (except those gnomes. Wow!) I took away a few interesting points with me. First that it takes SO long for a design to complete a cycle, and appear in stores. It was also interesting how they got their inspiration from other people…i don’t think that it is bad per-say, but I got the impression that they always did it that way, and I wonder if they would be as successful without that pre-design trip. I also didn’t realize that we could go strait into specific types of design after graduation.

On another note, and relating to earlier classes, one of the first things I thought about when I tested out the chair they had out for us to see was that it was not very supportive of my body’s shape, and was much to low. Interestingly, a classmate sat in it after and loved it, I guess the 18-22 ratio works for some people, and not others.

I guess If I took anything from the tour, it made me want to find out about EQ3, and possibly take a look at their actual store to get a feel for what their designs really are.

-M

Movement Through Space

Okay, so it wasn’t this class, but we’ve obviously all been observing a persons movement through space for quite a while now, so I decided to do a random Internet search on the subject. This is what I came up with (and found interesting). First I found the octopus by XS labs which is a removable self-sufficient movement detector which can be attached to clothing for study. This is a growth on their memory garment and their feathery dresses which were designed to map intimacy and touch, respectively.

These garments record acts of intimacy and indicate time elapsed since the intimacy events have occured.

The octopus itself maps three events

- Body movement: an accelerometer detects shaking and tilting; thus simple changes in posture or gait can be detected.
- Contact: a capacitive sensor and an IR reflectance sensor detect the contact of hands or objects with the front surface.
- Communications: the devices can interact over line-of-sight using an IR remote control protocol.

it also explores

- “Suntanning”: displaying exposure to IR beacons or to incandescent lamps
- “Viral infection”: visualizing transmission of a code between parts of the body and between people
- “Body usage history”: display which parts of the body have been moved or touched recently
- “Movement representation”: visualizing the movement and acceleration of the body over time and through space.

I feel that our explorations of space were much more interesting though.

also I came across this which was just kinda neat.

-M

Color and Education

I was very intrigued by the connection between color and how our brains react to it. I then got to thinking about the different places where color often seems to be lacking/lacking thought, such as hospitals and schools. I looked into the relationship between color theory and education.

Through this “research”I discovered an interesting program being carried out in New York, called Publicolor. Not only does this program work at repainting low-funded school in warm, welcoming, vibrant colours. They also involve the schoolchildren in this repainting, helping them to take ownership of their school community.

- Beth

Colour

I finally got around to doing the assignment on colour.  It was intresting, I never realized  how much effect colour had on my mood.  When designing a building or any space it is important to take colour into consideration.  Picking the right colour for the right area in a space is a good way to make people comfortable.  I found a site that reccomends colours to use when trying to create rooms for a specific purpose.  An example they use is the reason fast food restraunts such as KFC and Pizza Hut use red is because it triggers hunger.  When people drive by and see red they get a sudden urge to eat fast food.

http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/color_and_learning

Devan

Devan

EQ3 interesting tool

Room Builder

 

 

 

Room Planning Made Simple

1.     Do your research and make sure it fits before you make your purchase.

2.     Work from pre-built room templates designed by our experts, or start from scratch and build your own rooms.

3.     Save, print and e-mail your designs.

4.     Show your room plan to one of our sales associates for expert advice.

This feature requires flash player. If you do not have Flash Player, click here

This is an interesting feature.  It would save on shipping in that it would save people from having to return prodocts that don’t fit.  It seems that this could be considered a step toward considering the environment and human wants at the same time.  This feature would help reduce pollution from shipping and waste from product packaging!

Amanda

EQ3

The tour at EQ3 was an interesting and valuable experience.  Although I do not have a specific interest in furniture design  , I learn a lot about the design process and how long it takes to get a piece of furniture or even an accessory as simple as a dog dish onto the market for the general public.   For me the most interesting part was the three case studies seeing the steps it takes to turn a sketch into a product.  Seeing the CAD models and 3D images gets excited for the rest of the year.  After our last studio project it is funny how the guy in the purple shirt mentioned using cardboard to build models.  The last thing this tour showed me is that a degree in environmental design may lead to something other than architecture, Urban/Landscape design, or interior design.

Devan

about the comment on passion

About the comment on passion.

    I did not intend to imply that passion and budget could not be intertwined within the realm of creativity.   I just wanted to express that I feel it should not be the driving force of creativity.  My post was a play on words.  I realize that “the guy in the purple sweater” was refering to productivity and product manufacturing.

The sentence in itself sparked a thought for me that I wanted to share.  The sentence inspired me to think deeper. 

I wasn’t trying to imply that I thought “purple sweater” was not a passionate designer or was telling us that creativity peaks when we are working within a budget.  It was the words that caught my attention, and I was playing devil’s advocate in order to express my thoughts while relating them to the class as this blog intends us to.

- Amanda

New Find

I was looking through my peers blog post and read one by Amanda about her “disagreement” with a statement made my “the guy in the purple sweater vest”. I thought it was pretty funny/interesting to read their discussion and to read his point of view about the topic of passion in design. When he said this during his interview how people are most creative when a budget was in place i agreed and disagreed at the same time. I agree with Amanda in the way that passion should alwasy be the driving force and I agree with “the guy in the purple sweater vest” comment that both passion and budget can or do make a person most creative. When there is a budget in place you are forced to think outside the box. You cannot just throw all the most expensive nice things into a project and your done. Instead you are forced to think of other options and being forced to think in other ways does cause you to become creative. And if Amanda reads this- yes passion is always number one in my eyes. After reading  “the guy in the purple sweaters” comment i went to the link that he had left behind.

http://projecthdesign.com/2008/04/13/hippo-rollers-delivered-to-kgautswane/

 I think this project is a great example of how passion and budget work together to make people very creative. Is is pretty obvious that this “Hippo Roller ” invention was not made for a modern contemporary world like North America. IT was made for people in extremely low income situations and mostly poverty. Keeping in mind the people/ place you are designing for, you have to make the prodcut design simple and extremely cheap so that the people that are using it can actually affford it and maintain it. Im assuming that the inventor of this product had a very tight budget to stick to and therefore had to really think outside the box. In the end, the product developed is perfect for the place/situation it is needed in. I just thought this was a perfect example of a new design that really is sustainable in a way and shows what things people can design when having a budget AND passion for what they are doing.

Jess

The Ultimate Comfort

So our class and talk about comfort got me thinking about the whole idea of our personal comfort and how important it really is in the global context.  I was searching on YouTube for something cool and interesting, and found this video links below about the most unnecessary comfort system for a home.  I would advise watching this video (and laughing at it), this system for your home has everything from video cameras and a gate buzzer (to any phone you own!) to an automatic blind closer and projection screen/video starter.  I would like to do a study to see how much energy this system uses from production to finally using it and all the waste it produces for the minor convenience of not having to get up to close the blinds.  You must have to be either completely ignorant to environmental issues or extremely lazy or maybe both.  Anyway just thought I would bring this up as an example of something completely contradicting this class.  (And also another example of how we rely on our technology rather than our connection to the earth).

- Brock

EQ3 tour

To be honest I agree with Amanda in her dislike of the vocabulary used in the presentation.  I expected a more creative process then stealing European stuff and selling it in NA when the market is ready for it.  This is the exact reason we are behind them in styles, because we have decided to be behind and stealing ideas is all we are doing.  I guess at the same time this is a reality check from our little studio dream we have.  We should I guess prepare ourselves to the constant compromise of the real world, hard to say but I feel it has some truth.  But I did really like their office space and the freedom they seemed to have in their design process.  It did look like a really fun job even if it was quite limited.  I also appreciated their concern for environmental issues and their belief that it will be a very mainstream idea very soon.  That gives me hope that maybe by the time we are in our respective fields it will be a more realizable thing to use everything we are learning in this class and the Tuesday one in our designs!  Anyway that tour gave me mixed feelings of both hope and disappointment.  Where does that leave me you ask?  I guess where I started but I learnt a little about the industry.

- Brock

passion

“Most creative when there is budget”?…ridiculous!!          

The guy in the purple sweater vest said that today at EQ3 if you recall.  I thought that that was the most ridiculous comment a designer could have made.  Sure, you would be forced to make changes/sacrifices/compromises so that you stay within the limits BUT this is not what makes you the most creative.

We should be the most creative when we are passionate about something.  If there is an aspect of life/design that you believe in,  you would be determined to make it happen.  This would drive you creativity at all times. 

I know the main reason that I decided to dedicate my career to architecture/design was to make the world a better place.  Sure that sounds a tad fluffy but it’s true.  I believe and am passionate about the idea that humans can function within or as part of the natural environment rather than above it.  Everything is interconnected.  It is not our mental capacity that puts us “above nature,”  as so many of us believe (or at least society is set up in such a way that people are forced to live that way and understand it to be normal or right).  It is our mental capacity that has allowed us to be blind, argent and violent towards nature and furthermore naive.

It is possible to live harmoniously with the natural environment.  There should not be a brick wall between the natural and the built environment. 

Cities define or lay out the foundation for how a society/community will function throughout their daily lives.  If we get creative about linking the natural and the built environment SO much is possible.  We have begun with green design and all concepts that relate to it.  But, if we really believe that change is possible and necessary (or believe or are passionate about anything, we would be our most creative because of this).  We would design and re-think and design and re-think until we made it happen. 

It IS NOT or SHOULD NOT be money that drives our creativity.  It SHOULD BE our passion.

Amanda

An Inside Look at EQ3

We just got back from our class field trip to the EQ3 factory. Being there was actually really inspiring to me. Inspiring in a way that was like “wow, that would be a really cool and interesting place to work in the future!” I don’t have in mind to work at EQ3 in the future but just seeing their working environment and all the things they deisgn really made me think of how i would love to do something like that when i graduate in that type of environment. Another thing being at EQ3 made me think about is the different paths my career/future might take. It seemed that a lot of the people that spoke took a variety of paths to get to where they are now and that at some points in their education they sort of played around with different ideas for their future. It just opened my eyes up to all the opprutnities that may happen ( or will hopefully happen) for me and all of us. The last thing about the feild trip that I found very interesting was seeing all the processes a peice of furniture has to go through to be produced. I never would have thought it would take so much time and effort to build something so “simple” as a chair. Very eye opening tour/lecture for me!

Jess

Colours Redux

Reading Megan’s post I was reminded of a neurological condition called synesthesia, which also can profoundly effect a person’s perception of colour’s (amongst other things)

Synesthesia is when ones sensory neurons get muddled up. Therefore when one sense is tiggered, it will automatically simulate another.

In regards to colour, a person with Synesthesia may “see” numbers/letters in a certain color (for example: a mint green c). If a person does have Synesthesia than they will always see things the same way, and connect things with the same colours. They also may associate certain colours with a very vivid personality, similar to the idea of aura’s but seemingly not influenced by physcological associations.

As Megan was saying, imagine designing for someone with a condition like this, when each color has a distinct personality. You wouldn’t want to paint a space intended to be calming with a color like blue, if blue is percieved by the client as angry and violent.

For more info check out http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/, or this youtube video.

Beth

color and design

 I found this info on the meanings of colour.  I think that this is so interesting.  We can use color in our designs to promote a certain emotion of those interacting with it. 

I also think it would be great to understand the different meanings that colour implies in different cultures and religions.

We diffenately woud not want to design something specifically for a certain culture or group without understanding the meanings first.  It could actually be a disaster.  For example, the colour brown is believed to dicourage sales in columbia.  We wouldn’t want to design a commercial building with all the different hues of brown!!

- amanda

Colours

So, after “visualizing colours” i wondered what the more popular assumptions for colours were, so I did a search and found this.

but this made me wonder, not everyone can see colour, so what do they see, and how do they interpret it. I did a search online, and found this. .

And, do we all see the same thing? What if you KNEW that blue was blue, and I came by and told you that I saw blue as yellow. Could you change your perception of colour and see things the way I’m seeing them? We have no Idea how others will see our designs, and how they will interpret our visuals, as designers we will need to be able to get our minds around our clients interpretations. Exciting stuff.

Megan

The Meaning of Colour

 

Here is a list of what colors mean and how they can be used.  It is rather interesting and insightful!

 We are each unique individuals and colors may hold different meanings for us than for others, just as a piece of music inspires different feelings in different people.

Use colors to promote those qualities you wish to emphasize. Use them in your surroundings for qualities you wish to emphasize permanently. Wear clothes of appropriate colors to promote those qualities in a particular situation. You can also use colors simply by visualizing them, whether to promote their qualities or to exploit their healing energy for yourself or others.

Red

Red symbolizes energy, passion, strength, courage, physical activity, creativity, warmth, and security. It is also associated with aggression. In healing, use red to bring warmth and burn out disease. Red is a powerful color and should be used in moderation. In the aura red signifies materialism, materialistic ambition, a focus on sensual pleasures and a quick temper.

Orange

Orange symbolizes the individual’s relationship to the external world, the needs and wants of the physical body and the ways in which these are satisfied, the world of work. In healing orange may increase immunity and sexual energy. In the aura orange signifies thoughtfulness and creativity.

Yellow

Yellow symbolizes intellect, creativity, happiness and the power of persuasion. It is also associated with cowardice. In healing use yellow to promote clarity of thought. In the aura yellow signifies intellectual development, for either material or spiritual ends.

Green

Green symbolizes money, luck, prosperity, vitality and fertility. It is also associated with envy. Green is the color of healing; it is beneficial in all healing situations. In the aura green signifies balance, peace and often indicates ability as a healer.

Blue

Blue is the color of spirituality, intuition, inspiration and inner peace. It is also associated with sadness and depression (the “blues”). In healing blue is used for cooling and calming, both physically and mentally. In the aura blue indicates serenity, contentment and spiritual development.

Indigo

Indigo is associated with psychic ability. In healing, use indigo for relaxation, reassurance and promoting psychism. In the aura indigo signifies a seeker, often of spiritual truth.

Purple

Purple is associated with power, both earthly and spiritual. In healing, purple is used for mental disorders and also for becoming one with Spirit. In the aura purple signifies higher spiritual development.

White

White is associated with truth, purity, cleansing, healing and protection. It is a good general healing color for the removal of pain and suffering. In the aura it signifies a high level of attainment, a higher level soul incarnate to help others.

Gold

Gold represents understanding and luck. Remember though that nothing comes from nothing, It is the most powerful healing color, but so powerful that many are not able to stand it initially and must be conditioned to it via other colors. In the aura it represents service to others.

Pink

Pink represents unconditional love, love requiring nothing in return. It is also the color of friendship and conviviality. In the aura it signifies balance between the spiritual and the material.

Brown

Brown is the color of the earth and represents practicality, material success, concentration and study. In the aura it indicates “down to earth-ness” and common sense.

Black

Black is the absence of color. It represents the unconscious and mystery. Its visualization can help promote deep meditation. Black also stands for evil (eg black magic). In the aura it signifies some kind of blockage or something being hidden.

http://www.new-age-spirituality.com/spirit/color.html

Amanda

Comfort

I found it interesting discussing the various comfort zones for people, and which factor effect that.  There definitely is a limit to how warm/cold, humid/dry, etc that each person can stand. It was interesting to see/hear the class trying to describe the temperature of the room, and eventually coming to the conclusion that it was on the warmer side of comfortable. I also think it is very interesting that we feel heat through radiation faster than through conduction or convection. It is definitely true, as soon as you step into the sun you feel the warmth. I wonder if this faster feeling is an evolutionary trait to keep us away from something that could potentially harm us.

It is also interesting that various surroundings give us a feeling of ease, or excitement, or comfort. We determine a rooms comfort level by how we feel performing tasks in it. People (at least in our class) would obviously rather sleep in a calm dark room, that a really bright one, or at a damp one.  This brings to mind the question of weather we are designing for practical uses or not. I’ve been in bedrooms too large and bright to feel welcoming, or living rooms, I would never feel at ease living in or relaxing in. It’s strange to think that perhaps our comfort levels might not be thought about during the design process. Also, to touch on the subject of colour, different colours create different feelings in space, but each person interprets them differently, so a painted room can feel warm and welcoming to one person, while it could feel energized to another. I guess what I’m saying is that we need to always be aware of the use of each space we design, and who will be using it.

Megan

Temperature and our level of comfort

Our lecture on heat and how we perceive heat/our level of heat tolerance got me to thinking about some of the “exceptions” to the typical heat tolerance range for people and how this could effect our designs.

For some people, often with chronic illnesses like Lupus and MS, heightened sensitivity to heat and cold, as well as to sunlight, can be a major issue. In temperatures that may feel comfortable to the average person, a person with heat sensitivities may become extremely ill, and become very uncomfortable.

Perhaps we as designers, could look at how to create small “micro-climates”, which would allow people to have more direct control over the temperature surrounding them (at least inside). If we designed something like this, then people would be able to decided exactly how they want to feel, and not make the people surrounding her uncomfortable. Think about airplane air controls, and how you can direct the airflow.

These design ideas are not only applicable to heat intolerant people, I think we could all benefit from having a wee bit more control over how we are feeling at any given time?

- Beth

Exploration of colours

It is interesting how we all take colours for granted in our time.  We see different colours all the time, colours that have been altered to appeal to our sense of sight.  But I never thought about how we got those colours until class on thursday.  The idea of finding colour seems so absurd to me as I sit here, but at one point in time it was reality.  It makes me think that I am not really connected to nature like people in the past were.  They would probably have known where their colours came from while I do not.  Another thing I found interesting was how when colours were first found they were expensive and exotic, going to a store and picking between two products based on price seems like something I only ever do with technology.  I guess I am kinda getting back to my point from last time about us depending on machines.  I guess taking something like colour for granted seems innocent enough, but maybe if we were more in tune with colour process we would be able to use them better.  I think we would be more in tune with our environments and subconscious reactions to colours.  Just something I’m thinking about at 2 in the morning!

- Brock

Climate and comfort

The topic of discussion on Thursday was climate and comfort.  This is learning to design buildings and homes according to the local climate.  It made me realize how much focus is put on aesthetics as apposed to function.  I came across a site which explains the reasons and some techniques to building according to climate.

One example is:

“As air humidity increases, the density of that air parcel increases and the temperature decreases because the latent heat capacity of the air also increases.

Buildings cast shadows to their south. The air in this external area abutting the building is cooler than ambient. This air temperature can be further contained by adding more shade in the form of veranda or pergola, and adding humidity with vegetation, spray or drip irrigation or water features including fountains.”

This site is full of design ideas such as this one and is worth a look.

http://www.emilis.sa.on.net/emil_11.htm

Devan

Carbon-neutral City

So i was looking at some sites on alternative energy projects and i stumbled across this one http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2008/2/466634.html and thought it was VERY very interesting.

 

This is a picture of a “carbon-neutral, waste-free city” that Dubai wants to build. They are aiming for a car free city that actually houses people and that “

By blending waste management with renewable technologies such as solar and wind power, Masdar says the city will use 75 per cent less electricity and less than half the amount of water of conventional cities, saving the equivalent of $2bn in oil costs over 25 years.

The city will need “virtually no landfill” for waste.” I think it is so incredible that people are actually thinking in this big of way. I know so many people try to do little things for the world but creating a city that pratically does not need a landfill is really going to make an impact.

Another thing about this article i thought was interesting was how the architects are actually drawing on ideas from old architecture from the Middle East. When humans and their design has “advanced” so much its really interesting to see modern architects going back to the worlds design roots and getting inspiration. I thought all of you might really find something like this worthwhile to give  a look at!

 Jess

Heat transfer

While sitting in class today and hearing J talk about heat and the different kinds of heat transfer it brought me back to a discussion i had with my crit (Jerry) just the other day. I was talking about Frank Garrys designs and all the metal he uses and how I think it is so cool that he does something outrageous and abnormal but it makes such a big impact. When i told Jerry about how much i liked FG designs he pointed out something to me. He said that people in LA are actually really causing an uproar over one of FG buildings in their downtown. Due to all the metal he uses in buildings, it acts as a huuuuge conductor of heat from the sun. This creates areas around the building that are acutally too hot to be in or around. Going back to J discussion in class… at first i was not really making the connection of how all of it applied to architecture but when he started talking about the heat transfer i clicked at how while designing something, the architect should be aware of everything including the ways the building can conduct heat. FG was not aware of this and now people are critizing his building.

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.miragestudio7.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/simpson_frank_gehry_concert_hall_3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blog.miragestudio7.com/2005/11/frank-gehry-and-the-simpsons/&h=309&w=450&sz=51&hl=en&start=12&um=1&usg=__L5zbix1OjPJOZJumPS9jzmDSuZE=&tbnid=P_HmSepuXmFstM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLos%2BAngeles%2B%252B%2BFrank%2BGarry%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Jess

Matters of Sensation

Matters of sensation is the name of a gallery by some young architects in US.  It explores the use of building materials and the sensations it produces.  I am most interested in using materials in a way to connect human and natural systems.  For example we use a ridiculous amount of pavement and other materials in our cities that are completely man made and give off that exact feeling.  I am just starting to think about it but what if we used something else that would maybe connect environments instead of having the distinction of urban and rural/natural.  Maybe our environments could feel more connected.  ANyway I am just starting to think about this so maybe it doesn’t make any sense but I found it interesting to look at these students work.

- Brock

The Mondo Spider

So in our first class we were shown Theo Jansen’s creations and in our second class we saw jet packs, human skeletons, and motor cycles you wear.
Soon after this a friend drew my attention to the mondo spider:
A

This was created for a Vancouver version of a scrapheap challenge or something, but it reminded me of Jansen’s creations. Now the Spider is run of a H engine, but what if there were a way to mix it with the wind-powered beach animals, perhaps turn it into a hybrid or wind powered vehicle.
We could all be riding giant energy efficient spider cars to work.

…or not

More info

-Megan

How Close is too Close?

Well, the chair seems to be the big topic from the last class, probably because we spend so much time in them. I personally never realized how much our bodies need support and space wise while sitting. Like many (I assume) I’ve found myself restless and sore in class, however I’ve never been able to sit in one position for more than a few minutes without shifting something. Does this mean I’ve never sat in a properly designed chair? I found it interesting that Gerry said a perfectly designed chair would be like a cell for us, and probably more uncomfortable than any other chair, because we wouldn’t be able to move. If this is the case perhaps we shouldn’t be sitting in chairs at all, or at the very least not for hours at a time.

I think that through our studio work, we’ve all discovered that no one really is the “ideal person”, and therefore technically none of the objects around us are designed to be perfect for our everyday use. At the same time we have also realized that in a school it is neither practical or possible to create ideal furniture for each pupil. I suppose what I’m saying is, it could be alot worse.

Another interesting point from last lecture was the idea of Proximity. It’s interesting how situationally being too close to someone can become acceptable, and even preferable. Obviously the better you know someone, the more comfortable you feel standing closer to them, While strangers standing too close are kinda creepy. However this completely changes when you must be near someone, for instance while standing on a packed bus. In this situation people expect you to stand so close to others that you are touching. No one is going to think you are a super creep for doing this. However if the bus was emptier, and you stood touching someone else, well, thats probably harrasment or something. The same thing applies to eye contact. Standing beside someone is fine, even in close proximity, as long as there is a divide. Lets continue the bus example. Say you are standing at a bus stop, and there is someone standing on either side of you. Odds are you do not feel awkward about this situation, however what if the person to your left is looking at you. Suddenly this person is invading your space more, even though they have not moved. Body language is as much a part of personal space as the physical distance between two people.

I know after the last class I’ve payed more attention to how people are standing relative to each other and built objects, and also to my (and others) posture while sitting in class.

-Megan

ergonomics and anthropometrics

The class on Thursday was pretty interesting.  I never really bothered to think about how uncomfortable the chairs in the university are and how much moving around i do.  After the lecture, it always seems to be in the back of my mind.  It is funny because the moment that Gerry mentioned bad posture and back problems students began to sit up straight.  I began to think about solutions to the chair problem and here is an interesting one I found.  It is a chair made out of an exercises ball.  This chair forces people to keep their back straight improving posture and spine shape. 

http://www.aviva.ca/shop/products.asp?itemid=2281&catid=62

It is a chair that is made of an exercise ball.  It claims to improve posture as well as reduce back and neck pain.  I think it is a good concept but would have to look into it further before i was sold on the product.  The cost is 99.00 dollars and for that price you can buy a pretty good chair.  Never the less it is something to think about.

- Devon

Baraka – Manufactured Landscapes

Hey, not sure what a cool way to open a blog is so what’s up?  So anyway class on thursday was pretty cool.  Since then I have been hating every chair I have sat in.  The most striking thing for me was the clips from the movie Baraka we watched.  My very first impression of the movie was that it was Manufactured Landscapes on speed.  Basically I think if you watch them both it gives the full picture, Baraka has more shock value, while Manufactured Landscapes is slow and contemplative.  I watched Manufactured Landscapes again this weekend and this quote really stood out to me “Maybe the new landscape of our time, the one to start to talk about is the landscape that we change, the one that we disrupt,  in the Pursuit of Progress” (Edward Burtynsky).  I have begun to think about the realationship between Human and Natural systems with this quote in mind.  And then I thought about what prof. Chon mentioned about the third and final system being one of machines.  Are we incontrol of that third and final system or is it in control of us?  I believe at one point in time we were in control of it but now we are far to dependant on our machines and it is in control of us.  Just look at how things are so organized and routined in Baraka, that does not look like a society that is in control to me.  For example the scene that shows the traffic in a big city from an arial view, there is nothing normal about that to me.  We are only acting in this way because of our dependance on machines to tell us when to go and stop.  It is what Ed Burtynsky describes as “one of the most surreal landscapes I had ever seen, totally transformed by man.”  He of course is not referring to the scene in this movie, but I think the quote fits.  The landscape is surreal, there is nothing natural about the rows upon rows of buildings, cars, streets and streetlights.  I think we need to keep better track of what is natural when we design our environments and Human systems.

- Brock

Simple Designs – Big Impact

 To be honest, before this school year started I never really put thought into sustainability and both human and natural systems. Of course I tried to do my part and make the world better but I never went beyond the simple things. After watching the movie Baraka? I realized how extreme humans can be in what they do. Everyone is working for themselves and the world as a whole is not really taken into consideration. The natural system and the human system are so interlinked, yet we treat nature like garbage ( some people!). Im finding it hard to get my idea across ( and weird) writing in this blog so bare with me. Both the first and the second class of natural and human systems made me start to think about how I could better the world and when  Jae started talking about how design can influence change it made me really wonder how what kind of designs are out there that may influence the people around them to maybe change the way they live or even just influence a single thought they may have.

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11032381

 

Although these are simple designs talked about on the website above, they can really make change. When people think about others and what might help others even in the smallest of ways, thats when design can really have an impact. While reading about these designs for “the other 90%” it made me think that if these simple, small designs can really help people, maybe even bigger designs like a building for instance can do the same thing. I know these designs for everyday things might not be considered “sustainable or innovative” I thought they were pretty cool in showing how a little thought and effort put into design can really make a big difference.

Jessica Ilg

Monitoring your homes energy consumption

I stumbled upon this product called Wattson, which allows you to monitor your homes energy consumption, and thought that it was applicable to our project looking at energy consumption, so check it out!

Not only will Wattson provide you with data, it will also visually display (using color) how your current consumption stacks up (below average, average, above average).

Beth

Embody…the perfect office chair???

For those familiar with furniture design, and more specifically chair design, Herman Miller is a name that should be easily recognizable. Synonymous with furniture design for years, they have recently released a successor to their famous (and famously expensive) Aeron office chair…the Embody Chair.

Herman Miller makes some pretty big claims with their Embody chair, claiming that “Embody makes you feel like you are floating. It promotes health-positive sitting, creating harmony between you and your computer to help you focus on your work and think more clearly. In fact, it’s the first work chair that supports your mind and body.”

The Embody is designed to mimic (and look like) a human spine. It sports many different adjustments, allowing the chair to fit people of all shapes and sizes in comfort.

Interestingly (at least to me), the Embody is actually rather environmentally friendly, and is (according to their website) 95% recyclable, as well as contributing points towards LEED certification.

- Beth

Anthropometrics/Ergonomics

I never really considered the ergonomics of design.  I sappose that I just took it for granted.  I mean, the things that I use daily are comfortable and it just makes sence that they would be the way they are.  For example, I use my car everyday.  I can sit in it for hours (i.e. roadtrips) I never really get uncomfortable.  The hight of my dresser or the bathroom sink, the hight of my couch or the angle of my dinnngroom chair, all of these products are made the way they are specifically to be conveiniet and comforable for human use.  There is a lot of consideration behind the ”simple” products of everyday life.  However, all of these considerations are human oriented.  None of he above listed items were designed with nature in mind.  If we considered nature as much as we put effort into making things ideal for human use and consumption, this would be a different world.  For example, material use would be considered for environmental friendliness as well as comfort, quality and economy.  Perhaps there would be more quality than quantity on many levels.

- Amanda

Weekly Class Recap

I personally found this past weeks lecture, given by Gerry, very interesting and informative.  It was certainly enlightening to learn more about the science behind ergonomics and anthropometrics and also to see diagrams showcasing the different “ideal” body types and realizing that the world is not really designed for the rest of us.

I think the section of the lecture I found most interesting was Gerry’s discussion about chairs and how badly designed many of them are. I had to agree that Barcelona chairs are certainly not the kind of chair you would like to sit in for an extended period of time, but they sure do look good!

Beth

Ergonomics

The science of people-machine relationships. An ergonomically designed product implies that the device blends smoothly with a person’s body or actions.

                                                                                                                   -AMANDA HAMILTON

 

I thought that this was intersting.  Too bad, I didn’t google this sooner.  It may have been useful for the studio project!!   

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/CDE/ERGONOM.GIF&imgrefurl=http://www.answers.com/topic/ergonomics&h=502&w=431&sz=9&hl=en&start=9&um=1&usg=__rpr-lMGk3GIaWre2q9bXlyTYXrk=&tbnid=Clzh_fjEgE6SKM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=112&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dergonomics%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADBF%26sa%3DX