Monday, July 20. 2009Comfort in a Lower Carbon SocietyThe following are a collection of abstracts from a 2008 Special Issue of Building Information and Research entitled "Comfort in a Lower Carbon Society". The issue establishes a sound theoretical argument for revising current building comfort standards, which can be traced back to the rise of artificial air conditioning in the early 20th century United States. This area of focus has been given short shrift in architecture schools and amongst architecture circles, but seems important given the fact that the addiction to air conditioning over the past fifty years has essentially relegated architects to designers of fully controllable, sealed containers.
Please read and discuss. For more information on obtaining the full articles, feel free to e-mail me at jared.langevin@gmail.com.
Air-conditioning and the 'homogenization' of people and built environments. Healy, Stephen
Recent research contests dominant conceptions of thermal comfort and the forms of life these constitute motivated by the energy-intensive character of thermal monotony. Thermal monotony is maintained via scientifically delineated norms of thermal comfort that configure a standardized, homogenous 'comfort zone'. The homogeneity of this zone is reflected in complementarily homogenous embodied dispositions, cultural norms, buildings and built environments that increasingly displace heterogeneous alternatives. The complex interdependencies among these things is explored by investigating how thermal comfort standards fundamentally shape forms of life and the built environments supportive of them. The analysis applies a, primarily, Foucauldian perspective to historical accounts of the emergence of air-conditioning to illuminate how the power of thermal comfort standards can be explained in terms of how they are constructed. The final section explores the relevance of these insights for the promotion of alternative approaches to thermal comfort.
Cole, Raymond J.,
Robinson, John,
Brown, Zosia
To what extent can the urgency of climate change and an evolving concept of agency (at the individual and social levels of building users) create a new context for rethinking the notion of comfort? A new, emerging notion of comfort is explored that embraces engagement with new conditions, new experiences, and new types of interactions between inhabitants and building systems and unfamiliar technologies. The emphasis is on communication and dialogue as two dynamic and adaptive processes necessary to achieve optimal building performance while valuing and responding to inhabitant knowledge and agency, and enhancing indoor environmental quality from the standpoint of the inhabitants. A primary conclusion is that the goal of shifting into a lower carbon society has created a new context for comfort, from its conventional emphasis as automated, uniform and predictable, to a broader notion that takes into consideration dynamic, integrated, and participatory aspects. The key dimensions of this emergent broader view of comfort are examined and the relationships between them revealed.
Harris, Howell John
The history of the revolution in heating and cooking technology in the United States in the first half of the 19th century is explored along with the resulting transformation of the American indoor wintertime climate. It is argued, contra William Meyer (2000, 2002), that the reasons for this massive behavioural change are traceable to an underlying demand for greater comfort, and to the complex market forces involved in the development of the technology to satisfy it and an industry to create and sell the resulting appliances, rather than simply to the increase in the price of the prevailing fuel: firewood. An attempt is made to extract 'lessons' from this history - plausible parallels with later transformations in the technology of comfort.
Parkhurst, Graham,
Parnaby, Richard
The recent growth in European use of mobile air-conditioning (MAC) in transport is examined with reference to the experience of the longer-established trend in the buildings sector and to experience in the US. Air-conditioning is identified as significantly undermining improvements in energy efficiency, whilst the penetration of MAC is observed as having been particularly rapid and deep compared with static air-conditioning (SAC). A conceptual framework for the adoption of MAC is then proposed, which draws on sociological and psychological concepts as well as technical considerations in characterizing the processes influencing the adoption and use of MAC. The availability of empirical evidence to validate this model is then considered, with the finding that significant gaps in knowledge exist about why MAC is adopted, who benefits from its adoption, how the systems are used in practice, and the extent of satisfaction of travellers with the comfort of the environments of 'mobile buildings'. Although social norms and behaviour with respect to MAC are flexible, and hence subject to influence by climate change policy, significant further research is required to inform the specification of that policy.
-----
Via Jargon, etc.
Related Links:Personal comment: Ici je ne peux que renvoyer à RealRoom(s) (2005)... La monotonie thermale (mais aussi celle du confort), décrit comme une forme d'espace abstrait global, y était le thème central du projet.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture, Sustainability
at
13:15
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, artificial reality, climate, conditioning, energy, research, sustainability
Inverted Infrastructural Monuments, pt.1As the looming threat of global warming persists, one of the most prominent effects has been the erratic nature of weather patterns with pronounced emphasis on weather extremes. Some areas of the world are accustomed to such polarity. In Western India, for instance, three months of a healthy monsoon is followed by nine continuous months of arid weather. The polarization of weather promotes renewed interest in ancient infrastructures that could mitigate these extremes through sustainable means. In the case of the dry weather in Western India, this was done with Stepwells. Dated to 600 AD, stepwells are essentially inverted ziggurats excavated from the earth, producing an infrastructural monument to water collection. Like most great inventions, the concept driving a stepwell is surprisingly simple and composed of two parts – a well and access route. The large well is used to collect monsoon rain, which then percolates through layers of fine silt (to screen particulates), eventually reaching a layer of impermeable clay. Eroded rock from the Western Himalaya, further refined through several centuries of farming has produced a fine alluvium soil for the wells, which acts as an ideal filter. With larger sediment gathering at the top, the stepwell operates like an underground aquifer. The second component of the stepwell, are the steps or access passages to collect the water. Unlike traditional wells, stepwells allow one to enter, manage and maintain the well, creating a spatial occupation of the infrastructure. Some stepwells contain continuous transport infrastructure, such as ramps, to allow cattle to reach and transport water. More elaborated stepwells host galleries and chambers surrounding the passageways that were ornamentally sculpted. It is no surprise that these wells that allowed communities to sustain their crops during the arid months, eventually became religious temples dedicated to water. The functional characteristics of stepwells, soon made them a metaphor for the Ganges – the largest and most divine river in India. What is intriguing about stepwells is that they were both an infrastructure to collect water as well a space of gathering and leisure. As a subterranean landscape, the base of the inverted pyramids provided a cool microclimate to escape the hot conditions at grade. As such, these became central public spaces of gathering and architectural significance. The collection of water also attracted large ecosystems of bees, fish, lizards, parrots, pigeons, and turtles amongst other species. Each monsoon would reinvigorate these stepwells and promote new life. As a functional, religious and social infrastructure, these became the central spaces for many communities to gather, bathe and converse. The British Raj phased out the use of stepwells during the 19th century due to concerns over water borne parasites. Beyond the architectural beauty of stepwells, was an infrastructural intelligence, which is of importance today. These wells acted as water filters as well as mega storage and irrigation tanks in a completely sustainable manner. As weather patterns continue to polarize, these local infrastructures could provide clues on how to handle and store water for irrigation. For further reading, Morna Livingston has a great book on Stepwells, which I highly recommend. ----- Via InfraNet Lab Personal comment:
Etonnant encore une fois de constater à quel point les architectures vernaculaires, antiques, etc. (pour faire simple, les architectures pré-industrielles et surtout pré-climatisation) fonctionnait comme des systèmes socio-climatiques, économes avec les ressources et souvent intelligents. Des systèmes générant par ailleurs parfois des formes assez hallucinantes et radicales, comme ici. Friday, July 17. 2009The Big Smart Grid ChallengesRegulations, privacy and security concerns, and other issues could hold back developments.
By Kevin Bullis
The smart grid will incorporate new networking technology, including sensors and controls that make it possible to monitor electricity use in real time and make automatic changes that reduce energy waste. Furthermore, grid operators should be able to instantly detect problems that could lead to cascading outages, like the ones that cut power to the northeastern United States in 2003. And the technology ought to allow energy companies to incorporate more intermittent, renewable sources of electricity, such as wind turbines, by keeping the grid stable in the face of minute-by-minute changes in output. For consumers, the smart grid could also mean radical changes in the way they pay for electricity. Instead of a flat rate, they could be charged much more at times of high demand, encouraging them to reduce their energy use during these periods. Companies such as GE are developing refrigerators, dryers, and other appliances that can automatically respond to signals from the utility, shutting off or reducing energy consumption to allow consumers to avoid paying the peak prices. Such strategies could allow utilities to put off building new transmission lines and generators to meet peak demand--savings that could be important as proposed regulations on carbon dioxide emissions force them to switch to more expensive sources of electricity. But the necessary changes could prove difficult for consumers to adjust to, says Garry Brown, chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission, a utility regulator. Industrial and commercial electricity customers already have variable electricity rates that change with the time of day, but "they have the ability and expertise and wherewithal to figure out what to do with this," Brown says. "They have a manager that spends their life trying to react to it." Ordinary consumers don't have that advantage. Indeed, in the 1990s the New York state legislature blocked mandatory variable pricing amid concerns about the impact it could have on customers who couldn't avoid peak prices, such as people who must use electric-powered medical equipment around the clock. We have to be "slow and cautious," about introducing the technology, Brown says. The grid upgrade may also face resistance from regulators because some of the benefits are difficult to measure. Regulators are responsible for ensuring that utilities make wise investments that restrain the price of electricity. But improved efficiency and reliability can't easily be quantified, says Bryan Olnick, a senior director at the major utility Florida Power and Light. He says that regulators need to start considering long-term societal benefits in addition to electricity costs. Ultimately, regulators will need proof that the systems can deliver the promised benefits, which is why there are now smart-grid demonstration projects in places including Boulder, CO; Maui; and Miami. Beyond the challenge of measuring results, the smart grid raises questions about national security, says Bob Gilligan, GE's vice president for transmission and distribution. "We hear a lot of concerns about cyberterrorism and attacks on our energy infrastructure," he says. "As we talk about bringing more technology into the grid, providing more connections to the energy infrastructure, there are escalating concerns about protecting that infrastructure." Gilligan adds that the technology raises serious privacy concerns as well. "The major concern is that folks don't want to be inundated with telemarketing calls associated with their usage behavior," he says. "There's also some concern about what they're doing being known minute by minute." The massive amount of data generated by smart-grid technology could itself pose a practical problem. Right now, a utility with five million meters has about 30,000 devices for monitoring the grid. As the smart grid develops, that number could increase a thousandfold, with each device conveying a thousand times as much information as one of its counterparts does now, says Erik Udstuen, a general manager at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. Though so much data may be difficult to process, it could also create opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop new monitoring applications, especially if open standards are developed. Consumers needn't brace themselves for changes right away; it could take a decade to implement variable pricing. Meanwhile, the grid can be improved in ways that won't affect customers directly, such as reducing the amount of energy wasted in getting power from generators to consumers: 7 to 10 percent is often lost, and that figure can reach 20 or 30 percent during periods of peak demand. Meanwhile, smart meters and appliances that allow variable pricing will cost billions to develop and could take a decade to install. Eventually, however, the smart grid could make the supply of electricity more efficient and reliable, and it could help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by promoting renewable technologies and reducing overall power consumption. "In the long run," says James Gallagher, a senior vice president at the New York City Development Corp, "it will lead to lower rates." Copyright Technology Review 2009. ----- Thursday, July 16. 2009Dow to Test Algae EthanolStartup Algenol partners with Dow Chemical on a demonstration ethanol plant.
By Tyler Hamilton
The companies recently announced plans to build and operate a demonstration plant on 24 acres of property at Dow's sprawling Freeport, TX, manufacturing site. The plant will consist of 3,100 horizontal bioreactors, each about 5 feet wide and 50 feet long and capable of holding 4,000 liters. The bioreactors are essentially troughs covered by a dome of semitransparent film and filled with salt water that has been pumped in from the ocean. The photosynthetic algae growing inside are exposed to sunlight and fed a stream of carbon dioxide from Dow's chemical production units. The goal is to produce 100,000 gallons of ethanol annually. There are dozens of companies in the market trying to produce biofuels from algae, but most to date have focused on growing and harvesting the microorganisms to extract their oil, and then refining that oil into biodiesel or jet fuel. Instead, Algenol has chosen to genetically enhance certain strains of blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, to convert as much carbon dioxide as possible into ethanol using a process that doesn't require harvesting to collect the fuel. Blue-green algae do produce small amounts of ethanol naturally, but only under anaerobic conditions when the cyanobacteria are starved or in the dark. Paul Woods, cofounder and chief executive of Algenol, says that his company has modified its algae so that it can produce ethanol under sunlight through photosynthesis, first by turning carbon dioxide and water into sugars, then by boosting and controlling the enzymes that synthesize those sugars into ethanol. Another big difference for Algenol is that it doesn't have to harvest its algae to extract the ethanol, eliminating a step that has proved costly and complex for other algae-to-biofuel startups. John Coleman, chief scientific officer at Algenol and a professor of cell and system biology at the University of Toronto, says that the ethanol produced within the algae will seep out of each cell and evaporate into the headspace of the bioreactor. "Ethanol is almost infinitely mobile in a cell, and essentially leaks out into the bioreactor after synthesis," Coleman says. "Through some various condensation steps we collect it." Other companies are working on ways to make biofuels from photosynthetic algae, including Synthetic Genomics, based in La Jolla, CA, which just signed an R&D agreement with ExxonMobil valued at up to $600 million. But efforts there have focused on oil extraction, not ethanol. Dow is particularly interested in Algenol's process because ethanol replaces fossil fuels in the production of ethylene, which is a basic chemical feedstock for making many types of plastics. Oils from algae are less useful, says Steve Tuttle, business director of biosciences at Dow. "Biodiesel doesn't necessarily fit in with what we'd want to use as a downstream product," he says. Tuttle says that Dow, on top of leasing land and supplying a source of industrial carbon dioxide, will also assist with process engineering and help develop advanced plastic films for covering the bioreactors. Other partners in the project include the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Algenol has applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that would help fund the demonstration project. Woods is convinced that the process can be scaled up, and at a favorable cost of production. "It's our expectation to produce ethanol for $1.25 a gallon," he says, adding that the resulting ethanol gives back 5.5 times more energy than what it takes to produce it, making the renewable fuel competitive with cellulosic ethanol production. Woods notes that Algenol's approach offers another bonus: "Every gallon of ethanol made creates one gallon of fresh water out of salt water." Algenol has also partnered with Mexico's Sonora Fields, a subsidiary of Biofields, which is planning an $850 million project that aims to produce one billion gallons of ethanol annually. Copyright Technology Review 2009. ----- Wednesday, July 15. 2009Hellman's Eat Local, Eat Real Campaign: Food-Driven Infographic Movie
The movie, with a graphical style similar to the Stranger than Fiction opening scene, is part of the campaign Eat Real, Eat Local [eatrealeatlocal.ca], by the Unilever brand Hellman's. More information about the design process and creation of the movie can be found at the Glossy project page: "We all found the statistics pretty eye opening. I think everyone involved changed the way we buy our food. Yoho's wife had a baby girl in the middle of the project, and I grew a playoff beard which I've been reluctant to shave (just superstitious I guess). Challenges early on were the levels of legal approval the team at Unilever and Ogilvy had to go through on all the stats. Everyone wanted to make sure that the information was fair and irrefutable. All the food in the shoot was Canadian, which is no small challenge in spring. I don't think I've ever been hugged by agency and their clients in twenty years in the business. That was definitely a high point." You can watch the video HERE. ----- Personal comment: "Information design" (motion, 3d) en rapport avec le post ci-dessous bien sûr. Concerne le canada, mais a le mérite de donner de la visibilité aux chiffres.
« previous page
(Page 2 of 4, totaling 16 entries)
» next page
|
fabric | rblgThis blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research. We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings. Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations. This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
QuicksearchCategoriesCalendarSyndicate This BlogArchivesBlog Administration |