fabric | rblg

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Via Mashable

Personal comment:

Side effects...

Friday 26 February, 9.00am - 6.00pm

This one-day conference explores new materials for architectural practice in the 21st century. International architects and scientists will explore the decision-making properties of matter and how this may be applied to create increasingly life-like buildings.

Organised by The Bartlett´s Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research (AVATAR) group, the conference aims to bring together architects and scientists who are working with new technologies that are capable of self-assembly and organization. Such technologies may form the basis for architecture generated by unconventional computing techniques which range from the actions of protocells, (entirely synthetic DNA-less agents), slime moulds (simple organisms with very complex behaviours), crystalline computing (using the organizing properties of molecules) and algae (that can be engineered to respond to environments in new ways). Neil Spiller founded the AVATAR Group in 2004, whose interdisciplinary research agenda explores all manner of digital and visceral terrain and considers the impact of advanced technology on architectural design, engaging with cybernetics, aesthetics, and philosophy to develop new ways of manipulating the built environment.

Speakers Include:

Neil Spiller (University College London) Vice-Dean, Professor of Architecture & Digital Theory, Graduate Director of Design, Director of the Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research Group (AVATAR), The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Rachel Armstrong (University College London) Senior TED Fellow, Teaching Fellow, AVATAR Researcher, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Evan Douglis (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) Principal, Evan Douglis Studio, Dean of the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York

Paul Preissner (University of Illinois at Chicago) Founder, Paul Preissner Architects Ltd., Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, Chicago

Lisa Iwamoto (University of California, Berkeley) Partner of IwamotoScott Architecture, Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at The University of California, Berkeley

Philip Beesley (University of Waterloo) Principal, PBAI design firm, Toronto, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, University of Waterloo, Canada

Nic Clear (University College London) Director Diploma/MArch in Architecture, MArch (Architectural Design) AVATAR History and Theory Coordinator, The Bartlett School of Architecture

Martin Hanczyc (University of Southern Denmark) Associate Professor, Institute of Physics and Chemistry and the Centre for Fundamental Living Technology (FLinT), University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Ben de Lacy Costello (University of West England) Senior Research Fellow, University of the West of England, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Centre for Research in Analytical, Material and Sensor Sciences, Bristol

Simon Park (University of Surrey) Senior Lecturer in Bacteriology and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey

Lee Cronin (University of Glasgow) Gardiner Chair of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow, Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy of Science and Letters

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Via Beyond the Beyond

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A couple of scientists over at MIT have come up with something novel and potentially very useful: They've figured out how to harvest body heat to power electronics. Genius idea for when your iPod conks out on the train, though that's not exactly what they have in mind. Rather, they're focused on medical and safety monitors for things like heart rate, blood sugar, and air quality. Here's how it works: The body is pretty much always a different temperature from the air around it . Whenever there's a temperature difference, there is energy transferred because the warmer area heats the cooler one. So these scientists have found a way to harness that energy and turn it into power. Pretty cool if it all works out. What would you want to be able to power with your body heat?

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Via GOOD

America's first wave-power farm is under construction off the Oregon coast. The system generates energy as waves on the surface of the ocean move a large, buoyant plunger up and down. This is the first of ten buoys that are being set up in the area at a total cost of $60 million. If they work, they'll power about 400 homes. This form of renewable energy presents some challenges though:

Some don't believe wave energy can work, said Onno Husing, director of the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association. "A lot of people who are very experienced with the ocean harbor a lot of doubt that anyone can in a cost-effective way put buoys in the water, harvest the energy, and not have them end up on the beach," he said. The world's first commercial wave farm opened in 2008 off the coast of Portugal, at the Aguçadoura Wave Park, Husing said. It ran into financial difficulties last year and was suspended indefinitely, according to a statement from Pelamis Wave Power of Scotland, part owner of the project. A wave-power device from another company, Finavera Renewables of Canada, sank off Oregon's coast two years ago, Pellegrino said.

The advantage of wave power over solar and wind is that it's more predictable. Let's hope this works out for Oregon.

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Via GOOD