Closing the curtains to keep the sun out, is not the smartest way to use solar energy. Architects KV produced a photovoltaic textile that generates up to 16kWh of energy per day. Soft House is their showcase for what can be done with the material. It features a textile chimneylike form that unfolds as room, and folds as softly shimmering chandelier. I’ll know more for MARK magazine.
We do not need recycled materials that have been melted, grinded, glued and transported once again. 2012Architects prove building with surplus materials in their original form is a full alternative to regular building. The database they’ve started to visualise the flow of material, titled Recyclicity, has gone offline. Who wants adopt this building materials ebay?
This Mobile Performance Venue (MPV) consists of inflatable outer walls surrounding a central aluminium structure. The 90 x 60 meters oval is the largest mobile venue in the world. It can be transported in 30 standard 40 ft containers. The leightweight structure will require 2 weeks for assembly and one week for disassembly. Spare your breath for the 2009 ID-venue tour.
As a new academic year is about to start, thousands of students try to find accomodation in Amsterdam. Woonbox by KAW architects contains a kitchen, shower and toilet in one collapsable, compact box . This makes any room (temporarily empty school or office) available for a student to live in. Disaster dwelling, during renovation; any temporary housing need.
Wubbo Ockels, astronaut and teacher at my old school, has some fantastic ideas. He also has the power to make them reality. A test with Laddermill generated windenergy for 10 households. He will make the 100,000 households version happen, just not in this small country with 4 large airports. Laddermill has to fly at a height of 1000 meters, where winds are stronger.
“The carbon footprint of internet, is as big as the one by world’s aviation,” Gartner says. I did some calculations on the energy bill of Telecom Italia (incl. office electricity, heating, maintenance that make the datatransport happen) and divided it by the total of mb’s they transport. Downloading a movie of 700 Mb costs them 2,6 kWh. Same as leaving your pc on 24/7 for a whole week!
50 million shoes have been sold. Each shoe takes 1 minute to produce. Recycled thermoplastic is injected into a mold at Brazilian shoeshop Melissa. Because they’re mono-material, shoes can be easily recycled. The factory is 99% waste free. With designers like Vivienne Westwood, Campana Brothers and recently architect Zaha Hadid, you might just begin to like plastic shoes.
Next to the oldest trees in The Netherlands, the National Park “Veluwe” will also grow the youngest. The Solar trees in the new forest together cover 125 m2 of solar panelling, what should power 1400 to 2000 nearby households. The forest is an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and will cost some 80 million euros. That also covers a breathtaking walkway through the tree tops.
© Copyright The Green Light District - green dutch design & architecture - Powered by Wordpress - Designed by Speckyboy.