Sliding Assumptions

Photo: Aroid

My colleagues and I have been giving a lot of presentations this semester. New developments in our visual languages meant to manifest complex data comparisons in an easily digestible format is required on a weekly basis, as is the compilation, generation, and interpretation of that data. Often presentation happens via projection from a laptop, usually of digitally created graphics. Lately however we have been drawing with Sharpies and grease pencils on 11 x 17 pieces of printer paper.

The result of this has been a large pixelated array of doodles on our studio wall that is eventually a step back to either a more polished projected presentation or some kind of book. It's been a little tough, the digital has infected us enormously. So much so, in fact, that those pieces of paper are repeatedly referred to by many of us as "slides".

It is hilarious to refer to a piece of paper as a slide. This word transformation comes from PowerPoint (aka PDF in our case) via the ubiquitous mid-century slide projector, which is a technological extension of the earlier magic lantern that Wikipedia pegs to the 17th century. So an outmoded technology of sliding a physical transparency in front of a light source gives us terminology that fits gracefully into the newest digital tools that become so habituated as to stand in now even for the ancient technology of paper.

It's worth noting these linguistic transformations as we chart the field of architecture into new territory. The most exciting digital technology will still be pegged to less complex precursors. This becomes very important to remember when using things like CAD drawings and energy modeling software to propose architectural systems which produce and run on non-concentrated energy most beautifully typified by Nature. One goal of our work this semester is to consider how high technology can concentrate passive energy flows to sustain our cultural speed without polluting the ecosystem. Assumptions are important. So when paper becomes a slide we know we're forging ahead with gusto.

The Shape of Sunlight's Heavy Lifting

I had the pleasure last week of helping my CASE colleagues prepare and transfer a prototype of the Integrated Concentrated (IC) Solar Facade system to the Syracuse Center of Excellence which officially opened on Friday. The machine is aesthetically and scientifically striking. Solar radiation is focused through a tracking Fresnel lens onto a PV cell, combined with a water flow heat sink. The energy effect is the generation of accessible electricity and hot water; the visual effect is both a focusing and a diffusing of sunlight combined with a pattern of dissolved inverted imagery through the lensed pyramids alternating with a simple view through the window. 

IC Solar is envisioned as an integrated building component. As such the value judgements about energy use are worn boldly in view. Cultural statements about our relationship with fuel combined with workable approaches will be part of our generation's architectural heritage. As we use technology in attempts to deal with environmental problems created by technology, the visual element will be a constructive tool in stoking the polemic.

Sunlight feels so clean but concentrating it is still a grimy business. For me, the heavy lifting was a welcome change from sitting in front of a computer every day, and the afternoons spent wielding solder guns and screw drivers were satisfying. It was amusing after my recent amateur electronics kick to be handed an LED display to put together, and driving a 20 foot Ryder truck through winding mountain roads in the middle of the night with precious cargo is a thrill despite the exhaustion and discomfort. This project has been many years in the making and I can only claim three days of wrapping up loose ends on the current version, but it's inspiring to see something so complex take real shape.

Roy G. Biv

The new Center for Excellence in Syracuse spares no opportunity to express that it is "green". It officially opens this afternoon. During prototype set up phase--I was there on installation duty for something I'm not allowed to write about before its officially unveiled at 2pm but will tell you about later--that greenness felt freshest before all the partnership logos went up. Features like lights in the bathroom that turn on when you enter the stall were not activated yet in the morning, but were in the afternoon. Likewise for the automatic flush. Interior finishes, bare concrete floor aside, are all either white, which is gorgeous except for the tops of the exposed ductwork will always be dusty; and green, which is gorgeous except when it is reflecting in perfect daylighting off human flesh tones.

It turns out that scientifically, green is the wavelength that looks brightest on the Commission Internationale de l'Eclarirage (CIE)'s famous chart of visual perception. Thus the brightest walks softest on the earth. Green is smack dab in the center of the visible spectrum. It's a word that can sound trite with repetition in popular design culture that nonetheless has a phenomenological spine.

Terms & Conditions: Greenhouse

1. [f. GREENn. 10.] A glass-house in which delicate and tender plants are reared and preserved.*

It would be amazing to be somewhere warm and humid watching the snow fall outside. I've been reading about atmospheric optics lately and came across a passage taking the term "greenhouse gas" to task for not being specific. It's a good excuse to take the word greenhouse back for a moment as something more life affirming then perilous. After all, without any warmth in the atmosphere there would be no life.

Of course the second definition in the Oxford English Dictionary is meteorological, dated to a 1937 citation of G. T. Trewartha Introd. Weather & Climate. It's a convenient metaphor that has taken pride of place in the lexicon of environmentalism. The greenhouse today evokes the brutal effects on nature hit by rapidly shifting temperatures. It becomes a prison of our own making. We are walled in by particles that do not radiate accommodatingly out to space in the region of the electromagnetic spectrum that is heat. Alas. But at least some atmospheric scientists still have a sense of humor. If you've read this far, go just a little further to the part about farty housecats.

"The motions of a molecule can be expressed as a sum of normal modes each with a characteristic frequency. These frequencies lie in the infrared and a radiating mode is called infrared active. A mode that does not radiate is called infrared inactive. The terms infrared active and inactive, which are familiar to infrared spectroscopists, are preferable to the popular but misleading term 'greenhouse gas'. Water vapor is infrared active; nitrogen and oxygen, for the most part, are infrared inactive. Greenhouse gasses are produced by resident cats with digestive problems."**

*Oxford English Dictionary, online edition, 2009. 
** Fundamentals of Atmospheric Radiation, Craig F. Bohren, Eugene Clothiaux, Wiley, 2006 p. 81.

Amateur Electronics

 

Photo: Daniela Morell

"A good lighting design must address not only... requirements for visual performance, but also the biological needs shared by all human beings, independent of culture and style. These needs relate to the biological requirements of orientation, stimulation, sustenance, defense, and survival." -Norbert Lechner* 

Costuming is inspirational and the recent Disorient Bioluminscent boat party hit the right spot. My graduate work lately has been focused on a highly technological approach to daylighting but personally I love to shine in the dark.

Daylighting is a no-brainer for sustainable design but night lighting is a little trickier. When the sun is luminescent let's use it (lux saves bucks). When it's not the electrical world is a cultural judgment call on how we choose to use resources. I can't pretend that this jewelry serves anything more than an emotional need for folly, attention, and figuring out how to make things, but it's worth questioning how and why we use electricity at night. Indoors night lighting feels indispensable. Camping aside, I can't think of a single day of my life I haven't come home after school or work and turned on a light, or a computer, or a television. Yet none of that is inevitable.

Outdoors is another story. There are places in this world (Black Rock City) with tons of people and no electric grid. If you are not personally illuminated in the dark you might get run over. It's interesting to think about the potential of space dominated by personal instead of urban lighting. Would we become more like targets for preditors or like fireflies attracting lovers?

These are dangling questions for me that will be explored further. In the meantime I'm brimming with ideas for more light art. The array pictured above has several innovative features from previous attempts including a means to switch off the LED corsages and the use of machined plexi as an electroluminscent wire substrate. Next I'm hoping to figure out how to make a more streamlined inverter and maybe learn how to program some blinky.

[Just a quick addendum... energy savings from daylighting of course need to be balanced with the potential for increased heat gain.] 

*Heating, Cooling, Lighting: Sustainable Design Methods for Architects, 3rd edition, Norbert Lechner, (c) John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2009, p370.

Power to the People

I spent this afternoon volunteering at Solar1's PowerUp New York event at GreenSpaces. To get in the building I had to brave a very polite mob of Kieth Urban fans waiting for a private acoustic concert in the same building, which we could hear through the ceiling. The venue is particularly interesting.  It's a workspace for green entrepreneurs of many bents who rent space by desk. I imagine the benefits of collaboration from being with a diverse group focused on different things must be exciting. The floor-through loft is decorated with a classy mix of salvaged furniture and decorated with sculptures made alternately from blue jeans and coat hangers.

Working the sign-in station meant that I got a nice chance to talk with people coming in. There seemed to be a mix of entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, green marketing people, and concerned citizens. Unfortunately it meant I missed most of the first presentation by Robert Peras of NYC's Department of Citywide Administration Services. I joined the crowd for the second presentation by Diane Pangestu who is the NYSERDA liason at Solar1. At this point a lot of her information was old hat to me, as NYSERDA representatives are quite popular at events dealing with energy efficiency in New York, which are some of my favorite topics. It's a bummer that the state has lately significantly reduced the incentive program for solar installation, but NYSERDA is still fighting the good fight in helping people with efficiency solutions.

More interesting was the final speaker, Chris Benedict, who practices architecture with an engineering eye and is devoted to erasing energy loads through building sealing and efficient heat systems. The quantified differences are astonishing. Apparently New York City spends an average of 24 btus per square foot per heating degree day. One of her buildings got this down to 3.8! At one point she spoke of a ventilation system she developed to integrate with her sealing philosophy. It's exciting to hear architects working at that level. Chris also teaches architecture at Pratt and said her students have very mixed interest in the mechanical side. Personally I think her perspective is critical to design in a cultural moment of climate change.

Overall it was great to see a packed room of diverse people who care about these issues. The next event will be in May (when I'll be swamped with the end of my semester) and will be talking about smart grids.

EAP Watch: Blink Alert

 

Illustration:  UC Davis

Electroactive Polymers (EAP) are machine materials that respond in shape to an electrical input. There is a wide range to their components and functionality. I've been looking to them in regards to design potential in the world of architectural engineering. Some of the more exciting EAP designs coming to market now are being applied in the medical field, destined (or doomed, depending on your point of view) to vastly expand our bio-mechanical cyborg future.

A press release from UC Davis Health System crossed my desk this morning for an EAP devise in development that can control blink movements for people with paralyzed facial muscles. The innovation over existing blink-repair technologies is that it will require a shorter less invasive procedure, and that if there is a healthy side of the face the EAP system can synchronize with the other eye.

In comparing blink restoration to my own research, it is interesting to think about notions of mediating the transfer of light and information across a barrier. In bioclimatic architecture we're looking to control the flows of energy in and out while maximizing human pleasure--in some cases pleasure might be the view. The parallel of opening and closing is important for both the human organism and the optimized building, and is a central theme in my studies this semester.