Rounding Out Shelter Design

October 27, 2009

Recently the winner of a shelter design contest organized by the Guggenheim Museum and Google's 3-D modeling arm SketchUp was announced--a Danish tidal sea space. But a finalist's garbage-transportation shelter really captured my imagination.

The Design It: Shelter Competition asked entrants to design simple off-grid small shelters where a person could study and sleep. It could be anywhere on Earth as long as the plans didn't require removing any existing structures.

Slovenian architect Alexander Niño Ruiz designed a circular, functional rolling shelter for waste-collectors in Bogotá. Thousands of families in the Colombian city gather waste for recycling and sadly tend to find refuge from the elements in the very materials they pick up. Ruiz's corrugated metal barrels nest to form rolling storage. At night, the reflective wheel expands to become a protective space. While I'm not sure how easy--and inexpensive--it would be to construct one of these from scrap materials, I hope Ruiz puts his idea into motion.

Here's a video with more details about the Waste-Pickers Shelter:

Image: Rendering of a Waste-pickers shelter in Bogota at night. Credit: Alexander Niño Ruiz.

Wide Angle: Tsunami-Proof Buildings Gaining Ground

October 20, 2009

Geotechnical engineer Yumei Wang, who works for Oregon state, warns that it's only a matter of time before a tsunami hits the Pacific Northwest. Yikes. I mean, YIKES!!! Fortunately for the vulnerable populace, Wang has a plan.

She proposes that low-lying communities collaborate to construct what she calls "tsunami evacuation buildings." I think "post-wave outposts" sounds better, but that's just me. Such a building would be made from reinforced concrete and have an 18-foot first floor, wide columns connected to a deep pile foundation, a wide external stairwell, and seawalls along the exterior to dissipate waves. An open plan would allow the building to have other daily uses.

As an engineer with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland, Wang is meeting with officials in Cannon Beach about potentially constructing the nation's first tsunami evacuation building (PDF) by retrofitting the town hall. While the estimated cost is between $1 million and $2 million, doing nothing would be worse since around 100,000 people live in the state's risk areas. Maybe they could even use green concrete. A retrofit definitely beats my idea: water wings as fashionable accessories.

Photo: Walk this way: Shirahama tsunami evacuation structure in Japan. Credit: Nobuo Shuto.

German Solar Cube House Wins DC Decathlon

October 16, 2009

On the final, rainy, day of judging at the fourth Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC, I found myself busting a move with the German team in their solar house. Maybe that was what pushed them over the top.

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that Team Germany from Technische Universität Darmstadt had won the competition, coming away with glory and bragging rights. For the uninitiated, the Solar Decathlon is a DOE-sponsored event where college teams from around the world design and build family homes on the National Mall that run solely on solar power.

When the judges aren't evaluating the homes in 10 different weighted categories, the public can traipse through for inspiration. Despite the cold and steady rain yesterday, the German house was packed with visitors drawn to its futuristic cube shape. The team had cleverly used photovoltaics on all sides for maximum power. Team member Patrick Tauchert told me that one of their strategies was to take features that worked and push them as far as they could go. Even on a gloomy day they still had an impressive surplus, but maintaining a comfortable temperature was key so the whole team danced in unison to generate more heat. I'm pretty sure they're still dancing, but this time in celebration. 

Photo: Visitors flock to the decathlon, and to the German house (far right). Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

Wide Angle: Klymit Takes Control of the Elements

October 13, 2009

Early today the Ogden, Utah-based company Klymit ships out its first batch of adjustable insulation vests. The key elements? Noble gases.

President and CEO Nate Alder came up with the idea while still a student at Brigham Young University after learning that weightless argon has insulation properties and was being used in double glazed windows. 

Argon, krypton, and xenon are already present in the air we breathe, Alder says. A cryogenic process removes them so they can be put into Klymit's vests. I wondered, could you ever run out of these noble gases? "You would have to suck the entire atmosphere out. And where would you put it?" Alder says. "It’s not like gasoline."

Klymit makes four kinds of different sports vests, which retail in the $200 range. The insulation level is adjustable with a valve and a recyclable canister that lasts around three seasons on the slopes. None of the beta testers punctured the vests, but they can easily be patched should that happen.

Alder adds that the company has filed for patents to use the technology for a wide variety of applications beyond outdoor apparel. Last weekend I could have used it while watching a pumpkin paddling contest in Vermont on a windy fall day. Some of the racers probably could have used some noble gases, too.

Photo: Klymit president and CEO Nate Alder shows of a noble vest. Credit: Salt Lake City Outdoor Recreation Examiner.

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Taking Tree Housing To New Heights

September 04, 2009

A research group from the University of Stuttgart is giving "tree house" a new meaning recently with the world's first tower made from living white willow trees.

I've seen benches and even umbrella stands made from manipulating living trees, but coaxing them into a building is a new one. The Baubotanik group--I love their name--focuses on understanding how botany can be used for construction. Headed by Professor Gerd de Bruyn, the scientists planted the trees at the base in the soil, constructed a temporary steel scaffolding to support the growing trees, and placed yet more willows in planters.

Over the course of five to 10 years the plan is for the trees to grow into a load-bearing structure that no longer needs the steel. The scientists hope that work on this tower will lead to safe and strong living structures. If you're in Germany on September 19, you can go check it out (in German) for yourself because the tower will be open for public viewing. I'll probably just wait until I can imagine moving in.

Photo: A member of the research group aloft in the tower. Credit: Baubotanik.

DustCart Robot Does the Dirty Work

July 10, 2009

I've written about recycling robots before, but they can't even touch the DustCart, a trash and recycling robot that's been tested on narrow Italian streets. Besides being adorable, it has the potential to change the way we deal with discards.

Sure, you might have seen it featured on Engadget, Inhabitat, and TreeHugger but the DustBot pilot project is worth a closer look. The project aims to design autonomous robots that improve urban municipal waste management. If all goes well, DustCart could lead to smarter and more efficient trash and recycling collection, as well as pollution-monitoring.

Recently DustCart rolled around Peccioli, a tiny town in Italy. Where trash trucks can get stuck in the narrow 8th Century streets, DustCart turns the corners with ease. The robot is programmed to respond to residents who call and tell it what they're tossing--organic waste, recyclables. It shows up at the door, opens its belly, and then drops everything off at a waste-collection facility, all while sensors monitor pollutants in the air. Anyone who has been awoken by dump trucks in the middle of the night will appreciate that it runs quietly on lithium ion batteries. 

There are definitely drawbacks to the DustCart. One of these little guys clearly can't replace a fleet of dump trucks in urban areas, plus it could pose a Segway-like problem for traffic and big eyes can't always override human skepticism. Fortunately, the robot will undergo more tests in Spain, Japan, and St. Louis this year--if it isn't stolen by rabid WALL-E fans first.

Photo: The Dustbot enjoys the sights in Italy. Credit: Fulvio Paolocci/Global Post.

Agribike Sends Seeds to Spinning Class

June 26, 2009

Just when I thought I'd seen one of the best bike inventions ever--the bicilavadora--another group of students has come up with one that turns agricultural labor into a fun ride.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, drought-resistant sorghum and millet are choice food staples. The problem: threshing the seeds from the stalk or "panicle" is a work-intensive process, requiring women and children to beat the grains with a giant mortar and pestle for hours every day in order to produce just enough to eat. A team of home-schooled high school students from Bridgewater, New Jersey, created a better way.

The Teen Technology Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam--a 501(c)(3)--worked with Jeff Dahlberg, a research director for the National Sorghum Producers to build a simple human-powered threshing machine that beats the stick hands down. The students were inspired by the rotating brushes inside a vacuum cleaner. A stationary bike component rotates a thresher drum, which is dotted with pegs that effectively shear the seeds from the panicle. Air blows through, sending the lighter material up and the heavier seeds down through a chute into a bucket.

Initial results were great: the bike produced 13 kilograms per hour compared to the traditional method's five. And it required far less energy to operate, too. Eleventh-grader David Schmidt told me at EurekaFest that the team is thinking about how the bike, which cost roughly $100 to build, could be made from indigenous materials. "You don't need [these] pedals," he says. "You could use wood."

Here's a short video I shot that shows it in action:

Photo: Pedals Pass the Pestle. Credit: Alyssa Danigelis.

The Solaqua Lets the Light Shine In

June 03, 2009

You know how much I love solar for water purification--tech the World Health Organization even recommends. Now University of New South Wales student Jason Lam's new device is making it easier to get the job done.

Lam's Solaqua uses solar water disinfection--or SODIS for short--to clean up to 2.6 gallons of water, reports Gizmag. Unclean water is poured into the middle, passes through an initial filtering cloth, and then fills five detachable bottles that have reflective interiors. Each bottle comes off so it can lie in the sun. The whole setup can either be carried by its handles or placed comfortably on the head to be transported.

Lam's design was the silver Australian Design Award James Dyson Award winner this week, named for the British vacuum cleaner billionaire. There are still some drawbacks, though. Treehugger's Jaymi Heimbuch points out that its plastic, while recyclable, might not be rugged enough. At the rate designers are going, I imagine that future prototypes will resolve this. After all, the sky is the limit here.

Photo: The Solaqua uses the sun to kill disease in water. Credit: Jason Lam/Australian Design Award.

Wide Angle: Street Lights That Blow

May 25, 2009

One guy in New York complained about a burned out street light on 96th Street for a year before the bulb got replaced. What if it didn't need a bulb, but just a good gust of wind to get it glowing?

A French renewable energy products company Windela, based in Paris, came up with an off-grid street light called the Windelux that can. The autonomous lights are powered by a combination of solar and wind power. Each light has several dozen tiny LEDs that each require 2 Watts. During the day, the light can charge through a solar photovoltaic panel on top. A silent vertical wind turbine is programmed to stop automatically if the gales are too hard and the system has backup battery power if both power sources can't deliver.

Beyond light, the Windelux has the capacity to be a WiFi relay, sending signals in extremely rural areas. The lights have already been installed in few locations around France and Algeria. According to Le Parisien, officials invested about $63,000 to install four of the lights in Vitry, Paris. Sounds like a lot, but it's likely to be bon marché in the long run.

Photo: The Windelux gets some air. Credit: Windela via Batiproduits.

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Wide Angle: Recycle-Bots Take Over

May 18, 2009

MIT's 2.007 mechanical engineering design class held its annual competition recently, pitting robot against robot. This year it had an environmental theme: construct robots that can pick up and drop off recycling.

Get the can! The winning robot (video of the finals) built by sophomore Edward Grinnell actually racked up the most points by using a second "bother bot" to slow down opponents. Hrm. Sounds more strategic than efficiently green, but it's impressive to see the competitors' vastly different designs built mostly from the same kits.

What might be better than recycling robots--robots made from recycling. Gearheads cheered a national grassroots stuff-swap effort called Curb Day, which took place over the weekend. Robots.net predicted that "you'll be [...] looking for those motors, gears, motherboards, or old lawnmower engines you need to complete your next robot project." Reuse WIN.

Photo: Don't worry kid, it's only Curby the "recycling robot" of Roseville, California.

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