eVolo has announced the winners of the 2010 Skyscraper Competition.
The Jury selected 3 winners and 27 special mentions among 430 entries from 42 countries.
Globalization, sustainability, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution, were some of the multi-layered elements taken into consideration.
Vertical Prison The first place was awarded to a project for a vertical prison designed by architecture students Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, and Beh Ssi Cze, from Malaysia. Their project examines the possibility of creating a prison-city in the sky, where the inmates would live in a “free” and productive community with agricultural fields and factories that would support the host city below.
Water Purification Skyscraper in Jakarta The recipients of the second place are Rezza Rahdian, Erwin Setiawan, Ayu Diah Shanti, and Leonardus Chrisnantyo, from Indonesia, whose project ‘Ciliwung Recovery Program’ aims to purify and repair the Ciliwung River habitat. The building is designed as an ingenious habitable machine that would collect garbage, purify water, and provide housing to thousands of people that live in the slums along the river.
Nested Skyscraper in Tokyo The third place was awarded to Ryohei Koike and Jarod Poenisch, from the United States, for their project ‘Nested Skyscraper’ that explores robotic construction techniques for a novel structure of carbon sleeves and fiber-laced concrete. The building is a system of multiple layers of composite louvers which thicken and rotate according to solar exposure, ventilation, and materials performance.
Among the special mentions there are skyscrapers used as bridges that link different territories, cities in the sky powered by renewable energies, instant deployable buildings for disaster zones, skyscrapers that purify and desalinate sea water, or high-rises that commemorate historic dates. Other proposals create new pedestrian layers for existing cities. Some use the latest building technologies and parametric design to configure environmentally conscious self-sufficient buildings, while others create city-like buildings where different programs are mixed in one structure.
Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organization. The award seeks to discover young talents whose ideas will change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.
Cambridge Consultants announced the launch of the ‘Syreen’ syringe, a new concept that demonstrates the cost benefit and supply chain disruptions made possible by sustainable product design.
Instead of glass, Syreen syringes are made with COP (cyclic olefin polymer) plastic, which has enabled Cambridge Consultants to shed the need for secondary packaging altogether, a first in this medical device arena.
The United States alone produces 6,600 tons of medical waste per day, equaling well over two million tons per year—approximately 85 percent of which goes to landfills throughout the country. The Syreen eliminates the need for wasteful fillers such as cardboard and styrofoam, reducing the packaging weight by 30 percent and volume by 50 percent from today’s standard packaging. After delivery, with a simple snap, the user ejects the needle into the sharps bin allowing the user to potentially recycle the plastic capsule.
The METI school (Modern Education and Training Institute) building was built by experts and volunteers from Germany and Austria together with craftsmen, teachers, parents and students from Bangladesh from September to December 2005.
In order to create jobs and to build up a capacity for producing sustainable architecture it is essential to include local workers in the building process. Training through “learning by doing” should help the local craftsmen to improve the standards and condition of the rural housing in general.
Thick walls assure a comfortable climate on the ground floor of the building. Sunlight and ventilation can be regulated through the use of shutters. The vertical garden façade shades the openings in the walls and protects the natural earthen walls from erosion through rainfall and helps reduce the indoor temperature through evaporation...
To test the construction techniques, joints and bearing strength of the ceiling, a 3 m long test section was built as well as small part of the roof beam construction. These constructions were then tested and analysed in the laboratory to ascertain their structural capacity. The results of the tests led to modifications in the construction technique.
Though dealing with being stuck inside a burning building is a very uncommon scenario, there is now an invention that could help you survive such an event. The Dang Jingwei Firescuba was conceived just for that very scary scenario. A fairly basic design using cardboard and carbon filter, it creates a pocket over your nose and mouth to allow easy breathing until emergency services arrive.
Though The Dang Jingwei Firescuba seems like nothing more than a French fry container, it is sure to give you those extra essential minutes of survival until the fire department comes.
Architecture Studio 4of7 has developed a project for a pediatric clinic in East Africa. The intent was to create spatial solution which would be able to grow and adapt according to the changing need; or according to varied conditions at different locations. Notionally, if more and more modules were to be added, such configuration could grow infinitely but always confined the circular matrix, defined by three differently sized courtyards.
Responsive solutions in building industry are normally associated with high budgets. In contrast, this is a low-cost application of adaptable architecture. Proposed design is not site specific; it is configured to suite different surroundings and varied demands. For practical reasons, it is based on the use of a single component designed for infinite growth within a recursive geometric pattern.
Proposal for the phase one satellite clinic entails ten modules grouped around two circular courtyards, while phase two configuration will need twenty modules grouped around five circular courtyards.
ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) calls for design solutions in the face of the disaster in Haiti.
In a global appeal following the devastation in Haiti, Icsid has launched a call to designers from all disciplines to unite in an open dialogue with international relief organisations to assess potential design-effective rehabilitation projects. In support of the UN’s efforts to help the Haitian people overcome challenges in relation to the country’s reconstruction plans, designers, academics and design students, as well as experienced developmental workers are encouraged to join the discussion and become a fan of the 'Uniting Designers in Disaster' page on Facebook.
Designers have a strong desire to support the relief effort. This forum is intended to help identify tangible opportunities and empower the design community to contribute to the cause.
"As an international non-governmental organisation with over 50 years experience implementing projects of global appeal, Icsid is poised with the strategic understanding of the processes required by NGOs to develop and implement result-driven and effective initiatives," stated Icsid President Dr. Mark Breitenberg and Provost of California College of the Arts. "What we aim to do with the forum is engage designers to exchange information about initiatives and opportunities where they may contribute their design and problem solving skills. In addition, we are hoping that the dialogue between the design community, development workers and representatives from international agencies will subsequently facilitate relief efforts, such as those currently being prepared by the UN to help the people of Haiti meet long-term stabilisation and reconstruction objectives."
Among its key mission statements, Icsid strives to provide an international platform for the design community to be heard as a powerful voice. Although active participation and contributions will continue on the Facebook page, in an effort to take immediate action, all information posted via the forum will be actively reviewed in order to select opportunities for immediate international activities.
"This is a call to think in order to act," stated Breitenberg. "Our immediate goal is to gain a better understanding of the relief efforts needed in order to facilitate the development of design-led solutions that impact Haiti's quality of life."
For more information, please contact: Andrea Springer t: +1 514 448 4949 ext. 232 e: aspringer@icsid.org
Norway has perhaps the best conditions in the world for utilizing offshore wind power. Its coastline is the longest and windiest in Europe and largely unsaturated with turbines. The oil industry has given the country vast expertise in offshore foundations, as well as immense investment capital. It has half of Europe's hydropower to couple wind power.
The EU commission has committed to deriving 20% of its total energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. Norway has the capacity to surpass this goal and become an exporter of the EU's newest tradable good, renewable energy.
Norway has already begun speculation on such venture, yet offshore wind farms are meeting strong resisitance, mainly due to misinformation and ungrounded skepticism. What Norway needs to propel wind power is a flagship wind farm to promote and celebrate its newest investment.
Possible typologies
Location: Off the coast of Stavanger, Norway - 31,500 sq. meters (hotel, museum) Project by Joao Vieira Costa, Leon Rost, Don Lawrence, Tudor Vlasceanu OnOffice is an international practice, based in Porto, Portugal.
Using maize bio-plastic and bamboo trim, Elium Studio is extending its research on materials applied to household products.
The designers have looked at small electronics for the home in eco-friendly mode: radio with rechargeable battery by manual wind-up, clock, alarm clock, calculator and pocket flashlight with solar-powered battery. A range of eco-design pieces for Lexon.
As for the finish qualities of maize bio-plastic, which is matt rather than the super shiny plastic, they are honed and counter-balanced by the addition of bamboo for the covering. This is a technically bold option that adds an artisan touch to mass production and gets around the problem of appearance-fade, since bamboo takes on an elegant patina with use where ordinary plastics age badly.
Material ConneXion announced the launch of its first annual medium award for material of the year, naming UK-based company Concrete Canvas’s Concrete Cloth as the inaugural winner.
Concrete Cloth’s groundbreaking cement impregnated flexible fabric technology, which allows it to be quickly and easily molded and set into shapes, is a natural choice for 2009’s winner.
“With the simple addition of water, Concrete Cloth makes it possible
to create safe, durable, non-combustible structures for a wide range of
commercial, military and humanitarian uses,” says Dr. Andrew H. Dent,
Vice President, Library & Materials Research at Material ConneXion.
“This innovation is especially remarkable for enabling the construction
of rapidly deployable shelter and food storage structures in disaster
relief situations,” Dent adds.
Concrete Cloth has been chosen as winner for its groundbreaking cement impregnated flexible fabric technology that can be quickly and easily molded and set into shapes. This innovation is remarkable for enabling the quick construction of safe and insulated infrastructure for a wide range of humanitarian, commercial, and military uses, including the creation of rapidly deployable shelter and food storage structures in disaster relief situations.
The award recognizes materials juried into the company’s Materials Library within the past year that demonstrate outstanding technological innovation and the potential to make a significant contribution to the advancement of design, industry, society and economy.
Award-Winner and 11 Finalists to be showcased in an Exhibition at Material ConneXion, from January 11 to February 19, 2010
The Carbon Trust, a United Kingdom-based nonprofit set up by the British government, has awarded $720,000 to Lomox to develop OLED lighting (Organic Light Emitting Diodes).
OLEDs use about half the power of fluorescents for a given light output, or about 1/9th the power of a traditional light bulb.
The OLED materials have a wide variety of potential applications and when coated onto a film could be used to cover walls creating a light-emitting wallpaper which replaces the need for traditional light bulbs.
As well as being flexible, OLED film will require a very low operating voltage (between 3 to 5 volts) so it can be powered by solar panels and batteries making it ideal for applications where mains power is not available such as roadside traffic warning signs.
The Welsh company aims to have the first lighting products using its
technology available in 2012 and also plans to use the same technology
to create more energy efficient television screens.
Danish studio 3XN has designed a street led lamp that uses solar energy with a
specially developed prism. Seven lamps have just been erected at Bella
Center in Copenhagen in conjunction with the upcoming UN Climate
Conference.
The advanced technology results in the street lamps generating more energy than they use. Therefore the lamp is an emblem of the Climate Conference ambitions of lowering global CO2 emissions.
The streetlamps are a result of the close co-operation between 3XN and the lighting firm, Scotia. The goal was to create a sculptural and CO2 neutral street lighting solution. The lamp post is square and integrates upright standing solar cells which are strategically positioned to capture the Nordic light.
"The background behind our design for the lamp stems from ideas of Japanese origami and the natural shapes that emerge from geometry. The luminaire contains folds which in addition to being very aesthetic, are very functional – even designed with respect to the wind. The luminaire works in conjunction with the mast to form a very sculptural expression – with a veiled reference to the lamp’s futuristic LED technology", says Kim Herforth Nielsen, Principal at 3XN.
The seven streetlamps are located in Parking Lot 5 at Bella Center’s main entrance and naturally will continue their role after the Climate Conference.
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