Dreams a.k.a. intrinsic distractions

I read magazines.

Mostly because they trigger my dreams. They trigger my aspirations. They trigger my wants… My hopes…

I’d like to build things that challenge our current ideas about whats correct in the built environment. I saw a flat-roofed monolithic home located in Sweden in the middle of the latest issue of Dwell magazine. It sits in a prairie, ringed by low, sparsely flowered shrubs and tall pine trees. It is a monument to glass and concrete, juxtaposing a concrete slab roof and floor/foundation with crystal clear glass walls.

It sparked something for me.

Although the house was large I could instantly see it as a treehouse. I could see several of these structures, some made to appear cubic, hanging effortlessly from trees – connected by small skybridges…a modernist version of Swiss Family Robinson…

I thought about the roofs of these homes, they could be gently sloped food gardens, irrigated by rain water or mist. The “floors” appearing to hang, housing infinity edged pools for people to swim in. Decks with easy to manicure grasses could provide a space to recreate, listen to music, barbecue, or lie in a cool breeze. The vertical edges of the decks could provide space for landscaped plantings to both hang and project outwardly – the plants could provide a counterpoint, both contributing to a natural aesthetic, but also providing privacy – dampening noise and obscuring visual lines of sight.

Where plants wouldn’t provide an adequate blockage of visual/auditory sightlines, screens made of an opaque material that absorb sound could be strategically hung. They could grow moss and vines, and would provide both shade, additional privacy, and could solidify the green aesthetic.

Where would these homes go? In the middle of a greenbelt – in an area where native species could live on the ground.

What’s the benefit of placing the homes “in the trees”? Why such an unconventional use of space? How would it work?

Well, first, by placing the homes in the trees, a fundamental goal of the project is realized – more greenspace for people inhabiting the homes. There are additional benefits – reduced noise and light pollution due to the sound and light dampening properties of the tree foliage. The susceptibility of the home to wind/storm damage is minimized by trees on the outside of the “neighborhood” serving as a buffer to the elements. The issue of property drainage and land erosion is negated by leaving more land in a forested state than otherwise possible – having the trees around keeps the land adequately drained in the event of a major storm. Leaving the home in the air also clears the ground for more ecologically friendly uses – and removes a large heat sink from the home – the ground…This should make the home easier to heat in the winter time. By designing the home to be passively cooled, the energy savings should be impressive.

By keeping the size of the homes to a comfortable minimum, a good number of homes can occupy a small plot of land, with a minimum of land paved over. The unpaved land can be used in a variety of ways – as space for gardens, agriculture, habitat for small animals…The unpaved land can be partially cleared, and planted with hardy grasses to allow cars or bicycles a closer approach to the homes, although maintaining normal parking a moderate distance away encourages families to walk a short distance twice daily. Finally, by maintaining the land the way nature intended it, minimizes impacts and actually makes the home a more integral part of the landscape.

Instead of using the trees as the foundation for the homes, I would utilize concrete pillars, that resemble trees, and utilize “cut-throughs” of the homes to accommodate trees into the design of the home. The pillars would be reinforced concrete tubes lined with steel and carbon fiber, sunk into the ground on a footing – the lumen of each tube would serve as a conduit for utilities – water, electricity, cable, phone, sewage – although many of the utilities would be self-generated or collected on-site.

Something that at first might seem like a drawback of the project – the small house size – would later emerge as a benefit – the small house size makes the homes easier to heat and cool and ultimately more efficient. In addition, the homes being elevated helps to keep ground pests out of them. The long walk from the ground – via bridges to the homes would serve as ample points for pest control – allowing rats and mice to be trapped and released elsewhere…

Garbage and recycling collection could be done at central sites – with garbage and recycling being treated as a sort of dry-sewage – being disposed of via shredding and pressurized air blowing it through tubes to a central processing facility where it could be baled and disposed of…

I estimate that these homes would be more expensive to build than normal – although the extra expense would be passed on in terms of long-term savings to operate and maintain the home. In addition, the opportunity to live in an idyllic park-like setting would be unparalleled and very intriguing. Finally, the homes although more expensive could serve as a testbed of simple low-tech solutions to common problems (heating, cooling, electricity, water, sewage) that afflict poor tenants and homeowners in rural housing. The expertise gained in designing and building “homes that float in the sky” could be passed down to volunteers who work to build low-cost tree-housing developments in rural communities.

This is why I have a difficult time studying medicine…not enough dreaming to do just yet…

Tunnels and Roots

I’m fascinated with what makes a city feel liveable. What makes a particular neighborhood or street desirable to live on. How does the built/fabricated/manufactured environment contribute to detract from ones’ health and well being. How does architecture and infrastructure really interact with people?

I have a hypothesis about the built environment as it relates to property values.

We as people who tend to form tight-knit tribes like to have our own space that is as natural as possible.

Most people don’t ever move off of the land that they were born on. Their kids play in the same trees as they played on. They die in the same bed that their parents die in.  That is the majority of people on this planet.

In America though, we move every few years – maybe once a decade.  Kids go to school, the playground, kids move schools every few years.  People change jobs, they go to grad school.  They get married.  They move cities for their jobs.  They transfer to the corporate office so that they can be in the better job.  They buy house after house after house.

But people always seem to want that cozy home.  The one that feels good to come back to.  The one that feels safe.  Quiet.  Spacious.  Private

Some of the things that accomplish that within a city are the positioning of windows.  If your windows don’t look into any other windows, suddenly your home is that much larger, because you don’t have to think about visually disturbing your neighbors, or your neighbors visually disturbing you.  It is as if your home becomes larger by extension.  Windows, are like tunnels that connect your home to the outside.  Only they control the level of connection you have to the outside.  If you have large windows, you have a large connection.  Smaller windows are more isolating, which sometimes is what you want.

Windows also affect noise and air quality in a home.  Which is why views of things that dampen noise, air pollution, and protect the privacy of a person are typically high-value view objects.  What do I mean by this?  Real estate values are higher for a home with a lakeside view.  The lake accomplishes a few objectives.  It dampens sound, both by establishing a physical barrier, but also by actually absorbing/reflecting sound waves.  Sound travels very well through water, but so long as homes don’t abut the water, they are typically isolated from sound that enters the water.  Also, the physical barrier the lake establishes protects the privacy of the home.

Trees are something that take up less space and accomplish many of the same goals.  Trees reflect and absorb (although to a lesser degree than water) sound, keeping the area quiet.  Wind rustling through trees tends to provide a natural white noise that dampens other less desirable aspects of an urban environments’ soundscape.  Trees in the form of a “road tunnel” typically disperse car noise.  They also make the area seem to “breathe”.

There are studies that have shown that a view of nature – i.e. trees, water, plants, animals – is correlated to a reduction in cumulative stress as measured by blood pressure and pulse.  Reductions in stress are associated with longer life span, increased intelligence, and reductions in mental illness.

Another thing that trees do, is add a nominal amount of shelter to the neighborhood environment, outside of the home.  When one drives down a tree-lined street, there is a point in which you seem to “enter” the street.  It’s where the trees start overlapping one another.  It serves psychologically as an extension of one’s home.  It is a signal that one is in a safe territory.

It is exactly this last point that makes the idea of a concrete jungle such a misnomer.  The phrase originates to express the wild and unmanageable environment of a city.  Which is in many senses the case.  Unfortunately, a jungle is an extremely hospitable environment to a person acculturated to it.  Cities, as they are currently built, however are not hospitable environments to people regardless of their acclimation.

Unsuccessful or even absent noise abatement projects, errors in zoning (i.e. Downtown Seattle nightclubs vs. Downtown Seattle condominiums), lack of investment in park infrastructure, lack of investment in public/mass transit infrastructure, lack of stringent building and HVAC noise codes for large institutions, complete coverage of streets with impervious concrete all work together to change the urban environment from one of efficiency, to noise-filled tense heat islands.

We need to see nature integrated more into urban development if we ever hope to make our cities attractive enough to discourage urban sprawl and low-density development that acts as a threat to our current way of life.

What is green building? What’s important? Part I

Pitzer has three green dorms, recycled steel, materials sourced within 200 miles of the construction site, and storm/rainwater reclamation, low flow toilet, drought resistant plants, and solar panels all combine to make ecologically sustainable living a reality as opposed to a pipe dream. Hearing about it got me thinking about what would makes intelligent, sustainable, green design. Perhaps I’ve missed some things here, but I feel like developers, construction workers, and businesses that at least pay attention to these major categories will have taken a substantial step forward in terms of designing and developing products and places that do no further harm to our environment and urban spaces.

1) Transportation – We have major problems in America with transportation and its’ ecological and environmental impacts. Minimizing the use of transportation services should be paramount in terms of how we redefine the built environment. As loads of construction materials come, loads of construction debris should leave on the same truck – headed to a LOCAL place where the debris is disposed of LOCALLY. Also, sourcing materials should take into account the delivery distance. Locally available materials and labor should be utilized when possible. The ultimate goal is trimming every ounce of fat off of the transportation needs and costs and mileage. Distance driven = pounds of CO2 in the atmosphere.  Another thing that minimizes transportation is the decision about where to build – since this will influence the behavior of the occupants.  If the building is close to services such as schools, parks, hospitals, dry cleaners, etc… Then people will be less likely to drive.  If the building is close to work and there is a reasonable way to get to work without driving and paying for parking and the hassle of driving – most people will be less likely to drive.  If the building is far away from these things however, suddenly people have a huge time incentive to avoid driving.  This is the reason that condominiums in the middle of a city go for so much money – they pay off with convenience.

2) HVAC Design – We humans all at some point need heat, ventilation, and air conditioning. Summer and winter in New York have convinced me of this. Unfortunately, our buildings are designed for heating and cooling, when ventilation would be appropriate. Our buildings aren’t flexible and dynamic enough to cool one room and heat another adjacent room, while keeping both rooms well ventilated with plenty of new, fresh air. My thoughts on this (I’m not an engineer at all) is that central heating and air conditioning are probably the most efficient thing around (environmentally and cost wise) because you have one air conditioning unit and one heating unit. The challenge is to then mix the correct proportions of warmed air, cooled air, and fresh, untouched air. The mix changes depending on the humidity and temperature of the fresh air. The mix changes depending on the temperature and humidity of the rooms surrounding the room in question. These are all measurable quantities, and why we don’t have software that integrates and takes this into account in apartment buildings and homes, I’m honestly not sure… Other simple measures that can control heat gain in the summer are window overhangs, deeply inset windows with white (heat reflective) paint – and light colored walls inside the home.  Another thing that helps absorb heat – radiant flooring and heat exchangers.  Living roofs also help with the heat gain by providing an enormous amount of insulation to the roof, the part that would traditionally absorb a great deal of heat…doubt that claim?  I defy you to get up on an asphalt roof that has been in the sun all day on a moderately warm day – it is extremely hot.

3) Lighting design – I have one word…no two…windows, blinds…More windows means more light, and blinds can be used to control the heat gain from the sun. We need more in depth design theory on how to design electric lighting to complement natural lighting and take over gradually for the setting sun. We need lighting that is low power, turned off automatically when it isn’t being used, and lighting that brightens and dims depending on the task. We need to be able to control lighting when we are away from home, we need to be able to turn on ALL of the lights in an emergency (both at home and at work). And this needs to be something that people never actually think about. Once again, computers can do this – they can measure levels of light in a room and keep them steady, they can encourage people to both open their windows and put down their blinds in order to control temperature, or can utilize the solar heat gain to heat their offices instead of putting their blinds down. There are a multitude of ways that central, computer controlled lighting can contribute to greater efficiency in terms of lighting. Also, I believe light bulbs that last longer are obviously better – less to throw away, less to maintain, better for the environment.

In part two I will address water usage (which is a HUGE issue) , waste reclamation and recycling, low-emission/non-toxic materials, and building siting.  I’m not too sure how many parts this will have – but it shall be more!!

Noise, Neighbors, and City Life

The city is alive.  Not alive in the sense that there are millions of people in it.  Not alive in the sense that there are  millions of vermin, insects, and other parasitic pests and pets.  No, alive in the sense that the infrastructure itself directly affects us and our daily routine.  Do you live in Manhattan?  Yes?  Okay, lets run a tiny little experiment.  Turn off all of your appliances, music, etc.  Don’t worry, I’ll wait….Back from that? Okay, now…open your window…if its’ already open sit quietly for 30 seconds and listen.  Do you hear that?  Okay…now close your window…big difference huh?  That’s what I mean by the city is alive – we’ve got so much infrastructure that the city is literally buzzing with sounds and noise.  The bus motor, the taxi cab whizzing by, the car alarm that just went off for the sixth time today, the air conditioning fans at the hospital across the street, the ambulance sirens, the bus again, the drug-addled woman who is screaming out loud while she is on her way to the psychiatry ward, the kneeling bus warning klaxon, the slamming cab doors, the reverberations of the crosswalk signal as another pedestrian bangs on it again, the same car alarm that is now going off for the seventh time today (I’d really like someone to just steal the damned car already), the garbage trucks, the streets sweepers, the traffic, the heavy chains dangling off of the bicycle deliverymen’s waists as they deliver greasy, overcooked Thai food and pizza.

The city is truly alive – this level of noise isn’t good for patients attempting to recover in a hospital.  This level of noise isn’t good for students trying to study.  The city is constantly marching on time to a cacophonous symphony of transportation, signals, warnings and devices of conveniece.

So how could a city dampen this noise?  Well, for starters, better architectural design would help – putting noise shields on HVAC fans and towers, and if possible – locating HVAC equipment in some type of dampening chamber built into the exterior of the building, yet lined with dampening material – or better yet, some type of garden/pond area. Strategic park areas, trees lining the streets, noise shields along the streets, and exterior facades enhanced with greenscapes all could combine to make the areas immediately adjacent to the noisy streets more amenable to a peaceful nights rest.

Now about those damned car alarms.  Car alarms should not sound unless the doors have been opened already.  They should either page, or telephone the car owner.  Car alarms should be able to include some type of mild shock – I truly believe that if you have made the choice to steal someone’s property, you have also disregarded your own bodily safety, and if you get shocked in the middle of the street – well…that’s no one’s fault but your own.  Car alarms that go off multiple times per day should be subject to noise ordinance violations.  But how you might ask – simple…Around the country, cities are installing microphone/camera combinations.  Yes, this is slightly disturbing, thinking of “big brother” watching and listening – but instead it can be used for some good.  Anytime a car alarm goes off – the microphones will hear it.  The cameras can then swivel to take a picture.  Automated license plate readers can see which car it is – if the same car alarm goes off several times per day/night – then a ticket can either be issued by mail – or a parking enforcement officer can be sent to the scene with a cache of the pictures.  The officer can then write a ticket in person for the vehicle.

Lastly, on street parking should be completely eliminated for large areas of the city – instead large city-sponsored and run parking garages should be built for the purposes of allowing people to park and ride.

Trains and buses should travel in tunnels – the only places they should ever communicate with the outside is at stops.  By designing bus and train stops to minimize noise, we can keep the city much quieter (or at least my street)  Also by sequestering buses and trains to their own little areas of the roads, we can make transit MUCH more efficient than driving or taking a taxi – which cuts down on the need to do either one.

Lastly, the taxi cabs.  Taxi cabs should have their horns disabled…flat out. I think that would go very far to solve the problem of taxicabs…

I’m making the most

I’m trying to make the most of my space – I live in a little 9′x12′ box.  The only way it will ever stay clean is to develop some OCD habits.  I’ve realized that allowing mail to pile up is not going to keep my room clean – it will only invade my desk like the virus that it is.  Living in a dorm is not amenable to things like keeping records, cooking complicated dishes, owning kitchen appliances, sophisticated dinner sets, a full complement of toiletries, or a varied and exciting wardrobe.  It does not smile on activities such as growing plants, feeding yourself anything beyond the most basic of foods, learning to play instruments, or any artistic endeavors such as painting.  Living in a dorm room has taught me to appreciate the cruel realities of modern design and the cruel almost masochistic simplicity and efficiency that is the crux of its’ design.  Suddenly things that have multiple functions become highly prized.  Unobtrusive form factors scream with an understated yet recognized appeal.  To fit into a cabinet or shelved area becomes key.  Hidden storage is highly prized, and bare walls become a nemesis.  Storage space for any and everything becomes ideal.

Wireless electronics are suddenly a big deal.  Methods of wiring control and routing become key to maintaining the clean aesthetic.  Everything has a cord – alarm clock, cell phone chargers, computers, speakers, coffemakers, tea kettles, irons, lamps, space heaters, paper shredders…everything.  In order to utilize many of these electrical appliances, they should be incorporated into a shelving system, the cords routed along the rear shelves, and attached with an unobtrusive fastener – such as zip ties (loosely) or electrical tape – this works best with stainless steel shelving.  Once they have been routed to a common area, they should be plugged into a hidden surge protector/extension cord.  The surge protector and its’ cord should be contained by some type of simple enclosure that manages the “cord entropy”.

Paper control – via a scanner – becomes an appealing method of maintaining the intentions of the design.  One of the most important things about modern, minimalist design is the integration – hopefully seamless – of good lighting.  Good lighting in the modern setting must come from the walls and ceilings.  So either via furniture that has integrated lighting, or track and recessed ceiling lighting are crucial.  Windows and natural lighting are also huge aspects of minimalist/modern design.  They support indoor plant life and help to open up the space.  Mirrors reflect that light – and should blend with the detailing of the walls evident at both the corners and at intersections of walls and floor.  Food storage is crucial – only as much food as can be eaten in the next week should be around.  Trash and recycling receptacles in the minimalist home must be hidden or integrated into the cabinets or some type of storage structure.  Candles are allowed – although they must be placed as a part of the whole – not haphazardly on whatever structure will allow them.

More to come – back to gut anatomy and physiology…

Positive Energy Architecture!!!

This building makes my blood rush – I’m excited for the arrival of positive energy architecture that is economically sensible. It’s things like this project that made me want to be an architect…unfortunately I didn’t go that route…can someone let me know what I was thinking?