Wade and Paul - Growing house ideas...

Some “Growing Houses” Ideas:

After having a quick discussion with Paul at noon, we came up with some thoughts. I’ve thrown them here and added a few to round out some of the ideas. Please look at these... we need your feedback to enhance our presentation for Friday. 

BTW. Please keep Thursday clear!

Wade(and Paul) Dec 7, 2010.

-- The Ideas --

Communities can be started based on culturing or borrowing a polis-“seed.” Polis citizenship includes a caretaker relationship to a polis-“plant.” Once the polis has formed, the plant learns from the inhabitants and incorporates the information into its genetic makeup. The polis-plant can send out “feeler” roots or vines to sense places of useful materials, needed structural stability, sinks for output, sense competing organisms…etc. The living polis plant can share organizational information with other sites through cross-pollination or use of other chemical means

Starter homes are sapling dwellings or “new growth,” while established communities are “old growth” and are woody, more permanent. If capacity is reached in one area, the polis plant can, after pollination, spread anew to another region and start a city based on the existing configuration. If the configuration takes, a new city that is ready for inhabitants can sit, ready for use.

Once old homes are no longer of value, the plant removes nutrients to them and they are closed off (for structural use, or to let them atrophy, or to be consumed to make way for new growth).

The polis-plant provides clean water through its internal purification systems (refugium-like processes). The plant uses the inhabitant’s nitrogenous wastes for itself symbiotically.

The plant is the network:

Nutrients can be shared between polis plants based on need and availability due to local production. Processing of wastes can equally be accomplished through cooperative exchange of services between contiguous plants. Transfer of goods through exchange mechanisms within the plant(flagellate tubes) where the plant gets what it needs energy-wise to provide this function. Communication through companion and symbiotic species that feed each other may be possible.

The plant is the point:

Locally generated food, filtered water, and waste removal are some point processes. Light and heat can be generated through metabolic processes. Air can be moved and filtered through similar means (flagellum and pin-wheel organics)

The plant grows with the occupant and anticipates crisis response (.ie people growing old need a more accessible abode possibly on one level and a different nutrient stream… .etc)

Without a polis-plant, there can be no colonization so no inefficient existence. As habits become more eco-unfriendly, the plant will either adapt within limits or surround for removal(like a cancer) the offending activity thus completing the cycle.

Competing polis-plants will resolve infringement based on survival of the most capable. If the adaptations resulting from the inhabitants give it an edge, then it wins and the competing polis-plant will lose as will their city.

In the far-fetched future, the polis-plant genetic information will also include the DNA of its inhabitants. Other worlds can be colonized as the polis-plant seeds are shot into space where they will hibernate until they find an environment where they can flourish.

Recycled Houses: Airplanes!

If we don't eventually find another way of powering airplanes, I suspect that peak oil will either eliminate air travel, or reduce it to super luxury status. What will happen then to the vast fleets of jet planes around the world? As you can see, some people have been thinking of new uses for planes for some time.

This lady, JoAnn Ussery, converted this old Boeing 727 for about $30,000 - most of that being the transportation cost of relocating the plane.  She's appeared on television in 28 countries (including Letterman in the US) thanks to her domestic audacity.  I include this smaller pic below because it shows some interiors:

There are tons of these out there. Here's another in the popular plane crashing through house genre:

And, for some reason, this one reminds me of the scene from Spielburg's War of the Worlds, where they wake up to find a crashed airplane on the front yard of the suburban home:

OK, it's not crashed, but it still looks pretty odd on that lawn (the blocks under the front landing gear look a little sketchy, too IMHO).

Now, imagine what squatters could do with a whole airport's worth of planes.

Posted by Paul Rivers, 10:26pm, 12/6/2010

Sources:

• " 7 Brilliant Building Conversion Projects: Superb Examples of Architectural Adaptive Reuse : WebUrbanist." WebUrbanist. http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/22/7-examples-recycled-urban-architecture/ (accessed December 6, 2010).
• Campbell, Bruce. "AirplaneHome.com - A Boeing 727-200 Home Project." AirplaneHome.com - A Boeing 727-200 Home Project. http://www.airplanehome.com/ (accessed December 6, 2010).
• Hollak, Joseph. "The JoAnn Ussery “plane home”." josephhollak.com. josephhollak.com/2010/02/the-plane-home/ (accessed December 6, 2010).
• Pelger, Ned. "More Plane Houses « Construction Knowledge Blog." Construction Knowledge Blog. http://constructionknowledge.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/more-plane-houses/ (accessed December 6, 2010).
• Shane, Bob. "Airport Journals." Airport Journals. http://www.airportjournals.com/Display.cfm?varID=0305005 (accessed December 6, 2010).

$5000 Forest House

This family in Wales built their home from scratch for $5,000.  They use water gravity-fed from a nearby spring, a couple of solar panels for lighting, music and, computing, and a wood-burner for heat. The owner, Simon Dale, built it himself with a chisel, a chainsaw, and a hammer. 

more at: http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/12/01/hand-build-an-earth-sheltered-house-for-5000/

Posted by Paul Rivers, 7:23am, December 2nd, 2010

Source:
Kraemer, Susan. "Hand-Build an Earth Sheltered House For $5,000 – Green Building Elements." Green Building Elements. http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/12/01/hand-build-an-earth-sheltered-house-for-5000/ (accessed December 2, 2010). 

Loop City

At the Venice Biennale, the Danish Pavilion featured this presentation by the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).  I include this partially because the issues they're trying to resolve  are similar to our own and partially because the presentation itself is quite effective and worth noting.  I'm particularly enamored of the way in which, presumably with multiple projectors, they create a 3-d effect by screening their presentation in a corner (with the small set piece at the bottom).  Not that we'll be doing this.  Still they make the case for their problem very efficiently, and present a very sophisticated concept for the solution effectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t00hKtGU_n0&feature=related

Paul Rivers, 10:08am Dec 1st, 2010

" YouTube - Loop City by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t00hKtGU_n0&feature=related (accessed December 1, 2010).

Auerworld Palace

In 1998, natural artist and architect Marcel Kalberer "planted" this project, a pavilion made of living willow trees.  I find his use of arches particularly interesting here.  Could we create an illustration/animation that showed this thing moving through time? (When I say "animation," I mean a series of keynote transitions, nothing more fancy than that.)

I have a bunch more bits and pieces of living or recycled architecture, which I'll be posting here shortly.
Paul Rivers, 5:30pm November 30th, 2010.


 Sources:

• "Make: Online : Living willow architecture." DIY projects, how-tos, and inspiration from the workshops and minds of geeks, makers, and hackers @ Make: Online, the MAKE magazine blog @Makezine.com blog. http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/08/living_willow_architecture.html (accessed November 30, 2010).
• "Marcel Kalberer - Auerworld Palace." ARCPROSPECT. http://www.arcprospect.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1865%3Amarcel-kalberer-auerworld-palace&catid=86%3Aother-design&Itemid=16〈=es (accessed November 30, 2010).

Solar tracking technology borrows from plants to point PV at the sun

This article speaks of a solution developed by students at MIT that allows a solar PV panel to follow the sun using a method that mimics how plants turn their leaves to get the best exposure.

Wade
(Nov 30, 2010)

Boston (MA) - Students at MIT participating in the annual MADMEC (Making And Designing Materials Engineering Contest) have devised a zero-input energy solution which allows solar panel arrays to track the sun's movement thereby increasing solar panel efficiency by 38% over stationary panels. The three-person team of Forrest Liau, Vyom Sharma, Geroge Whitfield, all Materials Science graduate students, won top honors and a $10,000 prize for their invention.

Borrowing from the very technology used to track the sun by plants coupled to the relatively primitive approach used in coil-based temperature gauges, the device is basically a temperature sensor that responds mechanically to changes in heat. Constructed from bimetal aluminum and steel, two materials which expand at different rates when exposed to identical changes in temperature, the device is built into a type of arch affixed permanently at one side and attached to a pivot arm on the other.  As the sun moves it heats up different portions along the arch causing it to flex and bend to varying extents allowing the solar panel to track with the sun's movement, as per the expansion of the arch.

The team is exploring additional methods and materials for creating zero-energy tracking systems, ones that will continuously orient the solar panel at a more accurate perpendicular and planar angle to the sun.  The idea of having completely autonomous solar panel tracking mechanisms is very exciting, especially in developing nations where an additional 38% efficiency would be most desirable.

Solar panels that orient themselves are so much more efficient than stationary models, albeit more costly, that the extra energy they generate more than makes up for the small amount of energy required to track the sun through movement by electric motors and tiny computers which compute the angle at various points throughout the day.  This team's solution will simply do the same job less costly and without parts which will more easily wear out over time.





"MIT develops solar panels which track the sun without motors,"
TGdaily(2010), Rick C, Hodgin, Mon 22nd Sep 2008, 08:35 am.
Accessed November 20, 2010, http://www.tgdaily.com/trendwatch-features/39411-mit-develops-solar-panels-which-track-the-sun-without-motors .

Self-repairing Concrete

Brown, Wade
November 18th, 2010

Researchers have designed bacteria that can produce a special glue to knit together cracks in concrete structures.

This article may have already been covered. I just saw it on Slashdot this morning...

The genetically modified microbe has been programmed to swim down fine cracks in concrete and once at the bottom it produces a mixture of calcium carbonate and a bacterial glue. This glue combines with the filamentous bacterial cells, ultimately hardening to the same strength as the surrounding concrete and essentially "knitting" the building back together.
The bacterium tweaked by the researchers is called Bacillus subtilis and is commonly found in soil. Accordingly, the research team calls its building-healing agent "BacillaFilla."
The agent was developed with the goal in mind of prolonging the life of structures that are environmentally costly to construct.
"Around 5 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions are from the production of concrete, making it a significant contributor to global warming," said joint project instructor Jennifer Hallinan, a research fellow in complex systems at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom. "Finding a way of prolonging the lifespan of existing structures means we could reduce this environmental impact and work towards a more sustainable solution."
Hallinan continued: "This could be particularly useful in earthquake zones where hundreds of buildings have to be flattened because there is currently no easy way of repairing the cracks and making them structurally sound."
As part of the research, Newcastle students have not only considered the advantages of their engineered bacteria, but also the potential risks to the environment.
advertisement | ad info
The BacillaFilla spores start germinating only when they make contact with concrete — triggered by the very specific pH of the material — and they have a built-in self-destruct gene that prevents them from proliferating away from the concrete target.
Once the cells have germinated, they swarm down the fine cracks in the concrete and are able to sense when they reach the bottom because of the clumping of the bacteria, or so-called quorum sensing.
This clumping activates the concrete repair process and the cells differentiate into three types: cells which produce calcium carbonate crystals, cells which become filamentous —acting as reinforcing fibers — and thirdly cells that produce a glue that acts as a binding agent and fills the gap.


“Designer bacteria can heal cracks in concrete buildings,” TechNewsDaily (2010), accessed November 17, 2010, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40201539/ns/technology_and_science-green_innovation/.