PrefaceIntroduction

111 Navy Chair Emeco + Coca Cola60 Richmond Street Teeple Architects9707 Bamboo Chair Eric ChanAdnams Distribution Center Aukett Fitzroy RobinsonAIR (Area Immediate Reading) Preemptive MediaAir Trees for the Eco-boulevard of Vallecas Ecosistemas UrbanoAndrea Air Purifier Mathieu LehanneurAnn Demeulemeester Shop Mass StudiesBiomega Bamboo Bike Ross LovegroveReusable Lunch Container Black + BlumBritish Scientific Research Station Faber MaunsellCaixa Forum Project Herzog & de MeuronCalifornia Academy of Sciences Renzo PianoCellophane House Kieran TimberlakeCitigroup Data Centre Mike Beaven and Arup AssociatesCommon Flowers Shiho FukuharaDBA 98 Pen DBADESI School Anna HeringerDetroit Agricultural Network Detroit Agricultural NetworkDiGi Data Building Ken YeangDongtan Eco City Peter HeadEdible Estates Fritz HaegEmbrace Infant Warmer EmbraceEssex House Andrew Maynard ArchitectExpo 2000 NL Pavilion MVRDVFederal Environmental Agency Sauerbruch HuttonFeral Trade Kate RichFloating Community Lifeboats Mohammed Rezwan, Shidhulai Swanirvar SangsthaFreitag bags FreitagG. Park Blue Planet Business Park Chetwoods ArchitectsGlenburn House Sean GodsellGrange Insurance Audubon Center Michael BongiornoGreen Toys Robert van Goeben and Laurie HymanGSA Federal Office Building MorphosisHalley VI Antartic Research Station AECOM and Hugh Broughton ArchitectsHarmonia 57 TriptyqueHerman Miller Sayl Chair Herman Miller and Yves BéharHorizontal Skyscraper - Vanke Center Steven HollHybrid Muscle R&Sie(n)Hylozoic Ground Philip BeesleyImproved Clay Stove Practical Action SudanInodoro W+W RocaitHouse Taalman Koch ArchitectureJartops for VKB Jorre van AstJuvet Landscape Hotel Jenson & SkodvinLandscape Park, Duisburg Nord Latz+PartnerLe 56 / Eco-interstice Atelier d'architecture autogéréeLean+Green Lightweight Wine Bottles O+ILifeBox Paul Stamets

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Living Wall at the Musee du Quai Branley Giles Clement, Patrick Blanc, Jean NouvelLucy’s House Sam Mockbee & Rural StudioManitoba Hydro, Winnipeg KPMB + TranssolarMarika Alderton House Glenn MurcuttMasdar City, Abu Dhabi Foster & Partners + TranssolarMission One Yves Béhar + Mission MotorsNatural Fuse Haque Design / UsmanNingbo Historic Museum Amateur ArchitectureOru Kayak Civil Twilight CollectivePallet House Suzan Wines and I-beamPalmyra House Studio MumbaiPassive Project Interface Studio ArchitectsPavement to Parks City of San FranciscoPig 05049 Christien MeindertsmaPost Tower Murphy Jahn ArchitectsPower House Design 99Public Farm 1 Work ACPUMA shoe box Yves BéharSandton Integrated Development Space Syntax and studioMASSeatrain Residence Office of Mobile DesignSecondary School Francis Kere ArchitectureSelgacano Office Selgacano ArchitectsSetouchi Olive Foundation Tadao AndoSolar Ivy SMITSolar Umbrella House Scarpa Brooks ArchitectsSuper Levee Urban Farm Agency Ersela Kripa and Stephen MuellerSustainable Shells Michael Ramage, Peter RichTerroir Richard H. Lewis ArchitectTerry Thomas Building Weber Thompson ArchitectsTesla Roadster Tesla MotorsCenter for Global Conservation FxFowle and Sylvia SmithCountry School Jennifer SiegalHigh Line Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Field OperationsIntegral House Shim SutcliffePlastiki Exhibition Adventure EcologyPod Home Lisa Tilder and Stephen Turk, MUTT CollectiveToaster Project Thomas ThwaitesThe Truffle Ensamble StudioXO Laptop Nicholas NegroponteUnilever HQ Behnisch ArchitektenVictor Civita Plaza - Open Museum for Sustainability DBB Aedas Viet Village Urban Farm Spackman Mossop MichaelsW101 Task Light Claesson Koivisto Rune for WästbergWave Table series Stephen TurkZollverein School SANAA + Transsolar

Biographies Manufacturers and Suppliers Designers Index

Halley VI Antarctic Research Station 24

AECOM and Hugh Broughton Architects—Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica—2006–12

The Halley VI Antarctic Research Station is the greenest building in Antarctica. It can be moved across the rapidly changing landscape and, at the end of its lifespan, removed from it without a trace.

AECOM and Hugh Broughton Architects 25

When it opens in 2012, Halley VI will be one of the coolest places on earth to live, literally. Halley is the most southerly research station operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) – the research team that first discovered evidence of a manmade hole in the ozone layer. The station is located on the 150 metre thick Brunt Ice Shelf where temperatures drop to -50°C and below in winter and hardly ever rise above freezing in summer. Its coastal location means the site is regularly buffeted by winds in excess of 100 kph. In addition to the cold, there is the dark; Halley’s extreme southerly location means the sun will not rise above the horizon for 105 days of the year.

Designed by engineer AECOM and Hugh Broughton Architects, Halley VI has been developed to sustain the lives of the scientists permanently occupying one of the most hostile and remote places on earth. In addition to coping with the extreme climate, their solution also has to comply with the strict requirements of the Antarctic Treaty Environmental Protocol so its environmental impact is minimal. As a result, the research station generates its own heat and power, has minimal water consumption and even processes all of its waste. When it finally does reach the end of its life the station has been designed to be removed without leaving a trace.

Construction of Halley VI is due to finish in January 2012. As its name suggests, Halley VI is the sixth incarnation of the research station which has been on the continent since 1956. The first four bases were designed to be buried by snow, over a metre of which falls on the site each year. These bases lasted approximately 10 years apiece before becoming entombed. The fifth incarnation was completed in 1992; unlike its predecessors this one was built on extendable legs to enable it to be raised above the snow. Although successful as a design, this base, like its predecessors is located on an ice shelf which flows out

to sea at a rate of 400 metres a year. As a result, after almost 20 years, Halley V is now situated so far from the mainland that the ice shelf is in danger of caving, with the distinct possibility that the station will end up on an iceberg; hence the need for Halley VI.

The important difference between Halley VI and its predecessors is that the new station is built on hydraulic legs, which are mounted on giant skis. The station comprises seven blue accommodation, science and life support modules, each with a floor area of 150 square metres. These highly insulated modules are designed to be adaptable to allow easy conversion as the research programme evolves. At the heart of the station is a red, two-storey, 470 square metres communal module. This is clad with vertical and inclined glazing and translucent silica-based insulation panels to provide a comfortable space for group dining, recreation and socialising. Each module’s extendable legs will enable it to climb out of the snow, while the skies will allow it to be towed so that the station can periodically be relocated further inland. This sustainable solution should give the research centre a far longer life than any of its forerunners.

The station’s modules are arranged in a straight line perpendicular to the prevailing wind; the science laboratories at one end of the row, the accommodation modules the other. This arrangement ensures that the wind-driven snow accumulates in long tails on the module’s leeward side, while the windward side is kept clear for access. The orientation also ensures the skis are kept free of snow by the scouring effect of the wind beneath the station.

A total of 52 scientists and maintenance staff will occupy the base in summer. In winter this number deceases to a hardcore staff of 16, who will remain on the station cut off from the world for up to 10 months a year.

Halley VI’s construction site in the Antarctic is under way (see left) and the research station’s modular design allows for easier assembly of the research center on-site, as the central module is erected separately from the other modules that are then fitted together to create the entire research center.

Halley VI Antarctic Research Station 26

The interior of Halley VI has been carefully designed to support both scientific research and communal life for the scientists during their long stay. The interiors were especially designed to support the station’s occupants and psychological well-being which includes the careful selection of the interior wall colors.

AECOM and Hugh Broughton Architects 27

In such harsh conditions, technology is critical to the occupants’ survival; they need a constant and reliable energy supply, for heat, light and power in order to stay alive. The station has two energy modules housing generators, electrical equipment, fire suppression systems, water and a sewage plant as well as providing space for fuel storage. The modules are linked to ensure the plant operates efficiently. However, their design will ensure that if a catastrophic fire, for example, destroys one of the modules the remaining unit has sufficient capacity to keep the station running. Six generators provide the station’s electrical power. They burn aviation fuel, which remains liquid down to -47°C and below, yet provides 90% of the energy of conventional diesel. Because fuel for the generators has to be transported thousands of miles, the designers have minimised the base’s energy use. As a result, cooling water from the generators is used to heat the accommodation via radiators and ventilation system. Heat from the generators is also used to melt snow in a purpose designed tank to produce water for the station. This process adds to the base’s energy footprint, so even though Halley VI is built on ice water, conservation was a key consideration. As a result, scientists on this station will consume about 50 litres of water per day — about half that of its predecessor. To minimise water use, aerating taps and showers with reduced flow heads have been used; consumption is reduced further by the installation of a vacuum toilet system, similar to those

used on aircraft. Even the station’s laundry has been designed to be water efficient.

To reduce energy use still further in the future, there is provision for the installation of solar panels. If tests are successful, these will be used to help heat water in the summer months when the station is fully occupied and bathed in daylight. During the winter, however, there is insufficient light for the units to function effectively.

The base’s lighting system is also designed to minimise energy use. LED lamps are used for external lighting; because of the low temperatures, the lamps operate up to 30% brighter than usual. The latest long-life fluorescent lamps are used to light the interior because they are currently more energy efficient and produce a better quality light. To help maintain the scientists’ psychological wellbeing, every bunk is provided with a wall mounted bed-head panel fitted with a special lamp that simulates daylight as part of the user’s wake-up call, these are intended to help stimulate the body’s production of mood-enhancing serotonin.

Under the Antarctic Treaty Environmental Protocol the dumping of waste on land or sea is prohibited. As a result, both human and food waste is dried in special centrifuges, before being burned in an incinerator; the heat produced by the process is used to heat the station. Recyclable waste is separated, compacted and bagged for transport so that it can be shipped off the continent annually by the supply ship. In fact, the design treads so lightly on the frozen continent that the only waste left on the ice is treated

50 Mission One

The Mission One is the world’s first electric motorcycle.

Yves Béhar + Mission Motors—San Francisco, California —2009 - 11

51Yves Béhar + Mission Motors

The Mission One electric motorcycle is one of the most talked about electric bikes on the market and it hasn't even launched yet. Designed by San Francisco based Swiss designer Yves Béhar of Fuseproject it has been appearing on countless design blogs over the last few years, highlighting its green credentials and its desirable look. The motorcycle has received an almost iconic status at the dawn of a new era of energy efficient vehicles and has been a successful exercise in how to market a product through its design and its well-known designer. Yves Béhar first revealed the Mission One during a TED lecture on Long Beach, California in February 2009 together with Mission Motors founder and mechanical engineer Forrest North. Since then it has been eagerly anticipated, and 2011 seems to be the year when it finally hits the market. “This project is a statement about how design can make performance and sustainability come together without compromise,” says Béhar. Originally from Switzerland, he founded Fuseproject in 1999. In recent years the company has come to the world's attention with projects such as the world's first $100 laptop for the One Laptop Per Child organisation, which aims to bring technology and therefore education to the world's poorest children. The See Better To Learn Better venture was a similar charitable endeavour where Fuseproject designed customizable glasses for under-privileged children in Mexico. The Mission One fits in this line-up for its “do-good” mentality, but whereas these two projects are for the many, the Mission One is aimed at very few.

So what is the Mission One? It is the first project by San Francisco-based company Mission Motors, which was founded in 2007 in the city's Mission district. The project began when the Mission Motors team built an electric version of a converted Ducati 900ss motorcycle. With this as a starting point the company aimed to develop a desirable and environmentally friendly superbike. The main challenge was to design a motorcycle that would be accepted by bikers while also being recognised as powered by alternative energy. “Just because you create an electrical

motorbike doesn't mean that you have to suddenly downgrade the experience to something sluggish and boring," says Béhar of the project. "The motorcycle is being sold on performance first. The fact that it's electrical is an added benefit."

The inspiration for the project was the Tesla Roadster that launched in 2008 by San Carlos company Tesla Motors. It's an all-electric sports car that can travel 244 miles on one charge at a top speed of 125 mph, without compromising any of its styling or environmental credentials. Mission Motors has the same ambition for its motorbikes and the Mission One is built to express speed and efficiency through its sharp lines. The bulk and weight of a traditional motorbike – a combustion engine, crankshaft, exhaust system, cylinders and a fuel tank – has been replaced by a high energy, lithium ion battery pack, which produces zero emissions. The 136 horsepower electric motor is the size of a football and there are no gears, which means that the acceleration happens in one smooth movement from 0 to 160 mph. The only difference here is that the acceleration is largely quiet in comparison to a gasoline motor, making both the fuel and sound pollution virtually non-existent. At 525 lbs it's a pretty bulky machine but the design of the bike gives it the impression of being light, a reflection of its small impact on the environment. The battery pack and motor, as well as all the mechanical elements of the bike are covered in a honeycomb textured skin that has a decorative quality which sets it apart from most motorcycles on the market. The seat ducktails from the main body of the bike and counter-levers out over the back wheel provides for a very sporty forward leaning position for the rider and there are recesses for the rider's legs to increase the aerodynamic efficiency. All these details give the impression of speed and efficiency. The frame of the motorcycle is made from aluminum, while choices for the body-material have yet to be announced for the final production version. The breaking system is regenerative which means it recaptures the kinetic energy while stopping, which prolongs the overall battery life.

The world’s first electric motorcycle, Mission One, is designed to be an environmentally friendly superbike, costing an estimated $2 in electricity to fully charge from a 220 volt outlet.

88 Cellophane House

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The modular design allows for quick, on-site, step-by-step construction and the components for the Cellophane House fit on back of a flat bed truck. The kit unpacks to form both the interior and theexterior of the building , including the kitchen and partitioning walls.

Kieran Timberlake

110

Triptyque—São Paulo, Brazil —2008

The plant-covered exterior of Harmonia 57 grows with the city of São Paulo, breathing fresh air into one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas.

Harmonia 57

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Triptyque, the award-winning French-Brazilian architects of Harmonia 57, an atelier house on Harmonia Street located in a creative neighbourhood on the west side of São Paulo, derived their name from the literal translation of the term triptych. Similarly, Harmonia 57 is a multi-paneled work that can be understood in many ways: as an object which ap-pears in various parts, as a work that offers multiple narratives, readings, and provides multiple perspectives. The term triptyque derives from the Greek "threefold," describing a work of art that is divided into three sections, parts, or panels. Triptyque’s practice as architects and artists is focused on the coexistence of diverse fields of knowledge and experience, the dissolution of disciplinary repertoires, and the merging of different elements into one cohesive yet faceted work – a hybrid.

A hybrid is something made by combining various elements of different wholes. It is often a surprising mixture, an unpredictable offspring of different inputs. Harmonia 57 is such a hybrid - a highly innovative and sustainable space. The project embodies a built multiplicity that's on the one hand open to versatile and spontaneous changes in layout and use, and on the other hand balances high water levels at the site where the local climate is tropical with high temperatures and heavy seasonal rainfall.

The use of the building is also very flexible – it was opened as an event space during the project’s construction period. The client, who organizes fairs to showcase local artistic talent, halted construction for about ten days, transforming the site into an open gallery, where workers and artists collaborated to create an exhibition with accompanying public lectures and debates. As far as the building’s water management, approximately 1.3 thousand square meters of rain falls per year in Brazil: 234,000 liters of clean water annually can be harvested. Against this backdrop, Triptyque developed an original idea for the building based upon local hydro systems. Like a living, breathing body, Harmonia 57 forms a complex eco-system in its own right, which treats and reuses rain and waste water on site. The building is made from organic concrete that absorbs water with pore-like niches that hold a variety of plant species. Harmonia 57 is divided into two main blocks joined by a metal footbridge above an internal plaza, which opens like a clearing and acts as a meeting place. The front block is raised and floats off the ground on pilotis, whereas the rear block is solid and has a bird house-like volume positioned on the roof. Large windows, shutters and terraces give a feeling of lightness. The whole building has a planted facade irrigated by a misting system. This external vegetal layer acts like an additional skin buffering the interior against external noise and heat. The choice of plant species for the walls was dictated by both practical and aesthetic considerations: some species create shade while others crawl over the surface of the building to provide a buffer of humidity for other plants. Harmonia 57 also has a fully integrated, yet technically simple, hydro system of pipes, collectors and tanks integral to the architecture itself. Pipes take the form of handrails for example - allowing the building’s rainwater and grey water to be re-used for the irrigation system and toilets, and prevent uncontrolled

runoff seeping into the ground. Any surplus of water is collected and stored in three shells located on the ground, which prevent water from running off into the street during periods of intense rainfall. The building's interiors are exposed through the porous facades. Although the interior spaces are well finished with clear and luminous surfaces, it seems as if the construction of the building was actually inside out. The pipelines are visible on the exterior walls, which embrace them like veins and arteries. A green roof helps generate fresh air and provides for comfortable thermal conditions inside the building, reducing the need for air conditioning. The building’s environmental performance here literally develops the new aesthetic: a sophisticated low-tech approach in which the performance becomes integral to the architecture itself. Harmonia 57 is a building that grows, breathes, sweats, adjusts itself, and will eventually disappear behind its covered green facade one day. Against this backdrop, one clearly understands what the architects mean, when Triptyque – poetically speaks of architecture as a living creature that constantly changes and evolves. Harmonia 57 is oneof these beautiful bastards Triptyque has tenderly brought to life, and brings to light different phases of its evolutionas a hybrid. And, as its name already indicates, it's not only a hybrid, but a harmonious one – a combination ofsimultaneously-sounded notes, an arrangement of parallelnarratives that present a single, continuous story. By pushing the envelope, and thinking outside of the box inthe infinite game of architecture, Triptyque succeeded with this project to design a building that is both interior and exterior, delicate and raw, functional and poetic, comforting and challenging, playful and precise, as well as sustainable and progressive.

Harmonia 57 opens up to the neighborhood with its adjustable exterior screens (see left) and interior courtyard that allows for sunlight and air circulation throughout the building.

Triptyque

226 The Plastiki Expedition

On 26 July 2010, the Plastiki catamaran docked in Sydney harbour. It had completed a voyage of 8,000 nautical miles, having set sail in San Francisco 130 days earlier. Many had said it was an impossible undertaking for a boat engineered almost entirely from 12,500 plastic bottles. Now they were proved wrong.

The Plastiki Expedition is the brainchild of British environmental campaigner David de Rothschild and his company Adventure Ecology, which organises trips to ecologically sensitive places around the globe to open up discussions on global warming and waste. Plastiki’s purpose is to highlight the issue of plastic debris polluting our oceans and it is attempting to find an answer to how we should best deal with it. The Plastiki is part catamaran, part environmental manifesto.

The Plastiki measures 60ft long and 23ft wide. It weighs 12 tons and does an average speed of 5 knots. The name is a play on the Kon-tiki expedition that Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl undertook on a balsa-wood raft from Peru across the South Pacific in 1947. Like Heyerdahl’s, the Plastiki expedition is breaking new ground, but for Plastiki as much of the adventure happened on dry land as it did on sea.

The project took four years to realise from a base at San Francisco’s Pier 31. Here a team of experts from the fields of sustainable design, boat building, architecture and material science was brought together to rethink the use of recycled plastic in boat building. British architect Michael Pawlyn oversaw the vessel’s conceptual design and Australian naval architect Andrew Dovell turned his concepts into reality. Taking inspiration from bio-mimicry, Pawlin determined early on that the reused bottles should be configured in the segmented style of a pomegranate along the pontoons of the catamaran, as this would give the vessel strength and durability. Nathaniel Corum from Architecture for Humanity designed the Buckminster

Fulleresque geodesic cabin, containing 6 bunks and a small kitchen. It sits on a platform in the middle of the catamaran and is built to be detachable.

In order to realise the ambition of constructing the vessel out of recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, Adventure Ecology approached the team behind San Francisco-based product development and incubation company Smarter Plan to experiment with the material. In the end 12,500 two-litre PET plastic bottles filled with carbon dioxide, to make them more rigid, were used for Plastiki’s hull. This provided 68% of the boat’s buoyancy. A specially developed plastic material made from srPET, (self-reinforced PET), called Seretex, makes up the skeleton of the boat, replacing the commonly used fibreglass or costly carbon fibre. Even the bonding agent is recycled; it is made from sugar cane and cashew nut husks. The two masts, measuring 40 and 60ft tall are made from a reclaimed aluminium irrigation pipe and the sails are hand-made from recycled PET cloth. This makes the Plastiki the world’s first fully recyclable boat.

On 19 March 2010, the Plastiki set sail from under the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, and the four-month expedition across the Pacific had finally begun. As well as being an adventure of a lifetime it was also a trying voyage where giant waves, high winds and brutal temperatures made the crew’s trip challenging. For this time the team of six relied solely on renewable energy, including solar panels, wind and propeller turbines and bicycle-powered electricity generators for all their energy needs onboard. Their diet consisted of little more than canned food and some fresh greens from a small hydroponic garden.

This part of the project was the most crucial in terms of public awareness and throughout the journey it received the desired column inches and airtime in local and international

227Adventure Ecology

The Plastiki’s 2010 sailing voyage began in Sydney, Australia and ended 128 days later in San Francisco, California. The boat carried its crew 8395 nautical miles, and passed through the North Pacific Garbage Patch. This giant area of polluted waters in the Pacific is estimated to be the size of Texas, and is a prime example of the immense destruction that plastic waste has on the natural environment.

314

Landscape Park Duisburg Nord reinvents a derelict and decaying industrial landscape into a vibrant, healthy communal asset: a public park.

Latz + Partners —Duisburg Nord, Germany —1990 - 2002

Landscape Park Duisburg Nord

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Latz + Partners’ most significant work to date is perhaps Landscape Park, Duisburg Nord, which transforms an industrial steel-works plant and its grounds into a new urban landscape and public park. Through careful intervention, Latz+Partner maintained the site’s industrial heritage, while drastically rejuvenating its landscape into one that is both ecologically productive and culturally engaging.

Landscape Park Duisburg Nord grew out of a state-sponsored initiative to redevelop a series of brownfield sites, which are abandoned lands previously used for industrial purposes that are environmentally contaminated but have the potential to be redeveloped and reused. The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia created the International Building Exhibition (IBA) at Emscher Park in order to address the need for large-scale brownfield redevelopment over an entire region to mitigate the environmental damage left behind from heavy industry across the Ruhr Valley of northwestern Germany. The Ruhr Valley is one of Europe’s major industrial and manufacturing regions, comprised of former steel mills, coke smelters, coal mines and chemical plants, all of which generated high levels of environmental pollution affecting the region's landscape. In addition, the major restructuring of the steel and mining industry left a legacy of high unemployment and abandoned steel plants. According to British architect and author Robert MacDonald,

the IBA was given a ten year mission to achieve the ecological, economic, and urban revitalization of the Ruhr Valley and the Emscher River, through the creation of new high quality urban areas and the regeneration of natural landscape along the Emscher River between Duisburg and Dortmund. The site of the IBA project covered 800 sq kilometers (310 sq miles), with 80 revitalization projects set in 17 cities with a population of two million inhabitants. The IBA set out to integrate, cultivate and remediate the abandoned spaces left behind by manufacturing industries. The IBA's mission was to facilitate the massive transformation of large-scale degraded and abandoned industrial sites into a network of regional public landscapes situated within Emscher Park. Instead of implementing a top-down, centralized redevelopment strategy, IBA proposed the reuse of many dispersed sites within the Ruhr region. The landscape park Duisburg Nord is one of these projects: its existing industrial relics and open spaces were redeveloped and reinterpreted to form a new healthy landscape. Latz+Partner won the international competition for the design and realization of the nine projects that comprise Landscape Park Duisburg Nord, constructed from 1990 through 2002.

Landscape Park Duisburg-Nord occupies almost 200 hectares (500 acres) of open land between the suburbs of Meiderich and Hamborn within Emscher Park. Here,

A clear canal, lined with pedestrian and bike paths fed by rainwater, was created out of an old waste water canal in the Landscape Park Duisburg Nord. The park is also home to many other fragments left behind from the site’s industrial past, such as monumental blast furnaces.

Latz + Partners

5150 Spackman Mossop Michaels, Dan Etheridge and Louisiana State University Viet Village Urban Farm

In 1975, Vietnamese immigrants established a community in New Orleans East. Upon arriving, one of the first activities the new community undertook was building gardens to grow Vietnamese foods that were not available in local grocery stores. Gardens were set up in hundreds of vacant lots with satisfactory soil quality and an available water source. By 2005, before Katrina hit, approximately 30 acres of land were being farmed mainly for personal consumption. An informal Saturday market had been established for local growers to sell their surplus food to earn extra income. Over the decades, gardening remained a primary cultural and economic activity within the Vietnamese-American community. The gardens and the market functioned as a cultural link back to Vietnam, the country they had left behind.

New Orleans East was one of the hardest hit neighborhoods by Katrina. Almost all of the gardens were destroyed. The Vietnamese community approached the destruction as an opportunity to re-establish their traditional gardening and market activities in a formalized and centralized setting. In 2006, under the initiative of community member Peter Nguyen and the Reverend Vien Nguyen, Mary Queen of Viet Nam Community Development Corporation (MQVN CDC) was established and the Viet Village Urban Farm was conceptualized as the community response in the wake of the devastation of Katrina. MQVN CDC rallied support for the project which became the backbone of the post-Katrina rebuilding effort within the Vietnamese community.

A 28 acre site in the heart of New Orleans East was secured to house the Viet Village Urban Farm. 20 acres were purchased from the city and 8 are on long term lease. A team of researchers from University of Montana’s Environmental Studies Program, a team from Tulane City

Center and a team from Louisiana State University’s School of Landscape Architecture hosted a series of community meetings to determine the project goals and a design strategy. The design solution included not only plans for the physical site and its systems, but also a strategy for coordinating funding and labor resources. The design proposed constructing the farm as a series of fully functional sub-projects that could be funded incrementally. As more funding becomes available, the sub-projects will come together to create a comprehensive system. To address the issue of labor, each sub-project was organized into three categories of labor resources: professional contracting, skilled volunteer, and unskilled volunteer. The strategic analysis and planning of the project are what will allow it to develop successfully.

The fully realized Viet Village will include individual garden plots for personal consumption, commercial plots, a livestock area for farmers to raise poultry and goats in the traditional Vietnamese way, a covered market area with stalls for Vietnamese restaurants to sell food during market hours, a playground and a sports field. The site will be bordered by a bamboo grove which will separate the farm from the neighboring residential area and provide income through commercial harvesting. The farm will be both a cultural and economic catalyst for the community. By including the playground and sports facilities, the older generation of Vietnamese immigrants hopes the farm will become a place where younger American-born members of the Vietnamese community can learn the skills and traditions brought to America from Vietnam. By placing the playground within the individual plots, children are encouraged to get involved in farming activities and parents can keep watch on their children as they work in their gardens. When completed the

The Vietnamese-American urban gardens were completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and are now being rebuilt in through a series of project phases that will not only bring back the production of local produce into the neighborhood but also rebuild the Vietnamese-American community in New Orleans East.

The Viet Village Urban Farm mitigates the disastrous effects of storm flooding in New Orleans while encouraging families to grow their own produce.

Dan Etheridge, Spackman Mossop Michaels and Louisiana State University —New Orleans, Louisiana —2006-11

176 177EmbraceEmbrace Infant Warmer

For a newborn baby, staying warm is a matter of life or death. In their first and most vulnerable moments, babies are unable to maintain a healthy body temperature on their own. Even a drop of a few degrees can result in long-term health and mental conditions, and often results in a loss of life.Tragically, hypothermia affects over twenty million babies and their parents annually, and is one of the most common causes of infant mortality. However, it is also one of the most preventable.

Neonatal hypothermia can be avoided through the use of incubators, yet this equipment can cost up to £15, 000 ($20 000). They are thus largely unaffordable to populations and clinics in the developing world. Traditional incubators are also unsuitable for rural areas without regular access to electricity, and parents are often without the means to travel to medical facilities in urban centers. As a result, in areas where births still most often take place in the home, populations often resort to archaic warming methods such as placing hot water bottles near babies or placing them under heat lamps; techniques that are both ineffective and dangerous. The Embrace Infant Warmer by Embrace was precisely devised as a solution to this widespread problem. Recognizing a gap in global health distribution, the Embrace is designed as a sustainable and socially aware alternative to a traditional incubator. The product is low-cost, efficient and accessible, and uses technological innovation to treat ailments both medical and social.

The Embrace Infant Warmer resembles something between a kangaroo’s pouch and a mother’s loving hug. It is similar to a miniature, hooded sleeping bag into which a tiny newborn can be tucked away and kept warm. And though seemingly simple, the Embrace works through the careful

application of advanced technologies to the needs of the world’s poorest populations.

The product works through the use of a wax-like substance that has a melting point at 37 degrees Celsius, which is precisely the body temperature necessary for healthy neonatal growth. A sealed pouch of wax is heated either electronically or placed into hot water where electricity is unavailable or unaffordable. The pouch is then slipped into a pocket located at the back of the sleeping bag, which can be tightly secured around the child’s body. The wax maintains a constant temperature for four to six hours, naturally releasing heat if the child is too cold or absorbing it if the child is too warm. After a few hours, a mechanism indicates when the pouch has cooled, and the wax can then be reheated.

The pouch interior is waterproof and durable, and is specifically designed without any interior seams so that the Embrace can be easily sterilized and reused for long periods of time and for multiple users. Significantly, the pouch is also lightweight, intuitive and transportable, allowing babies to be safely taken to medical facilities if needed, and more basically provides the psychological benefit of being able to hold your child in your arms.

Most importantly, the Embrace costs a fraction of traditional incubators. At only around £65 ($100) the Embrace Infant Warmer costs less than one percent of a traditional incubator, making the product accessible to populations and clinics that would otherwise not have access to dependable medical amenities.

The Embrace Infant Warmer was initially developed in 2007 as part of a graduate level course at Stanford University in California called Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme

The Embrace Infant Warmer uses no electricity, eliminating one of the leading causes of infant mortality at less than one percent of the cost of traditional incubators.

These waterproof and durable sleeping bag-like incubators ‘embrace’ new borns and require very little little energy in comparison to costly neonatal hospital equipment, and can be used in rural areas and homes not near medical facilities.

Embrace —San Francisco, USA and Bangalore, India —2008 – present

247246 SMITSolar Ivy

The flexible, modular and recyclable plastic ‘leaves’ of Solar Ivy harness energy through photovoltaic cells, providing shade and power to the buildings to which they cling.

SMIT—2008—Brooklyn, New York

Move over wisteria, kudzu and morning glory. There’s a new climbing plant in town …

Giving emerging green tech an added boost of verdant appeal is Solar Ivy from SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology), a multidisciplinary sustainable design firm based in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn, New York. SMIT’s principals are the St. Louis, Missouri-born brother/sister team of Samuel and Teresita Cochran and architectural designer Benjamin Wheeler Howes.

Initially a wind and solar device dubbed GROW, Solar Ivy was conceived as Samuel Cochran’s thesis project while an undergraduate Industrial Design student at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Some years, a few tweaks, a business model and a name change later, the concept behind Solar Ivy remains somewhat the same as it did circa 2005: taking on the biomimetic form of ivy, each modular “leaf” made from recyclable, UV-stable polyethylene is capable of harnessing energy – about a half-watt of power – through embedded Konarka Power Plastic organic photovoltaic cells.

Like natural ivy, Solar Ivy can “grow” prosperously on a variety of building typologies and façades whether atop a garage or garden shed, on the rooftop of a commercial building or gracing the front façade of a home. The leaves themselves are embedded into a flexible yet durable stainless steel mesh framework that can be anchored onto various vertical building surfaces. Once rooted into the framework, the lightweight leaves are left free to naturally flutter, flit and flail about in the wind, capturing sunlight from various angles. From there, the energy collected

by each leaf is transferred to the existing electrical grid through a grid tie inverter or stored in on-site batteries for later use.

In addition to providing dramatic visual flair by way of a highly adaptable alternative energy system, Solar Ivy, like a strategically placed tree, also provides shade to a structure, further reducing energy costs by controlling heat gain.

Just as Solar Ivy can be installed on a variety of facades, it is also designed to be highly customizable. For one, the leaves can be produced in a variety of colors. If a homeowner is attempting to closely mimic Solar Ivy’s natural counterpart, he or she may opt for an array of deep green colored leaves. Or, if one is particularly fond of the rich colors of fall foliage, he or she may opt for leaves of darker hues. In fact, the colors of Solar Ivy can be mixed and matched to achieve any desired aesthetic look. When used in advertising applications, Solar Ivy can be ordered to coordinate with an organization’s trademark colors.

The density of Solar Ivy can also be customized to meet aesthetic or energy needs. Just as one may keep a fastidiously manicured garden, a homeowner can “prune” Solar Ivy by simply decreasing the density of the array. Or, if a homeowner desires a more teeming, verdant array of Solar Ivy, additional leaves can be added in. Like a string of holiday lights, an individual leaf can easily be removed or replaced without disrupting the entire network. Furthermore, Solar Ivy can be produced with different types of photovoltaic material to suit a client’s particular needs and be designed to have varying levels of pitch.

As a biomimetic form of the natural ivy plant, Solar Ivy functions as a light-weight solar powered, energy collecting cover for building facades. Each ‘leaf’ captures sunlight at different angles and shades the building underneath.

Additional projects, such as the Embrace Infant Warmer, the Viet Village Urban Farm, and Solar Ivy, illustrate the wide cross-section of contemporary issues and various scales at which designers are able to realize innovative and effective sustainable solutions.