Bamboo as Building Material

As we are more and more aware of sustainability, architects are looking for more use of renewable materials like bamboo to build architecture. Bamboos are renewable material that is durable and easily replaceable. When built with this material, the interior space can feel cool in hot and humid temperatures. Also, because of its raw nature form, it gives a sense of connection to nature.

Here are list of few projects that utilize bamboo as their building material.

1) Folded Bamboo Houses by Ming Tang

The project is inspired by origami--it folds and unfolds depending on the needs of the user and was proposed as temporary housing for Haiti aftermath.

2) Bamboo Pavilion by Esan Rahmani

The Bamboo Pavilion is designed with 100% bamboo material for the homeless.

3) Bamboo dormitories for Thai orphanage by TYIN Tegnestue

This dormitories collect rainwater.

Although these projects are fascinating in that they utilize readily available bamboo from their site, the projects mainly provide for poor, homeless, and orphans. Bamboo is a great material that is sustainable. It helps our forests to survive, is environmentally harmless, and is beautiful in the eye. We should utilize such material in our apartments or luxury hotels, not just for the poor, homeless, and orphans.

Facade Generation in USC

Recently, USC Architecture held a workshop called "TOP FUEL: Filters Funnels Flows" with famous Germany-based architect Frank Barkow, who is known for his research in facade systems. The workshop was one-week investigation of interactive facade system and how the facade system can become to have complex functions such as collecting rainwater, absorbing heat, providing shade, responding to use, responding to weather, transform according to different needs and so on, besides its function as skin of the building. The building skins we see in downtown, Los Angeles, are usually anonymous glass curtain walls that only do its part as a mere closure of the building. USC Architecture pushes students to rethink "what is facade or skin of a building" in terms of its function and performance. The workshop concentrated on facade generation with the help of Frank Barkow. The students designed and fabricated full-scale building components of new solution for skin performance. The workshop was held during March 21-March 28, 2011.  http://arch-pubs.usc.edu/topfuel/

Wetland Matrix for Living

The issue of growing elderly population is critical in China. This student project called Wetland Matrix for Living creatively solves the problem together with sustainability. The project is not only beautiful in its architecture form, but is also beautiful in its creation of these elders' new lifestyle that this student designs. This project's attempt to change and to better people's lifestyle through architecture is successful in that it also enhances the natural environment by cleaning the semi-polluted water.

The site Lu Wei Qiao is located in the Guangdon-Foshan region of China, which is suffering from aging population. There are currently over 10 million residents aged over 60 with around 200,000 suffering from dementia. Yet, the area lacks retirement homes, consisting only 245 in the region to support them. As a result, these elderly population is left idle as their only child lives in the urban cities to work. The project sees opportunity in the site being next to the river to provide retirement home if the semi-polluted river can be cleaned.

The project pays keen attention to psychological health of the elderly population as many of these elders suffer from dementia. This attention includes design awareness for interactive spaces, which will give the sense of contact and emotional support; active lifestyle, which will give the sense of self-needing and societal contribution; and environment, which will give the sense of ownership and connectivity to nature.

The design proposal is a "living machine system," which is a design of a community consisting a large communal greenhouse. Here, biological waste can be processed by fish and plants, which are maintained by the residents. The resulting outflow is filtered through individual residential gardens providing nutrients for gardens before it is discharged into the surrounding wetlands or farms. Landscape and rich aquatic life sprouts as a result in the wetlands, and recycled water and fishing gives back to the residents. The end product is a beautiful landscaped residential physically and visually blending into the natural surroundings.

 Great!

Future for Sustainable Los Angeles

[Solar Serpent in Santa Monica Freeway by Mans Tham]

Foreign architects are envisioning Los Angeles Freeway system as a means of opportunity of sustainability. Sweden-based architect Mans Tham covers Santa Monica Freeway with solar-skin that looks like a serpent's scale. The whole freeway system is covered with this skin, providing nice shade for drivers while collecting hot solar energy, which is abundant in Los Angeles. The collected energy will provide the city grid and also power for electric cars. 

[New Green Transportation Solution for LA by ODBC Architects]

French architect Odile Decq and Bonit Conrnette Architects proposed an extensive plan to make the "freeway city" a little greener. The project proposes large stretches of green space over freeway system and a system of small vehicles with designated transportation lanes and parking stations. 

Looking through the eyes of these foreign architects' view of Los Angeles, we can see how unsustainable our city is and how much it would be a better place if these ideas would actually be built. 

Invasive Seaweed Still Growing in San Francisco

[Undaria pinnatifida: one of world's top 100 invasive species]

Two years ago, there were news articles about an asian kelp known as wakame hit San Francisco. It is known as one of the world's top 100 invasive species. It can grow one inch a day in its length, and can spread rapidly. In 2009, the divers attempted to rip out the kelp in a race to stop the release of millions of spores that can grow into new plants. They did this until the fund was cut. If it is inevitable, why not enjoy it?

First of all, wakame is good when used in miso soup and Undaria pinnatifida. It can also help clean the bay water, if you prefer not to eat it for some reason. Although there is a risk that when these seaweeds take over the bay that they can change the ecosystem in the water, if it can be grown with control, the seaweeds can be used for the benefit. The seaweed can consume toxin and algae while it can also be converted into bio-fuel.

Nowadays, we face many obstacles with nature like natural disasters or foreign species invasion. We cannot win the nature by resisting it, but rather we must accept the change and turn it around by utilizing it. The seaweed should be investigated and researched further if it could be used for medicine, bio-fuel, and bio-filtering.

Urban Fish Farms

[ Fish Tower by Hsing-O Chiang ]

While urban vertical farming is widely used idea for emergent architecture, urban fish farms are newly introduced through student projects. The Fish Tower project by Hsing-O Chiang, a student from Taiwan, won Honorable Mention in eVolo skyscraper competition. This vertical fish farming uses advanced technology of aquaponics, where fish are raised in tanks, here in vertical building. This allows 30 times efficiency compared to traditional domestic fish farms. By providing domesticated farmed fish to the city, the pressure on wild fish will be alleviated. Although the structure of the building seems weak to hold the water-filled heavy ceramic tanks, I advocate the idea to feed the people in urban cities with domesticated food instead of consuming imported or wild fish.

A more realistic project of fish farming by a student in University of Oregon is "Reconditioning the Urban." The project places itself alongside of the waterfront of the Willamette and cleans the pumped river water through bio-filtering system and then farms fish in the clean water and farms vegetables on the site. The fish disposals are used as fertilizers for vegetables. The goods are transported deep into the city by the moving sub-hubs for easy access to the locals.

Only few years ago, the idea of "vertical farming," introduced by Dr. Dickson Despommier, was used merely as conceptual idea for architecture. Now, the idea is used in many real projects and many are already built. Likewise, this wild but feasible idea of farming fish in our own cities will soon become our reality. Looking at these innovative projects, I realize how powerful architecture is to this society. Architecture is now improving the way people live by incorporating vital needs of the people in design, like urban farming. As global population grows, water becomes more scarce, and demand of food rises in future, the need for these kind of innovative design will become more evident, and the role of architecture will become more and more crucial in global needs.

Architectural Drawings Are Beautiful

Here is a blog that I visit everyday as if it is my daily newspaper. This blog is very unique one, which is a collection of architectural drawings of architects, designers, and students. These drawings show how an architectural drawing can become an art itself. These drawings inspire me to be more imaginative in my own projects' drawings. Its blogger Nikita posts three to four drawings almost everyday (I don't know how she finds all these gems!). 

Below are few drawings that I personally love from the blog... 

to check out more, go to drawingarchitecture.tumblr.com