Virginia Tech’s 75 sq m solar-powered home, Lumenhaus, is the 2010 winner of the Solar Decathlon competition.
Inspired by Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, Lumenhaus has a completely integrated and weather adjusting design:
LUMENHAUS has open, flowing spaces linking occupants to each other within the house and to nature outside. [...] the north and south walls are all glass, maximizing the owner’s exposure to bright, natural daylight. The fully automated Eclipsis System, comprising independent sliding layers, permits a revolutionary design in a solar-powered house, while filtering light in beautiful, flowing patterns throughout the day.
LUMENHAUS does more than literally deliver a brighter day, however. LUMENHAUS epitomizes a “whole building design” construction approach, in which all the home’s components and systems have been designed to work together to maximize user comfort with environmental protection. LUMENHAUS uses technology optimally to make the owner’s life simpler, more energy efficient and less expensive. On the cutting edge of responsive architecture, LUMENHAUS can operate completely self sufficiently, responding to environmental changes automatically to balance energy efficiency with user comfort. LUMENHAUS is a zero-energy home that is completely powered by the sun. Other sustainable features include the use of passive energy systems, radiant heating and building materials that are from renewable and/or recyclable sources.
Manchester United star Gary Neville got green light from Bolton Council for his eco house-in-the-hill to be built in Harwood, Lancashire — “the first zero-carbon property in the North West of England”, as it is described on Make Architects‘ website.
However, the Secretary of State will have the last word, not forgetting to take into account complaints raised by locals who have set up a protest group — RAGE (Rise Against Greenbelt Exploitation) — to fight the development, claiming Neville bypassed formal submission of the project, presenting it directly to Bolton Council.
The 8,000ft² scheme has been designed following close collaboration between the client, Bolton Council and CABE. The client has been heavily involved in the design process from the outset and is passionate about preserving the natural beauty of this area. High quality design was a driving factor, but the opportunity to deliver a home of the utmost environmental efficiency was identified from the outset.Already billed as ‘a house of the future’, the unique scheme truly tests the boundaries of current sustainable thinking in terms of design and construction. The four-bedroom, single-storey family home is deliberately embedded into the contours of the Pennine hillside to minimise the impact on the surrounding moorland and has a roof of flora and meadow grasses which flows seamlessly over the property and into the landscape. It has been designed to consume less energy than it uses; a ground source heat pump, photovoltaic panels and a wind turbine will generate on-site renewable energy. The positioning and orientation of the property were carefully considered and it will be built using locally sourced building materials and traditional construction methods.The design team has worked closely with Peter Rolton, a key member of the Government’s advisory panel for renewable and sustainable energy, and the proposed scheme has already been identified as an exemplar project within the Government’s ‘Planning Performance Agreements for Renewable and Low Carbon Energy Schemes’ programme.
That’s a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe quote, in case you didn’t know that already.
And that’s also what came to my mind yesterday, as I visited the white box designed by Richard Meier, the one containing Ara Pacis in Rome, that is:
I won’t start blabbering on about how much I like its overall design (as a matter of fact, I don’t.), though I really, really feel the urge to point out a few things that made me go “what the frak?!?” straight away while I was there.
For instance, I observed the quality of materials and craftsmanship in laying aforementioned materials of this four-year-old building:
Then I marveled at the extremely integrated technological systems:
After that I noticed these colourful, playful pieces of contemporary art smartly scattered all over the place:
Last but not least, I found myself staring at this 1.2 metres tall step (as since there’s no rail there to keep people from hopping from upper level to lower level, then it must be a step, n’est pas?), wondering what its hidden conceptual meaning might be (oh, look, there’s another of those red thingies there, too!):
People who know me also know that one of my favourite TV shows (probably even my most favourite one) is Eureka. The series is set in a fictional top-secret government-run town — Eureka, that is — inhabited entirely by scientists and geniuses developing all sorts of technological innovations, from tiny gizmos to major scientific experiments, and usually also causing some almost catastrophic accident on every episode. The problem generally gets solved somehow by Sheriff Carter, one of the few non-genius residents the town.
So when I bumped into an article about an underground bunker house on Crookedbrains earlier today…
…the first thing I thought was “OMG, it’s S.A.R.A.H. with a classical twist!“.
If you’re wondering who or what S.A.R.A.H. is, that’s because you’ve never watched the show (shame on you!): S.A.R.A.H. (which stands for “Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat”) is
an artificial intelligence that runs Sheriff Carter’s household. Acting as both surrogate wife and mother, S.A.R.A.H. handles all the daily chores, helps Carter’s daughter Zoe with schoolwork, and also provides emotional companionship.
S.A.R.A.H. was designed to be the ultimate computer, perfect in every way and with many human qualities. Of course, those qualities often include some human weaknesses — including vanity, jealousy, and of course, the occasional bout of pouting. Her interests include reading, board games, and watching television. Fascinated by human nature, her favorite programs are Lab 27 and The Jerry Springer Show.
Below, a couple of blueprints of S.A.R.A.H.’s plans:
A few design sketches:
And some pics of the interiors:
(images via @_S_A_R_A_H_’s twitpic — yes, this house even has a twitter account…)
The exhibition, which has until now been displayed in Ankara, Sarajevo, Damascus, Aleppo and Sofia and will then travel to Riyadh, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and London, consists of 60 photographs and a model of the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.
In the 16th century, Miman Sinan was not only the chief Ottoman architect and civil engineer under the sultanate of Selim I, Suleyman I, Selim II and Murat III, but also one of the first earthquake engineers.
A geography graduate from Durham University, James went on to study for a postgraduate masters degree in Landscape Design at Newcastle University. His drawings are based on Ordnance Survey plans and represent details of an estate or garden as an historical record. They are undertaken by commission and can include an area up to 700metres x 500metres, 60 hectares.
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