Posts Tagged ‘Berkeley’

Book Review – Digital Fabrications: Architectural And Material Techniques

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Read Article: Book Review – Digital Fabrications: Architectural And Material Techniques
Digital Fabrications : Architectural and Material Techniques (Amazon USA and UK)

Publisher Princeton Architectural Press says: Architectural pioneers such as Frank Gehry and Greg Lynn introduced the world to the extreme forms made possible by digital fabrication. It is now possible to transfer designs made on a computer to computer-controlled machinery that creates actual building components. This “file to factory” process not only enables architects to realize projects featuring complex or double-curved geometries, but also liberates architects from a dependence on off-the-shelf building components, enabling projects of previously unimaginable complexity.

Digital Fabrications (…) celebrates the design ingenuity made possible by digital fabrication techniques. Author Lisa Iwamoto explores the methods architects use to calibrate digital designs with physical forms. The book is organized according to five types of digital fabrication techniques: tessellating, sectioning, folding, contouring, and forming. Projects are shown both in their finished forms and in working drawings, templates, and prototypes, allowing the reader to watch the process of each fantastic construction unfold. Digital Fabrications presents projects designed and built by emerging practices that pioneer techniques and experiment with fabrication processes on a small scale with a do-it-yourself attitude.

Views inside the book:
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If i had to recommend you one book about the use of digital tools in architecture, it would be this one. Written by an expert who is also a successful practitioner (Lisa Iwamoto, a leader in the field of digital fabrications, is associate professor of architecture at UC Berkeley and a principal of IwamotoScott Architecture), Digital Fabrications is pleasantly approachable. First, there’s the visual appeal of the publication. It is a light, compact book shock full of fabulous pictures and concise yet precise descriptions of the many projects covered. The most engaging characteristic of the volume however is its content. The author has chosen to highlight the innovative and DIY attitude that reigns among designers and architects who use digital technologies. Many of the projects are detailed and made comprehensible with graphics and pictures making it a great inspiration for other architects as well as for students. In fact, students projects are also featured in the book.

Each type of digital fabrication -sectioning, tessellating (see the example on the cover of the book: Technicolor Bloom by Brennan Buck), folding, contouring and forming- is explained clearly and then illustrated through descriptions of pioneering case studies, driving you smoothly from the working method adopted by the architects to the final result of their experiments.

Be warned that the focus is blatantly on US architects (with a preference for the East Coast.)

Thom Faulders’s screen façade for Airspace Tokyo is an example of tessellating technique. Four different overlapping organic patterns are made of laser-cut aluminium and plastic composite.

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Thom Faulders, Airspace Tokyo exterior. Image: Tatsuo Masubuchi

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Airspace Tokyo exterior. Image: Studio M/Thom Faulders

Folding technique: 3,500 molecules recycled cardboard molecules arranged in an interpretation of Cartesian space by Chris Bosse and the students at the University of Technology in Sydney.

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Chris Bosse and the students at the University of Technology in Sydney, Digital Origami

And now for the forming technique, Andrew Kudless and Matsys’ P_Wall investigates the self-organization of both plaster and elastic fabric, to produce evocative visual and acoustic effects.

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Related stories: C.STEM 2008: Breeding Objects – Computational Design, from Digital Fabrication to Mass-Customization, Generator x – Beyond the Screen, Encoded art works.

Bonus! Greg Lynn talks about the mathematical roots of architecture — and how calculus and digital tools allow modern designers to move beyond the traditional building forms.

This piece originally appeared in We Make Money Not Art.

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(Posted by Regine Debatty in Arts at 11:04 AM)

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Sungevity Raises Funds, Appoints New Senior Executives to Help Bring Solar Online

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ — Leading online solar provider Sungevity announced today that it has raised an additional million led by Greener Capital, a new venture capital firm.

Charles Finnie, managing partner in Greener Capital, said. “This is the best business model we have seen in the residential solar space. Sungevity’s unique web-based direct selling model has enabled the potential for rapid deployment, great customer service and scalability at the lowest installed cost in the industry. We are excited to invest in Sungevity, as solar power becomes competitive with grid electricity across the US.”

Finnie will join the Sungevity Board. The company has also added three key members to its executive team, doubled its salesforce, and plans to enter three new geographies by the end of the year.

“We’re very pleased to welcome such a remarkable group to Sungevity,” said Danny Kennedy, president and cofounder of the company. “We believe that the support from Greener Capital and our growing world class team will be a tremendous boost to our mission of giving more customers greater access to solar electricity. We’re making going solar easy, an excellent investment and a smart way for you to reduce carbon pollution.”

Joining Sungevity are:

  • Charles Ferer, CFO. Most recently Ferer served as CFO for SolarCity, the US’s largest solar installer, where he helped raise over M in tax equity and launch a successful solar leasing program. He has more than 20 years of experience for companies including Gap and PepsiCo. Ferer has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Puget Sound, and an MBA in Finance from Indiana University.
  • Daphne Li, COO. Li has held key leadership positions in marketing, product management, strategy and M&A at ADP and Apple. As Chief Strategy Officer and VP, Marketing for DoveBid, she helped start up business online auctions and grew revenue from M to 0M. She currently sits on KQED’s board. Li has a B.A. in Economics and an MBA, both from Stanford.
  • Ariel Tseitlin, VP, Technology and Product Development. Tseitlin was most recently the Founder & CEO of CTOWorks, a software consultancy advising early-stage start-ups on their technology strategy. Prior to CTOWorks, Tseitlin was the VP of Engineering at Playboox, a SaaS CRM start-up. Tseitlin has also held senior management positions at Oracle and Siebel Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA with Honors from Wharton.

“With our easy online service, we have the lowest-cost way of getting solar power into American homes,” said Andrew Birch, CEO and cofounder of Sungevity. “Now we have the team and resources to make sunshine online available to millions of home-owners.”

Sungevity launched to the public in April of 2008 and has quickly become a leading provider of residential solar in California with its unique online solar sales offering. It is the only company to provide firm online quotes and make sales a site visit. Sungevity’s solar sales process reduces costs by around 10% by removing the need for technicians to visit a home, enabling consumers to go solar more efficiently than ever before. Sungevity has provided thousands of solar quotes to homeowners across the state, offering a more affordable way for consumers to reduce their carbon emissions with a positive long-term investment.

Get a quote by going online to www.Sungevity.com or by calling 877.257.8648.

Read Article: Sungevity Raises Funds, Appoints New Senior Executives to Help Bring Solar Online





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Sungevity Raises $6M

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Sungevity has raised million in equity and hired new executives to help it expand its business. Greener Capital led the round, said the Berkeley, Calif.-based installer of solar energy systems. Sungevity also hired Charles Ferer as chief financial officer. Ferer
served the same role at SolarCity, one of California’s largest
installer headquartered in Foster City. Daphne Li also is joining Sungevity as its chief operation officer.
Li was the chief strategy officer and vice president of marketing at
DoveBid, which helps companies assess and sell their assets. Li helped
launched an online auction business there and grew the sales from
million to 0 million, according to Sungevity.

The solar installer also has hired Ariel Tseitlin as its vice
president of technology and product development. Tseitlin came from
CTOWorks, a software consulting firm he founded and headed as chief
executive. Aside from selling its installation services to residential customers, Sungevity has devoted resources into developing software and services to generate a list of potential customers for other installers. The company uses satellite images of those likely customers’
rooftops to help layout the design of a solar energy system in order to
provide a cost estimates. This approach saves the time and money
involved in sending staff for a site visit. Most of the site visits
don’t generate contracts because consumers tend to shop around.

Source

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Sungevity Raises $6M

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Sungevity has raised million in equity and hired new executives to help it expand its business. Greener Capital led the round, said the Berkeley, Calif.-based installer of solar energy systems. Sungevity also hired Charles Ferer as chief financial officer. Ferer
served the same role at SolarCity, one of California’s largest
installer headquartered in Foster City. Daphne Li also is joining Sungevity as its chief operation officer.
Li was the…



go to solarfeeds for the rest of this story>>>>>

Read Article: Sungevity Raises $6M

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Sonoma County Municipal Solar Financing

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Sonoma County Solar Map

Disclaimer: Dave Llorens is the founder of One Block Off the Grid, which along with CleanTechnica is also part of Virgance.

Sonoma County at this point has the largest municipal financing program for solar and energy efficiency, modeled after the Berkeley First program, but run by the city themselves instead of a program administrator. The program allocated 0M and they’ve burned through about M of it in a very short period of time, since this is peoples’ favorite flavor of financing for solar.

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Radical Collaboration

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Article Photo

2136953043_e9d620963f_b.jpgThere are more than 55,000 environmental nonprofit organizations registered in the U.S. today, and many more green businesses, all competing for the support of responsible consumers. At a recent event in San Francisco, a trio of green business owners suggested that this type of traditional competition may not be the most effective way to make large-scale change. They instead proposed a new model: radical collaboration.

The phrase ‘radical collaboration’ has been used to describe a variety of phenomena, from participation in Wikipedia and similar ventures to cross-disciplinary cooperation in academics. In business, it means creating alliances between a group of former competitors to solve problems together. The concept has been used by corporations: for example, when IBM was losing money on semiconductor chips in 2003, it made the decision to open its research to a network of competitors, and began a new, successful method of innovation that has now been expanded to other departments. Now some argue that the same type of innovation should be applied to the sustainability movement.

Two of the presenters in San Francisco, GenGreen and 3rdWhale are in the business of mobile green business directories. “They were our biggest competitor,” 3rdWhale CEO Boyd Cohen says of GenGreen. 3rdWhale was an expert in mobile technology, while GenGreen had a large, successful database — and both were scrambling to build iPhone apps and more. Ultimately, after meeting at a LOHAS conference earlier this year, the two rivals decided to work together and leverage their complementary strengths. They have also since partnered with Creative Citizen, an online community listing solutions for sustainable living. The three partners were so pleased with the results, they are now recommending similar collaborations for other business owners.

“Every single one of us has been working as hard as we can,” says Creative Citizen CEO Scott Badenoch of the green movement. But he points out that the problem is more urgent than ever, and argues that the movement needs to work smarter, rather than harder. For him, the answer is radical collaboration and something he calls “sharesourcing”– sharing the core competencies of one business with another, so that each ends up with more resources.

There are many more examples of radical collaboration as a trend. In May, we wrote about a collaborative project called Green Xchange, which allows companies like Nike and Best Buy to share sustainability research to speed innovation. Another innovative business, The Hub promotes collaboration by offering a space for people working on the world’s challenges to come together and share ideas, resources, experience, and connections. The Hub has about twenty locations around the world, including a new U.S. space in Berkeley’s Brower Center.

Sustainable development expert Hunter Lovins lists Walmart’s new sustainability policies — and the effect they’ll have across manufacturing, as another example of radical collaboration. She argues that collaboration is necessary.

“If we don’t act, and act immediately,” Lovins says, “we will lose the opportunity to avoid runaway climate change. Whatever individual successes we might have… we are not getting the job done. If you look at historic transitions, they take too long, given the amount of time we have.”

In traditional economic theory, competition is an important driver of innovation. But it can also cause duplication of efforts — 3rdWhale was spending serious resources trying to re-create GenGreen’s database, for example, before they decided to partner. And it’s possible that reinventing the wheel will take more time than we have.

Adele Peters holds a Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.

Image credit: thegoldguys.blogspot.com/ Creative Commons license

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Where are New Green Cities and How Can They Curb Asian Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

by Warren Karlenzig

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Masdar Headquarters, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

In my previous post, I highlighted how growing Asian urbanization is expected to contribute more than half of the world’s growth in greenhouse gases over the next 20 years. Now I will review what’s being attempted in Asian cities and elsewhere in order to positively alter that disturbing forecast.

The US and other Western nations are by no means immune from culpability in global climate change, since the US and Europe have contributed most of the existing excess greenhouse gases (GHGs) in our global climate over the last 100 years.

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Because of that history, the onus is upon more developed parts of world, including North America, Europe and parts of Asia, to help plan and develop models for new cities in Asia. These models need to take into account climate change, local culture, the latest IT and communications technologies, and more.

New cities or districts must not be only be low- or zero-carbon, they must also address climate change adaptation, which in practical terms means designing for water and food security and natural disaster risk management.

What are the best global models that Asia should draw upon? Masdar, in the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi), is one good model, though its small expected total population (50,000) and unique design can’t scale up to Asian-sized growth requirements.     

Masdar is piloting scores of new designs and technologies that reduce energy use, particularly in passive energy reduction (cooling and solar) and PV solar. Masdar also reduces water use with information system-linked leak-detecting sensors and by recycling dew. This desert-located site even recycles ambient moisture in the indoor air, which includes evaporated human sweat. 

Besides the techno-wizardry, Masdar offers economic sustainability, through a viable financing “eco-system”: it has created a tax free-foreign enterprise zone that has drawn in support from General Electric, Credit Suisse and the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism.

South Korea’s Songdo International Business District is planned to reduce energy use 30 percent in every building through the use of double building skins combined with sophisticated information technology and communications control systems. Songdo is on a scale to which China can relate, with 60,000 residents and 300,000 workers expected by completion in 2015.

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Songdo rises in South Korea (New York Times photo)

Some Chinese green new city false starts (so far) have included Dongtan and Qingdao Eco-Blocks, both of which were approved or studied by the national and local governments but have so far failed to be greenlighted.

While Dongtan was to be on a scale of 20,000 inhabitants to begin and was mainly to be powered by renewable energy, it had plans of increasing to 500,000 by 2030. That still wasn’t necessarily big enough for the needs of China, which may add 800 million or more people to its cities over the next 30-40 years, many of them in new cities or new city zones of 500,000 to 5 million. Because of local corruption, ground for Dongtan was never broken despite ambitious plans and international project participation from ARUP Engineering.

Qingdao Eco-Blocks, with 2,000 to 100,000 housing units and mixed-use, transit-oriented development, meanwhile, did have modular applicability to Chinese new city development. The Eco-Blocks project, though, did not get slated into Phase 1 of the city’s development pipeline, according to Harrison Fraker, retired professor from UC Berkeley’s Institute of the Environment. While at Berkeley, Fraker and the Institute helped devise the plan for the resource (water, waste, energy) “self-sufficient” city.

It seems the Eco-Blocks were too complex at their present stage of planning to fit into China’s massive national new city construction mechanism, which is constrained by the need for speed. The Eco-Blocks are now being considered as a prototype for NASA Ames research, Fraker said.

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The immediate fate of Tianjin Eco-City has greater potential in China. A Chinese and Singaporean cooperative has been holding design competitions for a large section of Tianjin, the third largest municipality in China, which has an overall population of more than 8 million.     
Besides cultivating financing, the Tianjin Eco-City is attempting to develop sophisticated software that can model the use of materials, energy, water, land, transportation and other resources, in addition to carbon and waste outputs.

Other noteworthy green community models beyond Asia include the Kalundborg (Denmark) Eco-Industrial Park; Hammarby, Sweden; and Kronsberg, Germany.

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Hammarby, Sweden

Kronsberg, a community of 6,600 near Hanover, addresses the critical element of local food with greenhouses using renewable energy, which can offer a large-supply of nutrition requiring less carbon than the transport-heavy global food model.

Combined with the myriad waste re-use and energy generation
opportunities that can come with sustainable organic agriculture and
food processing, the food element has been a significant missing
element in most “eco-cities.”

Kronsberg reduced its greenhouse gases by 45 percent compared to average new construction.This was accomplished through the use of advanced building insulation in concert with district heating systems, which use waste heat from municipal processes to warm water that is piped throughout the community for everyone’s use. The suburban area cut overall per capita CO2 by an estimated 60 percent through
transit oriented development including major bicycle infrastructure.

Reducing the life-cycle impacts of construction and infrastructure materials is another area not being well addressed by current eco-city planning and design–no large-scale pilot projects exist that precisely measure and manage life-cycle material impacts.

If new cities can combine integrated planning for better carbon management, regional food systems, life cycle material impacts, water scarcity and biological/ cultural diversity, they will be much better prepared to host the world’s new majority that is headed their way. 

This piece originally appeared on the Common Current blog, Green Flow

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Cities at 5:15 PM)

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