Design4D Blog

Nik Hilton  //  www.design4d.co.uk
Young Architect of the Year Nominee 2009, 2010, 2011
Finalist in the British Homes Awards 2009
Finalist in the Design awards 2009

Archive for

January 2011

 
Jan 26 / 9:03am

Stock Market Architecture

I found this John Vidal article interesting. It is example of centralised systems causing unbeknown suffering to people on the other side of the world. In this case it is speculation on food markets, but it did make me think about my own share portfolio and what impact a simple trade on the Internet could have on other people's lives. Carbon trading is creating an interesting new sustainable source of investment and having worked with the founder of a carbon credit trading business ten years ago I have no doubt this market will grow rapidly.

The cause and effect relationship hasn't been fully realized in our globalised society despite the prevalence of sensor technology and the Internet to share information. I would like to see more whole life costing analysis of products we specify which would give a clearer idea of their true 'green' credentials from cradle to grave. From an architectural perspective carbon trading will provide massive investment into renewable technologies but I hope it will also create a greater awareness of cause and effect relationships to make more than just architecture sustainable.

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Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed under  //  Sustainability   carbon trading   crade to cradle   decentralisation   renewable energy   stock market  
 
Jan 24 / 7:54pm

Beer. Product or Service?

Today 76 years ago the first can of beer was sold. More cost effective than their glass predecessors, which were often taken back for refilling, these new cans could just be thrown away. How so much more convenient and unsustainable! The web link below looks at the beer cans history.

I still like the idea of all products being sold as services whereby the seller has to take responsibility for the return of the goods once it has reached the end of it's lifespan. This would force designers and manufacturers to consider more carefully the materials used in a product and it's whole lifecycle. 

http://pulsene.ws/QqKh


Image credit weburbanist Wired 

 
Jan 20 / 6:22pm

Self healing building skins

With rapid developments in nanotechnology I hope we are going to start seeing more active facade systems which respond to their environment and even self heal.

Our Filmic House project proposed a rubber clad house which changed colour in response to thermal loadings on the surface. In the same way humans are covered in a self healing 'skin' we saw EPDM rubber as a logical simplification of the construction process taking one continuous material across the whole building surface. The Bilbao Guggenheim museum uses rubberised asphalt which enables the titanium cladding to be fixed straight through the waterproof membrane. It therefore isn't too difficult to imagine rubber incorporating self-healing technology that would keep the building watertight even if damaged. Below is a presentation on self-healing paint that triggered this thought:

Filed under  //  Filmic House   Guggenheim   Self-healing   nanotechnology   rubber  
 
Jan 14 / 6:11pm

How to stop flooding disasters?

The current serious flooding in Australia and Brazil has highlighted the
dangers of building on flood risk land in order to house our ever increasing
population. With increases in temperature it is likely we are going to see
further extremes in weather and more flooding in the future. How are we to
prevent further disasters from occurring?

Design4D's Waterscape City scheme was a response to this issue, proposing a
network of canals be used to 'perforate' the land. Reedbed systems adjacent
to the canals would assist the wastewater treatment process and accommodate
changes in water levels. Roofs were planted to help buffer and absorb heavy
rainfall and all road and pavement surfaces were permeable to allow natural
even drainage. The canal systems provided low energy transportation networks
and, as is proven in places like 'Little Venice', would result in a
significant uplift in property prices as people pay a premium to live by the
water. 
 

Design4d_waterscape_view

Design4D's waterscape City Proposal

 

Filed under  //  Architecture   Design4D   Sustainability   canals   flooding   waterscape city  
 
Jan 4 / 9:11am

Combating UHI effect

UHI or Urban Heat Island effect will have growing significance in the design of our cities as populations rise and temperatures increase.

To reduce UHI we need planted roofs and balconies to help provide a thermal buffer during hot weather but to also act as natural air conditioning units for the external environment. Plants help filter the air and absorb heat energy through the process of evapo-transpiration which itself creates a cooling effect. Orientation of uses need to also be considered. Offices generate excess heat and generally need air conditioning which is very energy intensive and costly. Our mixed use Creekside Arcade project situated the office accommodation to the North storing excess heat in a flood control labyrinth for use at night in the South facing residential units.

Good design is generally just common sense which raises the question why are we still building sealed, air-conditioned vertical glass skyscrapers which are going to cost huge amounts of money and carbon to run in the future?

 

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Thermal heat pump strategy using thermal mass of flood tank labyrinth

Filed under  //  Creekside Arcade   Design4D   Sustainability   UHI effect