Unfortunately Anna didn’t quite have an answer for me. She said that is part of the reason that she is here, to do research and determine the limitations of the harsh winter months.

http://greenroofs.com/pdfs/newslinks-803_construction_specifier.pdf

This paper indicates that limitations posed on irrigation systems in certain climates, as well, there are also limitations of course to the types of plants that we can grow on green roofs. These limitations are quite general and there seems to be a lack of specifics which suggests that there are not that many green roofs in our area to study and learn from.

Hopefully people like Anna will be able to help improve the understanding of green roofs and increase their popularity. Then we will be able to not only enjoy more green spaces in within city limits, we will also be able to learn more about how we can make them sustainable for us.

This presentation discussed the advantages that Digital Daylighting have on planning a project.

I was very impressed by what Daniel had to say, in terms of the fact that he was actually take into consideration the shadows that might fall on the surrounding buildings when planning a building project. I would have only imagined that this type of technology would be being used to determine how light and shadows fall within a building.

I really do think that form should follow not only function, but location, terrain, surrounding buildings, culture, etc… That is the science and the art of creating form, being able to find the beauty within a defined context.

Abbie

Our presenter today is from Germany and descibed her insiration in garden designs originated from the social atmosphere created by Beerh Gardens.

Roof gardens first found their roots is hanging gardens. These ancient gardens grew out of layers of soil, lead, brick, and asphalt. After the hanging gardens came the Scandinavian Turf roofs which provided insulation in the winter and grew out of a layer of birch bark and a layer of soil.

Today in roof gardens we build on a concrete flat roof  with layers of substrate, filter mat, drainage layer, insulation, water proof/root proof, and roof deck.

The advantages of roof gardens that it

AMENITY & AESTHETIC BENEFITS

provides a recreational space (public or private), high quality in high density

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

biodiversity and wildlife value, stormwater managment, air polution, urban heat island effent

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

increased roof life,cooling and insulating and energy efficiency, green building assessment and public relations

There are 3 types of roof gardens: Extensive, intensive, and simple intensive

She then discussed with us projects that she had been involved in including, Castle Horst of Gelsenkirchen, Ackermannbogen Apartment Block, Park Village Unterfohring, and Five Courtyards in Munich

Urban Roof Gardens

Will

Will

The second presentation was by Ed Epp on Flood Architecture

Something that interested me was how he discussed many places that used a strategy that involved pouring cement over the surface of the bank of a river to prevent it from eroding prevent the buildings build on the banks from collapsing in. Does this way of providing stability not go directly against everything that we have been taught about preventing erosion and runoff; using landscape and plant life to act as a filtration system to reduce runoff and overflow in rivers. I understand that obviously there can be many different challenges involved in different areas of the world that involve various types of terrain. I also understand that this is not necessarily considered to be the most environmentally friendly practice, I simply found it surprising that it seems to be fairly common, Ed showed us a number of examples that involved building on or paving over the whole surface of a river bank.

Today’s discussion fucussed mainly around sound and how we can manipulate it to create environments meant for various types of performance theatres.

Some basics include what sound is, how sound travels and what types of material it travels better through. As well, sound waves, frequency, wavelength, tone and white noise.

Shawna gave us some interesting things to consider in terms of human hearing. It has an internal spacial feel, our ears are on the sides of our head and you can never turn off your hearing. Also the same regions of the brain that respond to drugs respond to music. Because we experience found as a form of culture, we have developed a diverse musical culture.

The Evolution of Sound and Architecture

Free Field: open outdoor space used to gather and communicate rhythmically through speech and music.

Outdoor theaters: semicircular sloped seating, stage at the bottom, often with a backdrop, chanting

Reverberant Field: interior space, dome shaped used with melodic sounds

Theater Style: Enclosed open area used because it provides good sound and speech clarity

For example the green houses that we have in the arctic

www.marsonearth.org/2004/09/

On the opposite side of the spectrum, there is the fact that because of our policies the formation of the 49th parallel occurred. However, there also exists the Palliser Triangle, which states that because of the areas dry climate, sandy soil and extensive grass cover it is not suited to growing crops. This region mainly includes the southern half of Alberta and Saskatchewan, but it does extend slightly into the states.  It is very possible that the differences in policy is a result of the differences in climate and soil type, and it is simply unfortunate that the small portion of the states that is part of this region was subject to the different policy. It is both policy and land that determined the different forms of settlement.

www.ucalgary.ca/…/tutor/calgary/triangle.htm

Here is a site describing a field study on roof gardens and their performance in North America, and more specifically how they would work in a cold climate:

“Garden roofs, sometimes known as green roofs or rooftop gardens, are specialized roof systems that support vegetation growth. With technical advances in roofing materials and components, garden roof systems can now be successfully installed in most climates, providing an attractive design option, especially in urban areas where land available for parks and green space is limited. As well, concern about sustainability and climate change have led to increased interest in garden roofs as a possible means of helping address these issues. However, while garden roofs are increasing in popularity, there is little information on their performance in cold climates.”

http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/pubs/ctus/65_e.html

Andrew Schlukbier

Amenity and Aesthetic Beliefs
Recreational space, public and private , high quality in high density.

Environmental Benefits
Biodiversity and wild life value, storm water management, air pollution, urban heat island effect.

Economic Benefits
Increased roof life, cooling insulation and energy efficiency, green building assessment and public relations.

Anna also introduced to us three types of roof construction, which are: inverted, cold, and warm. In order of least weight on the roof to most weight on the roof there is the green roof (extensive roof greening = 10Kg/m squared), the green roof hybrid (simple intensive roof-greening = 10-20Kg/m squared), and the roof garden (intensive roof-greening = 10-150Kg/m squared).

Andrew Schlukbier

Today’s presenter discussed how everything is in a state of flux and the effects that nature and erosion have on environments.

For example he discussed a study done by David Nash done in 1967 called Wooden Boulder. In this experiment he carved a large boulder out of the stump of a tree, placed it in a river and watched how it moved and transformed.  The effects of water, wind, and earth wore on the wood until it eventually, literally looked like a chunk of rock. It moved through river and lake systems until it finally reached the ocean, the whole process taking a total of 35 yrs.

This process is part of the Hydrological Gradient which dictates the land forms in an area. An example being the scars caused by glaciation moving across a landscape. Water also can dictate which plants grow and where.

We also must understand the impact that people can have on landscapes and our responsibility as designers. Our urban structures and forms disrupt the water cycle and often pollute it. ie. The Mississippi Water Shed and Hurricane Katrina. All of the water was directed right towards New Orleans causing total devastation.

We cut down forests causing the process of runoff erosion to speed up, washing away nutrients and the ability to sustain plant life.

Our policies also have the ability to affect landscape and vegetation. The 49th parrallel at the border of Wyoming and Alberta where different policies developed in Canada and United States encouraging methods of land distribution and development.

Ed Epp’s presentation on flood designd was also really interesting, I think the highlight, was the stereotypical pingpong table field, in China, kinda funny! Anyways dwelling on that one site at first seemed odd, but the further we went into it, the more I enjoyed that website it appeared thorough and visually appealing. I really appreciated being exposed to this, this is something I will likely use in future reference.

Will

The benefits of roof gardens are: recreational space, public and private high quality in high density, biodiversity and wildlife value, stormwater management, air pollution, urban heat island effect, increased roof life, cooling, insulation (both heat and noise) and energy efficiency, green building assessment and public relations. Thse are all reasons to install green roofs.

In Germany by 2002 1/10 rooftops are green, compare this to Winnipeg. In Germany they have a law that says they have to avoid impacts to nature.

There are three types of roof construction: Inverted, cold and warm. in warm the layers go (from top to bottom) waterproof root proof, insulation, and finally the roof deck. in inverted the layers go from substrate-growing medium, filter mat, drainage layter, insulation, water proof root proof and then the roof deck. A drainage layer can be gravel or a type of mat.

Her next topic was Roof Greening Typology. During this section she talked about the types of green roofs. Green roof- extensive roof-greening, Green Roof hyprid- simple intensive roof greening and Roof Garden- intensive roof greening. The types of planting options vary for each. for green roof moss/ sedum and dry meadow communities are common, in a roof garden you have meadows, lawn and in hyprid you can have both. Green roof vegetation is about 10kg/m2 and roof garden can be 10-150 kg/m2 where the hybrid is about 10-20kg/m2, and that is one more reason she likes the hybrid version.

Castle Horst In Germany was a castle by two rivers that were diverted to make a moat. After many years only one castle tower remained. Plans to make the remaining towers from vegetation, reshaping the boat, keeping existing trees was a project she worked on.

The next project of hers she introducted to us was Ackermannbogen apartment block design. Almost everywhere in this project had underground parking with semi cicular gardens amidst the apartments.

Park Village Unterfohring was her 3rd project shown to us that. This was a project I found to be more interesting than the others. Lime stone pavers were filled with sand in the gaps where it is pedestrian use and with grass where it is not. This project had a very nice aesthetic value.

Her “baby”, project 5, was a site in Munich. The site owned by a bank hosued a bank, with shops. They wanted to strengthen this. 5 Courtyards Munich grew out of this, about the size of our classroom in JAR. So she told us they wanted to keep it simple so they used trees in very simple ways. She described one of her more exciting jobs on the field when load of Japanese Maples arrived to be Crane hoisted into position in a courtyard.

The overall theme of her lecture seemed to focus on the Gap. She says rooftops are gaps, the links to urban networks of green spaces. A landscape architect has to be involved very early with architects and engineers. They don’t just pick out that color green.  Her lecture ended early, but it was a short, sweet, interesting lecture.

Clifford Goodwill

Here is an impressive example of Greek architecture featuring brilliant acoustics.

“Unwittingly, the ancient builders made a sophisticated acoustic filter that enabled audiences in the back row to hear music and voices with amazing clarity, thousands of years before modern acoustic could do this.”

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Mystery-of-Modern-Acoustic-in-Ancient-Greek-Theatre-Solved-51278.shtml

Here are some examples of how architecture featuring acoustics has changed over the years…

http://www.snapshotsfoundation.com/locations.htm

Here is a link for a good place to reference different concert halls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_halls

Andrew Schlukbier

This was a lecture all about sound and we started with the basic science of sound. Sound needs a medium to travel along, sound cannot travel through space, it is a wave that first impacts the molecules, then condensation, then rarefaction. Wavelength is one element in measuring sound and is the horizontal length of one cycle of a wave. The other elements are amplitude and frequency.

We also learned what decibel levels could be compared to. For example 140db is the equivelant of a jet taking off. 0db is the threshold of hearing, and 80db is enough to mask out everything.

Facing the object you want to hear is best, and hearing is a unique because it cannot be turned off, as compared to sight where you can simply close your eyes.

Every cultures’ music pre dates history, and music does make us feel better.

Something I had never thought about is how and why circles became such a popular group form, and its simply because that is the best configuration for communication amongst a group of people.

Next we took a shift to the evolution of sound and architecture. In gregorian chant the words were strung out very long because of how much echo was caused by their churches. Ethereal spaces = ethereal music. In the classical perod there was lots of absorbtion on the ground, and effects were made to dicipate song, as they were very precision based.

Almost all acoustical situations can be described by 3 parts: Source, path, and receiver.

Something else I learned was that fluted columns can actually reduce reverberation. I liked this particular quote: “Architecture is frozen music” I think it makes a lot of sense.

I enjoyed just listening to her sound clips even if they were a bit unprepared. I thought they really spoke to the point Mallory was making when relating specific genres of music to the spaces they commonly occupied.

For me the lecture was reassuring, I’ve always been fascinated with how music can make me feel, and its nice to know I’m not the only one.

Andrew Schlukbier

This is the the site for CSR (UK) http://www.thecsr.com/ the Center for the Spatial Realm, a “…cross-disciplinary research group, founded by urbatect and writer Ayssar Arida (www.quantumcity.com) and artist and sound designer Thor McB (www.aswarm.com) to raise public awareness of urban space through science and art.”. This group combines Arida’s new urbanism theories with sound art by McB. They have few installations because they are a newly formed gourp but I thought were inetersting because they thought of the application of sound and the built environment at a larger scale.

Mallory- Hill posed an interesting question to us ” IF sound can trigger emotional responses in your brain how important is it in design?” Sh led us into the architectural history portion of her lecture. Classical architecture used acoustic principles in their amphitheatres, etc. that was lost for many years until the advent of the Renaissance (this also happened with other structural principles and building techniques, i.e. the dome, etc.). The (re)introduction of secular music is also what brought about this change. The idea that structure influences sound can be used in different ways and the modern use for it is to enhance wanted sounds and control ‘noise pollution’. With an ever- expanding urban world these priniciples of “orchitecture” (science of arch. and sound) http://www.thecsr.com/ will be highly relevant to our future designs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2GfOhFZkY8

The film relates more to planning urban spaces with people in mind rather than all the natural processes that we have been discussing in our classes.The movie was made in the early 80′s, so that might explain why, however, I believe that planning with both in mind is very important.

There has been a really big focus in our classes particularly it seems on water and the water cycle and how we can use it in new ways to integrate ourselves more into the natural processes that work so well to keep our lives more beautiful and green, which in turn does provide us with more pleasant spaces to be in so that they get used and enjoyed much more often, like Paley Park above. It is really important to understand this connection when designing public urban spaces of any kind.

As well, integrating these kinds of natural practices into spaces that are created with human nature in mind and that are successful will hopefully encourage others to use the same methods and really make “green design” a trend and a new standard. Making all of these issues important to people is a challenge that designers now have to take on.

The discussion after the film was interesting as well. Development along Main St. was a discussion topic, and an example given was a lovely cement parking lot going up right on the street, the exact opposite of what all the research done for the movie points towards. The movie was made in the 80′s and we still have not learned the lesson yet. Hopefully we can make these natural processes understood and accepted a little faster.

Abbie

Abbie

Similarly to least weeks presentation by Carmine Militano, Mr. Trottier discussed with us another process to use, but this time referring more to a more specific location or site.

The Site Planning Process
-Develop a Program
-Create Functional Diagrams
-Site Documentation
-Site Analysis
-Site Inventory
-Multiple Concept Plans
-Preliminary Site Plan

Sustainability Analysis
-Environmental Mapping
-Characteristics of Soils
-Concerns for Topography
-Site Planning for Hydrology
-The Comfort Zone

Once again these processes allow us to work with nature, using the natural cyclical tendencies that it has, and also they relate directly to the work we are doing in studio which is always very helpful.

Abbie

Note: An Acoustic beamforming modifies the propagation of sound by introducing spatially dependent delays into a wavefront. This focuses incoming sound from a single source or direction into a small volume of space so that it can be detected by a single transducer. Acoustic beamforming can be implemented using electronic circuitry or an acoustic lens.

Here is a link to information on Synesthesia: http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/

Note: Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception in another sense. In addition to being involuntary, this additional perception is regarded by the synesthete as real, often outside the body, instead of imagined in the mind’s eye. It also has some other interesting features that clearly separate it from artistic fancy. Its reality and vividness are what make synesthesia so interesting in its violation of conventional perception. Synesthesia is also fascinating because logically it should not be a product of the human brain, where the evolutionary trend has been for increasing separation of function anatomically.  I remember seeing a program on discovery channel that interviewed 3 or 4 people who had synesthesia to varying degrees. It was very interesting and I found myeslf jealous.

Here is a link to Marshall Long Acoustics: http://mlacoustics.com/

Note: Over the past 30 years Marshall Long Acoustics has conductd a wide variety of acoustical and audio-visual engineering design projects. This website has links to many projects and has a gallery.

Clifford Goodwill

Hey Kids Listen 2 This:
If you can’t hear someone screaming from 3 feet away- its probably too loud. You are probably causing ear damage and get outta there dude! Seems like common sense right?

Anyway, We learned that we often discard lower decibel sounds and that they can be harder to hear because of this. Our ears are on the sides of our heads so we can hear all around us, but we hear best in our front. Our audible frequency range is from 20Hz to 20,000Hz

After this part of the lecture we listened to what I was expecting to be a video, but turned out to be a slightly more disappointing version- an audiotape of an interview. (wa wa wa waaaaaaaaaaaah) The interview was with Neuroscientist, Daniel Levitin who runs a laboratory at McGill University. The point of the interview was to get us to realise that sound is very important to us and that music has had a major role in our species. He talked of how we are hard wired to appreciate music. He informed us that there is no culture that lacks music and that the science of sounds grows everyday. Different sounds pitches activate specific clusters of neurons on our brains. High pitches cause one, lows the other side of the sheath of the brain that trigger simultaneously. When you listen to music you life your brain releases some of the same chemicals you get with eating, sex or winning a bet.

And Back to the lecture:
Sound predates culture and has a primal effect- different octives and harmonies make us feel good. We learn to hear sound from a very young age, as we learn our mother tongue we may not be able to hear sounds because the neural pathways havn’t been developed. Brain likes to have a beat w/ a little bit of variation- think of this in architecture. If sound can trigger emotional sensors of brain how important is it for design? It will evoke the emotions of people in your space.

Shauna then explained how sound architecture has evolved, based on a book by Marshall Long. Greeks first to build outdoor theatres. They were steeply sloped, half circle. We have to remember that there was not a lot of sound in preindustrial society. Romans did the same thing but they tended to limit the angle of the seating to 180 degrees and added a reflecting backdrop andstagehouse alont with awnings to shade the patrons. Everything was designed to project the sound up and out. Once they learn how to build arches so they built the colosseum in Rome.

She then she talked about how the different styles of architecture of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. We listened to different video clips of music that was designed for these specific and very grand places.

And thats all folks…..

Clifford Goodwill

So, Mr. Militano was definitely one of the most enthusiastic presenters that we have had. He went very quickly through a large amount of content in a small amount of time. It almost felt like being in a high pressure sales situation.
First he discussed with us some basic background information to start us with, some global issues, truisms to always keep in mind, various terms and future planning requirements.
Within the future plans and projects of members of our class, for example, he suggested to us a specific decision process to go through.
-leadership and commitment
-state the problem
-develop goals & models & alternatives
-collect valued data
-manage risk and decide
-develop implementation plan
We also discussed why decisions fail, as well as other models of the decision process for such things as multi-utility attributes.

He then focused on the water cycle, how it works, it’s effect on us, impacts on the environment, and ways that we can work with it in terms of LID (Low Impact Development).
-grass swales and bio retention cells
-green roofs
-permeable pavers
-storm water planters
-reduce pesticide use
-eco-friendly de-icing methods
-regular street cleaning
We finished off with carbon neutrality and the effects of climate change and the 2030 challenge.

There are so many things that we can do to work with nature instead of against it. Simple things that we just never even bothered to think about until now we realize the negative effects that we are causing. We will have to work against decades of development and infrastructure to get to where we need to be. I’ll be happy to be part of a generation that will design with the importance of nature and natural systems in mind.

Abbie

“He also makes land art, of which the best known is Wooden Boulder, begun in 1978. This work involves a journey of large wooden sphere from a welsh mountainside to the Atlantic Ocean.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nash_(artist)

Info on John Todd:

“Dr. Todd is a Research Professor in the School of Natural Resources and a Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Vermont. He is the Founder and President of Ocean Arks International, a non-profit research and education organization, and a Principal in John Todd Ecological Design Inc.”

http://www.uvm.edu/~irwe/?Page=people/faculty/john_todd.html&SM=people/people_menu.html

Sustainable lawn care:

Lawns absorb water, which helps reduce storm runoff and improve water quality. Lawns also have a significant cooling effect, provide oxygen, trap dust and dirt, promote healthful micro-organisms, prevent erosion and filter rainwater contaminants.

http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_lawn_care.htm

Andrew Schlukbier

Similarly to what Carmine Militano was talking about he brought up the issue of all the run off that occurs in the city because of all the pavement, storm drains, which causes overflow. Green roofs, more vegetation, and bioswales, and retention ponds are some ways of reducing run off.

What I found really interesting was when he talked about how rivers work, how they form the bends and turns they do and why. That part was a bit of review for me, but I had never really thought about why the Red River is red. He explained its from erosion, and if you were to go say ice fishing in the winter you would notice the water is so clear that you could see the bottom of the river.

Andrew Schlukbier

Water conservation is a very important issue and Environment Canada has a web page dedicated to different conservation methods.http://www.ec.gc.ca/WATER/en/manage/effic/e_weff.htm

Lindsay Biberdorf

The second lecture was also quite interesting. This lecture went through gardening, and it’s elements. It went through the thought process of a garden designer, like questions of what a fence is? Is it to keep things in? or keep things out? All of those ambiguous questions are the ones looking to be answered. All in all this half of the presentation was nice, and gave some inspiration to gardens and outdoor spaces and their thought processes

The second half of the presentation dealt with slope and some of its applications to design. This side of the lecture was also interesting, but mostly for the lessons presented in it. The presenter really stressed to fit your design in the landscape rather than on landscape. The difference is to change your design instead of changing your landscape. This was another valuable lesson! I really appreciated this, it maybe an obvious point, but it’s one that needs to be said; not only said but stressed.

Will

davidsuzuki.org

This site really put everything into context for me, it not only explained what carbon neutrality meant, but it gave useful ways to reduce such an action. This research really added to our speakers comment to “take action now”. This research gives this statement life.

Will

When reflecting on this class, hearing Carmine Militano speak was really interesting; but along with it being interesting it was also a lot! Wow, not to be disrespectful, but for the amount of time he used, to the amount of information dealt? I felt like my head was going to explode. Portions that I really picked up on were: dealing with decision-making. (Frame the Problem; Develop Goals, Models and Alternatives; Collect values information; Manage risk and decide; Develop implementation plan.) This exposed steps I didn’t really think of, managing risk for one, I think that will be really helpful. Also constructing steps like that, I think is going to really help getting from the starting to the ending point, hopefully all in one piece..

Another point? Using Excel, I’m not sure if he knew he was stressing this, but it came up a lot. Also learning the logic functions… (one second I’ll write that on my hand…)

That and Bill 15 (I’ll write that one my hand too)

The second half of the presentation was also really interesting. A little slowed down, and more relaxed, was an excellent change of pace. Hearing and seeing about all the mixed land uses and landscaping, was really beautiful. I especially liked: (now I don’t know if I really got the name right) Solagarden? in Kolding Denmark. It was really beautiful.

There are exposed pipes and duct work,very similar to the Engineering building or the Wallace building on campus.

The Red River College was designed by Corbett Cibinel Architects, using the SBC’s (Sustainable Buildings and Communities Group) Integrated Design Process. The hope of the SBC is to create within projects:

• increased use of renewable energy;
• greater efficiencies in energy consumption;
• decreased greenhouse gas emissions; and
• a secure energy supply for the future.

http://www.nrcan.gc.ca

The work done on the Red River College was very successful and even award-winning.

What I really like about the interior space was the street feel that it has; with the street lamps and the soft incandescent glow giving a very warm atmosphere.

Abbie

Note: Nash is a British artist who was introduced to us last lecture. One of his project’s Wooden Boulder was a 25 year project and is the subject of the documentary ‘Boulder’. The Project started in 1978 when nash was asked to cut a tree for safety reasons. He cut this tree into a wooden “boulder” and he pushed it into a nearby stream where it got stuck inbetween rocks. Helped it along and pushed it over the next waterfall where it sat for 8 years and took on the appearance of a real boulder. It had become a work of art. It started to move when the river swelled. The last time the boulder was seen was in 2003 when a swell carried it away and it became tidal.

Here is a link to information on how estuaries are water filters: http://www.nc4h.org/publications/curriculum/wildlife/13-15-estuary.pdf

Note: Rivers and streams get muddy when it rains filled with soil and chemicals from neighborhood lawns, trash and other debris. Eventaully all of this somehow gets towards the ocean. But nature filters these substances natually to help keep out these unwatned elements with estuaries.

Here is a link on sustainable landscaping: http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/Garden/2007-07-01/earth-friendly-grass.aspx

Note: Green lawns harm our environment through fertilizers (produced with fossil fuels), sprinker systems and lawn mowers. Safelawn is an organization that promotes natural lawn care. The more we kill with pesticides the more we need to use in the future because we kill the good insects and microorganisms.  Many plants are more well suited for the average lawn anyway vs grassees.

Here is a link to information on Sturgeon Creek restoration in Winnipeg: http://www.mb.ec.gc.ca/community/ecoaction/fp-pf/page.asp?lang=en&id=MB-10099

Note: Once rich spawning grounds the creek has become less full of life lately due to human interactions. the Sturgeon Creek Association- created by concerned residents- wanted to return the creek to its days as a wilderness habitat. Native grasses were found and invasive species were recorded. Trees in the area were recorded to find out how much replanting was needed. Letters were sent to nearby residents to inform them of no mow zones along the creek. The project only cost 50, 363$. Imagine if we spent as much as we do on other things….

JELDWEN is one of the leading developers of the most environmentally friendly products and practices while still providing reliable services.

They have what is called Environmental Stewardship; they use recycled materials as much as possible (51% in interior molded doors, 15% in PVC Windows), their products come energystar approved, they are reducing their carbon footprint, they use a low amount of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and they are part of the Green Building Initiative and LEED.

Their most popular type of window is the Poly Vinyl Chloride or PVC window, which is composed of 57% salt and 43% ethylene.

They also do custom wood windows and doors. They are typically manufactured out of Bend, Oregon out of Ponderosa Pine that must be SFI certified. They come with an AuraLast warranty lasting 20yrs.

JELDWEN has a local manufacturing plant in Winnipeg as well as local suppliers, and all of their manufacturing plants recyle all of their waste.

The Presentation was fairly short, however, i enjoyed simply walking around the showroom and checking out the displays. There was one door in particular that I liked, it had a copper finish on the exterior side and a wood finish on the interior side. All over the copper there are deliberate signs of weathering effects to make it patina evenly.

Many of their other products also had unique qualities, like beautiful glass patterning, intricate hardware, and cool features like a door style peep hole.

Abbie

Watershed-The land area that drains into a stream. An area of land that contributes runoff to one specific delivery point; large watersheds may be composed of several smaller “subsheds”, each of which contributes runoff to different locations that ultimately combine at a common delivery point. 

Chaos Theory- In mathematics, Chaos Theory describes the behavior of certain dynamical systems – that is, systems whose states evolve with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are determinisitc, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.Chaotic behaviour is also observed in natural systems, such as the weather. This may be explained by a chaos-theoretical analysis of a mathematical model of such a system, embodying the laws of physics  that are relevant for the natural system. (wiki)

The guest lecture during week ten was more entertaining than usual. I found this lecture to fit really well with all of our other classes. The guest lecturer started off by introducing the concept that we place elements on the land, but the land is always moving. We tend to have a hard time dealing with and understanding this concept. Everywhere we are is in a state of flux on many levels. We are goint to be in a profession of placing and going and we are only at one miniscule point in time.

He later asked how many of us have experienced being right in a marsh?  About one 5^th of class raised there hand- I have never been directly in one myself even though it is a dominant environment in this area. We always see a high or bleak view of things such as a marsh. When we look at this larger scale we think about the processes. He showed us an aerial photograph of a marsh and showed us the changes in color of the vegegation. This color change is directly related to the hydrologic level. Some were Underwater, in water, and out of water. Water creates patterns in more ways than you may realize. Water creates patterns of  different plants that live in different areas and requires different amounts of water.

Marsh

The next picture we zoomed out even more to 30,000 feet. At this height the scarring of the land from glaciations was readible. We zoomed out another step to a satellite image with infrared photography that revealed some weather patterns. This part of the lecture closely reminded to the movie we saw in class by Charles and Ray Eames (was it powers of ten?) where they started at a couple on a picnic in a park to lightyears away in just seconds.

Satellite imagery of the 49^th parallel bordering Wyoming and Alberta reveals how administration alters the land. US subsidises Wheat production, so if you own land you plough the prairie and plant wheat. In Canada you have less incentive to plant wheat the further away from port you are. You see a different natural process- much of land is being swept away and taken to the Gulf of Mexico.

The guest lecturer got us to think about what happens when water falls from sky. With all of the pavement, storm drains, gutters, and diminishing city plant life we have 40% run off. Instead of having 40% run off (vs 10 when it was a forest) we need to incorporate designs that lessen this which eases the whole system.  Green roofs equals less runoff which means less water into the sewers which means less overflow. We were informed that we (in Manitoba) have enough moisture to support a forest community  but Bison and human actions make it into prairies. I was never sure about the possibility of Manitoba once being a forest and found that pretty interesting. 

All of the information on the rivers moving and depositing was all repeat for me because I took physical Geography 2 years ago but it was nice to be refreshed.  

When I was growing up you could always tell who cared about their lawn by how short and green the grass was. This idea is growing increasingly unattractive to me as a I learn about sustainable landscape in your yard. A more diverse yard can cool in the summer, keep your house warm in the winter, take drain water from your roof and transfer it to ponds or vegetable gardens and then (if ever) to the sewer. Because there are very few yards that make  use of this we have a system that increasingly relies on big infrastructure. The size of the sewers we need now is really unnecessary if we worked with the land instead of against it.   

World Water Facts:

If it fit into one gallon jug, only 1 tablespoon would be available fresh water. Another tablespoon is locked in ice caps and glaciers. Vast reserves are under the surface but way too deep to economically tap.

Clifford Goodwill           

http://www.think-different.jp/wp-content/images/The-function-complex.png

Info on University of Virginia:

Throughout its history, the University of Virginia has won praise for its unique Jeffersonian architecture. In January 1895, less than a year before the Great Rotunda Fire, The New York Times said that the design of the University of Virginia “was incomparably the most ambitious and monumental architectural project that had or has yet been conceived in this century”.^[18] In the United States Bicentennial issue of their AIA Journal, the American Institute of Architects called it “the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years”.^[19] Today, the University of Virginia remains an architectural landmark and popular tourist destination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Of_Virginia#Grounds

Capers Block 4th avenue, Vancouver:

“Kalke also developed the Capers Building in Vancouver, on West Fourth Avenue. The block-long, mixed-use building is heated and cooled by a geo-exchange system. Beneath the building, 46 holes, each 90 metres deep, are connected with a pipe loop that circulates water, utilizing the earth’s energy.”

http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/uofaengineer/article.cfm?article=71114&issue=70866

Andrew Schlukbier

He introduced the lecture with “The Design Complex” which includes needs, biophysical context, technology, values, and behaviour. The outline for his lecture was structured in three parts:

Part A: The site planning process
Part B: Suitability analysis (part of process)
Part C: Case studies

The site planning process involves the site documentation and inventory as well as development program. The site documentation and inventory includes physical, biological, and cultural conditions. A site analysis is the combination of site documentation and inventory, and development program.

Suitability analysis is about seeing the site as a dynamic system. Environmental mapping is required and consists of a topographic base, parcels, zoning, flood plains, wetlands, land cover, soils, survey control, and a composite overlay. Looking even deeper there is also the characteristics of soils, and site planning concerns for those soils, and site planning concerns for topography (slope). I appreciated his demonstration of how to calculate slope in this stage.

His case study was about Vancouver, surprise surprise.  Jean Trottier brought to light how Vancouver has unbuildable green zones which aid in keeping vantage points of the mountains and scenery. He showed us an example of what could have happened to the false creek area. Someone wanted to build gated communities that also had a moat around the main structures, so basically it would have turned into a very segrated area for rich people. Thank god the city of Vancouver didn’t go along with this plan and left the most valuable areas green, instead thin towers occupy the space and are strategically placed to maintain mountain views. Some other unique requirements Vancouver has are glass canopies to provide protection from rain while still allowing sunlight to come through.

He left us with an insightful suggestion, “Don’t put your project on the best site” this really does make sense but not thought of much I think. Instead the best sites should be enjoyed for what they are, and not built upon.

Andrew Schlukbier

Site planning processes can be very in- depth snd some even deal with contractual and post- construction issues. I think it is meaningful to find a process that works for you and can adapt to different projects you may be working on.

This green magazine uses the principles of L.I.D. (as previously discussed) to define a site palnning and land development process. http://www.edcmag.com/Articles/Feature_Article/2021abe75d697010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____ It writes about the arch. firm Carter & Burgess’s project and their site planning using both L.I.D. and L.E.E.D. principles. Here is a picture of one of their project’s stormwater management areas.

Jefferson purposely persevered part of the site as green space; he envisioned a quad of green for meeting between the faculty and administrative buildings. This is interesting because it is a site planning technique developed for universities that is still relevant today. Currently at U of M we are looking at ways to preserve/ renew some of our green meeting places and pathways/ networks, esp. the tree- lined pathway between our John A. Russell and Education Building.

Note: Jefferson set out to build buildings that would mirror his philisophical vision. He wanted the college experience to be an academic village. It was designed with ten pavillions with living quarters ontop of classrooms. The head of the lawn was the library inspired by Rome’s Pantheon.

Here is a link to information on New Urbanism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_urbanism

Note: New urbanism was a movement that started to reform aspects of urban planning. This type of development incorporates housing and jobs within walking distance. This movement supoorts open space, context appropriate urban planning, and balanced development of jobs and housing. These strategies result in reduced congestion, increase affordable housing and reduce urban sprawl.

Here is a link to information on hydrology: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0003935

Note: Hyrdrology studies the behaviour of water. It is concerned with percipitation and the movement of frozen, impounded or flowing water. It more specifically deals with the motion of water over land vs the ocean.

Here is a link to information on Paley Park: http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=69

Note: Located in Manhattan this park works because it is a small pocket park in the downtown area. Located directly on the street it attracts people into the area.

The lecture started off with a diagram of the design complex which includes: needs, behaviour, values, technology and biophysical context.  Part A of the lecture was about the Site Planning Process, B about suitability analysis and C- case studies.

Part A: Site Planning Process- This part was explained as the stage where you begin to understand the nature of the project and the site layout.

Part B: Suitability Analysis- This part was explained as understanding the site as a dynamic system. In this stage you begin to understand what the current condition is before you design for the space.

Part C: Case Studies: Examples:

Vancouver- He talked about how vancouver works because of the emphasis on public transit (bus lane priority) and having unbuildable green zones and preserving main vantage points of the mountains that are limited by the city. Original plans for Vancouver along false Creek included gates communities with a “moat” around that creates a castle island for the rich. The city of Vancouver wanted a more mixed environment and worked hard with the developers and left the most valuable areas green. thin towers become a recurrent part of the landscape so the city doesn’t lose mountain views. The city also requires glass canopies in areas to provide protection from rain while still allowing sunshine to shine through.

At the end of the lecture He left us with this note “Don’t put your project on the best site”. He explained that this meant we need to use the best sites as opportunities for experience.

“Stantec Inc. (TSX: STN, NYSE: STN) is a professional services company and one of the leading firms in the design and consulting industry[1]. Stantec, founded in 1954, provides planning, engineering, architecture, project management and other related services to its clients. It has over 8,500 employees in more than 125 offices across North America. Its corporate headquarters are located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stantec

Here is info on Low Impact Development (LID)

“Low Impact Development (LID) is an innovative stormwater management approach with a basic principle that is modeled after nature: manage rainfall at the source using uniformly distributed decentralized micro-scale controls. LID’s goal is to mimic a site’s predevelopment hydrology by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate, and detain runoff close to its source. Techniques are based on the premise that stormwater management should not be seen as stormwater disposal. Instead of conveying and managing / treating stormwater in large, costly end-of-pipe facilities located at the bottom of drainage areas, LID addresses stormwater through small, cost-effective landscape features located at the lot level. These landscape features, known as Integrated Management Practices (IMPs), are the building blocks of LID. Almost all components of the urban environment have the potential to serve as an IMP. This includes not only open space, but also rooftops, streetscapes, parking lots, sidewalks, and medians. LID is a versatile approach that can be applied equally well to new development, urban retrofits, and redevelopment / revitalization projects.”

http://www.lid-stormwater.net/background.htm

Here is info on the Triple Bottom Line:

“The triple bottom line (or “TBL“, “3BL“, or “People, Planet, Profit“) captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success: economic, environmental and social. With the ratification of the United Nations and ICLEI TBL standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007, this became the dominant approach to public sector full cost accounting. Similar UN standards apply to natural capital and human capital measurement to assist in measurements required by TBL, e.g. the ecoBudget standard for reporting ecological footprint.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_line

Andrew Schlukbier

Carmine covered the following topics:
Participating in a global economy, our world is changing, making good decisions, the water cycle, and climate change.

He also went over some “Truisms”:
“The laws of mother nature are irrefutable and immutable”
“Do not try to defy gravity”
“Water flows downhill”
“You cannot create or destroy mass, but you can certainly alter its state”
“All systems leak”

Mostly obvious statements but probably important, because I probably will try to defy gravity at some point with a design. He also warned us about “google”eers and “google”tects who may be resourceful people but do not have full understandings of what they may claim to know.

Some issues that in “the new era” include climate change pollution prevention, managing environmental impacts, Internet explosion, cost management, asset management, dematerialization, waste and emissions minimization, technological innovation, process optimization and resource use efficiency, and stake holder/public expectations

I was enjoying his very direct and to the point presentation when he gave us another list; the top 10 reasons why decisions fail: Lack of decision process, lack of leadership, lack of commitment, wrong stakeholders, inadequate information, wrong problem, politics, and insufficient time. In contrast he explained how to make a structured decision process which includes the integration of four types of knowledge; What you want, what you can do, what you know, what you don’t know, and what you don’t know that you don’t know.

At this point I was beginning to feel like I was at one of those how to make money seminars hosted at some hotel, but then he went on to explain the water life cycle which starts with resource followed by production, delivery, consumption, and waste management. One big issue in Winnipeg is how Nitrogen and phosphorous levels are killing lake Winnipeg. This is caused by agricultural and urban practises which can be mitigated through policy. He discussed water further and gave some examples of beneficial storm water management practises. Grass swales, bioretnetion cells and roof leader discharge are a few examples.

What I found the most surprising was the impacts pollution wise that buildings have on North America, industry only amounts for 25% transportation 27% and buildings 48% which even includes residences.

Andrew Schlukbier

Note: Stantec was founded in 1954 and provides consulting services in planning, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economies. There are approximately 9,000 employees in 150 North American locations. Trades on the TSX under STN.

Here is a link to information on the Triple Bottom Line: http://www.stantec.com/default.htm

Note: The triple bottom line can be described as three circles intersecting in the middle that include: Healthy environment, strong economy, social well-being all with sustainable development.

Here is a link to information on the entire water life cycle: http://www.rainsoft.com/learn-about-water/cycle.cfm

Note: Resources (Water surfaces , lakes and groundwater) Production (raw water transmission and treatment) Delivery (treated transmission/ distribution).

Water cycle

Carmine discussed how we are entering a new era that will be greatly affected by and focus on climate change, polllution prevention, managing environmental impacts, internet explosion, managing information, cost management, asset management, dematerialization, waste and emissions minimization, technological innovation and process optimization.

We were also intorduced the causes of decision failures that include lack of design process, leadership and commitment, wrong stakeholders, inadequate information, wrong problem, politics, insufficient time, company culture and insufficient interest. Following along the line of motivational type information Carmine informed us of hte 4 types of knowledge. These four types are: what you want, what you can do, waht you know, and what you don’t know. There was a fifth which is what you don’t knnow that you don’t know.

Something that Carmine told us that I found interesting was about how different climates have to deal with specific things. This made me realize that although great and ecologically smart ideas are available they may not be suitable for the Winnipeg climate. Examples include what to do with snow on green roofs and roadways.

Overall the lecture seemed to be aimed less at pure education but self promotion and understanding through workplace and procedures.

Terms I learned:

LID- Low impact development

Bioretention soils/ Bioswales- Land that holds water

To learn more about bio- retention I found this website from the A. James Clark School of Civil Engineering ( Univ. of Maryland)http://www.ence.umd.edu/~apdavis/Bioret.htm that describes ongoing research and past projects dealing with the treatment of black and graywater with different bio- retention systems.

source:http://www.dailycommercialnews.com/images/archivesid/29908/130.jpg

Carmine Militiano presented to us a method he uses to help promote/sell/”facilitate” difficult decisions. I thought the most interesting and pertinent of his presentation (besides the ability to be a very colourful speaker) was his emphasis on the aptitude to assess the risks of a project. This idea of risk management is very current and I think it reflects our need to consider the impact of our designs on future generations more than ever before.  Carmine listed for us some of the factors that contribute (or detract from) a projects ability to succeed. His lecture could be applied to the presentation by David VanVilet who discussed the Dockside Green project in Victoria (among others).  VanVilet described for us the initial efforts to make Dockside Green a sustainable development that aimed to be “socially vibrant, ecologically restorative, economically sound and just community (Dockside Green website)” and then its unfortunate eventual decline.  It is interesting to consider the factors from Carmine’s lecture (“Structure Decision Process” section) and assess Dockside Green’s failure by two of his key steps “1. Leadership and Commitment” and “4. Collecting Valued Information”. According to VanVilet, key developers of Dockside Green have pulled out because of monetary issues and getting the client group to commit to implementing developing decisions has been very difficult and this could correlate to Militiano’s 1^st key step. The 4^th step of Militiano’s decision process could be exemplified as the client group and developer’s commitment being hindered by the absence of ‘valued information’ such as a carbon assessment for the development. The only assessments that have been taken of the area have been ‘obscure’ and are believed to be a ‘smoke and mirrors’ act to hide the breakdown of the development.

Lindsay Biberdorf

http://www.cibinel.com/uploads/rrcoverview.pdf

It’s a website that offers a lot of information, mostly on the buildings that they have designed. When discovering the different parts of their site, I found myself looking at the area where they show the different shots of their Red River Campus. Thats when I noticed an attached document, and it’s a 24 page document discussing contexts and concepts of the Red River building that they designed. It’s incredibly comprehensive, and wow, I almost felt privileged to even peek inside their heads to see what they were thinking! Anyways this site is definitely worth a look, but even more than this website their projects are worth an in person up-close look.

Happy Halloween!

Will

We discussed our relationship with light, including how we interpret it and how we use it.

We then discussed the history of lighting. It amazes me how much people centuries ago were able to use natural lighting in so many amazing ways; the Ancient Greek theatres, Stonehenge, The Pantheon, etc…

When you look at works like this, it’s amazing to think about how much thought and precision went into creating them. There is such an art involved that we have moved away from in the past century, and light is such a simple thing. Our Architecture should be magnificent and intricate and awe-inspiring.

Then we discussed the use of lamps, and different types of lamps; candles, oil lamps, gas lamps, incandescent lights, fluorescent lights, compact fluorescent, Hallogen, high intensity discharge, and LED lights which Shawna said she expects to replace incandescent light bulbs.  I understand that LED lights are much more efficient than incandescent, however I would still rather see more of a trend towards incorporating natural lighting into spaces.

The 2nd part of this field trip was left to our own exploration of the Red River College building. Previously I had been to Red River when I was looking for schools to apply to about 4 years ago, but I definitely did not see this. I really appreciated the fusion of the old with the new much like the new engineering building here on the Fort Garry campus. There was an abundance of natural light and I just know that if my classes were always in or through this building I would be a much happier student.

“Partly historic reconstruction, partly adaptive reconstruction of existing buildings with substantial new construction. All major building systems are affected in all cases. Renovation /construction for approximately 2,000 students and 200 staff is seen as good catalyst in the revitalization of the centre of Winnipeg – the Exchange District, probably the largest intact collection of turn-of-the-century and terracota architecture in North America.
The five adjoining buildings will become one behind the façade and will house courses in Media and Information Technology.”

http://www.iisbe.org/iisbe/gbc2k2/teams/canada/red_river/rrc-edu.htm

Andrew Schlukbier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeld_Wen

This week we took a trip out to Jeld-Wen which was a very very nice change from sitting in uncomfortable chairs for three hours. Jeld-Wen is located in a recently remodelled building in the exchange district close to Red River on Princess. Our class was split in half and took turns receiving a presentation/sales pitch from a former engineering graduate who is now a sales representative for Jeld-Wen. Jeld-Wen is known for their use of recycled materials in their doors and windows and won an energy star award in 2006. In Winnipeg they have actually stopped making wood windows, he explained that this was a result of a switch in demand to PVC windows which are actually cheaper and more efficient than wood windows. It’s quite obvious that Jeld-Wen is making the environment a priority in their designs and materials. Because it is a business I suspect it is done for exactly that reason…business, I think being environmentally conscious is becoming something respected and desired amongst consumers, and will therefor increase their sales. Some other examples of their environmentally conscious decisions are found in their brochure:

Jeld-Wen insures their door facings include at least 51% recycled materials.

Jeld-Wen is a member of the green building initiative which is a non-profit organization that accelerates green building practises by promoting  environmentally progressive approaches that are practical and affordable.

Jeld-wen has planted nearly 3 million trees in the past two decades and timber harvests never exceed timber growth.

Andrew Schlukbier

Going to Jeld-Wen Windows and Doors was an extremely interesting experience. I really feel like their attempts to recycle and reuse glass helps with the environment. I also found it refreshing that an industry that doesn’t have much pressure to recycle and be eco-friendly took the initiative in doing their part to help out nature and the world. It’s something I wouldn’t expect in a window and door company, so I find that even more awesome that they decided to go the route they did. Looking at their selection of the windows and doors was also another interesting aspect. Possibly more interesting that the recycling (not that recycling is interesting!), looking at their “Cadillac of doors”, and interesting window developments was fun.

Experiencing Red River College was really interesting. This is one of my favorite buildings, I think I’ve been in Winnipeg; its rustic feel with modern design give the gateway to an excellent interior. I also think it was an interesting and completely refreshing to turn the exterior into an interior. This not only made for exposed brick on the inside of this campus, but it made the rustic motif easier to come by. Thus making for an affordable, executable interior design. There are more details, but too many to go through. I find this building genius.

Will

http://www.savethenight.eu/What%20is.html

This site goes into depth about light pollution; not only does it introduce light pollution, but it also gives solutions or alterations one can make to their own everyday living to decrease the effects of light pollution. This site is extremely comprehensive, and really easy to read. Also this is a photo from the effects of light pollution. I find this seems to be an understated problem, which makes it all the more interesting to read about

            This presentation was something I found maybe a little slow at times, but ultimately really fascinating. Hearing that the sun doesn’t quite rise in the east and set in the west, was something I have never really thought of before. The stereopathic sun diagrams were really interesting. More interesting was hearing that hormone cycles that are gradually upsetting due to the release of the hormone melatonin. It really makes sense, knowing that something completely artificial affected the human body; it was bound to somehow.

            The second presentation was equally as interesting. I found it just made a lot of sense, seeing the cuts in the building not only created a visually pleasing composition, but was a for a purpose. The analysis was extremely thorough and really comprehensive, which made this presentation intriguing and thought provoking. Also I think it’s refreshing to hear that there is such thing as respectful design, being careful of the businesses and tenants around.

Will

During the last class of natural and human systems, we learned a lot about syntonics, and heliotherapy.  It was fairly interesting dealing with things such as light baths and their construction. Thinking about such fixtures, I can understand the theory behind light baths, but I’m not sure I would be the proper candidate for one. I feel like, sitting and trying to relax beneath a light, would be hard I would go crazy. Would we sleep? Would we play cards? Read? I’m sure this would be the perfect solution for those willing to be calm and relaxed. Perhaps I’m too uptight? Maybe I’d be the perfect candidate; I don’t know.

It was also interesting to look at just the colour of some atmospheres, rather than dissecting the architecture. Seeing that colour is an element we recognize and critically consider was, I think, really important, because I think that it’s an element often overlooked or deemed as insignificant. As this lecture has stated, colour can give a building or atmosphere context, or appeal.  Colours can add feelings and associations to enhance the overall perspective of a building. They can properly deliver and enforce the ideas and feelings that a designer is trying inflict on its viewers or inhabitants. I am a huge fan of colour theory, and this lecture, I feel like it has sparked interest of the otherwise understated subject.

Will

JeldWen Design Center Winnipeg

JeldWen’s “community philosophy” on their developments including Brasada Ranch in Oregon… it doesn’t include much about their environmental practices which is surprising and it doesnt speeak at all about trying to meet LEED standards.

http://www.jeld-wencommunities.com/Our-Philosophy.html

This is a JeldWen site that has a section dedicated for Architects and this specific link is for Architecture Students (info, contests, etc.)

http://www.jwinspiration.com/en/

I found much of the products to be very simple things like full spectrum light bulbs, or other simple lighting devices that change colour, including candles.

I also came across quite a few products that are aimed at cleansing the chakras as a form of colour therapy. There are Aura cleansers and various blends of essential oils that will clear your chakras.

As well, I also found various products that simply come in a line of various colours that are meant to help in colour therapy.

There are sunglasses, silk scarves, and eye masks all in various colours.

After looking at all that colour therapy has to offer, I am very disappointed. I feel like all of these products are just a big scam, taking everyday products, labelling them as colour therapeutic and jacking up the price because of it. It seems that all an average person needs to do is to just add colour to their lives. You don’t need to buy these colourful scarves, you can just go and get your own. Same with the glasses, eye masks, and essential oils. I personally think that the biggest joke is a product like the Aura cleanser. I believe that products like this only work for people that believe in that kind of thing, and therefore it’s not really the product anyway, its just all in your mind. So clear your own Aura instead of buying something to do it for you.

-Abbie

Here are a few of the locations that Viaka talked about as making good use of colour to create a positive effect.

This is the St. Catarina Market in Barsalona. It is an open space with a very colourful canopy above it.

This is the Solar City Center in Austria. It as well involves a colourful roofing system, but this roof is also made out of solor panels so not only is it visually pleasing it is also energy efficient.

-Abbie

Here is a link to information about the Red River College building, a case study to sustainable design: http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/sustain_casestudies/princess.html

Note: The building has gained worldwide attention for green building challenge, and placed first from Canadian entries. The design is for 2,000 students in a downtown setting. The building incorporates 5 historic facades. Uses 75 tons of steel and 400 cubic yards of concrete.

Red River College

 Here is a link to discussion on how the college is eyeing union bank tower: http://joomlademo.luxtonweb.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51%3Ared-river-college-eyeing-union-bank-tower&Itemid=62

Clifford Goodwill

On the brochures we recieved at the end of the lecture here are some things I found interesting about Jeld-Wen:

Jeld-Wen moulded wood fiber interior and garage doors are scientific certification systems certified which means that the door facings contain at least 51% recycled materials.

Jeld-Wen is a member of the green building initiative a non profit organization that accelerates green building practicies by promoting  environmnetally progressive approaches that are practical and affordable.

Auralast combats wootd rot and fungal infestation in wood in windows and doors.

Jeld-wen has planted nearly 3 million trees in the past two decades and timber harvests never exceed timber growth.

Vinyl is the most energy efficient major plastic.

Vinyl is a recyclable materials in many stages of life.

Vinyl can be safely burned and its energy recaptured and reused.

Clifford Goodwill

Lindsay Biberdorf

Note:  This site includes a sunset, sunrise, dawn and dusk time tables for the year, a sunset sunrise, dawn and dusk graph, a sun diagram, information on solar energy and surface meteorology. Winnipeg is located at 49*52’48″N Longitide and 97*10’12″ Latitude with an altitude of 230 m.

Here is a link to information on the barrel valt: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Barrel-vault

Note: Barrel vault is the simplest form of the vault, it is effectively a series of arches. Also known as tunnel or wagon vaults. The walls require buttressing or intersect the vaults to make a groin vault.

Here is a link about the plans in 2012 to no longer use incandescants: http://www.thestar.com/article/346692

Note: Compact flourescant bulbs are more energy efficient. Only certain areas of Canada will benefit from the switch. It discusses how in cold climates the energy used in incandescant bulbs isnt’ a waste like it would be in warmer climates. This would call more fossil fuels to heat our homes. The main point of the discussion is that the decision needs more study.

The flame was our only source of light, besides day and moonlight, untill the Baroque era. The flame is not efficient and quite dirty. During this time structures were driven by lighting and you had to know where the sun was going to be in order to get the maximum amount of daylight. The Greeks were famous for their theatres that maximized the use of daylight. Basic post and lintel construction gave way to the arch and then the vault, cross vault and then domes. All of these structures allowed for less wall and more light. It was explained to us that light coming from a 30 degree angle is most desirable because it mimics that of the sun, which is never directly above. We discussed how Geography and climate should have more of an influence on the designs of structures in order to use natural light in the most efficient way for the area. It made me think of how all buildings of the modern and industrial age look greatly the same through Canada all the way down to Southern United States even though the needs of the building are very different.

Because of our modern and unlimited access to light and electricity we no longer rely on the sun. Reintroducing the importance of daylight is going to be a part of the change in design that younger generations of designers will achieve.

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Halogen                       Fluorescent                          H.I.D.

These are some examples of some of the different kinds of lighting we went over in class.

Finally, a simple diagram of how an LED bulb works.

“The incandescent electric light bulb. Still going strong after more than 120 years. Fluorescent lighting and LED‘s (Light Emitting Diodes) with their ‘cold light’ technology may be pushing more and more at the margins of their rule, but traditional light bulbs are still kings in our culture today.”

http://www.howitworks.net/how-light-bulbs-work.html

Andrew Schlukbier

Shauna also explained some terminology such as sunlight; direct sunlight and daylight which is what we modify and control through our architecture. Our original sources of light, beginning with the oldest is the flame, oil lamps, candles, gas lamps, and electrical lighting which has only been around for about 150 years, and began with Edison’s lamps which had platinum and carbon filament versions. Later types of lamps include Halogen, Fluorescent, H.I.D., and L.E.D.. Halogen contains a gas which helps put particles back on the filament. Fluorescent lights are very efficient but require a ballast, and also cannot be dimmed. H.I.D. lamps also use ballasts but are incredibly bright and also very efficient. They require time to warm up and cool down making them not very convenient to turn on and off. These lights depending on the chemical used often appear as either an orange yellow, or a cool blue. L.E.D. bulbs will last up to 80 years and is what Shauna personally believes to become the most popular. It’s unique in that unlike all other types of lamps there is 0 heat output, the only problem they have at the moment is they are not nearly as bright as H.I.D. lamps, but they are bright enough that they are often found in flashlights.

We finished talking about light pollution and its negative effects such as not being able to see stars at night. I thought it was an excellent idea on her part to bring some of these different types of bulbs to class and pass them around, it definitely enhanced my interest in the topic as a result.

Andrew Schlukbier

This is a site dedicated to the evolution of human eyesight (and the eye in general). The eye and sight is an incerdibly complex process and is believed by some to be intrinsic to our evolutionary process. http://www.detectingdesign.com/humaneye.html The website contains a Youtube video of Zoologist Dan Eric Nillson describing his eye evolutionary theory. The author brings up an interesting subject, he brings up different arguments of whether the Human eye was well designed or not.  He believes strongly that it is a ‘good design’ but there are other experts on the subject who believe that because we haven’t evolved to have good eyesight overall it is not.

Lindsay Biberdorf

Once we developed the built environment with a certain interior complexity we had to find solutions to light it. These solutions have not only allowed us to work and be sheltered indoors but they have also informed some of our structures… Gothic church architecture was an example Mallory- Hill explained. Gothic churches used the principles of clerestory (light streaming diagonally through higher windows into lower interior levels). Here is an example of Chartres Cathedral (France) http://rohini-koffeemocha2001.blogspot.com/2008/06/gothic-architecturean-addendum-to.html.

Mallory- Hill spoke about how we neglected a lot of these priniciples that took advantage of natural light when we started using electrical lighting. I started thinking about this and how it could make a good final project for this course…why not put more emphasis on historical prinicples of natural lighting as a way to increase our energy efficiency?

Lindsay Biberdorf

www.eq3.com

I in particular like the Canyon Slat chairs, I don’t know if that makes me 2 years out of date or not? (just kidding) But I really like the classic linear style that they display. I feel like these could accentuate many feelings or atmospheres.I also youtube’d EQ3 and came accross a commercial displaying their B2C collection. I feel like this commercial really helped add context and appeal to an otherwise maybe dull collection. This collection took the creativity from the designer and put it in the hands of the owners, that was incredibly smart.

Copenhagen Opera…

“The Copenhagen Opera House (in Danish usually called Operaen) is the national opera house of Denmark, and among the most modern opera houses in the world. It is also one of the most expensive opera houses ever built with construction costs well over 500 million dollars[1]. It is located on the island of Holmen in the center of Copenhagen.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Opera

Market (Barcelona)…

“The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, or simply La Boqueria, is a large public market, with an entrance from La Rambla in Barcelona, Catalonia, not far from the Liceu, Barcelona’s opera house. The market has a very diverse selection of goods.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercat_de_la_Boqueria

Low-Cost Housing (Slovenia)…

“The proposal won for economic, rational and functional issues but mostly for the ratio between gross vs. saleable surface area and the flexibility of the plans. When signing the contract we were obliged to prepare construction documentation for the building cost 600€ per m2 of net surface area.”
http://www.archdaily.com/3245/izola-social-housing-ofis-arhitekti/

Andrew Schlukbier

She also talked about how colours can make you feel, for example: The joyfulness   of yellow, transcendence of violet, tranquillity of blue. The one I liked was red because it seems to have two strong meanings; being the most desired and most dangerous, acting for example like a barrier between us and the sun.

Vaike explained the therapeutic benefits that building your own house by hand could have. which isn’t something I really thought of but I think it makes sense for things like mud brick.

Vaike showed us her thesis work/practicum work, which was drawings/designs of her colour spa. I was amazed at the creativity that went into it, it took a good while for everything to make sense to me. There are no plans of it being built, but its something I would definitely love to see built, mainly because of how different and organic it looks. It needs some more science and engineering behind it to come up with some concrete examples, or if even all of it is possible, for example those pipes that turn into chimney’s and go through water that would possibly be frozen.

We spent a good amount of time talking about Erik Asmussen and his concept of architecture; seeing it as “Thrust up from the center of the earth and shaped by the cosmic forces around it.” We looked at quite a few pictures of the Rudolf Steiner Seminary, at Jarna, Sweden, which was inspired by anthroposophy; “a path of knowledge aiming to guide the spiritual element in the human being to the spiritual in the universe.” Vaike then showed us, “In Full Colour, 2002-2007″ where I was really impressed with the designs of some primary and elementary schools in Europe, mainly all in Germany. There was also a market (Barcelona), low cost housing development (Slovenia), Dulky theme park (South Korea) and a multi-cultural centre (Australia). All of the examples were shown for their successful colour palette and organization. I especially enjoyed the school who’s graphic detail was inspired by a Spyrograph set.

Andrew Schlukbier

This article talks about “Malillumination” in architecture and its potential health effects http://www.light-color-therapy.com/?p=5.

Here is another project the center of ”Medecine for the Future” (Lanserhof) by architect Dr. Regina Dahmen-Ingenhoven that deals with architecture and light therapy, it forms flow and it is full of windows and glass planes to get the full effect of daylighting. http://www.lanserhof.at/sites/architektur.php?lang=en

The design process was also quite interesting especially seeing where a product begins and ends. Knowing that the products are done, and ready to be set out, 2 years in advance, was a little depressing. But I guess that makes sense. Also hearing that they get tired of designs before they hit the shelves seems overwhelming. Doesn’t it just look like a never-ending cycle of trying to be ahead of the trends? But I guess that makes sense.

As for their designs? I enjoyed a lot of what I saw. I thought they were contemporary, with being too edgy or impractical. I thought they were completely inspiring, and made me oh so jealous of their jobs. Each representative seemed very good at his or her job, and also very well spoken. I am very grateful of the tour, and presentation.

Will

Here is a link to information on the architect of the Copenhagen Opera: http://www.operaen.dk/Subsites/Operaen/Om_Operaen/Arkitekten.aspx

Note: Henning Larson was commissioned to design an opera that would draw international attention, use state of the art acoustics, and create a grand experience for the opera-goers. June 2001 was when construction first began and was finished in Octorber 2004. The Opera was officially inagurated on January 15th2005.  The Opera is over 41,000 square meters with over 1,100 rooms which make it one of Denmark’s largest and most innovative buildings.

Here is a link to information on Slovenia’s Beehive social housing: http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.seadio.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/greenhouse/beehive-lead.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.seadio.com/blog/slovenia-gorgeous-honeycomb-housing-complex/&h=358&w=537&sz=52&hl=en&start=3&um=1&usg=__M-uhQE5l0wWxVuvklS1eaDXkLNw=&tbnid=zktbkHeNiaZq8M:&tbnh=88&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBeehive%2Bsocial%2Bhousing%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Note: Constructed as a low income housing unit for young families and couples it is located on the shore of Slovenia in an industrial district.  Interiors are regulated by use of solar shading and natural ventilation all year long. The colorful textile shades that give the structure its characteristically colorful look is a vital part of the solar shading.  10cm holes on either side of the balconies allows for natural ventilation.

Beehive

Here is a link to information on the Marion cultural centre in Australia: http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bassett.com.au/sitebuilder/markets/catthumbs/mdheader.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bassett.com.au/markets/cid/127/parent/0/t/markets&h=200&w=585&sz=33&hl=en&start=9&um=1&usg=__TsHtq6hUBWoO_qoy2w1K3S5FtW0=&tbnid=nzQQqZVUJXE-uM:&tbnh=46&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMarion%2Bcultural%2Bcentre%2Baustralia%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den

Note: The 7 million Australian dollar project was required to be a landmark building that revealed it’s commitment to technological and cultural development of the community. This design is incorporated with ecologically sustainable design materials . Extensive thermal monitoring was done to cut operational costs to the client.

Marion Cultural Centre

Clifford Goodwill

Ott color therapy glasses

Lindsay Biberdorf

Heliotherapy. Helio- Greek for sun. Can be defined as sun therapy or photo-therapy. This is the kind of therapy that this spa design was centered around. Ruus’s inspiration came from Bates, Huxley and Ott. Huxley beleived in visualization and meditative exercises, and sun treatment to improve vision. John Ott stated that regular doses of sunlight benefit the body and that if we don’t get enough we will have a deficiency within the body. Vaike also explained to us that sunbathing became a popular treatment during the 1930′s but was ignored with the birth of penicillin and other modern drugs.

Vaike said that as humans became to write draw and read that we lost out ability to see great distances but gained the ability to see close under stress. I found this thought interesting but very likely considering the shift if human ability and human needs.

I really started to get interested when Vaike started to show us slides of her proposed model. Finally all of the diagrams and sketches had meaning. I really liked the primitive feel to the spa and the use of natural branches, mud-plaster, wind-catchers and colorful windows. Drawing inspiration though studies of light, light huts, braids and maquettes.

The second half the lecture focused on the use of color in modern architecture with many examples of remodeled German schools Another theme touched on was the transformation and melting of wall, ceiling and floor. A university canteen in Germany mimicked the forests and also revealed the same floor to wall to ceiling details.

Clifford Goodwill

There are some EQ3 chairs in the Russel student lounge on the second floor that have these tags on them that look like this…

I think they are obnoxious, advertise too much, and unecessary.

Here is a picture I found of a couch with a pull out bed (davenport), it is probably the best one I’ve ever seen, it looks classy and sophisticated…

Here is some information on the company…

“[Winnipeg - October 16, 2007] – In 1999 Peter Tielmann left Europe and joined Palliser Furniture Ltd., as General Manager of the chair division.” ~http://eq3.com/cat-eq3/company/index.html?id=bQJXKWVt

“Palliser Furniture is a family owned home furnishings manufacturer based in Canada. Palliser employs approximately 3,000 people in facilities in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Indonesia. The company was established in 1944 by Abram Albert DeFehr, a Russian born immigrant to Canada. Palliser manufactures all types of upholstery, stationary, motion, recliners, home theatre, and chairs in leather and fabric in one of its six factories in North America.” ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palliser_Furnitur

I took a look at all of their current chairs on the EQ3 website and decided this one was my favorite. It was the side profile view of it that really caught my attention because it is dominated by round curves, where as if you look at the chair from the front, it is really square and perhaps not THAT interesting to look at. I think I am also biased towards the color of this one, its purple which is a mix of red and blue. This makes sense, because I find it warm, inviting, soothing, and relaxing.

Andrew Schlukbier

When we arrived at EQ3 we met in the parking lot and proceeded to their entrance where we would later be climbing up stairs to reach their offices and room where their presentation was given. I was quite surprised when I learned how most of them had gone through the U of M’s Environmental Design Program at some point in their life. It was interesting to learn about the main categories in their products which are case goods, upholstery, and accessories. Apparently it can take up to 12 months for a larger item to reach production. They described the process in this order; inspiration, range analysis, design development, sample building/sourcing, and finally the product launch.

Someone in class asked a good question which was, “How much freedom to you have to design what you want?”. I don’t remember the exact answer, but the person answering made it sound like they really don’t have that much freedom, which I can’t say I’m surprised by when you are designing for the masses. He later pointed out how you should try to enter as many design competitions as you can, which to me sounds like that might be enough of a creative outlet. The stories of their travels were also interesting and explained to us how North America is always behind a year or so in their designs compared to Europe. They also talked about how all of their products are made in Asia except for their upholstery (I don’t think Ikea can say that). Personally I’m looking forward to running out of oil so things will finally change and hopefully local business will return.

After the presentation and after our group was waiting for the other groups to finish a tour of the building we first stepped into an area where the designer’s offices/spaces were. It was a bit sureal seeing the offices one would see on TV with glass walls and a long white table in the rectangular room. The part I probably enjoyed the most was when we walked around the the warehouse where you could actually see some of the furniture being built, as well as the machine they use to test wear and tear on their upholstery products.

It was great getting out of class and seeing such a concrete example of design and production, as a result I think I have a better feel for what it would be like to be a product designer.

Andrew Schlukbier

The EQ3 site is obviously an advertising/ marketing site and understandably so is biased and full of ‘brand statements’, but upon deeper searching you can open some interesting .pdf applications, this is the linking page:   http://eq3.com/swflink/process/locale/en_CA/currency/en_CA/focus/catalogue.html . These .pdf documents explain their design process, intentions and some of the manufacturing behind their products and are more useful if you are trying to educate yourself about their company.

EQ3 seems to be forever being compared to Ikea, likely due to the fact they have similar ‘affordable, contemporary’ furniture philosophies and target similar demographics. I went on Ikea’s site to make my own comparisons, and although they don’t seem to volunteer much information about the design process, they do make a lot of their corporation’s figures public. http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/about_ikea_new/about/read_our_materials/index.html This site even links you to .pdf documents listing environmental impact figures, which I thought was very innovative for any company… but also perhaps just an interesting new marketing strategy now that ‘sustainability’ has become more mainstream.

Lindsay Biberdorf

Note: Craftdesign is a project founded by a gallery in Amsterdam for recently graduated international designers. This site gives an overview of more than 400 European designers work.  (unfortunately not all in english- gotta looka round)

Here is a link to a little more on the history of EQ3: http://www.franchisegenius.com/EQ3-Franchise/

Note: Peter Tielmann and joined Palliser furniture company and after 2 years realized there was something missing-  North American acess to affordable young alternative furniture. The concept was rooted in European design that could be affordable for the mass market. EQ3 is still expanding but has the most stores in Canada.

The chair above is a design by Marco Zanuso. I came accross this chair on the internet when I was looking at modern furniture. I can see this design being incorporated into the EQ3 brand and I think the color seperation makes this simple piece really stunning. 

Here’s a link to more designs by Zanuso: http://www.atom-a.com/zanuso.html

The chair above is a design by Eero Saarinen called ‘The Grasshopper”. Saarinen was a 20th century designer and architect compared to Frank Lloyd Wright. This was another design I came across that I also thought would fit into the EQ3 style. I am really drawn to the interesting geometry of the armrests and the simple lines of the seat.

Heres the link to more designs by Saarinen: http://www.atom-a.com/saarinen.html

Clifford Goodwill

Afterwards, one of the unholstery designers suggested to be that I look at the designer Ligne Roset and his Pumkin Chair because he thought that it was quite similar to my design.

I quite enjoyed many of the designs by Ligne Roset, particularly the Moel Chair design. However, when it comes to the p Chair, I think that I like my design better because of the longer body on it.

Abbie

They then took us in groups on a tour of the facility and factory where they acctually produce alot of their products. I thought that it was really great to see that they tried to make as much as they can right here in Winnipeg. I also throught that it was a real privilage to be taken behind the scenes and be aloud to see some of the furniture that hasn’t even been released to the stores yet, so basically, we were the first to see them.

The last thing that they had us participate in was a design challenge. We were asked to come up with a concept for a chair and the winner would receive a prize that consisted of small EQ3 designer figurines from their most recent theme, Japanese Pop. My chair design was runner up (Yay!) and so I got to choose one of the figures as a little trophy.

All in all, I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to see inside EQ3. My plan is to go into product design, so it was really like looking at what I could potentially be doing someday soon.

Abbie

http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

This site discusses everything from how the eye sees colour, colour symbolism, how colours effect emotions and moods, using colour to reduce energy consumption, to trends used in the business and marketing world to help sell their products.

One of the things on this site that I found to be of interest was the evolution of colours and their meanings over time. For example, during the time of the Renaissance, it was common for women to wear green at their wedding, or for a bride to be depicted in green because green was a symbol of fertility. Now a days white is considered to be the appropriate colour for a bride because it suggests innocence and virginity. As well, now a days the colour green has undertones of sexuatily associated with it and is often referred to as the horney colour.

Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride

by Jan Van Eyck , 1434

The bride in this Renaissance masterpiece wears green as a symbol of her fertility. She is slouching in imitation of pregnancy, thus indicating her willingness to bear children

Lindsay Biberdorf

EQ3

Week 4 was a nice break from our regular lecture. Meeting at the EQ3 offices and production site gave me a new insight to the real world of design. When we first discussed this trip I was surprised to learn that EQ3 was a Winnipeg based business. I had been to the store near Polo Park a few times and always thought the furniture was “just up my alley”. I am drawn toward the clean lines and creating interest by shape and color instead of excess ornamentation. To me, EQ3′s designs exhibit beauty and interest in a subtle way that makes an impact in a simple and readible format. When I found out ED graduates worked at EQ3 that really sparked my interest in other design fields. I had never thought of product design as a road to travel but this trip made me think about the possibilities. Before this trip I had my own ideas about how products came to life, but the people at EQ3 gave us a brief overview of the reality bringing a design to life. I found it very interesting how some people were involved with upholstered products, other with hard furniture and some with accessories. Personally, I think i’d get bored with one category and would want to switch it up.

What seemed to spark the EQ3 emploees’ excitment the most was their stories of travel. They discussed travels to Paris, London and Cologne to look at the new designs in Europe. The designers look at designs in Europe because they said typically the styles in Europe are 2 years ahead of ours in North America. Newly emerged European design is were the inspiration for the “nest table” design developed.  (which I thought would have been better off with an off-white corner cube instead of the cat-like gray).  We also learned that a design typically takes about 8 to 12 months to produce. I was impressed by the fact that an idea to a sellable product can be realized in this amount of time and even less time for smaller accessories.

All the discussion before this trip about local sustainability and local production in both our lecture classes really highlighted the realities of the business side of design. Much of the products at EQ3 are produced overseas in Asia because it’s cheaper. It’s nice that they are bringing products that manitobans can actually afford, but at what cost? I wonder what the carbon footprint of an EQ3 table is? Our previous classes also made me think about what will be happening by the time I’m an employed designer. I hope that by that time local production and materials will be more standard and more feasible to incorporate into the CEO decisions of these companies. Makes me wonder what will happen when oil gets so high that shipping furniture across the world is more expensive than making it at home- weird to think that is what makes the world go round.

Clifford Goodwill

The next half of the class was used by Jae to talk about thermal environments. I never realized how many things need to be taken into consideration by designers to really create a comfortable environment for humans to inhabit. Conduction, convection, radiation, humidity, evaporation, etc. in terms of the materials and the space, but also in terms of the human body itself and what the body is going to be doing within the space.

Abbie

Here is an example of how colours might make you feel…
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

This site gives examples of the origins of colours, or more specifically the pigments…
http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/

This is a simple diagram showing how heat transfer works…

Andrew Schlukbier

It was enlightening to learn about colours and how at one point they all had to come from something physically found, and that the supply of whichever colour would rely completely on the availability of whatever contained the pigment.
We also learned about some of the colour fundamentals, such as subtractive colour (pigment) and additive colour (light). Colours have three properties: Hue, Value, and Intensity as well as there being three types of colours, primary, secondary and tertiary, which I believe is another word for intermediate. Vaike ended with the fairly deep idea of how colours make a person feel consciously and unconsciously.

The second part of the class dealt with the thermal environment. We discussed some things like what we felt was a good room temperature. I would be interested in seeing some sort of statistic on what people like for a room temperature in the summer months as compared to the winter months. I find I’m very sensitive to cooler temperatures during the winter. When I go to my sister’s house, their thermostat is usually set a couple of degrees lower than I would prefer, but that couple of degrees can make me feel like I’m freezing and will even get goose bumps. The mention of how a person’s temperature comfort level can be affected by how much of the outside they can see is also something interesting that I hadn’t considered. What I would like to know, is what is the most preferred humidity level, and how would our preferred humidity level compare to other places in North America.

I found all of the technical data quite daunting, there seems to be so many different types of energy, like thermal energy, and within that you have sensible heat and latent heat, and with that comes a ton of different units that can be used to measure these situations. Not to mention there are three different ways of measuring heat alone. We later discussed a chart that encompasses all of these elements involved to create a comfortable space which are divided into Biology, Climatology, Technology, and Architecture.

Andrew Schlukbier

http://www.behr.com/behrx/inspiration/emotional_8.jsp

The site “rays of colour”, perhaps a little more indepth, goes into colour therapy, and the effects that colour has on the human body. This site gives a look to things like a persons’ “aura”, the characteristics and meanings of colours and even a little look at gem chromotherapy. It’s really interesting but perhaps a little ‘out there’ for my taste, but really ties into the first part of class on September 25th.

http://www.raysofcolor.com

Will

The last class of natural and human systems, we started analyzing colour. Although this subject isn’t very exciting, I found some areas interesting. When she described that light was an additive method and that pigment was a subtractive method of attaining colour, it finally made sense to me! I finally got that idea; that light waves are absorbed when striking certain colours, thus the more it absorbs the darker it gets.  When it comes to light, the more light one adds, the lighter it gets. So I’m not sure if I was just crazy before but it finally occurred to me how it actually works, and what it is meant by additive and subtractive methods.

The second half of class dealt with the thermal environment and this I found also interesting but incredibly confusing. Well maybe not confusing but really infinitely measurable. It seems like you could go on forever discussing and gauging the different factors of the thermal environment. I found the guidelines of the types of heat and heat transfer useful/interesting, but the amount of things you can measure seems plainly overwhelming. Although it is seems insane to measure all this, I do realize it’s an importance of these measurements and that its critical for any design.

Will

The short film of their that I found in called The Gathering of Elephants. It is a little over 5mins long, and is about a bunch of little plastic elephants wandering around in an urban environment. The come from all over the place, even mother’s with baby elephants on their backs and gather at what I would imagine is a gallery housing Charles and Ray Eames furniture. The basically have a party there and then disappear into the night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yqvlRwaHHM

The second short film that I found is Eames Lounge Chair Assembly which depicts a person assembling the chair, lounging in it, and then disassembling it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SWL4gTQfTA

So far all of the films by the Eames that I have seen have all been very different in terms of style and content, however they all have an artfull flair that I enjoy.

Joseph Albers

Here is a link to biographic information on Joseph Albers:

http://www.articons.co.uk/albers.htm

Note: I included this link because Viake mentioned his name during the lecture.  Albers was born in Germany to a family of fine workmanship. Joseph was educated at the Bauhaus and helped move them to a more constructivist method. Albers is most famously known for his “homage to the square” series and explored the psychological effects of color.

Here is a link to a contrast study based on the teachings of Johannes Itten:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC8V9ChUO8w

Note: This video is a study of colors and reveals how different colors intereact with eachother. Theres not much to talk about, but its neat to watch and fit well with Viake’s lecture.

Here is a link to a study about Therman comfort in architecture:

http://nceub.org.uk/uploads/Saberi.pdf

Note: This paper discusses how an architect can adjust his buildings to different zones and advises for climatic design process. This paper talks about the problems architects have with climatic design such as undefined conditions of the buildilng including both human and climatic factors. This paper also touches on Olgyay’s bioclimatic chart- one of the first attempts at an environmentally conscious building design.

Bioclimatic chart

Red Ochre Body Paint

For the first half of this week Vaike Ruus gave a presentation on color and light. Funny enough,during the presentation there was some technical difficulties with the color of the display on the projector and we had to view some slides in “purple vision”. Before this lecture I never put too much thought into the meaning or origins of color. The thought of living in a time when certain colors weren’t readily available seems almost unfathomable after strolling down the BEHR aisle in home depot. In the past when certain colors existed only in natural forms like flowers and we did not have the technology to reproduce some colors created more importance and meaning attached to these colors. It seems from the lecture that colors don’t have universal importance and I found it interesting how dfferent cultures at different times placed alot of importance on certain colors. Living in a world were we have unlimited access to colors I don’t think that color has the same amount of impact that it once had. I’m sure in other cultures across the globe that colors still hold more symbolic status.

One thing I found really interesting from the lecture was the Aboriginal people of western Australia importance of Ochre and it’s use as a body paint. Vaike Ruus discussed the importance of Ochre in their culture and how  it is forbidden to talk about and women are forbidden to see red ochre.

For the second half of class human comfort and the use of energy seemed to be the theme. I thought it was interesting when we discussed room temperature. The room temperature in the lecture was a comfortable 24 or so. I found it interesting when we were asked “How important is human comfort”? I never thought about the impact that our “spoiled”  lives have on the environment. This reminded me of something I heard about the effects of your environment in determining your comfort level. I remembering hearing, from somewhere I can’t remember, that if you are in a room that has a greater view of the outside you feel more comfortable in a room that is a few degrees higher than the standard room temperature. This makes me think that design could have a greater impact on what we consider comfortable in more ways than are typically utilized- maybe more under cover ways.

Another focus I found interesting during the lecture was the seperation of architecture and nature. The way buildings are designed that aren’t specific to the site and don’t consider factors like the sun and wind and shade to orient the space can create a waste of energy. The example of putting solar energy in the south and insulation in the north to make a more efficient design.

Clifford Goodwill

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvwTSEwVBfc

Will

Reflecting on the last class of Natural and Human Systems, September 18^th, I found many things interesting. First of all the proxemics really made a lot of sense, I didn’t really think of the range of needed human area. The demonstration done in class, with Lindsay and Gerry, made it incredibly obvious that humans demand and consume more area in the front of their bodies than the back. This information is really something to think about in any design field.

The second area I found interesting, were this videos. “The Power of Ten” I wouldn’t say is interesting in content but more just about the frame of mind.  The experience of trying to wrap your head around each scenario so quickly was really helpful. Then the second video “Baraka” was fascinating. Watching each scenario was fast vivid and ultimately visually attractive. Apart from it almost ruining my attention span, the part that I found really neat, was the ties to the grander theme. When Jae pointed out ‘the giant machine’ it really came together for me.  I also really loved the creepy face that was painted and clearly disturbed; that was a shocking image that I’m sure grabbed viewers attention. The last part of the clip we saw, that I found shocking is that a lot of the viewers had a soft spot for the chicks, in the scene of them getting processed. It seemed like that disturbed people, but when it came to the rows of human skulls, I didn’t hear anyone! Well that’s an issue for another day; I won’t jump on a soapbox. Anyways those were the highlights for me during that class.

Will

The section labelled ‘Perceptual Considerations’ could be very relevant to more than just cartography. It has a section that gives examples of what kind of color progressions and hue combinations don’t give enough contrast and emphasis to each other. This guideline could be applied if you were trying to have elements of your design be distinguished with color combinations or by  hue gradations. http://personal.uncc.edu/lagaro/cwg/color/color_symbol.html#Perceptual%20Considerations

Lindsay Biberdorf

For example – the chair, and it’s surprising lack of use of anthropometric date in the design stages, which Gerry discussed with us in last weeks class.  As well in our studio, we have been focusing on the Vitruvian Man, The Golden Section and Le Modular in terms of how they relate to design. Our research there has lead us to understand that their measures of ideals and body types are unrealistic and therefore furniture designed using these measures does not meet our needs.

It’s unfortunate that something that we use on such a regular basis and that can cause poor posture is not given more consideration and a higher level of importance.

One thing that our group came across was the Hermon Miller Aeron Chair. It comes in three different sizes with adjustable parts, is made to fit to your posture, has adjustable arms, tilt adjustments and more. It is the perfect chair, that is also unfortunately very, very pricey, and I understand that the average person can’t afford it. But the point remains why is the chair not given more consideration? Would it really be that difficult to create something that is aesthetically pleasing and ergonomically correct? Why are not more chairs created with adjustable parts and pieces?

Looking at the Range of Human Potential that Gerry also showed us, we are cutting our selves off at comfort – the half way mark. We owe it to ourselves to give the chair a little more priority.

Abbie Brook

Here is a link to Male Stature Data from a 1988 US army survey: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/t11.pdf

Note: This page consists of a table of men over 20 years of age.

Here is a link to an example of an ergonomic designed cutting knife vs. a regular one: http://www.bsu.edu/web/jcflowers1/rlo/anthropometrics.htm

Note: I thought this was interesting because I find most things aren’t really designed very ergonomically. How much harder is it to design something that is more comfortable to use. But also, what kind of improvements to products are rejected by the consumer?

Here is a link anthropometric data of the Hong Kong population: http://www-ieem.ust.hk/dfaculty/ravi/papers/paper5.pdf

Note: This site discusses the lack of anthropometric data at the time, and the trends they saw even with the little data they had- such as increasing heighth.  Cut and cost has driven much design in Hong Kong (as well as the rest of the world) rather than anthropometric data.

Here are links to information on somatotypes: http://www.kheper.net/topics/typology/somatotypes.html

http://www.dadamo.com/wiki/wiki.pl/RNA_(ribonucleic_acid)/Glycolipids/Genomics/Data_Center/Somatotype

Note: The first site introduces and lists the somatotypes and their corresponding personality and body traits, a theory developed by William Sheldon in the 1940′s.

Note: The second site briefly explains the development of the Somatotype theory by William Sheldon. Sheldon’s theory has some outdates psychological elements, but the theory is based on body type and temperment.

Somatotypes

Clifford Goodwill

This is a link to a site featuring several products that apparently fall under the category of “sustainability”, one of them being the famous Aeron chair…
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Business-Essentials/Sustainability/Examples/

Here is a diagram of a suggested computer desktop arrangement…

Andrew Schlukbier

Jerry described the three main positions a person has, which are laying down, perching, and sitting. I’ve never payed to much attention to how I am sitting in a seat, I just know what makes me uncomfortable, and I completely agree on a chair being a hard piece of furniture to design. I honestly can’t think of a design that would force me to stay in a good position so that my back has a proper and comfortable “s” curve to it, because that kind of position seems to always require some effort on the user’s part, and when I sit down, I am usually not in the mindset to make any effort at all unless I am physically doing some work.

However, I have taken many long car trips, and I believe it to be absolutely necessary to use a car that has a comfortable seat, I find in a lot of GM vehicles there is almost no upper back support, so what happens is your mid to lower back is resting on the back of your seat, and your upper back and shoulders are being suspended in air because you need to be able to see the road, and hold on to the steering wheel. Some GM vehicles have incredible seats too, that feature adjustable lower, and upper back support which enable you to position your back into a perfect “s” curve. There is no reason why all car seats can’t have a similar shape without the expense of making it electronically adjustable.

Andrew Schlukbier

Proxemics was introduced as the study of spatial requirements of humans. Jerry gave a demonstration by observing a student’s reaction to distance and orientation. He moved very close with his front facing hers and she was visually uncomfortable. Jerry wanted to point out that orientation is just as important as distance.

The next topic was how our eyes follow lines and look for change and how we associate lines with femininity and masculinity along with countless other things. The chair and all of its many, sometimes terrible, designs were addressed. For example, the mass produced plastic Eames chair we were all sitting in  had a beautiful simple look but lacked enough room for your glut to properly expand and gives the user an uncontrollable urge to slump which does havoc to our backs.

A link to more about anthropmetrics: http://www.reference.com/search?q=Anthropometrics

Clifford Goodwill

I found an interesting site by the authors of “Kiss , Bow or Shake Hands” Terri Morrison and Wayne A. Conaway. They have actaully written a travel manual that deals with social/ cultural rites as well as some basic guidelines to cultural proxemics. This is more of a quick read but I think it is interesting that a more popular publication also deals with this issue, even if on a very basic level. http://www.kissboworshakehands.com/2004GTC/Articles/iw0100.html

Lindsay Biberdorf

This lecture leaves me thinking this course is going to focus on our impact and our relationship with the environment and making us, the students, more aware of our impacts as individuals, as a country and as a species to the environment.

A link to Theo Jansen video: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html

A link to Ned Khan info: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cmp/consulting/nkahn.html

Clifford Goodwill

Lindsay “not punce” Biberdorf