Inhabitat posted an article about the huge award that the Watercube (The Chinese Aquatic Center) won from the Australian Institute of Architecture.  The award, called the Jorn Utzon Award for International Architecture, is a prestigious honor - but anyone who saw the Watercube on broadcast of the 2008 Summer Olympics knows how beautiful the Watercube really was, and how amazing a collaboration between form and function it brought to our minds.

The Watercube was a joint collaboration between PTW Architects, Chinese firms CSCEC and CCDI, and the international firm, Arup.

From Inhabitat’s article - I love this quote:

The jurors who selected the Watercube said, “The Watercube uses state-of-the-art materials to create a visually striking building that is also energy-efficient and ecologically friendly. The most impressive aspect of the project is the outer shell or molecular skin that envelops the building. The building has a chameleon-like quality that captures light in an extraordinary and memorable way. In every respect, the Watercube is an engaging and ethereal building that comfortably straddles the traditions of both Chinese and Western architecture.”

Make Mag has an article about Marieke Staps’ “Soil Lamp,” which is an LED fixture that runs on mud and gets energy for illumination from the microbiotics in the soil.

What?

Seriously.  Check it out.  It’s a cool concept - an LED lamp that thinks it’s a plant!

Have you heard of or seen the videos of the new “plasma” light sources that are out there?  People are talking about LIFI lamps and sources, and how many lumens per watt can be had with these new jewels.  Check out this video:

LIFI:  “Light Fidelity.”  LIFI lamps do not use a series of electrodes to attach to a filament to bring the lamp to a point where the source emits light.  Instead, a RF source is focused and pointed at a little column in the lamp, the plasma column, which then makes the lamp emit an intense, high output light.  We’re talking about having a little tiny source that can output 20K lumens.  The operating costs are significantly lower because of the technology that “plasmafies” the lamp itself, which requires a lot less electricity to operate the RF generator.

What about color rendering?  How white is the LIFI source?

LUXIM, the company who is pioneering this technology, has the following chart on their website:

Look at that first figure - 120 lumens per watt.  CRI of 80 (96 on the next model up), and 30,000 hours of operating life.  If you know about CRI and color rendering, you know that 100 is the best score, referring to a black-body radiator.  The STA-40-02 model renders at 96.

Luxim also makes LIFI lamps for entertainment purposes - one of their lamps runs at 7500°K, the other at 5600°K - both have a CRI of above 91, and both have 20,000 hours of life.  These lamps operate under 10A and run on around 28V - heat is lower, energy consumption is lower, which allows this source to be jammed into the back of a moving head without worry of overtemp.  According to Luxim, these lamps are also vibration resistant and rugged - all solid state components.

Do you have any experience with these sources?  Luxim people, do you read my blog?  Please post in the comments.

This is called a Vindicator, and it’s a fiber-optic based laser “module, processor, control system interface, and remote lens assembly,” to quote the product page.  Oh Hell.  Catch The Wind, Inc, I am going to pretty much copy the text from the product page - this is an awesome product.  I hope you don’t mind.  People should buy these so that wind power shows people how awesome green energy will be.  From the product page:

The Vindicator™ fiber optic laser wind sensing system is capable of measuring real-time horizontal and vertical wind speed and direction data at varying ranges ahead of the sensor location. The sensor design is based on state-of-the-art fiber optic laser technology developed and patented at Optical Air Data Systems LLC.

The Vindicator™ system is comprised of a fiber optic based laser module, processor, control system interface, and a remote lens assembly. The laser module and processor are housed in a separate assembly that may be located either within the wind turbine nacelle, or with the remote lens assembly.

Using concepts of Doppler radar, with light as the medium of detection, the Vindicator™ system quickly senses air particle movement. The system processor analyzes the air particle movement producing speed and direction data for wind field determination. The first production variant of the Vindicator™ system will sense the wind out to 300 meters; as industry learns how to utilize and integrate this new technology into various applications, longer ranges can be incorporated.

How does the Vindicator™ laser wind sensor work?

The Vindicator™ wind sensing system works by integrating with a wind turbine’s control system, or electronic brain. The system’s fiber optic lasers sense the wind that is approaching the wind turbine at a range of 300 meters and report this information to the control system in sufficient time to adjust and orient the turbine. Utilizing control algorithms, the control system will decide how to best exploit the wind that is approaching the turbine and command internal systems to either change blade pitch and/or re-orient the entire nacelle in an effort to maintain efficiency, reduce the effects of wind shear and gusts, or maintain a constant blade speed. Without the Vindicator™ laser wind sensor, wind turbines will continue to be out of phase with changes in the prevailing wind.

There is talk right now of technology that could revolutionize the way wireless communication is utilized - imagine using flashing light to communicate with devices, not unlike the way that IR technology is used with devices, or light pipe technology is used in recording.  Boston University’s College of Engineering is launching a program with help from an NSF grant to get this kind of technology kicking.  From the article at Cellular News:

“Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires,” said BU Engineering Professor Thomas Little. “This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light - all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference. Ultimately, the system is expected to be applicable from existing illumination devices, like swapping light bulbs for LEDs.”

As far as green technology goes, this is an amazing prospect - I am interested to see what wavelengths they decide to exhaust first, and what the rates of transmission would be.

Along with communication technology, the article mentions automobile safety:

“This technology has many implications for automobile safety,” Little said. “Brake lights already use LEDs, so it’s not a stretch to outfit an automobile with a sensor that detects the brake lights of the car in front of it and either alerts an inattentive driver or actively slows the car.”

Treehugger posted an article about “the most relaxing room in the world” - a space at the University of Herfortshire was created to help people relax - lit in heavy blues and greens, the room featured lavendar scented pillows, soft original music by Tim Blinko, and an artificial blue sky.  From the original article at Alpha Galileo:

“The pace of modern-day life, credit crunch, and financial crisis is making many people feel very stressed and so we have created this space to help them relax”, noted Professor Wiseman.

“Research suggests that the subdued green light enhances the production of dopamine in the brain and provide a calming sensation. In addition, the artificial blue sky helps create a mild form of sensory deprivation that will help them turn their attention inward and distract them away from daily stress.”

The Alpha Galileo article has a bunch of tips on busting stress.  Are you stressed out lately?

Inhabitat has a great article about the Dobpler LED Wall, which is a motion-activated LED installation in the pedestrian tunnel in Sandnes Sentrum, Norway.  The installation was a part of the city’s European Capital of Culture 2008 events - The Strømmer, as it is called, is an interactive wall of LEDs that illuminate when a person passes by it, and follows that personas they travel down the wall.  There’s a great video of this on the website of the architect, Snohetta Architects of Norway.

From the Inhabitat article:

The Strømer is the brainchild of Stig Skjelvik and Snøhetta architects in collaboration with Prototyper AS and Rasmus Hildonen. It is based on Stig’s Dobpler prototype, a modular interactive LED system that is activated by movement. When arranged next to each other, the project create a uniform series of modules that illuminate based upon a visual input system. As people move through the tunnel the wall lights up and leaves luminous trails behind them. Needless to say, this is a great way to turn a very, well, pedestrian space into a brand new experience.

Look at some of the images from the installation.  Does that not look like a lot of fun?

Funny enough, after writing the post about Sustainable Dance Clubs, I found an article from Interactive Architecture about the kinetic dance floors used in places like Club Watt and the new place opening up in London (King’s Cross, actually).

The floors are equipped with a spring mount system that operate a piezoelectric block, sending the power to batteries used to power whatever it’s connected to, in this case, the LED dance floor.

In researching about the Sustainable Dance Club concept, I discovered an article by Inhabitat about a series of dance club installations in Germany and Spain called Kubik.  These temporary dance club venues were outdoor installations created by lighting up reclaimed industrial tanks and fusing them into a melding of architecture, music, and lighting.

You definitely need to check out the project pages - Kubik had installations in Berlin, Barcelona, and Lisbon.  These were all “green” (environmentally friendly) and temporary, and apparently a big hit.

Inhabitat has an article about the first Sustainable Dance Club that opened in Rotterdam, called Club Watt.  Club Watt features an LED dance floor that is powered by the kinetic energy the dancers generate, and has other

elements of sustainability set forth by the Sustainable Dance Club group.

How does a dance club become a part of this group?

To qualify as a Sustainable Dance Club™ your club must reach a certain level of sustainability as defined by the 5 SDC™ guidelines:
- 30% less environmental impact than average clubs
- Sustainability integrated in both building and organisation
- Installation of 3 SDC™ spectaculars that show sustainability to the public (Sustainable Dance Floor, Zero Waste Bar, Waterwall)
- Communication plan on how to inform the public about sustainability
- Sustainable business plan with yearly targets and evaluation