Plumen 001

Although it may sound like some kind of chemical compound used to "get rid" of foreign secret agents, the Plumen 001 is in fact a lightblub. I have come across this deisgn in several places now, namely on the Dezeen website, at EcoBuild and at the Deign Museum, along with in several design magazines. It's what environmentalists have been eagerly awaiting - a clean redesign of the energy efficient light bulb. We openly welcome you to our homes, Plumen 001!

There is a small issue with this though, and that is the small fortune you may have to part with to light your home with these. At a painful £19.95 each, the price is sure to be an issue for mainstream consumers. Although efficiency is something we must concern ourselves with due to the environment becoming an ever more important factor in our daily lives, the current (and often dreaded) energy efficient light bulb does leave a lot to be desired - so it seems Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson (the brains behind the Plumen 001) may have cracked onto something here, especially given that the UK have relatively recently introduced the EU ban on importing high energy filament bulbs. I guess rival designers will soon pounce on this nice little niche in the market, and come up with their own solutions to the energy efficent lightbulb - which should eventually drive prices down.

Taken at the Design Museum, March 2011

So, it would seem this is at least a step in the right direction. Yay for green design! I just now need to justify to myself why £19.95 is a reasonable price to pay for a lightbulb. Damn it.

Nicoll Russell Studios

Nicoll Russell Studios are an architecture and interior design firm based in Broughty Ferry, on the outskirts of Dundee. They have had many successful projects, including The Dundee Rep Theatre, several Dundee University buildings, contemporary private homes, The Scottish Dance Theatre in Dundee and Dundee Sheriff Court, along with many other builds.

Garry Farquharson who is an architect for Nicoll Russell Studios, kindly gave us his time last week for a workshop, in which he took us through the building process. This included explaining site analysis of one of their recent sustainable builds in the Dundee area - the Hillcrest HQ. He said they had been lucky to get such a forward thinking client, as when designers mention the horrid "S" word of sustainability, a lot of clients recoil in confused disgust. He went on to tell us that usually you have to be tactful in the way you approach eco building, but with Hillcrest, they wanted to be as green as possible.

artists impression of the Hillcrest HQ
source: nrsarchitects.com

I learnt quite a lot from him, particularly about how a real project can go. I was interested to find out more about geothermal cooling systems, and about on site generation of electricity - something they used for the Hillcrest HQ, which meant enough electricity was generated to sell back to the national grid.

The relationship between your own project and the surrounding land is something that he spoke to us quite in depth, and made me consider this further for our current project. While designing the Hillcrest HQ there was another on-going build on the same piece of land, so the two firms worked closely to ensure both builds would work together. Although this is not quite the same situation for my hypothetical build, it is a site that has a close relationship to the surrounding buildings - particularly the football stadium. I added a psychological aspect into my site analysis to cover what effects the surrounding buildings in the relatively close proximity would have on such a space.

He also mentioned the cradle to cradle theory, as opposed to cradle to grave - which is a book I have been meaning to read for a while, despite buying it a ages ago.

I think I've just found my reading material for the train on Monday!

EcoBuild: One week until LDN

Well, I have had my confirmation email, assuring me my pass for EcoBuild 2011 is on it's way!

To those who are reading this and are not in the sustainable industry, I am not surprised if you are moving your cursor to exit this post now - but don't.

Everybody is in the sustainable industry. Do you eat? Do you heat your home? Do you travel by any means other than walking or cycling? I'm going to put all my money on your answer being yes.

Without sounding like a Green Peace volunteer that chases you down the street asking for phone numbers and email addresses - protecting and reviving the environment is something we should all concern ourselves with. People seem to think (or tell themselves to ease the guilt) that it won't affect them in their life time, so why bother. It's too much of an irritation to their daily life to consider recycling that sandwich carton, or not take the plastic carrier bag for their meal deal at lunch.

Well, without harping on - it will. I try never to use plastic bags, either just using that age old technique of carrying the one item you have purchased by hand, or using reusable jute bags. It's so easy to incorporate into your lives, and, if everyone was to do this also - would make a difference. I posted a video a few weeks ago about turning off computers - something that seems to trivial and tiny, but, on mass makes an astounding difference.

EcoBuild 2010

Well, why am I going on about saving the rain forests and being green? Aside from it being a personal interest - next week is EcoBuild in London - an annual conference in which thousands of people from various industries gather to educate and promote sustainable products. It's a fantastic opportunity for us young student designers to gain knowledge about products covering a vast array of topics, including contraction materials, surface finishes, techniques, and services that are all from a sustainable background - and the best part is, it's free to attend!

There are also various speeches given throughout the 3 day event (Tues 1st March - 3rd March 2011) including several familiar names - one household name this year being Kevin McCloud - although I personally am not a fan.

This will be the second time I myself will be attending, although hopefully this year without the mix up of passes there was during 2010's event - to which we waiting in a line longer than the average street.

I will post my findings after my visit - along with any other worth while things I encounter during my visit to London.

EcoOffice: Materials Documents

Below are a few of the pages from the pdf I am currently putting together, documenting all the materials I plan to use throughout my building renovation. It will read as somewhat of a brochure that has been specifically put together with this building in mind, and include as many sustainable products as possible.

I plan on gaining most of my knowledge base for this aspect of the project from EcoBuild at the end of the month, which is held annually in London.  As I develop these ideas, I will add the relevant pages as and when they are created. 

EcoOffice: Location, Location, Location!

Here are a few photographs I took when we visited the site for our current project last Thursday. It's quite big but due to it currently acting as a storage space, it is difficult to visualise the full space that would be available to us. At the moment I am considering keeping as much of the original features as possible - mainly the partial floor to the right and perhaps the windows on the roof, although I am also considering a green roof. 

The owner of the building also kindly offered to give us access again in the future if needs be, which may be helpful once we have developed our designs further and need to perhaps go back to check specific things.

EcoOffice: Not A Home Afterall!

On Tuesday we presented our findings in our designated groups on our topic we were issued; we were given "green design".

After that, we were issued our briefs commencing from then until 1st April. Instead of what we assumed would be renovating a pre-existing site into an sustainable home, we have been given the similar task of designing a sustainable autonomous office in an existing industrial style building on Tannadice Street, Dundee.

Within this we must create: an entrance and reception, a waiting area, offices housing space for 24 employees, CEO office, 4 manager's offices, a cafeteria, toilets, 2 meeting rooms, a research lab for 4 employees, a library and "quiet space", storage facility and cleaning stores. 

We must concern ourselves with trying to maintain sustainability throughout. I intend to aim for LEED standards, and as autonomous as possible. Thankfully there is no budget to concern ourselves with!

I also intend to try to aim to increase employee eco awareness, and thus not only reduce the emissions of the building on it's own, but also the personal emissions of the employees. The office is hypothetically to be housed by SEPA, so aiming for 100% zero emissions of the building and employees is essential. I have created a few mind maps which I will add once I scan them.

Here is my preliminary research (A1):

On 1st of March EcoBuild will be held in London for three days, to which me and a few classmates will be attending, gaining invaluable knowledge in the eco building materials world. Unfortunately this means a lot of flyer collecting - which is not too environmentally friendly. Whoops!

EcoHouse: Go Green!

By not driving, and turning electrical items off properly rather than leaving them on standby, I have reduced my footprint below the UK average. It feels good! 

Currently we are researching in small groups, as a small mini project before beginning "EcoHouse". I took a short test to see my Carbon Footprint, which you can take on The Guardian's website.

We are in the middle of creating a presentation, trying to condense the term "green design" into a concise definition - something that sounds simple but is quite complex once you start digging into the terms sustainability, eco-friendly, zero emissions, and carbon neutral etc. 

I used my new app "MindNode" to clean up our mind maps, which if anything, show how exponential it can get. I hope to post our final definition on Monday, as presentations will be held on Tuesday. 

There is more to be added - we broke it down into the following: architecture, energy, interiors, product design, furniture, health and materials - which have been delegated amongst us to research further over the weekend. I will be looking at architecture and energy.

Ding Dong, My Books Are Here!

Malcolm Gladwell - Genius! (In my metaphorical book, anyway)

Well, I have been having a busy week indeed. 

Several things seem to have been slowed up by what appears to be almost no snow, but alas there is not much I can do about it. 

a book aiming to convince industry
to convert to an eco alternative 

Included in the slowed progress was the delivery of several items I bought online - 5 of which were books for class. We were required to purchase Snoop by Sam Gosling, Change By Design by Tim Brown, and The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam, the latter of which was an optional read. I also ordered Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart and William McDonough, and another Malcolm Gladwell book - entitled Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Finally the remaining 4 were delivered today, awakening me from my deep slumber after a hard shift on the bar in our Student's Union. God, do students make a mess/drink a lot/are generally unpleasant! But, I must not wallow in self pity - I have books to read and things to do.

Aside from trying to keep on top of class related things, I have received permission from my landlord to paint/decorate my flat - what a silly, silly, thing to allow me to do! They will regret this I'm sure. I enlisted the help of Kirsty, a jewellery student, on the promise of pizza and a pint after work (the aforementioned hell hole of endless intoxicated students). 
Currently, I am sitting writing this post while looking at a wall that calls itself "Intensely Olive". It's not as bad as it sounds, I swear. The hall however, is purple. And when I say purple I don't mean lilac, or like purple heather, it's purple. E4 purple. Barney purple. PURPLE PURPLE, and I love it! 

In the purple hall, there will be baroque style frames all along the wall, finishing it off nicely, I hope. Finally, a house that's exactly how I want it. Not a grubby student flat, no dishes piled up and pizza boxes, no unclaimed socks in the living room, no mess, and no non-matching furniture. I may sound like a freak, but I have waited so long for this! 

I am nothing short of a real Monica Geller. And, in true Monica style, my work is never complete, so I am off to my Cath Kidston themed bathroom to continue painting! Concrete grey is next on my list for the kitchen, and lastly "Palm Springs" as a feature wall in my bedroom - that's just a fancy title for turquoise. 

All the above has just made me realise that when I read Snoop, I'm sure I will discover something about myself - as it's about as the name suggests, snooping around peoples houses to determine things about them! 

maybe it was Amazonian kittykats that caused teh book delays?