Making Piezoelectricity a Daily Part of Our Lives

May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

An Intriguing Possibility:

 

The eco-efficient technology of piezoelectricity is essentially the concept of capturing the energy of exerted pressure.  The idea of the piezoelectric floor was developed by two MIT students in 2007 and consists of crystal- or ceramic-containing panels that utilize the pressure of footsteps to create charges (a positive charge on the compressed side and a negative one at the expanded side); once the pressure is released, electric energy is created and stored for the energy needs of a building or a public space. 

Piezoelectricity has been used in heavily trafficked areas such as dance clubs and train stations, but to utilize it in any kind of building or public area is rather an intriguing concept. Though, with its high installation costs, it is not an inexpensive tool to implement, I am drawn to the idea of standardizing it in the creation of homes, supermarkets, schools, government buildings, any edifice really. Imagine offsetting the incredible amount of energy that is needed to power the lighting and refrigeration needs of a supermarket simply by the movements of customers and employees. Picture powering school buildings by equipping playgrounds with these panels, helping encourage children’s awareness of the environment and inculcating a sense of responsibility towards it, all while battling childhood obesity through increased activity and fostering the importance of childish exuberance.

However, because this kind of energy depends on an enormous amount of movement (a footstep can only generate enough energy to light 2 60-watt light bulbs for one second), it must be supplemented with other eco-conscious technologies. Since piezoelectric flooring is relatively new (being about five years old), perhaps in time it can be enhanced so that steps create much more power.

For more details on piezoelectric flooring, please visit the following link:
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Tallest Tower, Tower Burbank Earns LEED Operations & Maintenance Gold

April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The largest poured-in-place concrete structure west of the Mississippi River earns Gold!

Burbank, California – Today AEF Consulting, Engineering & Construction, Inc. (AEF) and Tiarna Real Estate Service, Inc. (Tiarna) announce that they have earned the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance Gold (LEED-EB O+M) certification for the Tower Burbank, a 980,000 square foot Class A commercial high rise building located in downtown Burbank.

The Tower Burbank has been aggressive with regards to energy conservation measures, and by winning the prestigious BOMA (Building Owners & Managers Association) Building of the Year award in 2000 and 2010, building ownership felt another way to distinguish their iconic structure was to earn LEED Certification.

AEF was hired to accomplish this task given the company’s strong technical, construction & green building knowledge.  “Tower Burbank management Staff was doing a fine job with regards to energy management, but after our initial LEED-based analysis, we discovered new opportunities that pay ownership back over time”, said AEF CEO, Moe Fakih.

Some of the cost saving measures rolled into the LEED program included:

  • Replacing over 400 garage lights to LED saving approximately $19,500 annually
  • No and low cost measures equaling approximately $49,000 in costs with a first year savings of $71,000, a less than one year payback.
  • Toilet system replacement saving approximately 42% in water use

“We are always looking to reduce operating costs and drive value”, said Greg Pineda, General Manager. “Not only are we saving money, but we have a healthier work environment since we have switched to green janitorial products, and green construction methods.  We like the idea of reusing construction materials because this helps drive down costs.”

Being fiscally and environmentally savvy helps drive value from the pocket book to the plant’s bottom line.

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Chandler City Hall Green Building

February 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With its quartzite-clad facades, crenellated council chamber ceilings and mirrored glass windows, the municipal complex of Chandler City Hall, Arizona, exudes elegance. More importantly, however, it is (on the whole) environmentally conscious as well.

Chandler Arizona City Hall Earns LEED Platinum

Flexibly designed office spaces conveniently accommodate shrinking and growing departments (namely, via a demountable wall system for interior partitions) while sidestepping the need for major construction, which translates into fiscal savings and environmental conservancy. Work areas are sensibly set up near the windows, curtailing the need for electrical lighting during the day (although the lighting itself can be dimmed to 10 percent of full output through photocell control). An intricate and beautifully vibrant shading system harnesses the power of the wind through 1,890 hinged, perforated stainless-steel panels and strategically placed, colorful LED lights, every movement of the wind resulting in a mélange of brilliant color and a naturally cooler indoor climate. The cooling tower’s blow-down water is treated in an eco-friendly and aesthetically graceful manner – a waterfall at the side of the courtyard-facing garage flows down to be treated with ultraviolet light in an underground tank and then distributed to the restrooms and landscaping system. It is a sound method of reusing water, particularly since it is treated without the use of chemicals.

While this complex has utilized environmentally helpful structures and tactics, the difficulty of creating an entirely eco-friendly building is nevertheless still apparent in this project. For instance, though I admire the elegant beauty of the quartzite stone, I am concerned about the possibly detrimental environmental effects of mining it. In addition, while the fact that the civic center is built on a brownfield site is certainly a boon to the environment, yet it is also a possible bane to the health of the center’s occupants and visitors. Though it is fortunate that no greenfield sites were destroyed in building the complex and the brownfield site surely must have been detoxified to some extent, there is the lingering thought that the land was at one time polluted with (I am assuming) industrial chemicals and that a land with that kind of history is bound to affect the physical well-being of those who are habitually near it.

Though the use of exterior lighting (the frosted glass of the council chamber building is back-lit at night) may be counterintuitive for a green building, there is something to be said for the splendor of the lighting and the admiration it inspires. Some couples have actually incorporated the city hall into their wedding pictures, which testifies to the significant role that this building and its luxurious lighting play in the lives of civilians. Nevertheless, the use of such lighting will earn a more conscience-clearing justification once solar panels are installed.

One of the most pleasing aspects of this article is the evidence of a shift in LEED perception – it is now seen as being more, rather than less, economical, than constructing traditional buildings. According to Marian Norris, Assistant City Manager, LEED was chosen for this project since it is perceived as being economically sound and fiscally responsible towards taxpayers. As more city governments adopt this method of thinking, it is to be reasonably hoped that LEED and green building industry standards in general will ultimately become the building industry standard.

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AEF Teams up to Deliver LEED Construction for Schools

November 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
AEF, amongst a number of other companies, is volunteering its time to help retrofit a classroom in Davis Magnet School (located in Costa Mesa, California) as part of an exciting United States Green Building Council (USGBC) Orange County program to create a LEED-like classroom and compare it to a conventional, non-LEED classroom (For more on LEED please visit (United States Green Building Council) . Several key purposes driving this transformation are healthy indoor air quality, mitigation of waste during and after construction, improving the performance of students, and lowered operating expenses. The worthy aim of this project is to provide an excellent example of both “economic and environmental stewardship.”

 

What is unique about this program is that the people who use this classroom (that is, the students and teachers) will actively learn about the metamorphosis that will take place by witnessing it and measuring the environmental ramifications of using a traditional classroom versus a LEED-certified one. That is, it is not an undertaking that is unobtrusively taking place in the background and that can be dismissed as being unrelated and unimportant to the lives of the students and teachers.

 

It is fitting that Davis Magnet is approaching this retrofitting as a scientific experiment, not only since as a school it places a great deal of importance on the scientific method, but also because by doing so it instills an awareness of environmental issues and the methods of sustainable building in the young minds of our future leaders. However, the lesson on the value of sustainable environments is not to be confined to the academic world, but rather to be disseminated to the community at large.

Select this link for more on Davis Magnet School

 

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Article Review: A Building that Rides the Breeze

November 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This article discusses the architectural and design elements that make the aforementioned office building environmentally sensitive while providing a pleasant workspace for the building’s employees.

Education Executive Agency and Tax Offices

Unique shape, like the top of a modern cruise ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I Liked
Duo2, the design and engineering group responsible for the construction of this building, in collaboration with UN Studio, utilized the windy Netherlands locale to its advantage and surrounded each floor of the building’s façade with amazing white aluminum “fins.” I was impressed with what this one panacea-like architectural element can accomplish, addressing environmental concerns while contributing to energy efficiency. These fins help preserve the ecological balance of the neighboring woods by directing the wind over the tree canopy, thus preventing the problems of dry soil, damage to old-growth trees, and disturbed bat habitats. The energy-efficient fins also contribute to shading (keeping the building cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter); daylighting (workers can use less intense overhead lighting due to the reflected light); and ventilation efficiency (I thought it was particularly ingenious of the builders to use adjustable vents to capture the wind flowing off the upper-floor fins and aim it towards the building’s super-heated data center).

What Made it Helpful
The article demonstrated the ways in which a building can be sensitive to both the environment and to the physical and psychological needs of the building’s occupants. The building provides the physical need for clean (so clean, in fact, that it is “hospital-clean”), fresh air and a comfortable indoor climate. The psychological need is addressed by providing a cheerful environment to work in, one that is full of vibrant color, has a fun, quirky design (for instance, the main corridors are easily differentiated by their sizes and fresh air wafts through stylized punch-holes rather than through conventional slatted vents), and connects to the outdoors through big windows affording wonderful, “orienting” city views.

In addition, Duo2 sets the valuable example of reducing unnecessary costs (by decreasing the floor-to-floor height) in order to utilize the savings for useful green design elements, materials and equipment, such as natural heating and cooling wells. I also admired the building’s intelligent, resource-saving use of space; by using the concept of hoteling, 2,500 workstations can support 3,500 employees.

General Thoughts
The building has accomplished a great feat by addressing so many crucial needs, and I particularly admire how it had thoughtfully taken into account the locale’s climate and brilliantly utilized it in an energy-efficient and environmentally helpful manner. This edifice, aptly described as resembling such mighty forces as a whale and a ship, evokes dynamic power and serves as an excellent example of intelligent construction.

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