Filed under: October 30 | Tags: Data Collection - New/Alternative Projects
The Dragspelhuset Accordion House was designed by Maartje Lammers and Boris Zeisser. It is located in southern Sweden in the Glaskogen nature reserve. When designed, it had to completely obey Sweden’s environmental building regulations. The cabin is solar powered and entirely off the grid. Although it is quite strange looking, I find it very interesting. Only 775 square feet, it still manages to provide a comfortable summer getaway, that actually stores inside itself during the winter months. The woods used in its construction were chosen to allow the cabin to blend in to its surrounding and nearly become part of the environment again. If one doesn’t mind seclusion, I think this would be quite the place for a summer vacation.
To read more about this eco-friendly cabin, visit:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/10/31/the-expandable-accordion-house-in-sweden/#more-15495
I wanted to look into one of the sites that David van Vliet introduced in todays lecture, and i chose the Hannover Expo 2000 located in Kronsberg Germany. One aspect of this design that i find very successful is how the new residents are adapting their lifestyles for this space. In the studio input presentation on monday Branda brought up the point that, yes design can suggest a shift to what is desirable, but people must want that lifestyle to make the design successful. This location uses sustainable design practices and many environmentally friendly practices, but also goes beyond the design to educate the residents in order for the facilities to run to their full potential.
“All people moving into Kronsberg received a “Kronsberg-Binder” which is a collection of information relevant to the energy and water saving propgrams, as well as other aspects of local sustainability.”
“All people moving into Kronsberg received money and advice to help them acquire the most energy-efficient lighting and other appliances possible, such as washing machines and refrigerators. To receive the financing, or the energy and water saving devices, residents had to attend a workshop or otherwise become informed.”
Quotes and foundational information taken from http://www.eaue.de/winuwd/191.htm.
Carmine Militano is a great speaker. His lecture was engaging and memorable. A lot of times it is hard to stay attentive during lectures, but his presentation was deffinitly geared towards us. The terms he used were not above and beyond out knowledge, i could understand all the points that he made. He seams very down to earth and aware of the things that are happeneing here and now in design. He introduced a lot of information to us, and he noted during his presentation that a lot of things will be discussed and his hope was that a few things stuck out to us.
The part that most stands out to me is the simple solutions for retaining storm water. I feel that in a lot of lectures we are presented with new innovations, technologies, and practices that should be implimented into design, but my knowledge about what is all required in the basic designing process of a building is so limited that i have nothing to compare with the new sustainable practices. The basic “everyday” solutions presented today are things that i feel i am able to relate to design practices because they are a small step. Bioswales, bioretention, green roof, and storm water planters were some of the ideas introduced, and this is the information that i will remember.
The presentation given by David van Vliet was also very interesting in regards to the different projects he intorduced. I do enjoy seeing the final outcomes of a challenging design, but this was also hard to follow because there were so many things that impacted the design that were vaguely mentioned. Again this is an example of so much knowledge being somewhat introduced but never explained. Maybe it is the intent of these lectures to merely be an introduction that we need to further research. I simply can not research all of these areas, and do not have the access to the design information. I feel i would have been able to learn a lot better if one of
