Less is More, yet More is not Less

Thank you Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe and Robert Venturi, your thoughts combined provide a great guideline.

best result for your dollar, energy efficient windows

Here is my rule of thumb for best result for your dollar, energy efficient windows, for the east coast nsw, hunter valley...

1. Windows to the north should be big, and MUST have a 500mm overhang directly over the WINDOW
they should just be regular glass, single glazing

2. windows to the south and east should be smaller/ less area of glass to wall ratio, and should be "viridian comfort plus" single glazing

3. Windows to the west should be bare minimum opening, if at all. they should also be "comfort plus". Any large windows to the west needed eg. for a bedroom, should have a screen ( eg lattice or battens), set away from the window about 1m or so, so the room does not feel not boarded up, but the screen will cast a shadow over the window when the sun hits the west.


 IMAGE OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S AVERY COONLEY PLAYHOUSE:
one of my favourite windows ever!

4. Double glazing is to keep a house warm in the cold. Not really necessary in this area if the house is well  designed. Yes argon filled double glazing is the best, but so expensive! Instead, spend you money on foil under the roof, R2.5 batts in the ceiling, and R1 with foil in the walls.

5. Still cold? then get into curtains with pelmets for the winter. Curtains are such an under-rated house fashion item... you can wash them and pack them away for summer, (or still use in summer to keep cool- however external blinds are better for this...) and you can change your curtain prints with your fashion tastes!

Sustainable by design- free tools for solar analysis of window shading

I'm looking on-line for a link to my favorite programs, THE SOLAR TOOL , part of the old Ecotect suite. Its great that lots of these old separate building analysis programs are now built into CAD type programs, but that's a bit annoying if you don't want to load up and run a massively complex program and just do a quick test of an overhang in the totally cute SOLAR TOOL. In my search for it in the depths of cyberworld, I found a great site of Christopher Gronbeck, a sustinable architect in USA. He has developed and provides free (or with voluntary donation) a stack of simple analysis tools...and a very Wright-inspired website too! Find it here

 

Made In China

I personally prefer to pay more to buy things ethically produced. I know that workers in AUS, usa, Canada uk etc will get at least reasonable pay, have some kind of workers rights, and standard conditions. When companies claim "made responsibly in china" I some how doubt that. In what way is this so? what are the workers paid ? do they have any workers rights? sick leave? maternity leave? etc. If the companies selling these products made in developing countries, I would rather they described exactly what the workers conditions are, how they can verify this, and how often they check. I like many stores because of their environmental ethic, but personally I am convinced that a social and community ethic is intertwined with environment. And I am prepared to pay more for environmental products, because that is my way of voting with my dollar for a sustainable economy. But I do not want my money to support the business of keeping people in paid poverty.

Cycling in the city

Steven Flemming rides into our work on various bikes all very handsome (the bikes, that is). Maybe in the pursuit of handsome, I have noticed Steven wearing outfits to match his particular bike choice of the day. That would be helpful for me. Today I chose my outfit to match the lovely hand-made felt handbag I got at St. Vinnies. But dressing to match my bicycle...seems more suitably post-consumer!
Steven has written a book which should be very interesting. Have a look below. He needs to get some funds up to support it so if you are a cycle in the city type...you can support it and get your name up there in cyberspace as a cycle-space supporter!

Print out a house

WikiHouse explores the idea of anyone designing a house and printing it out on a giant machine which basically takes a sheet of plywood or MDF(toxic!) and burns out shapes which you then assemble yourself. Kind of like those dinosaur things from (my) childhood, but a real-size building!!

Don't really know how liveable, costly,  long lasting, weatherproof, sustainable, sanitary etc these things would be but its a fun start!

Grow Potatoes on your Lounge

And more community care with food at http://www.apricotcentre.co.uk/category/community/

YUMMO

dream bus journey on vege oil

This cute bus wants to run on recycled vege oil and take its own personal band on a tour and looks like they would like a few coins to help them on their journey. Here is their blurble:

"Los Angeles, CA - Hell&Lula, the commanding electro-dance group from Los Angeles, is doing a PledgeMusic Campaign, with goal of the campaign is to raise enough money to modify their "Cool Bus" (a converted school bus) so that it can run on waste vegetable oil from restaurants instead of diesel fuel. PledgeMusic is an online platform that allows fans to fund creative projects....In addition to being influential in a musical way, Hell&Lula is influential in a social way. Adding to their most recent plan of converting their bus to be more eco-friendly, they have also developed a Recycled Merchandise Program, and have helped spread the message of their friends at Falling Whistles, a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the word about war in the Congo and vying for its peace."

Sounds good. Maybe one day we will see them in reality. To visit them virtually and donate visit here

Vote your best green architecture

Dear everyone,
Are you as fully engaged in other things as I am...too busy to read all the latest goss? how lovely to find on (one of my fave sites...I've said it before!) --INHABITAT -- a shake down of the best 6 green arch stories of the year, nicely presented and ready for you to vote on your fave...

Hobbits will go WILD!

http://inhabitat.com/top-6-green-architecture-stories-of-2010-vote-for-your-favorite/

Stripping and waxing

Naked: The handsome Edo Rocking Chair by Thos. Moser
Ahah!
Now someone would like to know how to stain and finish some furniture, rather than paint.
Well I say....
If you are going to strip paint off, then BioPaints also do a stain and clear finish.
But you could also think about what to do after you have stripped the paint back. The timber might already be a lovely color in which case you can skip the stain. If you want to stain, there are more natural alternatives...like black coffee!!
Then.. do you really need to varnish? You might consider leaving the timber raw.. it has a lovely feel and a bed doesn't get the same workout as, say, a floor or a chair... the parts usually in contact are covered by a mattress!
or what we did on a beautiful 150 year old kauri pine floor, was to sand it, apply a polish made of equal parts of boiled linseed oil (you buy it boiled), turps and vinegar, and then wax it. The result was beautiful and hardwearing.

So my suggestion..
1.Sand back the furniture (do it outside and wear a dusk mask!!)
2. Rub down the wood with turps to clean it up.
3. mix in an old jar equal parts turps, boiled linseed oil and white vinegar, (no need to heat, just put on the lid and shake vigourously) You can also add essential oil for extra yummy smells eg eucalyptus, lemon or lavender.
4. Rub this runny stuff into the furniature. It may make the timber darker. Let it soak in. Do a couple of coats for best effect.
5.The next day you can finish it off with a natural beeswax furniature polish... you can still get it in some shops or on-line or make your own: in an old metal pot break up some natural beeswax, if you want a harder polish add a small portion of Carnauba Wax, say 1 part to 15, pour pure (not mineral) turpentine over the top to cover , then put the whole pot in another pot of water on the stove(ie. make a double boiler). Mix it all together as it melts. Should be the consistency of unrefrigerated butter. Vary the turps to make the consistency.
6. Rub the beeswax polish on and then get a workout by buffing it by hand or find your gandma's old floor polisher to do the big bits!

Non-Toxic Paint

Making your own paint with help from Earth Pigments.


Recently a mother-to-be asked me about what kind of paint she could use in her nursery to paint a baby's cot. I think that everyone, of all ages, should only have to be exposed to non-toxic paint.

Non- toxic paints are not only safe for when a child likes to suck, lick, chew(?) furniture, but also paints generally have substances in them known ans Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's), which release harmful fumes into the air. This is also known as "off gassing". You know that new car smell? Thats a toxic smell of VOC's and breathing them in is bad for you, causing respiratory problems and long term kidney problems. In Europe, most paints containing VOC's have been banned, as they are more advanced in health studies which show breathing in paint fumes (lasting for years after the paint has dried) have long lasting health issues. So of course you don't want a tiny baby exposed to the stuff.

So what to do? Lucky there are lots of good paints now available.
I personally like BioPaint, its one of the better priced non toxic paints (yes these non-toxic points can be more expensive but if you are just painting a cot its OK!) You can get non toxic paint in some eco type shops or on-line at somewhere like:
Colours by Nature
or
The Enviroshop
or
The EcoShop

Most big paint manufacturers also make low VOC paints, just look on the tin in the hardware store... but its what the paint is actually made from which adds to your thinking. The bio and natural paints are usually sourced from natural and not synthetic or chemical ingredients.

If its all to tricky... how about making your own paint! You can make traditional "Milk Paint"-
its just made of milk powder, lime, vinegar and some kind of coloring if you don't want white!
I made it once and it is great... but not smooth like a gloss paint... more textured like a light render. But at least you know what it is made of and its cheap!!!
there is a nice recipe at:
Earth Pigments

Good luck with your painting adventure!!
Jo

Where (near you) to recycle everything - from cans to computers

So exciting! A really super dooper site for Australia!
http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/
Just put in your postcode and the website will tell you everything you need to know about all your local recycling, re-use, hazardous waste collection services! Hooray! They even tell you where to take stuff, where to shop for second hand goods locally, what EXACTLY your council collects... eg: what have you been doing with all of those pesky envolopes with windows? The site tells you if your council recycles them or not.
Hot tip! Don't crush your aluminum cans!

World's 50 "greenest" buildings

Betty from the "Engineering a Better World Blog" let me know about her compilation of a list of the World's 50 Greenest buildings... as based on their LEED (US Green Building Council) certification. As Betty points out, many other buildings may fit this title, but this is a handy method for looking comparatively at green buildings.

How does Australia rate? Betty has 3 Australian office buildings on her list. The Cundall Sydney Office Fitout (St. Leonards) listed at number 9... but its surprisingly under-promoted on the web. So sorry, no images for you...but I did attend a talk by Julian Bott of Cundall at the Centre for Design's Green Building and Design course in 2007.. so maybe I will report back later after a bit of research on this project.


The very well promoted Council House 2, in Melbourne (Image above) (I'm sure I have blabbed on about it before... I do love it so..) is rated at number 31.

You may also heard of "30, The Bond", (Nicely reviewed at Inhabitat) A very clever green office building in Sydney. This is rated at no.41. (image below)

Green office buildings are gaining popularity in Australia, particularly due to the evidence of improved productivity... something every business loves! So we should look forward to some great examples in the future!

Save Energy and Save Money: Latest rebates from the government

I will be running a workshop for Port Stevens Council residents this Saturday on reducing energy use in the home.
Below is an overview of the latest rebates in NSW and Nationally in case you can't attend, or would like some details:
Please note that these change quite regularly so it is best to check for yourself at: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ (NSW) and http://www.livinggreener.gov.au/ (National).

NSW Home Saver Rebates
(for energy...water rebates not detailed here)
These are available for:
Hot water systems- if you swap from electric Hot Water to solar or gas or heat pump = $300 rebate
PLUS: from the federal government, if you swap to solar hot water = $1000 rebate or $800 for a heat pump.
Fridges- cash in your old fridge for $35 (+they collect it for free!) (www.fridgebuyback.com.au)

Solar and Wind Rebates, additional hot water rebates (on top of the others!) and other goodies (RECs):
Depending on the capability of your renewable energy system or hot water system you will be allocated a number of Renewable energy certificates (RECs). You can trade these yourself, but most renewable installers will glean them off you in return for a discount on your purchase.

A Newcastle Company that I recommend for Solar system setups is Solar Online Australia they have a guide to general prices with the RECs rebate shown at http://www.solaronline.com.au/solar_system_pricing

Things to consider with your new renewable energy system..
A very good document has been produced by the clean energy council: called the Consumer guide to solar PV. This tells you just about everything you need to know about buying panels.

-make sure the installer of your solar panels or wind turbine has a Grid-connect Design & Install accreditation from the Clean Energy Council.

- have your system fitted with a gross meter, rather than a net meter, so it is easier to comply with the "gross feed-in tarrif"- see below.

NSW Gross Feed-In Tariff = $$$$$ for you!
This is a very exciting development in the grid-connect solar and wind power world. If you have solar panels or a wind turbine installed on your home and they are connected to the grid (rather than a "stand-alone" system) you can register to be paid 60 cents per kilowatt hour for ALL the electricity you generate. (or 66c from some electricity providers) Not just the energy you don't use, ALL OF THE ENERGY! It does not matter which electricity company you are with. (But you need to have a gross feed in meter and a system smaller than 10kilowatt capacity) This scheme will run until 2017 (although it is due to be reviewed in 2012 or when the total renewable power capacity reaches 50 megawatts).
Helpful practical information on details and actually joining up to this scheme is found on the Climate Action Newcastle website . Don't forget to ring and double check that everything has gone though with your electricity company in a few months time.



These are just some of the MANY current rebates on offer to help you live more sustainably.

The best general website with clear information on all of the above is:
www.livinggreener.gov.au

Green Power Workshop

Green Power

Here are some of the details from my Green Power workshop.

1000 kWh of coal energy= 0.89 tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere

Calculate how much power you use in your home with Origin's

Online solar calculator

Then you will know the basic system size for your needs.

Suppliers for Grid-Connect Solar Electricity at your home:

(Many more suppliers available)

• All Natural Energy: ph: 45788808

• Origin: Ph: 132463.
  

• Solar Online (a Newcastle-based Company) Ph: 4954 3310

Solar Online's prices (current 30/07/10):

Installed Size kWh per day No. of Panels Installed Price Solar Credits (RECS) Discount After Solar Credits (RECS) Discount 1575W 6.3 9 x 175W $9,230 $6,240 $2,990 2100W 8.4 12 x 175W $11,800 $6,680 $5,120 2800W 11.0 16 x 175W $15,270 $7,280 $7,990 3150W 12.8 18 x 175W $16,660 $7,560 $9,100 4200W 17.0 24 x 175W $21,940 $8,440 $13,500 4995W 20.0 27 x 185W $26,430 $9,080 $17,350 6300W 25.5 36 x 175W $34,760 $10,160 $24,600 7350W 30.0 42 x 175W $41,690 $11,040 $30,650 9990W 40.0 54 x 185W $56,210 $13,240 $42,970

The above indicative pricing includes installation in most areas of NSW for most house types. This pricing includes GST. Please contact us for a quote to suit your requirements.

Good Green Power available in NSW:

The following information is provided by the Green electricity Watch, visit their website for more details and to make this chart link further: http://www.greenelectricitywatch.org.au/Normal

Rating	Product	Company	How much of your electricity is green?	Extra Charge per unit of green electricity	Extra cost per week (estimate)
4 star	GreenEarth Solar	Origin	100%	6.1 cents	$8.05
4 star	GreenEarth Wind	Origin	100%	5.5 cents	$7.22
4 star	GreenEarth Wind Offset 100%	Origin	100%	5 cents	$6.57
4 star	Greenchoice 200%	ActewAGL	200%	5.5 cents	$14.45
4 star	Greenchoice 100% WIND	ActewAGL	100%	5.5 cents	$7.22
4 star	Climate Neutral - Emerald	Climate Friendly	100%	4 cents	$5.25
4 star	Greenchoice 20	ActewAGL	107%	5.5 cents	$7.70
4 star	COzero Home 100%	COzero	100%	4.8 cents	$6.02
4 star	PureEnergy Premium	Energy Australia	100%	6.2 cents	$8.38
4 star	PureEnergy 100	Energy Australia	100%	5.4 cents	$7.08
4 star	Greenchoice 15	ActewAGL	80%	5.5 cents	$5.78
4 star	Ark Climate Residential	Ark Climate	100%	4.4 cents	$5.78
4 star	INgreen Pure	Integral	100%	4.4 cents	$5.78
4 star	INgreen Future	Integral	100%	6.6 cents	$8.67

Reducing Power in the home:

• Replace lights with fluorescents or LCD’s
• Turn off stand-by items at the power point
• Turn off appliances when not in use
• Don’t have fridge/freezer so cold; don’t have hot water so hot.
• When buying new items go for highest star rating
• When replacing hot water choose solar or instantaneous gas.
• Adapt your home rather than using air conditioners /heaters

ZELFO Changes

Image from new Zelfo Website.

You may have been interested in the Zelfo product which I raved on about afew years ago, a kind of plant-based plastic. The people of Zelfo are very communicative which I see as a very positive aspect for a developing product! Anyway, I recently recieved the following email from them:
"

Hello Jo

We are the owners of the Trade marked and Patented material Zelfo - as mentioned in your blog article on Zelfo.

Firstly I would like to thank you for running this article and for giving Zelfo a presence on your website.

Zelfo Technology are now concentrating on streamlining the manufacturing aspect of Zelfo and our product emphasis is no longer as shown in your article. From both your and Zelfo Technologys' side I believe it is important that we issue information that is current as it is of no benefit to either side to confuse the market. Therefore as Zelfo Technology are not ready to issue any press text or to show the latest range of Zelfo products, can I please ask that for now you remove all existing materials from your site.

Naturally as and when we are ready to issue any material that is relevant to you we will inform you immediately .

For you information, the microsite http://www.zelfo-technology.com is now live.

Many thanks for your assistance with this matter.

r

Richard Hurding

Zelfo Technology

richard.hurding@zelfo-technology.com

http://www.zelfo-technology.com
"
So we shall wait and see what develops.
Good Luck Zelfo.

Stars in the whitegoods

My friend is making the big investment into a new fridge and asked my advice on low energy options. If you run on solar or other DC -type power, you can purchase a 12 or 24V fridge which connects directly to the DC system... such as Waeco's 212L fridge/freezer... no need to lose all that energy in the inversion to 240V. Or if you are on the grid, then save electricity and money buy getting one with a high star rating. You can compare them on line at the Australian government Energy Labelling Site.

Urban Interventions: creative activation of urban spaces

Well if you loved our bus shelter and all other wonderful city installations that popped up and then away in Newcastle back in 2008, then get your inky fingers ready to play in the city again!

23rd to 27th Feb 2010, City Switch will happen in Newcastle, Australia.

Bringing Architects, artists and activists from Japan to Newi, City Switch will be several days of fascinating guest lectures, four days of intensive workshops for ANYONE who wants to join in and work with a group to create a city installation, then the 27th the works will be installed in the city!

"The CitySwitch Lab transfers people between cities to collaborate on the creative activation of urban spaces." so says the CitySwitch website

This week of fun in the inner city of Newcastle is connected to the lovely ReNew Newcastle initiaitve.

Fractal Furniture

I am currently wrtiting papers about fractals and architecture thus I came upon this delicious table, which is a proper geometric mathematical fractal in 3D form. Cool.


The design is by WertelOberfell in Belgium, who say:
"Fractal Table is a table which derives from studies into fractal growth patterns. Treelike stems grow into smaller branches until they get very dense towards the top. Fractal Table, developed by Platform Wertel Oberfell together with Matthias Bär, is impossible to manufacture unless rapid prototyped.The table is a single piece SLA made in epoxy resin."



and I found the bait on MoCo LoCo , a The Modern Design And Architecture Web Magazine from Taiwan.. and from my short stay in Taiwan and poke around at the Yun Lin design school, there is some fun and very clever design coming out of Taiwan too!