Recycled polymer architectural brick: EcoARK

The creative minds at miniWIZ recently debuted the POLLI-Brick, a recycled polymer bottle that can be interlocked to build an incredible array of structures. Made from recycled PET bottles, the lightweight bricks offer excellent acoustic and thermal insulation and can build anything from fences and roofs to pots for plants, skylights and beautiful walls of light.
POLLI-Bricks possess incredible thermal and sound insulating characteristics in addition to an awesome strength to weight ratio, which should make them a hit with architects and builders alike. While you can’t yet get these at your local building supply mega-store, the economy, versatility and structural potential of the POLLI-Brick may just be what a struggling building market needs.
Now a Taiwan company has built a three-level exhibition hall -- EcoARK -- using about 1.5 million plastic bottles. According to Reuters, the building was commissioned by Far Eastern Group and will be donated to city government in Taipei. But what's really interesting is the fact that the objects used for the facade are more than simple plastic waste bottles. The product being used here is called Polli-Brick from Hymini.
Polli-Brick is made with recycled PET bottles -- kind of like with the 111 Navy Chair -- to create an interlocking shape that's light weight and structural at the same time. When connected, Polli-Brick almost looks like a honeycomb.
The architectural blocks are translucent and allow natural light to filter through the material. As used in the new EcoARK, the curtain wall is said to be able to withstand typhoons and earthquakes, according to The China Post.
The China Post also said EcoARK is "the world's lightest, movable, breathable environmental miracle ... it can be taken apart and reassembled at another site after the exposition." Sounds interesting ...

http://inhabitat.com/2009/01/15/polli-bricks-by-miniwiz/
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2009/01/solarbulb.php
http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/04/interlocking-polli-brick-used-for-ecoark.html
http://inhabitat.com/2010/04/14/ecoark-pavilion-made-from-1-5-million-plastic-bottles/
http://www.miniwiz.com/

more and more pallets #architecture

Pallets are cheap and ubiquitous, with over two billion in circulation around the world, which explains the remarkable resurrection of “ Palletecture projects” lately. The unexpected modular reuse of everyday materials is nothing new in architecture—seemingly every term in architecture school brings with it experiments in the tiling of things like cable ties, styrofoam cups, plastic water bottles, and so on—but the spatially dramatic effects of this particular experiment in large-scale, off-kilter pallet-stacking are worth seeing. In fact, a kind of micro-village of equally fluid forms built entirely from pallets would be fascinating to see…
Architects and designers have been having their way with them, building theaters, refugee housing , art and architecture...

'Pallet house' was designed by Schnetzer Andreas Claus and Pils Gregor, students from the university of vienna. made out of reused pallets it is modular, energy efficient and affordable making it good for low income housing.
Back in 2008 they won the Gaudi European Student Competition, for their design, which was seeking designs for minimal houses of leisure for the XXI century on sustainable architecture. Since then they have exhibited in numerous cities in europe including Venice, Vienna, Linz and Grenoble.

http://www.palettenhaus.com/#
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9690/pallet-house.html


Denis Francois Oudendijk collaborates with Jan Korbes, a self proclamed purveyor of Garbage Architecture, and usually uses reclaimed materials for small or medium size architectural and design projects.
Its variety of work leads up with urban context and day-by-day life, giving a weird vision, well integrated in an actual context where needs are approached with creativity and quickness.
He choosed pallets to design this 150 people theater in Amsterdam.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/theater-made-from-recycled-pallets.php
http://wrongdistance.com/?p=2050
http://www.vlnr.info/html/n-projecten.html


[Image: photographed/copyright by Mila Hacke, Berlin].

The Palettenpavillon by Matthias Loebermann is a structure made entirely from shipping pallets, ground anchors, and tie rods. Designed to be easily assembled and dismantled, and then entirely recycled at a later date, the resulting building is intended as a temporary meeting place pavilion for the World Ski Championships in 2005.
As the architect writes, the 1300 shipping pallets are "characterized by a complex geometry of open and closed surface portions," with the effect that a staggered stacking of each unit produces "interesting netlike structures." They add that the deceptively curvilinear form becomes a "cave."

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/pallet-house.html
http://www.aml-partner.de/palettenpavillon-bilder.htm

more and more pallets #furniture

Revale is a project by Brazilian studio Design Simples, aimed to improve the work and life of the Unindo Forças woodwork cooperative in Vale do Sol (Barueri, Sao Paulo).With the idea to provide the conditions for the cooperative to compete with higher quality goods, the studio designed these stunning pieces of furniture with the material the group uses for its work: recycled pallets.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/sleek-recycled-pallets-furniture-to-improve-work-of-cooperative-in-brazil.php


Nina Tolstrup of Studio Mama is a London designer who created the Pallet Chair. Based on budget constrictions and found materials, her design fashions a used pallet into a lovely and more modern version of the comfy adirondack chair.
Pallets are the new new and for good reason: they are sustainable, recycled, and make use of discarded packaging. The interesting part of these very basic but serviceable chairs is that they can be ordered online for a mere £10 ( $US 15) and the instructions downloaded. In addition, unemployed workers in a slum of Buenos Aires are making them in a furniture co-operative.

http://www.studiomama.com/


Homeless Chateau, 2008, is a prefab one person living module, measuring approximately 4 x 8 x 4 feet and made from FSC certified and recycled materials. It is designed to be used inside another building, such as a warehouse, and is fully self-contained, including a bed and cooking and toilet facilities. There are hooks for clothing and towels, and a built-in shelf unit, made from a pallet, for storage of food, books and other items. A rubber flap over the entrance provides privacy, and one end of the structure is made from translucent polyurethane to let in natural light.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/homeless-chateau.php


Swiss designer Sibylle Stoeckl has come up with a new way to repurpose old and discarded wood pallets. In a series called Le Cageot, Stoeckl takes standard crates and turns them into modular pieces which can be combined and stacked into a variety of shapes and sizes. The unfinished wood also makes an ideal canvas for a little bit of color and creativity, and the raw yet refined look will provide the perfect compliment to any room.

http://www.sibyllestoeckli.com/s/
http://inhabitat.com/2010/02/24/wood-pallets-repurposed-into-modular-furniture/



http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/pallets-for-people.php
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/recycling-pallets-into-art-and-architecture.php

Watertower in Sudan by H3AR architects

The conflict over water and land in Sudan has created political unrest for decades. However, in 2007, scientists from Boston university discovered and underground lake in the region of Darfur, Sudan. This lake is tenth biggest lake in the world (31, 000 m2) and would have great potential in resolving the conflict if managed correctly.
Addressing this water issue, polish firm H3AR architect and design recently proposed a building that allows access to underground waters through the application of water pumps.This building is meant to provoke economical development but also stimulate cultural exchange and the coexistence of the three different religions and languages in Sudan.
The building walls are constructed using compressed dry stacked clay bricks, made on site using a rough mixture of earth, cement and water. The bricks would be baked in the hot sun, thus, requiring no extra energy and limiting the environmental impact of the materials.
The choice of using this technology represents the desire to introduce alternative and sustainable technologies within a context that is tied to stardardized though not always optimal building practice.




For a similar theme, this time dedicated to western countries, Ryszard Rychlicki and Agnieszka Nowak of H3AR received a special mention for their proposal for eVolo Skyscraper competition 2010.
The façade of the tower consists in a systems of gutters, focused at shaping and modeling the surface of the roof to capture as much rainfall as possible flowing down the building to meet the daily needs of its inhabitants. Average daily consumption of water per person is 150 liters, out of which 85 liters may be replaced by rain water. Within the last thirty years water consumption has significantly increased in the developed countries.
Under a roof’s surface, there are water reservoirs in the form of a large funnel and reed fields, which serve as a hydro botanic water treatment unit. The unit processes water into usable water that is further transmitted to apartments.
After seeing the two projects I ask myself if it’s possible to adjust this idea to Africa or countries in need in a correct mix of utility and possibility. Can small devices be projected with the aim of collecting water in an efficient way? Can them be realized with cheap material by the population and work? We’ll try later…


http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9406/hugon-kowalski-watertower-skyscraper.html
http://www.h3ar.pl/

http://www.existingvisual.com/2010/03/12/rain-collector-skyscraper-evolo-skyscraper-competition-2010-ryszard-rychlicki-agnieszka-nowak-of-h3ar/

Rammed earth stoves in Rwanda

The Mud Stove originated at GAKO in Rwanda. It provides a means of cooking with 2 pots on one fire, much more efficient and safer than the normal ‘3 stones’ that so many people use because the fire is contained and controlled. It is also healthier as the smoke can exit through a hole in the wall. However, as it is made from wet mud, it is slow and laborious to construct, taking up to one week to finish.At EAT, we took GAKO’s basic concept and adapted it to Rammed Earth (RE) construction. With our sturdy wooden mould, 2 people can make a stove in under 2 hours. Being compacted, the earth is unlikely to crack and, being moulded, consistent stoves can be made every time. The RE stove was Improved and then Further Improved giving rise to the name F.I.R.E.S. : Further Improved Rammed Earth Stoves.Making the moulds provides work for local carpenters; making stoves can be a trade for someone otherwise without work, and the finished stoves are very popular, making the kitchen virtually smoke-free and so much safer.

download the earth stove plan

download the solar cooker plan

http://www.eastafricatrust.org.uk/page3.html

http://rammedearth.blogspot.com/2010/03/rammed-earth-stoves-in-malawi.html

http://www.eartharchitecture.org/index.php?/archives/1072-Rammed-Earth-Stove.html

Combining technologies

The Jahili Fort located in the modern-day centre of the city is the largest of Al Ain’s forts. Built in the 19th century by Sheikh Zayed the First, it can be seen from the Al Ain oasis to the west of the city. With its distinct three-tiered profile, the fort is now a national monument, pictured on the 50 Dirham note and often used as a logo or model for new architecture. The old fort was erected at the end of the 19th century.
The fort was recently restored by Roswag & Jankowski Architekten, Berlin.The interior surfaces remain true to the historical appearance. The ceiling consists of palm rafters and palm leaves. A local clay plaster has been used for the interior wall surfaces. In the exhibition areas a grey coloured fine clay finishing plaster made by Claytec was used to create a neutral background for the exhibition spaces. The floors likewise follow historical precedence and are made of rammed earth stabilised with a wax to cope with greater wear and tear.
All new insertions such as doors and furniture, made of corian or wood composite, are coloured white differentiating them from the surrounding building. The external render of the existing walls was examined and repaired where necessary. Previous renovation works had employed a non-traditional plaster with added gypsum for the crenelations. This plaster is too rigid and already exhibited defects; it was replaced with a clay plaster. The building was then given an overall finishing coat of clay plaster. The earth plaster is maintained at regular intervals as is traditional with this historical material. When used as an external render, clay plaster should be regarded as a weathering surface that needs ongoing maintenance, typically every two years, sometimes after sustained periods of heavy rain. Sandstorms are also a cause of erosion.The 90 cm thick external earth walls offer excellent thermal insulation. The additional insulation on the roof improves still further the indoor room temperature and together with the solar protection windows on the façade provide effective protection against the extreme heat outdoors. The building is kept at a constant 24°C using a water-based cooling system integrated into the plaster layer of the walls. This minimizes the need for additional air cooling so that only fresh air is required. The cool indoor temperature of the walls and the reduced need for cold air makes the indoor climate more comfortable and reduces the energy consumption. An actual room temperature of 24°C equates to a felt room temperature of 22°C. The plant and technical installations for the entire fort are located below ground in the buffer zone.
The construction is made of traditionally available building materials including earth, palm products and to a lesser degree also timber. The quartered palm trunks can span a room of about 2.70 m and dictate the strongly partitioned structure of the historic buildings. The walls consist of air-dried earth blocks which can be built directly on the sandy ground without the need for foundations. A matting made of palm fronds covered with earth is laid on rafters made of split and quartered palm trunks arranged at an incline. The small amount of timber available was used for the door and window frames

http://www.zrs-berlin.de/daten/inhalt/menue_02/02_p_architektur/p_architektur_01.html
http://www.eartharchitecture.org/index.php?/archives/1013-Jahili-Fort-in-Al-Ain-Abu-Dhabi.html
http://www.architekturclips.de/webseiten/filme/a_neun/aljahili/al_jahili_kurz.html

Annie Leonard#01 - The Story of Stuff International

Since The Story of Stuff was launched online on December 4, 2007, the site has been visited by millions of people in over 224 countries and territories around the world, and we have received literally thousands of requests for the film to be translated. We are pleased to launch this international site, which includes translated versions of the films with subtitles, as well as the contact information for the organizations around the world that did the translations.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/international/
http://www.storyofstuff.com/international/pdfs/script_english_annotated.pdf