Useful items in an Arch. 140 sort of way

General

It's HOT to be GREEN! "Doing good is good business." BP extravagantly rebranding itself as Beyond Petroleum, Home Depot's lumber from renewable sources, and MacDonald-Greenpeace ceasefire? This article looks at some of the myths and realities behind "The Age of Corporate Environmentalism."

Meanwhile, on campus:
     How concerned are UC Berkeley students about climate change?
     By Bonnie Azab Powell, NewsCenter | 31 January 2007

     BERKELEY – As climate change and energy policy move to center stage, we wondered whether the
     group of people most likely to inhabit a warmer Earth were thinking much about it.

     As always, taking the pulse of UC Berkeley students proved eye-opening for many reasons. Five
     of the seven students who said that climate change was not high on their list of worries were
     unwilling to say so on the record. In response to those who consider it a real problem, w
     followed up by asking what — if anything —  they thought should be done about it.
Read the whole article:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/01/31_pov_climate.shtml

Two very nice interviews in the 2002 issues of "Concrete", with Robert Marcial and Ed Arens. Both interviews mention classes or things that we can get all involved in after 140 if we are interested in building science or sustainability.Susan Koskinen's fine research guide for Building Science -- produced in our own Environmental Design Library.

As Resources go, the Square One software products deserve a category of their own. Anchored by the flagship Ecotect program, Andrew Marsh and Caroline Raines have developed a catalog and www site featuring rich graphic tools and explanations that resonate warmly with Arch. 140. The site will reward an investment of browsing time.

Sustainability 

A few websites for general environmental (and sustainable) design news and information - environmental design + construction, building green, and sustainable metropolis. Be critical of what you read though. Sustainability is such a fashionable term today that very often it is (ab)used to describe any and everything that has the slightest semblance to its concept.

NEW! For a sense of how controversial the concept of sustainable architecture can be, see this very thoughtful exchange between Mark Jarzombek (Money, Molecule and Design), Jean Gardner, and Peter Wheelwright.

A great article (link broken, we are looking) from Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), February 2001 issue, that looks critically at the relationships between technology and sustainable architecture.

Energy 

New York Times' article on Alternative Energies businesses attracting new investments.

Check out this really useful website for calculating wall's R value.

Building Nature's Ruin, Spring/Summer 2003 issue of Harvard Design Magazine has a few thought-provoking articles on sustainable design. Richard Ingersoll, a Berkeley graduate and a former 170 GSI, has an especially interesting piece reviewing the recent proliferation of literature on "green" buildings.

Special issues of Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) on Energy and Architecture. There are two issues and they were published in 1977 and 1984. Both issues have very interesting articles related to broad theme of energy and the built environment. Reyner Banham's incisive comments on vernacular architecture is in itself worth the effort to download and read "The Educator's Roundtable."

An article on coal at Energy Biz that relates to some of the energy issues we discussed in lecture 1. This is a good site to learn about larger energy issues.

Solar Geometry

Here is a link to the gallery of homes from the Solar Decathlon this past year. Schools around the country design solar powered homes for the Washington mall. (Q: Why Berkeley isn't involved? A: It costs a lot of money to be involved. Approximately 400,000.)

ATTN: Here are links to the Solar Geometry spreadsheets Cris mentioned in lecture, week #2 and again in week #8.
                   Solar geometry spreadsheet -- monthly summary
                   Solar geometry spreadsheet -- annual summary

Ecotect's Solar Tool, mentioned in lecture, can be reached directly: Ecotect Solar Tool  (it looks like this site is down for refurbishing. Check back later, it is well worth it.)

Yesterday's time lapse movie from the Lawrence Hall of Science. This file is around 30 Mb so be patient during download. It requires a Quicktime player for your platform. Benton collects these days like baseball cards.

Here is a link to the pocket heliodon printouts for various latitudes.

Daylighting