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Solar Decathlon Europe / Part 1

September 20, 2012
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The renewable energy sector officially lives in a time warp. The second edition of the European Solar Decathlon, on show in Madrid, features 19 energy efficient houses that generate their own power. Disappointing though that they do so with superseded technologies. The competition, however, is a great initiative for raising awareness on the need to consume less natural resources and reduce waste generation, and the houses, designed by universities from around the globe, are a good example of efficient design.

What would I have expected? I guess to find examples of truly efficient electricity generation. Solar power is fine but we know it has a very low efficiency rate -10%- and there is a lack of facilities to store it, that's why it has to go hand in hand with the traditional power grid. Not really a breakthrough. I would have loved to see electricity being generated from electromagnetic radiation or via nano materials for instance. A type of energy that is easier to generate and can exist without the grid. There are plenty of institutes and independent researchers exploring the matter and achieving excellent results. Regarding new building materials, what about "atomic" ones such as graphene-based structures, metabolic materials or printed ones? Aren't these more XXI century than timber, paper or glass?

 Back to the Villa Solar in Madrid where the Solar Decathlon competition is taking place, the 19 houses are being monitored and will get a score on 10 aspects, ranging from energy efficiency to innovation and functionality. 

 The Counter Entropy House from the RWTH Aachen is a project that stands out despite its conservative looks. It has an open floor plan enclosed by cores and a retractable glazing. The oversailing roof carries a curtain to the South and West edges. At the time of my visit the glazing was open and the curtain semi-closed and this created a lovely breeze and shade inside the house. The house is partly made with reused materials: the cladding panels are de-coated and melted CDs, the lamps are bicycle wheels wrapped with tracing paper and the furniture is made with cutouts from timber boards held together with a film. The house control panel, developed by one of the students, gets projected on a table surface. A sensor opposite the user recognizes the commands in the arm movements going towards the projected buttons. The system works with the user's arm movements not with the projection on the table, which has no other function than to help the user memorize the movements.
Counter Entropy House
Counter Entropy House: facade panel made with melted CDs
Counter Entropy House: lamp projecting house control panel on the table below
Counter Entropy House: house control panel projected on table surface and monitored by hand movements
  
The Para Eco-House by the Chinese Tongji University is a small compact volume protected by an outer lattice skin. The house is mainly made with bamboo, uses vacuum insulated panels (VIP) for the walls and has a mist spray system in the terrace. Possibly its most interesting feature is the Western outer wall: a web of differently-sized openings filled with plants and solar cells.


Para Eco-House West wall
Para Eco-House inner West wall
Para Eco-House outer West Wall PV panel

ECO House by the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Spain is a simple construction with great features. It is a lightweight structure clad with corrugated plastic. The rooms are independent timber cubes with exposed plugged-in services. The house uses different types of water: regular tap water, rain and on-site treated grey water. The user decides, depending on function, which one to use. The air cooling is equally interesting. Cold air is pumped from an outdoor, insulated box full with gravel. The box lid opens at night until the gravel cools down, then closes to preserve the low temperature. Sadly, the ventilation system seemed undersized since despite high ceilings and roof opening vents, the temperature in the house was uncomfortably high. Possibly the corrugated plastic skin wasn't helping. 
 Eco House water treatment plant
Eco House interior
Eco House water connection types to the bathroom
Eco House: cooling system with gravel

I got excited to see a rice paddy in front of the Omotenasi House by the Japanese Chiba University and assumed that it was irrigated with grey water but it wasn't. Still, a great idea to grow your own food at home. In this regard, the house has also cultivation screens and a plant factory that uses fiber optics for rapid plant growth. The traditional-looking roof is made with photovoltaic tiles and produces 1.7 times more electricity than a regular PV system. The dark panels in front of the house are for water heating.



The Odoo House by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics has the most striking outdoor space. Allegedly based on Hungarian traditions, the East-West oriented open space is enclosed to the South by a "summer wall"  that includes an outdoor kitchen and a furniture storage that turns into a lounging area. The wall is clad with PV panels to its South face.
Odoo House: Summer Wall South face PV panels
Odoo House: Summer Wall inner face with outdoor kitchen

Other projects include the Canopea House from the Ecole National Supérieure d'Architecture de Grenoble, France.



CEM' House (Casas em Movimento) by the Universidade do Porto, Portugal.


Fold House, Technical University of Denmark.


Ekihouse by the Universidad del País Vasco, Spain.


Check the following post Solar Decathlon Europe / Part 2 to learn about the winners.


About
Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 #sde12 / Madrid, 14 - 30 September 2012

Counter Entropy House by the RWTH Aachen / Germany
Area:    49.1 m2
Est. energy production:     8,886.6 kWh / year
Est. energy consumption:  6,365 kWh / y
Est. cost:  €542,000

Para Eco-House by the Tongji University / China
Area:    128 m2
Est. energy production:   15,857 kWh / year
Est. energy consumption:  4,273 kWh / y
Est. cost:  €287,000

(E)CO House by Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya / Spain
Area:    150 m2
Est. energy production:     5,900 kWh / year
Est. energy consumption:  4,222 kWh / y
Est. cost:  €150,000

Omotenashi House by the Chiba University / Japan
Area:    54.38 m2
Est. energy production:   13,374 kWh / year
Est. energy consumption:  8,302 kWh / y
Est. cost:  €500,000

Photos by PS

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Milan Design Week 2012

May 23, 2012
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The 2012 edition of the Milan Design Week has seen a shift in the manufacturing processes. 3D printing, open-source software and crowd-funding are emerging as alternatives to traditional furniture production. There were beautiful 3D printed designs and DIY machines that could morph soft materials into improbable shapes. More on this in my Milan Furniture Fair Coverage for Inhabitat.com at the bottom of this page.


Vitra at the Salone. 



Via Tortona, Established & Sons


Via Tortona, Heineken Club


Wonderful spaces



3D printing





The Salone



Ventura Lambrate





 About
51st Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan 17-22 April 2012 | #SaloneDelMobile

2012 Milan Furniture Fair Coverage for Inhabitat, by PS

Pictures by PS

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ARCOmadrid 2012 & 2013 Prospect

February 24, 2012
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Nuria Mora for El País



Lighthearted, colourful and fresh. ARCO 2012 has been a delightful edition with more galleries than last year and mainly recent works.

This makes you wonder about two things: the current state of the art market and the profile of the target buyer. Galleries loaded with new works from youngish artists means to me sold-out stocks and high sales expectancy. And this can only translate as art market doing well. The target buyer was presumably international since the art works were too new (read risky) for the generally conservative local collector. Proof of this is that interesting young Spanish artists have been brought by non-Spanish galleries.

Very conspicuous at this ARCO edition has been the role of architects, cities and even architecture. Firstly, there were many trained or self-proclaimed architects among the artists (Tomás Saraceno, Ai Weiwei, José Dávila...) and supporters (see video of Norman Foster below). Then, the trending topic seemed to turn around buildings and coloured shapes, not so much so around a social message. Perhaps the life-size sculpture of General Franco in a Cola fridge was meant to be the exception... but no one perceived it as such.

The most interesting spaces for different reasons were El País and Ivorypress. El País has chosen this year to explore the Spanish street art and has invited Nuria Mora, 3ttman and Suso33 among others to perform site installations. The result was a colourful and lively space, more sensual than intellectual and very distanced from the sarcasm generally used by street art elsewhere.

Papiroflexia by Nuria Mora, 3TTMAN and Trojan TV Wall by Suso33

Ivorypress, the gallery owned by Norman Foster's wife Elena Ochoa and at Arco for the first time, has set a wonderfully different tone. It has brought amazing names (Anish Kapoor, Anthony Caro, Ai Weiwei...) and obviously great works. Possibly the most distinguished work was "Cuarteto Rebelde" a bespoke piece by Los Carpinteros, the Cuban art collective with studio in Madrid next door to Ivorypress. The most striking work for me though was a 2011 video installation by Michal Rovner. Sadly, no pictures.

Pillars, 2006 by Ai Weiwei. Work behind by Pedro Cabrita Reis

This is what I meant by the conspicuous role of architects, cities and architecture...

2011 by Tomás Saraceno
Philip Johnson Glass House, 2009 by James Welling
Lost Year's Words, 2011 by Raúl Hevia
Aerial, 2011 by Sachigusa Yasuda

Interesting the project Desert Cities (2007-09) by Aglaia Konrad. An exploration of city growth in Egypt.






The colourful part

Kuckei+Kuckei Gallery

Bärbel Grässlin & Heinrich Ehrhardt Galleries

Great works at Project B Gallery, Milan: Dionisio González (also at Ivorypress), Giada Ripa and Greta Alfaro.

Fall on us, 2011 by Greta Alfaro


Fall On Us, And Hide Us (excerpt) from greta alfaro on Vimeo.

Cinthya Soto for Galeria Des Pacio, Costa Rica.



Secundino Hernández widely represented at Arco. Below Wimbledon, 2011


Same for Juán Asensio. Below Untitled, 2012, for Galeria Elvira González.


Untitled, 2011 by Julian Schnabel at Galeria Soledad Lorenzo.



Installation by YlvaOgland. Hoet-Bekaert Gallery.


   
And a tribute by Galerie Lelong to the great Antoni Tapies who passed away a few weeks ago. Jannis Kounellis in the background.



ArcoKids has been a first time initiative in collaboration with the Pequeño Deseo Foundation. A space where groups of kids have created a joint work under the guidance of artists.
   
Picture by Alda Rojo  

Suggestions for Next Edition
ARCO director Carlos Urroz has done a superb job in turning ARCO into a fun and lively event. The lightness of this year's edition felt just about right as a counter-balance to the gloomy scenario out there. But you wonder if this complacent art can hold in the long run. With 23% unemployment and 22% of the population living below the poverty line, Spain is on the verge of collapse. It would be responsible, nonetheless empathetic, to pick up on this. And not merely to document it but to interact with reality possibly by giving individuals a voice. As Glenn Lowry, director of MoMA, quotes: "The current social circumstances dictate new forms of art". It would be a shame not to use this extraordinary opportunity and the power of art to try and move to a different place. 






About
ARCO International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid 15 - 19 February 2012

Artists
Michal Rovner
Tomás Saraceno
Greta Alfaro
Nuria Mora
Antoni Tapies 
Aglaia Konrad
Julian Schnabel
Secundino Hernández
Suso33
JR and his Inside Out Project

Galleries
Ivorypress Madrid
Project B Gallery Milan
Galerie Bärbel Grässlin Frankfurt
Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt Madrid

Pictures by PS unless stated otherwise

Testimonial
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The Medina of Fez : Analysis of a Superb Compact Town

September 12, 2011
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12 September 2011

 The old Medina of Fez in Morocco also called Fez el Bali is a pedestrian medieval town with small-scale buildings and twisting narrow streets. It is a compact and dense place, full with artisans and food stalls. In its 220 ha you can find markets, mosques, universities, schools, hospitals, private gardens and even industry (manufacturing). You can cross town by foot in about 40 minutes. And if urban density doesn't do for you, the countryside is right outside the city walls. 
by Joshua Sy
 
There are many aspects of Fez that impress you. The composure of its people is one of them. Paul Bowles, who seems to share opinion, has an interesting view on it:
"Fez is a relatively relaxed city; there is time for everything. The retention of this classic sense of time can be attributed, in part at least, to the absence of motor vehicles in the medina. If you live in a city where you never have to run in order to catch something, or jump to avoid being hit by it, you are likely to have preserved a natural physical dignity which is not a concomitant of contemporary life; and if you still have that dignity, you want to go on having it. So you see to it that you have time to do whatever you want to do; it is vulgar to hurry."
The absence of cars is partly a result of how the city is structured. In Fez, primary activities, i.e. "live, work and leisure", are all mixed, meaning that you live in the proximity of your work and of your social activities. This reduces the travel distances greatly, making the use of a car unnecessary. Mixed-use results as well in a lively city, constantly in use and rich in social interaction.

A COMPACT TOWN  REDUCES TRAVEL AND INCREASES SOCIAL INTERACTION
 by Google Earth
Leisure
Fez is a city with a dense building fabric. Its streets are narrow (between 0.5m and 5m) and buildings (single-story to 4-story) cover a vast amount of its surface (100% of the total surface is developed). Although there is only one large public square there are plenty of small improvised squares created in the residual space of the irregular urban grid. Most of the socializing happens in the streets and in other public spaces such as the mosque, the hammam and the marketplace.

STREETS DUAL PURPOSE: SOCIAL INTERACTION AND MOVEMENT
by Florentina Georgescu
Work
There are allegedly 30,000 artisans in the Medina: Potters and ceramists (zelliges), tanners, copper- and brass-blacksmiths, woodcarvers, embroiders, weapon-makers, weavers... Each guild occupies its own district and has its dedicated market (souq). There is the carpenters' souq and the henna souq; the perfumers' and the shoemakers' souq.

Artisans have small workshops, roughly 2x3m, open to the street. These shops are generally full of stock and equipment.  It is therefore not unusual for artisans to work on the streets, adding interest to your journey. Freight is delivered by donkey or handcart.

LOCALLY PRODUCED AND CONSUMED GOODS REDUCE FREIGHT TRANSPORT
by John Moravec
 
The district of the tanners is quite impressive and worth a description. The Chouara Tannery is the largest in Fez. It is a vast urban hole filled up with vats. The tannery processes manually the skins of sheep and goats and turns them into leather. The skins get prepared for tanning by being immersed in liquid lime and treated with a mixture of pigeon poo and cow urine. They are then soaked by hand in coloured pits for dying and laid atop the rooftops to dry.
It is fascinating to see how an activity that is considered noxious, and has traditionally been relegated outside the city walls, is today a major point of attraction. The unusual structure of the place, the spectacular colours of the liquids and the singularity of the business make a visit to the tanneries worthwhile, notwithstanding the pungent smell. The tanneries are still one of the most important sources of income and trade for the city.
URBAN LIABILITIES TURNED INTO ASSETS

Living
The houses in Fez are conceived around a courtyard. Some courtyards are bigger, nicer and greener than others but the arrangement is similar for all houses. The street facade is a high naked wall with a door more or less ornamented and some grated openings (if at all) somewhere along its height. The inside by contrast is rich and sensuous. I could impossibly come up with a better description than Paul Bowles' so here is what he says:
"When you step into the glittering tile and marble interior of a prosperous Fez dwelling, with its orange trees and its fountains, and the combined pastel and hard-candy colors glowing from the rooms around the courtyard, you are pleased that there should be nothing but the indifferent anonymity of a blank wall outside - nothing to indicate the existence of this very private, remote and brilliant world within. A noncommittal expanse of earthen wall in the street hides a little Alhambra of one's own.  A miniature paradise totally shielded from the gaze of the world."
THE COURTYARD: SOCIALIZING ALSO BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
by Magnum

by Alessandra Grillo
 
Prospect
In spite of its many sustainable attributes, Fez el Bali has had serious urban issues in the past years. When the UNESCO listed the old Medina a world heritage site in 1981, it also stretched that it was threatened with collapse due to overpopulation and neglect. Sylvio Mutal, an urban specialist with UNDP describes the situation:
"Ironically, the city's problems may in part be a result of its past success. The ancient city was not abandoned. Far from that, it remains an essential center of production; some two-thirds of the inhabitants of the metropolis live there. Rather, what happened could be seen as the over-activation of the center of a fragile city that, in many ways, remains an exemplary model. [...] The result is that pressures mounted with which the city could not cope, to the point that precious architectural ensembles became dilapidated, the ecological balance broke down and water supply systems became saturated, and the city's traditional craft industries were threatened."

A plan for a complete rehabilitation of the Medina was submitted after a five years' study by Morocco and UNESCO and 1989 the ADER-Fes (Agence pour la Dedensification et la Rehabilitation de la Medina de Fes) was created. It is a semi-private organization responsible for carrying out and co-ordinating the rehabilitation programme. The estimated total cost of the rehabilitation was around $600 million. Initial funds came from the Moroccan government and UNESCO, then 1993 the World Bank granted a loan.

The "Rehabilitation Project for the Fez Medina" included upgrading dwellings, restoring historic buildings, providing incentives for commercial activities, improving infrastructures and creating an emergency circulation network. Already completed, it is considered to be an exemplary rehabilitation project not only because of the town improvements and the boost to the local economy but also because it has proven that private funds can have their returns investing in heritage.

The Millenium Challenge Corporation does know a lot on this. It is a US foreign aid agency that provides developing countries with grants to fund country-led solutions for reducing poverty. The MCC analyzes the likely impact on economic growth of its programmes by the use of an Economic Rate of Return Analysis (ERR). They analyze proposals as investments, with payoffs going to households and firms in partner countries. They seek proposals with high ERR and broad impact i.e. high poverty reduction.

2007 the MCC granted $111 million for the "Artisan and Fez Medina Project" with the aim to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty among artisans. In the framework of this project, the MCC issued via the "Agency of Partnership for Progress" (APP) an international architectural competition to redesign the area around Place Lalla Yeddouna, key area along the Medina's tourist circuit. The prize was awarded March 2011 and project is due to completion in 2013.

The MCC model expects the project to have an economic rate return of approx 21% over 15 years. Profits will be generated by the businesses on the site, by additional spending of tourists and by transferring large portions of the renovated site to the private sector through sale or long-term lease.

These ERR numbers are estimates and it remains to be seen what the real return will be. However, certain thing is that the Fez Medina remains through the years an attractive place to live and visit, trade and invest. And I dare to attribute it surely to its beauty and people but also to its density, size, mixed activities, absence of cars and cultural heritage... a killer combination very few cities can be proud of having.



 
Fez el Bali's data
Area:  220 ha (UNESCO data)
Population:  300,000 inhabitants in 1980 / 200,000 in 1993 / 156,000 in 2002
Population Density: 136,363 inhabitants / km2 in 1980 /  90,000  in 1993 / 71,000 in 2002
Number of businesses:  5,330 (artisans workshops) making up for 42% of the total workshops in the Fes municipality (2005 data by Al Akhawayn University. The Chambre d'Artisanat de Fes could not provide data!). 
Craftmanship: source of income of 75% of the medina population. Textile and leather employs more than 67% of the regional workforce
Revenue: estimated $1.1 billion a year  (based on figures provided by Invest in Morroco)
Number of tourists/year:  350,000 (2006 data by Observatoire du Tourism) 
Tourists/Year growth rate:  9% (data Observatoire du Tourism)

Sources
"Fez" by Paul Bowles / 1984 
"Fez: Preserving a City" by Josh Martin / 1993
"Medieval Urbanism in Morocco: Lessons for the Modern World" by Randy Ghent
"Morocco: Artisan and Fez Medina" by the MCC
Place Lalla Yeddouna International Competion
"The Medina of Fez" by UNESCO
"The Medina of Fez - Crafting a Future for the Past" by Genevieve Darles, Nicolas Lagrange / 1996
"The Morrocan Medina" by JH Crawford / estimated 2002
"The Rehabilitation of the Fez Medina" by the World Bank / 1999
"Traditional Building Techniques in Fes" by Alessandra Grillo / 1988
"Urban Conservation of Fez-Medina: a Post-Impact Appraisal" by Hassan Radoine / 2008

Pictures
without caption by PS and VB 
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