Four Amazing Green Greenhouses Built 40 Years Ago By Michael Jantzen

by Lloyd Alter
from http://www.treehugger.com/

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All images credit Michael Jantzen
Artist and designer Michael Jantzen is best known for his visionary building ideas like his M-House, covered recently in Fast Company, but I was really excited by his older stuff like his Autonomous House, that I called a Thirty-year old green wonder. Trolling the older work on his site, I found some amazing looking greenhouse structures, and called him to find out more. What he built and what he said is really remarkable. In fact, it's amazing.

In 1980 he built this commercial greenhouse to raise seedlings prior to the beginning of the gardening season in Illinois. The structure is designed to conserve energy by moving the plants from the outside to the greenhouse to an insulated section,

There is a large mound of earth and it is connected to the greenhouse. There is a steel culvert under the mound of earth insulated with foam insulation. At night the plants roll into this underground space to keep them at the temperature they need so we wouldn't have to heat the greenhouse at night.

This is a commercial greenhouse for growing seedlings. There is a track where you can slided the plant outside into a 35' glazed section, during the day when it was too cold outside, so you could pull the plants from the underground section to the glazed section. When it was warmer outside and you want to harden the plants to the climate, you could move the plants outside.

It was a machine for growing plants, where they could go from a superinsulated cave environment where you didn't need any energy at all. There was an insulated lid that closed up after the plants were in. As the temperature moderates and in the daytime, they would stay inside the glazed section.

Experimental Greenhouse 1987

Experimental Greenhouse 1987 was built for the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It was a modular, transportable unit.

This was much more complex; the white section at the end is super-insulated with foam.

The whole thing was automated; there is a little computer that monitored the air temperature and light levels, and moved the plants in and out depending on the available of light and heat.

And then further, the drawers where plants are sitting on stainless steel benches, there were plastic tubes with phase change material in them. That was the thermal mass that would absorb the heat in the rods while it the material liquified, and that would provide the heat needed at night. It was also designed to self-water and inject CO2.

There is a cable that runs to the back of the insulated tube to the opposite end, and pulls the tray out into the sun.

Note that there is only one section in the middle that is tall enough for a person to step in, so idea was to design the shape of the structure is designed so that you don't have to heat a large volume that the plants don't need, you only need one small section where a person can tend to the plants as they were moving past. In the summer, all of the panels slid open so that it could ventilate naturally. A very complex little structure.

There is a lot more; the early greenhouses that he designed to minimize the interior area, with wings for the plants and a lane down the middle for the gardener, minimizing the air that has to be be warmed.

Just room for plants and people.

The other greenhouses, like experimental greenhouse 1980, I was designing for the mass market. I was experimenting with growing plants in a cold climate. it was built with 2x4 and plywood and sprayed with foam on the outside to insulate. there were two layers of corrugated translucent plastic and in between was a blanket that rolled in between the airspace at night and rolled to the back in the daytime.

The corrugated section that you see you could close up like a roll-top desk. the side had a rock wall that would absorb heat during the day and you would blow air through it at night.

And there is still more material for yet another post to come. As I said, amazing stuff.

Compost & Grow Food Indoors With "Parasite Farm" By Charlotte Dieckmann & Nils Ferber

by Kimberley Mok

from http://www.treehugger.com/

Photos: Alexander Giesemann

Indoor composting can seem like a daunting proposition if you're an apartment dweller who's short on space and time. Plus, with so many indoor systems out there, which one is the right one and how would it fit efficiently into your lifestyle and apartment layout?

Here's one stab at it: in envisioning a complete system of vermicomposting plus food-growing under the same roof, young German designers Charlotte Dieckmann and Nils Ferber offer an interesting integrated system that lets you compost under the kitchen counter and grow food plants by the way of illuminated planters that fit right into your bookshelf.

Seen over on Designboom, the "Parasite Farm" by Dieckmann & Ferber includes a vermicomposting bin with a nifty, integrated cutting board that can be hung right under the kitchen counter. Bonus: there's even a built-in fly trap to help get rid of those pesky fruit flies -- which, believe me, can be quite a nuisance when your vermicomposter is still not quite established (though it is preventable).

It's a vertical system that allows the user to produce humus over time, which can be harvested by shaking the grate and pulling out the bin underneath.

Water from your food scraps is also reused as it percolates to another bottom bin, where it's collected as nutrient-rich soup, similar to compost tea, which can be added to your water as liquid fertilizer.

The planters are designed to fit right into a typical bookshelf (like the IKEA-ish ones shown here), while light is supplied from above. Like windowfarms, this is definitely a boon for those who have precious little window space to actually grow food or herbs, and a thoughtful design solution for urban gardening in tight and light-poor spaces.

For more information, check out Designboom and the websites of Charlotte Dieckmann and Nils Ferber.

Inspired but not sure where to start? Or maybe you're already a pro at composting. But if you're in need of some encouragement or a refresher, our Green Basics on composting can help you get familiarized with terms and techniques, or check out the links below for more composting ideas.

Like this? Follow Kimberley on Twitter or subscribe via RSS

More on Composting
Buy Green: Indoor Composters
Easy Indoor Composting: Bokashi + Worm Bin
No Yard? Here's How You Can Still Make and Use Compost
Assemble Your Own Windowfarm: Edible Urban Garden In A Kit (Video)
Composting Basics: Build a Compost Spinner
Compost Conundrum: Backyard Box, Indoor Bin Or A Can-O-Worms?

The Autonomous House By Michael Jantzen Is A Thirty-Year-Old Green Wonder

by Lloyd Alter

from http://www.treehugger.com/

Image credit Michael Jantzen

I have not posted much of the recent work of Michael Jantzen on TreeHugger; he has interesting visions but very little reality, mainly renderings of architectural wonders in open fields. (Jerry covered a recent one here.) But I learn from a reprint of a 1982 Popular Science in Modern Mechanix that thirty years ago he was designing very green, cutting-edge stuff that pushes every button that we talk about today. The Liberated House, or Autonomous Dwelling from 1979 is a wonder.

The goals of the Autonomous Dwelling Unit were not dissimilar from what so many architects are trying to achieve today:

• First, be a mobile home, light and small enough to be towed long distances over the road, or be carried by helicopter, or even be floated on water.
• Second, be independent of utility hookups--electricity, gas, water, and sewage--and of fossil fuels.
• Third, be mass-producible at a cost competitive with luxury travelers of comparable size.

Partner Ted Bakewell III explains the construction:

"Let's look at the external features first," says Bakewell, leading the way through the large muddy field in the center of a Bakewell office park. "The shell, for example." The interlocking, aluminized-steel sections that form the rounded ends of the vehicle are normally used for silo tops. The center section would normally be used to join twin silos. "They're very thin sheets, fabricated with a ridge in each panel, so they easily slide together, interlocking, for a totally watertight seal," Bakewell says.

The exterior has rainwater collection and solar panels.

With the sun shining, it has a peak output of 80 watts, going to 120 at noon when the reflector comes into use. Four 12-volt marine batteries store the electricity. "It works because we have designed our electrical needs with the most energy-efficient appliances available," Bakewell says. "We have a truly microload demand that is matched to this small solar panel."

The funkadelic interior includes a thermal storage system under the bed that gathers heat in the daytime and releases it at night, that I am thinking of knocking off for a LifeEdited. A round wood stove hangs from the ceiling. Transformer furniture abounds:

In the dining area, inventive design abounds. Leaves drop down or snap up to extend the table. Seats drop down to get out of the way. Most of Bakewell's cooking is done on an alcohol stove; he believes in using renewable fuels as much as possible. The refrigerator was designed from scratch. In winter, ducts below bring in cold air, saving electricity. A butterfly valve controls the amount. In summer, a solid-state thermionic device supplies cooling.

The toilet area contains a shower and a Clivus Multrum Bio-Loo, a Swedish waterless toilet that composts human waste odorlessly. The shower resembles a nylon telephone booth. Square hoops support an ingenious curtain arrangement (see photo) sewn together by Jantzen's wife, Ellen. Bakewell economizes on water by using a special nozzle head, developed for distributing chemicals from crop-dusting planes. It is capable of producing a very fine water-conserving mist that is, he says, nonetheless very effective in washing. Or, if he feels like splurging, he can open it up all the way. Bakewell showers with, basically, recycled water from a gray-water (used wash water) tank, to which he adds, as needed, fresh water taken from the vinyl rainwater bladder.

"We pump gray water into a pressure tank," he says. "Then it's forced through a five-micron filter, then a 0.25-micron filter, then an iodinator. Then it goes into a storage tank. Before it's delivered to a faucet or shower, it goes through a carbon polisher-activated charcoal. We take out the bacteria with the filters, and then we kill the viruses with the iodine."

It is a wonderful design, full of ideas that are just being rediscovered today. I so wish Michael Jantzen still built things like this, we have so much to learn from him. More at Modern Mechanix.

While reviewing other older work on Jantzen's site, I found this wonderful summer house from 1976. The exterior is certainly a period piece, but the interior!

Look at that transformer kitchen in the middle of the unit, with the sides that fold up to make a dining area. The bunks, hanging around the side of the unit with seating below, just like a railway car. The whole thing is brilliant.

The First Image of the World’s New Tallest Building

From http://gizmodo.com/

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By Jesus Diaz

This is the first image of what's going to become the tallest building in the world by the end of the decade: The 3,280-foot (one kilometer!) Kingdom Tower. It will dwarf the 2,717-foot (828-meter) Burj Khalifa. Take a look.

Until now, there was only one blurry generic sketch. This image is an actual rendering of the finished tower. According to Chicago's Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the building's designers, construction will begin imminently. The foundation plans are now complete and "the piling for the tower is currently being tendered" in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.

Mindblowing statistics

The Kingdom Tower's numbers are impressive. The building itself will take a staggering $1.2 billion to build, "while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion," said AS+GG. The massive 3,280-foot spire will house a 5.7 million square feet (530,000 square meters) space and will beat the Burj by "at least 568 feet" (173 meter). It will have a Four Seasons hotel, a Four Seasons apartment area, office space, luxury condos and the world's highest observatory.

Full size.

There will be 59 elevators, 54 single-deck and five double-deck, along with 12 escalator distributed through the Kingdom Tower. The elevators going up to the observatory deck will travel at 10 meters per second. That's 22.3 miles per hour. It will take you one minute and forty seconds to reach the top of the tower.
There's even an outdoor space at the top of the spire which will be used by the penthouse floor at level 157. You can see it sticking out in the rendering, 98 feet (30 meters) in diameter.

While it will still not reach Frank Lloyd Wright's never-built dream of the Mile High Illinois, its hard-edged, sightly asymmetrical design reminds me more of Wright's sketches than the rounded Burj Khalifa ever did.

It's Time to Denmark-ify Our Cities: A Copenhagen Case Study

by Brian Merchant

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Photo: Mik Hartwell via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY

If we're going to consider trying to Denmark-ify societies around the world, perhaps the first thing we should do is make sure that people would actually want to live in those societies. So let's take a closer look at Denmark's capital, Copenhagen. Along with being the most populous city in the nation (the greater metropolitan area is home to just under 2 million people), it's the political, commercial, and cultural hub as well.

And if you're a regular Treehugger reader, you're probably aware that it's one of the most highly regarded 'green' cities in the world -- and consistently ranked as among the most livable. Here's why:

First of all, it's perhaps the bike-friendliest city on the planet. A well-designed network of bike lanes and ample municipal support has enabled huge swaths of the population to take up on the bicycle as their main form of transportation. Half of Copenhagen residents own bikes, and 40% use them to commute to work.

And that's not just an overly rosy stat offered up by the city's PR team. Step out onto any major thoroughfare, and you'll see Danes of every stripe cruising by: businessmen decked out in suits, mothers carting their adorable Scandinavian children, older folks, kids -- everyone bikes in Copenhagen. No wonder cities as far away as Portland are looking to its example to increase bike ridership.

Secondly, there are ample public squares and green spaces, and the canal than runs through the city center is kept clean enough to swim in. Much of the city is walkable, and the main commercial district is largely pedestrian-only. Copenhagen is also in the process of expanding its popular metro system, so that it might reach further out from the urban area.

Photo: Poom! via Flickr/CC BY

The city is on track to be carbon neutral by 2025. It's in the process of phasing out its coal-fired power plants, which currently generate most of the city's power. The first will be gone within five years, and upgraded to run on biomass. Each of the plants are already outfitted to efficiently capture the heat generated in the coal-burning process, and enable Copenhagen to residents to enjoy an advance district heating system.

Strict energy efficiency codes ensure that new buildings won't waste power, and the progressive taxation rate (yup, Copenhagen residents, like all Danes, pay loads more taxes than you do) provides ample funding for city projects -- Jorgen Abildgaard, the city's Executive Climate Project Director, manager says the budget is balanced, despite this smorgasbord of initiatives.

And what's on the way? Here's Abildgaard:

Bike lanes that extend even further out, into the suburbs. 'Payment zones' for non-electric vehicles, to discourage driving. The city wouldn't mind seeming them go altogether. An expanded metro. Further efforts to revitalize waterside parks.

In my eyes, the only thing that keeps Copenhagen from being a truly replicable model for green cities is its relative lack of density -- the city's building codes prevent any structure from being more than six stories high, and only some 600,000 people live in the city's urban center. That's great here -- city planners project only an additional 100,000 residents over the next ten years.

But in a world increasingly crammed with megacities, the question will be whether the green initiatives can be scaled up without losing the livability we see here in Copenhagen.

Certainly, the core principles that make the city work can and should be adopted around the globe, but that's stuff we've been shouting about for years: Good public transit, interesting public spaces, strong bike-ability, energy efficiency, and so forth. The trick is doing all this stuff either a) with less funding or b) by convincing residents that it's worth ponying up more tax dollars for.

To me, the answer is clear -- if sacrificing some income means the place I live will be cleaner, healthier, and awesomer (not to mention more sustainable and more equal), show me where to sign. But there are a tangle of cultural and political obstacles preventing such an attitude from taking root in much of the world (the wealthy's keen interest in protecting their wealth chief among them). I'll look at some of these later in this series.

For now, allow me to heartily recommend that urban planners take a good hard look at Copenhagen. Your fellow residents will thank you.

More on how we might Denmark-ify societies 'round the world:

Denmark to say 'Goodbye' to Fossil Fuels by 2050 (Video)

Could Denmark-ifying the World Stop Climate Change?

Life in Denmark's Super-Low Energy Suburb, Stenlose South

Recycled Shipping Containers As Disaster Response: School Built In Four Weeks After Earthquake

by Paula Alvarado

from http://www.treehugger.com/

Photos: VientoFuerte.cl.

Shipping containers continue to prove their value to build almost anything, from amazing office buildings to houses to even boy scout cabins.

And although their use as a disaster response has been questioned, they've proven to be a useful resource when a tsunami hit Chile last year and a group of students from a local university was able to re-build a local school in a devastated town in only four weeks.

A fishing town of 3,000 people, Tubul is located about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south-west from Santiago, and was one of the areas most affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

In an effort called Viento Fuerte (Strong Wind), the architecture department of the Finis Terrae University gathered 56 advanced students to design, mount and equip a school for the town.

The project was built from 22 shipping containers donated by a company, which were properly isolated and used as prefab modules. There are 20 containers on ground level and two on a second level, which were jointed by one of their large sides to conform the different classrooms and spaces.

In between, there are open areas that serve as patios, which are shaded and covered to protect children from the rain. Part of the old school building that survived the earthquake was connected to the new structure.

Despite containers having been accused of 'top down' solutions in crisis response, the promoters of the project claim this school was designed not to be a temporary solution but a definitive, full functioning building.

As mentioned, an amazing part of the project is that it was designed and built in only four weeks after the earthquake. The university published a video in English sharing the experience:

The rescue of the Chilean miners and the Japan earthquake have long pushed the Chilean tsunami out of the news, but TreeHugger experienced first-hand that its consequences remain. The initiative Viento Fuerte keeps working on the reconstruction of Tubul and are currently gathering donations for their new projects.

The Transformation Of The World’s Worst Building

From: http://all-that-is-interesting.com/

Ryugyong Hotel is a 105-story skyscraper in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea renowned for once being dubbed the “World’s Worst Building” after having remained hallow for over 20 years. Construction began in earnest in 1987 and, if it had been completed as schedule in June 1989, would have been the tallest hotel building and the 17th tallest building in the world.

However, Ryugyong Hotel was not completed in June 1989. After the crumbling of the Communist bloc and the deterioration of the North Korean economy, construction halted after the outside of the hotel was complete. What remained for almost 2 decades was a window-less, empty shell of the hotel in the middle of Pyongyang, which media outlets called “The Worst Building in the World”,”Hotel of Doom” and “Phantom Hotel”. Below, one can see how the Ryugyong Hotel stood for these years:




However, in 2008 construction resumed after Orascom — an Egyptian cell phone company — was given the rights to the hotel. After 3 years, the exterior of the hotel is now finished, with work progressing on the interior for a planned completion date in 2012.

12 oldest continuously inhabited cities

From: http://www.mnn.com/

Photo: plastic_buddha/iStockphoto

Old as the hills

Cities that have stood the test of time have more than just the scars of history; they show the influence — positive and negative — of human civilization. The oldest cities in the world boast beautiful architecture and amazing stories, yet remarkably few ancient cities stand today. There is some disagreement about the historical record, so we've added a few cities to this list because of the area's religious or cultural significance. Here's our list of the 12 oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. (Text: Bryan Nelson)

• Damascus, Syria

Photo: jasminam/iStockphoto

Damascus is widely believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, with evidence of habitation dating back at least 11,000 years. Its location and persistence have made the city a nexus for civilizations come and gone. Today its metropolitan area is home to about 2.5 million people, and in 2008 it was named the Arab Capital of Culture.

• Jericho, West Bank

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Fortifications unearthed in Jericho dating back to 6800 B.C. confirm that it is the earliest known walled city, and evidence of other habitation in the area dates back about 11,000 years, which means it is a serious contender to be the world's oldest city. Incredibly, Jericho has remained inhabited — and dry — throughout history, despite its location well below sea level. This fact also makes the city the lowest permanently inhabited site on Earth. Today 20,000 people call Jericho home.

• Aleppo, Syria

Photo: seyr-ü zafer/Wikimedia Commons

Evidence of habitation at the current site of Aleppo dates to about 8,000 years ago, but excavations at a site just 25 kilometers north of the city show the area was inhabited about 13,000 years ago. That means that Aleppo and its surrounding region is the oldest known human settlement in the world. The city is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets from roughly 5,000 years ago, where it is cited for its commercial and military proficiency. Because of its location between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia — it was also the end of the Silk Road that passed through central Asia and Mesopotamia — Aleppo was at the center of the ancient world. Today it remains the largest city in Syria.

• Athens, Greece

Photo: brento/iStockphoto

The ancient home of philosophy and the birthplace of Western civilization, Athens boasts a history of habitation that goes back long before the days of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The city has been continuously inhabited for at least 7,000 years. The oldest known human presence in Athens has been dated to between the 11th and 7th millennium B.C. Today it remains a sprawling metropolis, and its Acropolis still stands, overlooking the landscape.

Argos, Greece

Photo: Karin Helene Pagter Duparc/Wikimedia Commons

An urban settlement for about the last 7,000 years, Argos is in competition with Athens to be the oldest city in Europe. The city has long been powerful — its commanding position in the fertile plain of Argolis has earned it a powerful position, though it has a history of neutrality. For instance, the city refused to fight or send supplies during the Graeco-Persian Wars. Perhaps that's part of the reason the city has withstood the test of time.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Photo: Klearchos Kapoutsis/Flickr

Plovdiv was originally a Thracian settlement known as Philippopolis to the Greeks, and was a major city for the Romans. It was also ruled by the Ottomans for a time. The beautiful city has a rich history dating back millennia. Evidence of habitation dates back 6,000 years. Today it is still the second largest city in Bulgaria, and it remains an important economic, cultural and educational center.

Byblos, Lebanon

Photo: Giorgio Montersino/Flickr

Though there is evidence of settlement as far back as 7,000 years ago, Byblos has been a continuous city for about 5,000 years. According to the ancient writer Philo of Byblos, the city had a reputation in antiquity of being the oldest city in the world. Interestingly, the English word for "Bible" is derived from "Byblos," because it was through Byblos that papyrus was imported to Greece.

Sidon, Lebanon

Photo: eutrophication&hypoxia/Flickr

Inhabited for at least the last 6,000 years, Sidon was one of the most important Phoenician cities because of its location as a crucial port on the Mediterranean, a locale that also led to the city's conquer by a revolving door of the world's great empires, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans. Today about 200,000 people call Sidon home.

Rayy, Iran

Photo: Ensie & Matthias/Flickr

Located within the Greater Tehran metropolitan area, Rayy (or Rey), Iran, has evidence of habitation dating back 8,000 years, though it has likely been continuously occupied for about 5,000 or 6,000 years. The city retains a wealth of historical monuments, such as the 5,000-year-old Cheshmeh Ali hill and the 3,000-year-old Gebri castle. It was a deeply sacred city to the Zoroastrians.

Jerusalem, Israel

Photo: UgurDemir/iStockphoto

Jerusalem is one of several cities to have sprung up between 4-5,000 years ago in the thriving Levant region, but it holds a unique place in history as the nexus of several of the world's great religions. For that reason, it is home to a wealth of spiritual and religious sites. Unfortunately, Jerusalem's Old City has also been added to the list of World Heritage Sites in danger due to modern-day urban development, tourism and cultural turmoil.

Luoyang, China

Photo: Valmol48/iStockphoto

A number of ancient cities were first being built around 4,000 years ago in the Mideast and Europe, but Luoyang stands out from that time period as the oldest continuously inhabited city in Asia. Located on China's central plain, Luoyang is the oldest city in the country and is one of the Seven Great Ancient Capitals of China. It has been in habitation since Neolithic times, with a continuous habitation for at least 4,000 years. Located at the intersection of the Luo and Yi rivers, the city was considered to be the geographical center of ancient China.

Varanasi, India

Photo: Ken Wieland/Wikimedia Commons

According to Hindu legend, Varanasi is more than 5,000 years old and is considered the oldest city in the world, though evidence of habitation only goes back about 3,000 years. This more modest date indicates Varanasi is among many ancient cities to appear around the first millennium B.C., and it is still the oldest city in India and is considered the holiest city in the world to Hindus. Its location on the banks of the sacred Ganges River also contributes to its prestige as an important site of pilgrimage.