The First Facility Management Blog

Incheon Metropolitan City, Korea, together with designboom recently held a competition (iida) open to international professionals, students, and design enthusiasts. The subject of iida was “Green Life,” which was broken down into the following concepts:

• 21st century design is the philosophy that suggests harmony of humanity and nature.
• 21st century design is the imagination that enables sustained urban life.
• 21st century design is actions that buffer radical changes in society.
• 21st century design is a beautiful link between business activities and consumer activities.
• 21st century design is a tool that expresses beautiful imagination of people.
• the philosophy of the 21st century design is the philosophy of iida.

In the end, 3709 designers from 96 different countries participated. Rochus Jacob was awarded the first prize for his Murakami Chair (along with his thermodynamic cooler), which incorporates nano-dynamo technology into the skids of the chair to run an OLED light—thereby powering an attached reading lamp with energy generated from its own rocking motion. (Note: as one of the competition requirements, the product could not currently be in production.)

Jacobs explains his thoughts behind the design process:

I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do. The final result is a rocking chair that enables the user to experience production and consumption of electricity in a gentle and rewarding way. An abstract process becomes tangible and eventually cultivates natural awareness. Complexity is covered by simplicity. During daylight, the energy gets stored in a battery pack. The construction of the flat and bendable organic light emitting diodes allows new form factors such as using the traditional shape of a lamp but instead of having a light bulb the lampshade himself turns out to be the light source. To have a drastic reduction of consumption the big challenge will be to make consuming less feel like getting more.

The jury, composed of Julien de Smedt, JDS, architect, Karim Rashid, industrial designer, Jerszy Seymour, industrial designer, Martin Videgård Hansson + Bolle Tham, Tham & Videgård Hansson Architects, Birgit Lohmann, designboom, Sang-Soo Ahn, Hongik University visual communication design professor, Soon-Jong Lee, Seoul National University design major professor, Joo-Yun Kim, Hongik University industrial design professor, Chul-Bae Lee, LG eletronics vice president, and Heung-Soo Jeon, Incheon Metropolitan City design manager awarded designs and concepts that were deemed innovative in terms of their formal/technological aspects as well as their social relevance.

The competition was hosted by Incheon Metropolitan City and organized by Incheon Business Agency.
Sponsors of this competition are: Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea, Korea Institute of Design Promotion, LG electronics, designflux, Incheon Industrial Design Association, and Incheon Design Company Association.

Back in April, I posted an article about the new headquarters for Mayr-Melnhof, an Austrian wood processing company. And while this building appears to float, Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio in the Netherlands has done that one better by designing a whole community that actually floats.

So instead of fighting rising tides in the region, the world’s first floating apartment complex, The Citadel, will work with this natural resource to incorporate its benefits into the infrastructure of the development. As a result, the complex will use 25% less energy than a conventional building on land by tapping into water cooling techniques.

From Inhabitat:

The project will be built on a polder, a recessed area below sea level where flood waters settle from heavy rains. There are almost 3,500 polders in the Netherlands, and almost all of them are continually pumped dry to keep flood waters from destroying nearby homes and buildings. The New Water Project will purposely allow the polder to flood with water and all the buildings will be perfectly suited to float on top of the rising and falling water.

Built on top of of a floating foundation of heavy concrete caisson, the Citadel will house 60 luxury apartments, a car park, a floating road to access the complex as well as boat docks. With so many units built into such a small area, the housing complex will achieve a density of 30 units per acre of water, leaving more open water surrounding the structure. Each unit will have its own garden terrace as well as a view of the lake.

A high focus will be placed on energy efficiency inside the Citadel. Greenhouses are placed around the complex, and the water will act as a cooling source as it is pumped through submerged pipes. As the unit is surrounded by water, corrosion and maintenance are important issues to consider. As a result, aluminum will be used for the building facade, due to its long lifespan and ease of maintenance. The individual apartments are built from prefabricated modules. The Citadel will be situated on a shallow body of water, and in the future numerous buildings, complexes and residences will float on the water alongside it.

Nanotechnology will significantly change virtually every facet of the way we live. The next president has the opportunity to shape these changes and to ensure that nanotechnology’s benefits will be maximized and its risks identified and controlled.

A new report by former EPA official J. Clarence (Terry) Davies lays out a clear roadmap for the next presidential administration and describes the immediate and longer term steps necessary to deal with the current shortcomings of nanotechnology oversight.

To read the full report, click this link:
pen13.pdf