Alter, Llyod. “When It Comes To Green Building, Where You Are Is As Important As What You Build”. January 20, 2011. http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/when-it-comes-to-green-building-where-you-are-is-as-important-as-what-you-build.html
This article focuses on one particular companies work, the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The group, located in Chicago, measures the EI of a building. They beleive that as this data becomes more apparent, businesses may rethink what it means to be “green”. WHile 29% of all gH emissions come from transportation, the idea of measuring EI is mostly disregarded. I enjoyed this articles view on the point. It was more of an introduction article than anything of substance. It introduced me to the two companies, CNT which I may reach out on for my own survey, and a Canadian study.
Chin, Ryan. “ TEDx Boston” 7.28.09. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHSu4f4fcSI
A ted x Boston presentation by Ryan chin of the MIT city science lab. Over the past few years, they have begun working on three types of innovative transportation systems. A city car that is fully electric and foldable to reduce parking space. Another product they developed was the foldable scooter car which is similar to motorcycle yet easy to carry. Lastly, the produced a greenwheel which is now known as the copenhagen wheel. The talk itself was very similar to how I imagine I might set up my presentation. His facts were very persuasive. Not only did they present physical solutions, they provided market value which i found unique and effective. Definitely a good ted talk to come back too.
LAVRINC,DAMON (Cycling Utopia ) A 137-Mile ‘Cycling Utopia’ Floating Above London’s Rail Lines 01.03.14http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/01/skycycle/
:The purely hypothetical but nevertheless amazing SkyCycle would stretch 137 miles in and around the city, accommodating as many as 12,000 riders per hour on a cycling superhighway 50 feet wide. The dream calls for 200 on- and off-ramps which estimates, means nearly 6 million people will live or work within 10 minutes of an entrance. Without all those cars to weave around and lights to stop for, travel times to and from work would be reduced by up to 29 minutes. I found this article an interesting perspective. While many designers want to transform streets into bike lanes, this design approached it laterally. The sky has a near infinite amount of possibilities that we have yet to take advantage of, especially over non building places like a train. For me, this could be one solution to the alternative transportation method. It has aspects of biking and city design. Imagine if all cities had these bike streets above other streets. could transform the way people move.
Sadik-Khan, Janette. “New York's streets? Not so mean any more” TEDcity 2.0. October 2013 Over the course of 10 or so years, a group of urban designers and engineers transformed time square. Initially, the space was congested with cars and lacked pedestrian accessibility. One day, they decided to close the road and place little camping chairs. Immediately, people flocked towards the square and just sat. When designers watched this, it sparked many idea. They began a program to turn Times square into a pedestrian center. After not allowing traffic through most of the street, they began setting up benches, walkways and trashcans. Now, TS is much different that it was before, and a huge tourist attraction. The success of the tourist park has led to a movement of transforming NYC areas. Throughout the cities are small corners that are slowing transforming into sitting areas, or parklets. They are making the city friendlier and nicer to live in. Khan talk was provoking in that nobody had really approached the problem that way before. Also, having been to TS it was cool to learn of the design process behind it. In my project, this talk cover an aspect of friendlier and livable cities. Part of transportation energy relies on the walkability of cities, which parklets would help improve upon.
Saiki, Neal. “NTS SunCycle” http://ntsworks.com/bicycles/suncycle/
:An unique spin on the ebike. This bike has solar panels roofed over a small cargo bin. They hope that the bike will be an alternative to cars and easier to convert to because there is storage. The solar panels also can fully power the system. The article mentioned the bikes were for sale for 4000 which seems extremely high but I assume prices will drop once it becomes more acceptable. Could be used as an interesting solution.
Shwart, Ariel. “ A New Way To Measure Energy Efficiency That Counts What You Use The Energy For” February 7, 2014. http://www.fastcoexist.com/3025461/a-new-way-to-measure-energy-efficiency-that-counts-what-you-use-the-energy-for For years, people have been measuring the energy usage of buildings by EUI or Energy per square foot. In 2011, the NYC gov became transparent and opened up the data of building with over 50,000 sqft throughout the city. This was one of the first times that there was this much data available on a wide spread. It initiated a comparison between all the companies, making them competitive. It also proved that there was some discrepancies in actual efficiencies. For instance, the One Bryant Park, a LEEd Platinum building, used 2x more energy than the Empire State Building. This has pushed Buro Happold to derive a new measurement for Energy usage. Instead of overall energy usage, measure the effectiveness of energy, where it is being put to work. Just because you are using less energy, it may not be put to work the best way.
http://alloybuild.com/
Siceloff, Steven. “ Going electric: NASA greenhouse gas reduction program thrives” February 4, 2014http://climate.nasa.gov/energy_innovations/1036 :
Over at the Kennedy Space Center, ten workers have begun traveling to work in electric cars. In exchange for a free charge, the participants fill out surveys describing their route and traffic circumstances. In the 1st 3 months, the program has only cost 148$ and has eliminated over 15k lbs of carbon. In one year, they estimate they could eliminate of 60k lb of carbon and this is simply with 10 people. NASA has hopes to reduce greenhouse gases by 12.3 in 2020. They know that the federal commute is on of the easiest ways to tackle transportation energy. The article was rather short and lacked much discussion on the program itself. However, I think it is an interesting real world application of the a possible solution to TE. I could use it as an example for the electric cars.
Smith, Alfred. “ Micro solutions to Macro Energy Challenges” May 12, 2013.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhPa4XFkl30 :
A panel at the midwest energy convention discuss the possibilities of personal contribution to saving energy. They talk about how driving habits could effect gas expense. Also, they refer to the growing independence from middle east countries. Lastly, the ohio leader explains how the midwest in leading the way in the US. Overall, I found the the entire video was a little slow paced and lacking of clear response. I feel as though some tidbits of the discussion may be applicable to the discussion of smart cities/ transportation in regard to the first portion of the conversation. However, the later part about the midwest and middle east was more general knowledge.
Stockton, Nick. “There’s a Science to Foot Traffic, and It Can Help Us Design Better Cities”. Wired.com. 1.27.14. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/space-syntax-china/ :
: Over the past 30 years, humans have moved more and more into urban environments. FOr instance, 450 mil Chinese, 1/25 of world population lives inside of cities. Another example of this massive urbanization is the 160 chinese cities with more than 1 million people compared to America with only nine cities. This provides urban arch many opportunities to design perfect cities. Two architects, Bill Hiller and Julienne Hensen have developed space syntax. This project details the way people move throughout cities. They argued that the connectivity and walkability through space is the most important factor of cities. They have lower crime rate, higher property values, and healthier residents. While bus trains etc have effect, they only help on getting people to the walking space. How do you make cities walkable? Study of trafalgar Sq. Fallen into disuse, no tourists or locals due to surrounding traffic and clutter of fountains and statues. The group of space syntax video taped the area and turned it into computer models. They saw that if they opened up the bridge at the top, made the crosswalks larger, and create a wider staircase for lingering. Only group to incorporate science into design… This is the hope of the future. While capturing complex cities isn't possible, utilizing data as design can be helpful in the future. Definitely a good read and thought provoking. I could use this in one of the ways that people get around. Part of smart cities isn’t necessarily tangible tech. But people can use data as the tech to transform cities.
Wilson, Alex. “ Driving to Green Buildings: The Transportation Energy Intensity of Buildings”. January, 21, 2014 http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2007/8/30/Driving-to-Green-Buildings-The-Transportation-Energy-Intensity-of-Buildings/ :
Analogy, the 1st LEED platinum environmental center designed and built a new building. Over the course of the renovations, they increased their self sufficiency with solar, thermal and bamboo flooring etc… However, the change in location from downtown to outside the city forced workers to shift the way they got to work. What the LEED ranking did not take into account was this energy intensity of the driving. No longer arriving by bike, transit or walking, the workers expended more energy through driving. The article continues to expand upon multiple ways that cities can reduce the energy intensity through density, transit availability, access to services, parking management, walkability, bike accessibility, and connectivity. I found the article to be a phenomenal overview of both the negative side effects of transportation as well as begining to draft solutions. I believe I can use this as a guideline to expand upon. Each sub section could be a particular field that I research as a solution.
This article focuses on one particular companies work, the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The group, located in Chicago, measures the EI of a building. They beleive that as this data becomes more apparent, businesses may rethink what it means to be “green”. WHile 29% of all gH emissions come from transportation, the idea of measuring EI is mostly disregarded. I enjoyed this articles view on the point. It was more of an introduction article than anything of substance. It introduced me to the two companies, CNT which I may reach out on for my own survey, and a Canadian study.
Chin, Ryan. “ TEDx Boston” 7.28.09. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHSu4f4fcSI
A ted x Boston presentation by Ryan chin of the MIT city science lab. Over the past few years, they have begun working on three types of innovative transportation systems. A city car that is fully electric and foldable to reduce parking space. Another product they developed was the foldable scooter car which is similar to motorcycle yet easy to carry. Lastly, the produced a greenwheel which is now known as the copenhagen wheel. The talk itself was very similar to how I imagine I might set up my presentation. His facts were very persuasive. Not only did they present physical solutions, they provided market value which i found unique and effective. Definitely a good ted talk to come back too.
LAVRINC,DAMON (Cycling Utopia ) A 137-Mile ‘Cycling Utopia’ Floating Above London’s Rail Lines 01.03.14http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/01/skycycle/
:The purely hypothetical but nevertheless amazing SkyCycle would stretch 137 miles in and around the city, accommodating as many as 12,000 riders per hour on a cycling superhighway 50 feet wide. The dream calls for 200 on- and off-ramps which estimates, means nearly 6 million people will live or work within 10 minutes of an entrance. Without all those cars to weave around and lights to stop for, travel times to and from work would be reduced by up to 29 minutes. I found this article an interesting perspective. While many designers want to transform streets into bike lanes, this design approached it laterally. The sky has a near infinite amount of possibilities that we have yet to take advantage of, especially over non building places like a train. For me, this could be one solution to the alternative transportation method. It has aspects of biking and city design. Imagine if all cities had these bike streets above other streets. could transform the way people move.
Sadik-Khan, Janette. “New York's streets? Not so mean any more” TEDcity 2.0. October 2013 Over the course of 10 or so years, a group of urban designers and engineers transformed time square. Initially, the space was congested with cars and lacked pedestrian accessibility. One day, they decided to close the road and place little camping chairs. Immediately, people flocked towards the square and just sat. When designers watched this, it sparked many idea. They began a program to turn Times square into a pedestrian center. After not allowing traffic through most of the street, they began setting up benches, walkways and trashcans. Now, TS is much different that it was before, and a huge tourist attraction. The success of the tourist park has led to a movement of transforming NYC areas. Throughout the cities are small corners that are slowing transforming into sitting areas, or parklets. They are making the city friendlier and nicer to live in. Khan talk was provoking in that nobody had really approached the problem that way before. Also, having been to TS it was cool to learn of the design process behind it. In my project, this talk cover an aspect of friendlier and livable cities. Part of transportation energy relies on the walkability of cities, which parklets would help improve upon.
Saiki, Neal. “NTS SunCycle” http://ntsworks.com/bicycles/suncycle/
:An unique spin on the ebike. This bike has solar panels roofed over a small cargo bin. They hope that the bike will be an alternative to cars and easier to convert to because there is storage. The solar panels also can fully power the system. The article mentioned the bikes were for sale for 4000 which seems extremely high but I assume prices will drop once it becomes more acceptable. Could be used as an interesting solution.
Shwart, Ariel. “ A New Way To Measure Energy Efficiency That Counts What You Use The Energy For” February 7, 2014. http://www.fastcoexist.com/3025461/a-new-way-to-measure-energy-efficiency-that-counts-what-you-use-the-energy-for For years, people have been measuring the energy usage of buildings by EUI or Energy per square foot. In 2011, the NYC gov became transparent and opened up the data of building with over 50,000 sqft throughout the city. This was one of the first times that there was this much data available on a wide spread. It initiated a comparison between all the companies, making them competitive. It also proved that there was some discrepancies in actual efficiencies. For instance, the One Bryant Park, a LEEd Platinum building, used 2x more energy than the Empire State Building. This has pushed Buro Happold to derive a new measurement for Energy usage. Instead of overall energy usage, measure the effectiveness of energy, where it is being put to work. Just because you are using less energy, it may not be put to work the best way.
http://alloybuild.com/
Siceloff, Steven. “ Going electric: NASA greenhouse gas reduction program thrives” February 4, 2014http://climate.nasa.gov/energy_innovations/1036 :
Over at the Kennedy Space Center, ten workers have begun traveling to work in electric cars. In exchange for a free charge, the participants fill out surveys describing their route and traffic circumstances. In the 1st 3 months, the program has only cost 148$ and has eliminated over 15k lbs of carbon. In one year, they estimate they could eliminate of 60k lb of carbon and this is simply with 10 people. NASA has hopes to reduce greenhouse gases by 12.3 in 2020. They know that the federal commute is on of the easiest ways to tackle transportation energy. The article was rather short and lacked much discussion on the program itself. However, I think it is an interesting real world application of the a possible solution to TE. I could use it as an example for the electric cars.
Smith, Alfred. “ Micro solutions to Macro Energy Challenges” May 12, 2013.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhPa4XFkl30 :
A panel at the midwest energy convention discuss the possibilities of personal contribution to saving energy. They talk about how driving habits could effect gas expense. Also, they refer to the growing independence from middle east countries. Lastly, the ohio leader explains how the midwest in leading the way in the US. Overall, I found the the entire video was a little slow paced and lacking of clear response. I feel as though some tidbits of the discussion may be applicable to the discussion of smart cities/ transportation in regard to the first portion of the conversation. However, the later part about the midwest and middle east was more general knowledge.
Stockton, Nick. “There’s a Science to Foot Traffic, and It Can Help Us Design Better Cities”. Wired.com. 1.27.14. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/space-syntax-china/ :
: Over the past 30 years, humans have moved more and more into urban environments. FOr instance, 450 mil Chinese, 1/25 of world population lives inside of cities. Another example of this massive urbanization is the 160 chinese cities with more than 1 million people compared to America with only nine cities. This provides urban arch many opportunities to design perfect cities. Two architects, Bill Hiller and Julienne Hensen have developed space syntax. This project details the way people move throughout cities. They argued that the connectivity and walkability through space is the most important factor of cities. They have lower crime rate, higher property values, and healthier residents. While bus trains etc have effect, they only help on getting people to the walking space. How do you make cities walkable? Study of trafalgar Sq. Fallen into disuse, no tourists or locals due to surrounding traffic and clutter of fountains and statues. The group of space syntax video taped the area and turned it into computer models. They saw that if they opened up the bridge at the top, made the crosswalks larger, and create a wider staircase for lingering. Only group to incorporate science into design… This is the hope of the future. While capturing complex cities isn't possible, utilizing data as design can be helpful in the future. Definitely a good read and thought provoking. I could use this in one of the ways that people get around. Part of smart cities isn’t necessarily tangible tech. But people can use data as the tech to transform cities.
Wilson, Alex. “ Driving to Green Buildings: The Transportation Energy Intensity of Buildings”. January, 21, 2014 http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2007/8/30/Driving-to-Green-Buildings-The-Transportation-Energy-Intensity-of-Buildings/ :
Analogy, the 1st LEED platinum environmental center designed and built a new building. Over the course of the renovations, they increased their self sufficiency with solar, thermal and bamboo flooring etc… However, the change in location from downtown to outside the city forced workers to shift the way they got to work. What the LEED ranking did not take into account was this energy intensity of the driving. No longer arriving by bike, transit or walking, the workers expended more energy through driving. The article continues to expand upon multiple ways that cities can reduce the energy intensity through density, transit availability, access to services, parking management, walkability, bike accessibility, and connectivity. I found the article to be a phenomenal overview of both the negative side effects of transportation as well as begining to draft solutions. I believe I can use this as a guideline to expand upon. Each sub section could be a particular field that I research as a solution.