light

/  by Thomas DeVoss

archatlas:

Joanneumsviertel  Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos

“The Joanneumsviertel of Graz is comprised of three buildings from different periods and with different functions that up to now have had their backs turned toward one another and faced a residual rear courtyard: the Museum of Natural History from the eighteenth century; the Regional Library of Styria; and the New Gallery of Contemporary Art, built at the end of the nineteenth century. Addressing each of these organisms belonging to the same institution, the project emerged from the need to endow the complex with a common means of access, welcoming spaces, a conference hall, reading areas and services, along with a lower level for archives and storage. Instead of giving in to the temptation of developing an iconic intervention, as has often happened in recent museum expansions, however, the project offered a unique opportunity to carry out an at once urban and architectural transformation. Whereas the historic center of Graz is known for its expressive “roofscape,” our proposal developed entirely below ground: we simply defined a new pavement that, like a large carpet, takes up the entire exterior space between the buildings and conceals below ground those spaces housing the required program.”

/  by Thomas DeVoss

realcleverscience:business-and-technology:FM radio becomes the world’s first plant-powered appliance Moss, as a rule, isn’t that impressive. In the wetter regions of the world, the stuff grows pretty much wherever you let it. It’s green and squishy…

realcleverscience:

business-and-technology:

FM radio becomes the world’s first plant-powered appliance

Moss, as a rule, isn’t that impressive. In the wetter regions of the world, the stuff grows pretty much wherever you let it. It’s green and squishy and pretty enough, we suppose. What moss isn’t is a good source of electricity, or at least it wasn’t until recently. By wiring together 10 little pots of the stuff, a group of scientists from the University of Cambridge have actually harvested enough moss-grown electricity to power an FM radio.

How the moss actually powers the radio is thanks to something called a Photo Microbial Fuel Cell (Photo-MFC). These are comprised of three basic parts: an anode to collect the electrons the moss strips from water during photosynthesis, a cathode where the electricity is consumed and an external circuit to connect the two. Each of the ten moss pots contained in the Moss FM rig is hooked up to its own Photo-MFC, and these in turn are hooked up to a battery.

The battery stores what energy it can from the process, currently about .01 percent of the moss’s output and then powers the radio. So far, that .01 percent output is only enough to run the radio’s speaker and tuner for a couple of minutes. That’ll change in the coming years, however, since researchers at the University of Georgia have already found a way, using microscopic nanotubules, to produce twice as much electricity from plants as you can get from today’s photovoltaic cells. Once the two approaches merge, we could easily see everything from moss to the trees lining our streets turned into, quite literally, the greenest power plants around.

Every now and then I read about an approach like this. I don’t know if it’s feasible, but it’s damn fascinating!

/  by Thomas DeVoss

ryanpanos:

Intersections | Anila Quayyum Agha | Via

Winner of both the public and juried vote of artprize 2014, pakistani artist Anila Quayyum Agha exercises the architecture of the grand rapids art museum in Michigan by infilling it with a dynamic interplay of shadow and light.‘Intersections’ comprises a 6.5-foot laser-cut wooden cube pierced with carefully crafted patterns and illuminated from the inside, which casts expansive, lace-like geometries onto the surrounding walls, ceiling and floor.