Biomimetics: Design by Nature

An electron micrograph reveals sharkskin’s secret to speed: tooth-like scales called dermal denticles. Water “races through the microgrooves without tumbling,” says shark researcher George Burgess, reducing friction. “It’s like a fast-moving river current versus the gurgling turbulence of a shallow stream.” The scales also discourage barnacles and algae from glomming on—an inspiration for synthetic coatings that may soon be applied to Navy ship hulls to reduce such biofouling.

What has fins like a whale, skin like a lizard, and eyes like a moth? The future of engineering.

via> National Geographic (April 2008)

Green Gasoline Created From Biomass

‘Green Gasoline’ is a liquid identical to regular gasoline in energy, but made from biomass sources such as poplar trees and switchgrass. Researchers seem to have finally discovered a way to create this sort of fuel, that could be of tremendous help to the U.S. economy, eliminating the need to import expensive oil supplies and the need to grow corn for producing ethanol.

Chemical engineer George Huber from the National Science Foundation and two of his graduate students presented the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components. The study shows the steps can run sequentially without purification or complex separation processes between reactors.

Huber says that future biofuels will be similar to gasoline in the chemical composition and that the challenge is to produce efficient fuels from biomass that would integrate in the existing infrastructure. The understanding of the chemical reactions used in this process is likely to design more efficient ways to commercialize green gasoline.

http://www.ecofuss.com/green-gasoline-created-from-biomass/

Redwing Reef

File under unintended consequences of success. The artificial reef off the coast of Delaware made of decommissioned New York subway cars is apparently too successful resulting in great demand for the cars. They are such a productive habitat for sea life that they attract fishing, larger open water species like tuna, and theft of traps from competing fishermen.

NY Times article here. And slideshow.

Local River

via mocoloco.com

Local River is the "home storage unit for fish and greens" as conceived by Mathieu Lehanneur with Anthony van den Bossche. Inspired by the Locavores, a group of culinary adventurers who eat foods produced in a radius of 100 miles around their city, Local River anticipates the growing influence of this group (the word 'locavore' made its first appearance in an American dictionary in 2007) by proposing a home storage unit for live freshwater fish combined with a mini vegetable patch. This DIY (GYO?) fish-farm-cum-kitchen-garden is based on the principle of aquaponics coupled with the exchange and interdependence of two living organisms - plants and fish. The plants extract nutrients from the nitrate-rich dejecta of the fish. In doing so they act as a natural filter that purifies the water and maintains a vital balance for the eco-system in which the fish live. The same technique is used on large-scale pioneer aquaponics/fish-farms, which raise tilapia (a food fish from the Far East) and lettuce planted in trays floating on the surface of ponds. From April 25th to June 21st 2008 at Artists Space.

+ artistsspace.org

ORQUIDEORAMA - Botanical Garden

Photos and information on the Orquideorama Botanical Garden in Medellin Colombia via inhabitat.com

Architects Felipe Mesa and Alexander Bernal wanted the Orquideorama to grow in the same way that a garden seeds and develops, with one “flor-árbol” popping up next to another. This lead them to design the installation as a series of interconnected modular structures (14 in all) specialized for a variety of functions including event halls, butterfly reserves, and flower gardens. Fittingly, this repetitious cellular weave resonates with another organic structure: honeycomb.

Each “flor-árbol” is composed of a steel reinforced trunk and six hexagonal petals that form an intricately latticed patio. The plants situated beneath each trunk are sustained via rainwater collected by the petals, and are protected from the elements by the translucent pine wood weave that is sourced from reforested lands. Taken as a whole, the Orquideorama is a delicate display of the relationship and structural similarities between architecture and living organisms.

+ Plan B
+ Jardín Botánico de Medellí

Sustainable Skyscraper Symbiosis

Via Inhabitat.com: Daekwon Parks' sustainable skyscraper project. Full post here.

Now in its fourth year running, the eVolo Skyscraper Competition takes future-forward architecture to its breaking point, unveiling a stunning array of new structural concepts by architects, engineers, and designers. The latest crop of entries is up, and Daekwon Park’s Symbiotic Interlock goes far beyond the standard skyscraper to envision a total renovation of inner-city infrastructure. The pitch: it’s modular, prefabricated, and completely symbiotic on the existing vertical infrastructure of the city.

Skyscrapers are one of the modern city’s most ideologically charged structures. Dominating the skyline, they captivate and articulate a wealth of ideals while anchoring a city’s social fabric. As the world’s population increases and cities stretch to accommodate it, these structures will become increasingly important in sustaining this massive influx. Out of necessity, they will have to evolve. eVolo Architecture was founded in 2003 by a group of international architects in NYC and hosts a yearly contest dedicated to rethinking the skyscraper in radical new ways. The only requirement: “Designs must be technologically feasible and environmentally responsible.”

Daekwon Park created Symbiotic Interlock “to reunite the isolated city blocks and insert a multi-layer network of public space, green space and nodes for the city”. It comprises a system of stackable modules that are designed to add an extra layer of infrastructure to existing buildings via sky docks and bridges, vertical gardens, cultural spaces, and energy producing wind turbines. It addresses some of the shortcomings of green roofs by internalizing green environments within its biomorphic structure while contributing functionality, energy, and food. It may not have beaten the competition, but its symbiotic integration with existing buildings struck us as a brilliant brand of future-forward thinking within the present era.

+ evolo-arch.com

Green energy

The Times has a special section this week on the business of sustainability. Above, columns of algae being grown for biofuel by Solena in Alicante, Spain. The section includes articles on green collar jobs, business going carbon neutral or carbon negative, Sun Edison the solar panel provider, etc.