Comprising 70 percent of our bodies, covering 70 percent of our earth’s surface, and providing more than 50 percent of the world’s ‘renewable’ energy, water is also the ultimate adaptor: evaporating, condensing, crystallizing, icing, melting, flowing and filling, according to its environment.

The beauty of water, and its emotional power as a latent energy force, is celebrated throughout architecture, from the rainwater-pooled Roman atriums and trickling water gardens of the Alhambra and the Taj Mahal, to feng shui-directed streams, artificial English lakes, and reflecting ponds worldwide.  From Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s built homage to the Bear Run waterfall, to Tadao Ando’s masterful intensification of the calm and weight of water in his epic Awaji Island, water has proven a powerful muse.  Now the changing geography of the world demands a reaction to the practical issues of spreading water and shrinking landmass.  With fast-spreading biofuel plantations jostling with food crops and people for space, what is the appropriate built response for such epic change, and how and where do we build our houses?

The concept of the floating house is nothing new, but the genre just got a whole lot sexier with a raft of new technologies and forms. Koen Olthuis, a pioneer of modern floating structures, hails from waterlogged Holland. His firm Waterstudio.NL is dedicated to designing water-interactive houses using five main concepts.

• lifted – a dwelling on piles far above the highest water level.
• waterproof – resistant to the presence of water. (For example, a garage with elevated services, built of concrete and tile, will flood without damage).
• sealed – dwellings isolated with watertight doors and windows (as in a submarine).
• amphibious – houses used in dry conditions with a foundation that will float if the land floods.
• floating – the familiar floating house.

Almost one-third of Holland consists of polders, an artificial landscape of reclaimed land below sea level protected by dykes and maintained by constant pumping. Olthius says rising water levels are forcing Holland to ‘depolderise’, watering down the land available for building. Using patented foundations of foam and concrete, anchored on telescopic piers to eliminate horizontal movement and to allow interconnection for roads, gardens and housing zones, Waterstudio.NL is finalizing a 1400-strong floating settlement for a soon-to-be-flooded polder. Fishing for answers, I grilled by e-mail:

Koen, is it a houseboat?

“A houseboat is in fact a boat with a house-like unit on top. A water house is a house with a floating foundation, but with the exact same specifications as a normal house.”

Does the floating nature restrict its design?

“Everything is technically possible, but not always economically feasible. We always refer to floating oil platforms on the ocean, with many people working and living on board. If that is possible, then a floating apartment beyond the waterfront is easy.”

How do floating structures and their piers affect existing aquiferous ecosystems?

“We tell our clients about the environmental benefits of floating buildings compared to landfill projects. Landfill will permanently destroy the water life of the footprint. Floating buildings give only a shadow to the seabed. We have engineered a patent for a floating beach (http://www.dutchdocklands.com/). It has the look of a beach … but it keeps the seabed intact… we expect a new ecosystem to develop on the underside of the structure. Exciting for divers!”

What’s on the drawing board?

“We are preparing a dynamic development in which buildings can be moved during their life span. Normally a building will be demolished when its economical value is no longer in balance with the value of the land. In a floating city … a building can be moved to another part that is in balance with its value and continue functioning. This will save a lot of energy and is much more sustainable. We [will] design now a floating school which will move every 10 years to a newer part of Amsterdam.”

Floating infrastructure presents a raft of challenges and opportunities to town planners.  Stay tuned for more waterborn architectural innovation.

Trained and practiced in sustainable architecture, Sally Dominguez has moved from a sole practice specializing in architecture that “treads lightly” to a career in award-winning product design.  Sally’s products include the multi-award-winning Nest high chair, held in the Powerhouse Museum and the V&A in London, the Rainwater HOG which was named one of 2008’s Top 10 Green Building Products and recently awarded its fifth “green” award, and the O MOON outdoor light sold through Design Within Reach. Sally is a panelist on ABC TV’s New Inventors program, judges Car of the Year for Fairfax Media and Wheels magazine, and writes and lectures in Australia and the USA on innovative sustainable design and technologies.

Recently a judge of the Spark Design Awards and the TED/Lexus Living award, Sally is also developing more innovative rainwater storage systems and solar accessories for her company BeautifulUsefulGreen.

Competitions give us a chance to elevate the ideas of transforming our existing cities into something new, inspiring and green.  Tackling the environmental challenges of dense living has been a theme of the eVolo Magazine’s Skyscraper Competition for the past few years.  Their forms reflect idealism and digital visualization, yet the ideas face real-life problems.

Taking second place in this year’s competition, the Water Purification Skyscraper in Jakarta was the most aggressively green project of note.  http://www.evolo.us/competition/water-purification-skyscraper-in-jakarta/ Often green proposals are aimed at a generic, overpopulated city.  This proposal focuses on a specific place and problem – the lack of accessible water in largest city of Southeast Asia.  In 2006, the United Nations Human Development Report estimated 7.2 million individuals were without clean water in Jakarta. 

Water Purification Skyscraper in Jakarta: 2nd Place Winner in the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition

This proposal not only purifies waste water with a complete filtration system, but also employs and houses a population within the same complex.  The Sanskrit root of Jakarta translates to “complete victory” – replacing the slums along a polluted river within the second largest metropolitan area in the world would be just that. 

The project may be inspired by advances in water recycling, but the challenge of re-creating potable water will require research on small scale systems.

Living Machine® (http://www.livingmachines.com/) has been implementing systems that avoid environmentally harmful chemicals and reduce energy use.  Basing their system on wetlands and tides, water is naturally cleansed by cycling through compartments of gravel, microorganisms, and plants.  The company customizes its system to each installation’s location and needs.  Though the final product is not potable water, responsible water treatment reduces use of potable water and returns ‘waste’ safely to the environment.  As a bonus, exterior installations of Living Machine® provide resort quality landscaping. 

Living Machine at Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA

Living Machine® has potential to be applied world wide.  The U.S. based company has received inquiries from India, Australia, China and the Middle East.  A basic system was installed in Tema, Ghana that has successfully improved the water quality of a protected lagoon and provided agricultural irrigation since 2007.  Currently, additional purification technology can be applied to effluent from the Living Machine® to reach standards for potable water.  Working in countries with greater need and less stringent regulations might push the company to edge their system closer towards this goal.

Currently, Living Machine® has been installed in several locations where the mechanics of the system doubles as landscaping and courtyard for the projects.  The Water Purification Skyscraper in Jakarta offers an enticing vision for a similar technology in which the mechanics and structure furthers the trend of using living walls which are productive, educational, and lush.

Camille Cladouhos is on staff with Feldman Architecture.

In this video, lighting designer and author Randall Whitehead IALD discusses energy-efficient lighting design.  With several examples of LED and fluorescent lighting, Randall dispels the myth that a compromise in design must be made when choosing these efficient, long life alternatives to incandescent lighting.

Click here for the video.

With so much buzz surrounding the modern green movement – grant money, tax credits, and an ever increasing market demand – there is an important question of the associated role of water and where it stands.  Energy, for the most part has been a topic that has elicited an enormous political response, especially, at the federal and state level, with generous incentives and subsidies to homeowners encouraging investment in their own residential energy systems.  These energy savings in green buildings are of course very beneficial and are predicted to save approximately 45 million metric tons of carbon output within the next four years.  This is the equivalent of taking 8 million cars of the road!  But, what is also very astounding is the amount of energy that can be saved by de-centralizing water systems, capturing and using on-site water resources for outdoor purposes, as well as for toilet flushing and washing machines.  This practice can equate to a 60-80% percent decrease in annual water use which also entails huge energy savings.  California, the second highest energy using state in the U.S., shockingly uses approximately 30% its energy to move and treat water.  Most people don’t realize that the water coming out of their faucet originated hundreds of miles away.  If homes can be furnished with independent energy systems using governmental incentives than why can’t independent water systems be under the same umbrella? … pun intended.  Using alternative energy to supply power to small residential pumping systems supplying water for 60-80% of a building’s total water needs, equates to an astounding energy savings of approximately 21-28 million metric tons of carbon output per year! In four years, this adds up to 84-112 million metric tons of carbon or the equivalent of 14.8-19.6 million automobiles off of the roads.  The profound implications of water and its relation to energy or “watergy” has unfortunately been held under the radar for far too long.

These numbers, though substantial, are still only taking into account residential water use and corresponding energy savings.  Utilizing rainwater for cooling and toilet flushing in commercial office and retail buildings, public institutions and hospitals could increase energy savings by much more.  When the continuing threat and impact of global climate change has been simplified to an over abundance of carbon in earth’s atmosphere an important question to ask is this:  What is the carbon footprint of a glass of pure rainwater caught from the clouds supplied via gravity, versus, the carbon footprint of a desalinated glass of water filtered from a high saline source and pumped miles to your faucet?

Though the topic of this discussion has primarily been about energy, the other, more apparent issue is water scarcity.  By being aware of water use and supply in any development or future development, and taking certain steps to limit unnecessary water waste as well as harnessing on-site water resources, we can tackle the looming issue of a water crisis.  There are numerous projects that have incorporated water saving strategies as well as on-site rainwater or greywater reclamation systems that have been documented to have reduced water usage by 60-70%.  The most notable examples of these projects are in Australia, where it is common place to utilize rainwater for interior as well as exterior purposes. It is also important to note that only 10 years ago there was almost no legislation of this practice which now is considered mainstream.  Water sustainability can be accomplished in most old and new developments as long as a comprehensive approach is taken.  Given our dwindling groundwater supplies, ever increasing population, reduced snowpack and state budget woes, large scale solutions to water shortages cannot be depended on to solve the problem. 

“We can obtain real water from a Virtual River of water efficiency, trimming water waste, recycling wastewater, and capturing rainwater in urban areas before it flows into storm drains. There’s more water available from these sources than we’ve ever exported from the Delta.”  – Doug Obegi

This quote sums up the potential solutions to water availability and is very profound given all of the political issues that constantly come up regarding water rights and diversion debates.  A top down effort and decentralized approach to natural resource conservation and management is of the utmost importance in the focused efforts of the 21st century’s green movement.  All energy and water systems are inextricably interconnected in nature, and the same goes for modern society.  Water and energy are the two main driving factors for life on earth and should continue to be, as we responsibly carry on humanity through sustainable development for centuries to come.

Bobby Markowitz, founder of Earthcraft Landscape Design, has been designing rainwater harvesting systems and educating professionals for nearly a decade. A licensed Landscape Architect, Accredited Professional by the American Rainwater Catchment System Association, Certified Permaculturist (taught by Founder Bill Mollison), Mr. Markowitz has advanced the viability of water conservation systems into the forefront of landscape architecture. A graduate of Rutgers University, Mr. Markowitz’s work is influenced by his study abroad in Japan and advanced water harvesting workshops in Australia. A frequent guest lecturer and keynote speaker for numerous Landscape Architecture and Rainwater Catchment System Associations, Mr. Markowitz has provided valuable insight into the design of sustainable sites and water conservation systems. In addition to his practice, Bobby Markowitz also teaches “Rainwater Harvesting System: Principles and Design” at Cabrillo College.

In May 2009, five curious new wavy red-roofed bus shelters were constructed around San Francisco.  Their unorthodox design and interesting features have garnered recognition in many circles around the world, but very few have heard of the highly innovative and collaborative story behind this great green project.

According to Lundberg Design project manager Ryan Hughes, the biggest misconception about the project was that funding came entirely from the city of San Francisco. Instead, the city served as an enabler and beneficiary.  The SFMTA administers a long-term lease of the new bus shelter locations and advertising space, making the city a major beneficiary of the project, in terms of revenue and public infrastructure, but not the project’s financial investor.

Typically, bus shelters are financially viable because they are paired with large advertising boards, which outdoor advertising agencies negotiate rights for.  In late 2006, SFMTA issued an RFP for a 20-year lease of the bus shelters as the current contract was coming to a close.  The scope of the RFP included the design and construction of 1100-1500 new bus shelters, which called for integrated solar power or green features, and universal design/accessibility requirements.  In return the companies had exclusive rights to sell advertising with over fifty percent of the revenues to go back to the city. The RFP bidders (and ultimately, the contractor for these innovative new bus shelters) were all major outdoor advertising companies such as CBS/JC Decaux, ClearChannel Outdoor and CemUSA.

The three outdoor advertising companies each submitted between 10-15 new shelter designs, for a total of about 35 designs to be reviewed by various city agencies.  Clear Channel Outdoor chose to take a local route, hiring three San Francisco-based architecture firms to come up with designs. The boldest entry came from Olle Lundberg of Lundberg Design, who proposed a glowing wavy translucent roof as a signature feature. The shape was chosen to evoke both the multiple hills that make up San Francisco’s dramatic landscape, as well as the seismic waves triggered by occasional earthquakes. While unconventional, the strength of the strong design statement was undisputed and Clear Channel Outdoor was eventually rewarded the contract, exclusively using the Lundberg Design bus shelter.

Striking as the roof was, it served as more than just a dramatic design gesture.  There was a strong ecological justification behind the translucent red panels and the design and material selection process is a unique case study for innovation and material development. Lundberg Design searched high and low for a material appropriate to realize the curvy wave form. After considering glass and metal, they worked closely with 3form, a company known for their composite plastic materials, to adapt their Koda XT line, which includes 40% pre-consumer recycled plastic.  Koda is a highly durable polycarbonate material that can withstand the toughest exterior conditions: wind loads, moisture, thermal expansion in heat and contraction in cold. Working together, Lundberg Design and 3form modified the shape to take advantage of the strengths of the Koda material, adding additional thermo-formed curves to the originally flat end portion of the roof, to allow the ½” thick polycarbonate to span over four feet between the roof supports without sagging.

To raise the bar on ecological design performance, the designers wanted the roof to be a productive element itself.  The original design intention was for the roof to filter light but also harness light to create electricity.  Looking for the right photovoltaic product to integrate with 3form’s Koda line required a lot of collaboration.  Konarka Technology is a plastics company that makes a polymer based photovoltaic film, Power Plastic, which differs from typical photovoltaic cells that require silicon.  Konarka’s film consists of an organic dye printed on a clear plastic substrate to convert sunlight to electricity.  The inspirational design concept led to a pioneering project to encapsulate the Power Plastic modules into a colorful three dimensional and resilient structure. The challenge for Lundberg Design, 3form and Konarka was to develop a manufacturing process and assembly detail that would essentially assimilate the Konarka Power Plastic film to the curvy Koda XT roof structure without damaging the photovoltaics, and while maintaining a clean layout with even spacing of the photovoltaic film pieces.  After several rounds of testing lamination techniques and the development of custom molds, 3form devised the optimal assembly and process conditions to allow for successful lamination of the Konarka Power Plastic to the bold colors of the curvy Koda XT panels.

But what were the photovoltaics for?  The bus shelter roof was designed to produce enough electricity to do several things: 1) power an LED message board that gives NextBus updates, 2) power “Push-to-Talk” features which reads the NextBus information aloud for hearing impaired travelers, 3) operate a wi-fi router and 4)power  lights for advertising panels at night.  During the day, the roof generates more electricity than the NextBus sign,” Push-to-Talk” and wi-fi router requires and the shelters actually add energy to the grid.  Working with PG&E, the design team managed to connect the shelters directly to the grid and outfit a meter that runs in reverse.  At night, lighting the advertisements within the shelter consumes grid power, but the overall electricity usage is close to the amount generated by the panels.

In the seven months since five prototype bus shelters were installed, representatives from Konarka have tested the performance of the integrated solar panel, and found it to be performing slightly above expectation.  From the general assessment by Lundberg Design’s team, overall the shelters break even in terms of energy usage, generating enough power during to day to power all functions and sell energy back to the grid, and by night, spending about the same amount of energy that they put into the grid.

The San Francisco Bus Shelters are a great new model for green architecture, not just in terms of design, but in terms of technology and innovation, collaborative partnerships and a financial viability.   For many of us who believe in the value and practice of green principles in our design work, realizing green projects may require changes in our practice models. The standard architect-client relationship may not be enough, and creating innovative, high impact design projects may require engagement and collaboration with a broader spectrum of stakeholders. The success of the SFMTA Bus Shelters is a strong example not just of the design potential but of the partnership possibilities.

Elaine Uang works at Feldman Architecture.