As reported throughout the "blogosphere" as well as in the mainstream media, 2007 was THE year for the much needed resurgence in "green building" and environmentally friendly architecture. We hope this will develop even further. In order to find out just what a sustainable house looks like, and how one works, we went along with the award winning Berlin architects Müllers Büro for a tour of one of their latest construction projects. We also met the owner who explained her side of the building process.As we found out, being green doesn't have to mean being simple, and this large country house has all the trimmings, mods-cons and more!
Watch the video here.

Econic Design may not sound familiar, yet, but it is a pioneering direction for architecture and design of the future. It takes the point of view of “Ecology + Icon = Econic” and aims to construct buildings that are not only environmentally friendly, but actually contribute to the city experience and quality of life. Inspired by Brazilian tribes, Econic Design goes further than just energy efficiency and sustainability, and explores energy generating materials!

Econic Design is still in the experimental stage and being work-shopped at University of Pennsylvania School of Design and in Rio. Club Of Pioneers will be following it's evolution and host a discussion where pioneers and students can exchange ideas.

As an introduction, here is an interview with Econic Design facilitator and Club of Pioneers member Matthias Hollwich.
What is your personal background and work?
I am an architect - born, raised, and educated in Munich.
I call the basis of everything I do in my architectural praxis “concept engineering and space shaping”. It's a way to affect architecture in a more substantial way than to just design according to a client brief. Most recently I have worked with the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau and started my own company that recently moved from Amsterdam to New York – HollwichKushner.
Can you talk more about the Econic Design course ?The University of Pennsylvania is a hot breeding grounds for new direction and talents in architectural design. I call it an Ivy League underdog (maybe because of it being in Philadelphia) - the university does not have the “star power” of Harvard or Columbia – but has a unique diverse faculty, cross departmental collaborations (biology meets structural engineering and architectural design) and a progressive open minded and curious group of students. It has the perfect DNA for inventiveness. The class I am teaching is a “classic” 3rd year design studio with a “non classic” syllabus. The studio task is the design of an Econic Building located in Rio de Janeiro.
Ecology + Icon = Econic.
What was your incentive and what do you hope to achieve?
Architecture is mainly developed from a program with specific dimensions packaged into an experience and a good looking envelope. A contemporary and responsible architect will infuse sustainable ideas and try to minimize the impact of the building on our environment. When I was in Rio this spring I heard about Brazilian tribes, living in the rainforest. They settled in areas of weak vegetation and started to plant new flora, and nurtured the grounds. Once the plants prospered they moved on, looking for the next weak spot. The whole attitude was about an active responsibility to nature. Whether it was a fairytale or real it inspired me to ask the question How can we, as architects, design buildings that have a positive effect on the surroundings?” In the same way rainforests are being used as equity for CO2 trading, architecture might also become valuable and equity in itself. In the Econic Studio I aim to develop with my students
buildings that are initiators for a new consciousness in society where the design is based on ecological findings that turn into an attractor and infrastructure for ecological knowledge generation and communication. A building that is in tune with its urban and natural context generating clean air and providing its surrounding with energy rather than abusing the context and poisoning it by burning fuel and wasting material.
Explain the relationship between theory and practice? I call myself an “Experimentalist” and this is also how the studio is structured. Very often you can see in architecture a lot of theories being developed but than the translation into spatial artefacts is lacking. In the studio the students are already developing spatial concept models. Parallel to this they are researching aspects of sustainability, references and inspiration in nature, key ecological projects from the last years etc. Over time the experimental models, the research and site-specific aspects will merge into one consistent entity that we will retroactively theorize at the end.
What will happen in Rio?In Rio we will visit the site, which is located in the heart of Rio de Janeiro at the location of the former art academy and embedded in a dense urban context. The urban location requires an integrated response to renew its urban environment and therefore site presence
and analyses is crucial. We will also visit the rainforest and buildings from Oscar Niemeyer. On two days we will have “white room workshops” where we invite guests for a workshop in which everybody infuses knowledge, critique, and suggestions into the concepts. Rio is also the moment where the students need to commit to one specific concept direction and bring all the different parts together into one cohesive entity. Of course we will also embed ourselves into local culture and hopefully participate in a samba event!

Why is it important for designers to think about sustainability and follow through with it after the “green” trend has passed?I think it is not a question of thinking about sustainability or not. It is pure math that if we do not apply sustainable ideas, humanity will have a very tough time in the future. The world will recover in one way or another and reinvent itself – but we humans are the ones who are truly in danger. To me it is interesting that during my education as an architect in Germany 16 years ago sustainability was key and all our designs had be ecological enhanced. It was state of the art – but in the US and many other countries that sentiment awoke just a few years ago and many applied methods and technologies are still lacking. With adding formal language to ecology I hope to raise awareness – but also allow the design discipline to expand its vocabulary with a reason-based output. We can almost repeat Mies van der Rohe's message of
“Form follows function” but the term function has vastly expanded including providing “sustainable performance” and a “green marketing message”. In the future I wish that sustainability – or even better, regenerative ideas - are part of any architectural project globally
and new progressive spatial configurations, programmatic fusions and formalistic expressions evolve.
What are your personal thoughts on Econic Design?To me Econic Design is a vision that sets goals but also triggers curiosity and creativity. I told my students that the studio is not calling for a building that is ecological in every sense, but for ways of thinking that show a range of potential. Ideas and solutions are to establish a speculative vision for the future. I can imagine Simulated Ecosystems, Adapted nature, Living technologies, Added eco-machines, Growing structure, Pollinating energy, Materials as nutrients, and many more directions that are initiated by the Econic idea.Can you mention other projects that are pioneering in their design?The exciting aspect of today is that many creative people work with sustainable ideas in one way or another. In architecture where we had Modernism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism I can see an "Ecologicalism" unfolding.
People or works of creativity I like for one
or another reason are:
Sir Norman Foster for the Hearst Tower and others, Marcel Kalberer and the Arena Salix, Oppenheimer Architecture and Cormiami building, Cloud 9 and Morphorest, Herzog & de Meuron - their Beijing Stadium, Janine Benyus for Biomimicry, Rem Koolhaas - A Creative power head), Toyota (Prius), Mayor Bloomberg and his Green City Plan, MVRDV(Expo 2000 Pavillion), Al Gore and Live earth, Germany
(has had an ecological drive for years), Books by J Scott Turner (How design emerges from life itself)
and Kenny Ausubel (Natures Operating Instructions ) and many others including Mother Earth.all images courtesy of M Hollwich

I first came across BAD (The Bath) on a Rotterdam Harbourside. The odd looking structure was part of the FollyDock exhibition, a showcase of architectural objects built just for fun. But after watching it spring into life, and speaking with the creators, SMAQ, it's clear there is more to the BAD than just pleasure alone. In this age of energy saving measures, who wouldn't want to enjoy a solar powered hot-tub!

BAD is made from a garden hose - about one kilometre long - that holds enough water to fill the beautifully designed wooden tub. The hydrant is then “plugged into” the nearest water-source (in this case the harbour) and allowed to stand for around 2 hours. Arranged in countless loops, the elastic hose forms the surface of a screen that catches the sun, thus slowly heating the water in the hose. The water in the hose then fills a bowl that fits up to two people. Double fun! Afterwards the water is released to irrigate the surroundings.

SMAQ was founded by architects Sabine Müller and Andreas Quednau, and is a studio for architecture, urbanism and research based in Berlin and Rotterdam.
SMAQ explains “ BAD explores ways of inhabiting and interpreting the urbanized landscape, based on infrastructural realities and leisure conventions. In the process it exploits an every-day practice and extrapolates the material characteristics of the required infrastructure into ornamental architecture.” Other designs have included the "Pick your own strawberries" initiative to facilitate vegetations strips between highways as well as an idea to cover the parking lot of the Dodger's Stadium with swimming pools and a Skiing range.
Although it looks high tech, the bath is actually very easy to construct, and the whole process took less than a month while at the Schloss Solitiude, an art residency and gallery in Stuttgart.To see more images of the construction diary, go here.

Part of the design includes using the piping as an ad-hoc changing room.BAD has proved popular. It won second prize in the Environmental Tectonics Competition sponsored by the Architectural Association (London) in connection with the Environments, Ecology and Sustainability Research Cluster. Now we can only wait to see if it receives commercial backing, and replace all those energy guzzling electric spas. Club of Pioneers will keep you posted.
All images from SMAQ

As noted in a previous Club of Pioneers blog, urbanization is on the rise. And while there is the negative scenario of overpopulated cites becoming, as writer Mike Davis puts it, "a city of slums", there are urban initiatives, designers and architects who are involved in creating more liveable cities.One of those is Urban Think Tank (UTT) who work in Caracas, Venezuela.
UTT was formed ten years ago by the architects Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner who met at Columbia Univesity. Following their studies, Klumpner, who is originally from Austria, joined Brillembourg in his home town of Caracas and set up an architectural practice to bring design expertise into a city where 90 percent of its 6 million inhabitants have built their own homes.
They refer to Caracas as “the informal city” as the surrounding slums or “barrios” have no central plan, and are without infrastructure such as electricity or sanitation. As the city is overcrowded, space is always an issue when building, but UTT have found ingenious ways around this.

The Vertical Gymnasium
A major factor in the high crime rate in Caracas is the lack of public space and entertainment for young people. Many end up in gangs and Caracas has one of the highest crime rates in South America. The Vertical Gym is 3 floors and contains basketball courts, a dance studio, weight lifting, a running track, a rock climbing wall, and an open air playing field for soccer.

The design is a prototype, which means it can be easily copied and built again and again. Brillembourg says that future gymnasiums will incorporate solar energy, wind turbines and rain water.
Core Unit/Dry Toilets
The simple compost toilets designed by UTT utilizes rainwater, composts and needs no black-water pipes. In a town where water can be more expensive than gasoline, dry water toilets are essential to create sustainable and non polluted sanitation.

Instead of seeing Caracas as a no-hope zone, UTT sees is as a “laboratory” and believe that there needs to be "a network of interchanging ideas, possible solutions and goodwill” when it comes to planning for the future city.
The documentary “Caracas: The Informal City” has been made by Rob Schröder.
More information can be found here from the INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE ROTTERDAM - Here
Urban Think Tank Website

After visiting London two weeks ago for a Conference on Climate Change organized by the Guardian I found it interesting that a lot is talked about sustainabile lifestyle in the London, especially about urban environmentalism.We already met Sir Norman Foster in February in Munich where he gave a splendid speech about his vision of living in the cities in the 21st century. When I read the article of our Pioneer Bart on mingledingle I found the link to a text about a zero emissions home which I would like to share with you:The UK has unveiled its first zero emission home that will set the environmental standard for all new homes in the future.The two-bedroom house is insulated to lose 60% less heat than a normal home.It also features solar panels, a biomass boiler and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting.The design, unveiled at the Offsite 2007 exhibition in Watford, meets rules to be applied in 2016 that aim to make UK homes more energy-efficient.The Kingspan Off-Site's Lighthouse design is the first to achieve level six of the Code for Sustainable Homes - which means the house is carbon neutral.About a quarter of UK carbon emissions come from homes. You find the whole story here

Experts call it an energy-efficiency wonder.
The German construction company GBG set new standards by renovating an apartment complex in Mannheim, Germany. Since the renovation the building’s energy needs were reduced by stunning 90 percent. Heating the apartment requires no more than the equivalent of an annual three litres of heating oil per square meter. That’s never heard of and proves that not only newly build homes can be efficient but so can historical buildings – provided that it’s renovated the right way. That gives the motto: actively passive a whole new meaning…
Read the article here
Foto: Spiegel

EDITT Tower under construction, SingaporeUsable energy is a scarce resource, even if we have not passed Peak Oil then we are still faced with a worldwide competition among nations for a limited resource . Ultimately the price trend is up whether that energy source is petroleum, synfuel or biodiesel. In the built environment. Even the green(er) built environment the tendency is to use lots of technology to create a high performance building. LEED structures are creations that incorporate a tremendous number of labour and energy saving devices. They use the latest technologies to provide natural light, clean circulating air, conserve water and energy. Computer controlled shades that move up and down with the sun and energy conserving lighting systems.

IBM Menara Mesinaga Building, Kuala LumpurAll of which had to designed, manufactured, shipped and installed usually over long distances. While saving money for the building over the long-term it initially 'load shifts' compliance down the manufacturing and supply chain to others. In the gospel according to Coase this means that potentially the CO2 footprint is just relocated from one place to another. I expect this will change for the better as CO2 controls and offsets extend further down the manufacturing, supply and transport chain it can also be a shell game.

Tokyo Nara TowerObviously some structures such as skyscrapers are 'unnatural' constructions, often in 'unnatural' environments. Their raison d'etre is a result of land costs, building economics and desire for status, individual and corporate. Look at trees, nature's skyscrapers which incorporate many active and passive elements together. Aggregated in a forest you get economies of scale as well as a large potential habitat. You might even call it 'green infrastructure' so why not incorporate some of these elements directly into the design of the building weather conditions permitting.
An Out-there bioclimatic-type proposal for SeoulIt is possible to build a high performance building, especially a skyscraper, without as much gadgetry, without load shifting and within modern building envelopes? Ken Yeang thinks he can. His pioneering work, much of it in Southeast Asia, has created a new genre of buildings know as bioclimatic skyscrapers. His designs incorporate living plants into the ventilation and cooling systems of the building creating a different kind of built environment, one that actually treats plants as utilities or green infrastructure. Also they make beneficial use of wind and rain and the use of a 'lifecycle approach' to building design, materials and equipment. This 'bio-climatic' approach results in savings from less electricity consumption and from using materials with better passive quailities and from using living organisms that provide unique services (air filtration, evaporative cooling, CO2 removal) and are capable of self-renewal with minimal intervention.You can install 40 floors of computer controlled blinds or 40 floors of vines that change with the season. The aesthetic for those coming from the world of glass and steel might take some getting used too but makes sense in a world where resource competition grows ever more fierce. In essence Bio-Climatic design make use of a lot of simple things we knew and forgot as we made them more complicated. Ken Yeang will be speaking a the New York Academy of Sciences, April 5th, 7 World Trade Center, New York.Books & Reference