Transstudio

Disappearing Act

2007-01-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

Optical Camouflage, Tachi Laboratory, University of Tokyo
While there has been a recent surge in interest about new materials for architecture and design - a new materialism, if you will - it is easy to overlook a fundamental counter-trend, which is that materials are slowly... disappearing. I'm not referring to some science fiction fantasy (e.g., "Invasion of the Material Snatchers"), but rather the fundamental and consistent technological trends leading to increased strength-to-weight ratios and light-transmittance. This tendency towards dematerialization is rooted in the natural trajectory of technology itself, which wants to maximize efficiency, miniaturize, and do more with less, coupled with an intriguing socio-environmental phenomenon concerning increased transparency in the physical environment. This 'de-solidification' has perhaps as much to do with a public desire for increased access and accountability as perceived from the outside of commercial and institutional structures, as much as the desire for increased access to light and views from the inside of structures. As a result, the frontiers of material development are defined significantly by high-performance, exotic materials and composites that shatter previous paradigms about solidity and opacity. Moreover, because these materials typically stretch resources farther than conventional substitutes, this development is encouraged in light of increased environmental concerns.

Windows into Walls
Nanogel, Cabot Corporation
There has been a fair amount of buzz in recent years surrounding aerogel, the NASA-developed, translucent insulating material which is the lightest human-made substance known. However, there is less knowledge about the extent to which this material will alter our preconceptions about solidity in architecture via its application in the product Nanogel. Developed by Cabot Corporation, Nanogel is a pelletized, nanoporous material that delivers unsurpassed thermal insulation and light transmission. Comprised by quartz particles mixed with 99% air, feather-light Nanogel weighs only 90 grams per liter. Compared with other insulation materials, Nanogel provides a superior combination of thermal and sound insulation as well as light transmission and diffusion characteristics – just half an inch of the material provides 73% light transmission with a solar heat gain coefficient of U = 0.25. What this means is that the relationship between the historically solid, insulating wall and the light-transmitting, thermally-conductive window has forever changed. Now walls can be windows and vice-versa, and the age-old battle between light vs. thermal protection is rendered moot.

When Concrete Becomes Something Else
Pixel Panels, Bill Price
Old notions about solidity are further shattered in new forms of concrete that transmit light – an idea that seemed the stuff of sci-fi novels until the new millennium brought us at least two such examples from different parts of the globe. Since his days working as an architect and materials researcher at the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, Houston-based Bill Price has been on a quest to make concrete a light-transmissive medium. His Pixel Panels are comprised by a uniform array of acrylic rods set within a concrete binder, thus providing translucency at a given viewing distance. Bill has performed many modifications on the recipe, varying the ratio of concrete-to-polymer to allow for limitless variations, and achieving as much as 25% light-transmittance.

LitraCube, Áron Losonczi
Bill's contemporary Áron Losonczi has likewise developed a light-transmitting concrete, called Litracon, in his Hungary-based studio. Unlike Pixel Panels, Litracon utilizes thousands of fine fiber optic strands to carry light, which results in a high resolution of detail. Litracon is also manufactured in solid, brick-sized building blocks, whereas Pixel Panels are manufactured in thinner sheets. Given the expense of Losonczi 's material, he has cleverly designed new, small-scale products using Litracon, such as the LitraCube lamp. Although the concrete used in Pixel Panels and Litracon is similar to that which has been used for decades in conventional building construction, in a demonstration of the paradigm-shifting nature of these products, one of my colleagues asked, "But is it still concrete?"

Superstrong Windows
Transparent Ceramics, Fraunhofer Institute
Star Trek fans will remember the far-fetched Transparent Aluminum material used to contain a large aquarium in the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but they may not have realized a similar material would be developed in the laboratories of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute. Transparent alumina ceramics allow unprecedented light-transmittance in a strong and durable medium. The next generation transparent corundum ceramics can be manufactured with complex (even hollow) shapes, and exhibit significant bending strength and micro-hardness. The in-line transmission of transparent ceramics is close to 60% in visible light and approaches the theoretical limit in the infrared range. An even higher visible light transmission of roughly 80 % at 1 mm thickness is enabled by a new sub-micrometer spinel. Faceted colored gemstones of about 1.5 carat have been manufactured with a polycrystalline microstructure of transparent ceramics, and filters have been manufactured for optical applications with the same material. Future applications include super-strong, heat-resistant windows as well as transparent armor. Like Nanogel, transparent ceramics revolutionize the window as it is conventionally understood, and in this case there is an added dimension of fire and blast-resistance, making transparent ceramics ideal for high-hazard applications.

Making the Visible Invisible
Optical Camouflage, Tachi Laboratory, University of Tokyo
While these high-performance, light-transmitting materials compel us to question the nature of solidity, a new technology developed by the University of Tokyo seeks to make matter disappear altogether. Scientists at the Tachi Laboratory have developed Optical Camouflage, which utilizes a collection of devices working in concert to render a subject invisible. Although more encumbering and complicated than Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, this system has essentially the same goal. Optical Camouflage requires the use of clothing – in this case, a hooded jacket – made with a retro-reflective material, which is comprised by thousands of small beads that reflect light precisely according to the angle of incidence. A digital video camera placed behind the person wearing the cloak captures the scene that the individual would otherwise obstruct, and sends the data to a computer for processing. A sophisticated program calculates the appropriate distance and viewing angle, and then transmits the scene via projector using a combiner, or a half-silvered mirror with an optical hole, which allows a witness to perceive a realistic merger of the projected scene with the background – thus rendering the cloak-wearer invisible. Potential applications of this technology include a process called mutual telexistence, in which real-time video of two or more distance-separated individuals is projected onto surrogate robotic participants via sophisticated communications technology, as well as various methods of removing tool-based optical obstructions, such as vehicles that allow pilots and drivers to see more of their exterior environment than is visible through windows, tools that allow doctors to witness an operation through their hands, or projectors that provide exterior views in windowless rooms.

Challenging Solidity
When we consider all of these new disruptive materials and technologies, we see the extraordinary extent to which solidity is being questioned. What is more, the fact that examples all exist in applicable forms today means that the future has already arrived. In the words of Marshall Berman, "All that is solid melts into air."

[This article will appear in the upcoming issue of Ambidextrous magazine.]

Raw Material Time Horizons

2006-09-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Based on a recent United States Geological Study, Lester Brown informs us that we will exhaust known stores of several vital metals within the next two to three generations, based on a reasonable estimation of 2% growth in extraction.¹ While recycling efforts have accelerated, virgin materials are still being harvested at an alarming rate.

What will the world be like when we have run out of copper or steel? The average building today relies upon a great quantity of these resources for its construction. Faced with these facts, we can easily imagine a future in which industry has completely re-engineered its handling of material resources. After all, there seems to be no other choice.

¹Brown, Lester, Plan B 2.0, New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. p. 109

The Back End

2006-04-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

We are generating more waste than ever before. We create waste coming and going, creating and destroying, preserving and dismantling.

The construction industry is the most wasteful, with 136 million tons of construction debris generated annually in the United States. Building a 2,000 square foot home actually creates 8,000 pounds of waste. This figure translates to 2.8 pounds of waste generated per capita per day in America.

Now, imagine if disposal was not an option.

A Paradigm of Extraction

2006-04-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

How did we decide to unleash the energy stored over billions of years beneath the earth’s surface as our primary fuel source? Who was monitoring the supply and demand for this resource? It comes as no surprise that humankind will exhaust fossil fuel supplies in a mere blink of the time required to store them.

Might we consider this profligate behavior a form of thievery, if not against the world, then against future generations? Should we not seek energy sources that may be harnessed ‘live,’ in which the rate of depletion never surpasses the rate of storage? Could we not emulate real-time natural models for daily energy use (such as photosynthesis), and save long-time stored supplies for peak or emergency uses?

The Big Material Picture

2006-03-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

"Our species has made 680 million tons of aluminum since 1880 and we still know where 440 million tons are," said William McDonough in a recent interview with Jennifer Leonard. This means that we have used a greater amount of aluminum than the amount known to remain. While there must be undiscovered stores, this point raises important questions about material resources in general. What is the bigger picture regarding resources used for major building materials today? What limits are being discovered regarding material sourcing and manufacturing? Why has the media been quiet about these issues?

Infrastructure in Peril

2006-01-25T10:26:00.000-08:00

The greater the infrastructural outlay of a civilization, the greater the resources required to maintain it. As energy concerns mount, this maintenance becomes that much more expensive. In addition, resources dedicated to maintenance alone begin to outweigh those dedicated to creative research and development, and the available energy per capita goes down.

The following is a brief laundry list of the current state of US infrastructure. The outlook isn't pretty:
33% of major roads are considered substandard
$5.8 billion cost to drivers
13,800 highway fatalities per year
29% bridges considered structurally deficient
$10.6 billion cost to fix bridges
50,000 flight delays at nation's airports
75% of school buildings deemed inadequate
54,000 drinking water systems deemed inadequate
16,000 waste water systems near collapse
2,100 dams classified unsafe
44% inland waterway systems obsolete
30% annual shortfall in electric capacity¹

It is sobering to note that when Rome began to fall, the maintenance demands on its expansive infrastructure had reached a critical limit with fewer energy returns per capita...

¹"Renewing America's Infrastructure: A Citizen's Guide." American Society of Civil Engineers, 2001. pp. 3, 6-7

Global Peak Oil Estimates

2006-01-24T17:27:00.000-08:00

We need to prepare for an event that will shake the foundations of the industrial project and life as we know it. This event is the peak in global oil supplies. Unfortunately, the actual timing of this peak is a highly contentious topic, and the scientific community cannot agree on a deadline. Moreover, the event will come and go without most of us knowing it - until too late. In fact, we may already have crossed this threshold.

The peak doesn't mean the world will run out of oil. It is simply the point at which accelerating demand meets decelerating supply. It is a simple law of economics based on limited natural resources. Can technological improvements increase supplies? Certainly. However, the further we advance past the peak, the supply/demand imbalance itself will accelerate.

Energy Consumption Imbalance

2006-01-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

The United States is home to less than 5% of the global population, yet consumes 25% of the world's energy. Not surprisingly, rapidly developing nations such as China and India desire greater energy shares, but at what cost? Americans already contribute 30 percent of global CO₂ emissions, or 6.6 tons of greenhouse gases per person annually, based on this energy diet.¹

¹World Resources. A Report by World Resources Institute, UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank; "Climate Change and Energy." World Resources Institute. February 2002.

Energy Slave Equivalency

2006-01-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

So what do we measure our energy diet against? How do we perceive its magnitude?

Geologist Walter Youngquist suggests that we correlate energy consumption to "person-power." One individual can contribute approximately .25 horsepower, so 1 PP = .25 hp = 186 watts = 635 BTU/hr. The energy diet described below would require us to employ fifty-eight energy slaves working 24/7 without taking a break. Moreover, if "we purchased the energy in a barrel of oil for the same price we pay for human labor ($5/hr), it would cost us over $45,000."¹

¹Youngquist, Walter. GeoDestinies: The Inevitable Control of Earth Resources over Nations and Individuals. Portland, OR: National Book Company. 1997. p. 32

Energy Consumed by the Average American

2006-01-07T07:14:00.000-08:00

Clearly our energy utilization as a modern society has increased exponentially since the dawn of technology. Does this not suggest that we continue to move towards one kind of order at the expense of creating an unprecedented amount of disorder?

Today, the annual energy diet of the average American is gluttonous indeed, and amounts to 8,000 pounds of oil, 4,700 pounds of natural gas, 5,150 pounds of coal, and one-tenth of a pound of uranium each year.¹

¹Youngquist, Walter. GeoDestinies: The Inevitable Control of Earth Resources over Nations and Individuals. Portland, OR: National Book Company. 1997. p. 22

Free Energy in the Food Chain

2006-01-05T05:57:00.000-08:00

If we consider energy in a very broad sense, we recall that the first and second laws of thermodynamics state that "the total energy content in the universe is constant, and the total entropy is continually increasing."¹ The idea that there is a set and finite amount of energy in the universe is something we may comprehend, but the fact that this energy continually moves to a less usable state is more difficult to understand.

Moreover, we find that the more advanced the species, the more free energy is required for its survival. Because 80-90% of stored energy is typically lost in the translation from prey to predator, the food that reaches our table comes at an exorbitant cost. Chemist G. Tyler Miller describes a sample food chain in this way: "Three hundred trout are required to support one man for a year. The trout, in turn, must consume 90,000 frogs, which must consume 27 million grasshoppers, which live off of 1,000 tons of grass."²

¹Asimov, Isaac. "In the Game of Energy and Thermodynamics You Can't Even Break Even." Smithsonian. August 1970. p. 9
²Miller, G. Tyler, Jr. Energetics, Kinetics and Life. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1971. p. 46

Energy and the First Machine Age

2006-01-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

We cannot consider physical materials without regarding the resources utilized to mine, manufacture, transport, construct, and distribute them. History has shown us the extent to which various civilizations have been shaped by their energy resources, and complacency in the face of dwindling supplies has led even the greatest empires to collapse.

We may face such a moment today. The international scientific community has suggested that we may be nearing the brink of inestimable change. We are nearing the point at which half the earth's supply of crude oil has been tapped, soon to be followed by the same halfway mark for natural gas. While plenty of fossil fuel reserves will still remain, our thirst for such energy sources will outstrip their extractability at an accelerated rate. No one is certain what the outcome will be, but the upheaval of international markets may be the least of our worries.

Think about it. We are the great-great-grandchildren of the petroleum era. We may think of ourselves in futuristic terms, and claim to be the information-age society, yet virtually every aspect of our lives is still defined by the extraction of fuels from fossils. Transportation, power, heat, lighting, plastics, agriculture... what element of modern-day life does not necessitate fossil fuel utilization? The First World has been molded by a veritable one-hit energy wonder, and there is no readily available alternative.

Armed with this knowledge, no creative endeavor that we could seek to advance at this point - especially architecture - may be contemplated without regard for our precarious stance in terms of rapidly depleting fossil fuels.

Transmaterial has a new website

2005-11-06T16:43:00.000-08:00

Transmaterial, a catalog of materials which redefine our physical environment, will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in February 2006. In celebration of this publication, the companion website has been redesigned with a new home here. The website will be updated regularly with innovative materials not featured in the book's collection of nearly 200 products. In addition, the site is structured to be a forum for dialogue about innovative materials and their use in design and construction.

Fast Forward

2005-11-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

The world has been transformed. What shall we make?

The world is radically different today than it was yesterday. Our global paradigm is characterized by crumbling energy regimes, dwindling raw materials, fading geopolitical boundaries, the commodification of personal time, and the radical transformation of our physical environment.

As the industrial era concludes its final chapter, we enter a second machine age which is defined by the marriage of biological and mechanical systems, a massively distributed alternative-energy economy, and the ultimate blurring between work, live, and play.

Design will play a fundamental role in this new epoch, and creativity will be the ultimate criterion for success. Since new problems will require new solutions, we can only preserve the future by letting go of present conventions. Creating a non-fossil-fuel based energy regime and remediating damaged global ecologies, for example, will be two of many imminent challenges that will require profoundly creative answers.