The Model Architect: Bart Prince

Innovative Materials

COCONUT-WOOD COMPOSITES

The coconut tree or palm is also known as 'The Tree of Life'. Although inappropriate, the term “coconut wood” has been established for the material of the coconut palm stem, and will therefore be used in this handbook as well. Unlike “conventional” trees, palms, like many other monocotyledons, have vascular fibre bundles (red-brown spots on a cross-section) scattered in a yellowish parenchymatic ground tissue. These bundles contain the water and nutrient transport system (xylem vessels and phloem) as well as thick-walled fibres giving the stem its strength, and paratracheal parenchymatic cells. The ground parenchyma has mainly a storage function and contains starch among other things. The anatomical features result in a rather non-homogenous distribution of physical properties both over cross-section and height, and thus in a very non-homogenous raw material. Principally, the density decreases towards the centre of the stem, and over stem height. Figure 1 gives a qualitative impression of the density distribution over the stem from five 80-year-old Philippine palms, Photo 1 shows its distribution (dark = high density) over a cross section.

In order to avoid using valuable tropical woods and thus felling rain forests, techniques have been developed in recent years to make the wood from coconut palm plantations suitable for the furniture industry and for flooring. Coconut wood has no annual rings. It is characterized by its spotted structure from which the Dutch manufacturer Kokoshout derived the name Cocodots. As the wood is significantly harder at the periphery of the trunk (outer 5 cm) than on the inside, it is primarily this wood that is used for material production. Coconut wood only shrinks and swells minimally and is harder than oak. Coconut wood composites consist of a 1218 mm thick MDF-core, to which coconut wood is applied.

See-Through, Light-Transmitting … Concrete?!

Concrete has a sometimes-bad reputation as a harsh, rigid, cold-to-the-touch and straight-edged material. Litracon is doing a great deal to change that image of concrete through a score of creative and sustainable applications for their patented light-transmitting concrete.

Filled with optical fibers that run from one end of a poured piece of concrete to the other, these prefabricated blocks and panels effectively transmit light from one side to the other. Colors and light remain remarkably consistent from end to end, but with a natural variation from the pouring process that actually softens the effects considerably.

The fibers can transmit light to over 50 feet and, as they occupy only a small percentage of the total concrete block or panel, they do not significantly effect the structural capabilities of the poured pieces.

One could imagine all kinds of artistic as well as functional applications for this new-and-improved form of concrete. Daylighting possibilities abound and all with potentially much lower heat loss and cost and with greater durability.

Perhaps best of all it puts another broad-ranging, highly versatile material choice in an architect’s or builder’s structural tool kit – what designers do with this solid-but-see-through substance ultimately will probably surprise us all.

LUMINOSO

In 2008, a light-transmitting wood composite material with a similar structure was launched under the Luminoso brand. Fiberglass mats are layered between thin wooden panels and bonded using cold PU glue. The surface is completely sealed. The choice of wood, space between layers, and strength of the luminous fabric can influence the degree of light permeability. The wood used for backlit paneling and dividers in interior spaces and trade fair stands must be absolutely flawless, so as not to disturb the overall impression. A picture that is placed behind the composite panel will be transferred to the other side once it is lit from the rear. Even films can be projected on to the material.

Freshome would like to thank Dr. Sascha Peters for introducing us to these innovative materials and for giving us a sneek peek into his book. For anyone who would like to find out more about how these and other innovative new materials are revolutionizing design and architecture, Dr. Peters’ book is available to buy here. You can also keep up to date with new developments in material innovation by reading Dr. Peters’ online magazine.

If you thought that see-through concrete was a cool material innovation, this even more refined-looking wooden counterpart may dazzle you even more. And with the core technology now fully developed, the sky is the limit – virtually any material can be made to let light pass through it.

Sandwiched between wooden slats, the vertical strips that help light move from one face to the other are visible as tall thin bars – but like vertical pixels, the effect of the composite image is readily apparent as our minds stitch the image back together. The resulting high-tech hybrid material can be deployed in everything from structural walls to horizontal surfaces or room dividers.

Similar cutting-edge, light-transmitting fiber-optics as those that allow lights and shadows to penetrate concrete (pre-cast or poured on site) are used by Luminoso to carry light from one side to the other – making considerations of density and thickness obsolete. Just imagine: a warm and dark wooden wall providing physical and psychological solidity and security – but that also lets light shine through it.

Interior Moss Tiles Help Grow the Vertical Garden Movement

Commercial and institutional applications of climbing and clinging greens have been on the rise for a while, but residential (and particularly: interior) options are still evolving, albeit at an ever-faster rate.

These MOSStiles turn inside gardens in on their side, literally and otherwise, making ‘green’ as much a texture or finish as a living material, more like wallpaper or wall art than a potted plant. The stabilized lichen lives off the moisture in the air, thus requiring little to no upkeep – pruning becomes a thing of the past and watering passe as well. Even naturally light is not necessary. Squares, rectangles, circles – or the reverse of any such geometric shape – are all possible and simple, too, with various shades of green to match any interior color scheme. So instead of a tough-to-maintain Bonzai tree on the one hand … or a set-and-forget cactus on the other … maybe tiles of moss will become the middle ground: vibrant and soft but easy to maintain, too. Want more from your moss? In theory, it can span whole surfaces, too, acting as a combination accent wall and noise dampener to help soften or nullify sound between interior spaces.

These aren't made from moss at all, but lichens - specifically reindeer moss (Cladonia rangiferina). This slow-growing lichen is harvested in Scandinavia, "stabilized" in a salt solution, glued onto tiles with a resin, then dyed one of twelve different colors.

This isn't a plant anymore. It might as well be made out of plastic. All the misting does is keeping them from drying out and crumbling to pieces.

However, reindeer moss is a major food source for caribou and other large ruminants. It's so slow growing that it's a threatened (and protected) species in some parts of the world. Do we really need to have preserved plants hanging on our walls like some kind of botanical trophy?

New Noise-Quenching Curtains Absorb Sound, Let in Light

  Somewhere between thick and opaque noise-blocking curtains and clear sound-reflecting glass windows there was a missing link, and this textile is it: lightweight and translucent, it sucks in sound without obscuring your view. Specializing in Materials Science & Technology, the EMPA worked with textiles experts, acoustical engineers and computer modelers to weave disparate disciplines into a new compelling set of acoustically-altered patterns. Passive noise cancellation is of course a particularly tricky task in malleable and thin materials due to issues of density and directionality. Mathematical projects and digital models led to real manufacturing and testing, resulting in something five times more soundproof than traditional hanging curtains (and significantly better than bare concrete or glazed surfaces) but still sufficiently fireproof and translucent to let in strands of daylight. Insert additional thread-and-weaving-related jokes here.

Chicken Philosophy

Some interesting Chicken Philosophy I stumbled upon recently.


WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD??? [http://www.infiltec.com/]

Plato: For the greater good.

Aristotle: To fulfill its nature on the other side.

Karl Marx: It was a historical inevitability.

Machiavelli: So that its subjects will view it with admiration, as a chicken which has the daring and courage to boldly cross the road, but also with fear, for whom among them has the strength to contend with such a paragon of avian virtue? In such a manner is the princely chicken's dominion maintained.

Hippocrates: Because of an excess of light pink gooey stuff in its pancreas.

Jacques Derrida: Any number of contending discourses may be discovered within the act of the chicken crossing the road, and each interpretation is equally valid as the authorial intent can never be discerned, because structuralism is DEAD, DAMMIT, DEAD!

Thomas de Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll find out.

Timothy Leary: Because that's the only kind of trip the Establishment would let it take.

Douglas Adams: Forty-two.

Nietzsche: Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road gazes also across you.

Oliver North: National Security was at stake.

B.F. Skinner: Because the external influences which had pervaded its sensorium from birth had caused it to develop in such a fashion that it would tend to cross roads, even while believing these actions to be of its own free will.

Carl Jung: The confluence of events in the cultural gestalt necessitated that individual chickens cross roads at this historical juncture, and therefore synchronicitously brought such occurrences into being.

Jean-Paul Sartre: In order to act in good faith and be true to itself, the chicken found it necessary to cross the road.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The possibility of "crossing" was encoded into the objects "chicken" and "road", and circumstances came into being which caused the actualization of this potential occurrence.

Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

Aristotle: To actualize its potential.

Buddha: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken-nature.

Howard Cosell: It may very well have been one of the most astonishing events to grace the annals of history. An historic, unprecedented avian biped with the temerity to attempt such an herculean achievement formerly relegated to homo sapien pedestrians is truly a remarkable occurrence.

Salvador Dali: The Fish.

Darwin: It was the logical next step after coming down from the trees.

Emily Dickinson: Because it could not stop for death.

Epicurus: For fun.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: It didn't cross the road; it transcended it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The eternal hen-principle made it do it.

Ernest Hemingway: To die. In the rain.

Werner Heisenberg: We are not sure which side of the road the chicken was on, but it was moving very fast.

David Hume: Out of custom and habit.

Saddam Hussein: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

Jack Nicholson: 'Cause it (censored) wanted to. That's the (censored) reason.

Pyrrho the Skeptic: What road?

Ronald Reagan: Well,...................

John Sununu: The Air Force was only too happy to provide the transportation, so quite understandably the chicken availed himself of the opportunity.

The Sphinx: You tell me.

Henry David Thoreau: To live deliberately ... and suck all the marrow out of life.

Mark Twain: The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.

Mishima: For the beauty of it. The chicken's extension of its sinuous legs sent shivers of a dark despair into the souls not only of the silently watching hens but also the roosters, who felt a sudden sexual desire for their exquisite comrade. The dark courage of the chicken was as beautiful as drops of dew upon jade at midnight, struck by a partial moon, its light filtered through clouds. One of the
deeply aroused roosters could stand the intensity of the moment no more and bit off the head of the beautiful, courageous chicken-hero, whose wine blood was deliciously drunken by the road, and he died.

Johnny Cochran: The chicken didn't cross the road. Some chicken-hating, genocidal, lying public official moved the road right under the chicken's feet while he was practicing his golf swing and thinking about his family.

Camus: The chicken's mother had just died. But this did not really upset him, as any number of witnesses can attest. In fact, he crossed just because the sun got in his eyes.

John Sununu (again): I would argue that the chicken never crossed the road at all. That it is a story concocted by the Clinton Administration to distract attention from their failed agriculture policy. Where is the evidence that the chicken crossed the road? Where, Michael?

Michael Kinsley: Oh, John, come on! Everybody knows the chicken crossed the road. What evidence do you need? It's obvious that the chicken crossed the road. Your whole argument is just a smoke and mirror tactic to distract us from the fact that most chickens polled now back the Democratic Party. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, John.

Siskel: I don't know why it crossed the road, but I loved it. Thumbs up!

Ebert: I disagree. The whole thing left the audience wondering; the chicken's crossing the road was never clearly explained and the chicken didn't emote very well. It couldn't even speak English! Thumbs down.

Michael Kinsley: But you both agree it did cross the road, right?
See, John. I'm right as usual.

Blueberry Mint Cooler

I found this really "cool" recipe which I intend to try later this weekend:
Btw, I nicked it off from Fab Frugal Food.

BLUEBERRY MINT COOLER

8 cups water
1 pint blueberries
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup lemon juice
1 handful mint leaves
Sweetener to taste*

Boil all ingredients except mint and sweetner for about 3 minutes, until blueberries have burst and are very soft. Strain liquid through a fine mesh strainer. Add mint leaves while liquid is still hot. Let cool to room temperature. Sweeten to taste. Serve over ice cubes. Serves 6 to 8.

spices

First time in a lot of years have I been sleeping more than 6 hours, let alone 12 hours!!! That's like a record for me, except when I was a baby, my mom told me that I used to sleep for 16 hours a day. I should have been a cat when I was younger.

What should I do today? Well, I have my very good friend from Taiwan and my boyfriend coming to visit me next week, so perhaps a little cleaning up wouldn't hurt. I started with my kitchen and I discovered I have actually bought a lot of spices throughout my 6 years of living in this apartment. I love spices. Spices are like perfume, they are never the "meat" per se, but it's something that I wouldn't cook without, and for sure I never leave home without putting on perfume probably since the age of 16. Spices give a dish a unique flavour, it makes the dish irresistible, spices is what makes you remember the dish. Very often, that's how men remember women, by their smell, and likewise for women.

my first blog entry

Blogging is not exactly something that I would ever imagine myself doing everyday or at least once a week, coz I simply do not have the time. What is the bloody point of starting a blog if one is not going to write something new on a regular basis? It is not my wish to expose my personal life and anything close to confidential information on the Internet. But I do want to express myself and share my thoughts and ideas with other people and see what other people think about it. Blogging seems to make a lot of sense and may ultimately turn out to be an actual time saver for me.

Writing has been a passion of mine. Keeping a diary is not my thing as I'm afraid to keep reminding myself of what evil deeds have I done. So here you go, no names, no specifics, see how it goes - I hope I can at least write something once a week or so.

I'm very much into a lot of things which start with the letter "F": Fashion, Flowers, Fun, Food, Foam ... and the list goes on. Funny how I think of this suddenly this evening. Perhaps I should expend on this topic when I next log on to write my next blog entry!