Projects now. Projects soon.

One thing that stinks about having a real nine-to-five is losing all the free time I enjoyed at school. Its very frustrating to come back from work tired and ready to sleep, especially when I keep having cool ideas that I want to work on.

Project 1: Greenhouse for the Wommacks
I have a few goals for this project. Its a small space, and functionally pretty simple: it must keep plants warm in the winter. But I also want it to be able to open or transform in some way to become a shaded, breezy shelter in the summer. I've had a couple of ideas: it could utilize fins or louvres that would insulate in the winter and vent in the summer. I've also sketched a couple of methods of using a counter-balanced wall system that could be positioned in a closed position in the winter and cantilevered as an awning in the summer.

I'm also interested in using some sort of transparent, air-filled polyurethane bubbles to construct an insulated facade. These could be combined with a thick thermal wall, possibly even a green wall. A green wall would require a lot of research of course, since you don't want to plant something on a green wall that will die in a month or two. A dead green wall is super depressing.

The bubbles idea leads me to my second project.

Project 2: Climate-responsive envelope system

This idea is not very fleshed-out. It would build on the work of Jean Nouvel, Herzog and deMueron, Buckminster Fuller and many other architects and engineers. Basically, I have an idea for a building system that would use inflated polyurethane bubbles to negotiate the needs of program and environmental control. I feel like there is a way of filling these bubbles or pillows with a medium that could be altered to change the building envelope's transmittal of heat, light and air.

I think that the building could respond to the sun and rain and heat by modulating the contents of each bubble. Imagine one of those Wooly Willy toys, where the sun and heat and rain are the magnetic wands, and the contents of the bubbles is Willy's beard, following the magnet.

Project 3: Paper Creation

I've got about 30 pieces of bond paper (thin, translucent) that I've pulled from the recycling bin at work. They are all roughly 22" x 17". I want to make something to liven up my living space. The paper will accept ink, graphite and markers best. I've also thought of folding it, making some type of wall-covering origami of sorts (similar to the stuff we did in VisCom last semester Yannik).

I'm going to spend some time thinking about this one, but I'd love ideas too. Maybe I can create something this weekend.