The warmer it gets, the more people use air conditioning—but the more people use air conditioning, the warmer it gets. Is there any way out of this trap?
Video timeline: 00:00: What’s the cooling conundrum? 01:05: The pros and cons of AC 03:28: How to reinvent air conditioning 05:02: Can buildings be redesigned to keep cool? 07:30: Scalable, affordable cooling solutions 10:24: Policy interventions for cooling
The first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity and full of Victorian gadgets and innovations, Cragside in Northumberland has always been at the forefront of modern living.
But now, climate change has started to catch up with this pioneering place. More frequent and intense rainfall is overwhelming the house’s drainage system and beginning to find its way inside of the Arts and Crafts mansion. Most affected is the drawing room with its immense, two-story high, ornately carved marble fireplace.
Rainwater is pushing salts that are in the stonework of the house through to the decorative marble and plasterwork of fireplace inside, causing its surface to deteriorate, meaning urgent work is needed to save this irreplaceable piece of architecture from crumbling away.
A two-stage project is currently underway to stabilise and future-proof the fireplace against climate-change, conserving it for future generations. As conservation work continues, Cragside is once again looking to the future – this time by looking to its past. Originally built by architect Lord Armstrong and his wife Lady Margaret, this pair of innovators created Britain’s original smart home when Cragside became the first house in the world to be illuminated by hydroelectricity, generated by its man-made lakes.
A project in 2014 gave the estate the ability to yield enough energy from water to light the whole house by installing an Archimedes Screw, which works at an angle and allows water to pass between the Tumbleton Lake and the burn below. This converts the power of the water flowing through it into electricity, a never-ending source that now illuminates the whole house and sends excess power back to the National Grid. Watch this video to discover more.
Migma is the greek word for mixture, an evocation to the life of the sea through structural bionic elements where the rationality of the technique is mixed with the fluidity of nature, represented by this noiseless Hydrogen-powered 180 feet electric Catamaran as a living entity that furrows the seas with zero emissions.
Migma catamaran is based on a minimalist and high-end aesthetic, creating a new way to understand spaces within a catamaran, where the core structure is located in the middle and all elements grow from it.
After earning her doctorate at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and working in Norway’s capital as a teacher and research fellow, architect Nina Edwards Anker came home to the U.S. with a refreshed perspective on environmental sensitivity. When the opportunity arose to build an eco-cottage on family land in Southampton, Long Island, Edwards Anker’s thought experiments resulted in a 1,738-square-foot vacation home completed in 2017, made striking for the combination of curved, shingle-clad walls that meet planes of glass, with some cast in bright, unexpected color.
Basalt Architects has used marine-grade concrete to build Guðlaug Baths, a geothermal pool on Langisandur Beach in Iceland. The baths consist of a three-tiered structure, with a viewing deck on the top, a warm geothermal pool in the middle, and a cold-water pool at the bottom.
Boomers Daily 