In 2000, I worked at the Center for Building Performance & Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University. My office was in the Intelligent Workplace, an energy efficient space that functioned as working laboratory on the roof of Margaret Morrison. One of the research projects that I was involved in was Building as Power Plant, or BAPP. The goal of the project was to use both ascending conditioning strategies and descending conditioning strategies to design a building that would produce more energy than it consumed. (Ascending strategies prioritize reducing energy load, then implementing passive conditioning followed by active conditioning. Descending or cascading strategies use the waste heat or water from one system to drive the next system.) This was envisioned as a 6 story building in Pittsburgh, which is a relatively cool climate, with significant cloud cover but some solar potential. While the building has yet to be constructed, the research project has been instrumental in pushing legislation and design and construction research in new energy efficient directions.

Elithis Tower Screen

Arte Charpentier Architects and Elithis Engineering have achieved their own example of a building as power plant. This month, the Elithis Tower in Dijon,  France opened. The 10 story office building is billed as the world’s first energy producing building. Inhabitat and AIArchitect each have posts about the building this week. The solar screen is gorgeous and reduces solar heat gain while allowing for adequate daylighting. The heat from building exhaust is reclaimed to provide warm air to the building. For those engineering and facilities nerds out there that enjoy a cup of coffee while watching your meter run backwards on a sunny day, you can drool over the intense sensing and tracking equipment in this building. 1,600 sensors will track energy production and usage and display the information in the building’s lobby.

There are other net energy producing buildings: an active house in Denmark produces more energy than it needs, although it came with a large $794,400 price tag for a small single family home, and Rock Port, Missouri claims to be the first town that produces more power than it consumes, due to 16 million kilowatt hours of power produced by a wind farm.

What I find most interesting in about the Elithis Tower is that it functions as a mainstream office building in an urban area. While operating the building will certainly be different than your standard office, the occupants will not need to “sacrifice” their comfort to achieve the positive energy generation. With an $185/sf construction cost, this is proof that buildings as power plants are achievable and affordable.

Elithis Tower

Elithis Tower

Dijon, France

54,000 sf

$10 million

Arte Charpentier Architects

Dome Interior

We completed our time in Florence with a trip to the top of the Duomo, Brunelleschi’s dome on the Santa Maria del Fiore. This included carrying our 9 month old son up all 463 steps up to the top of the dome!

On a hot summer day, it was surprisingly cool and comfortable inside on the way up. There are breaks of course, as we walk around the upper interior balconies below the dome. The construction of the octagonal dome is heavy: double walled and massive with nearly 4 million bricks. It was a great way to directly experience the effectiveness of mass walls – they are inherently efficient. Small windows through the walls show just how thick they are.

At the first balcony, looking up at the underside of the dome is amazing. Of course as an architect, I also had to look down and around. On the floor of the dome’s balcony is a series of grooves and small channels, an integrated condensation management system.

View through the wall

Condensation solution

Bell Tower

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The Boboli Gardens behind the palace are a great place to spend a few hours. I was expecting a leisurely stroll, but broke a sweat meandering uphill from the Island Pond to the Neptune fountain. The views of Florence are commanding. I was fascinated to find out that there is no natural water source in the gardens. An irrigation system brings water from the nearby River Arno. I suggest bringing a map or guide book before visiting, as there are very few markers on maps provided by the museum.

This statue is in a niche in the courtyard of the palace. We could not find much information on it while there, but thanks to my husband’s good detective work we were able to decipher the Hebrew acronym on the tablet after returning home. The tablet shows an acronym of the first 5 commandments. The first letter of each word in the commandment is used. Once a letter has been used once, it is not repeated.

I snapped this fantastic photo of a detail on the south side of the Campanile: Giotto’s Bell Tower (1334). The tower is 278 feet tall, shorter than Brunelleschi’s 375 feet tall dome (1420-1436). The bas-relief sculptures show a history of science, the arts, planets, and sacraments. This one depicts construction!

On June 25, 2009 I visited Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy. The Castle was first constructed in the 13th century and was the residence of Trento’s prince-bishops. It was enlarged by Bishop George of Liechtenstein in the 14th century, and the loggia and Gothic entrance gate was added later by Johannes Hinderbach. A residential palace was built near the castle, and an addition in the late 17th century linked it to the castle. The castle is now owned by the Province of Trento and houses a museum.

The interior and exterior frescoes are exceptional and worth a visit on their own.The venetian loggia in pink and white stone frames a view of Trento’s center and the Adige river. Further south is the Loggia del Romanino, open to the Cortile dei Leoni, an open area named after two stone lions that were originally part of a 16th century fountain. The frescoes on the ceiling of the loggia were by Girolamo Romanino of Bresia. Scenes of the four seasons and celestial bodies are found on the sides.

On the date of my visit, the Unseen Egypt exhibit was showing. Pieces discovered over 100 years ago are on display from the museum’s storage area and complimented with pieces from the Egyptiam Museum of Turin. The exhibit runs until Nov. 8, 2009.

Loggia del Romanino

Shading Devices in Trento, Italy

While in Trento, Italy, I snapped the perfect photo for my daylighting course. The building on the right uses many of the strategies that I discuss with my students:

1. The generous roof overhang is shading the windows on the third and fourth floors. The shutters are open, allowing the occupants to have a view, indirect daylighting, and natural ventilation.
2. The second floor shutters are closed, and the awning-function is shading the windows. This allows some indirect light and ventilation while lowering the solar heat gain.
3. The first floor shutters are open and the window opening is fairly deep, providing direct and indirect daylighting, views, and natural ventilation.

I’ll be contrasting this photo with one of a typical modern New England “colonial” house with decorative shutters. I find it quite fascinating that we have forgotten how functional and effective shutters can be.

View of Trento from the cable car

I spent the last week of June in Trento, Italy during the San Vigilio Festival. The city is surrounded by hills and mountains on all sides, and the Adige River to the west.  Several days into my stay, the wind was calm enough to take the cable car up to the village of Sardagna. I made the journey up to the top with my son and a fellow architect. The view from the top is nothing short of spectacular!

From the top, I spotted a large construction site along the river. Locals at the adjacent museum in the Palazzo delle Albere were eager to share information about the new energy efficient development.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s new Science Museum is currently under construction on the site of the former Michelin Factory (seen at the lower right of the photo). The enormous redevelopment includes brownfield remediation and re-linking the city center to the river front. Residential units, office space, and a park are also included in the project.

The museum will feature a large pitched roof with photovoltaic panels, and an atrium space that will house a tropical greenhouse.  Perhaps more intriguing however is the focus of the anticipated museum exhibits: glacier and earth sciences, global climate challenges, and new technology.