birsel + seck company

The birsel + seck Company was started by Ayse Birsel and Bibi Seck who are both product designers. "...Their award-winning designs span the office, home, bath, retail and automotive sectors..." which include the well know brands like Herman Miller, Hewlett Packard, Target, and Renault.

Their website says "...Bibi Seck was born in Paris and spent his formative years in London, Paris and Dakar. He received his Master’s degree in industrial design in 1990 from ESDI, Paris. Before moving to New York in 2003, Seck was lead designer at Renault for 12 years and has extensive experience in materials and manufacturing, and guiding large design teams through complex problems.

Seck led the interior design teams for several production vehicles, including the Scenic I, Twingo II, Trafic, and Scenic II. Scenic I (1996) and Trafic (2002) won Car of the Year awards from the European trade press. While at Renault, Seck designed the F1 Micrograph watch for Tag Heuer, winning the prestigious 2002 Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

Seck has taught at Strate Collége School of Design and Management in Paris, at Université Technologique de Compiegne, and most recently at Pratt Institute...."

"...Ayse Birsel grew up in Izmir, Turkey. In 1989 she received a Fulbright Scholarship to complete her Master’s Degree at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.

Her 1993 design of the Zoë Washlet spearheaded Japanese manufacturer TOTO’s entry into the US market and has unofficially been coined the world’s most comfortable toilet seat. In 1996 she founded Olive 1:1. Birsel received a gold Industrial Design Excellence IDSA award for the Resolve system, her reinterpretation of the office cubicle for Herman Miller. In 2002, her collaboration with Bibi Seck on the design of a concept automobile interior for Renault led to the creation of their studio Birsel + Seck.

Recipient of the 2001 Young Designer Award from the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Birsel was a finalist at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards in 2002. She was named a Fellow at the International Design Conference at Aspen, and has taught at Pratt Institute. Her work is in the permanent
collections of Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and the Museum of Modern Art..."

Photos courtesy of Birsel + Seck

MTS Property

Timbuktuchronicles writes about the MTS property "..An integrated Real Estate company that offers:


-Property Development & Sales.
-Estates Management.
-Rental Services.
-Maintenance Services.

in Nigeria's growing real estate industry.

The Becon

I attended the lecture by Marks Barfield Architects, The Quietrevolution, and Price & Myers at the building centre about the Beacon which is part of the Sustainable London, Power in the City lecture.

It was an impressive presentation and the duo Julia Barfield, joint Managing Director of Marks Barfield Architects, and Robert Webb, CEO of Quietrevolution were bombarded with a lot of interesting questions by the full house audience, which I think were answered satisfactorily.

The quietrevolution website says "...The Beacon is a 40 metre high Y-shaped structure, and is designed to be ‘planted’ along major roads and public spaces, reaching up to the stronger breezes above London’s buildings. Each Beacon supports five vertical 'triple-helix’ wind turbines called quietrevolution, each five metres high and three metres diameter designed to achieve ultra-quiet operation and more efficient utilisation of urban winds.

‘Most wind turbines are being planned in remote locations without any existing infrastructure. This isn’t efficient as 30 percent to 50 percent of energy gets lost
through transmission. We believe cities like London should take much greater responsibility for their own energy generation. London has a unique opportunity to make a difference in time for the Olympics’ said David Marks and Julia Barfield, co-designers of the Beacon.

Their partner in the project, Robert Webb, CEO of XCO2 and co-designer of The Beacon adds; ‘Within fifty years we will be living in a world which is 90 percent powered by renewable energy", with no sacrifice to quality of life. The Beacon is a showcase and a celebration of this revolution and is designed to bring the debate on wind generation directly into the cities..."

Link to Sustainable London PDF presentation.

Photo courtesy of Quietrevolution

Prism Designs

Prism Designs Africa is an indigenous architectural design firm that specialises mainly in residential, institutional and commercial building in Kenya and Southern Sudan.

According to their website "...is a team of Registered Architects who hold Bachelor of Architecture Degrees from University of Nairobi and have been working together on construction projects in Africa for many years.

Our scope of work ranges from large commercial projects to intimate and personalised designs for private residences and no project is too large or too small to handle.

It is our firm belief that the success of a building, whether aesthetically, functionally or financially, is established through the design process.

It is in this process of lateral thinking that the talents, skills and energy of the practice is concentrated..."

Using state of the art computer aided design systems, we are committed to creating and identifying viable projects involving its project management, architecture, interior design, civil engineering, projects funding and procurement skills. Our services include:

● Development Consultancy
● Architectural and Quantity Surveying
● Civil and Structural Engineering
● Project Management
● Facilities Management
● Project Finance Structuring
● Interior Design & Space Planning

Photo courtesy of Prism Designs Africa

Woodless Construction

Voiceofthedesert website features an article by Keith Smith that has shows the intricate construction steps of a Woodless mud building in Gorom-Gorom in Burkina Faso with the help of a photo blog.

It writes that "...Woodless construction is an approach to building in the sahel that uses traditional building techniques to build houses entirely out of mud, including the roof. Such houses save on scarce wood, encourage local industry by using local skills and materials, and provide good internal comfort, staying warm in cold season, and cool in hot season..."

Photo courtesy of Keith Smith's photo blog on Flickr

Singapore's floating towers

Worldarchitecturenews writes about a new design of a residential tower proposed for development in Singapore.According to the World Architecture news website "...the Far East Organization, Singapore’s largest private development company, has commissioned the Office for Metropolitan Architecture for OMA’s first architectural project in Singapore – a 36-storey residential high-rise.

The 153 meter tall tower will be located at the intersection of Scotts Road and Cairnhill Road, in close proximity to Orchard Road, Singapore’s famous shopping and lifestyle street. With 20,000m² of built floor area, the building will provide 68 high-end apartment units with panoramic views.

The design strategically maneuvers within the highly regulated building environment to maximize the full potential of the site: Four individual apartment towers are vertically offset from one another and suspended from a central core.

The skyline of floating towers directly relates to the surrounding building volumes and explores the most attractive views towards the city center and an extensive green zone to the north. The lifted apartment towers reduce the building’s footprint to a minimum; the liberated ground level provides communal leisure activities embedded in the tropical landscape..."

Photo courtesy of Worldarchitecturenews.

Shelter by Nature

The blog Liberia Stories reports about a sustainable building being built by Obadiah Gondolo out of stick and mud. The articale says "...He will make the walls out of mud, and the roof out of palm thatch. The whole process will take three weeks, and will cost him nothing since the kind landowner has let him have the small space in her yard for free.

Obadiah learned how to make a shelter out of nature's gifts when he enrolled in a free vocational training program offered by Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in 2005. "JRS really did well for us," he says, referring to himself and the 30 others who were in his class. "It's the first institution that really taught me something useful."

Obadiah and his family (wife and two children) look forward to moving into their new place, which, though small, will also include a little shop. They are among the last Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) still living in a nearby IDP camp in Salala, Bong County. Obadiah is from the Salayea District of Lofa County, but has chosen not to return until he graduates from high school. Because of the long civil war, however, he is still an 8th grade student at St. John Elementary and Jr. High School. "Before I go back to Lofa I will also learn to be an automechanic," he adds..."

Photo courtesy of Liberia Stories

Open Architecture Network

Open Architecture Network is an organisation started by Cameron Sinclair with the aim "....to generate design opportunities that will improve living standards for all" by providing an open-source platform through which ANYone can view, post, share, and adapt sustainable, humanitarian-based, scalable solutions.


The idea that designs and all associated documents can and should be shared within the decidedly proprietary architectural industry is truly innovative, and could very well aid in the reshaping of the entire architectural profession into a more socially-focused and responsible vocation.." according to theInhabitat blog

Most of the buildings are designed to be sustainable and affordable from the the construction to occupancy stage and are designed by the architects, designers, builders etc that are indegeious to where the building is proposed to be built.

Below is Cameron Sinclair's presentation at the TED conference


Photos are courtesy of Open Architecture Network

Telios Development Limited

Their company is one of the top Property Development firms, that Design & Build commercial as well as private projects in Nigeria. Their attention to detail and high quality finishes coupled with an excellent team of Managers and designers has won them a lot of clientele in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos.

According to their website "...The Telios Development Limited the foremost property development company in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, is a full-service real estate investment and development company that offers a comprehensive selection of real estate development and investment solutions which will facilitate, cultivate, and enhance your ideas and dreams.

With operations throughout Nigeria, we service a wide range of individual and corporate clients, satisfying them with the consistent delivery of timely, cost effective, and quality projects.

Our success has been demonstrated not only by outstanding projects we have completed, but also by a high percentage of clients that continually return to us for their construction and property..."

The company was pioneered by a group of talented professionals namely Uchenna Ekwueme (President and CEO), Gbenga Obaro, Osondu Anya,Sam Udensi, Debo Talabi, Wale Shoneye, Michael Adesanmi all of which are directors.

Photos courtesy of Telios Development

Massimiliano Fuksas Architects wins design competition of The African Inistitue of Science and Technology ,Abuja

The RIBA website writes about how "...Massimiliano Fuksas Architects has won the international design competition to design the first campus for The African Institute of Science and Techology (AIST) to be situated in Abuja, Nigeria. The budget for the campus is envisaged to be in the order of USD360 million, although design and construction will be phased over a number of years.

TheAIST
will ultimately comprise several science and technology higher education campuses and smaller affiliated centres of excellence located throughout Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The AIST concept has been developed, nurtured and promoted by the Nelson Mandela Institution for Knowledge Building and the Advancement of Science and Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa (NMI). NMI and AIST is supported by the World Bank, African Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, and other world class financial and academic institutions.

Massimiliano Fuksas Architects beat off strong competition from a prestigious field of international practices. The other five teams to participate in the design phase of the project and present their schemes to the assessment panel were Allies and Morrison Architects(UK); Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Netherlands); Rafael Vinoly Architects PC (USA); Saucier + Perrotte Architects (Canada); and SeARCH b.v.

(Netherlands). The panel was impressed by the high level of architectural design shown in all submitted work and the imaginative variation of attitudes underlying masterplanning concepts..."

Pictures Courtesy of RIBA organisation

Building with Mud,Straw Bale and Timber can also help reduce our Carbon footprint

Those of us that have been in a mud or adobe built building on a hot day are sure to notice how cool (temperature) they are compared to a concrete block building. With global temperatures set to rise in the tropics we might see the need to promote such building construction especially for single storey dwelling's.

In an article blogged about in Treehugger.com they write about using mud bricks, stone and Straw bale to build walls with good Thermal mass. Combined with over hanged roofs,trees, Natural ventilation and adequate orientation against intense sun rays, we could see a new generation of homes that require no air-conditioning during the hot days and nights.

However improved Thermal mass means improved Passive Solar Heating which would also help reduce the cost of heating if adopted in houses in temperate and desert climates.
Photos courtesy of Treehugger.com. Images scanned from Building construction Illustrated by Francis D.K Ching and Cassandra Adams who is the editor of the Green Home Guide.

Using indigenous paper for flexible wall partitions.

Eco-Africa is an environmentally friendly company that uses indigenous plants and African artisans to produce a diverse range of craft paper.

Maybe Eco-Africa paper or other similarly produced indigenous papers could be used to create movable and Flexible styled partition walls or furniture. By forming the paper into an accordion shaped structure the possibilities of this paper architectural interiors becomes endless as reported in this story in the Architectural weekly.

Such structures could significantly make urban and rural housing projects in Africa more affordable and sustainable. A Similar paper honey comb technique has been used to produce the expandable chair show in the video below.



Their website writes about how "...Paper-making is a relatively new craft in Southern Africa. It developed as a cottage industry to help impoverished villagers, mainly women with young families to get by and feed their loved ones. The raw materials were readily available in the form of wild plants and shrubs that grow free and plentifully around their villages and communities. Programs were set up to provide simple, basic equipment for grinding the fiber into pulp and then to form the resulting pulp into sheets. Drying of the sheets was (and often still is) carried out by hanging them out to dry, often alongside the family washing.

The artisans-to-be are taught to use as their raw materials fiber collected from indigenous plants such as river reed, elephant grass, sisal, wild fig, and sun hemp, that grow wild and plentifully near and around their homes. They are encouraged to use traditional African tools like the "duri" and the "guyo" as ecologically sound techniques. Additional paper styles are created using cotton waste as the fiber resource, which is collected from textile mills and bring bright and pastel shades to the growing line of paper styles..."

Photo courtesy of Architectural weekly

Server Farms below Solar Chimneys could it work?

The chimney effect (stack effect) created by a Solar chimney tower of about 1000m high according to the Environ Mission website would be able to achieve wind speed of between 60-80Kph. With the aid of heat storing thermal ponds on the ground level around the pond this updraft effect could be sustained during the non-solar periods of the night.

I was wondering whether server farms could be incorporated in a subterranean level below these solar chimneys. Why because apart from the thermal pools and the foundation of the tower there is really nothing else that will be located at the underground level around the tower.

Well considering the fact computer server farms are such energy sapping infrastructure could it be possible to have them at a basement levels below the solar chimney? The cheap energy generated by this infrastructure could be used to efficiently run these server farms. Also probably the chimney effect air pressure difference could be used to naturally ventilate and cool the server farms.

Would it not be amazing to use of convection air currents to achieve a very sustainable and Eco-friendly way cooling server farms and at the same time generate clean energy.

Are mud floors Cool?

While on an Architecture School visit in Nigeria in 1985 to the Town of Bida, Niger State Nigeria we went to the traditional home of a Nupe Family. One of the things that caught our attention was the beautiful mud and mosaic floor that had broken spiral clay tiles embedded in it.

Mud is a very eco-friendly and affordable material even though some might think it is floor finish associated with being primitive or poor. However I think mud is very beautiful flooring material as long as you can compact it properly, keep it from cracking and water proof its surface.

In an article ("Track That Mud In!" Earthen Floors Are Hot) featured in the Tree Hugger Blog Alex Pasternack writes "...Because the floors can sometimes prove troublesome (high heels and table legs can cause cracks) a slowly growing number of "natural builders" like Bill and Athena Steen, both of whom grew up in adobe houses in the southwest, are working on making the floors "crack-free, solid, and really serviceable." (Mr.Steen’s canonical guide, “Earthen Floors,” is out of print, but an updated version is to be posted to the couple’s Web site, Canelo Project, within a few months.)

As durable as can be, among the greatest appeals of rammed earth construction (as also evidenced by this recent Architectural Review "Emerging Architecture" nominee) is the ease of getting rid of it -- and re-sourcing it if need be. And then there are the thermal benefits.

The high density and low thermal conductivity of earthen materials makes them passive solar devices, easily capturing and retaining heat during the day and releasing it at night. But as warm as earthen floors are, there's no denying their cool factor.

“When people walk in, they don’t say, ‘Oh, nice floor,’" says one natural builder. "Everyone gets down on their hands and knees to admire it...”

Photo Courtesy of New York Times.

J. S. Kalsi & Associates

According to their website "...J. S. Kalsi & Associates is a group of registered architects Kenya specializing in the field of Architecture, Design-Build, Interior Design, Project Management, Computer Aided Design (CAD) and property development..."


Based in Nairobi Kenya and also with regional branches in Mombassa and Bamburi J.S Kalsi has positioned itself to handle projects in the East African Reigon whhich include Uganda,Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Mauritius and Seychelles.

Their portfolio includes numerous private, public and government in the East African sub-region.

Photos courtesy of J. S. Kalsi & Associates.

Design Union

Design Union is an indigenous Nigerian design outfit that specialises in Architecture, Engineering,Graphics, Interiors, and Project planning.

According to their website "...Design Union consulting LLC was incorporated in Nigeria in the year 2000 to provide the highest level of professional consulting services in architecture, interior design, planning, engineering and graphic design. Our firm's commitment to excellence stems from the belief that great
enterprises and cultures start with great planning and design.



From our humble start, the firm has grown into a powerful consortium of over 25 professionals in various disciplines serving a wide range of clients on diverse projects around the country. Our clients include blue-chip companies like Oando PLC, Guaranty Trust Bank PLC, Standard Trust Bank PLC, and International companies/brands like Standard
Chartered Bank Nig. Ltd., Starcomms Ltd. and Chicken Licken Restaurants.



Highlights in the firm's achievements over the past few years include the creation of a new modern look for Oando service station outlets nationwide, the
re-branding/re-positioning of Starcomms as well as winning a design competition for the new Head Office building for Standard Chartered Nig. Ltd. For Atlantic Hall School, the firm took a 10-year long construction project site, turned it around and successfully completed it in 1 year.

Photos courtesy of Design Union.

Harnessing Wind Power for the Rural coastal Communities of Africa

I don't know how many unused oils rigs lay wasting in the Bright of Benin which is off the coast of Nigeria's delta region but these facilites have the potential to be put into good use. Wind turbines could be erected to generate electric power for the rual coastal communities of the Niger Delta.

John Goghegan of wired.com writes in an article "Inherit the Wind" about how littered carcasses of unused oil platforms in the gulf coast could be used as the backbone of the first offshore wind farm in the United States.

"...The port of Iberia has never been busier. Situated on a narrow canal leading to the Louisiana coastline, the docks here throb with the sound of tugboats towing oil platforms to and from their anchorages in the Gulf of Mexico. When a drilling site is depleted, the platforms return to port; the docks are littered with rusting steel hulks waiting for their next run.



Click on Image on the Right to view animation of the new wind turbines design.

In December, though, one of these platforms, stripped and refurbished by a local startup, returned to sea with a new mission. The first of a flotilla to come, it carried wind-monitoring equipment as well as radar for tracking migratory birds. Those that follow will be topped not by drilling rigs but by windmills. The turbines are bound for an 18-square-mile area roughly 10 miles off the coast of Galveston, Texas, where the first offshore wind farm in the US is under construction. That’s right: The flower of sustainable energy is blooming in oil country. Get ready for the Great Texas Wind Rush.

Wind energy is the most promising carbon-free, nonnuclear alternative to fossil-fueled grid power. But regions with enough space and breeze for land-based wind farms—mostly in the Midwest—are far from coastal population centers; the cost of running transmission lines between generators and users is a major disincentive. That’s why wind-power entrepreneurs have set their sights on coastal waters. In the Atlantic, off Cape Cod, the 450-megawatt Cape Wind installation has been in the works for five years..."

Solar Chimney Project Update

The CEO of Environ Mission Roger Davey talks about new technologies that will reduce the height of the solar chimney project. These technologies include new materials that retain heat better and saline heat retention ponds etc.



This is the Environ Mission Solar Chimney Video.


Roger Davey's Interview by PESN.com can be listened to here.

Freeform Construction

The technology that was once restricted to producing prototypes in CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture) and RAFT (Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies) industry is now being proposed to print buildings the way you print pages from your computer.

"...Freeform Construction is a truly adventurous and far-reaching new construction method which will change the very future of building and construction as we know it. It will revolutionise the way we build, it will enhance existing construction processes and bring about new capabilities for the construction process, and it will allow us to build in ways which simply weren’t possible before..."

"...Freeform Construction is about ‘printing’ buildings, as if you were printing this page. It’s about combining the whole design, construction and maintenance process into a seamless operation to produce structures and components which meet the challenges of our changing world and which will allow us to build on any terrain, against any backdrop, anywhere on the Earth, the Moon or Mars..."

Photo courtesy of Contour Crafting

Plug + Play Architecture

Andrew Blum of Wired Home writes about high tech method of building green buildings developed by Steve Kieran.

"...Snapped together from a combination of modules, panels, and preformed structural frames, the Loblolly house, named for the loblolly pines here in the Maryland tidewater area, is a manifesto for a new way of building. Architect Kieran and his partner, James Timberlake, have long been known for their finely crafted and energy-efficient buildings and materials. But the Philadelphia-based pair wanted more than just high-profile commissions – they were looking for a breakthrough technology that would let them make smarter, greener structures that could go up quickly and cheaply..."

"...In 2001, after studying how the automotive, aircraft, and shipbuilding industries had revolutionized themselves over the previous 15 years, Kieran and Timberlake realized that architecture needed the equivalent of an integrated circuit. They began to combine glass, drywall, pipe, and wood frames into finished units, each precision-engineered for cost, beauty, and sustainability. In the Loblolly house, the walls and floors are made of panels (some as tall as 21 feet) that were manufactured with wiring, insulation, plumbing, and ductwork already in place. And the main power systems of the home, including two bathrooms and the galley kitchen, were delivered to the construction site in preassembled, plug-and-play units. After the site was prepared, the 2,200-square-foot house took three weeks to assemble..."

"...THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY to construct a house is to build it in a factory. This reduces a home's "embodied energy" – the amount of power expended in its fabrication and construction. And conventional homebuilding is dirty work. From the fuel used by commuting workers to onsite diesel generators, the construction and operation of homes and other structures generates 40 to 50 percent of all the greenhouse gases in the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration. On top of that, studies suggest that more than half of a home's leftover materials – drywall and lumber – winds up in landfills. Plus, as anyone who has ever remodeled a kitchen knows, construction work isn't exactly high tech. Raw materials are dropped off at the building site and then assembled by hand with hammers and saws. The so-called material systems approach developed by Kieran and Timberlake banishes this primitive model. Better still, it's future-proof: Homes may be built to last, but the modules of material systems structures are built to be upgraded..."

Photos Courtesy of Wired