ArchitectAfrica

Architect Africa is a news and information network for the African Built Environment according to their website. Their goals include "...

1. To be the best African Built Environment News & Information Network on the Internet.
2. To provide full and free access to our systems to all visitors and users.
3. To publish from the fastest and most reliable servers and delivery network available.

Palmyra House

Inhabitat says "...Pitched as having over 800 uses, the Palmyra Palm (or Borassus) is recognized as one of the most important trees in Cambodia and India. Earlier this year, Indian born architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai illustrated the ecological potential of the palm when he designed and built the beautiful Palmyra House. Constructed entirely from locally sourced and sustainably harvested palmyra, the home is sited on a working coconut plantation in the East Indian coastal town of Alibaug..."

Photos courtesy of inhabitat

Design Decisions

Their website says "...Design Decisions is an interior design firm established in California in 1990. Our Lagos office opened in 1993 and has grown to be recognized as the leading interior design consultants in Nigeria. In 2007, we expanded our services to South Africa.

We are influenced by the grand scale and fantasy of Californian style, the business savvy required to do business in Nigeria, and the creative blend of African motifs in South African interiors. These global influences reflect in our projects and give them a unique approach to making critical design decisions.

We focus on commercial, residential and hospitality design. We are a multi-disciplinary practice, incorporating architectural and interior design, as well as project management services for developments such as apartments, luxury homes and corporate headquarters..."

Photos courtesy of Design Decisions

India’s First Green Housing Project Completed

In an article featured in the blog Inhabitat, it says "...According to the Planning Commission, India will need to generate at least 700,000 MW of additional power by 2030 to meet growing electricity demands. India will certainly be looking towards alternative energy sources to generate a substantial portion of this energy. Although solar energy production in India accounted for a mere 1.7% of the world total in 2007 (80 megawatt peak (MWp) power compared to a world total of 4,700 MWp), several great green strides have been taken by the country to harness the immense potential of solar energy. The latest example of this future forward thinking is Rabi Rashmi Abasan, India’s first completely green housing project.

Sanyo's Solar Ark

Photon International says "....In 2000, Sanyo claimed it wanted to create a 3.4 MW installation, the world's largest PV system, as a »message to the 21st century.« Instead, the 630 kW Solar Ark, dedicated on April 3, has become a symbol of pragmatism by using modules with deficient power that were headed for the junk heap.

In biblical times, Noah was said to have used »gopher wood« to build his ark.
While no one really knows what kind of tree it came from, it must have been a good wood, the kind that could withstand torrential rains and merciless floods. But one wonders how Noah would have responded to Sanyo Electric Ltd.'s modern-day version of his construction, called the Solar Ark. Unlike Noah's grand design, the 630 kW PV »vessel,« located next to Sanyo's semiconductor factory in Gifu, Japan, doesn't use state-of-the-art modules. Instead, the Solar Ark, which celebrated its grand opening on April 3, is constructed to large extent from factory rejects. What was intended as a testimonial to the future has become a symbol of pragmatism.

Back in 2000, Sanyo decided to mark its half-century anniversary by building the Mega Solar, a 3.4 MW monument to clean energy. It would include a 1 MW Solar Ark, fronted by a Solar Wave with 1.8 MW, with another 0.6 MW on the neighboring factory's roof. The installation was to use Sanyo's highly efficient HIT cell technology, a hybrid of crystal silicon and thin-film amorphous silicon assembled in modules with current efficiencies ranging between 14 and 15 percent, the planned successor to Sanyo's monocrystalline cells. The installation's design was lauded by the president of Sanyo's subsidiary Soft Energy Company, Toshimasa Iue, as »our message to the 21st century.« But soon the message began to look bleak.

That October, a scandal started brewing in Japan. Sanyo was caught illegally selling monocrystalline modules with insufficient output, exceeding a government-mandated 10 percent negative tolerance by 3 percent. The then-president of Sanyo Solar, Minoru Hagiwara, had known about the problem for two years, yet he continued to instruct salespeople to market the potentially defective modules. He was subsequently fired (see PI 11/2000, p. 26). A few days later, Sanyo Electric president Sadao Kondo resigned. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) considered filing a criminal complaint against Sanyo Electric for allegedly falsifying labels on the modules. In December, METI suspended the company's modules from the Japanese subsidy program for three years.



The Solar Ark - a symbol of sincere regret

That, says Yoshio Nagasuji, sales assistant in Sanyo's Clean Energy division, is when plans for the Solar Ark began to assume another guise. Instead of highlighting its new HIT technology by building what was to be the world's largest PV system, the company decided to use the Solar Ark to salvage the essentially useless monocrystalline modules that were being taken back from customers in exchange for normal ones. It is no coincidence that the number of recalled modules - 5,476 - was only slightly greater than the 5,046 modules that ended up on the monolith. By using the recall as an alternate means of »populating« the Solar Ark, the company not only saved face, but a lot of money as well. At the time of the scandal, the Financial Times estimated that replacing the customers' modules would cost the company 500 million JPY, about $4.6 million back then.

To Sanyo's credit, it has been very frank about reusing the substandard modules, and about trying to regain customers' confidence. »We have done this to show our sincere regret that this problem has occurred,« reads a company message on the web page for the Solar Ark, »and to express our willingness and determination to both remember what happened and how important it is to maintain quality.«

Even in its diminished state, the Solar Ark has to be admired as one of the most impressive BIPV structures in existence today, probably doing a better job of promoting solar than any previous PV installation. Passengers on high-speed bullet trains can't help but notice the edifice as they ride past on a nearby railway line. The curved structure has a length of 315 m; its highest point is 37 m. The south-facing wall containing the modules, which are installed at an angle of 81°, is 7,500 m². The modules also light up 77,220 LEDs installed in a red Sanyo logo and a white »Solar Ark« sign. Below the center portion of the Solar Ark, Sanyo has opened the Solar Lab, a museum with information on solar energy, including exhibits for children.

And what about the Solar Wave, the sea of modules that were supposed to front the Solar Ark? Nagasuji says Sanyo's chairman and founder, Satoshi Iue, has told the Japanese media the company still intends to install it where the parking lot now stands. »Maybe in two or three years. But it's only a plan,« Nagasuji says somewhat ambiguously. What would the capacity be? »Nobody knows,« he admits.

The only thing anyone knows at this point is that the Solar Ark is a magnificent construction that has helped salvage Sanyo's damaged reputation while giving the orphaned module.

Photos Courtesy of Sanyo website

Studio Monte Rosa

According to the website of the Energy Science Center "...Studio Monte Rosa is a special mountain hut, which has been planned for the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) by the Department of Architecture.
The project covers from the conception to the final execution all the phases and technological blocks needed for the realization of this unique building.

In fact, the new Studio Monte Rosa is in the middle of a natural reserve with extreme alpine conditions, yet energetically to 90% self-contained and self-sufficient (90% autarchy).

All Purpose Shelters Limited

Their website says that All Purpose Shelters Limited operates as a consortium of Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Structural/Civil Engineers and Mechanical/Electrical Engineers. This Nigerian based firm specializes in residential, retail and architectural restoration projects.

Lagos Energy City

Lagos Energy City is a 763 hectare project that will enhance the role of Nigeria and West Africa to be a leading player in the energy industry specifically in the oil and gas markets. Positioned to be the regions first integrated hub, it will be divided into 2 zones, zone 1 is aimed to be the regions leading convention and tourist destination; zone 2 or the Energy City Zone will provide a world class business and residential environment that will cater to the entire energy industry and all companies in its value chain. Strategically located in Badagry Town of Lagos it is in close proximity with the entire ECOWAS market.

Photos courtesy of Lagos Energy City website.

Pinconsult Associates Ltd

According to their websitePINCONSULT ASSOCIATES "..was established in 1985 to provide highly competent professional consultancy services in the fields of civil engineering, structural engineering, and building management. This practice became a limited liability company PINCONSULT ASSOCIATES LIMITED in 1993 for a wider coverage of engineering activities and a better corporate image.

The collective experiences of the partners embrace a wide variety of engineering problems and, therefore, are able to make an important contribution to the success of every project for which the Practice is commissioned.

PINCONSULT ASSOCIATES LIMITED is based in Lagos, Nigeria, to serve clients throughout Nigeria, but is able to establish sub-practice bases throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

All assignments are carried out to internationally recognize standard bye-laws in the respective fields of engineering and the resultant construction management.
Since 1990, the Practice has been engaged in the Oil and Gas Sector of the Nigerian economy. It provided consultancy services for Tankages, pipeline, aviation facilities substructures for platforms, and procurement.

In 1994, the Practice set up a Project Management team to meet the challenges of the emerging construction industry in Nigeria. The emphasis of this team was to alleviate the problems that relate to Schedule, Performance and Cost.

In the year 2000, the Practice commenced preliminary research on Pipeline Integrity Services to provide adequate support for the Pipeline sector of the Oil Industry in terms of quality control and assurance. The Practice now offers a full complement of the Pipeline Integrity Services (PIS)..."

Photo courtesy of PINCONSULT ASSOCIATES

Bamboo Revolution

In an article in Newsweek magazine titled "Stronger than Steel" , Lily Hunag writes about how "bamboo may be the most useful raw material ever to be overlooked.The talks about the bicycle built by Nick Frey a junior at Princeton out of Bamboo.


"...Although a common building material in many tropical countries, it's considered "the poor man's timber," and in the West it's mainly decorative. As the world goes green, however, bamboo's essential qualities are beginning to win converts. Environmental organizations are promoting its use as a building material, architects are putting it into green homes, and makers of flooring, furniture and now bikes are quietly setting up their industries for a bamboo revolution.

Despite its lowly reputation, bamboo may be the strongest stuff on the planet. It has greater tensile strength (or resistance to being pulled apart) than steel, and it withstands compression better than concrete. Both qualities are essential to keeping the plant, which grows to nearly 60 meters but is only as wide at the base as the very top, from falling over. It needs the compression strength to hold up its own weight and tensile strength to bend in the wind without breaking..."


Other interesting attributes associated to bamboo include:

1.It has the ability to be formed be formed into Plywood."..."Our concept of strength is, it doesn't move, it doesn't break," says Dan Smith, who owns Smith & Fong, the largest manufacturer of bamboo plywood in the United States. "The Chinese concept is, you've got to bend with things. If you don't bend, you break. Bamboo's strength is in its ability to bend, and that's the miracle."

2. Some species grow very fast which makes it a very sustainable material."...The Western mind is also opening to bamboo's environmental qualities. In both temperate and tropical climates, it grows as quickly and abundantly as a weed. Though most often used as an alternative to timber, bamboo, with its underground rhizome root system that continually regenerates the plant when the stalks are cut, is technically a type of grass. In fact, it grows faster than any other grass—in some conditions well over a meter a day..."

3. Its structural strength,affordability,versatility has made it attractive to Eco-Architects and builders."...Designers are getting more creative as they embrace bamboo as an alternative to lumber. Environmentalist architect Michael McDonough has incorporated bamboo in his two working prototypes for sustainable housing, e-House and ArcHouse. E-House has all-bamboo floors and cabinetry. A stalk of bamboo becomes a finer version of plywood once it's split from the top and milled into smooth strips. ArcHouse, a modular home, has an exterior made from double panels of bamboo oriented strandboard—bamboo strips compressed and cross-positioned for strength— and insulated with foam made from the oil of orange peels. The panels seal tighter than conventional insulation, and McDonough is the first to replace wood strandboard with bamboo. "It's dinosaur grass," he says, yet it's pushing the engineering curve..."

Bamboo is still a niche material in the United States, but it's catching on. Smith & Fong first cracked the markets in 1989 with flooring and, later, a laminated bamboo sheet called "plyboo." Sales grew at an average of 26 percent a year until 2003, then accelerated to nearly 40 percent three years ago. The company now has 30 types of flooring and 60 options in plyboo, and has begun engineering gymnasium floors and bamboo structural beams. Bambu, a U.S. maker of housewares that are distributed by Whole Foods, has begun to draw attention at its plant and showroom in Shanghai.

Some excerpts and photo's in this article are taken form Newsweek and the Smith & Fong website.

Affordable prefab from South Africa

Inhabitat says "..ABŌD™ is a prototype prefab created by BSB Design for use as affordable housing in South Africa.The simple design uses a strong, natural shape as the core. It’s durable, lightweight and can be easily shipped in a compact box for quick on-site assembly. Perhaps it’s the shape or the vibrant colors of the corrugated paneling, but this design brings a cheerful presence to a very serious issue: addressing the need for high-quality, low-cost solutions to South Africa’s housing shortage..."

Photos courtesy of Inhabitat

West African Commercial Architecture

Commercial architecture within West Africa from Banjul to Yaounde is coming into its own style.SkyscraperCity profiles some of these projects from the conceptual to on site construction stage which are remarkable in their style and form.
A lot of these buildings are featured in the West African section of Skyscraper City.However I believe it would be a great idea to see some inherited forms from Traditional African Architecture being incorporated, to form a fusion with the Neoclassical,Victorian, and modern building technology widely adopted today in Africa.
Photos courtesy of SkycraperCity-West Africa

Centre d'Art Applique

Centre d'Art Applique could be described as the first African industrial design centre that specializes in Product,furniture,packaging, corporate and ceramic design. Their goal is to provide a fusion world class contemporary design with a African flavour and theme.Centre d'Art is probably leading the way to produce the continents first
Creative consultants like Frog Design etc.

CobHouse

Cobhouse is an environmentally sustainable project by Simric Yarrow to build alternative buildings out of Cob, sustainable timber,straw and clay in South Africa. The aim is really to build a house out of recycled building materials like cardboard, as well as sustainable ones.

Photo courtesy of Cobhouse blog.

Zambian Architecture

The Zambian Architecture website writes about traditonal design types as well construction methods in Vernaluar Zambian Architecture.The use of sutainable building materials in vernaular Zambian Architecture is very prominent and I beleive could influence some of the western building concept being adopted in the continent.

The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is a very good example of a build that had adopted vernacular architecture and adapted it in a mordern building as mentioned in the Zambian Architecture website.


Photos courtesy of the Zambian Architecture website and Victoria Fall Safari Lodge

Henry Liu's Green Fly-Ash Bricks

The National Science Foundation website says "...Researchers have found that bricks made from fly ash--fine ash particles captured as waste by coal-fired power plants--may be even safer than predicted. Instead of leaching minute amounts of mercury as some researchers had predicted,the bricks apparently do the reverse, pulling minute amounts of the toxic metal out of ambient air.

Each year, roughly 25 million tons of fly ash from coal-fired power plants are recycled, generally as additives in building materials such as concrete, but 45 million tons go to waste. Fly ash bricks both find a use for some of that waste and counter the environmental impact from the manufacture of standard bricks.

"Manufacturing clay brick requires kilns fired to high temperatures," said Henry Liu, a longtime National Science Foundation(NSF) awardee and the president of Freight Pipeline Company (FPC), which developed the bricks. "That wastes energy, pollutes air and generates greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. In contrast, fly ash bricks are manufactured at room temperature. They conserve energy, cost less to manufacture,and don't contribute to air pollution or global warming."

Once colored and shaped, the FPC bricks are similar to their clay counterparts, both in appearance and in meeting or exceeding construction-material standards.

Supported by NSF's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Liu has been working since 2004 to develop the bricks. The first phase of support enabled him to make fly ash bricks more durable by engineering them to resist freezing and thawing
due to weather. Liu is now working from a second-phase SBIR award to test the brick material's safety and prepare it for market.

"Green manufacturing is a focus for the nation," said Tom Allnutt of NSF's SBIR program, who oversaw Liu's award. "Liu's innovative use of fly ash to manufacture high quality building materials will potentially decrease some of the negative environmental impact of coal-fired power generation while meeting increasing demands for greener building materials."

While researchers need to study the bricks further to determine how the mercury adsorption occurs and how tightly the metal is trapped, the new findings suggest the bricks will not have a negative impact on indoor air quality.

On average, air contains low amounts of mercury that can range from less than 1 nanogram per cubic meter (ng/m3) to tens of ng/m3--a small fraction of the Environmental Protection Agency limit for continuous exposure.

Inside a confined experimental chamber, the bricks did not raise the mercury levels in the surrounding air (originally more than one nanogram), and instead appeared to lower the concentration down to roughly half a nanogram.

Engineers from FPC of Columbia, Mo., developed the bricks with NSF support and reported their findings on mercury leaching at the May 7-10, 2007, World of Coal Ash Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Henry Liu has received a number of NSF awards since 1980 and founded FPC after retiring as professor of civil engineering and director of Capsule Pipeline Research Center, a state/industry university cooperative research center established by NSF at
University of Missouri-Columbia in 1991 to research and develop capsule pipeline technology..."

Photos courtesy of National Science Foundation

Highly Efficient Green Buildings

Quirks and Quarks says "...Most people agree that a major problem facing our planet today is the rising level of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. So environmentalism has now become mainstream, with recycling, fuel efficiency, and reduced use of plastic all part of our daily lives. But one area that still needs dramatic improvement is the construction and design of the buildings we live and work in. It's estimated that forty percent of our greenhouse gas emissions in North America come from our homes and offices. So researchers and builders are looking for ways to 'green up' our homes.

In existing buildings, this isn't easy. Dr. Danny Harvey, a geography professor at the University of Toronto, lives in a typical Toronto home. And he's doing all he can to lower his home's impact. He's installed triple-glazed windows, a high-efficiency furnace, and a light coloured roof in order to improve his home's efficiency. He's sealed all the small cracks he can find, and installed extra insulation to prevent heat leaking. All together, he's reduced his impact by about 25

But the really large changes are going to come with new home construction. While many homes outside urban areas are getting larger and larger, Andy Thomson, a Toronto architect with Sustainable Design, is moving in the opposite direction. He's designing homes that are less than 300 square feet in size. Based on trailer homes, he's using the latest in materials and design to create family dwellings that produce their own electricity, and are so efficient, they can be completely heated and cooled using barbeque tanks of propane.

But not everyone's going to be willing to move into such a small domicile. Instead, it may take development of new materials to improve home construction. One of these is a wood product developed by Michael Sykes, the creator of the Enertia home.

He's discovered that the resin in pine wood crystallizes at room temperature, and is exploiting this in the creation of homes that don't require a furnace to heat. Instead, the wooden walls absorb heat from the sun during the day, and release it at night.A big change that needs to happen if we're going to create green communities, is to change the actual design of our living environments. Both the homes themselves, and the makeup of the communities we live in. Amanda Mitchell, from the University of British Columbia, is part of a team that works with developers to come up with environmentally friendly community designs..."

Photo courtesy of Quirks and Quarks

ApproVideo

The ApproVideo website is "... a new Video wiki/blog site developed by the Engineering for Developing Communities Program (EDC) at the University of Colorado and PlanetMind.

This site provides a collection of already published short videos illustrating a wide range of sustainable and appropriate solutions for developing (and developed) communities worldwide. You will find innovative ideas, tools, cutting edge programs,case studies, and initiatives in the areas of education, health, energy, water, sanitation, etc..."

Afritects of South Africa

Afritects was established in 1998 and has quickly established itself as one of the notable practices in Johannesburg – South Africa.

The firm has already left a trail of uniquely designed buildings in it wake ranging from commercial and hospitality to institutional typologies.

Afritects operates out of it own studio at 236 Afritects Place in Ferndale, Randburg.

Photos courtesy of Afritects

Modern Green Architecture in Accra

In article by Shelley D. Hutchins featured in Architect Magazine "...California-based Stephen H. Kanner, FAIA, has expanded his practice to another West coast—the one in Africa. Accra, the capital of Ghana, has captured both his attention and his creative passion. “Ghana is on the coast and faces the same direction—southwest—as Los Angeles,” he says, so its conditions are not entirely alien to him. But Kanner's chief lure was best friend and longtime collaborator Joe Addo, who moved back to his birthplace four years ago.

On his first visit there, Kanner was so impressed by Addo's efforts to revitalize his hometown, he offered the full support of his firm and his own financial investment. “Joe is really involved in political issues that will better the quality of life through roads, water systems, and schools,” Kanner explains. Together they've formed a development group called Concept Ghana, with a focus on improving low-income housing, aiding in neighborhood and city planning, and designing upscale housing to help lure wealthy Ghanaians back home.

The Augustino Neto Condominiums, slated for completion in 2008, are among the for-profit projects. The 1,500-square-foot units will sell for about U.S. $300,000. All 25 condos have two bedrooms, two and a half baths, and two balconies opposite each other for unimpeded cross-ventilation. The ¾-acre site is on the airport road, which also houses the city's embassy row. “The town grew around the airport, and the wealthiest district happens to be right below the flight path,” Kanner says. But the building's debut of Concept Ghana's soon-to-be-patented material, PozzoGhana, will help insulate against jet-engine noise. The green building product, which combines local sedimentous soils, waste palm kernels, and Portland cement, will form the exposed structure of the condo building.

The condos will showcase other sustainable materials easy to come by in Ghana: bamboo for the poolside cabana and balcony railing; adobe plasters for the walls; and recycled oil drums as large-format shingle siding. Responsibly harvested native woods in wide planks will lend clean, contemporary lines to wall panels. “The building's frame is our concrete product,” Kanner says, “then we mixed in ancient local building materials in a modern way.”..."

Photos courtesy of Architect Magazine