All of us at Design4D wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year!

In lieu of sending Christmas cards we have made a donation to the Oxfam East Africa Famine Fund.

If you haven't already, then come and say hi on Twitter.

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At Design4D we've been researching how health centres could play a larger role in the Big Society. Traditionally these are places where ill people come to get advice and medicine. Even some of the new expensive centres are mono-functional and completely introverted offering little back to the public realm.

Our research led us to discover a pioneering scheme called the Peckham Experiment in South East London. Established back in 1935 this experiment looked to provide health, leisure, education and family support in a community run scheme. There was even a farm nearby where organic food was grown to be sold in the centre. The focus was on achieving more than just a disease-free community but a healthy community. The architecture was an important part of this process and was specifically designed to express and accommodate the flexible needs of the project. This was more than just a place to get medicine this was a focus for community involvement and support.

We are slowing moving out of a recession caused by the invisible hand of greed but are about to enter an exciting new era. Architects and top developers have realised that to create sustainable communities you need to consider both the green agenda and the Fourth Dimension in architecture. We look forward to a healthy future.

The Peckham Experiment 1935

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According to the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration more people die each year from traffic accidents (1.2 million) than from malaria (1 million). Millions more are injured and maimed. In Sao Paulo, traffic jams can stretch well over 100 miles and commute times average between two and three hours a day. With an expanding population and growing car ownership, traffic gridlock is inevitable adding to pollution problems and social frustration. Yet the car is a status symbol used to express ones success in modern society. Could this be about to change?

At Heathrow airport they have just launched a series of driverless pods which take people from the car park to the correct terminal. After hearing so much about Google's driverless car it is exciting to see a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system successfully up and running in Great Britain with future plans to incorporate the system in other cities. The future is nearer than you think. Watch this space...

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With so many more people living on Earth food production is going to become an increasing issue. We are beginning to see designs for skyscrapers that aren't sealed boxes but that provide natural ventilation and external space at high level but do these towers have a role to play in food production? Will towers have to incorporate the suburban allotment or will vertical farms be integrated as isolated buildings within the megacity? The answer to these questions will surely initially come from cities built in the desert where importing food will significantly impact on carbon footprints.

A crowd of humans
 

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This is an interesting documentary which looks into the mysterious and rapid decline in bee numbers. Bees are critical to the pollination of flowers which then results in the growth of fruits, vegetables, etc. Without bees our food crops would be devastated. The decline in bee populations has been so great that in America they are now flying crates of bees from Australia! This is obviously not sustainable. The exact cause of the bee deaths is unknown although a combination of intensive farming, removal of hedgerows and chemical pesticides are likely factors.

I am a big fan of green roofs, not only for their thermal mass and aesthetic appeal but because they encourage greater biodiversity. Urban bee keepers are helping to combat the decline in bee populations but we need to see cities providing suitable habitats for plants and animals, if not for our psychological benefit then definitely for our food production survival.

Action needs to be taken NOW before the disappearance of the bee has Serious consequences..

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This video shows a highly plausible prediction of the future where networked home appliances tap into our digital social networks to predict and potentially shape our mood and home requirements.

Facebook enables a person to keep in touch with numerous social groups simultaneously while applications such as Foursquare enable real-time locating of individual people. This technology begins to form a database of your personality as shaped by your friends and surroundings. From this database we will see the birth of digital personalities, much like HAL in 2001:Space Odyssey, tailored to compliment your own mood and requirements. How is this going to affect our relationships with one another in the future and the environments we live in?

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Transition Towns is a grass roots movement looking to provide answers to the issues of peak oil. Its initial proposals have many things to commend including the focus on rebuilding community and localised food sources as proposed on our Creekside Arcade project. Although I agree with parts of the model, I'm not sure that the anti-growth idea as discussed in the video is realistic to the human psyche which is pre-programmed through curiosity to develop, grow and evolve. Maybe economic growth needs to be redefined around carbon reduction and not GDP? Quality over quantity?

The definition of Happiness is wanting what you've got, not getting what you want, but where is the balance to be struck between unsustainable growth and negative human inertia, as seen in the Dark Ages, in the quest for happiness and sustainability? Could growth and profit be encouraged but redistributed to benefit communities? And how does localism factor into the global network? Big ideas that will effect urban design and which I hope to develop at the RSA's Profit with Purpose working group this week.

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At Design4D we design with consideration of the fourth dimension. Why? and what does this mean?

Three dimensions describes an object by its x, y and z co-ordinates. In physics the fourth dimension combines three dimensions with a dimension of time to create spacetime. This concept of spacetime was important in the realisation of Einstein's special theory of relativity. Shifts in scientific thinking have always affected art as artists look to explore new ideas. Some of these explorations depict visual representations of the fourth dimension such as the tesseract or the mobius strip which in turn architect's have realised into literal built form.

As a student I was less interested in the physical articulation of spacetime but more in the potential of this fourth dimension of time within the design process. I began to explore time based media such as kinetic artwork and film. I found film captured movement of light, human narratives and spatial experiences better than the frozen two dimensional image or the rotated three dimensional sculpture. The concept of human narrative began to play a stronger role in my work as I looked to explore intangible time based ideas about creativity, community, sense of place and memory. These are ideas critical to a stable and harmonious civilisation the more our population expands and lives in closer proximity. There are no fixed rules as to how you explore and guarantee these important aspects of architecture are fulfilled but at Design4D we have formulated a framework called the Chronetik process. This process enables us to test how our schemes have considered more than just the social, environmental and economic aspects that the triple bottom line of business dictates.

Big Society, community, civilisation, call it what you will, but we believe that as our population expands the role of the architect will be key in achieving these social goals through consideration of the fourth dimension in architecture.

Visual representation of the fourth dimension

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It may not be a popular view in architectural circles but I have just finished reading Prince Charles' book 'Tradition and Sustainability' and would recommend it to all architect's, as a lot of what is said is excellent common sense in terms of sustainability.  Unfortunately, where it is likely to become unpopular is its narrow definition of 'Traditional' style.

It would be interesting to hear what Prince Charles would say about our Shell House scheme, which we are currently talking to a number of developers about building. Here is a house that ticks all of the sustainability boxes, including its consideration of the "fourth dimension", which the book defines as "...community, memory, sense of place and creativity...", but the way it looks is the result of its construction and response to site. Potentially a 'classic' piece of architecture, but would the Shell House satisfy Prince Charles' belief in 'Tradition'?                       

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Last week I watched 'The Human Planet' an amazing TV series documenting how the human species is the only animal to have carved out a life in every habitat on earth. The series reminded me of a book that had a big effect on my own design process titled 'The Naked Ape'. Published in 1967 the book was radical in its day for its zoological analysis of humans. It was the first time I had thought of humans as just another animal on the planet with the book describing how much of our 'civilised' life is constructed to relieve our most primeval instincts.

One of the main roles of architects in society is to enable the rapidly growing human population to live in closer proximity, something that is not necessarily 'natural' to our species. So while functionally an architect must come up with clever solutions to draw light and air deeper into denser living environments there is also an element of joy, spirit or soul which much be uplifted to enhance the monotony of life in the concrete jungle.

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Solar panels and green roofs are definitely going to become more common in urban architecture. Green roofs will reduce rainwater run-off and provide a building's thermal mass whilst still enabling the use of fast lightweight construction techniques. As the insulation of walls improve so solar panels will begin to meet more of our energy needs.

Initially we will see a mass of green sedum roofs but hopefully over time the roofs will be planted to respond more sensitively to the location and biodiversity. This will result in a 'landscape' of different colours and textures right in the heart of our cities. This article shows a whole range of colours used on the roofs of the Augustenborg botanical gardens: http://bit.ly/eyW4fb

The fifth elevation

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The cause and effect relationship hasn't been fully realized in our globalised society despite the prevalence of sensor technology and the Internet to share information. I would like to see more whole life costing analysis of products we specify which would give a clearer idea of their true 'green' credentials from cradle to grave. From an architectural perspective carbon trading will provide massive investment into renewable technologies but I hope it will also create a greater awareness of cause and effect relationships to make more than just architecture sustainable.

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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With rapid developments in nanotechnology I hope we are going to start seeing more active facade systems which respond to their environment and even self heal.

Our Filmic House project proposed a rubber clad house which changed colour in response to thermal loadings on the surface. In the same way humans are covered in a self healing 'skin' we saw EPDM rubber as a logical simplification of the construction process taking one continuous material across the whole building surface. The Bilbao Guggenheim museum uses rubberised asphalt which enables the titanium cladding to be fixed straight through the waterproof membrane. It therefore isn't too difficult to imagine rubber incorporating self-healing technology that would keep the building watertight even if damaged. Below is a presentation on self-healing paint that triggered this thought:

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The current serious flooding in Australia and Brazil has highlighted the
dangers of building on flood risk land in order to house our ever increasing
population. With increases in temperature it is likely we are going to see
further extremes in weather and more flooding in the future. How are we to
prevent further disasters from occurring?

Design4D's Waterscape City scheme was a response to this issue, proposing a
network of canals be used to 'perforate' the land. Reedbed systems adjacent
to the canals would assist the wastewater treatment process and accommodate
changes in water levels. Roofs were planted to help buffer and absorb heavy
rainfall and all road and pavement surfaces were permeable to allow natural
even drainage. The canal systems provided low energy transportation networks
and, as is proven in places like 'Little Venice', would result in a
significant uplift in property prices as people pay a premium to live by the
water. 
 

Design4D's waterscape City Proposal

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UHI or Urban Heat Island effect will have growing significance in the design of our cities as populations rise and temperatures increase.

To reduce UHI we need planted roofs and balconies to help provide a thermal buffer during hot weather but to also act as natural air conditioning units for the external environment. Plants help filter the air and absorb heat energy through the process of evapo-transpiration which itself creates a cooling effect. Orientation of uses need to also be considered. Offices generate excess heat and generally need air conditioning which is very energy intensive and costly. Our mixed use Creekside Arcade project situated the office accommodation to the North storing excess heat in a flood control labyrinth for use at night in the South facing residential units.

Good design is generally just common sense which raises the question why are we still building sealed, air-conditioned vertical glass skyscrapers which are going to cost huge amounts of money and carbon to run in the future?

Thermal heat pump strategy using thermal mass of flood tank labyrinth

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Thank you for all your support this year! 2011 looks set to be even more exciting!

Here's a link to our Design4D festive quiz if you're one of the 550million people on Facebook!

Design4D Festive Quiz: http://apps.facebook.com/desigdfcbaffc/3/default.aspx?retake=1

Happy holidays and a have a great new year!

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The link below is to an interesting article which looks at the impact of social networks by 2015. Is technology an enabler or an alienator or both? How can modern supermarkets trigger community connections and relationships that the local butcher, baker, post office, chemist and pub once organically enabled? The human race has an amazing ability to adapt and survive in almost any surroundings but what are the financial costs to the State of a society that has no community?

I sat on a design review panel last week where we were presented with a council masterplan that despite its scale had no sense of place, public facilities or adequate open space for play. While density targets need to be acheived and a site's value maximised aspects of community mustn't be forgotten if a masterplan is to be truly sustainable

http://pulsene.ws/y3YH

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As we strive to seal up our buildings to meet carbon reduction targets the health implications of materials specified are going to have far greater significance. It is amazing how materials such as PVC and MDF were only invented relatively recently in 1926 and 1960 and yet already there are moves to reduce or eliminate high-VOC materials (Volatile Organic Compounds) in buildings. Asbestos removal is a huge cost to the construction industry and yet this material was also at one point used in numerous building products.

Scientists are looking to nature for low-VOC solutions. One example is a soya protein which has been modified to mimic the sticky proteins produced by blue mussels as an alternative to the formaldehyde glue in plywood and MDF. As you can see in the link below, the product is commercially available, but like an alternative to PVC we recently discovered, has to be imported from the States! It would be good to see the UK, with its declining manufacturing industry, providing local material solutions to the issues that BREEAM, SKA, Code for sustainable Homes, Passivhouse, LEED, etc are all beginning to raise.

http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/PureBond.aspx

Blue Mussel Glue!

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A few months back I wrote about my concern regarding sealing our buildings up to the extent that we then require mechanical systems to enable us to breathe healthily. Not enough is being debated about this subject and I fear the zero-carbon homes required by 2016 in the UK may produce a new bout of sick building syndrome as air filters get blocked and pumps break down.

Many years ago I helped build a Walter Segal House, a self-build modular timber frame system, that consisted of 'breathing wall' construction. The difference in vapour permeability between the outside and the inside materials caused water vapour to be drawn past the structure to the outside helping to keep relative humidity to the 40-60% required for a healthy internal environment. Could a similar approach to construction help reduce the need for costly mechanical ventilation systems? This is a complicated subject which needs to consider vapour permeability, hygroscopicity and capillarity of materials and which may not have a significant enough impact on the air change rate despite naturally improving air quality. Either way the biology as well as the physics of a building need to be better understood to prevent our zero carbon homes potentially becoming unsustainable health hazards of the future.

Diagram of relative humidity against growth of mould and bacteria

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