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BUSH SIGNS ENERGY BILL INTO LAW

President Bush signed the first national energy legislation in more than a decade in early August, hailing the measure as a smart way to make Americans more secure by encouraging domestic oil and gas production and the building of new nuclear power plants. The 1,724-page energy law, four years in the making, will provide $14.5 billion in tax breaks for producers of oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power. It also extends or creates tax incentives for alternative energy sources like wind as well as conservation and energy efficiency. The final bill dropped many of the controversial amendments that blocked passage of earlier versions, including authorizing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Many Democrats said the bill emphasized the wrong things and rewarded the energy industry while harming the interests of consumers and putting the environment at additional risk. "It's Christmas in August for big energy, and consumers get lumps of coal," said Anna Aurilio, legislative director for U.S. PIRG, and advocacy group that works on environmental and consumer issues. The bill also included measures to modernize the nation's power grid.
The New York Times, 9 Aug 05, by Richard W. Stevenson.

NATIONAL LIBRARY SINGAPORE: AN ECOLOGICAL URBAN MASTERPIECE

Ken Yeang's latest project, the new National Library Building for the island state of Singapore, was actually designed in a 1998 competition. Though it was seven years in the making, it is his most significant project to date. Yeang's signature sunshading is on a larger scale here. It is an assemblage of huge blades with 6m deep "biplane" wings on open atrium locations. Of the library's many ecologically responsive features, the low energy design has three operational modes—passive, mixed and full. Passive includes optimised daylighting, good solar orientation, sunshading, natural ventilation, responsive façade design and appropriate building colour. The mixed mode strategy combines natural and artificial ventilation in transition spaces such as lobbies, foyers and the courtyard. These are supported by airflow and energy simulations along with predictions of comfort.

SIMULATED CARPET SAMPLES SAVE RESOURCES

The design process creates a lot of waste and inefficiency, and hence many opportunities for improvement. One such opportunity is with carpet samples. Using "digital tufting" technology, Tricycle Inc. offers software that creates paper versions of the carpet samples. Tricycles's software simulates the actual placement of yarn in a tufting machine to create amazingly realistic images. "Other alternatives, such as photography or texture-mapping over color fields, are not accurate enough to be useful," claims Caleb Ludwick, market intelligence manager at Tricycle. Designers visiting a carpet company's website can select from the available yarn types and colors to create their own samples online. Tricycle is not trying to replace real samples entirely, but only to replace the large number of samples that are typically ordered early in the process and then discarded.
Environmental Building News, Aug 05, p 8 by Nadav Malin.

PARADISE FOUND IN MOZAMBIQUE

In the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, British architects Hugh Cullum and Richard Nightingale have just completed a new tourist resort that attempts to minimize its impact on the local ecology and have sustainable long-term benefits for the local community. The Guludo eco-resort lies in the Quirimbas National Park. Cullum and Nightingale reinterpret local vernacular traditions by developing modest, low energy, low maintenance structures that touch the ground lightly. As the heart is a central hub with facilities for eating, cooking, lounging and teaching loosely arranged round a courtyard. Guests are housed in 12 independent bandas facing the beach. Drawing extensively on local materials and construction techniques, building structures are generally timber framed with infill panels of mud, masonry or woven matting. Roofs are thatched with grass or makuti, coconut palm thatching panels. Non-ferrous jointing methods include simple timber pegs and cord or rope bindings. Solar energy is used to generate electricity through photovoltaic arrays, and to heat water by direct radiation. Human waste is recycled in waterless lavatory units to provide dry compost for fertilizer.
Architectural Review, Jul 05, p 74, by Catherine Slessor.

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