INDIAN LABORATORY PASSIVELY COOLED
The Indian firm Abhikram has developed contemporary equivalents to passive cooling techniques used by the Moguls for a new laboratory building in the Torrent Research Center in Ahmedabad. The architects want to show that India's dependence on fossil fuel-driven mechanical air conditioning is unnecessary, even in a laboratory where temperature control is crucial. The Moguls, after all, used thermal mass and evaporative cooling to cope with a March-to-June dry season with daily high temperatures above 35 degrees C (95 F). The cooling strategy for the new laboratory is part of a larger environmental design program to make the most of natural light, ventilation, and locally viable natural materials, and to control dust. Instead of the Mogul's eight-meter-thick stone walls, the concrete-framed laboratory building has brick in-filled walls insulated with vermiculite. And instead of the Mogul's deep wells, a passive downdraft evaporative cooling system moves air down the building's central open concourse, through three levels of laboratories and offices, and then through perimeter exhaust stacks. At the top of inlet shafts, rings of micronizers reacting automatically to temperature and relative humidity cool the draft of air. On-site tests show that the system delivers mean ventilation rates of 6 and 9 changes per hour at ground and first floor levels, enough to remove laboratory odors. - World Architecture, Mar 99, p 108, by Suzanna Hagan.

CESTM INTEGRATES PHOTOVOLTAICS AND SUNSHADES
Little wonder that the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management at the State University of New York in Albany shows off its building-integrated photovoltaic sunshades. Transferring research and environmental technology from the laboratory to commercial applications is what the Center, dedicated in 1997, is all about. Designed by Cannon Architects as two wings connected by a three-story rotunda, CESTM houses research laboratories, a business incubator, and the National Weather Service regional forecasting office. The Cannon team uses site orientation and fenestration design for maximum solar efficiency, but the building's most inventive feature is its 15 kW solar photovoltaic system designed as building-integrated sunshades. Reducing cooling loads and work-area glare, the Kawneer Company's 1600 PowerWall Slope Glazed System is made up of Solarex Corporation's ac PV modules that generate electricity to power ventilator fans and emergency lighting. Another 5 kW array of ac PV modules is set in landscape elements south of the building. - World Architecture,  Mar 99, p 107, by Steven Strong. [More on CESTM: <http://www.albany.edu/pr/campus_cestm.html>]

INTERFACE ADDS MORE PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER
Carpet maker Interface Corporation took another step toward reducing its dependence on fossil fuels and nonrenewable electricity in February when it dedicated a 127 peak-kW photovoltaic array at its Bentley Mills factory in City of Industry, California. This latest PV installation is Interface's third. The first was a 9 kW array at a North Carolina plant; the second a 17 kW array at the LaGrange, Georgia plant. The new half-acre array of 448 panels will provide the California plant with about 6 percent of its power, enough for one of its 29 carpet tufting machines. Though the US Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission partly funded the new PV array, Interface says it's the largest installation funded mainly by a private company. Supplying more of its energy from renewable sources like photovoltaics is one facet of the company's three-part energy strategy which also includes reducing the energy intensity of its manufacturing and offsetting energy use through pollution credits, carbon sequestering projects and other innovative approaches. Interface CEO Ray Anderson describes the company's environmental philosophy in his new book Mid-Course Correction. - Environmental Building News, Mar 99, p 6. [Full text: <http://www.ebuild.com/Archives/Other_Copy/Interfacesolar.html>] [More on Interface: <http://216.1.140.49/us/company/sustainability/frontpage.asp>]

HAG OFFERS CHAIRS FROM RECYCLED POLYPROPYLENE
HAG's new Scio chair is one of the world's first office chairs made from recycled polypropylene plastic. HAG's business partner Dynoplast makes the Scio seat and back shells from used bottle caps collected and converted into new plastic raw material through the Norwegian bottle return system. Scio production will use about 100 metric tons of plastic bottle caps a year. -  Journal of Sustainable Product Design, Jan 98, p 41.  [More on Scio: <http://www.haginc.com>]

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ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Architectural researcher and environmental consultant Chris Hammer of Sustainable Design Resources publishes GreenClips in San Francisco. Ms. Hammer helps planners, developers, building owners, designers, builders, and facility managers practice sustainable planning, development, building design, construction, and operation. GreenClips is written by Chris Hammer and James Richert.

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