EcoBuild - we've done it!

4 Mar '11: We had seven New York skyscraper designs on show, and three of our teams won the UK prize, and now we look forward to the World final shoot-out in Prague in May. The prize giving was on Weds afternoon 2nd March. More photos later...

You can read a long blog report from one of the judges, Hattie Hartman of the Architects Journal, and she has included the webcam stream of the prize giving.
http://blog.emap.com/footprint/2011/03/03/isover-student-competition-finale/
The final winners were Green Canyons, second were Social Tower Experiment, and third were the Green Ramp. Three of the students in these groups are M. Arch STB registered. Well done!
You can see a list of the shortlisted entries, with hi res images at the 2011 Isover Multi Comfort house site.

Gabriel Golumbeau (Isover), Prof Wolfgang Feist (Passivhaus), Guillermo Guzman
and DNC (University of Nottingham), at Ecobuiild 2011

Passive Skyscraper at EcoBuild

27 Feb '11: Above, The layout of EcoBuild 2011. We have our own stand, at the North west corner of the main hall, conveniently next to the Coffee space. This is the MultiComfort House stand, provided by Isover, and we will have seven of our Passive Skyscraper designs on show.
    These will undoubtedly be the highest building designs of the whole show, in all likelihood the highest ever displayed an any EcoBuild.
   All the Nottingham schemes show the Solar Earth Charging technology  adapted for high rise, as has been researched on the Peveril Solar House.

Tall Building students doing well!

2 Feb '11: The skyscraper designs produced by our Tall Building students have all done very well in the Isover competition. We submitted 9 schemes, and 7 were chosen as finalists, and the remaining 2 were highly commended. Only one other scheme from the UK was included in the total of eight finalists.
   We cannot put the schemes up as illustrations yet, because we have a second and third stage to go to, and therefore more details have to be added. We are not ready to release the full details of the designs.
  Needless to say, we set the students the task of designing the upper residential sections with ZERO heating from any form of burning - no gas, oil or direct electricity! We have devised systems for doing this. At the second stage, we will get engineer colleagues to validate the quantities required.
   We shall be showing these schemes on our model of New York - all nine of our designs - at Ecobuild 1-3 March 2011, Excel Centre in east London, on one of the largest stands of the show near the entrance. Please call in!
  The best three from the UK will be invited to Prague for the final  in May, so at least 2 of our groups will have an invite and a prizes.

Crit for the Passive Skyscraper

19 Jan'11: It has been a superhuman effort, but between 32 of us, we have, mostly succeeded. I say mostly, because this is only the completion of stage one, the Isover competition is global, and we have more stages to go. This stage has to be uploaded to Isover next week and then will be considered during that week. I cannot post images on this blog until after the judges have decided.

DNC and Phil, standing, with international students
of the design team providing a wonderful dinner.

  We remain hopeful that a few of our schemes will be good enough to be considered for display at Ecobuild in March 2011, at Earls Court.

Ivan Jovanovic and Chris Gaylord joined us for the day from London, as examiners. The students had the unnerving experience of having us study the drawings in silence for the first 5 minutes, imagining that we were Isover judges without the luxury of students present to explain things. Then we allowed them to talk, explain, and of course answer questions. The whole conversation concluded with as much advice as we could give them for improving the panels before the competition submission. Ivan and DNC focused strongly on the Passivhaus strategy and explanation, and wider environmental aspects. Chris and Philip focused on urbanistic presence, tall building planning and configuration. Together, we hope that the students know what to do for the remainder of the week.

  Many of us met up later in the evening, in Nosh, in Beeston market, for very good chinese dinner!

High rise in New York

August: We are thinking ahead to the first semester of 2010-2011, and our plan is to do the Isover competition - this is for a 60 storey residential re-interpretation of the Passivhaus idea, fit for city living in a high density location - a very different context from the one that Passivhaus was developed for.
  But wait - it's not as stupid an idea as it sounds! an apartment in a tall block has, theoretically, extremely good insulation above, below, to the sides and to the rear, because it is sharing with others. The only part facing the exterior is the facade, which needs to be very well designed. And shared services such as heat recovery and water recycling can more easily be done in an apartment block than in a single house.... So we'll do it! Decision made!
    It is an international competition, with schools in each country invited to take part. The leading school of Architecture in each country will get an intermediate prize, and then there is a final stage in Prague in 2011. The intermediate prize for UK competitors will include to have one's model exhibited at Ecobuild 2011, London, March 2011. Isover will publish a book next year showing the pick of the entries, so we could hope to get some of our students' work published.  We have been asked to build the site model for the UK version, even if other UK schools take part.