South Korea’s ‘Green Urbanism’ - Songdo IBD

Remarkable Vision

Songdo IBD is a pedestrian city - the furthest residential districts are only a thirty-minute amble from the centre. All blocks are designed to connect pedestrians to open space, walking/biking corridors, and public gathering areas. Songdo IBD is located within the Incheon Free Economic Zone. This new metropolis will be connected to the Incheon International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, by a 7.4 mile highway bridge, and linked by subway to Seoul and its surrounding suburbs.

It is being developed by New York-based real estate developer Gale International in a joint venture with Korea’s POSCO E&C. In fact, Songdo’s backers, which include Gale, Morgan Stanley and Korean steelmaker Posco, are betting the city can become a northeast Asian trade hub, linking nearby Shanghai and Tokyo.

Furthermore, Songdo IBD will also feature a first-rate system of public transportation and green transportation schemes comprising buses, subways (with connections to Seoul and Incheon City), and water taxis zipping along the city’s seawater canals, as well as extensive bike ways and electric-car rentals. Preferential parking spaces will be available for low-emissions vehicles.

The Songdo International Business District, “The Gateway to Northeast Asia,” will be the first new city in the world designed and planned as an international business district.

The Grand Master Plan 


Long-term sustainability and the minimisation of the city’s carbon footprint have been considered in every design and engineering decision by master-plan architect Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC, and chief engineers Arup and Cosentini Associates.

Songdo IBD officially opened in August 2009, as the first “new” city in the world designed and planned as an international business district. With its more than 40% green space, including a $220 million park, the city is designed to feel as airy as Vancouver. It offers every conceivable amenity including a world-class hospital, an international preparatory school, a 100-acre Central Park, a 1.1 million square foot premium retail mall and a championship 18-hole golf course, the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea. 


Green Urbanism
 


One of the explicit goals of Gale International is to create an elegant urban environment with a significantly reduced carbon footprint compared to a standard baseline Korean or US design. In addition, Songdo IBD is master-planned for 40% green space – a much higher percentage than nearly any other Asian urban centre.

Songdo IBD is master-planned for 40% green space – a much higher percentage than nearly any other Asian urban centre.

By its very design, Songdo IBD will be an environmental standout not only in Asia, where many urban areas are in a state of ecological crisis, but the world. The city is using as one sustainability framework the evolving LEED for Neighbourhood Development certification, for which Songdo IBD was recently selected as a pilot project and partner by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED-ND sets standards not just for green building but also for enhancing and protecting the overall health, natural environment and quality of life of a community.

Water efficiency is a hallmark of Songdo IBD’s development. Greywater systems from larger buildings will be collected, treated, and reused for non-potable uses such as flushing, cleaning and irrigation. The lake in the 100-acre Central Park and the canal system will use sea water, not fresh water, thus saving immeasurably on potable water supplies. The canals are powered by wind turbines and the entire body of water is refreshed every 24 hours.

Songdo IBD will be a model of the best of what is possible today as well as being able to grow and adapt to the environmental challenges of the future.

Halloween Pumpkin Stamps

Product Description

Stamp spooky notes with these 1 1/2" plastic stampers. Print colorful creatures on the pages of your Halloween stories and scrapbook pages! Bats, mummies, pumpkins and more will seal your letters with a haunting feel! (2 dozen per unit)


Product Features


* Set of 24 assorted Halloween design stampers
* Size: 1 1/2"
* Bats, mummies, pumpkins, ghosts, vampires, spiders.
* 2 dozen per unit



WARNING:

CHOKING HAZARD -- Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs.


For Buy This Product<<< Click Here>>>

Water from air: Water Building Resort

Aesthetic Concept

The Water Building Resort’s concept and architecture were inspired by the form of a falling drop of water. It is a sustainable building, envisioned and thought through to create a consciousness of water. Orlando shares his philosophy on architecture: “The integration of elements gives us an integral vision of the man with his environment and we answer to his needs, through an Architecture and a sustainable Urbanism.”

It is not only stunning from the architectural viewpoint; this ecologically friendly building is set to become the first building with the capacity to extract pure water from the air using an innovative generator and solar power. Tying in with the water theme, the building will also feature an indoor and outdoor aquarium, spa and wharf. The basement of the building will house a water tank, a filter system and a desalination plant to purify salt water.

The Water Building Resort is a sustainable building, envisioned and thought through to create a consciousness of water.

Innovative Design


Water Building Resort’s ability to ‘transform’ the air into water, may seem a little like science fiction, however it is a reality thanks to new technology, TeexMicron, incorporated into the building. Water production is based on the condensation of humidity that is in the air. Its location in close proximity to the sea, allows for enhanced condensation, allowing it to take advantage of daily evaporation and the night’s condensation.

Meanwhile, the design of the building integrates generation of renewable energy. The Southern façade, oriented towards the sun, is covered by photovoltaic cells of the latest technology that allow transparency and yet capture solar energy to supply electricity to the building. A lattice design on the North facing facade allows for optimised natural ventilation, which reduces the amount of energy required to keep the interiors cool.

This ecologically friendly building is set to become the first building with the capacity to extract pure water from the air using an innovative generator and solar power.

Green Features



De Urrutia's resort, designed for humid areas, will contain an aquarium, restaurant, gyms, spa services, and exhibition rooms. Moreover, the basement of this resort complex will have a water treatment zone for purifying rain water and salty sea water and a technological investigation centre to control and verify water quality. The resort makes innovative use of Atmospheric Water Generator technology to convert condensation and humid air into drinking water. At full capacity, an AWG system can produce 35,000 to 109,000 gallons of water per day.

To complement its water generating features, the Water Building Resort will also recycle water taking rain water as well as marine water, purifying it with equipment incorporated in the basement of the building. The façade of this elegant hotel is engineered to face the sun to make most use of its energy in order to purify water.

The TeexMicron generator is designed to work in warm, humid climates with an ideal temperature range of 20 to 40 degrees celsius (68 to 104 F) and humidity of 30 to 95 percent. The innovative technology behind the TeexMicron generator allows it to use ocean air condensation and evaporation. It is capable of producing of up to 5,000 litres of water per hour.

Seawater Vertical Farm in Dubai by StudioMobile

Studiomobile, an Italian architectural firm, have been working during the last couple of years in the United Arab Emirates and their most recent development is the concept seawater vertical farm. Their design, the Seawater Vertical farm utilizes seawater to keep cool and moisten greenhouses and to transform enough humidity back in to water to irrigate the plants. This project would be very much helpful where the supply of fresh water is limited and not much local cultivations are taking part. This project is very expensive but has been considered feasible because of the urban transport problem and the high soil value.

How the concept works :

Phase 01
The air going into the greenhouse is first cooled and humidified by seawater, which is trickled over the first evaporator. This provides a fresh and humid climate for the crops that in these conditions need very little water as they are not stressed by excessive transpiration.

Phase 02
As the air leaves the growing area it passes through the second evaporator which has seawater flowing over it. During this phase the humid air mix with the warm dry air of the ceiling interspace. thus the air is made much hotter and more humid.

Phase 03
The warm air is forced to flow upward by the stack effect that is temperature induced. In the central chimney the warm and humid air will condense when in contact with plastic tubes where cool sea water is pumped. In the surface of the condenser many drops of fresh water will appear, ready to be recollected in a tank to water the crops and for other uses.

Designer : StudioMobile via TreeHugger

Design Light Up Starway

Lights staircase is a low voltage (which implies a low cost) LED system with which you turn on your stairs with or without switch. The lights automatically open when you near the stairs, but they can also be controlled. There is also a generator connected to the system, so that in the case of a blackout of the stairs will still emit light for 12 hours.

Each staircase is illuminated by three low beam and all the hidden son is intelligent. If you want to buy the kit, it costs you $ 140. However, the kit includes four sets of light, so you must add $ 34.95 for each phase of the fifth.The total cost is quite high, but you can check in that light, every step of seconds, for example. – Via Gadget Venue

NH Lakefront Cottage Renovation

One of our recently completed projects is the renovation of a lakefront cottage on Pleasant Lake, New London, New Hampshire.

The property was subdivided and had originally had two cabins on it. A cabin on “The Point” was torn down to open up the lake view from the other cottage. Some of its materials were salvaged for use in the main cottage renovation.

The new cottage serves as a three-season entertainment area for family and friends with lakeside access and wonderful seasonal views.

Master Planning of the lot for a future primary residence was also completed, accounting for CSPA lot coverage, setbacks and storm water management.

Photos by Great Island Photography, LLC

Sleek Design from Fu Tung Chen

We stumbled accross Fu Tung Chen's work a few years back and we're still in love. Known for exquisite concrete design, his work has such an elegance and refined quality to it.

Here are some samples of his portfolio...

Photos: Fu Tung Cheng