German automotive supplier Mahle has been hard at work on next-gen electric drive systems, and it’s also been exploring other critical components to help make vehicular electrification a more viable reality. At September’s IAA Transportation show, it revealed a thermal management fan that borrows from nature to provide smoother, quieter, more efficient performance on the road and at the charger. The fan is designed to meet the needs of the full spectrum of vehicles, from small urban EVs to large fuel cell trucks.
In order to arrive at its unique fan blade design, Mahle used an AI engine to explore a variety of possible biomimetic options.
“We analyzed the characteristic features of bats, swordfish, and many other inspirations from nature,” explained Dr. Uli Christian Blessing, Mahle’s development chief for thermal management. “We finally ended up with the owl, the silent hunter, as the main template for our new fan.”
Blessing doesn’t exaggerate; owls are well-known as a silent predator, able to effectively swoop down on their prey in virtual silence thanks to the unique form of their wing feathers. Both the leading and trailing edges are broken into small comb-like serrations that smooth out air turbulence to cut noise and provide the owl’s hyper-quiet hunting ability.
While Mahle may have indeed used AI to help narrow its specific search, it didn’t start from scratch on the idea of an owl-like blade. This style of design has been researched and pursued by a number of entities over the years, proposed for myriad uses that include wind turbines, aircraft engines and gaming system cooling hardware. In fact, German building and machinery component supplier Ziehl-Abegg has developed a full lineup of FE2owlet multipurpose axial fans with owl wing-inspired blades.
The wavy ribbon-like blades feature owl-inspired serrated edges for smoother airflow and less noise
Mahle
Compared to the F2owlet, Mahle’s design looks downright docile and much less saw-like, but it still employs serrations along the wavy blade edges to channel and quiet airflow. The company says the blade design works much like it does on the owl’s wing, cutting noise by up to 4 decibel A, more than half the sound output of a standard fan.
“One can imagine the sound reduction power of our fan to be like that of turning off one of the speakers on a stereo system,” Blessing analogized.
Mahle says the effect is particularly valuable when the vehicle is running at full load or fast-charging at night, cutting down on noise pollution for both the vehicle driver and those nearby.
Beyond just the blades, Mahle has applied biomimetic inspiration to the construction of the fan cover and hardware
Mahle
The new blade design also results in 10% more efficient performance and a weight savings of 10% versus a conventional fan design, Mahle reports. Drivers may not notice any difference at the battery gauge, but efficiency optimization is the name of the game when it comes to EV design, and every bit contributes.
Mahle has designed the fan for a scalable power range between 300 and 35,000 watts so it could be equipped to everything from small electric passenger cars to large commercial vehicles. Beyond just battery electrics, it’s also designed for use in fuel cell electric setups, and Mahle debuted it within an FCEV truck cab mockup with a full complement of FCEV system components, including its first all-electric axle with two SCT motors.
At last month’s IAA Transportation show, Mahle exhibited a mockup of its full fuel cell drive system that included a fuel cell and supporting hardware, thermal management setup (fan and battery cooling), complete liquid management system, and HD electric axle with two SCT electric motors worth 697 hp
Mahle
Mahle has supplied initial fan prototypes to both passenger and commercial vehicle manufacturers for testing. Citing forecasts that battery and fuel cell electric trucks will make up 30 percent of global production by 2035, the company plans to continue attacking the challenges of electrification from multiple angles, developing both next-gen electric drives and optimized components.
When you picture a sci-fi energy source, glowing green crystals are right up there. Scientists in China have now demonstrated just that, in the form of a “micronuclear battery” that can provide continuous low levels of power for decades.
The concept of a nuclear battery has been around for a long time, and while there are a few different variations it’s all about tapping into the energy consistently being thrown off of radioactive materials. Some designs directly convert the radiation into electricity, while others capture their heat or light energy and turn that into electricity.
The newest prototype falls into that last category – it captures light from an almost cartoonish glowing green crystal. The energy source is a small amount of the radioactive element americium, embedded in a polymer crystal that converts the radiation into a stable green glow, eerily similar to those old stars everyone had stuck to their childhood bedroom ceiling.
The crystal is then paired with a thin photovoltaic cell to convert that light into electricity, and the whole thing is encased in quartz to prevent radiation leaking.
Over hundreds of hours of testing, the team says the micronuclear battery provided a steady output of electricity, and would probably continue to do so for decades without interruption. It was more than 8,000 times more efficient than previous designs.
That said, we are talking about tiny amounts of energy here. That power conversion efficiency was just 0.889%, with the battery producing 139 microwatts per curie (a unit of radioactivity).
Still, such a device could come in handy for a few applications, especially for low-power sensors and devices that need to run unsupervised for long periods, where charging or changing batteries is impractical. Think the bottom of the sea, or deep space, where versions of nuclear batteries are already used. Radioactive decay will just keep on producing energy regardless of environmental factors like temperature, pressure or magnetic fields.
Balancing functional and aesthetic elements in building design is a crucial but often complex task. This is because a built structure encompasses multiple functions, systems, materials, products, and requirements of all kinds. One critical aspect of spaces is acoustics, which can significantly influence usability and comfort and should never be neglected, especially in common areas like restaurants, convention centers, museums, and sports facilities. Good acoustics contribute to the well-being and productivity of occupants, while poor acoustics can cause stress, fatigue, and hearing damage. These issues can be caused by external noise, various sound sources, or impacts (such as footsteps, jumps, or furniture movements), as well as the reflection of sound waves within the environment itself, creating echoes and reverberations that compromise speech intelligibility.
To address these challenges, products within FabriTRAK® Acoustic Wall and Ceiling System offer customizable and effective sound management solutions that enhance both the visual and acoustic qualities of interior spaces. In this article, we will explore how these innovative systems have been utilized in three distinct projects: the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences Middle School, the University of Oregon Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, and the Metro YMCA Workplace Adaptation.
Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences Middle School
The FabriTRAK® System addresses the acoustic challenges presented by the school’s open and collaborative design. LMN Architects incorporated staggered and double-height interior volumes to create dynamic learning environments, which required solid and effective management to prevent noise from disrupting the educational process. The system provides a suitable solution, offering tailored and site-applied acoustic treatments that ensure a learning-friendly environment without reverberations and echoes.
The University demonstrates how acoustic design can also enhance athletic performance. This facility, dedicated to the university’s football program, integrates the FabriTRAK® System to ensure optimal acoustics in training and meeting rooms. Clear communication is essential in these spaces, where instructions must be heard accurately and without interference. FabriTRAK®’s allows the system to meet the precise acoustic requirements of each space, ensuring that athletes and coaches can focus and perform at their best. The ability to incorporate various substrates and finishes enables the system to adapt to the unique needs of the complex’s different sections.
Modern workplaces require areas that support both focused individual work and interactive group activities. In the Metro YMCA Workplace Adaptation project, the FabriTRAK® System transforms the office environment into a space optimized for productivity and collaboration. It helps achieve this balance by reducing noise pollution and improving sound clarity. The customized acoustic environment promotes a more productive and pleasant workplace, demonstrating the system’s versatility in adapting to different functional needs. The ease of installation and personalization ensures that the system can be seamlessly integrated into any office design.
The FabriTRAK® Acoustic Wall and Ceiling Systems are engineered to provide both acoustic performance and design flexibility. The system consists of a rigid vinyl framework that securely integrates fabric as the interior finish, enabling it to adapt to various wall and ceiling configurations. Available in three profile options—round, square, and beveled edges—it supports multiple fabric insertion methods, including bottom, top, side entry, and joiner. This structural versatility, combined with its environmental considerations, makes the system applicable across a range of settings, from educational facilities to corporate environments.
Courtesy of FabriTRAK®Courtesy of FabriTRAK®
TerraCORE® Poly, for example, is specifically designed as an eco-friendly alternative to traditional fiberglass infill. Composed of low-denier polyester fibers, enhances acoustic performance and offers various densities and sizes to accommodate specific project requirements. The material also contributes to the system’s thermal resistance, providing significant R-values. Additional system components, such as GeoTRAK®—which is PVC-free and suitable for environmentally focused projects—and FabriTACK® and FabriBLOK®, which deliver tackable surfaces and noise isolation, respectively, further extend the system’s applicability.
Courtesy of FabriTRAK®
Fabric finishes within the system are available in wide (10’, 3m) and ultra-wide (16’, 5m) widths, including specialized materials such as 100% natural wool FabriFELT® and vinyl. These materials are offered in various thicknesses to meet different acoustic absorption requirements, and the system’s on-site assembly allows for precise adaptation to specific architectural designs.
Overall, the FabriTRAK® System is characterized by its technical adaptability and performance, making it suitable for a broad spectrum of projects, including educational, sports, and workplace environments. Its ability to integrate acoustic and thermal performance with design flexibility establishes it as a reliable solution in contemporary architectural applications.
In the realm of architecture, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a vision of the future but a present reality transforming the way designs are conceptualized and executed. As global architectural powerhouse Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) pushes the boundaries of innovation, they have strategically adopted D5 Render, an advanced AI-driven real-time rendering tool, to enhance their design efficiency.
The Evolution of AI in Architectural Design
Over the years, AI has proven to be a game-changer, streamlining workflows and enabling architects to focus on creativity and innovation. Its advanced algorithms automate time-consuming tasks, freeing designers from the tedious aspects of the process.
As AI has advanced, it has revolutionized design beyond imaging. D5 Render showcases AI’s transformative power in architecture, tackling architects’ needs. Accelerating design and fostering creative thinking, D5 promotes a bold, experimental approach, redefining the industry.
KPF, renowned for reshaping city skylines worldwide, continually seeks new ways to push the envelope in architectural design, striving for better visualization to showcase their grand projects. Conventional 3D renderings, with their limited features, subpar realism, and scalability issues, hindered their pursuit of excellence. In search of a solution, KPF embraced D5 Render, an AI-driven tool that overcomes these limitations, enabling real-time rendering, improved photorealism, and efficient handling of large-scale projects, aligning with their commitment to quality and innovation.
The transition to D5 Render was seamless, since it also offers seamless integration with industry-standard tools including Revit and Rhino. This compatibility, coupled with its impressive features, led to a dramatic improvement in their workflow. The AI capabilities within D5 Render further streamlined the process, as KPF had already begun to embrace AI as part of their core design workflow.
“AI-generated Material Texture Maps” saves valuable time by automatically creating a complete set of maps from a single base color map, eliminating the need for online searches.
“AI Atmosphere Match”, with its ability to match a reference image’s weather, skylight, tone, and more, ensures a consistent and authentic visual experience.
This feature has proven instrumental to the KPF team, reducing the time required for multiple draft production from a week to mere afternoons, slashing iteration time by up to 80%. This remarkable boost in efficiency has improved internal collaboration and strengthened external communication, ensuring a more agile and responsive design process.
“Ultra HD Texture” enables the conversion of low-resolution images to noise-free 4K quality.
Courtesy of D5 Render
“AI Enhancer” enriches details, from vegetation and human models to materials, adding an extra layer of realism to the designs.
These innovative AI features right inside the software, combined with D5’s seamless integration and real-time rendering, brought to KPF a unified design process, eliminating the need to switch between multiple software for different tasks. This consolidation has not only optimized efficiency but also elevated the overall visual quality and depth of their architectural presentations, nurturing a more innovative and streamlined design workspace.
The Future of AI in Architecture
KPF’s strategic shift not only demonstrates the firm’s commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements, but also signals a new chapter in the industry where technology empowers architects to realize their most ambitious projects with unparalleled precision and speed.
As tools like D5 Render continue to evolve, we can expect more seamless integrations and advanced features, especially AI-powered ones, revolutionizing the way designs are visualized and communicated. The future of architecture holds promising breakthroughs, and KPF’s journey with D5 Render serves as a testament to the potential of embracing innovative technologies to elevate the design process.
We’re caught in a vicious circle of facing increasing temperatures across the planet, and combating that with air conditioning – which in turn causes global warming. A problem worth throwing a whole lot of science at, if there ever was one.
Thankfully, we might be close to a fix.
Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an elastocaloric cooling device that they say is 48% more efficient than previous attempts.
Built on an entirely different principle for cooling than vapor compression that enables traditional air conditioners to do their thing, it entirely negates the need for greenhouse gas-emitting refrigerants in AC units.
Researchers at HKUST with their efficient electrocaloric cooling device
HKUST
Elasto what?
It’s rather new to me too. The researchers’ device works using the elastocaloric effect. That’s when a solid material changes its shape reversibly when an external mechanical force is applied or removed – and it undergoes a phase transformation. Due to the entropy difference between its two co-existing phases, the material can either cool down or heat up.
That sounds familiar, now that you mention it
Yeah, that’s because you’re so well read. The electrocaloric effect was first discovered in 1980 by physicists Rodríguez and Brown – but it wasn’t attributed to potentially enabling refrigeration or similar applications.
More recently, we saw a breakthrough in September 2023, where HKUST researchers achieved cooling of up to 50 Kelvin. Not too shabby.
How’s this new device better?
The team at the Hong Kong university developed a multi-material cascading using nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys – materials that can change their shape when they’re cold, and return to their original form when heated.
“They selected three NiTi alloys with different phase transition temperatures to operate at the cold end, intermediate end, and hot end, respectively,” explain the researchers. “By matching the working temperatures of each unit with the corresponding phase transition temperatures, the overall device’s superelastic temperature window was expanded to over 100 K and each NiTi unit operated within its optimal temperature range, significantly enhancing the cooling efficiency.”
This system enabled their device to cool things down by a whopping 75 Kelvin – all without the need for harmful refrigerants. It’s also far more energy efficient.
Okay, so better ACs when?
Hard to say. But hopefully sooner than we melt a bunch more icecaps. According to the International Energy Agency, a French nonprofit that coordinates research and training on energy efficiency, the amount of energy we consume just to cool homes and buildings is set to more than double by 2050.
It’ll also be fun to see how much competition this can spur among researchers looking into similar energy-efficient technologies.
Last year, researchers at Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology developed a system based on the electrocaloric effect – where materials like ceramics and polymers undergo a reversible temperature change when an electric field is applied to them. Their device generated a temperature difference of 20 Kelvin without any observed breakdown.
LIST’s researchers note that a lot of the electricity used to power electrocaloric cooling devices can be reused, so they’d be pretty efficient. Plus, this tech could also see applications like cooling electric car batteries.
A paper on the research has been published in the journal Nature Energy. Let the cooling wars begin.
A new propeller created by the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) coated with a skin mimicking that of a dolphin holds the promise of significantly reducing fuel consumption and emissions in large cargo ships.
For over a century, scientists and engineers have looked at the dolphin as a model for building fast, maneuverable watercraft. After all, when you have an animal that can slip so easily through the water and leap into the air as if it doesn’t care which medium it’s in, it’s a pretty good target for imitation.
The problem is that a dolphin shouldn’t be able to swim like that. The drag is too much and a dolphin’s muscles are pound for pound about as strong as a human athlete, so the animal shouldn’t be able to reach the speeds it does. Up until the Second World War, this was a famous paradox, known as ‘Gray’s Paradox.’
Then engineers started to notice things. For example, if you watch seals and dolphins swimming together in a phosphorescent night sea, the lit plankton motes move around the seals in turbulent chaos, while they slide over the dolphins in straight lines. The culprit is the dolphin’s remarkable skin.
Put simply, dolphin skin has a flexible microstructure that, combined with mucus excretions, is able to alter itself as Flipper swims at different speeds. At high speeds, the skin generates a very thin layer of turbulence. This layer is almost frictionless, allowing the water around the dolphin to simply slide over in what is called laminar flow.
Today, laminar flow is used in both watercraft and aircraft as a means of reducing drag and increasing speed. Now, NIMTE is applying the principle to ship propellers. Its “bionic dolphin skin” is applied to a conventional propeller and isn’t exactly like that of a dolphin, which is much more complex. Instead, the coating is made of liquid-like dynamic interfacial materials and a flexible microstructure measuring between 0.1 and 0.2 mm. This reduces shear force with the water and improves propeller efficiency.
Working with COSCO SHIPPING Energy Transportation, NIMTE carried out tests of the bionic skin propellers on a very large crude carrier (VLCC) with a tonnage of 300,000 tonnes.
In test voyages over 200 days covering over 35,000 nautical miles (40,000 miles, 65,000 km) between Chinese coastal ports and major Middle Eastern ports, the propellers produced a 2% savings in fuel consumption for the crude carrier. The researchers estimate it would cost US$20,000 to place the bionic dolphin skin over a propeller, which would deliver cost savings of over $140,000 a year while cutting CO2 emissions by more than 900 tonnes.
Two 650-foot-tall (200-m) towers have risen in China’s Gansu Province. Combined with an array of 30,000 mirrors arranged in concentric circles, the new facility is expected to generate over 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year.
While photovoltaic panels that directly convert sunlight to electricity are what most people think of when they hear the term “solar power,” there is another method of harvesting the Sun’s power that’s been steadily developing since the early 1980s. Known as solar thermal or concentrated solar power (CSP), these systems rely on mirrors known as heliostats to bounce sunlight to a central gathering point. There, the concentrated beams heat a transfer fluid that in turn heats a working fluid. This fluid then evaporates, turns a turbine, and generates electricity.
In 2014, what was then the world’s largest solar thermal power station opened in the Mojave Desert in the United States. Known as the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the facility consists of three different towers surrounded by heliostat arrays and has a capacity of 392 megawatts. In 2017, Australia announced that it was building the world’s largest single-tower solar thermal power plant with a proposed output of 150 megawatts, although that project was ultimately killed in 2019. The world’s largest CSP, the Noor Complex Solar Power Plant, now operates in the Sahara Desert in Morocco where it churns out 510 megawatts of power a year.
Now, according to a report from China Global Television Network (CGTN), the Three Gorges Group in China has announced another evolution in CSP. Much like the facility in the US, the Ghazhou solar thermal energy storage project will use multiple towers: in this case, two of them, both sharing the same steam turbine.
But unlike the US facility, where each tower is surrounded by its own field of heliostats, the Chinese project will deploy a field of mirrors set in overlapping concentric circles. The mirrors will then be able to follow the path of the Sun and reflect light to either tower in the most efficient way possible. It’s an advance that will improve CSP efficiency significantly, says project manager, Wen Jianghong.
“The mirrors in the overlapping area can be utilized by either tower,” he said. “This configuration is expected to enhance efficiency by 24 percent.” Helping that efficiency along is the fact that the mirrors being used have a 94% reflection efficiency, meaning that most of the solar energy that hits them is beamed back to the power-producing towers.
The two towers at the new plant, which is now 90% complete, will also employ a molten salt method to store heat during the day and release it at night to keep the facility churning out power.
The new CSP system, which is expected to come online later this year, will join surrounding photovoltaic panels and wind turbines at the facility to provide clean power. As part of that green-power effort, the solar thermal energy towers and mirror arrays are expected to save 1.53 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
You can get an up-close look at the plant in the following video from CGTN.
World’s first ‘dual-tower solo generator’ solar thermal storage power station in commissioning phase
In the world of solar cell technology, perovskite materials are poised to take on the current reigning champion silicon, but their stability is holding them back. Now, scientists in China have developed a new type of hybrid perovskite that boasts a very good efficiency over a long life.
Silicon has been the go-to material for solar cells for decades, but the tech is beginning to bump up against its theoretical efficiency cap of just under 30%. Perovskite has emerged in the last 15 years or so as a promising challenger, with its efficiency rapidly approaching that of silicon, while also being cheaper, lighter and more flexible.
But as with everything, there’s a catch: perovskite is vulnerable under exposure to the elements, and tends to break down quickly. That’s of course not ideal for products designed to sit outside in direct Sun every day, so finding ways to stabilize the material is important.
Scientists from Zhejiang University in China have now developed a sturdy new type of perovskite solar cell. The new design uses a structure they call a high entropy hybrid perovskite (HEHP), which essentially combines ordered inorganic layers and disordered organic layers, which boosts its resistance to water and heat stress. In tests, the cells maintained 98% of their efficiency after 1,000 hours of light exposure, and is calculated to follow that same trajectory for more than 5,000 hours. That initial efficiency reached 25.7%, which is respectable for many solar cell types.
The team says this particular perovskite material should be applicable to a variety of different cell architectures. Along with other protective coatings and additives in the works, giving them a longer life could really take the brakes off perovskite solar cells.
Over the past year, architecture exhibitions have significantly addressed pressing global issues such as climate change, resource scarcity, and social advocacy. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, architecture exhibitions can foster dynamic engagement with contemporary issues, serving as platforms for experimentation and critique. These events, such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Milan Design Week, and Concéntrico, serve as essential platforms for creatives to showcase and explore new ideas. Moreover, they have been instrumental in addressing the urgent challenges posed by the climate crisis by promoting sustainable practices.
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Presenting a diverse array of topics, products, discussions, materials, and solutions, the exhibitions have become pivotal in today’s environmental and social context. For example, the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, curated by Lesley Lokko, explored themes like decolonization, sustainability, and the future of architecture, showcasing contributions from Africa “as a laboratory for the future.” This focus aligns with a broader trend of integrating local and global perspectives to solve ecological and social issues in the built environment. Additionally, the rise of the Global South’s involvement in these discussions has been notable, as seen in the Biennale’s emphasis on African architecture and in the success of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, which has influenced exhibitions worldwide.
The concept of “doing more with less” has been a recurring theme throughout the year’s exhibitions, reflecting a mentality emphasizing innovation and efficiency. This approach is evident in architecture exhibitions over the past year, exploring three main themes: resource efficiency and circular economy, vernacular intelligence, and social and environmental advocacy. Whether it is exhibitions reusing materials, highlighting the potential of circular economy practices, projects using vernacular materials to inform sustainable construction methods, or projects addressing critical social issues such as housing affordability. Urging architects to rethink what they make and at what social, financial, and global costs, these exhibitions serve as learning points that shape our collective future.
Related Article
Emerging Themes at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale: Highlights from the National Pavilions
Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy
Courtesy of ARCH+ SUMMACUMFEMMER BÜRO JULIANE GREB
In today’s climate, the contemporary architecture landscape is increasingly influenced by resource efficiency and circular economy principles. Emphasizing a broader global push towards sustainability, these concepts focus on maximizing resource reuse and fostering more sustainable life cycles for materials and buildings. Challenging the traditional liberal approach of making and sipping, resource efficiency promotes practices that can be continually looped back into the production cycle, ultimately reducing environmental impact. In recent years, architectural exhibitions and biennales worldwide have showcased displays that embody and promote these principles. These exhibitions serve as platforms for conversations around architecture and global sustainability goals, helping pave the way for a more resource-efficient and environmentally conscious future in the built environment.
At the Venice Biennale 2023, the German Pavilion’s “Open for Maintenance” exhibition exemplifies the concept of resource efficiency by reusing materials from previous biennale pavilions. Promoting the circular economy approach, the project sheds light on contemporary debates and social practices over existing building stock. Similarly, Concéntrico’s “Off-Season Pavilion by KOSMOS architects repurposes locally available wine storage cages, showcasing how local materials can creatively be reused to fulfill the needs of a project. At Milan Design Week 2024, the “Città Miniera” installation by Mario Cucinella Architects reimagines public spaces using repurposed materials found in the city. Another example from Concéntrico is “PackBags” by Alei Verspoor, which transforms textiles from past installations into new bags and accessories. These examples illustrate how architecture exhibitions push the boundaries of resource efficiency and circular economy principles, challenging architects and designers to rethink what they make and presenting a “doing more with less” approach.
Vernacular Intelligence
Courtesy of Hive Earth
In the built environment, vernacular intelligence refers to drawing inspiration and knowledge from local traditions. Materials and building techniques to create sustainable and contextually relevant structures. This approach reimagines existing landscapes as reference points for “doing more with less” by leveraging editing knowledge and resources instead of producing new materials. Integrating traditional knowledge with modern design principles, architects can potentially create ecologically responsible and contextually relevant buildings. Prominent figures in this movement include architects like Francis Kéré, known for his work with indigenous materials and community-driver projects. Vernacular architecture offers a path toward a resilient and adaptive future that utilizes local resources effectively.
Courtesy of ArchDaily | The Fireplace, Francis Kere
Embracing vernacular intelligence focuses on local traditions, materials, and documented methods to design innovative, sustainable solutions that meet contemporary needs. Highlighting the wisdom embedded in local practices, the methodology explores how these can be harnessed for future architectural advancements. At the Sharjah Triennial, Hive Earth presented a structure constructed using 100% locally sourced rammed earth from the UAE, reimagining traditional, eco-friendly materials that align with the region’s heritage. Similarly, the 3-Minute Corridor by Wallmakers employs tire masonry and sand to build a dome-like structure, emphasizing how discarded materials can be repurposed using vernacular techniques. At the Venice Biennale, the Egyptian Pavilion explores solutions related to the Nile River, integrating historical knowledge with modern technology to address environmental challenges. Francis Kéré’s “The Fireplace” at Milan Design Week uses tree logs to create a communal pitching space, reflecting both material sustainability and cultural significance. These exhibitions underscore the importance of exploring and leveraging vernacular knowledge to create architectural practices that are innovative, sustainable, and rooted in local contexts.
Social and Environmental Advocacy
Courtesy of Architects Again Housing Alienation | AAHA Toronto Poster
Architecture exhibitions are powerful social and environmental advocacy platforms, highlighting designs that challenge existing norms and ignite meaningful conversations. These pavilions act as critical learning points for architects, highlighting the importance of addressing contemporary issues such as housing affordability, labor market conditions, environmental degradation, and social justice. From the perspective of “doing more with less,” these displays encourage architects to leverage existing resources and work on bettering them by questioning the status quo. In fact, these exhibitions provide a platform for architects to draw inspiration to innovate within the constraints of current resources, thereby advancing towards a more socially conscious built environment. By urging architects to think deeply about their role in the greater society, this reflective process promotes more responsible and sustainable architectural practices.
Addressing pressing social and environmental issues, architectural activism in contemporary exhibitions pushes the boundaries of “doing more with less” by advocating for communities and ecological sustainability. The Canada Pavilion at the previous edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale tackles the critical issue of housing affordability, highlighting the importance of housing as a fundamental human right and exploring innovative solutions to address this global challenge. Similarly, the Czech Republic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale focuses on labor conditions and social justice, encouraging viewers to reflect on architecture, labor, and societal equity. In the Sharjah Triennial, Formafantasma’s “Cambio” project examines the global wood production supply chain, spotlighting the environmental and social impacts of wood sourcing. Also a part of the Sharjah Triennial, “Super Limbo” by Limbo Accra uses an installation to depict the incomplete state of various sites in the global south, showcasing the potential for unfinished spaces to be imagined creatively and non-traditionally. Lastly, the “Make it Rain” installation in Concéntrico reinterprets traditional cooling systems using water-soaked bricks to create a cool and interactive space. These projects demonstrate how architecture activism can shed light on current practices and propose more equitable and sustainable alternatives.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: Doing More With Less. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and architecture projects. We invite you to learn more about our ArchDaily Topics. And, as always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.
A new heat battery design has reached a record power conversion efficiency of 44%. This thermophotovoltaic cell is a major step on the way to sustainable grid-scale energy storage from renewable sources.
With renewable energy prices dropping fast, the barrier now is their intermittency – the first point any renewable energy skeptic will throw at you is “but what happens at night or when the wind isn’t blowing?” A little thing called “batteries” can help there, and there’s no shortage of grid-scale storage systems that can save energy for (literally) rainy days. That includes scaling up classics like lithium-ion batteries, or more experimental designs like iron-air, water-in-salt, flow batteries, or a variety of gravity-based systems.
One of the most promising avenues is storing energy as heat. The medium itself can be broad – sand, molten salt, volcanic ash, carbon blocks, clay bricks and many others are in the works – but unfortunately getting the energy back out of heat and turning it into electricity can be the tricky part.
That’s where the new system comes in. Developed by researchers at the University of Michigan, this device works on the principle of thermophotovoltaics. It’s similar to solar cells, which are photovoltaic, generating electricity (volts) from light (photons). Thermophotovoltaics obviously add heat (thermo) to the mix. In practice, that means they absorb photons from the infrared part of the spectrum, rather than the higher-energy, visible-light photons that solar cells capture.
The new thermophotovoltaic cell was tested with silicon carbide as the heat-storage material, although it could be swapped out for whatever else works. This is surrounded by a semiconductor material made of indium, gallium and arsenic, carefully designed to capture the broadest range of photons, and specifically those produced by the heated material.
When the team heated the material to 1,435 °C (2,615 °F), it starts radiating thermal photons at a range of energy levels, with 20 to 30% of them able to be captured by the semiconductor. To make use of some of those with higher or lower energies, the cell contains a thin layer of air after the semiconductor, followed by a gold reflector layer. This bounces some photons back to the semiconductor to be converted into electricity, while others bounce back to the heat storage material, giving them another chance of being emitted as the right kind of photon.
A diagram of the new thermophotovoltaic cell, along with a chart of its performance against others of its type
Roy-Layinde et al.
This design results in a total power conversion efficiency of 44%. That makes it much more efficient than others that operate at the same temperature, which top out at 37%. Other designs have surpassed 40% before, but they work at much higher temperatures that can be less feasible in many situations.
The idea is that the storage material can be heated up using electricity generated by a wind or solar farm, or directly absorbing excess heat from industrial processes or solar thermal energy systems. It might only have half the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries, but being much safer and cheaper to make and run means it’s still cost-effective to throw out half your electricity anyway, especially since it’s no longer a finite resource. The team says that there’s still some room to grow, too.
“We’re not yet at the efficiency limit of this technology,” said Stephen Forrest, contributing author of the study. “I am confident that we will get higher than 44% and be pushing 50% in the not-too-distant future.”
