Sustainable Design: Bringing Sunlight, Wind and Rain Indoors

Elevate Christian Network :: Environmental News

Sustainable Design:  Unfortunately, many buildings – especially in cities – are not blessed with green surroundings. I am part of a group of architects and psychologists at the University of Oregon that has been examining ways to overcome this problem using an aspect of nature available anywhere: the weather.

Think of rippling sunlight reflecting from water onto the underside of a boat, or the dappled shadows from foliage swaying in a breeze. Other examples can be seen at vitalarchitecture.org.  When we brought these kinds of natural movements indoors, we found that they reduced heart rates and were less distracting than similar, artificially generated movement.

Live Natural movements Keep Us Calm

Early results suggest that seeing live natural movement of this kind in an indoor space may be more beneficial than viewing outdoor nature through a window, and could not only help to keep us calm but also improve our attention.

Over the last two decades architects and engineers have developed approaches to building design that greatly reduce the impact of buildings on the natural environment (“green” buildings) and their human occupants (“healthy” buildings). But these movements focus primarily on new buildings, which benefit only a relatively small number of people compared to the many who could be helped by making existing structures more habitable.

Read the full story…. theconversation.com

 

 

Across the web

Sustainable Dutch home for sale comes with surreal custom furniture – Curbed The last time we saw this one-of-a-kind Dutch home, it was the coolest half-buried snow villa in all the land. Fast forward some years and “Dutch Mountain House,” the brainchild of architect and art historian couple Sanne Oomen and Lucas Mol, has hit …

 

 

MIT Turns Campus into Green Lab with Sustainability Incubator Fund – Campus Technology MIT’s Office of Sustainability (MITOS) has chosen the recipients for the first round of grants from its Campus Sustainability Incubator Fund. Four multi-departmental projects will share in $200,000 as they use the campus as a lab for sustainable design …

 

LG Energy-Efficient Technology At Heart Of Sustainable Training Center In Baltimore – PR Newswire (press release) Air Conditioning Technologies: LG’s highly efficient air conditioning technology is key to the center’s sustainable design. The LG Multi V Mini single phase air conditioning system offers the benefits of LG’s flagship Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF …

 

 

Images courtesy: curbed.com, prnewswire.com

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