Jumpers

... Extending from the last post.

It's so far off -base from a 'normal' design configuration that I had to post it in a separate position.

So - thinking about vortex & power generation with waste heat I had the sudden thought about skydiving simulators - high power fans that humans can 'fly' at low altitudes on.
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Damn that looks like fun.

Then I thought about creating an open shaft out through the middle of the vortex. Oooh - I'm beginning to see possibilities for launching small aircraft and gliders - likely UAV's of some-sort. It's a militaristic spin to the self-contained system that is a GaiaShip but hey - the military are possibly huge customers of this concept - self sustainable bases seems like an ideal for the logistics side of the house.

Then I went one step further - launching people in wing-suits and hang-gliders. Base-jumping from ground level (or at least the top of an 8 story building).
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See - I told you... outlandish - but think of gliding to the next vortex updraft and being able to gain yet more altitude - jumping from tower to tower staying up for extended periods of time.

Sigh - as if! But hey, who knows. I know that from now on at the very least I'll be including a free-fall simulator in my GaiaShip Design. It's too cool not to have it :)

Waste Heat Exaust - Legged building?

As I lay sleepless tonight, with thoughts of bills and babies in my head, an interesting idea came to me. I've been thinking hard about the shape and structure of the GaiaShip and came up with something a bit 'different'. Up to now it's been a multi-level, multi-story squat building with extensive/intensive green roof punctuated occasionally by tall statuesque towers.



Issues and pain points I've been trying to address have been internal transit (especially between towers), sunlight penetration to the most living space possible (reducing internal light needs) and air & heat exhaust based purely on the principle of rising air.

I've anticipated that the waste heat needing to be exhausted from the very large building we're constructing here will be significant - major power use will do that. Since it has the natural tendency to cause heated air to rise - how to design the building to allow the heated air to rise without getting in it's way and thus requiring a fan to move it around?


Also, remember that we're moving waste heat to the base of the vortex engine. The engine also requires a source of air. The engines primary design calls for just open air from general ground level... I'm saying use the exhaust air of a facility holding thousands of people.

I suppose that the heated air rising and spiraling away could be piped to the vortex engine via water (ultimate water cooling case mod >.<) but we need to exhaust large quantities of air anyway from the underground vehicle & transit corridor to prevent any toxic fume build-up. Might as well combine the two.
I came up with sloped or vertical shafts leading to the base of the Vortex. Like so... With this configuration though there are the problem of 'pipes' arching through the air overhead - not exactly aesthetic. Then my brain jumped to wiggling the pipes into shapes... Curving them this way and that... thought about pyramids, domes, tipi's and arches... Hrm - stone arches look good and are very strong to the point of being structurally stable based on balancing friction and gravity. They are old tech and evoke classically good reactions to viewers.

Then I made the pipes fatter, added living space and found a synergy with light penetration! So, what about creating the floors in 'blocks' reminiscent of the stone blocks found in classic arch-ways. Soften the lines with decorative walls but the main structure is simply stacked blocks - stair stepping inward. People living in the arch sides.

If necessary using a central support tower leading to a disk of high end retail, office, dining and entertainment spaces suspended in the air. Very Sci-Fi, though possible eminently practical.

Oooh - I've found another synergy based on some half formed thoughts for isolating the impact of earthquakes on the structure. Being in Alaska these last few weeks really drove home the need for the GaiaShip concept to work in all sorts of environments - especially earthquake prone ones. I've let the idea of suspension bridges, hoop skirts & similar systems suspended on strong central towers (with human usable space in them of course) slosh around in my subconscious since I had a conversations with a Smart California Lawyer "David". David's status as an extended family member, fellow Physically oriented tourist, and a couple Alaskan Ambers notwithstanding, we had a fantastic conversation about the GaiaShip concept and it's ability to revolutionize the living arrangements of native and seasonal residents of the Alaskan State with food production and quality of life improvements.

Hoop skirts and suspension bridges need 'cables' or other structures to hold it all 'up'. I'm not saying that the GaiaShip buildings wouldn't touch the ground except for the towers... not at all. I'd think the base needs more typical shock absorption but that some of the structural burden would be held 'up' by the tower to provide some ability to 'sway' like a hoop cage in case of an earthquake.


Ok - back to rising heat through our now thick legs and high disk. If you are having trouble visualizing it - think spider mounted on a entomologists table .



Then I thought... how do I move people inside a curved space like this - with independent elevators able to follow a curved path?

Hrm - Circuses and Six Flags seems to do it regularly and my recent experience on the Juno tramway up to the top of a mountain probably had something to do with the idea of having an elevator on a curved 'track': roller coaster, ski-lift or cable tram style.


OK - so we now have a mechanical means of moving people though the space and a method for heated air to rise unchecked and my brain begins to calm down... perhaps to dream.

Interesting Stat

"did you know you only need a 25x25 square garden to grow enough food to feed an entire family of 5 for an entire year"

-Lalli (a good friend of mine and gardener)

I wonder if Hydroponic systems could shrink that significantly?

People in Power!

I’m sitting in the lobby of Pikes Riverfront Hotel, waiting for my bus to the airport and overhear an Alaskan Legislator and Owner of the Pikes talking on the phone about an effort to build 5 hydroponic green-houses in Gnome Alaska. Apparently they have natural gas that is just being vented / flared and a need for fresh vegetables. They are looking at getting federal, state and local funds put into this project and using it to commercially grow produce year round. Introducing myself I met Jay Ramras, and he handed me the card of the dean of University of Alaska Faribanks and told me to get a hold of her secretary for further information. Rack up points for networking at random opportunities.

Ah Alaska

Land as glorious as it is possible to imagine… With sunlight cycles that drive people insane (it’s after 10:00 pm as I write this and it looks like it would be about 6:30 anywhere else), locals who have a serious size complex (“We’re bigger than Texas!!!”), and mountains that humble everything (even the sheeple tourists and their checkbooks).

The cruise up the coast and train ride into Denali was wonderful. The most lasting impressions I’ll carry are the sheer mountainous size of a glacier, the majesty of an eagle in flight, and the fact that the ravens are as big as VW’s. Also the squalor imposed by the exceedingly high cost of living in a place where the weather can be severe enough to shape *every* decision.

Decisions that struck me most were that agriculture is a ‘hobby’ or a tourist attraction, buildings are barely different than what you find elsewhere in the US and that transit is a huge deal here – mainly because they don’t have any! Malls have hotels in them for the semi annual trips into town by locals in from the ‘bush’!

Agriculture

Repeatedly I heard laments about the importing of fresh fruits and vegetables (Tuesday the ship arrives – by Thursday the stores have sold out), and in the next breath bragging about how big veggies grow in this extremely short warm season. This of course spurs a question – what about indoor hydroponics; vertical farming!?!?! The light & temperature cycles here in Alaska provide a great juxtaposition to the more common methods of farming.

The extended daylight obviously plays a huge factor in this and I think it would be exceedingly interesting to experiment with light & temperature combinations similar to Alaska’s seasons for rapidly growing large specimens of very high producing crops. I’m thinking an 18 light / 4 dark cycle, perhaps with graduated lighting changes combined with a cool spring-like atmosphere for the seeding & initial growth phases, higher heat and intense solar quantities during main growth phase and a cooler & gradually darker ‘fall’ done in a 3-4 month period could produce a fully controllable and hyper-growth 3-harvest cycle. Done in shifts you could have a single vertical farm producing continuous harvests of all sorts of produce.

The University of Alaska, Fairbanks seems to have a priority on agriculture. I heard about their focus and a smidgen about what they were working on during the train ride into Fairbanks. And then, once in our final stop – the Pike’s Riverfront Lodge - found a greenhouse that was, with UoA’s and the Future Farmers of America’s help, putting together a hydroponic system to supply the hotel’s restaurant with veggies. Woot – what a great start!!! I’m thinking that coordinating with their Agriculture department would yield amazing results. I’ll get back to you on that after I make a few phone calls & emails.

Architecture

Why are buildings made of almost the exact same materials that I find in central USA – or even gracing the coast of Texas!? Over and over I looked for the differences and found only minor changes. Log cabins are a big deal here – lots of history in them is one of the major draws for them, but I think they are making a nod towards ‘thermal-mass’ as a method for insulation. It’s a good plan though I think some materials improvements could be made. I had the brainstorm that if we’re doing ‘concrete’ siding… what about concrete ‘logs’. Or, why not use the abundance of river rock and gorgeous slate that is *all* over this landscape as the primary building materials? I kept hearing that all the building materials had to be imported – shipped in by rail or boat in order to build their house that wouldn’t look too out of place side by side in McMansion suburbia with less brick – more vinyl siding. I’m guessing brick doesn’t do so well in -60 degree winter weather but I could be surprised. Something to research – can hard materials like concrete and stone really act as a hard exterior layer as envisioned by the Gaiaship in extreme cold & wet winter weather? I’d say yes with the proper interior layers and sod roofing.

A note about sod roofing: Apparently the true natives… known as ‘First Nations Peoples’ (FNP’s forever in my corporate Acronym Generator of a brain – also known as Native Americans or Indians in other less P.C. areas of the US)

… used sod roofs regularly in their construction of their low log houses. This was after the eastern trappers & European settlers brought new technology, guns, metal tools and the agricultural revolution with them allowing the nomadic FNP’s to settle down. The re-creation / example village / tourist trap I visited had several of these log houses with sod roofs. It seemed a logical and very efficient design that made good use of local materials and the insulating properties of even a thin layer of sod.

One comment I heard today (from yet another tour guide / bus driver) was that in Fairbanks the same codes & conventional zoning regulations found in Dallas are in use in Alaska. Lots of land = Lots of Sprawl. This is reinforced by the ‘individualistic’ and ‘frontier’ mindset of many of the residents. Everyone gets their own pieces of the landscape and does whatever they want to it. Sometimes that turns out beautifully with a 4500 square foot log cabin with private river inlet and boat dock. Other times it is trailer park trash. I saw this side by side while on the train headed into Fairbanks and again going down-river on the paddle-boat. But hey – it’s all residential so the zoning laws are satisfied – ugh.

This was less of an issue in the smaller shore towns like Skagway. These towns are hemmed in by ocean on one side and mountains on the other. Level land is harder to come by. Mixed use seemed to be ideal here but even so, I saw very little of it done. Juno did better downtown but the fact that it’s the largest city in land size in the US but by no where close as large in population means that it’s sprawl is truly out of control.

Another real wonder of this trip was British Columbia’s Vancouver. With it’s amazing focus on green building (every building must have some kind of vegetative plantings or green roof) and mixed use development. It’s a model of civic emphasis on environmentally conscious development. I’m thinking I need to look much deeper into BC’s governing principles and perhaps even begin thinking of moving Gaiaship numero uno to the artic area.

Electrical Generation Investment and Regulations

Stumbling around looking at my web history and I see under Google's "Interesting Items" category the term: invenergy. Of course the energy thing catches my eye and I click... stumbling on to the financing and construction arm of a huge number of nationwide, and more importantly Texas based wind farms. On their web site they indicate a focus on renewable and co-generation projects and are actively building a portfolio of alternative and thermal (natural gas) power generation. Very cool! If anyone knows someone in this company... I'd love to talk to them. Getting the low-down on regulatory issues for energy suppliers is something the Gaiaship is going to have to face.

Austin Ronald McDonald House

Platinum LEED in Austin!!! WOOT!

So, I called them up and said "Hey, I'm an Architecture and Engineering Student in Austin, I've just found out about your LEED Certification... "
"Ah yes, excellent" Nice guy- Danny...replied quickly. "Would you like written documentation or a tour?"

Both please!

So I head over there after a full perusal of the site and an in depth look at the public information there. Check out this Power-point presentation. It has a great high level summary of LEED and what Platinum LEED certification really means.

I was really surprised... by how normal it all looked. If you weren't paying attention all the green features fade into the background - except for the elevated gardens. Nice touch there but they still had really large amount of rooftop space floored with just a white rubbery surface. Walking out on the lower roof provided really close up access to the solar panel installations which was really cool - bit of forethought there for tours just like mine... it was simple to get there and yet secure. I even got to see the mechanical room - neat, lots of pipes and air ducts and important looking paneling - but I'd have killed to see a copy of the plans themselves. For that I'll have to get a hold of Don Echols - the building's architect.

Water & waste water was still a municipal problem - obvious and expected by a building this small, but obviously perfect for what it was designed to do... provide a shelter and retreat for families whose children are in the hospital.

Really cool bits:

• Air flow from the rooms was not intermixed - good for pathogen and pollutant safety
• Air flow had energy reclamation via a wheel based heat exchanger. Warming or cooling incoming air with the exhaust air - nice touch.
• Building placement - well analyzed and shading was exquisitely placed for eliminating this area's fierce solar heat without cutting out a good quantity of indirect solar ambient light.
• Curved site-lines. I really liked the design. The House's short and somewhat narrow hallways with a pretty severe curve in them made it feel 'closed in' and even with the bright windows everywhere it created semi private areas in front of your door.
• I'm wondering what it does to sound... Contains and channels while muffling details I would assume. It was very quiet at Ronald McDonald House. I'd mitigate it with small fountains as white noise generators in the hallways to prevent weird echoes - would also provide microclimate cooling for exterior exposed hallways.
  

Making the Case - part 2

So I figured out that the way I built the first case for the administrators wasn't quite to standard - I needed to split the builder from the administrators and show what the builder would make from the deal. Most builders do NOT become administrators, though in this case there might be an exception or two made. I mean we're talking about creating an entire township in one single swoop.

Each residential unit is going to be 'sold' like a condo. It's value will be based on the size with extra value tacked on due to the 'green lifestyle' and high technology goodies. Drum Roll please: Total in initial sales of: $2.625 Billion for the Developer - just in residential.

Condo Price	Condo Quantity	Total
$150,000	5000	$750 Million
$250,000	1000	$250 Million
$750,000	1000	$750 Million
$1.5 Million	250	$375 Million
$10 Million	50	$500 Million

Commercial property development is a whole different ball of wax - and is much more dependent upon residual income and paying off the loans long term. I'm not actually qualified to get into that at the moment so I'll have to put that off until another time.