Printable Houses and the Future Opportunity Therein All the way back in March of 2004, working in his laboratory at the University of Southern California in San Diego, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, was working with a new process he had invented called Contour Crafting to construct the world’s first 3D printed wall. His goal was to use the technology for rapid home construction as a way to rebuild after natural disasters, like the devastating earthquakes that had recently occurred in his home country of Iran. While we have still not seen our first “printed home” just yet, they will be coming very soon. For an industry firmly entrenched in working with nails and screws, the prospects of replacing saws and hammers with giant printing machines seems frightening. Here’s why I think this will happen. Contour Crafting Contour Crafting is a form of 3D printing that uses robotic arms and nozzles to squeeze out layers of concrete or other materials, moving back and forth over a set path in order to fabricate a large component. Breaking Through the Barriers
Heat Your Clothes, Not Your House As we wrote two years ago, insulation of the body is more energy efficient than insulation of living space. Because of its excellent insulating properties, modern thermal underclothing makes it possible to burn the heating at much lower temperatures without sacrificing comfort or sex appeal. The potential energy savings are huge, and the costs are almost nil. This low-tech insulation strategy can also be applied to heating the body. In use since World War Two, electrically heated clothes have become more effective and comfortable in recent years. Electrically heated clothing is used by soldiers, adventurers, hunters, winter sports enthusiasts, bikers and construction workers [1]. The arrival of compact lithium-ion batteries has increased the performance and diversity of electrically heated clothing. The energy for these garments is supplied by one or two relatively small and light batteries, hidden in a special pocket, which supply the lucky owner with some five hours of warmth.
Technology - Toast Heated Clothes - Heating Clothing - Heated Long Underwear The Health Hazards Of Cold Weather Cold weather can lower the temperature inside your body. Exposure to cold air, especially when combined with wind or wet clothing, carries heat away from your body faster than you can produce it. In extreme cases this leads to hypothermia (when your body temperature drops below 95 degrees) but that happens gradually over long periods of time. So what happens during shorter periods of exposure? Goosebumps and shivering Painfully cold fingers and toes (or numbness) Stiffness in your arms and legs, clenched fists, hunched shoulders Difficulty speaking or moving A New Direction In Staying Warm The idea is so simple, it's a wonder noone's thought of it before. Our patent-pending system of heated first layer comes with heat packs integrated in the core body area -- the neck, chest, and lower back -- which helps prevent the loss of normal body temperature. Finally, all of our fabrics are made by Polartec™ -- the gold standard in warmth and wicking performance.
Lessons From Italy's Matera, the Sustainable City of Stone - Charles R. Wolfe UNESCO has repeatedly used Matera, designated a World Heritage Site in 1996, as an educational case study for sustainable living In the provinces of southeastern Italy, the landscape is changing, as a new world of alternative energy infrastructure blends insular hill towns, turbines, and solar panels across traditional farmland. Yet, on the same horizons other age-old reflections of local, sustainable practices echo time-honored human traditions, as lessons for urban reinvention in a networked world. We need to discuss these lessons more often. For two August weeks observing the cities, towns, and villages of Basilicata, Molise, and Puglia, I pondered how these reflections of people and place could inform American aspirations -- often rhetorical -- for compact urban centers which incubate ideas and offer solutions. An example is Matera, in Basilicata, currently a city of 60,000, with a unique legacy that frames a remarkable setting of almost 10,000 years of continuous human occupation.
Global Village Construction Set by Marcin Jakubowski Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters building the Global Village Construction Set - a modular, DIY, low-cost, open source, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different industrial machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The aim of the GVCS is to lower the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing. Its a life-size lego set that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, or in the developing world. So Far we’ve prototyped 8 of the 50 Machines and we’ve been expanding rapidly. Please watch these videos if you are new to the project: What Makes the Global Village Construction Set so special? Why should I help fund this project? This toolkit will establish a new high benchmark of efficiency for green, low-cost housing construction - making natural building FAST and CHEAP, rather than SLOW and EXPENSIVE. Absolutely!