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In an interview with the Dutch TV program “EenVandaag”, top economist Jeremy Rifkin states that the survival of the human race depends on the question; How are we going to deal with energy? According to Rifkin we are on the eve of a third industrial revolution, an era where fossil fuel is obsolete but the technique to create sustainable energy is available. So far no news. The interview gets interesting when he unfolds his view on “buildings as small power plants” and the way we should distribute energy. In his vision a lot depends on modern techniques which should be implemented in our buildings. Techniques to create energy from the sun, wind, earth warmth, tidal waves and domestic waste. On top of that we should also, according to Rifkin, renew our way of distribution of this “home created” energy. Energy can be stored as hydrogen energy and shared at peaks and lows throughout a intrigued network similar to the internet. Decentralised instead of centralised energy distribution. The question is; how can we as architects implement these techniques in our design process?

Generic and specific energy resources
Taking the statement “building as a power plant” as a starting point and re-evaluating the available techniques we are evidently given an opportunity. By reviewing these different techniques and energy resources we can clearly divide two main categories; “generic” techniques such as solar panels, wind turbines etcetera which can work at almost every location with almost every program. And location or program related techniques such as earth warmth, tidal wave, hydrogen energy and waste energy, the location or program “specific” techniques. An office uses a different waste policy then a family home, subsequently the process of using this waste as an energy source should also be approached differently in the design as such. Not on every location by lack of space or together with every program we can store hydrogen energy due to its explosive character, take a dense residential urban situation for example.

Check your resources
Before one design sketch is made a study of these specific local use, storage and distribution of alternative energy should be studied and checked on feasibility. Location analyses which are traditionally done by architects to come up with an appropriate building height, suitable entrance and façade materials etcetera should be complimented with a study on energy recourses. Specific energy recourses which should work for the specific location and the specific program or building type. Architects should not distinguish alternative energy recourses as a parameter or technical requirement from their design approach but must see these energies as a more fixed part of the ‘design-equation’, a specific and generic design variable.

The future is now
Buildings needn’t be the most energy guzzling sector in the industrialised world, responsible for close to 40% of the energy consumption and a large part of the CO2 emissions in modern society. In fact, the energy used in our buildings for heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water can be cut by 75% globally, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). We need visionary architects enabling the whole-hearted and implement the use of these technologies into their design strategy. Not only new buildings should be constructed to be energy efficient enough to turn the structure into a net zero energy building. But even better, a plus energy home that supplies more energy than it requires, the home as a small power plant. Make money on clever energy use. It’s possible. We are beyond awareness. It just takes a new design method and a renewed look at the local opportunities.

The patent
The patent that is filed for refers to billboards only, these spaces were already up for commercial rent and public viewing. The streetview in its original real reality concept and composition stays the same. The buildings stay untouched, unless the billboard is designed into the facade like on theatres and cinemas but those were meant to communcate information anyway.

Billdings
But what about the billboard resembling designed buildings like the Galleria Hall West in Seoul Korea? Would the architect of the perpetual changing LED-light facade get a part of the income out of the streetview’s addspace he/she designed? And the dutch based Sandberg Institute’s million-dollar-building which was a temporary project, would be granted a second life, no pun intended. Taking addspace as a design parameter in future building projects – reserving addspace or designing with addspace – would only provide the buildingowner double income, not the architect. The architect could only be entitled to compensation when the building is the main subject in the images of commerical usage according to the european law on authorship. That might be the reason noone exploited www.buildingview.com yet.

Virtual real reality
Where could this go next? We are just a couple of blocks away from a world wide 3D Google city environment. The company, residing in the city Mountainview CA, is already building these 3D cities in its own Google’s 3D SketchUp community on its own Google Earth underlayment. The same patent as in Streetview could then be used to sell addspace on the billboards in the 3D built space. This virtual REAL reality would then compete with the existing online 3D environment social communities like Second Life and PlayStation 3′s Home, which are virtual FICTITOUS realities. Are you following?

Money making with decorated sheds
Ofcourse, billboards and buildings aren’t a new architecture notion. In fact, the exuberant example of Las Vegas, where the signs and billboards galore has already been a learning case analyzed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in the seventies. But with today’s virtual real reality, especially cities like Las Vegas makes Streetview come to life. For instance, a dutch visitor in streetview’s Las Vegas, would probably get dutch related augmented advertisement and signs on the billboards seducing to click on them. The Venturi and Scott Brown ‘decorated shed’ finally pays off!

Read all RCHTCTR.NXT posts:

10/01/15 rchtctr.nxt: Streetview’s Decorated $hed

09/12/15 rchtctr.nxt: Google Earth’s model for architecture

09/11/15 rchtctr.nxt: Augmented Architecture Reality

09/10/15 rchtctr.nxt: Google’s top ranking architecture