GreenLab:
Up where the smoke is all billered and curled;
'Tween pavement and stars its the chimney sweep world
Where the's 'ardly no day, nor 'ardly no night;
There's things 'alf in shadow and 'alf way in light.
On the roof tops of London; Coo(l), what a sight!
...
Gables and rooftops become Taj Mahal,
and climbing the chimney's a great Chinese wall.
The pillars of hercules loom left and right,
the sphinx, the acropolis, ooh what a sight.
--Mary Poppins, Chim Chim Cheree
The GreenLab is a fun and playful
teaching and research space
where we learn about sustainability
and the environment by way of being
open to the environment.
In this sense it is a classroom and laboratory that is wholly or partially
outdoors.
A prototype GreenLab was constructed in the summer of 2001 to experiment with
these ideas.
It contains:
- a "TeachBeach":
- a "BlueRoof"
with environmentally-friendly summer cooldown area where
sand becomes silicon (flexible solar cells are a cleaner grit-free substitute
for beach sand) to power and be cooled by various aquatic play features:
- the world's first rooftop-mounted wind-turbine:
- an indoor "greenhouse for people":
(there are also more pictures here)
- a "natural artificial lighting" research setup.
All the lights are placed outside the greenhouse space, shining in,
through the ceiling windows, so that
the lighting creates a much more natural effect:
(Late night "greenhouse" effect with "natural artificial" lighting)
This creates a feeling that the light is much
brighter than it actually is, because it mimics natural sunlight
using narrowly collimated beams directed from a linear array of narrowbeam
outdoor lights.
We found that when the light is very pleasant and natural,
less light is needed in order to achieve a good work environment:
(Students brainstorm new research ideas in an introspective
thought-provoking space. With only 88.4 watts of light power,
the long shadows, localized bright-spots,
and window-frame effect create an environment
that feels warm and pleasant.)
- Building-wide brainwave-controlled lighting that anticipates the
needs of the building's occupants:
This work was presented at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver,
open to the public to experience as part of the Ontario Pavillion
during the entire time of the Vancouver Olympics, February 12-28, 2010
("It's the thought that counts", Globe and Mail, 2010jan29; local cache).
- In addition to venues like the Vancouver Olympics, and various
museums, galleries, science centres, and the like, around the world,
Greenlab is itself
an exhibit space and public art+design gallery where students,
professors, and researchers can show
their ideas on sustainability in a public setting:
This project evolved from the summer of 2001 to present, as a series of
experiments in sustainability, and
we won first prize in the Coram International
Sustainable Design Award (10,000 euros).
University of Toronto Sustainability Fund
Now that the award-winning GreenLab concepts have been prototyped,
tested, and proven, it would be an ideal time to bring these
concepts to one or more University of Toronto buildings.
Accordingly, an application has been made to the Sustainability Fund:
Links and further reading:
