Tag Archive for 'construction'

Marcin Jakubowski and Open Source Ecology

Want to build your own tractor or drill press at a fraction of the price?  Want to start your own self-suffient society?  This guy wants to help you! Marcin Jakubowski founded Open Source Ecology, a network of people whose goal is to create “The Global Village Construction Set“, a set blueprints of 50 tools/pieces of equipment, from a lathe to a bread oven to an automobile…almost everything you need for a new society, to be freely distributed. The Ultimate DIY!  Fantastic Stuff! Here…I’ll let him explain…

You can find the available blueprints and so much more, including Earthships, here.

Green Fire Station: Update

Yo ho ho!

Update city for me this week.  Thought I might fill you all in on how the green fire station next door is coming along.

What started out as this:

Pre-construction

Has turned into this:

Look at it go!

Construction is moving swiftly on this baby. Here is a quick walk around:

The firetruck bays

View from the tracks

Yaaay!

I’ll be trying to score an interview with the Fire Chief soon, so stay tuned for future updates!

Green Fire Station

Happy Friday peeps!

I just read an article in our local newspaper, Orlando Sentinel that made my day. The City of Orlando is building a new headquarters for the fire department. New facilities for our hard-working firefighters are great, but what tickled me is that they are building it using eco-friendly designs.

(Oh yeah, that’s a green roof!)

I’ll let the writer, Mark Schlueb, explain:

“Like four smaller fire stations opened since last year in distant parts of the city, the new downtown station has been designed according to environmentally friendly building standards.

The concrete torn up from the old downtown bus station will be crushed and reused for the new station. Extra insulation, including traditional insulation in the walls and a roof partially covered with grass, will reduce heating and cooling costs. To cut operational costs further, architects included high-efficiency air-conditioning systems, low-flow plumbing fixtures and sensors that turn off a room’s lights when no one is present.

‘We get more bang for our buck when we build in that fashion,’ Mayor Buddy Dyer said.”

I love that last quote. What a practical view to building more effectively and efficiently. The building was designed to achieve the “silver” certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

And the best part? I can watch the building rise up from my own office window:


Happy Days,

Spoon

I feel the NEED for LEED!

Hello all you sweet sweet superforesters!

Taylor here~

As part of my superforestie superforestry training I am studying to become a LEED Accredited Professional. As many of you know, this is not an easy task at hand. I work in the construction industry in Texas and it might surprise you that this is still an aspect of the commercial building industry that is quite NEW.

I’ll keep you updated with my successes, trips, falls, and pick back ups!, with a LEED AP fun fact each update.

LEED Fun Fact: Buildings become LEED certified, People become LEED accredited!

Love and LEED,

TV