Architorture 2007 was sponsored by AIA Seattle and Architects Without Borders (AWB). The pumpkin carving contest was held at Design Within Reach on October 26, proceeds were used to support the efforts of AWB Seattle. Although our Sustainable Jack-o-Lantern didn’t win, we were happy to be a part of it! Many thanks to Rachael for organizing & carving our pumpkin.

Found by principal, Jason Henry, Salmon-Safe is a non-profit organization devoted to restoring agricultural and urban watersheds so that salmon can spawn and thrive. About ten years ago, Salmon-Safe first started certifying fish friendly farms in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Since then it has become one of the nation’s leading regional eco labels with more than 50,000 acres of farm and urban lands certified.

Salmon-Safe offers the nation’s first and only peer-reviewed certification program linking corporate or university land management practices with the protection of urban watersheds. Corporate campus with streams or wetlands, urban office parks or university campuses, for all, certification requires management practices that reduce stormwater runoff and non-point source pollution, helping to protect Pacific Northwest salmon watersheds.

Visit their website for more information about the certification process.

On Saturday, October 20th Rachael Meyer from our office got the chance to visit the Solar Decathlon on the mall in Washington DC, an 8 day exhibition and competition between “20 college- and university-led teams from around the world to create the most energy-efficient, solar-powered homes imaginable”. The geometric modular homes utilized very modern materials and strategies to achieve the result. At least three different green wall systems were represented, including what I recognized to be the ELT Easy Green Living Wall and the G-Sky Green Wall. The third system was a lattice-faced module that looked like it had plants growing in a peat-based growing medium. Another home used wire trellises to support vines along the façade of the structure. It was really exciting to see thousands of people waiting 20-30 minutes in lines just to enter each home and learn about how the different components worked. Each entry and their strategies are represented on the competition’s website.

From Transmaterial, this weeks products are the light-emitting roof tiles from Lambert Kamps.

“The roof has historically focused on one primary function: keeping out the elements. New technologies, as present in Light-Emitting Roof Tiles, allow the integration of additional functions within roof surfaces. Manufactured by Lambert Kamps, the transparent roof tiles are integrated light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and designed to display text, pictures, and other graphical content in multiple colors. Information may also be animated, such as with an illuminated news trailer. Light-Emitting Roof Tiles also come with their own self-supporting solar-photovoltaic power system.”