I’m starting to worry that I’m turning into an ostrich.

I’m territorial and ill-tempered. I’m fighting a strange desire to eat shiny objects. And when I get scared, I find myself hiding my face as though not seeing whatever is scaring me will make it go away. And this may or may not be related: I’m developing a strong aversion to light bulbs.

Image courtesy http://www.ostrichheadinsand.com/

A company called Nth Degree Tech may be able to help me out with that last problem. They’re seeking to replace light bulbs with their first commercial product, a two foot by four foot LED light sheet that’s flat and looks like a glowing piece of paper, which they plan to ship to customers for evaluation by the end of the year (Bullis). This is an exciting development, since it would allow lighting designers to get freaky with curved or unusually shaped light-emitting surfaces – at a price point comparable to the current cost of fluorescent light bulbs and fixtures.

Image courtesy Nth Degree Tech

To make their snazzy new lighting material, Nth Degree workers carve up “a wafer of gallium nitride to produce millions of tiny LEDs—one four-inch wafer yields about eight million of them. The LEDs are then mixed with resin and binders, and a standard screen printer is used to deposit the resulting ‘ink’ over a large surface” (Bullis).  They toss down a layer of silver ink for the back electrical contact, add a layer of phosphors that alter the color of the light emitted by the LEDs from blue to various shades of white, and then they slap on an insulating layer that prevents those pesky short circuits that can burn out the LEDs.

The front electrical contact is made with an ink containing invisibly small metal wires, which makes it transparent and allows light through the layer.  The transparent electrical contact ALONE could be the subject of an entire article, since it’s unspeakably awesome. Its awesomeness derives from the fact that it may eventually replace the brittle and often testy indium tin oxide (ITO) sheets that have been used in touch screens and electroluminescent assemblies in the past. ITO can be expensive, it can’t be printed and it’s not at all flexible – it deserves to be made redundant.

Image courtesy Nth Degree Tech

While printing with inks that are comprised of “tiny working LEDs produces much brighter light than depositing powders or thin films of electroluminescent material,” Nth Degree’s light sheets don’t match the best LEDs available today, which emit over 200 Lumens per watt.  The sheets are better than incandescent lights in terms of efficiency, emitting 20 lumens per watt, but they’re not as good as fluorescent lights just yet, which emit 80 lumens per watt (Bullis).

The new design won’t require heat sinks the way current conventional LEDs do because the lights are distributed evenly and in a thin layer, meaning that they do not get hot.  The downside is that the tiny LEDs need a pretty robust power source and as a result, Nth Degree’s first light fixture will be two inches thick despite the fact that the light-emitting surface is thin and flexible (Bullis).  I’m not letting that ruffle my feathers, however, since I’m betting that the whole assembly will get thinner over time.

WU XING:

Filed under FIRE because it lights up!

Cited:

Bullis, Kevin. “Lighting Sheets Made of Tiny LEDs” Technology Review Online. 10/28/11. Accessed 02/24/12. URL.

An Austrian company specializing in designing objects for public places called Miramondo has presented a solution that may prevent the dull ache in the backside that accompanies a stint in a public square: il posto.

All images courtesy www.architonic.com

Il posto is a seat like a cushion or a blanket that drapes over walls and benches to create comfortable seating, and it comes in three colors.  The seat curves gently from its horizontal to its vertical surface, concealing hard edges.  A stainless steel construction that requires few screws sits beneath the seat, and houses an inflatable cushion that both insulates and provides a comfy place to perch (Source: Architonic).   

The weatherproof, solid surface of the bench is made of a “duromer high-pressure laminate based on 65% natural fibre plates, pressed with special resin and under high pressure and temperatures” (Architonic).  This is the same wood laminate that you see being used in curtainwalls, according to the product website.  Miramondo also claims that the surface is frost and heat resistant, non-fading, self-supporting and deflection resistant, scratch resistant and impact resistant, and anti-graffiti.

The bench structure consists of stainless steel piping attached to the reverse side of the laminate with “a high-strength polyurethane adhesive to enable the laminate to be screwed to the frame.  The framework is mounted on the surface with two screws and two raw plugs. Six side screws are used to secure the laminate to the framework and these can only be taken apart with a specific tool, thus protecting against vandalism” (Architonic).  I’m not sure what the inflatable cushion is made of or if it can be replaced if it leaks or pops. 

Il posto is the perfect way to turn public steps into comfy benches – I just wish they’d installed a few of those in Vicenza while I was there.

WU XING:

I’m filing il posto under wood because the seat is a wood laminate.

Cited:

“Il Posto, Miramondo.” Architonic.com.  Accessed 06/28/10.  URL.

The amazing insulating properties of Skittles were largely unknown until Marjorie Pilsner, an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, accidentally spilled a bag of the sugary, pebble-shaped candy on a hotplate she was using to heat split-pea soup in the wee hours of the morning on February 10, 2010.  “I bought the Skittles from a vending machine in the cafeteria on my way from Structures to Studio,” said Pilsner, “I knew they’d been there since the turn of the millennium, but I wanted to taste the rainbow.”  The Skittles had reached their melting point well before Pilsner noticed that they had fallen on the hotplate.  She quickly turned it off, but left the multicolored mess alone, running downstairs to use the laser cutter because nobody in their right mind passes up a chance to use the laser cutter.

Image courtesy midlandvendingsupplies.co.uk

When Pilsner returned, she discovered that a fellow student, Steven Roldap, had prised the globby, rainbow mess off the hotplate and was using it to build a study model.  As he attempted to attach some blackened copper to the substance with a soldering iron, he realized that the fused Skittles were simply not getting hot.  “It was amazing,” said Roldap, “I whipped out my lighter to set the fused Skittles on fire, but nothing doing.  Then we put it in the laser cutter and it blew out the laser.”  The students took the new material over to the geology department to perform a Mohs test, and found to their amazement that the fused Skittles were harder than diamonds.  “When Steven and Marjorie brought me the fused Skittles,” said University of Virginia Professor of Materials Science Sheila Bickerstaff, “I realized this was big.  Fused Skittles are the new Internet.” 

In early testing, fused Skittles (both regular and sour varieties) have proven durable, fire-resistant, and waterproof.  Not only that, but a thermos lined with fused Skittles has kept coffee piping hot for 32 days and counting.  The insulating properties of the material are unmatched by any substance that can be found on planet Earth.  Fuskittle Labs, Inc. has received over 160 million US dollars in start-up funding, and researchers are working on developing Fuskittle Insulation products for the construction industry.  NASA has reportedly expressed interest as well, leading to rumors that they are planning to line a new spacecraft with Fuskittle that can safely land on the Sun.  Fuskittle Insulation is 100% recycled, since it reuses old Skittles and turns them into a durable product that can itself be used again and again. 

“I don’t know why no one ever melted Skittles before,” said Pilsner, “but I’m sure glad I spilled them on my hotplate.”

WU XING:

Fuskittle Insulation is one of the most effective insulators that has ever been developed.  I’m placing it in the Earth category as well as in Fire.

Image courtesy Philip Ross

The attitude of Philip Ross, artist/inventor/mycologist/actor/model (sorry, he’s not an actor/model – I got carried away), stands in stark contrast to my own.  He actually loves spending time with mushrooms, seeking them in massive quantities on a farm near Monterey, CA called Far West Fungi.  The farm grows shiitake, reishi, pig’s ears, corn smut, and many other equally vividly-named varieties in dirt-free hothouses.  Now, you may be asking yourself: “why are we talking about a mushroom farm?  I came here for information about architectural materials and here I am craving Beef Stroganoff.” 

Take a nice deep breath and calm yourself.  Philip Ross works with the non-food portion of these mushrooms – the thin, white root-like fibers that extend down and out to form a vast, bright white, spongy network called a mycelium (Fisher).  Mycelium, despite being absurdly gross visually, has some fantastic properties:  it’s “nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It’s also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete” (Fisher).  Ross has been growing mushrooms in plastic-lined, unitized containers without any dirt, effectively creating building blocks out of mycelium.  He grew 500 such blocks out at Far West Fungi in order to build a structure out of them.  The construction is called Mycotectural Alpha, and can be seen in the photo below or in Germany as part of  “Eating the Universe. Food in Art” showing through February 10 at Frankfurt Städelschule (Source: Mycorant.com).  You can see more mycelium and Ross’ work at his website and on his ??flickr set.   

Image courtesy Philip Ross

Image courtesy Philip Ross

Ross isn’t the only one who sees fungus as building material for the new millenium, a new wood-like equivalent to plastic.  Ecovative, a three-year old startup building a new “myco-factory” in Green Island, NY is developing a few mycelium-based materials.  To make their first product, Ecocradle – a green (biodegradable) alternative to Styrofoam – the company obtains empty seed husks from rice and cotton that can’t be eaten by animals; cooks them; sprays them with water, myco-vitamins, and mushroom spores; places them into molds; and lets them grow into the desired shape in the dark for a week or two.  After popping the finished product out of the molds, they render the mycelium biologically inert (Fisher).  I don’t know what “rendering something biologically inert” entails but I hope it never happens to me because it sounds like it might involve a taser.

Ecovative’s next product, Greensulate, will begin targeting the home-insulation market sometime next year.  Developed by two recent graduates from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where the dorm rules about growing mushrooms under your bed are refreshingly lax), early testing indicates Greensulate has  insulating value comparable to fiberglass.  The material is inexpensive to produce because it’s a mixture of flour, water, minerals, and mushroom spores that is spread on sheets and left to harden into a kind of foamy mesh.  It’s biodegradable as well (Source: Blueegg.com). 

So after learning about the possibilities of mycelium-based building materials, I might be a little more willing to invite a mushroom to the party … turns out he’s kind of a fun guy. BWAHHHAHAHAHAH!

WU XING: 

I’m placing Ecocradle products and Mycoarchitecture in the wood category because they can mimic the properties of plastic.  They’re also going into earth because this is the most “rooted” material I’ve come across to date.  What do you think?

Cited:

Fisher, Adam. “Industrial-Strength Fungus.” Time.com 02/08/10.  Accessed 02/07/10.  URL.

“Mushroom Insulation is No Hallucination.”  Blueegg.com.  Accessed 02/07/10.  URL.

“Mycotecural Alpha.”  Mycorant.com 01/28/10.  Accessed 02/18/10.  URL.