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 by kevin, on March 29th, 2010 
When I was a kid my father occasionally took my brothers and me to watch military aircraft take off and land. He knew of a road that cut through what was an FAA tech center near Atlantic City NJ known as NAFEC – the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center. At the time, it had the largest hanger space in the world, was the third alternate landing site for the space shuttle, and was the location of the first airshow in 1910. We would pull the family station-wagon to the shoulder of the road right at the end of the main runway and watch the planes for hours. The jets seemed so close we could touch them. My fifth year architectural thesis project was a flight school at the community college directly adjacent to that former FAA tech center – it had been converted to the Atlantic City International Airport by then. Part of my design strategy included using salvaged aircraft parts as raw building material. The reviewers who attended my final presentation thought the notion was preposterous.
The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson AZ is the world’s largest military aircraft graveyard. It’s often referred to as The Boneyard, however, boneyard is a generic term used to describe facilities that store aircraft retired from service. In nearby Pima AZ is the Pinal Airpark, home of the Evergreen Aircraft Maintenance Facility, one of the largest storage locations for decommissioned commercial aircraft. Although these two are among the largest of their kind, similar facilities exist throughout the world. The dry southwestern United States is ideal for aircraft storage. The arid climate reduces the potential for oxidation. Prior to the attacks on 9/11, anyone looking to salvage parts or components from the aircraft stored at these facilities had reasonable access. Since then, the U.S. government has changed the regulations and old parts are significantly more difficult to source.
For visionaries and artists like Dave Hall and Donovan Fell, owners of the Torrance CA-based MotoArt, new restrictions limiting access to what they see as raw material for their business means they’ve had to search for parts farther afield. But it hasn’t stopped their business from growing. Both are what I would consider glass-half-full people. They see opportunity everywhere. For more than a decade Dave and Donovan have been converting salvaged aviation components into amazing furniture that’s functional and beautiful art. Had they been sitting in on my final thesis review, the outcome may have been quite different.
Read more on tour: MotoArt 
by kevin, on March 28th, 2010  Image courtesy of Wiki Commons Our twelfth class was also the last of the quarter. The past three months have passed so quickly. I have to admit, I had a crisis of conscience just past the mid point. I was concerned that we had not yet covered enough of the material outlined in the syllabus, still had many concepts and ideas to present, and it seemed likely that we would run out of time. I did make some adjustments, and we did manage to discuss all the topics I had intended. Looking back now, I’m pretty amazed at how much we were able to accomplish in twelve evenings.
Since it was our final class, we spent the bulk of the time discussing the quarter long Disassembly Project. With it, their task was to select an every-day object seen or used regularly, disassemble it, catalog all the component parts, analyze the materials those parts are made of, trace the origins of those materials, research any organizations or agencies that regulate manufacturing standards or regulations, and make suggestions for how the object and its production could be improved to diminish environmental impact. Students were also responsible for three other research projects, discussed in earlier posts, which investigated materials/resources, companies/people, and certificates/labels. In assigning those three in conjunction with the Disassembly Project I hoped students would begin to see the complexity of products we take for granted.
Cradle to cradle, or closed loop, systems are more than just converting waste to useful raw material. To consider changing even the smallest elements of any production framework requires some understanding of materials and resources, the total impact and sources of waste, how much energy is consumed, how much water is embodied, what unintended toxins are present, how far materials travel, and much more. To contemplate a transition from current linear industrial production to sustainable alternatives demands investigating more than rerouting or repurposing waste material.
Read more UCLAx – class 12
by kevin, on March 23rd, 2010
For our eleventh class, we spent the first half discussing the third Profile Project focused on certifications and labels. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the students did three profile projects – one about materials and/or resources, one about companies and/or people, and one about certifications and/or labels. Survey the green [...]
by kevin, on March 10th, 2010
For our ninth class we return to our normal class room, but at an alternate time and date. This week was a make-up class required due to a scheduling conflict. We continued discussion of an earlier topic – waste reduction – and transitioned to resource preservation.
In previous classes where waste [...]
by kevin, on March 8th, 2010
Our eighth class was our second field trip, this time to the Santa Monica showroom of Steelcase. My first experience with Steelcase dates back only five years. I was attending the ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) Interiors 05 conference in Nashville TN and Steelcase was offering attendees a special deal on [...]
by kevin, on February 15th, 2010
To understand cradle to cradle concepts, it’s helpful to first get a good feel for how our current cradle to grave industrial system works. This week’s class extended discussions begun during previous classes regarding waste reduction, and was focused on the grave – or what happens to all that trash.
Four weeks ago, [...]
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building your green material library
Great initial on-line sources for finding green materials are: Material ConneXion; Rate It Green; Building Green; The Green Building Center; and GreenSource. While access to Material ConneXion is fee-based and not all listed products are green, these search engines are valuable clearing houses that supply information about hundreds of green materials. Always research further to ascertain any green claims you encounter, however.
There are a few third-party rating programs available that provide a comprehensive overview of certain green materials. The most influential are Pharos, BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability), and The ATHENA Institute, all life-cycle assessment (LCA)-based tools that examine every stage of a product. Pharos rates materials based on three categories: Environment – Resource (resource extraction); Health – Pollution (application); and Social – Community (manufacturing). BEES rates them according to twelve potential environmental impacts. One drawback to all three is that there are so few products rated. This will change in time as these systems gain momentum. For now, Pharos has taken down its product listing to further enhance it; a new version should be posted in 2009. While all three systems are free to users, product inclusion in BEES requires a hefty fee, leading to an even more limited list.
Read more building your green material library