EPRF on YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lc1g38twkQ

Timlapse Video Uploaded to Youtube courtesy of Rocky.

Photos

photos of the completed flower and opening party:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eprfced/

ITS UP!

A little taste

opening party tomorrow 6:30 wurster courtyard

FINAL PUSH

Here's a rendering (incase you havent been by the 8th floor lately) of what this thing is conceptually going to look like. It is and will be must less static than this.

catchment calculations

So by my calculations we need 7 catchment units per column/cantilever hexagon.

Each catchment unit consists of:

6 rectangular bottles

4 medium size bottles

18 petals+ 30 melted tube bottles= 48 little bottles

each hexagonal unit needs :

42 rectangular bottles

28 medium size bottles

336 little bottles

We have 30 catchment units already constructed. yey! 4+ hexagons have got catchment!

keep on atruckin!

Current configuration

Here is a configuration in the courtyard. This layout is based on studying paths of travel and leisure spots in the courtyard. The diag. hatch represents solid filtration columns and the dots are cantilevered pieces connecting them.

Exploded Axo. for a possible method of prefab modules and deployment

Please comment or come work if you have other layouts/ideas!

Initial model of the proposal for improvements to the catchment system. More to come...

Catchment Capacity

Catchment Capacity (scaled to respond to a Large Storm Event) = gal
Volume of water per cubic foot = 7.48 gal
Runoff Coefficient (RC) accounts for 20% loss (splash/evap)
Local High of a storm event ie. 6"

Catchment Area(ft^2) x Local High Storm(ft) x 7.48 gal/ft^3 x RC(.80)

ie.
100 ft^2 x (.5)ft x 7.48 gal/ft^3 x (.80) = ~300 gal


(Calculation source: Rainwater Harvesting, Brad Lancaster)

Berkeley Rainfall Data

Rainfall metrics from the last 35 years specific to Berkeley, as produced by Greywater Action, formally Greywater Guerrillas. More rainwater calculation (for cistern sizing) and technical resources are available through their site.

Water Quality - NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/opinion/22thu1.html?_r=1

New York Times article on the 1972 Clean Water Act.

EXPERIMENTING WITH THE SPACE FRAME

Potential for filter aggregation (below water capture)—How could this fit into the superstructure? How could it connect to capture and storage?

Filter Mock-Ups

The filtration process could have four levels:
1) large debris filtration (spiral cut bottle mesh),
2) small debris filtration (polyester or polymide fibers),
3) metals filtration (activated charcoal)—cost implications
4) bacteria filtration (UV light)—cost implications

There is the potential for these four levels to be sequenced in filtration strands. These bottle strands could be embedded in the superstructure. Fog catchers could extend from top level of spiral cut bottle mesh. The filtration team will advance these mock-ups for Wednesday.

Adrienne, Eleanor and Molly

flickr

Here's a link to the enormous plastic rain flower flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eprfced/

If you have anythign to upload the login info is in your email.

Plastic Fantastic Lover

A little bit of related soundtrack...
Jefferson Airplane 1970


Cheers,
Berta

where are the bottles coming from?

In the search for the basic material to build our flower, the plastic water bottles, there are important questions that are being raised, such as,
- where do the bottles come from? why are there so many of them and yet it is so difficult to have access to them?
- which is the price of our waste?
- how available is it for everyone?
- which is the process that follows the moment we throw the bottles away?

and well, since this class is based on the use of ¨free available trash¨to build our structures, it can be interesting to think not only about the problem of availability of drinkable water, but also about the cost of recycling our trash, about the recycling process in general, and about the whole system, economical as well as social, that is feeding from the excesses of our society.

Here is a link to an interesting website, www.storyofstuff.com, which explains a little more about this...

Tomato cage concept

Team space frame has been playing around in the computer and have come up with a 'tomato cage' concept. Calculating a total mass of bottles meant we would have to collect upwards of 25,000 bottles per lima bean, and after visiting the recycle plants this isn't really feasable. The space frame concept reduces the number of bottles used to make a similar sized module to around 5,000 each. We estimate that in the upstairs studio after a good hall this weekend we have about 1,000 bottles.

Here is the concept we have been developing. It consists of a structural system(yellow) supporting programatic elements (green) nested withing the voids of the structure.

These nested items give a dynamic element to the boring and static element of the space frame. The frame begins to disappear behind the dynamic tubes of light collection and filtration. This rendering only starts to convey this but there would be many more tubes interwoven into the structure.

Each node in the space frame requires twelve connections. This is easily done using zip ties and rocky's method of cap connections. The skin tubes can simply be screwed into a node from the side.

Sep 30

WE'RE FAMOUS!!!!

http://sf.curbed.com/tags/enormous-plastic-rain-flower

Recycling Center TRIPS + Please JOIN A TEAM!

[1] Trips to the Recycling Center!

Some members of the class have spearheaded efforts to go to the recycling center to collect bottles...there are trips schedule for Thursday and Friday. I believe Ileana is in charge of Thursday trips and Molly and a few others are in charge of Friday. If you are interested in joining them, or have a car to contribute, please let designated leaders know. The more people/cars we have, the more bottles we can collect!

[2] Design/Construction Teams!

Listed below are teams for construction loosely separated by people interested in 'space frame' vs. 'other alternatives.' Both teams should try to build as complete a mockup as possible (full scale) for next class with all elements from catchment, holding tank, filtration, and final storage/distribution based on ideas from today's discussion [with thoughts about program, foundation, filtration methods, etc.]

please see the list below for teams and members:

TEAM A: 'space frame'

Molly Reichert
David
Rocky H.
Steve B.
Ileana
Adam
Harini
Adrienne Smith
Bryan Allen
Roxanne
Eleanor

TEAM B: 'alternative methods'

Jaeyeong Yang
Dave Dahl
Jungmin An
David Dana
Silvia
Olimpia
Soomin Ko
Tim
Rachael
Gerrell
Trudy
Won Shim

IF YOU DID NOT GET THE CLASS EMAIL regarding this, IF YOU ARE MISSING FROM A TEAM, or know someone missing from a team, please let me (harini[at]berkeley[dot]edu) or Mark know asap.