So, in surfing around the web over the past few days I found a set of interesting articles in line with green building/sustainability.

This article below is an imaginative design for a completely self sufficient high rise, having a vertical farming component as well as a-typical company space. Although very unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon - its an intriguing design for multi-use highrises.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/new-york-city-dragonfly-a-locavore-wet-dream.php

Also, a pretty cool new building material has been created almost solely from refuse. Not quite sure how the design works, im positive its probably a 'trade secret' - but it is always good to question the effects of how these products are made. Any insight on this material? It could be very beneficially used for substandard housing around the world if properly utilized, and if it is all its creators say it is...

http://greenopolis.com/goblog/derekmarkham/recycled-building-material-stronger-concrete

Also, I'm sure the idea has been flung around - but has anyone looked into potentially having an 'experimental' student run green living space on campus? What I mean is: take a older house in the area or build new to be completely sustainable, both in build and function. The house would potentially serve as a community of individuals who both experiment and live green design and process. Maybe eve look at forming a small smart grid between a few buildings to test on? I know this has been attempted elsewhere with great success, what are your thoughts?

I know the idea of a testing green house has been done at Drexel (and I'm sure at other places). It would seem like it'd be pretty possible to do it somewhere around pittsburgh -there are enough neighborhoods to be sure. If we picked a section that was also being worked on by GTECH or other university groups, we could probably create an interesting core for renewal.

Also, I'd love to create a mini-smart grid, at least using real time monitoring to get data to apply pricing models to. It could be expanded from there.

What does a mini smart grid mean? Does that mean it's comes with it's own power generation? Also, what would the green building be? Would it be like a co-op (right term?) So students live in it? Or like a student office?

It would be a co-op of sorts. But we would look for sponsorship from companies (give them some press for their donations) and run experiments and test innovative green design technologies and processes. Ideally it would be a restorative project, where we take an older house and retrofit it as a green 'concept' house. But it would function as a house, and students would live in it.

As for the smart grid, its more about how energy is consumed by a home, and the homes in the respective area. We would aim to have the house be able to produce some of its own energy though...

wikipedia does a decent job describing what a smart grid is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid