Energy conservation has long history

March 02, 2008 04:00 am

— We're accustomed to finding interesting and unusual exhibitions at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
A gallery entitled "An Endangered Species" brings home concepts of energy and its conservation for younger viewers. British illustrator Harriet Russell was invited to create a children's story to accompany the larger exhibit "1973: Sorry, Out of Gas."
She does a wonderful job, using pencil, ink, paint and silkscreening to produce whimsical images that make important points. Drawings painlessly introduce concepts of biofuels, geothermal energy and even the potential of waves.
Kids (and adults) will see the impact of lowering a thermostat six degrees. It'll be hard for a child to forget the idea of an underground home after seeing Russell's rendition of "mowing your roof."
WATERSHED YEAR
With "Sorry, Out of Gas" the center has taken a time three decades ago and made it fully relevant to the present day.
When living in North Carolina in 1973, I'd go out of my way to fill up at a Texaco station that offered gas at 29.9 cents a gallon. Why not? It let me avoid the inflationary 33.9 cents charged at most other places. Who knew that by 1979, gas at the pump would top a dollar a gallon, beginning an upward trend that continues to this moment?
At the time, I was busy enough in my studies not to have noticed any kind of crisis. But 1973 turns out to have been a watershed year. On Oct. 17 that year, oil-producing countries doubled the price per barrel of crude oil and decreased production by five percent, threatening an economy soaring for three decades largely on the assumption of infinite cheap energy supplies.
For the first time outside of war, Europe and America had to consider rationing and conservation measures. A new relationship had developed with the countries on whom oil supplies depended. In a sense, it marked the beginning of the politicization of oil.
SUN AND WIND
"Out of Gas" looks at the response of architecture and engineering to what now gets termed the first gas crisis.
Rooms throughout the exhibit analyze passive and active solar energy, wind power, recessed and underground homes and pioneering integrated systems. Large diagrams sketch out basic physical principles. Then a mix of photographs, news clippings, trade magazines, audiovisual presentations and artifacts help piece together the story.
Passive solar efforts largely involved the use of creative house siting, new materials and heavy heat-retaining units that provided greenhouse effects and allowed natural convection within the home. Inventions like those of insulated glass played a role. French development of the Trombe wall, using glass as a "trap" for masonry to absorb large amounts of heat for later distribution, marked another critical advance.
We listened to interviews with notable players in the movement.
In 1971, Albuquerque tinkerer Steve Baer built a home of 11 polygons that he called "zomes." Then he began Zomeworks, his still active business that developed and marketed inventions designed to maximize energy conservation. His use of easily accessed materials and simple plans encouraged a "do-it-yourself" ethic. My wife and I happened upon Zomeworks during the late 1970s. Our house still incorporates ideas we learned there.
Many early solar projects were executed in New Mexico and Arizona. Sure, one might say, it's easy to build a solar-dependent home in the desert or in the South. What about colder climates? Like ours!
TRASH SAVES ENERGY
It turns out the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had been researching the use of active solar energy for homes as early as the 1930s. Four model homes were constructed, each adding to the accrual of practical knowledge. In 1949, the first entirely solar home with no backup heat source was completed in Dover, Mass.
Active use of solar power required engineering advances. Solar collecting panels heated air or water, which would then be transported through pipes by fan or pump, and stored in basement reservoirs before being distributed to meet household needs. Detailed plans for energy self-sufficiency on a community level as well as individual basis are presented.
The harnessing of wind for energy had proved quite successful by the 1920s. One leader in the field, Jacobs Wind Electric Company, successfully sold wind mills for 25 years before rural electrification projects appeared to obviate the need.
One entrepreneur, New Mexican Michael Reynolds, looked at waste as a natural resource. He used tires as a basis for making retaining walls, then moved on to aluminum cans. Transforming six-packs to building bricks, he came up with a building material that not only consumed minimal energy but also cleaned up the environment.
Another innovator, Jay Swayze, turned his experience in building nuclear-bomb shelters to the construction of underground homes able to run on minimal energy. He painted window interiors with various landscape scenes to combat the idea of being enclosed!
ROY BOOKS IN SHOP
On one wall, monitors screen speeches by the likes of former Presidents Carter and Ford, former British Prime Minister Heath and Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki-Yomani. Putting on headphones and listening, I could only think of the old warning that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.
I regret the omission of Paolo Soleri, whose experimental Arcosanti community in Arizona has long fascinated us. And Rob Roy, the Clinton County resident who has promulgated ideas of recessed housing and cordwood construction (I did find his books in the museum shop).
WONDROUS ARCHITECTURE
Though the Canadian Centre for Architecture has built its reputation around creative temporary installations, there's an important permanent exhibit there -- the complex itself. Most galleries are housed in a modern structure completed in 1989. The newer building envelops the Shaughnessy House on three sides.
Originally two adjacent homes, the Shaughnessy House was built in 1874. The Second Empire-style dwelling featured limestone construction and Mansard roofs. Originally designed as private residences, the two later became a home for the elderly then headquarters for the Sisters of Service Congregation. When demolition threatened in 1974, Phyllis Lambert purchased the building and made it a nucleus for the newly founded Centre for Architecture.
Inside, we found wondrous architectural detail -- plaster moldings, chandelier medallions on ceilings, delicate dentil work, marble fireplaces, columned interior archways. The tea room and winter garden are spectacular. The former boasts Cuban mahogany panelling on both the walls and coffered ceiling. A black and white marble fireplace blends well into the setting.
My wife wants a replica of the Davencore winter garden, a glass-roofed cast-iron structure. Wooden doors with etched-glass panels and a marble floor complete the scene. A rim of poinsettias around the perimeter added further beauty.
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