Joshua Tree Center For Sustainable Energy

Location: Twenty-Nine Palms , CA

Program: Education, Residential

Joshua Tree National Park is a place of sublime natural beauty, However, the extreme climate of the Sonoran and Mojave Desert area is uncompromising driving people away from a place the public think is dead. The Joshua Tree Center for Sustainable Energy is a residential science campus that is designed to serve the community and specially students from all ages to learn and apply science and sustainability in a safe enjoyable environment.

NATIVE LANDSCAPE It protects water quality by reducing increases public health, and it provides

Strategies

LOWER WINDOWS

LED MOTION SENSOR LIGHTING

Key Actions

GREY WATER RECYCLED 23,125 gal/yr

SOLAR POWER GENERATED 120,250 KwHr

PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES

5% 3%

PASSIVE SOLAR

The windows are oriented North to absorbe less heat from the sun as possible. The building heating and cooling was reduced by 70%

BEAUTY & HEALTH EQUITY ADA accessible 10,000 sf of garden Approx. 17,000 lbs of CO2 saved SECTION

ENHANCED ENVELOPE Thermal walls are installed South facing to eleminate heat coming to the building. The strategy works with passive solar to provide the indoor comfort needed

WATER EFFICIENCY

The petals reuse the reclaimed water from the site to grow the algae needed to provide biofuel that can be used on site

A 120,250 kilowatt array is used to generate electricity to the site to generate computers, lighting,

The Petals were inspired by the dense cells in the leaves of the desert flower, emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies. The goal of the Petals is to create fresh air, water and soil for a healty, desert climate friendly environment.

Bioreactor Petal

• A photobioreactor (PBR) is a bioreactor which incorporates some type of light source. Virtually any translucent container could be called a PBR, however the term is more commonly used to define a closed system, as opposed to an open tank or pond. Photobioreactors are used to grow small phototrophic organisms such as cyanobacteria, algae, or moss plant. These organisms use light through photosynthesis as their energy source and do not require sugars or lipids as energy source. Consequently, risk of contamination with other organisms like bacteria or fungi is lower in photobioreactors when compared to bioreactors for heterotroph organisms.

Light (energy) = O

• Bioreactors are also designed to treat sewage and wastewater. In the most efficient of these systems, there is a supply of a free-flowing, chemically inert medium which acts as a receptacle for the bacteria that break down the raw sewage. The biosolids can be collected for further processing, or dried and used as fertilizer

- Lower emissions

- Renewable

- Biodegradable

- Safer

Uses of Biofuels

The basic concept is that if we use as much product as we grown, then our net impact on the environment should be negligible if not zero.

- Transportation

- Power Generation

- Heat

Rain Water Storage

CO2 + Nutrients for growth

Plastic / Fiberglass composite shell

PV Cell Panels

Bench

Concrete columns

2X Wood beams

Steel plate foundation connection

Concrete foundation

Particle filter + Valve

Harvested algae to be sent to refinery for conversion to bio fuel

BIOREACTOR SECTION

Growth Tubes

CO2 + Nutrients introduced to algae and water

Pump

Algae Extraction + Water Recycling

Harvested algae to be transported for refinment into bio fuel

Water + Wetland algae transport hose

TEMPERATURE HUMIDITY SOLAR WIND

Water Line

Casa Ii

Program: Residential

CASA II is a lightweight, flexible residential structure that could be installed on the rooftop of a building overlooking Piazza Repubblica, the rooftop providing a space where services and access already exist or are near at hand. A parasitic structure or a symbiotic addition for a disused urban space that can offer a sophisticated interplay of indoor and outdoor living among the clouds