First of all, apologies for the delay in week 5 it’s been a crazy few weeks with lots going on at the same time. With the solar cooker project we’ve rolled on deeper into the depths of ideas for different designs. Maybe a survival cooker, a multi-purpose multiple plate cooker, or keep it simple and minimalist. All to be found in due course. With Strategies for Sustainable Design we moved onto the Eco Design principles, looking at different ways we could reduce the impact of the product with the different Eco Principles. Again, using a life cycle analysis proved to be such a useful tool in assessing if we made an improvement to the product or not, as well as quantifying these improvements.
Since the Eco Design approach we’ve started to crack on with the new approach of cradle to cradle, looking at stating all the materials that are in the products, seeing where they lie on the ABCX charts, determining how ‘bad’ the materials are, as well as thinking about what could the product give back to nature. For example, a glass bottle if left on a beach will eventually turn back into sand, thus reducing its environmental impact, as compared to a plastic bottle. I’ve liked the generic basis of cradle to cradle approaches to design, but I’m not completely bought on this incredibly thorough approach to cradle to cradle design. Although that said, I do feel that all the design approaches they teach at TU Delft are incredibly rigorous by comparison to what I’m used to at Coventry. In-between Uni and working on projects I’ve taken the time out again for exploration. Even just wondering around our building can be pretty inspiring on its own.
Some beautiful graffiti I stumbled across at Delft Station on a trip to Rotterdam:
It’s an interesting city in terms of scale Rotterdam. It has a hype around it and a sense of ‘busyness’, despite it’s rather lacking size compared to the city of London.
Also, during week 6 we went to a solar event in Den Bosch. It was unfortunately not very appropriate for our solar project, as it was mainly concerned with PV panels everywhere. Although, I have to admit the ‘pearlescent’ finish PV panels did spark a bit of my own personal interest, redefining the appearance of what a PV panel should look like and what we expect it to be. The one stand that was ‘sort of’ relevant to our project, was with a really interesting display:
The systems used salts and a process of distilling in order to store solar energy as heat. Rather fascinating as we were not finding any evidence of methods to store heat, which would make a solar cooker all that much better if you don’t need to wait for it to heat up perhaps. Also, a really interesting way of channeling solar energy without the typical parabolic shape or a ‘trough’ shape. Overall these have been a manic few weeks, hoping to have a clearer sense of direction through planning these coming weeks ahead.
Aimée Francis 