In desert climates, extreme heat and dry air are not just uncomfortable, they can be life-threatening. Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael of The Emerging Objects Corporation may have found a natural cooling solution for increased safety and comfort in arid areas.
Evaporative cooling is the process of adding water to the air, causing the temperature to drop, and increasing the moisture in the air, 3ders reports. The technique itself is ancient, but San Fratello and Rael have applied it to a 3D-printed brick prototype, called Cool Brick.
The prototype was inspired by the Muscatese Evaporative cooling window, a system that combines a wood screen and a ceramic vessel filled with water. The Cool Brick is made of porous ceramic bricks set in mortar. The bricks absorb water and are designed as 3D lattices that allow air to pass through the wall.
The water held in the micropores of the ceramic bricks evaporates as air moves through the system, bringing cool air into the building interior. This process results in cool, moist air while using less energy than other cooling techniques.
The Cool Bricks are modular and interlocking, meaning that they can be assembled as needed for the particular space where they’re installed. The lattice structure creates a tight bond when set in mortar. Meanwhile, the shape of the brick creates a shaded surface on the wall, keeping that portion of the wall cool.
The Cool Brick can be viewed at Data Clay: Digital Strategies for Parsing the Earth until April 19, 2015, at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. Tehton 3D, a 3D printing company that specializes in custom applications for ceramic 3D printing, sponsored the project.
Related Stories
| Feb 22, 2011
New EcoSpec Tile company offers recycled tiles
EcoSpec Tile LLC, established February 1, 2011, is a new tile manufacturing company started by a group consisting of experienced/time-tested tile professionals who collectively feel a strong responsibility to their industry and to their planet. The initial product offering includes sustainable tile material composed of 50% pre-consumer waste, 20% post-consumer waste and 30% new material recycled contents.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.
| Jan 21, 2011
Library planned for modern media enthusiasts
The England Run Library, a new 30,000-sf glass, brick, and stone building, will soon house more than 100,000 books and DVDs. The Lukmire Partnership, Arlington, Va., designed the Stafford County, Va., library, the firm’s fourth for the Central Rappahannock Library System, to combine modern library-browsing trends with traditional library services.
| Dec 17, 2010
Subway entrance designed to exude Hollywood charm
The Hollywood/Vine Metro portal and public plaza in Los Angeles provides an entrance to the Red Line subway and the W Hollywood Hotel. Local architect Rios Clementi Hale Studio designed the portal and plaza to flow with the landmark theaters and plazas that surround it.
| Dec 17, 2010
Cladding Do’s and Don’ts
A veteran structural engineer offers expert advice on how to avoid problems with stone cladding and glass/aluminum cladding systems.
| Oct 13, 2010
Hospital tower gets modern makeover
The Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., expanded its D unit, a project that includes a 243,443-sf addition with a 12-room operating suite, a 36-bed intensive care unit, and an enlarged emergency department.
| Oct 12, 2010
Holton Career and Resource Center, Durham, N.C.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. Early in the current decade, violence within the community of Northeast Central Durham, N.C., escalated to the point where school safety officers at Holton Junior High School feared for their own safety. The school eventually closed and the property sat vacant for five years.
| Oct 12, 2010
Richmond CenterStage, Richmond, Va.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Bronze Award. The Richmond CenterStage opened in 1928 in the Virginia capital as a grand movie palace named Loew’s Theatre. It was reinvented in 1983 as a performing arts center known as Carpenter Theatre and hobbled along until 2004, when the crumbling venue was mercifully shuttered.
| Oct 12, 2010
The Watch Factory, Waltham, Mass.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards — Gold Award. When the Boston Watch Company opened its factory in 1854 on the banks of the Charles River in Waltham, Mass., the area was far enough away from the dust, dirt, and grime of Boston to safely assemble delicate watch parts.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Cleveland, Ohio
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. The Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument was dedicated on the Fourth of July, 1894, to honor the memory of the more than 9,000 Cuyahoga County veterans of the Civil War.
