Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature is on display at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA), right across street from the High Museum of Art, through Sunday, April 5, 2015.
This exhibition "discusses the techniques through which animals and humans have adapted to differing environments through an amazing diversity of structures." That, and so much more, with an ample measure of fun thrown in!
Do you have any idea the number of total devices in your home that consume power? If you're sitting at home when reading this, look around and count. If you're away from home, look around the room you're in and count the devices that require power. Remember, a device doesn't have to be turned on to be using power. And batteries, like my batter-powered computer mouse, are using energy, too!
It's late, so I'm working in my bedroom. Even without a thorough exploration, including light fixtures, appliances, phones, and other devices, I counted 50! That's FIFTY items that require power of some kind. WOW! And that's just two rooms and a couple of closets. Imagine how many there are in your entire home!
Challenge: Count every device, appliance, fixture, electronic, etc. in your home—remember the yard, too—that requires power. Now then, come up with at least one way to conserve power. And now...do it! You just might save a little money, maybe a lot, and I bet you'll feel great about being a little more "Green".
Visitors are greeted, just before entering the Gallery 1 corridor, with a "Build Your Own Sustainable Home" interactive station. Looks like fun, doesn't it?
MODA is a magnificent destination for the creative type. At MODA, I've (almost) built a spaceship, played video games, and learned about art disciplines I never knew existed. I've certainly learned a lot about design. I've been a member of MODA for more than four years and it has consistently provided entertainment, engagement and learning...all in the most of fun ways!
Sustainable Shelter is rather diverse in its features. There are the to-be-expected building materials displays, there's a living terrarium, there's a rainfall runoff water demonstration...and then there's ART! That is, art in the form of an ant colony revealed by molten aluminum.
This isn't actually an art piece, truth be told. It was created to study the uniqueness of the Florida Harvester Ant Nest. But if you didn't know better, wouldn't you hang this on your wall and tell your friends that it's a new piece of "art"?
Did you know that every species of ant creates a unique style of shelter?
The Gallery 1 corridor in this exhibition features various kinds of shelters. In the photo above it shows "Modular Shelters" built by humans and animals. It's surprising just how often humans mimic animals in the various aspects of building shelters. There are lots of fascinating facts on the placard and displays in this gallery!
We hear more and more about "Green" roofs, particularly in Atlanta in the last eight years. At Sustainable Shelter you get to learn quite a lot about their construction and just how many layers it takes to make such a roof!
Maybe I just like flipping switches, but I really enjoyed this station. It's a very quick demonstration of the light emitted by various kinds of light bulbs and the power requirement for each. You'll be a light bulb expert before the power company can print your next bill!
Extremely few people know this about me, but just before I moved to Atlanta in the late 80s, I worked for an insulation company. We manufactured custom insulated fittings for industrial pipe connectors. Some of them were the size of an arm cast and some were incredibly massive!
The cool thing about them was that they were removable, meaning that when the plant had to repair or replace a fitting on a pipe, they didn't have to destroy the plaster covering. They could just unzip or unsnap the custom insulated fitting and put it back on when the repair was complete, without having to re-plaster. Talk about a sustainable solution! Those custom insulation fittings saved companies countless dollars over the years.
All that is to say that I have an appreciation for insulation—good insulation—and the "Green" benefits of it. That, and if you ever work with anything that's fiberglass-based, be absolutely certain to not launder your work clothes with your play clothes!
There are several wall-size illustrations showing various aspects of sustainable shelter. The one above shows "The Life Cycle of a House", but my favorite is one in Gallery 2 that demonstrates how we can make better use of our water resources.
It covers everything from using native, low-maintenance plants in your yard to reduce the amount of water it takes to water a lawn to changing the aerator on your shower nozzle to reduce water usage. The number of opportunities to save water, energy and money in your home, by being a little more "Green", are mind boggling!
On Thursday evenings (6:30 p.m.) and Saturday afternoons (4:00 p.m.), MODA offers exhibition tours free of charge (with regular admission). For Sustainable Shelter, the tour highlights "how design, construction, and technology can help us create homes that function as more effective components of Earth's natural cycles." Tours last approximately 45 minutes.
Did you know that the building where the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) is housed happens to be the Greenest building in Atlanta? Yep! That's another cool factor that adds to the fascination of this particular exhibition. Go visit the museum, take one of the tours, check out their classes...but be sure to get there before Sunday, April 5 to see Sustainable Shelter.
This exhibition "discusses the techniques through which animals and humans have adapted to differing environments through an amazing diversity of structures." That, and so much more, with an ample measure of fun thrown in!
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
Do you have any idea the number of total devices in your home that consume power? If you're sitting at home when reading this, look around and count. If you're away from home, look around the room you're in and count the devices that require power. Remember, a device doesn't have to be turned on to be using power. And batteries, like my batter-powered computer mouse, are using energy, too!
It's late, so I'm working in my bedroom. Even without a thorough exploration, including light fixtures, appliances, phones, and other devices, I counted 50! That's FIFTY items that require power of some kind. WOW! And that's just two rooms and a couple of closets. Imagine how many there are in your entire home!
Challenge: Count every device, appliance, fixture, electronic, etc. in your home—remember the yard, too—that requires power. Now then, come up with at least one way to conserve power. And now...do it! You just might save a little money, maybe a lot, and I bet you'll feel great about being a little more "Green".
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
Visitors are greeted, just before entering the Gallery 1 corridor, with a "Build Your Own Sustainable Home" interactive station. Looks like fun, doesn't it?
MODA is a magnificent destination for the creative type. At MODA, I've (almost) built a spaceship, played video games, and learned about art disciplines I never knew existed. I've certainly learned a lot about design. I've been a member of MODA for more than four years and it has consistently provided entertainment, engagement and learning...all in the most of fun ways!
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
Sustainable Shelter is rather diverse in its features. There are the to-be-expected building materials displays, there's a living terrarium, there's a rainfall runoff water demonstration...and then there's ART! That is, art in the form of an ant colony revealed by molten aluminum.
This isn't actually an art piece, truth be told. It was created to study the uniqueness of the Florida Harvester Ant Nest. But if you didn't know better, wouldn't you hang this on your wall and tell your friends that it's a new piece of "art"?
Did you know that every species of ant creates a unique style of shelter?
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
The Gallery 1 corridor in this exhibition features various kinds of shelters. In the photo above it shows "Modular Shelters" built by humans and animals. It's surprising just how often humans mimic animals in the various aspects of building shelters. There are lots of fascinating facts on the placard and displays in this gallery!
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
We hear more and more about "Green" roofs, particularly in Atlanta in the last eight years. At Sustainable Shelter you get to learn quite a lot about their construction and just how many layers it takes to make such a roof!
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
Maybe I just like flipping switches, but I really enjoyed this station. It's a very quick demonstration of the light emitted by various kinds of light bulbs and the power requirement for each. You'll be a light bulb expert before the power company can print your next bill!
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
Extremely few people know this about me, but just before I moved to Atlanta in the late 80s, I worked for an insulation company. We manufactured custom insulated fittings for industrial pipe connectors. Some of them were the size of an arm cast and some were incredibly massive!
The cool thing about them was that they were removable, meaning that when the plant had to repair or replace a fitting on a pipe, they didn't have to destroy the plaster covering. They could just unzip or unsnap the custom insulated fitting and put it back on when the repair was complete, without having to re-plaster. Talk about a sustainable solution! Those custom insulation fittings saved companies countless dollars over the years.
All that is to say that I have an appreciation for insulation—good insulation—and the "Green" benefits of it. That, and if you ever work with anything that's fiberglass-based, be absolutely certain to not launder your work clothes with your play clothes!
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
There are several wall-size illustrations showing various aspects of sustainable shelter. The one above shows "The Life Cycle of a House", but my favorite is one in Gallery 2 that demonstrates how we can make better use of our water resources.
It covers everything from using native, low-maintenance plants in your yard to reduce the amount of water it takes to water a lawn to changing the aerator on your shower nozzle to reduce water usage. The number of opportunities to save water, energy and money in your home, by being a little more "Green", are mind boggling!
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
On Thursday evenings (6:30 p.m.) and Saturday afternoons (4:00 p.m.), MODA offers exhibition tours free of charge (with regular admission). For Sustainable Shelter, the tour highlights "how design, construction, and technology can help us create homes that function as more effective components of Earth's natural cycles." Tours last approximately 45 minutes.
 |
| Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature | MODA |
Did you know that the building where the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) is housed happens to be the Greenest building in Atlanta? Yep! That's another cool factor that adds to the fascination of this particular exhibition. Go visit the museum, take one of the tours, check out their classes...but be sure to get there before Sunday, April 5 to see Sustainable Shelter.
No comments:
Post a Comment