An employee walking along a thermal pipe at the Kamojang geothermal
power plant near Garut, West Java, on March 18. State utility provider
 Perusahaan Listrik Negara is targeting an additional 135 megawatts of
electricity from three new geothermal plants. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)
 

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,.. etc.)
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“.. Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time. …”

Sunday, November 11, 2007

The luxurious geometry of 'scrapers

Zenin Adrian, The Jakarta Post

In the last few decades, architects have been liberated from the constraints of the traditional drawing board and flat-plane geometry.

Younger generations of architects have more access to the Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs and have been using it to its full extent generating more geometrically complex design.

Currently, the global trend of skyscraper design has shifted from a straight extrusion of primitive shape to a more complex three dimensional shape. Concurrent with the advancement of CAD software, a complex building shape is more feasible to realize.

However, such vast advancement in complex building form design has to be confronted with the reality of fabrication. All curvy shapes have to be fabricated from available flat building materials in the market. In order to achieve a smooth curved surface, it has to be segmented and the covering panels have to be cut into specific sizes.

Surfaces with one-directional curving can be constructed out of the same panel size with little variations. Other types of more complex curved surfaces, such as a bi-directional curving surface, requires a higher degree of variations for the paneling sizes.

Such variations also mean more material waste and higher cost. That is why a complex building shape is usually applied on high budget construction such as art museums, galleries or privately owned office towers and considered as luxurious geometry.

Interestingly, the new building for the Directorate General of Higher Education (DIKTI), Ministry of National Education, located at Jl. Pintu Satu Senayan, Jakarta, has demonstrated that such extravagance can be applied to a government office building. Designed by Atelier 6, a Jakarta based architecture firm, the building's unique facade consists of several curving surfaces which require fine variations for the cladding panels or glasses.

In my opinion, this matter raised an important issue of justifying such luxury. I could not think any functional justifications of the curved facade other than symbolic ones.

Symbolic form in architecture design was a common practice during the New Order era, for example Keong Emas Theater at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah or the phallic tower for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism building at Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat.

On the other hand, Menara Satrio, a new office tower in Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio has applied a simple strategy in generating the effect of a curving skyscraper.

The recently completed office building, designed by Arquitectonica, a US based architecture design firm, manipulated the rectangular shape simply by chamfering each of the four corners.

The design strategy created a simpler geometry than that of the DIKTI building and minimizes the variations for the fabrication of the glass panels.

I must commend Menara Satrio for smartly and efficiently revisiting the rectangular skyscraper design. Menara Satrio has shown that luxury and elegance can be achieved with a simpler geometry -- and without breaking the bank. The extravagant geometry of symbolism-driven architecture as shown by the DIKTI building does not reflect functionality and contradicts good governance. The government should have expressed more modesty and practicality in constructing their office buildings.

Zenin Adrian can be reached at zenin.adrian@zadl.net

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