1. Age group 13-15 winner  Matt N. 
2. Age group 10-12 winner Aaron F. 
3. Age group 6-9 winner Jackson. M. 
4. Age group 0-5 winner Ava R. 

All entries showed great thought!

Congratulations to all participants and thank you to all of our contributors!

Posted via email from Architect Mason Kirby Inc.

The office is officially too small when exterior space becomes the most viable workspace… Mason and I used the front window of AMK Inc. to get a "big-picture" sense of the Kids' Digital Design Contest entries. MORE at http://masonkirby.com/contest/

Posted via email from Architect Mason Kirby Inc.

A look inside a "typical" Bernal Heights front porch and a detail of what improvements can be done. Rather than sit adjacent, the new rail is securely bolted into the stone stair. 

Posted via email from Architect Mason Kirby Inc.

Posted via email from Architect Mason Kirby Inc.

Posted via email from Architect Mason Kirby Inc.

Small wind is certainly an enthralling prospect in sustainable building.  At first glance, small wind systems seem like an independent, conscientious way to reduce a home’s electrical load and dependence on commercial, fossil fuel-derived electrical supply.  It seems simple; wind exists, and can be harvested for power.  However, unlike photovoltaic panels or grey water systems, small wind turbines can have a large impact on their surroundings. 

Small wind’s practicality is generally debated around two points: the physical siting of the small wind turbine, and the architectural implications of the turbine itself.  Small wind has been touted as a renewable source for the urban environment.  This promotion ignores how a neighborhood of building masses distorts, redirects and dilutes wind flow.  Often, wind in dense urban setting is too turbulent to efficiently move a small turbine.  The turbine itself causes other issues. The idea that wind turbines are dangerous to bird populations has been roundly de-bunked.  The blades of the turbine cutting through the air create strong vibrations that are transferred to the base of the turbine, and noise that travels.

San Francisco residents may be familiar with the 2007 Sunset Magazine Idea House.  Located in the Mission District on 25^th St. and Alabama St., this house illustrates some of the issues surrounding small wind turbines.  In order to mitigate vibration issues, the wind system was designed to keep the turbine structurally independent and to physically locate it away from the house.  Reflecting on his consulting experience with this house, Matt Golden of Sustainable Spaces noted that there are easier ways to reduce residential energy use and advised to think in terms of cost effective energy efficiency instead of a system that creates noise, maintenance, and has the ability to piss off neighbors.

On a positive note, innovative wind systems are promising and solve many issues posed by traditional mechanical wind turbines. These devices seem primarily arrested by manufacturing issues and are not yet available on the mass market.  One device, Humdinger Wind Energy’s Windbelt, is an elegant answer to the turbine.  The Windbelt collects energy as wind flutters between tensioned membranes. The Windbelt is modular, rectilinear and can be assembled into flat panels, creating many design opportunities.  With a low-cost, low-maintenance, integrated system like the Windbelt, irregular wind collection is more cost-effective.  Additionally, systems like the Windbelt represent an exciting paradigm shift where the architecture can begin to physically embody efficient technologies instead of merely collecting efficient gadgets.

Wind as an urban energy source may be viable in the future.  For now, wind is rarely thought of as an integrated site constraint and more as an afterthought to the “greening” process.  It is possible to imagine new architectural types that are as sensitive to wind direction and magnitude as some buildings are to solar orientation and gains. For its purported advantages, small wind turbines create considerable controversy and alternative technologies to harness wind power remain to be developed.

Over watering plants and lawn and they still look dry? Do you have Clay soils? If you live in the Bay Area you more than likely do. How can one improve their garden soils?

Throughout the Bay Area we have clay soil. Not every area but the majority do. Many try to improve their soils by amending their soils with manure and/or a wood chip product like redwood shavings. This is great but many do that when they plant and then they forget and just leave the plantings and their substrate without any further attention. We have to add enormous amounts of inorganic fertilizers to our planting beds to keep them green and blooming. Unfortunately, these fertilizers are washed off of our hard soils or are leeched into our water sources. This can be easily prevented and will help conserve water and will decrease the need for inorganic fertilizer and prevent filling our landfills with a valuable material.

One of our greatest recourses is disposed of in our landfills every single day. Our local arborist companies throw away all the chipped wood from their projects. They pay money to throw away GOLD for our gardens. These grinded braches and leaves are the best thing for our clay soils.

The average gardener removes all the leaves from our planter beds every visit. What is left behind is a hard planting bed that is unable to absorb water and the majority of our water goes down the curb and dumps into our Bay. The poor plants are forced to grow a shallow root zone to be able to receive their water requirements. Fertilizer is spread to help keep the plants green and blooming but only a small percentage is actually used by the plants. The rest is either carried off site by the sprinkler water or with the amount of water applied it percolates down into our sub surface water.

Masterpiece Gardens began using arborist chips approximately 7 years ago on a few large properties. We began to use these chips in areas that were not very visual and we continued to use redwood chips or gorilla hair to mulch around the houses and highly visual beds. Within two years we saw such an enormous difference between the two areas we started installing the arborist chips throughout the entire garden. It was amazing! The beds began to loosen up, we had worms in our soils, and our plants were thriving. We noticed we needed less water distribution in the summer months and we were only fertilizing once a year with an organic fertilizer, which is made mainly of poultry compost. We did find clients who did not like the mulch because everyone is accustomed to the fine, equal sized mulch that can be purchased at the local garden center. But after showing people other gardens and the fact that the mulch was FREE or we were charged a minimal delivery fee they agreed to try it out. Within two years all of our properties change dramatically.

It is a process, nature takes time. We have been removing the leaves and organic matter for so long and have left a barren landscape of bare soil. Mulching needs to be done a minimum of once a year and in some areas more often. We mulch approximately 2”to 3” deep each application otherwise the breakdown period is slowed and can be detrimental on water filtration to plant root zones.

Warning…. There is one draw back in the beginning the first couple times of installation. The process needs nitrogen to begin the composting process. If there is not a presence of nitrogen the composting process will rob this from surrounding plants. We usually will install osmocote before installation to help this process. But after two layers (approximately a year or two) inorganic fertilizer is no longer required.

I recommend that everyone try using the arborist mulch. Redwood looks great but it just does not break down (quickly). People have commented that they do not want to mulch that often they want a product that will last for years. I am sorry but there is no such thing. Look at our natural forest or hillsides here in the Bay Area. When you walk under the tree canopies it feels as if you are walking on a bed mattress. All the leaves that the trees drop and have been composting for all these years has helped maintain arified soils not hard compacted soils that need a jack hammer just to plant a petunia. Please try it and I promise you will see incredible benefits for your garden and our earth.

Mulching Benefits:
- Increased health of plant material
- Decreased water requirements
- Atheistically more attractive than barren soil
- Keeps wood chips from our landfills
- Decreased weed populations in gardens
- Healthier Soils = Healthier Plants

Imagine getting to your apartment taking out your iphone and hitting a Home button, your house lights turn on; your climate control goes to your favorite comfort level, your favorite music track starts and your window treatments open, is this really possible?

According to a study conducted in Q2 2008 by Nielsen Mobile, the iPhone 3G had the biggest impact in San Francisco and New York. Nielsen Mobile measured a 2-month change in AT&T ports of 137% in San Francisco and 183% in New York for June and July, outpacing the industry average of 113% over those same two months.
Are you one of those people who now use an iphone, with all its marvelous applications? If so, then you are also carrying a remote that can control your Lutron, Crestron, and Kaleidescape systems.
Now all you need is the Systems right? What are those systems that everyone is talking about?, Lutron, Crestron, and Kaleidescape you see their ads on all the top magazines.

Lutron controls Artificial light:
Lutron can control any source of lighting that your Lighting Designer may dream of, and powered by a HomeWorks P5 processor Wired to the interwebs you can access your light switches through your laptop or any Smart phone and of course the iphone.
Natural light:
Lutron can dim or block out natural light coming through your windows, doors, and skylights. And powered by a HomeWorks P5 processor wired to the interwebs you can control your shades or if you prefer you can let autopilot take control, monitoring temperature and solar orientation, and the window treatments will be controlled to protect your rugs hardwood floors and valuable art work.
Crestron Controls Everything.
HVAC:
By replacing your thermostat with a Crestron RF thermostat and powering that with a Crestron processor series 2 wired to the interwebs you can enable your climate system to know when you are home and when you are away and change the level of comfort accordingly, to be the most efficient. Not to mention that now you will be alerted via email when one or more of the zones in your home gets beyond a certain temperature, saving valuables through your home, fabrics, art work, electronics etc.
MEDIA:
Now let’s talk Entertainment, by connecting your Crestron processor to your flat screen TV, media server “Kaleidescape”, Blu Ray player, DirecTv & amplifier/receiver, you are now able to control your media from a push of a button via your sleek touch panel (aka iPhone). By doing so you have just eliminated about (5) remote controls and made the ever popular iPhone 5x’s more of a necessity. So instead of turning on (5) devices and setting them to the right settings, just pull out your new best friend and push (1) button and achieve the same results. Also now you have a cool GUI vs. boring buttons, and another “one up” application to show all your friends, and yeah they will be impressed….insert Supervillain laugh here.
Security/Access Control:
Integrating the Security&Access Control systems into the home is the most gratifying part of this experience. The feeling of being able to view your security cams and allow/deny access to different areas of your home, from the comfort of any touchpanel and or, you guessed it iPhone. View old feeds from the DVR, delete them if desired and set new ones. Receive an email that someone has entered the home, log onto your network, view cams, find the perpetrator, take their picture, lock them in the room, and inform the police where exactly they are in your home….insert even more Supervillain laughing here, because now the police will be impressed.

With new RF technology all this is more affordable than you may think. Lutron is now providing an Economic Stimulus Program, from now until December 31, 2009. All Lutron Homeworks Wireless products are 25% off list price.

Crestron just announced pricing, specs for low-cost Prodigy home control system.
It starts at about $825, with a typical whole-house system costing about $5,500 — a good price for the mass market.

Kaleidescape has developed their new Mini System which is less than half of their original.

For free quotes or more information visit VinoSystems

California is going on its third year of very little rainfall and snow pack.  The state has already passed a law (AB 1881) to reduce the amount of residential water use.  If you drive down highway 5 you see empty fields that used to be green and lush filled with vegetables for our local grocery markets.  The state has cut the amount of water that can be used for agriculture. The amount of water that would be used for our food supply is now being diverted to the multiple residential neighborhoods that have been built over the last ten years.  Even with the cost of living in California the state’s population is growing not diminishing.  The water requirements are increasing whether we have rainfall and snow pack or not.

In San Mateo County there is a population 97,000 inhabitants.  If we say there are 50,000 households and the average adult uses 200 gallons of water per shower, the gallonage of water is huge.  Now add washing machines and our most wasted,  the garden.  We are using viable drinking and bathing water to water our lawns and more than 60% goes down the gutters and overwhelms our streams and the bay.

One inch of water in a 20 by 50 square mile in an urbanized city will generate 17.4 billion gallons of water.  All this water is not stored or retained for future use but all this water goes to our city sewer systems and this run-off is thwarted into our streams, lakes, estuaries and bay.  All this water has polluted our coastlines and bay.

What can I do???

Imagine if every one of the homes in the City of San Mateo were to install a 50 gallon rain barrel under one of their roof downspouts this winter.  50 gallons x 50,000 homes = 2.5 million gallons of water that can be used to be put back into our gardens soil instead of it rushing out to the Bay and Pacific Ocean.
If a small percentage of homes throughout the bay area were to install a rainwater harvesting system of 5,000 gallons the amount of water savings would be huge.  This water can be used to wash our cars or water our gardens.
Masterpiece Gardens has started to install beautiful water features to create habitats for birds, lizards, butterflies, and etc right in suburban gardens.  This water can be constructed with a pump system to water our gardens in the summer and our drinking water can be used for actual drinking.

Going Green?
By using a pump system are we not using electricity?  Are we not robbing Peter to pay Paul?  Yes, there is a small use of electricity but we are conserving our most precious resource that we truly need to survive.
Right now there is not a perfect solution but we can all start by trying to save even a small percentage of water.  Low flow showerheads, low flow toilets, etc.  There are many ways to save but if we do not start now there will be no future.