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Could reusing the condensate from air conditioners be a feasible solution to mitigating water scarcity?

2021-05-21T15:41:00-04:00

What do a handful of Microsoft Corporate offices, the Austonian in Austin, the University of Arizona's College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture building, and San Diego International Airport (SAN) have in common? Each building practices air conditioner condensate reuse for alternative irrigation methods, cooling, and water conservation efforts.

While these are a few examples of buildings around the globe adopting this practice of water reuse, professor Jonathan Bean from the University of Arizona's College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture explains the realistic outlook on condensate reuse. "Reusing condensate is important but not a critical piece in counteracting climate change," he shared with Chris Malloy of Bloomberg CityLab. Instead, Bean believes there are more effective strategies out there like "making buildings smaller and reconsidering refrigerants."

Image © har__q via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

"While the water volume from air conditioners h...

Kevin Daly's Backyard BI(h)OME provides affordable housing for humans and wildlife

2015-06-18T15:40:00-04:00

Fittingly, Poolside’s version of “Harvest Moon” echoed off the wooden planks of the Broad Arts Center at UCLA on June 10th as a crowd of optimists, architects, and Ira-Glass lookalikes drank their way in and out of the opening reception for BI(h)OME, Kevin Daly Architects’ proposed “granny flat” solution to the L.A. Housing Crisis. The music was fitting because it was a laid-back cover of a much older tune: instead of raw passion, a more pragmatic vision of affordable housing was being unveiled, a 350-square foot, EFTE-enveloped, recyclable component-laden dwelling with wall cavities for bats, birds, and bugs. The students from cityLAB who manually assembled the mock-up of the BI(h)ome formed a lab-coat wearing cluster of “house doctors” as they stood behind Dana Cuff, Frances Anderton of KCRW, and Kevin Daly for a twenty-minute panel-style discussion about the future of housing in Los Angeles.

Part sales-pitch, part design lecture, the discussion encompassed the difficulties that Lo...