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Interior Decorator Conway AR Brkovic Dragan

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A remarkable facsimile of Dusty Strut Jetstream Crophopper from the Disney film Planes flew off with the Jurors' Favorite award Monday night in the 2013 Canstruction at North Star Mall.

What makes the airplane whose theme is Dust Hunger! so special is that it is constructed entirely of canned goods: beans, pumpkins and hominy.

We wanted something amazing, so we tried this and it worked! said Christy Rhone, director of business development for O'Connell Robertson, an engineering and architectural firm that worked with Joeris General Contractors and Datum Engineers on the charity project.

Our engineers and architects absolutely worked a lot of extra hours on this, Rhone said. We've been doing this event for five years and received a couple of honorable mentions. So it's really great to win the grand prize.

The eighth annual San Antonio Canstruction part of an international happening held in 215 cities featured the work of 13 local design firms. The main rule: Construct something cute or clever out of canned goods to call attention to hunger.

The local event has generated 341,000 pounds of food in all; cans used in Canstructions will be donated to the San Antonio Food Bank after remaining on view in North Star Mall common areas through Sept. 21.

Everybody take a minute and hug an architect, said Eric Cooper, president and CEO of San Antonio Food Bank, during an awards ceremony Monday evening.

Canstruction co-chairman Adam Reed, an architect and project manager at Ford, Powell & Carson Architects whom Cooper promptly hugged praised the efforts of this year's teams.

All the teams were wonderful this year, he said. They worked diligently and cheerfully to put on a good show.

Other award winners:

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Architects 'can' fight hunger at North Star

Setting up house is always a pain and when that house is on Mars, its a logistical nightmare. To make things a bit easier, Dmitry Zhuikov, Arina Ageeva, and Krassimir Krastev of ZA Architects in Germany have come up with a concept architecture for future Mars colonies, built underground by robots before the colonists arrive.

The idea behind the concept is to get beyond the life in a tin can approach that most Mars colony plans revolve around, and come up with something that can be built by robots using local materials. In particular, basalt.

Basalt has been detected on Mars by NASA rovers and is the most common material in the Martian bedrock. It has good insulating properties, and an underground structure made of it would provide excellent protection against radiation. It would also solve the problem of hauling building materials from Earth or trying to create some sort of Martian cement from the soil in practical quantities.

Robot excavators and builders would be sent from Earth and landed on Mars. These robots would hunt out basaltic columns like those that make up the Giants Causeway in Ireland. Similar columns were recently discovered on Mars in crater walls near Marte Vallis by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Once they found an area of such buried columns, the robots would test them for strength and then remove the weakest ones as an entry point. Theyd dig down like ants and open up a subterranean space, leaving some columns behind as support. The waste material would be packed in berms around skylights and entryways to protect them from the wind and the highly corrosive Martian dust.

When the colonists arrived, theyd find the caverns almost ready for use. Theyd divide the caverns into industrial, agricultural, public and residential areas, then install life support systems, power plants, water cracking plants, doors, windows, as well as a plant for making basalt roving. The latter is a fiber produced by taking basalt, crushing it, melting it at a temperature of 1,500C (2,700F) , and then spinning it like glass fiber. The result is an asbestos-like material with properties comparable to carbon fiber.

The designers see the roving as being used by the colonists for weaving spider-like webs as an architectural material. Given the enormous amount of energy needed to make the roving, how practical this idea is remains to be seen. Also, the renderings of the concept habitats do give the impression that the webs are less structural and more to prevent falling rocks from hitting the residents.

Practicality is also a question for Martian agriculture. According to the designers, Martian soil is suitable for growing crops, though the example they keep citing is asparagus, which is not exactly famous as a staple. Finding water and growing crops would make the colony less expensive to maintain, but it is one of those first catch your rabbit problems that may be harder to achieve in the Martian desert than at a drawing board back on Earth.

Source: ZA Architects via dezeen

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ZA architects designs buildings for Mars

Former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman and former U.S. Representative Jane Harman, right, observed a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks during an event on the campus of the University of Denver Wednesday night, Sept. 11, 2013. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

Americans' sense of ease collapsed along with the World Trade Center 12 years ago Wednesday. Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, no federal agency focused solely on safety at home.

Two of the architects of a unified voice on national security, former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman and former U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, spoke in Denver on Wednesday night about the aftermath of 9/11 and today's evolving security threats.

The event, "Colorado Remembers 9/11: Looking at the Future of U.S. National Security," was presented at University of Denver's Newman Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with The Denver Post and the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab.

Lieberman and Harman opened on the creation of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which bound together more than 100 different government organizations to form the Department of Homeland Security.

"The legislation we passed wasn't perfect, but under all the circumstance it was pretty damn good," Harman said.

Lieberman recalled missing the last of three breakfast meetings he had planned for Sept. 11, 2001, when he learned that the second twin tower had been struck. He traveled to the heart of Washington to address the escalating crisis, he said, only to find that his colleagues were in disarray.

"There was chaos on Capitol Hill," Lieberman said. "We were totally unprepared for that moment."

The Capitol had closed, but Harman said congressmen banded together later in the day to sing on the steps when the doors were reopened.

"It was a mistake to close them, looking back," Harman said. "How could we close government at a time like that?"

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Architects of homeland security discuss impact of 9/11 at Denver event

September 11, 2013 - Busloads of architects and mechanical engineers toured NREL's Research Support Facility, one of world's largest net-zero-energy office buildings, and came away inspired with ideas for how to design and buildeco-friendly structures on a budget. At Energy Systems Integration Facility, tour participants got to view a high performance computing data center, which will house one ofworld's most energy efficient super-computers, dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy research. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, CO, 80401 USA Press release date: September 3, 2013

Eight busloads of architects and mechanical engineers toured one of the world's largest net-zero-energy office building this summer at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and came away inspired with new ideas for how to design and build beautiful, eco-friendly structures on a budget.

Tickets for the tours sold out almost as fast as a Paul McCartney concert, the busloads another reminder of how professionals are embracing high-performance, energy-efficient buildings.

The premier professional organizations for architects and building engineers the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) both held their national conferences in Denver this summer, within a few days of each other.

Denver is just 14 miles from Golden, the site of NREL's main campus and its Research Support Facility (RSF), a 360,000-square-foot office building that Construction Digital Magazine last year named the top net-zero-energy building in the world. A group of NREL engineers including Sheila Hayter, Rachel Romero, and Shanti Pless organized the trips to NREL's campus and led tours with help from the architects at RNL and SmithGroup JJR and the contractors from JE Dunn and Haselden, who worked with NREL to design and build the RSF and the new Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF).

Busloads of architects and mechanical engineers recently toured the Energy Systems Integration Facility. Here, they view the high performance computing data center, which will house one of the world's most energy-efficient super computers. The petascale system will be dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy research. Credit: SmithGroup JJR/Bill Timmerman

"People were lining up at will call to get tickets to the tour," said Angela Innes, marketing manager for JE Dunn Construction, the main contractor on the ESIF project. "We saw huge interest and got a lot of feedback from architects from all over the world."

The AIA architects and ASHRAE engineers marveled at the energy efficiency and the aesthetics of the RSF, and some dropped their jaws when they learned it was built in 2010 and 2011 for no more than the average square-foot cost $259 of other office buildings in the Denver area. In addition, the engineers saw that using biomass to heat buildings is a viable option for saving greenhouse gases and viewed one of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world.

NREL Shows High Performance is Economical "Designers of commercial buildings are serious about creating energy-efficient buildings," said NREL's Hayter, who chairs ASHRAE's Planning Committee, is a past ASHRAE vice president, and previously served on the steering committee that developed the original charter for ASHRAE's Advanced Energy Design Guideline (AEDG) series that shows the way toward achieving 30% or 50% greater efficiency or net-zero energy.

"The architects visiting NREL were pretty amazed at the design of the RSF. They are anxious to learn how to make energy-efficient decisions with a very limited budget without sacrificing aesthetics," Pless said. A full-day pre-convention workshop at the AIA conference gave architects the chance to do exactly that: make design decisions with an eye for energy efficiency. The workshop taught them how to use OpenStudio, an Energy Department tool developed at NREL, to evaluate the energy impact of early design decisions such as orientation, massing, fenestration, construction assemblies, and internal building activity. They created baseline energy models and then made what-if alternatives using energy conservation measures pulled from the online Building Component Library, another Energy Department tool developed at NREL.

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Architects and Building Engineers Flock to NREL

How to : Roofing - Water leak repair on a Flat Roof
This video will show you how I repaired a leaking roof for a customer. The house had an area of the roof with very little pitch. We found the leak near a ven...

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How to re-roof a shed with Onduline corrugated roofing sheets
Here I show you how easy it is to re-roof a shed with Onduline roofing. When I built my garden shed in 1987 I used Onduline corrugated roofing following the ...

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How to re-roof a shed with Onduline corrugated roofing sheets - Video

Katy, TX (PRWEB) September 11, 2013

Texan Roofing has announced several new comprehensive roofing services for Katy, Texas, residents. These measures are designed to improve a wide range of functions, including energy efficiency, safety, security, and durability.

Energy Efficiency New windows and doors will make the property more energy efficient by slowing heat transmission and making it easier to cool the home. However, homeowners should take other steps to make their homes truly energy efficient. These include installing patio covers to cut down on the heat right outside patio doors and radiant barriers that will block radiant heat from creeping in through the roof. Texan Roofing offers all of these services to ensure that homes are cool and comfortable in summer, and they also keep homes warm and cozy when the temperature drops in the winter.

Safety and Security Texan Roofing also cares about the safety and security of their customers. Fences make homes safer by keeping intruders out and preventing young children from wandering away. Whether homeowners are considering a tall privacy fence or something a little shorter, the company can build a fence that keeps stray animals out and ensures greater privacy inside the yard. They also offer new windows and doors to make the home safer. Aging windows can have locks that are easily bypassed, and the doors may not latch properly to keep intruders out. In addition to making a home more comfortable, new windows and doors also have safety features that will make the home more secure.

Home Durability Any home is only as good as the protective materials that surround it. Siding that is falling apart invites moisture and insects, and roofing that is failing leads to water leaks. Even gutters can pose a serious problem if they are neglected long enough. Texan Roofing offers all of these services to keep homes safe and protect them from the elements. Whether homeowners want a fresh look with new siding or are in desperate need of new gutters to keep rain water away from the foundation, Texan Roofing can provide them with the necessary services.

Whether homeowners are trying to make their property more energy efficient or just improve the aesthetics, Texan Roofing can help. They offer a wide range of home improvement services from fences and patios to interior painting, doors and windows. They will even install beautiful laminate or wood floors to increase home value and add visual appeal to the home interior. Their prices are reasonable, and they are dedicated to customer satisfaction.

About This is a family owned and operated company based in Katy, TX. They have spent the last 8 years helping homeowners throughout the area improve their properties. Their team of professionals works with insurance adjusters to expedite claims after storms or accidents, and they are proud to handle jobs of all sizes.

All team members go through extensive training, and the company maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) without any complaints. They treat their customers like family, and they look forward to helping more people improve their homes. Texan Roofing can be reached by phone at 281-391-9600, or online by visiting http://www.texanroofinginc.com/roofing-katy.

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Texan Roofing Announces New Comprehensive Home Improvement Services