6
Friday, May 6, 1977
University Daily Kansan
The real adventure to a solar heating system would be not to install a solar system. Then small wagers could be made on the latent escalation of energy costs.
Solar systems discussed
By THOMAS DEAN
guest writer
Staff drawing by DAVID MILLER
There are at least 150,000 solar systems in the world. At least 5,000 solar houses now use photovoltaic panels.
Solar heating hardly is adventurous. It is downright dull. Once an initial investment is made, there is nothing left but tasks such as puttering in the greenhouse, and being insensitive to sunlight. If the house is so attractive, one wonders solar-issued buildings are so rare.
Solar bank model
Kansas Power and Light, following other utilities' leads, soon will begin construction of an energy-conserving "Sunpower" house that aims to reduce peak summer demands.
A local architectural firm, Peters, Williams and Kubota, has completed drawings for another solar home in Lawrence and currently is producing drawings for solar heating and cooling in a Citizens and Mutual Savings and Loan building in Leawworth.
The challenge is to make solar systems more accessible to those barely able to buy or build a home. They—not the affluent—need an alternative energy source.
NOR IS THE University idle. In addition to energy conservation measures initiated by Max Luaxta, director of facilities planning for the School of Engineering, he conceived by William Smith, dean of the School of Engineering, solar heating and cooling will soon be added to 12 University housing units. Studies also are underway for a new building laboratories and for the KU Medical Center.
Many home buyers in today's market expect two to three bathrooms, summer attire and a well-fitted bed.
Arts & Leisure
Prof designing plastic shelters for homeland
Bv MISSY PETERSON
Staff Reporter
Plastic architecture may seem an unlikely field for a man with humanitarian interests. But the picture comes into focus because it provides a cost-effective for low-cost housing in the slums of India.
Berenalie Benjamin, professor of architecture and urban design and a native of India, has pursued a project to help the people of his homeland—a country of 670 million people, about 530 people for each square mile.
BENJAMIN, 39, came to the United States about six years ago after living in England for 10 years. He said his interest in structural plastics began in 1963 when he was working at the University of London for a Ph.D. in engineering.
Having grown up in a country of widespread overpopulation, Benjamin devoted himself to the development of improved housing for slum dwellers, people who he said are packed like sardines into houses on streets that resemble back alley.
Originally, Benjamin worked on disaster housing for the Indians. Further research led to the development of his "folded-plate conical dome."
Slum dwellers have practically nothing, he said, and they are forced to live on streets in crude shacks made of mud, cow-dung plaster or available scraps.
The structure is simple to manufacture, benjamin said, and its price would not exceed £100. He said he would be out of reach for most slum dwellers, he said, because $100 would mean about two months' worth of housing.
"HOUSE" IS **too sophisticated** a term to describe the tent-like structure, Benjamin said. It is a portable shelter, important in India because slum dwellers don't own the land on which they live and must carry their houses on their backs.
Benjamin said Indian families offer shelter to relatives without houses saying, "We don't have these."
I'm penileus, but at least we have shelter." Ten people would live in a room no larger than a tent.
THE PLASTIC structure provides about 212 square feet and follows a basic pattern. A folded-plate dome consists of 12 pieces, each about seven feet by four feet, six inches. Each section is made of rigid polyurethane covered on both sides cardboard and weight it to 18 pounds. The cardboard be be folded, stacked and easily transported.
Open joints hold the boards loosely
Instead, he is excited about a sabbatical to complete his third book, "Building Construction for Architects." He plans to travel to the east coast to discuss it with colleagues.
together, which makes them easy to assemble that they provide little protection.
Benjamin has developed rain coats for the shellers that are plastic sheets, either tailored to fit or left bulky. During the dry season they are folded and stored much like a poncho.
"DEVELOPMENT is far from complete," be said, but "my research is done." The academic standards of the academic should. It's been reviewed, appreciated and criticized by my peers and
colleagues, and now I believe my job is done."
"One of my main regret is that I didn't spend more long记事," he said. "But it's a hard craft to live by. I guess one could say I'm a frustrated writer turned engineer."
Benjamin doesn't know how long it will be before an Indian slum dweller would be given a chance to buy one of the shelters. The project has, however, attracted interest from persons in India and the Netherlands, and from a Canadian company that might use the idea to construct hunting and skiing shelters.
Although Benjamin has been involved in the project for several years, his attitude toward the project is more difficult.
Mass transit,urban planning linked by energy
By JEANNE HIERL
The present—and future—energy crunch has forced many Americans to wonder what changes lie ahead. Will urban areas be affected? Will commuting become obsolete?
Staff Reporter
But if federal rebates were the same for all income levels, then cities would continue
For example, if federal rebates for making houses energy-efficient were higher than subsidies, the suburban areas would remain capable of growing, Dendrinos said. People will stay in or move back to the cities rather than pay for the high cost of comp
Demirti Dendrinos, assistant professor of architecture and urban design and research associate in the institute of Social and Economic Studies at Harvard University, thought the energy factor would definitely have an effect on urban form, but said no one knew whether it would be great or not.
to decay at ever-increasing rates because the rebates would be, in effect, subsidies to the consumers.
GASOLINE prices, he said, will play a role in what happens to urban form. If prices are increased drastically, then people will be forced to go back to the cities, and reshaping of some sort will occur, he said.
Year-old Dean home
"The political majority resides in the suburbs, and they are not going to allow themselves to be relocated to an urban area" or on a local level or on the national level."
Robert Wiseman, associate professor of geography and research associate in ISES, said he thought massive restructuring of urban areas was unlikely. Instead, Americans will learn to become more energy efficient, he said.
ECONOMICALLY it wouldn't be feasible to restructure the cities, he said, because too much building and change has already taken place.
"Too many suburbanities have it too good," he said. "It is unrealistic to think that people will give up the good life they have acquired."
Instead of restructuring urban areas,
Americans will bend the transportation system to accommodate the present urban
Wiseman said future forms of transportation would be highly varied—a mixture of modes that would be integrated to best serve each area.
Automobiles would stay, he said, though in more energy-conserving forms. Buses would improve, high-density rail lines would be built in areas that could make use of them, and new components in the transportation system would develop.
"Communities will be forced to declare autoless zones," he said, and "people will have to become acquainted with different types of mass transit."
WEEKMAN SAID he expected to see increased use of open carts similar to ones used at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Mo., and "dial-a-ride" systems similar to the mini-bus service already available to the elderlv in Lawrence.
"A LIGHT-DENSITY rail line wouldn't work in Lawrence," he said, "because the places people have to get to are so diverse. But in Kansas City one rail system connecting the major shopping areas would work quite nicely."
But Wiseman said the key to successful
Wiseman said he thought a widespread community like Lawrence could use an extensive dial-a-ride bus system. Such a system would use 10-20 passenger mini-buses that would maintain flexible schedules, he said.
Topeka, too, could use a dial-air system, he said, integrated with its present
Integration of various means of transportation would be hard to accomplish because there is no concerted transportation network at the federal or state level. Wiseman said. There would be increased emphasis on such integration in the future, he said.
and a two-car garage in addition to electronic gadgets including intercoms and built-in steer coys systems. These are the same as that solar systems are beyond their means.
YET EVERY amenity mentioned above except the first bathroom must be considered a luxury. In the coming years of expensive or unavailable energy, perhaps homebuyer or separate needs from homeowners are important priorities. For many, this could be painful.
Solar homes change the owners. Or perhaps the homes allow the occupants to be more authentic. For many, the rush toward an increased standard of living based on material acquisition has been replaced by an enhanced quality of life.
For example, solar home owners are aware of the sun, rain, clouds and wind each day. Not from the viewpoint of a meteorologist, but as a more primitive science.
GREENHOUSES are a part of many solar energy systems and require no additional fuel. Food waste goes to a compost pile. Ashes from a wood-burning stove that supplements the solar system in cloudy, cold weather, also go in the garden.
Those with solar systems will be relatively untouched by electric energy costs when they quadruple in the next 10 years. The choice may be to adopt a new generation of energy source or, as a recent television special predicted, to freeze in the dark.
Thomas Dean is a professor of architecture and urban development who has taught solar energy courses at several universities. He was involved in research and has lived in a solar home for a year.
Weekend
Highlights
'ANTIGONE', a modern adaptation of the Greek play as a master's degree project, 7:30, and 'Antigone', Wesco Wesco's wall port.
"DIE FLEDERMAUS," the first act of Strauss' opera in an opera workshop performance. B. Hugh Ingle Memorial Theatre.
"ME AND BESSIE," Linda
Bessie Smith. 8 fonts, 2:30
and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 and
3:00 on Sunday. *Lyric*
text by Lisa D. Moore.
"GIANTS, FAIRIES, RINGS
AND THINGS," Seem To Be-
Players, 1:30 p.m. Saturday,
Lawrence Arts Center.
TAU SIGMA DANCE ENSEMBLE SPRING CONCERT 8 tonight and Saturday, University Theatre
Concerts
Z. T. ZOP, with Firefall, an SUA special event 8 p.m.
UNIVERSITY CHORUSES AND ORCHESTRA combine to play Beethouv's "Missa
Hoechstern" on Sunday. Sunday. Auditorium.
URIAH HEEP, 8 tonight.
Memorial Hall, Kansas City,
Mo.
Nightclubs
ARLO GUTHRIE, 8 tonight.
Uptown Theatre, Kansas City,
Mo.
Recitals
KREEN-cibon-
3 p.m.; Sunday,
8 p.m. KURPER GUERCIMON
ENSEMBLE, 8 p.m.; Sunday,
Sawarthworth Hall,
ALBERT GERKEN, carillon. 3 p.m. Sunday, campanile.
THE SON SEALS BLUES
BAND and NOLAN AND
KESLESS, 9 tonlight to 3 a.m.
and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
indyly the Opera
PHOENIX, rock, 9 to mid-
night night, J. Wattson'S THE
DOMMY JOHNSON EXP.
MONTVILLE JOHNSON
Saturday, J. Wattson's
ROCK ISLAND LINE
BASILAND LINE
tonight! Sister Kate Gellie
WALLY LEIGHTON, country
saturday to midnight
Saturday, Sister Kate
THE TOM MONTGOMERY
TRIO
WITH
CLAUDE
WITH
9 to
tonight,
Paul Gray's Jazz
Place,
THE GASLING GANG
WITH CLAUDE WILLIAMS, 9 to
saturday.
Paul Gray's.
DESTINY, 9 to midnight tonight and Saturday, the Brewery.
"THE ART OF THE
ENGLISH LOOK OF
BROOKLYN BOBSCHIN" Philip Flower, graduate of England and graduate student at the University of New Mexico. 31st floor, Spooner Hall lecture room.
Lectures
Films
ANNIE HALL-Aided by a brand-new Woody Koody, he has made a masterpiece. There are the large light gigs but a new sensitivity has been added, indicative of Allen's growing confidence.
SLEEP-B. Boey's most popular hits are brought back for the audience that missed them the first time, but it again and again. (G)
CASABLANCA and THE BIG
CHATTERBOX—The most vulgar storyline since the ad vent of sound hinges on talking parts of the body. It speaks for
GOOD EARTH GALLERY,
Kansas City, Mo.—"Functional
Pottery," by Stuart Loten.
This week's student,
through May 28.
THE LAST TYCOON—Director Eileen Kazan and writer Harold Pinter have adapted F. W. Dickens's novel into a stillborn movie. Even the cast, which includes Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Jeanne Moreau and Robert Dobson, areimate much excitement. (PG)
Exhibits
THE EAGLE HAS LAN-
DEN DREAM. He fills it
fale about a Nazi attempt to
kidnap, Churchill, Michael
Cain, Robert and Aljah head
seems to have been killed.
LAWRENCE PUBLIC
LIBRARY-Karen Burke,
weaving and batik; June
Kleinberg, pottery; Potena
McReynolds, painting; and
Mert Zerwel, oils, through
May.
THE MARKETPLACE GALLERY—"The May Show:
A Progress Report of Gallery
Artists," through June 4. Open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY, "Designs the Gallery;" Kansas Traits; "Kansas Collection;" Student Organizations; "Awareness Groups."
NELSON GALLERY, Kansas City. Mo.—Sacred Circles: 2,000 Year of North American history through June; Robert Sidlow, landscapes, and Robert Green. Gallery, through May 29.
KANSAS UNION GALLERY- Department of design, outstanding seniors show, today through May 23
LAWRENCE ARTS CENTER—Hammel Lee Carrell, jewelry, graduate thesis show, through May.
7E7 GALLERY—Tim Saska, paintings and drawings, through June 1.
SPONDER-THAYER MUSEUM OF ART - The Sailie Casey. Museum Collection, Main Gallery, through May 29.
Building designs varied
WATSON LIBRARY—"The Snyder Book Collection Awards," Main Lobby.
MAJORCA, by Sam Dodson
(Gold Medal, $175.)—Sex and youth and sun and fun on the famous Mediterranean island.
Books
MESSENGERS OF GOD, by Eile Wiesel (Pocket, $1.95) A book about the people of the Old Testament. Wiesel attempts to inform our characters and episodes and show what they mean today.
PAPA, A PERSONAL MEMOIR, by Gregory Hemingway (Pocket, $1.75) The author is the son of a writer and an art collector short of the son rememberes the father: in the Caribbean, at Sun Valley, fishing, hunting, helping the son after a polio attack, but also raging and ultimately beating estranged from the boy.
By SHERI BALDWIN
Entertainment Editor
Critics of KU's campus architecture abound. The inclination of most is to consider what could be a designer's idea for a building, the site of architectural disarmony.
It's easy to find things to criticize. Wesco Hall is likened to a parking garage and can be quite expensive made to keep within construction budgets aren't sufficient justification for uninteresting buildings. Still, there are positive points to be made.
"The CAMPUS is what you call beautiful not because of the buildings, but in spite of them," Curtis Bedinger, president of Urban development, said yesterday.
He said he thought much of the problem was that many buildings had been designed without an effort to create a relationship between them.
As an example, Beasley cited a poor relationship between Wescoe and Strong
When Harry Weese, a practicing architect from Chicago, lectured here Tuesday, he walked to Marvin Hall from the Kansas Union. Between Wescoe and Strong, Weebe's comment was that he preferred to look north, Beside said that are related well. When Dyche Hall was built near Spooner Hall, it was kept much on scale, the same using the same materials and colors.
The two buildings also were positioned face-to-face, so as not to "avoid" each other. In a sense, they are well-mannered and acknowledge each other, he said.
According to Besinger, other problems with KU architecture include buildings in which too many undefined ideas have been included.
"DESIGNING a building is a little like
"writing a poem."
The must be one idea and the must be
more.
"There must be one idea and there must be careful editing to express that idea,
just as mistakes, bad grammar and spelling are corrected."
There also are buildings that are pretentious, attempting to be more important than they should, he said.
"Maybe no building should be most important in a democratic situation," he said. "Wescos competes now for importance, but the way Strong sits in front of us is most important. In social behavior, Wescos is an ill-mannered building."
BESINGER said things making the campus beautiful included the hill, the natural geography and large outdoor Grove and the Porter Lake area.
"The drives help make visitors aware of these outdoor spaces, and the buildings become just background," Besinger said.
He said most buildings on campus could best be interpreted by the way they reflected building styles being used when they were constructed. A synopsis of facts about KU buildings and Beesinger's comments follow:
DYCHE -Completed in 1902, Dyche has a Romanesque style. The entrance is based on the portal of the Church of St. Trophime in Ariese, France.
BAILEY-Built in 1899 and 1900, Bailey is not meant to be anything. It's a nice background for vines. The bothersome aluminum entrance creates a necessary look that matches the remodeled arch, the arch being used to recognize arches on the existing building.
FLINT-Built in 1898, Flint was for-
merly named Fowler Shops. It is not prefentish and quietly complements other buildings.
BLAKE—Specially-shaped windows and door openings make Blake a little more inviting. The interior tent to itself. The present building replaced old Blake Hale, a structure built by the developer.
FRASER - Completed in 1967. Fraser reflects a '50s and '60s trend to create big packages of air conditioned and lighted space. After much controversy, it
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replaced old Fraser Hall, whose two towers had become a symbol for alumni. Two flag-bearing cupias aren't satisfactory substitutes for the towers
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GREEN-Green is styled after the Baconian aesthetic and classical architecture, best seen as a porch of four fluted pillars. It stands by its butrel relates well to Dyche in color and texture.
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HAWORTH—Built In 1969. Haworth also is a big space package, but isn't too "nobisy" a neighbor.
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HOCH—A version of collegiate Gothic architecture, Hochhoff reflects mid to late '20s taste in college architecture. If you want a basketball arena as well as a concert hall
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LEARNED-Before additions began in 1975, Learned failed to explain a clear idea. Now the building's structure has a stronger treatment and statement.
MALOTT - Completed in 1954, Malott's style is much like Lindley's. A two-story addition was added to the western section in 1970.
LINDELE-Lindley shows a concept of modern architecture dominant after World War II and used in many school buildings. It was completed in 1943.
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MARVIN--Marvin's design isn't collectible Gothic, but an earlier form of Gothic Revival. Despite few Gothic buildings the building has Gothic overtures.
MOREE—Moore demonstrates a trend still popular—a preference on the past of some architects for shed roofs as a current fashion.
MURPHY—There is a Swedish-
mind-like in certain areas of Murphy.
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around a courtyard油公话 used in
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