20050307
Today I would like to inform the solaroof community of a very significant development that will assist many of our projects and general goals: a broad collaboration with the School Of The Built Environment? at Nottingham University? - this is the wonderful receptivity of Prof. Saffa Riffat who was introduced to me by Mark Whitby of Whitby Bird Engineers?, a firm located in London and very actively interested in sustainable design. In the weeks and months ahead there will be much efforts to follow through on the collaborative projects that are suggested below. Most important at this time is the benefit of rapid development of the Eco Sphere Guest Home for application to the Sri Lanka Vision initiative.
Professor S. B. Riffat wrote:
Dear Richard
Many thanks for your e-mail.
I very much enjoyed meeting you too. I am pleased to hear that you found our facilities interesting and appreciate your kind comments.
I am sorry that our meeting was short and we did not have the opportunity to discuss various ideas in more detail.
Your idea on double skin poly tunnels using soap bubble insulation is very interesting. I am sure it would be very appealing to architects and those in related disciplines.
In response to your comments:
i) I would be very happy to collaborate with you on joint projects. We are submitting a grant application to the EU and I would be happy for you to join our consortium. The EU project will involve the development of a crisis response system for use in the event of natural disasters. Your bubble technology could be incorporated as part of our system.
ii) We should be happy to demonstrate your bubble technology as part of our public awareness activities. Could you please let me know the cost of preparing a simple demonstration unit as we discussed during our meeting. We could use the demonstration unit to publicise your work with the aim of attracting new business opportunities for your company.
iii) I should be delighted to meet your friend Muftah. I would be very pleased to invite him to the School to see our facilities and discuss the possibility of collaboration on his project. Please contact my PA, Zeny to arrange a meeting. You are welcome to have lunch with me.
iv) Eco Sphere: The idea of Eco Sphere is very interesting and we should like to develop a simple demonstration project. It may possible to attract some funding from the EPSRC for the project.
v) Courtyard: We have recently completed the construction of a new studio building for architectural students. We should like to cover the open roof courtyard with your double skin poly tunnel using soap bubbles. The size of the courtyard is 86m x 56m. Can you help us with the installation of your system in the courtyard? This would make an excellent project for our architectural students. We do not have funding for this project but I may be able to raise some funding to cover the cost of materials/bubble generator/fans and also pay some money towards your time. Please let me know the cost of carrying out the project with the help of our students/technicians.
I look forward to hearing from you. By the way, Zeny will post the memory stick you left in my laptop.
Kind regards Saffa
Professor S. B. Riffat
Chair in Sustainable Energy
Head of the Institute of Building Technology
Head of the Institute of Sustainable Energy Technology
School of the Built Environment
The University of Nottingham
Nottingham
NG7 2RD
Tel: + 44 (0) 115 951 3158
Fax: + 44 (0) 115 951 3159
>>>>>> Richard Nelson <rick@solaroof.org> 28/02/2005 21:47:39 >>>
Hi Saffa,
It was great to meet you today - your programs and facilities are very impressive and I would be honored to work with your team.
I hope that it works our that we can collaborate on projects in the future. I will be ready to establish a first simple step to experiment with the Bubble Tech system. Additionally, I am very interested in any way to obtain more support for the development of the Eco Sphere project as part of our Post Tsunami Visions initiative. The Eco Sphere will be applied to an Ecotourism program in several of the predominantly Muslim villages in Sri Lanka - this program is going forward with the support of a group of Islamic business people in London who are funding sustainable reconstruction.
Also, I would like to introduce your School to my friend Muftah, who is the developer of the Journey of Light project in the Gulf Region. I would like to recommend to him that he could develop a Campus as part of this project that can be affiliated with your School as are the campuses in Malaysia and China. Do you see this as a possibility? I will meet with Muftah on Thursday and he is just back from a visit with his associates in the Gulf Region.
I am also asking Muftah to see how his development work could support the development of the Eco Sphere and the implementation of our Post Tsunami Visions project for Sri Lanka. This is the most urgent need for collaboration that will benefit not only these victims of disaster but also millions of others that struggle with devastating poverty in Africa and other communities around the world.
Your new friend and collaborator,
Rick
-- Richard Nelson
rick@solaroof.org
http://www.solaroof.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solaroof
Together we can BUILD a sustainable future
07 March 2005
- 03:45 by Solaroofguy
- Update: I did meet with Muftah on the and his associate Hari (last Thursday the 3rd) and after some discussion we have set a goal to meet with Saffa after mid May. But meantime we are working on a commercial greenhouse plan for a Wide Span project for implementation in the Gulf Region.
- 04:37 by Lucas Gonzalez
- i informed spongenet.org and worldchanging.org about solaroof.org - expect some visits