Does the growing family have anything to learn from a growing business seeking new accommodations? We think so. This post kicks off the new home case study for Apple Computer.

The company wants to build one building that will hold 12,000 Apple employees. “There’s not a single straight piece of glass in this building,” according to Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs. The parking will be mostly underground. Each cafe will feed 3,000 people at one sitting. The campus “energy center” would be the primary source of power and the grid would serve as a backup.
“We have a shot at building the best office building in the world,” Jobs told the Council members, “Architecture students will come here to see this.” Apple hopes to move into the campus in 2015. Additional features include:

• The circular design with a courtyard in the middle and curved glass all the way around.
• Transforming an area that’s 20% landscaping to 80% landscaping by putting most of the building’s parking underground.
• There are 3,700 trees in the area at the moment, Jobs has hired an arborist from Stanford to take the tree population up to 6,000.
• The plan is to build a four-story high building and four-story underground parking structure.
• There will be an auditorium, fitness center and some R & D buildings.
• Jobs plans a 40% increase in Apple employees going from 9,500 today to 13, 000 in 2015.
• He wants to increase the campus’ space 20% from 2.6 million to 3.1 million square feet.
• Surface parking will decrease 90% from 9,800 to 1,200 .
• The building footprint will decrease 30% from 1.4 million to 1 million.

We join the show, already in progress, with a presentation to the Cupertino, California City Council by Steve Jobs.

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The technology in traditional “incandescent” bulbs is more than a century old. Such bulbs waste most of the electricity that feeds them, turning it into heat. The 100-watt bulb, in particular, produces so much heat that it’s used in Hasbro’s Easy-Bake Oven.
Creating good alternatives to the light bulb has been more difficult than expected, especially for the very bright 100-watt bulbs. Part of the problem is that these new bulbs have to fit into lamps and ceiling fixtures designed for older technology.
Two leading makers of lighting products are showcasing LED bulbs that are bright enough to replace energy-guzzling 100-watt light bulbs set to disappear from stores in January. LEDs are efficient, durable and produced in great quantities, but they’re still expensive. An LED bulb can contain a dozen light-emitting diodes, or tiny semiconductor chips, which cost about $1 each.
The big problem with LEDs is that although they don’t produce as much heat as incandescent bulbs, the heat they do create shortens the lifespan and reduces the efficiency of the chips. Cramming a dozen chips together in a tight bulb-shaped package that fits in today’s lamps and sockets makes the heat problem worse. The brighter the bulb, the bigger the problem.
The DoE expects a 60-watt equivalent LED bulb to cost $10 by 2015, putting them within striking range of the price of a compact fluorescent bulb. Bob Karlicek, the director of the Smart Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., thinks that price is achievable. What’s really needed, he said, is a new approach to lighting — new fixtures and lamps that spread out the LEDs, avoiding the heat problem.
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Architect Gary Chang in Hong Kong, where apartments are small and expensive due to lack of space, has turned his 330-square-foot apartment into 24 ‘rooms’ via a unique sliding wall system. Through the tracks on the ceiling and the wheels at the bottom, a wall can be moved to reveal a linen closet, which in turn can be moved to reveal a bath tub and a pull down guest bed from above. “The house transforms, and I am always here,” explains Chang. “I don’t move. The house moves for me.”
The sliding panels and walls can create different combinations – 24 in all, where one room can quickly be transformed into another. There is a two-meter wide kitchen found right behind the television and a screening room with a hammock.
The house also has several green features including the three floor-to-ceiling tinted windows which bring the sunlight in, keeping the house bright without having to use any extra lighting source. A mirror that Chang has installed on the ceiling not only makes the tracks less noticeable, but also helps reflect the light throughout the apartment.

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Around 100 students are expected to enroll this year in EDGE (Educating and Developing Workers for the Green Economy), a public-private partnership that offers industrial and technical certificate programs in biofuels and biotech production, analysis and processing.
EDGE’s first certificate course began in March at MiraCosta community college in northern San Diego County, and a second set of students will start classes this summer. Tuition will be waved the first two years as the program is tweaked, and course materials will later be packaged for nationwide distribution. A Masters of Advanced Science will be offered next year through the University of California, San Diego for biotech entrepreneurs.
The one-year-old EcoTech Institute near Denver, which earlier this month unveiled a new $10 million flagship campus that will host up to 1,200 students. Some 250 students have been enrolled since last July in two-year associate’s degree programs for wind and solar energy technology, electrical engineering technology, energy efficiency, environmental technology and general renewable energy training.
Where California and Colorado are readying employees for whole new professions, Nevada is looking to recruit new talent and update skills of mature workers for its decades-old geothermal industry. This summer, the National Geothermal Academy will offer its first set of eight weeklong courses on geothermal energy development and utilization at the University of Nevada, Reno.
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In the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, 20 collegiate teams design and build energy-efficient houses powered exclusively by the sun. These teams spend almost two years creating houses to compete in the 10 contests of the Solar Decathlon. The winning team produces a house that:

• Is affordable, attractive, and easy to live in
• Maintains comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions
• Supplies energy to household appliances for cooking, cleaning, and entertainment
• Provides adequate hot water
• Produces as much or more energy than it consumes.

The  Solar Decathlon challenges the collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.
The first Solar Decathlon was held in 2002; the competition has since occurred biennially in 2005, 2007, and 2009. The next event will take place at the National Mall’s West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23–Oct. 2, 2011. Open to the public free of charge, visitors can tour the houses, gather ideas to use in their own homes, and learn how energy-saving features can help them save money today.
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Journey to Forever has established an online biofuels library with a wide variety of books and articles available at no charge.
Consider the Source: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html