The new sales center for the Mirabeau B. is looking pre-fab! Now at the northwest corner of Hyde Park and Waugh: two 20-ft. recycled shipping containers, outfitted with a solar array on a digitally fabricated rack. The website for Metalab, the architecture firm in charge of the project, claims the solar panels will generate 180 kilowatt hours per month. What’s that figure converted to condo sales?
Oh, but selling condos is apparently only this structure’s day job for now:
Solar panels on the roof can fold shut at night or during bad weather, said Andrew Vrana from Metalab.
“We would like to further develop this as a solution,†he said. “People could have one of these made and put in their backyard and supplement their energy with solar power.â€
Below: more pics!
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Here’s a view of the center being assembled earlier this summer, as a crowd of busted presidents looks on:
- Mirabeau B. Sales Center [Metalab]
- Mirabeau B. Sales Center [Metalab]
- ‘Hard-core’ sustainable in Hyde Park [River Oaks Examiner]
- Cisterns and Balcony Bikes: What You’ll See at the Mirabeau B. [Swamplot]
- Ex-Presidents in Pearland: Heads Above the Muck [Swamplot]
Photos: Swamplot inbox (site) and Metalab (construction)
How do you digitally design and fabricate something? Are those guys actually doing the robot as they assemble the panel array? Besides, if someone had just drawn that structure on a piece of paper with a pencil wouldn’t that have been greener than powering up the CAD system?
I too was wondering about the “digitally fabricated rack.”
Occasionally I work with racks, but I think they’re likely fabricated by hardworking people who do the jobs Americans won’t do anymore. Or robots.
Sounds like some slick architecture mumbo-jumbo to me.
Need info on Metal Container who canI contact: