The Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture hosted the Wind Turbine Integration in Architecture and the Urban Environment Exhibition in the Rouse Gallery, Penn State, from August 22 to October 7, 2011.
The exhibit intended to show the potential of harvesting wind energy through the use of wind turbines in architecture in order to sustainably fulfill the country’s energy demands as it lessens the dependence on fossil fuels and decreases greenhouse emissions. The exhibition provided an overview of a project that investigates the integration of wind turbines by combining research on wind behavior around buildings and in the urban environment with design investigations of wind-optimized building forms and the aesthetic potential of incorporating turbines into architecture. Combining technical, environmental and aesthetic research and design studies, the project formed a testing ground for new architectural strategies, in which the implementation of wind turbines is closely linked to a building and its built surrounding.
The exhibition was funded by the PSIEE Sustainability Seed Grant Program, the Raymond A. Bowers Program for Excellence in Design and Construction of the Built Environment, and the Stuckeman Collaborative Design Research Fund. The exhibition was organized by Ute Poerschke, associate professor of architecture and Malcolm Woollen, assistant professor of architecture. Additional members of the research team include Jelena Srebric, associate professor of architectural engineering, Susan Stewart, research associate of architectural engineering and aerospace engineering, and Timothy Murtha, associate professor of landscape architecture.
