Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

176 Designing ecological Habitats
Solar Greenhouse,
with Sunpulse Water
and Scheffler Mirror,
Jurgen Kleinwachter
on the nozzle.
energy technologies: solar cookers,
heaters, water pumps, and electricity
production.
In the middle of the test village
there is a shaded square, for which
Tamera architect Martin Pietsch developed
a large material canopy. The
interplay of the canopy and the
ecological design of fruit trees and
little gardens create various large and small meeting places for the social life
in the Test Field. In the middle of the village is a fountain. Four water spouts
are pulsating steadily and feed a little artificial creek which runs through the
village, into a tiny forest, and back to the lake.
“This fountain shows the work of one of our major technologies,”
says Paul Gisler, the technical leader of the SolarVillage team. It is the
so-called ‘Sunpulse Water’, a module of the SolarVillage. The robust and
round machine stands next to the pond and sounds like a soft beating heart.
How does it work? Paul Gisler explains, “The air inside the Sunpulse is
alternating between hot and cold, so it expands and contracts. The resulting
pressure changes move a working piston that is fixed to a membrane and
transmits the power to pump water, generate electricity, absorb oxygen,
or other useful applications.”
The Sunpulse can be reproduced in any medium-sized European metal
workshop. The only energy it needs is direct sunlight, which is abundant