Seeking to explore power as crucial factor in the design of the built environment, we will look at energy systems and related objects, from sites of generation to spaces of consumption, from distribution networks to control rooms.

Tutors: Filip Geerts and Sanne van den Breemer
Director of Studies: Salomon Frausto

Contributors: Santiago Ardila, Juan Benavides, Daniella Camarena, Stef Dingen, Marco Fusco, Jack Garay Arauzo, Theodora Gelali, Shaiwanti Gupta, Hao Hsu, Marianthi Papangelopoulou, Felipe Quintero, Gent Shehu, Siyuan Wang


@theberlage.nl





H1

Institution, Fuel, Hydrogen, Resources, Recycle, Building, Kyoto, Paris, Economy, Governance, Image

Pollution from carbon sources is the main cause of greenhouse effect in the atmosphere. Hydrogen - number one, first element of the periodic table. The lightest element it is the most reactive substance and is found abundantly in the atmosphere. Hydrogen fuel is an ideal fuel which like electricity is also considered as an energy carrier. The fuel cell of Hydrogen provides cleaner and more efficient energy than traditional combustion-based engines.
    Hydrogen based systems proclaim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by making it a cleaner way of obtaining energy. With various attempts to make the planet a ‘greener’ place to live, hydrogen emerges as a ‘hopeful fuel’ for the future. Fuel has raised a serious environmental concern and institutions like UNFCCC came in force to help check the rampant chaos other industries have created under the name of development and growth.
    United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been an important organization that tries to regulate, monitor and curtail environmental degradation through carbon emissions. Kyoto Protocol1 was an international treaty signed in 1922 with a focus on reducing the green house effects with 192 countries participating in the agreement. The conference was carried out in the Kyoto International convention centre, a brutalist masterpiece by Architect Sachio Otani. The agreement set a framework by assigning different targets and responsibility to developed and developing countries.
    Paris agreement2 resided over this treaty and for the first time began restructuring its targets and aims to counter the issues of climate change. Taking place in 2015 it added to its scope, mitigation, adaption and finance apart from the earlier focus on only reduction of carbon emissions. It did not differentiate between countries but depended on voluntary and nationally determined targets with a concrete aim to check and limit the global temperature rise not more than 1.5 Degree Celsius.


1. Report of the conference of the parties on its third session, held at Kyoto, From 1 to 11 December 1997, Publication UNFCCC.
2. L’accord de Paris, United Nations Treaty Collection, 2016, Publication UNFCCC.


See photos: Tokyo
See ephemera: 44, 45, 46