Safety and efficient response will always be paramount in fire safety.  Getting occupants to a safe area and allowing dedicated professionals to effectively extinguish fires and other hazards are number one!

Capsys is engaging in thorough research and study to increase the efficacy of passive methods for ensuring this.  Sprinkler systems are a highly effective active protection measure, but not the only one.  We must spur innovative passive measures and research to provide for safer and more safety.

It is a pretty often scene in garbage cans and recycling containers to see an abundance of empty water bottles.  A new phenomenen has been showing up in student housing, campus facilities and airports.  Refill those bottles at stations dedicated for that purpose.  A lot of us do remember when drinking water came from a faucet, its time to go back!

With the start of the New Year it seems we are bombarded with predictions of future trends from every futurist or futurist wannabe.  But many of them are fun and thought-provoking so it seems a good idea to gather a few of the better ones together and let you scan them.  We at Capsys hope your New Year is safe, prosperous and “Sustainable” (to use 2011’s most overused buzz word one more time!) 

Leading Leglobal green building consultant Jerry Yudelson, says green building will continue its rebound globally in 2012 in spite of ongoing economic difficulties in most developed economies.

“Green Building Consultant Lists Top Ten Green Building Mega-Trends for 2012”

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/12/prweb9037435.htm

Our friends at Focus on Renewable Energy published this list of the articles published in their newletter that generated the most hits and comments during the last year.

“Top 5 favorite articles published in 2011”

http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/22861/top-5-favourite-content-2011/

The good folks at the website Jetson Green published this list of “What are the 5 major

“Green Home trends for 2012”

”http://www.jetsongreen.com/2012/01/five-green-home-trends-buildipedia.html

And lastly, the folks at Green Building Advisor listed these as their annual picks for the most innovative products for the coming year.

“Top 10 Green Building Products for 2012”

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/top-10-green-building-products-2012

As earlier blog entries have informed you, in 2010 Capsys was contracted to supply 24 modular sections to be used as an exhibit space and administrative office complex for the official museum of the Brooklyn Navy Yard – Building 92.  The Navy Yard is where our manufacturing complex is located, so we leap at the chance to be involved! 

Building 92 has recently been recognized by the US Green Building Congress with certification as a LEED Platinum project.  We are very proud to have played a part in the project and thought you might enjoy seeing some additional images of the Building 92 museum.  The following web-link is to an article in “Inhabitat New York City”   a website devoted to green design, architecture and innovation in New York City.   The web link contains a 14 image slide show of image of building 92.  Enjoy!

http://inhabitat.com/nyc/bldg-92-at-the-brooklyn-navy-yard-opens-its-leed-platinum-seeking-doors-to-the-public/

Some very interesting facts and great new innovations in the November 2011 issue of ASHRAE Journal.  Drain water heat recovery is an extraordinary opportunity to reclaim energy that is literally washed down the drain.  Water heating accounts for 17% of residential site energy consumed, when heated water is sent down the drain it still contains 80% + of the energy infused into it.  Various units are available to recover much of this energy and use it to temper the water being heated for the same use.  Capsys will be exploring this technology and use on future projects as we strive to continuously improve on the energy efficiency of our buildings and product.

You’ve probably heard by now that developer Bruce Ratner and his Forest City Ratner development group want to build their 1600-unit Atlantic Yards project using modular construction.  We’re not surprised and we wish him well.  Capsys has been supplying hundreds of modular buildings to many developers for over 16 years using modular construction.  We believe in the combination of factory built precision and compressed schedule that modular construction can provide.  It offers a tremendous opportunity to both large developers like Mr. Rattner and to mid-sized developers alike.

The Atlantic Yards apartment buildings would be up to 50 stories in height and would be the tallest modular buildings in the world.  We applaud the Forest City group for attempting to stretch the horizon of modular construction.  Our Capsys structural system is approved up to 12 stories.  We have proven, cost effective system which time and time again has been successful for developers of projects as small as 20,000 SF and as large as 400,000 SF.     

If you would like to explore modular construction for your next project, give us a call.

One of Capsys Corp. projects, Bldg. 92, which is an extension to the renovated Marine Commandant’s residence, will soon be open to the public.  The Grand Opening of this building will take place on November 10, 2011.  The Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at Bldg 92 has a permanent exhibit about the history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard called ‘The Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present and Future’.

You can find more information about the BNY Center at Bldg 92 at http://www.bldg92.com/index.html

Two of our workers were lucky enough to be a part of the exhibit

See also:

Building 92 – 4 days for a 16,500 SF building

Building 92 Setting

Brooklyn Navy Yard – Building 92 Update

Brooklyn Navy Yard – Building 92

The European home construction marketplace has thoroughly embraced off-site construction.  Over 30% of all of the new housing in the UK is built using factory construction methodology.  Why then has the US been slower to adopt modern modular construction techniques such we employ here at Capsys?  Interestingly, the author of the following article suggests that the UK was forced to adopt sustainable construction earlier than the US due to its adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in the late 90’s that required substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. 

While we talk a good Green game here in the US, the British have become leaders in Energy Efficient building and Modular Construction is their secret weapon.

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2011/10/modern-methods-offsite-construction-mccaughey.html

The International Code Council (ICC) will in early November, be finalizing choices for inclusion in the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC) which will be available in 2012 for adoption by various states, municipalities or any jurisdiction charged with adopting regional building codes. The following article is an interview with Allan Bilka, RA who is a Senior Staff Architect with the ICC and is the Secretariat to the IgCC working in the ICC’s Chicago office. The new IgCC will offer choices and tradeoffs toward accomplishing the goal of supporting safe and sustainable buildings including for the first time whole building life cycle assessment. Capsys, as a leader in green / sustainable modular construction whole-heartedly welcomes IgCC. Read the interview and see a little of what’s in store for future construction.

http://www.bdcnetwork.com/thought-leader-allan-bilka-senior-staff-architect-and-secretariat-igcc