Floating Perceptions

It's easy to hear a concept like "floating buildings" and think of it as just that, a concept. However, there are many examples in the Netherlands that are occupied and in use. I feel that there is a major difference between reading about floating buildings and experiencing them.

Floating Pavilion currently in Rotterdam - a free-floating structure.  It's easily moveable too!

A common first thought is that a floating structure will act like a boat, moving up and down with every wave. Site visits show that this is not the case.

I don't feel a thing...

Giant moorings keep it from drifting away

Both the floating pavillion and floating neighborhood look like they have no movement at all and feel like being on solid ground.  Each uses a different method for floatation. The floating pavilion in Rotterdam sits on FlexBase, an EPS material. The material provides the buoyancy for the structure. The neighborhood at Ijburg uses open concrete boxes to float.

It's kind of like a basement... an extremely leak-resistant basement

Being inside a floating structure makes you realize it's more than feasible.

One of two walkways to reach the pavilion
Why two?
They make the pavilion accesible at varying tidal levels

-Caryssa

Paris, Je t'aime

Anh, Anton, and I took a weekend trip to the most wonderful of places. It went by so quickly that it seems like it was just a dream.

view from the top

 La Tour Eiffel

 Montmartre

Basilique du Sacre-Coeur

Arc de Triomphe

-MIG

Happy 4th of July!!

We decided to celebrate July 4th in style with a picnic outside of Mina. We ate some barbecue, coca cola, potato salad, watermelon, and Suzie's famous oatmeal cookies. We were only missing the fireworks. Hooray!!

-MIG

Postcards from Brugge, Belgium

Zand Square Fountain

Breakfast in Brugge. My first belgian waffle in Belgium!

 Mari

Dated building in beautiful historic Brugge.

 Church of Our Lady in the background.

Rooftop view from Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan (Half Moon Brewery).

 Me (Kristen) on the roof.

 Belfry Tower.

Most of the sidewalks and roads are made of stones like this.



I'll drink to that

I came to the Netherlands a non coffee drinker.  It was an acquired taste I never bothered to acquire.  But it is everywhere here and I could not escape it.  The Netherlands is one of the greatest consumers of coffee in the world (I'm pretty sure the Dutch bleed coffee).  Besides being extremely available it is also fairly inexpensive to go out for coffee.  You can easily get a cappuccino for between 2 and 3 euro ($3-4.50).  Then of course at IHE there is the free coffee machine so it’s hard to say no there.  I think the real appeal though is that sometimes when you buy a coffee they give you either chocolate or a cookie with it.  I’m still not convinced coffee tastes good but a cookie dipped in coffee is delicious.  So I’ll drink the coffee just for that.

This was actually my third cup on Saturday...

Suzie

De Hoge Veluwe National Park

I am not sure if there is any better way to enjoy a Sunday in the Netherlands then going to De Hoge Veluwe National Park.

Grab yourself a white bicycle (free for visitors of the park) and ride parts or all of the 23 km bike trail.We ended up riding the whole trail, and below are some of the things we saw.

Anton on his white bicycle.

Jean Deuffet's Jardin d'email (1974) located in the sculpture garden at the Kroller-Muller Museum, which can be found right in the middle of the park. The museum houses many contemporary art pieces.

Anton and Kristen climbing fallen trees in the sand dunes just off of the bike trail. 

Rainwater Capture

The local garden center has its own rainwater collection corner.

Barrels

The average annual precipitation of the Netherlands is about half that of the average Florida amount, but it's spread more evently throughout the year.  Most of the collection bins seemed directed towards gardens (which are everywhere).

Raindrop-themed collection device

Something for the garden

You can even find fresh produce in special vending machines.

Strawberries to-go?

-Caryssa

Batch Tests, Samples, and More Samples

Continuing with several batch tests, I have started to expand the scope of my experiment. It turns out that iron oxide coated sand acts as a great sorbent of copper! I would like to explore this material (as well as coconut shell) as a feasible material for removing metals in gold mining wastewater in Ghana. It's feasibility is dependent on its ability to 'shed' copper with the help of a desorption solution.  Once I find this ideal solution, I will then test different strengths in order to find the most economical solution. 

The research that I am doing now will aid my PhD student in his pilot project in Ghana. He wants to control arsenic (present in goldmining wastewater at almost 5 mg/L) and copper (present at 10 mg/L), and will do so with two columns; one with coconut shell and the other with iron oxide coated sand. However, since he was unaware that iron oxide sand sorbs copper so well, he has to reconfigure his set-up. It's fantastic to see such a direct correlation between my work in the lab and 'real-world' applications. It is this correlation that fuels me to continue working hard this summer!!

Sorption/Desorption Batch Experoment

The above picture is one of the several batch tests that I am running to determine possible desorption (sorbent regeneration) solutions. I am testing HCl, EDTA, Acetate, NaOH, and Calcium Nitrate as possible media for desorption of copper from coconut shell/ iron oxide coated sand.

Samples, Samples

Hard work in the lab is being complemented by fantastic voyages around the Netherlands area. This past weekend, Kristin and I adventured to de Hoge Veluwe, a national park just outside of Holland. We biked along the beautiful vistas, enjoying dunes, forests, plains, and lakes. Even just outside of Delft, we found a nice lake and serious of canals surrounded by forest. These gems are everywhere, scattered throughout Holland, and are certainly worth seeing!

-AD

Downtime

How the group spends some downtime between work-weeks...

Taking a break in Brussels

Naptime in Amsterdam

Playing in Delft

-Caryssa

If they don't sell it, we make it.

This weekend was Anton's birthday so we went to the local costume shop in search of a pi~nata. They didn't sell any so Suzie and Caryssa decided to make one instead. Lots of newspaper, flour, water, and a balloon later, the duck was complete. See the unfinished product below (before the feathers were added).

-MIG