May 31 2006
The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 have named OBRA architects as the winner of their seventh annual Young Architects Program. The New York City-based architecture firm won the competition with their building project, named BEATFUSE!, that utilizes Radiant GUARD™ reflective building insulation.
BEATFUSE! will be constructed on the outdoor courtyard of the P.S.1 building for the 2006 music series, Warm Up. Radiant GUARD’s reflective foil bubble insulation is used for the frigidarium space within the design, which has three outdoor spaces. The other spaces will be a caldarium and a tepidarium that encompass tidal pools, water misters, and light strainers. The frigidarium is planned to be a place of cool relief from the summer heat.
This cool relief is made possible by the radiant barrier layers on the products which were originally developed by NASA. Aerospace engineers developed the radiant barrier foil as a way to control space suit temperatures for astronauts walking on the moon. Instead of absorbing heat, as other insulation materials do, the radiant barriers reflect 95% of radiant heat. This is why the OBRA architects made use of Radiant GUARD™ radiant barriers in the frigidarium space of their building project, BEATFUSE!
Radiant GUARD™ President Rhonda Franklin, is thrilled with OBRA’s winning design, “We are very excited OBRA architects have designed such a unique structure incorporating our radiant barrier and reflective foil insulation products. There are countless uses for radiant barrier technology and we are thrilled people will not only see, but also feel the benefits of these products.”
Rising energy costs and increasingly intense climates have made builders and homeowners look to cost-effective radiant barriers as highly reliable solutions to maintaining a building’s internal temperature. 93% of heat flow is caused by radiation. Reflective building insulation reflects 97% of this radiant heat, which reduces overall heat flow by about 50% as compared to other forms of insulation. Not only does this help keep energy costs down, but it can extend the life of air conditioners that are normally overworked in the summer months. The potential uses of Radiant GUARD’s radiant barrier and reflective insulation products as reflectors of radiant heat is unlimited based on a consumer’s imagination.
With sky-rocketing energy costs in so many news headlines lately, Ms. Franklin sees this as a particularly alluring benefit, “With rising heating and cooling utility costs, installing radiant barrier and reflective insulation products can help to reduce consumers’ utility bills year round.”