A trio of exhibitions I visited last week: three of them are closing within the next week, while the third one closes next month. All are worth the effort.

Closes Monday, January 22
falkeis.architects: active energy building
Austrian Cultural Forum New York
11 East 52nd Street
Open M-F 3-5pm by appointment only (via email in link)

There's a double appeal to this small exhibition: learning about the design, research, and construction of the Active Energy Building in Lichtenstein, designed by Austrian architects Anton Falkeis and Cornelia Falkeis-Senn; and seeing the 11th floor of Raimund Abraham's Austrian Cultural Forum. Instead of walking inside the building and taking a few steps to the public galleries on the lower floors, one must take an elevator ride to see the drawings, model, and photos of the Active Energy Building. Tucked in the building's tapered section between the ACFNY's offices and the apartment of ACFNY director Christine Moser, it's a trip most people will never take.
Falkeis.architects' Active Energy Building is billed as "an energy autonomous building producing more energy that it consumes." In our age of climate change and dwindling resources, this should really be the goal of all buildings. Theirs does it through two systems: "PV-tracking systems and PCM-climate wings, part of a moving building envelope, harvest solar and interstellar radiation for controlling the building climate." Solar radiation is harvested for e...