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Participants in an earth-sheltered home tour sponsored by the Science Museur~ of
<br />Minnesota in October visited the Control Data Corporation's Terratec Center
<br />(designed by Criteria, Inc.) in St. Paul.
<br />
<br />Film Premiere
<br />continued from page 1
<br />the project, and took them on a tour
<br />of six or seven earth-sheltered homes
<br />in the area. After that, we sat down
<br />together and talked about what Ray
<br />[Sterling, Underground Space Center
<br />director], Ken Reid [director of the
<br />Mineral Resources Research Center]
<br />and I thought were the key issues
<br />about earth-sheltered housing that we
<br />wanted to get across to people. Then
<br />Lance took all the technical and back-
<br />ground information and integrated it
<br />into a creative, artistic script."
<br /> Belville, a nationally-known play-
<br />wright (he recently completed three
<br />plays commissioned by the COMPAS/
<br />St. Paul History Theatre), prepared a
<br />working script within about a month,
<br />and the main portion of the filming
<br />was completed in the spring. According
<br />to Nowytski, the most difficult part of
<br />making the film was creating the
<br />special effects required for scenes with
<br />the ghostly Aunt Emma-"but I won't
<br />give away any of the specifics of how
<br />we did what we did."
<br /> Nowytski has been making his own
<br />films for about 15 years, after spend-
<br />lng four years as a news film editor for
<br />CBS television. His films, mainly docu-
<br />mentaries, cover a broad range of sub-
<br />ject areas-science, history, art, biogra-
<br />phy, culture. Many of them have
<br />gained international recognition; nearly
<br />
<br />all of them have received the Golden
<br />Eagle award from CINE (Council for
<br />International Non-Theatrical Events),
<br />which grants them status as representa-
<br />tive American films that can be
<br />entered in international film festivals
<br />and distributed worldwide.
<br /> Nowytski stresses that the work on
<br />Grass on the Roof was a team effort.
<br />"This is the third film I've worked on
<br />with [photographer] Tom Ramsay,
<br />and we work extremely well together.
<br />In addition, everyone else-Lance, the
<br />people from Control Data and the
<br />Underground Space Center--worked
<br />with us to get this information across
<br />in an entertaining, creative way."
<br /> Even before the premiere, the film
<br />could boast one convert to earth
<br />sheltering-Slavko Nowytski. "1 didn't
<br />really know that much about earth-
<br />sheltered housing when I started
<br />making the film," he confides, "but
<br />now I'm sold on it. My next house is
<br />going to be earth-sheltered-right now
<br />I'm just looking for the right hill to
<br />build it into!"
<br /> Grass on the Roof will be available
<br />both on a rental and purchase basis. As
<br />of this writing, prices for film rentals
<br />and sales were not available. For more
<br />information, contact Charles Lane,
<br />Underground Space Center, 11 Mines
<br />and Metallurgy, 221 Church St. S.E.,
<br />University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
<br />MN 55455. :
<br />
<br />Conference
<br />cont/nued from page 1
<br />Community Systems, U.S. Department
<br />of Energy, Office of Conservation and
<br />Solar Energy, Mail Station 2114C, 20
<br />Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington,
<br />D.C. 20585. Telephone: (800)
<br />424-9122 (continental U.S.); (202)
<br />252-4050 (Washington, D.C.).]
<br />Donald Woodard, president of the
<br />Underground Developers Association
<br />(UDA), Kansas City, Missouri, spoke
<br />on the commercial use of underground
<br />space in Kansas City. Woodard stressed
<br />the need for underground developers
<br />to cooperate with each other and with
<br />city planners and building code offi-
<br />cial~. "We [underground developers]
<br />can't pioneer this kind of development
<br />in a vacuum--we ~need to 'work to-
<br />gether to resolve some of the conflicts
<br />and issues that arise from new kinds of
<br />developments such as underground
<br />space use." The UDA in Kansas City
<br />has worked with code and city officials
<br />in the areas of land use zoning, codes,
<br />legal definitions, safety (e.g., fire pre-
<br />vention, ventilation, humidity, subsi-
<br />dence, blasting interference, evacuation
<br />procedures), and fire insurance.
<br /> In a talk on designing underground
<br />buildings for people, architect David
<br />Bennett noted that "the things that
<br />make earth sheltering desirable and
<br />habitable center on the infusion of
<br />sunlight and opportunity for view."
<br />Bennett focused on three ways to at-
<br />tain the most habitable underground
<br />space: 1) through horizontal (rather
<br />than vertical) entrances and exits, "so
<br />that you enter the subsurface gradual-
<br />ly"; 2) through high interior spaces,
<br />"especially if they're sunlit"; and 3)
<br />through horizontality of light and
<br />view. Bennett urged designers to "de-
<br />velop the opportunity to look horizon-
<br />tally rather than vertically toward
<br />natural light," through devices such as
<br />skylights and courtyards,
<br /> Other plenary session speakers in-
<br />cluded Dr. Ray Sterling, director of
<br />the Underground Space Center, and
<br />Minnesota Congressman Bruce Vento
<br />(see page 3). The conference also lea-
<br />tured 18 technical sessions highlightin.g
<br />case studies from three perspectives--
<br />architectural, engineering, and public
<br />policy; panel and round table discus-
<br />sions on assessing and applying the
<br />underground alternative; and tours of
<br />underground buildings'in the Twin
<br />Cities area.
<br />
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