Dominic Michaelis

Dominic Michaelis
Born	1938 Paris
Occupation	architect, inventor, solar energy and solar balloon pioneer, engineer

File:Solar Balloon Commemorative Postcard of the crossing of the English Channel.jpg

Postcard commemorating the first ever solar crossing by balloon of the English Channel flown by Julian Nott in 1981

Dominic Michaelis (born 1938) is an Anglo French architect and inventor.

Biography

Born in 1938 in Paris, Dominic Michaelis studied architecture and engineering at Cambridge. His thesis, written in 1964 was on a solar house and a floating solar village. He continued at Cornell studying for an M.Sc. in architectural structures and town planning.

In 1974 Michaelis opened a consultancy to design solar buildings, one of which received the first joint RIBA, RICS and CIBSE award. He consulted for many known solar heated or cooled projects, being responsible for some of the early solar and low energy houses in Milton Keynes. He also built many projects abroad including neighbourhoods and structures, in Pisa, Rome, Marrakech, Barbados and Mali, where he built five pise walled low cost health clinics for the EU.

In 2002 he patented the 'Energy Island' concept following a Call for Ideas by the International OTEC Association, a proposal for an offshore platform that would employ various techniques to generate renewable energy. His son Alex Michaelis continues his father's solar projects, and particularly the energy island idea.

In 1990 Michaelis developed a low cost geodesic geometry solar cooker, which cooks at over two hundred degrees Celsius. It also boils five litres of water in twenty minutes and can therefore sterilise 100 litres of water a day.

An idea for a wave energy converter was formulated and patented in 1980 with John Field engineer and colleague. Peter Rice a senior partner of ARUPS became interested in the project and a test was carried out at sea to validate the concept. The wave energy converter known as THE LILYPAD, is based on recovering energy from seas and oceans using flexible membranes only. It is now being developed for trials in the Mediterranean.

Michaelis also holds patents which dispense OTEC from the cold water pipe concept, removing many environmental and economic concerns.

Gallery

• 50 IACP Flats, Public solar low energy housing, Pisa, Italy.jpg

  50 IACP Flats, Public solar low energy housing, Pisa, Italy

• 1960 Rustrel, Vaucluse, Passive Solar House, with spiral staircase to follow the sun.jpg

  1960 Rustrel, Vaucluse, Passive Solar House, with spiral staircase to follow the sun

• 1960 Rustrel, Vaucluse Axono.jpeg

  1960 Rustrel, Vaucluse Axono

• Milton Keynes Linford 20 Passive Atrium Solar Houses.jpg

  Milton Keynes Linford 20 Passive Atrium Solar Houses

• Shade-net-stadium-with-Studio-Nervi.jpg

  Shade-net-stadium-with-Studio-Nervi

• Lioux, Vaucluse Gibbs House South view.jpg

  Lioux, Vaucluse Gibbs House South view

• Lilypad-oil-rig-protection.jpg

  Lilypad-oil-rig-protection

• Job Architect to Oscar Niemeyer St Antony's College Oxford.jpg

  Job Architect to Oscar Niemeyer St Antony's College Oxford

• Lilypad wave energy converter.jpg

  Lilypad wave energy converter

• JEL Solar FactoryOffices, Stockport, Opened by HRH Prince Charles, 1983.jpg

  JEL Solar FactoryOffices, Stockport, Opened by HRH Prince Charles, 1983

• Calor Gas solar laboratory to develop heating thermal storage sytems.jpg

  Calor Gas solar laboratory to develop heating thermal storage systems

• 27 - Energy Island Hi-Res Render underwater 871KB.jpg

  27 - Energy Island Hi-Res Render underwater 871KB

• EI-aerial 1,5MB.jpg

  EI-aerial 1,5MB

• Ideal Home Solar House MKDC.jpg

  Ideal Home Solar House MKDC

• Etoile from solar heated pool copy 223KB.jpg

References

Biography of Dominic Michaelis

External links

• About the Energy Island company founder
• Dominic Michaelis's solar balloons
• Energy Island project led by Dominic Michaelis.
• Wave Energy Converter Animation