Inhabitat

Talk about re-cycling! This simple and elegant alternative Christmas tree in Bermondsey Square, London is made out of 35 wheels from old bikes, and has been delighting passers-by with its unconventional looks. Designed by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, the tree is a very fitting symbol of sustainability on a worldwide scale – especially since the wheels making up the design are borrowed from U.K. charity Re-Cycle which collects recyclable bike parts to restore old bicycles and ships them to Africa to be used for transportation by local people and health workers fighting the AIDS epidemic.

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Today is Christmas Eve! And if you’re reading this right now, chances are that you procrastinated until the very last moment to pick up presents for your loved ones and are in desperate need of some guidance. Well, you’ve definitely come to the right place because we’ve got 7 spectacular ideas for green gifts that you can pull together in a jiffy and have ready and wrapped for tomorrow – they’ll never know that you waited ’till Christmas Eve!

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In the spirit of the holidays, we’re giving away a $50 iTunes gift card to the person who comes up with the best caption for this rather inspiring pic of a Christmas tree made out of 1,000 beer bottles. Just head over to Lifescoop and comment with the wittiest caption you can think of to win!

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If you’re a cat parent, you probably know all about the mountainous pile of catfood that feline friends can go through in a week. Well instead of trashing your catfood cans, why not upcycle all that shiny metal into cool DIY rings? Check out our step-by-step guide at Ecouterre to see how!

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The blogs are full of “best of the year” lists, but architecture moves more slowly – it takes a long time for ideas to get built, technologies to evolve and for knowledge to spread. Instead, we look at the themes and memes of the past decade of architecture in TreeHugger. From the rise of modern prefab to the growth of green roofs, read on for the most notable trends in sustainable building.

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What Christmas is complete without a giant spinning illuminated star? This one is the largest in the world and just happens to be made up of LED lights, allowing it to use the same amount of energy as a common hairdryer! The revolving LED superstar was designed and built by Siemens and is currently mesmerizing viewers in Munich. Check out our amazing pics of this brightly lit installation with 9,000 LED lights spinning away into the night.

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One Laptop Per Child and legendary designer Yves Behar have just unveiled the XO-3, an affordable next-gen tablet pc for kids! The third generation OLPC is made completely from plastic and is semi-flexible to make it more durable for children’s rough & tumble lives. Yves Behar’s Fuseproject is currently working on the design and hopes to have these devices ready to ship by 2012 for the incredibly affordable price of $75 each.

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As snowstorms sweep the country, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are warming up our winter blues with the creation of these gorgeous snowflake-shaped photovoltaic cells. The glitter-sized solar sequins are made from crystalline silicon and use 100 times less material to generate the same amount of electricity as standard solar cells made from 6-inch square solar wafers. Perfect for soaking up the sun’s rays on unusual shapes and surfaces, the solar cells are expected to be less expensive, more efficient, and have promising applications in textiles and clothing.

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This five star hotel is going under – underground that is! Designed by ReardonSmith Architects for a proposed development at Hersham Golf Club in Surrey, London, this new subterranean hotel will pay its ultimate respects to London’s Green Belt by placing all 200+ guest rooms underneath it! The entire scheme is covered with a plush green roof that takes its cue from the surrounding countryside.

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San Francisco has just announced that it will be continuing its popular Sunday Streets program next year with new dates and locations for 2010! Running for the past two years, the event closes off a series of roads to vehicular traffic and and opens them to street parties, bike-riding, and uninhibited power-walking. Announced by Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the new series of Sunday Streets will expand into new neighborhoods, have longer hours, and will stop traffic on a total of nine days in 2010 as the program settles into a pleasant permanency.

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While the holidays are definitely filled with great joy, year-end festivities can also have a slightly grimmer side. According to the Clean Air Council, an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays in the US, four million tons of which is attributable to wrapping paper and shopping bags. If you’re looking for alternatives to tinsel, foil paper, and double-wrapping this year, TapeSwell’s new holiday tapes offer both a practical and very pretty solution.

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This radiant outdoor fireplace designed by Oslo-based architects Haugen/Zohar would certainly add a festive glow to upcoming holiday celebrations. Made from leftover materials from a nearby construction site, the pine and oak structure was created for children to indulge in storytelling and playtime. Visit Inhabitots to learn more about the outdoor fireplace’s unique design!

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Contact lenses have long been a godsend for people who want to ditch their glasses, and now a new, color-changing type of lens could make life a thousand times easier for diabetics. Up until recently, most diabetics have no choice but to rely on e-waste-generating, finger-pricking meters to get accurate readings of their blood-glucose levels. However a biochemical engineer at the University of Western Ontario has developed moodring-like contact lenses that turn different colors to indicate changes in glucose levels. The new lenses stand to make the once painful daily ritual as simple as opening your eyes.

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Don’t stress out if you missed the opportunity to have one of the fabulous gifts from our green guides shipped in time for the holidays. There are plenty of thoughtful last-minute green gifts for everyone on your list! So whether you haven’t been able find that special something for your sister, in-laws, co-worker, or even your best friends, we have the prefect ideas that are earth friendly and easy to put together.

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The building you see above may look like a gigantic piece of shredded wheat, but it’s actually a (very) non-traditional tennis complex for Vaxjo, Sweden! David Tajchman, a Paris-based firm, designed the aptly named Tennicalator to be made out of locally sourced wood as part of an international design competition, but the woven facade isn’t the only cool thing about it. Since the area and neighboring buildings have a strong connection with the surrounding nature, David Tajchman  decided to take the Tenniscalator vertical instead of horizontal, leaving the remaining land for beautiful gardens and manicured grounds.

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