Inhabitat

A few days ago we announced the release of Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century, the new book from the Worldchanging crew (of which I am the Managing Editor and Jill F. is a contributing writer). Since then the book’s gotten great reviews in the New York Review of Books and BusinessWeek.

Tomorrow morning, Wednesday November 1, we’re trying to mobilize a grassroots effort to get this thing to #1 on Amazon by asking everyone who is intending to buy a copy (and those who didn’t know they were intending!) to do so at 11:11am Pacific time.
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Happy Halloween from Inhabitat!

In the spirit of our favorite fall holiday, we’d like to share with you some ideas for green Halloween decorations….

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The Glow Brick, designed by Sam and Jude of Suck UK, is a cute little cordless nightlight made from a phosphorescent lightbulb (yes, a REAL lightbulb) embedded in a block of acrylic. It requires no electricity and can glow for up to three hours, “powered” only by light it soaks up from the sun or other artificial light sources, making it as energy-efficient and eco-friendly as it is clever.

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Sometimes it just helps to visualize things. The Power Aware Cord by Static! does just that, representing personal energy consumption through glowing pulses, color, and intensity of light. While most powercords are utilitarian (and in general, rather ugly), Static!’s aesthetic solution brings the issue of energy consumption literally, to light, urging users to be aware of and reflect upon the energy efficiency of electrical devices in their home. Just how does it work? Electroluminescent wires embedded in the cord produce varying patterns of glowing and pulsating colors to indicate the level of energy being used at a given time.

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Up until very recently, fashion and sustainability have been living in separate universes. Fortunately, in this day and age, you no longer need to be caught between your ethics and your aesthetics. With the increasing variety of stylish eco-fashion hitting the market, it has become easier than ever to find sustainably produced clothing that holds its own in the style arena.

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What the Lazy-Susan has done for efficient dining, the Hanse Rotor House has done for compact living. This spatially smart dwelling is made up of a large open living room surrounding a central core rotating room containing tiny efficient versions of a home’s essential rooms: bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. Using a remote control device, you can rotate the rooms around to bring whatever room you want into view of the main living room. Designed for young professionals who need an efficient, space-saving starter home, the Rotor House is a model of compact living.

+ Rotor House from Hanse Haus

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Jorre van Ast has a knack for realizing common problems that plague us in our daily lives – especially the ones we aren’t aware of. An industrial designer, his projects approach these problems with a sort of make-shift attitude, resulting in creative solutions that critique our use of everyday objects.

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Drumroll please…The new book, Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century, is days away from hitting the stands. This two-brick-sized tome is the collaborative creation of the team at Worldchanging.com, where our own Sarah Rich is the Managing Editor.

The book contains over 600 pages of cutting-edge innovations and emerging solutions for building a sustainable planet in the 21st century, including several chapters on green home design written by yours truly, Sarah and Jill. It was designed by the extraordinary Stefan Sagmeister and features a foreward by Al Gore and an introduction from Bruce Sterling.

It’s flying off the virtual shelves already, breaking onto Amazon’s Top 100 Bestsellers and rising steadily. So order your copy now!

Recycled cardboard has enjoyed a fair bit of action as far as the sustainable furniture circuit is concerned - but how often is it that you a see a lamp being fashioned out of the stuff? Employing his signature technique of ‘fluting’, which involves the alternating the angle of the corrugation in the cardboard to produce varied designs and patterns on its surface, UK designer Giles Miller manages to whip up an intriguing design that emphasizes the softer, diaphanous side of a rough-and-tumble material which isn’t normally regarded as delicate or sophisticated. Sustainable and chic, Miller’s lamp not only looks good, it creates instant atmosphere with one flick of the switch by peppering the room with light and moody shadows.

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As a follow up to this summer’s Green Building 101 series, we thought we’d take a look at ways to locate green homes that have already been built. We’ve covered lots of strategies that go into sustainable home design and construction, but how can you find a green home in your area? And how can we raise the demand for these properties?

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Silicon Valley is hot again, and it’s a good thing for SunPower Corporation, a company which just released the most efficient solar panels to date. Based on the new Gen 2 Solar Cells, the SPR-315 solar panel will get a whopping 22% photovoltaic (PV) efficiency - over 10% more than the standard 7-12%. What does that extra 10% get you? Well according to SunPower, it means 50 percent more power per square foot of roof area. That means you can get just as much power using 1/3 as many panels or 50% more power with the same amount of panels. Unfortunately SunPower hasn’t released a price on the panels, but we’ll find out when they hit the market next spring.

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The Katrina Cottage is in the news again: it was recently announced as the winner of the People’s Choice at the annual Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards. The awards ceremony took place this past Wednesday at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s mansion in upper Manhattan.

For anyone who missed the Katrina Cottage the first time around, this cute little 300 square-foot house was designed by Marianne Cusato for displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina. It’s about the same size and costs the same amount as the standard FEMA trailer (about $35,000), yet its livability, charm and ability to provide displaced people with a sense of “home” rather than just temporary shelter make it far more appealing than the soulless trailers currently provided by the government.

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Covet is a young line for men and women that we are really excited about. Currently, about 50% of the stylish, cozy collection of sweaters, jackets and tops is made with eco-textiles like organic cotton, bamboo and soybean (other fabrics include handwoven cottons from India). Apparently the entire Spring 2007 collection will be environmentally friendly. Tara St. James designs the collection and her degree in menswear is evident in the impeccable cuts and tailoring. Aside from using environmentally friendly materials, the line is also made in socially responsible factories, two of which are ISO certified.

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We’re obsessed with green design at Inhabitat, but up until now, we’ve focused primarily on products and architecture. However, we’ve become increasingly tempted by the growing momentum of the green fashion movement - and since fashion is as much a part of “design” as architecture, we decided it was time to start dedicating a little more time to it on Inhabitat. Thus we’d like to introduce you to Sustainable Style Sundays, curated by green fashionista, Jill Danyelle, whose blog, fiftyRX3, has been one of our favorite stops in the blogosphere since its early days. Sustainable Style Sunday officially kicks off later today with a look at the Covet label.

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We just can’t get enough of innovative Dutch design here at Inhabitat and here’s one more great furniture design to add to our catalog. Libraries all over The Netherlands have suddenly found it essential to stock up on Daan Roosegaarde’s Variant shelves. Deftly hand-constructed out of recycled cardboard, the curious constructions were initially conceived at AKI art academy in Enschede where Roosegaarde studied sculpture. The Rotterdam-based designer soon found himself starting up a production line overnight after library bigwigs got whiff of his class project.

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If you are in or around Boston on November 15th between the hours of 1 and 6, we highly recommend you check out Core77’s latest Design 2.0 conference: Design, Technology, and the Future - A Panel Discussion on the Opportunities and imperatives ahead.

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Today is all about cargo containers and Canadian pride. The All Terrain Cabin (ATC) comes from BC-based design and local business collective, BARK, who developed the cargo home as a representation of the diversity and possibility in contemporary Canadian design culture.

The ATC is a 480-sq-ft cabin, fully equipped for self-sustained, off-grid living. The container has been made ultra-modern with aluminum, wood and glass. It’s a product of what appears to be extensive collaboration, and is now on tour to let the world see what Canada’s got going on.

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The recent collaboration between star Dutch designer Tord Boontje and the uber-hip Spanish rug company Nanimarquina is truly a great combination- like chocolate and mint, or peanut butter and jelly. The two independently-fabulous design entities have joined forces to create the playfully genius Little Field Of Flowers rug, whose floral shaggy tendrils are just as endearing as they are warm and fuzzy under your bare toes.

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Alain Bertreau’s Instant Chair is a plywood transformer chair that folds down into one small flat sheet for storage, but pops into a sturdy seat in a matter of seconds. Using the latest panel cutting technology, the affordable Instant chair uses only a couple square feet of plywood. Berteau’s economy of means and materials is a refreshing change from the “more is more” mentality of everyday consumer furniture.

+ Instant Chair

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Alain Berteau, architect, interior designer, and product designer has designed some fabulously efficient chairs that are noteworthy both for their ingenuity and frugality of material. The Fence Chair effectively utilizes a single angle that allows it to be packed tightly for shipping and, once assembled; the individual chairs can be linked to form continuous seating for a larger group.

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Every year some of the world’s most creative minds converge on the picturesque seaside town of Camden, Maine for Pop!Tech, the internationally acclaimed conference on technology, society, and the future of ideas. Taking place October 18 – 21, this year’s event promises to be another great one — and you, too, can participate, regardless of geography.

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Fusing art, architecture, and renewable energy, California-based Michael Jantzen’s Wind Shaped Pavilion is literally head-turning. The pavilion is a proposal for a large fabric structure that rotates in segments around a central support frame, generating enough electricity as it moves to light the pavilion at night. Just think of the opportunities available in building the pavilion large enough that every level becomes an apartment or a commercial space, and the view from inside changes at the whims of the weather!

+ Michael Jantzen

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Have a hard time finding a use for the other 9 volt battery you got in that 2-pack? Look no further that Richard Lawson’s charming DIY LED light: 9Vo(l)tive. Just stick one of these suckers on a 9 volt battery and you’ve got an instant LED candle. The greatest part about this glowing wonder is its size. You can take it everywhere for ambient lighting on the fly. We’ve yet to hear when the 9Vo(l)tive will go into production, but inquisitive minds should contact the designer (and if you get one of these, we naturally back the rechargeable route!).

+ Contact Richard Lawson

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Last year, readers went crazy over our feature on the Streamgarden by Green Fortune, A Swedish company dedicated to “urban cultivation.” The Streamgarden helps aspiring green thumbs by taking all of the guesswork (and all of the effort) out of maintaining household plants. Now Green Fortune has unveiled another product: the Plantwall.

Yes, the Plantwall is just what it sounds like — a vertical wall of greenery. Plantwall allows for all of the enhancing elements of indoor foliage without sacrificing floor area. But the real innovation is in how it works:

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Who wouldn’t love to go on a 14,000 mile cross-country trip in search for the perfect $100,000 house? While it may sound like the impossible quest, that’s exactly what Karrie Jacobs, founding editor in chief of Dwell magazine did in the summer of 2003.

Her brand new book, “The Perfect $100,000 House” chronicles her journey in search of what she considered the perfect custom home: 1,000 square feet at $100 a square foot. Base on gut more than practical statistics, this number successfully lays the premise that good design doesn’t have to come at a high price.

Promising prospects were found in Crestone, Colorado, Perryvile, MO and Troy, NY — not necessarily hubs of design in the traditional sense - but places with no shortage of innovative ideas when it comes to construction techniques. “The Perfect $100,000 House” makes a compelling case for the variety of options available to prospective home buyers, leaving readers to reconsider their perfect idea of “home.”

The Perfect $100,000 House

$16 from Amazon

Earth Simulator. JAMSTEC/ Earth Simulator Center

Massive Change, the recently-debuted global design exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, is less a display of interesting projects as it is a call to action. Upon entering the museum lobby, oversized text reads, “Congratulations. You have just joined the Massive Change project…You are now part of an international network exploring the future of global design.” Open through December 31, the exhibition looks at new technologies and the potential for design to effect change on a global scale, asking visitors to be aware and, more importantly, to be a part of the change.

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Rocio Romero is perhaps best known for her LV Home, but her Fish Camp house has been our pet favorite since we first saw it. She talked about Fish Camp at Dwell on Design last month, and in this month’s issue (which is all prefab all the time), there’s a beautiful piece about all of Romero’s true-to-the-tradition prefab series.
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With the overwhelming number of generic black laptop totes flooding the market these days, it was refreshing to have a close encounter with Giles Miller’s unique Corrugated Cardboard Laptop Case at London’s [re]Design exhibit this fall. Sturdy, stylish, and completely sustainable, the cardboard lining the front of Miller’s tree-loving creation is 100% recycled, and the unique fluting gives its wearer the option to personalize it with custom designs such as one’s initials (or an apple logo — as shown here).

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Spotted at 100% Design this year, Blue Marmalade makes deceptively simple house wares from folded single sheets of recyclable plastic. This translate to sexy objects with low waste in both the production process as well disposal at the end of the product’s life cycle. One of our favorite pieces - the Cog lamp - is made entirely from one single sheet of recyclable material, (including the lamp holder), and is designed to accept energy saver bulbs as well - doubling the eco-friendly quotient. Despite the origami nature of the pieces, the aesthetic is polished and clean - proving once again that the simplest ideas are often the best ones.