Richard Rogers, the influential British architect, has been named the 2007 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The Pritzker, for those of you who may not know what it is, is the highest accolade that a living architect can receive, and has been awarded to such luminaries such as Zaha Hadid (Iraq and UK), Rem Koolhaas (Netherlands), Luis Barragan (Mexico) and Norman Foster (UK).
Friday marked the opening day of CABOOM4, and we love the new location at the Baker Hanger in Santa Monica, CA. While the day was only open to the professions of the trade, the evening reception that was open to all, proved to be even more entertaining than previous years. We were able to stop by and check out some long-time Inhabitat favorites in the PreFab zone such as CleverHomes, Marmol Radziner, and LivingHomes. After wrapping-up the PreFab Zone a few newbies caught our eye in the first timers section. We’ll be reporting back on all the best new eco-friendly designers from CABOOM4 in the next few days, so stay tuned! In the interim, here our reports so far:
+ Viesso Eco-Friendly Custom Furniture
+ Botanist Aluminum Furniture
You can tell that people are really thinking about the environment these days. Two separate events are being held in Australia with the goal of saving some energy by doing the simplest thing that everyone can do, turning off your lights.
Greenwashing is clearly the topic of the moment - we just can’t stop talking about it. Our very own Sarah Rich just had a great piece published in BusinessWeek on the subject matter (interestingly the same magazine where we found the bizarre swiffer story). Sarah’s article explores Nau, Terraplana and similarly chic brands who have done a great job incorporating sustainability into a larger design vision.
Greenwashing is a hot topic these days. We’ve seen unusually heated debate over our recent posts on GE Ecomagination and Walmart, and just yesterday we spotted this provocative article over on CNET about the issue of corporate greenwashing >
From beautiful British Columbia comes this entry to our Prefab Friday series. The E-cube from Jenesys Buildings and designed by Carsten Jensten Architects is a flat packed modular kit house that claims to be twice as energy efficient as a comparable house.
Daunted by the process of selecting an architect to work with you on your next project? The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has just launched their new website How Design Works For You to help navigate clients through the design process from selecting an architect to determining which sustainable building practices work best for you.
The site features a great video case study of Medora Woods’ sustainable home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Watch as a steep hillside plot of land is transformed into a compact (16-ft wide, 1,100 sq. ft.) and efficient home with the help of AIA architect Sarah Nettleton. Take advantage of the “Assets & Artifacts” features to learn tidbits of information like how a “snorkel” in the yard can cool and heat the house up to ten degrees without using any energy.
Made from recycled scrap metal and old truck engines, the open-source Multimachine can drill press, lather and mill. It originally started as a project by Pat Delaney as a way to easily create a machine that was cheap to create and accurate enough for metal work. The project, now hosted at its own Yahoo group, can be used in developing countries as a way to create jobs and assist in the fields of agriculture, transportation, education and food preparation. The very making of the machine imparts the skills needed to use it.
The desert beaches of southern coast of São Paulo, Brazil, are places of inspiration for environmentally-sensitive architect and designer Carlos Motta. In the 1970’s he spent a lot of time at the beaches, collecting driftwood carried in on the tide. Today, in his office, in Vila Madalena, São Paulo, Motta developes and produces furniture, sculpture, and architectural products all from recycled wood. Using driftwood, recycled wood from demolitions, pieces found in shores and rivers, as well as material certified by FSO, decreases the environmental footprint of his work.
Not wanting to be left behind by Saudi Arabia and Dubai, the country of Bahrain has been approving some interesting and eye-popping developments in the realm of green architecture. Especially interesting is the new Bahrain World Trade Center located in the city of Manama. The 50-story complex contains two identical towers that rise over 240 meters in height. The sail-shaped buildings offer a visually striking silhouette, appropriately referencing the maritime environment of this small Middle Eastern island, and boast one very unique feature — 3 giant wind turbines tying the two “sails” together.
We’ve seen CNC technology and other digital techniques used for architectural applications, like in the stunning Loblolly House, but two and a half years of research and development by the architects Bell Travers Willson has taken it to the next level. In collaboration with digital building manufacturer Facit, their Digital House provides “a new method of building houses that harnesses digital design technology and low volume production methods.” And to publicly prove the project isn’t all talk and no action, they’ve completed a their 1:1 Making the Digital House demonstration project (1:1 being an architectural term for full-scale), and followed up with an exhibition at The Architectural Foundation’s Yard Gallery in London.
As mentioned on Inhabitat’s Green Building 101 design guide, PVC has been repeatedly linked to many health concerns. So, you may ask yourself, why isn’t it a subject of the supposedly comprehensive LEED certification criteria? That is the question that the LEED steering committee recently asked the US Green Building Council Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee (TSAC) to investigate further. And the results, while mixed, point to a definitive answer: PVC, when ranked throughout its life cycle, is consistently found as one of the worst materials for cancer related impacts.
Why stop at one stunning structure in Astana, Kazakhstan, when you can have two on your resume?! Sir Norman Foster is set to construct the new Khan Shatyry Entertainment Centre in Kazakhstan’s capital city after the completion of his geometric and eye-catching Palace of Peace and Reconciliation proved to be such a success in its form AND function. The new structure will sit at the northern end of the new city axis and stand as the highest peak on the skyline at a majestic 200 meters tall. The entertainment centre will house 100,000 square feet of public park, retail, and entertainment space. Foster has a track record of thoughtful, sustainable building, and Khan Shatyry is no exception, providing both aesthetic focal point and environmentally-sensitive spatial solution.
For people who are looking for stylish sustainable clothing, such things can be difficult to find in smaller cities - especially for men. In smaller towns where your only option is your local shopping centre, chain stores may be all that’s available. This is why it’s so important that the major chain clothing stores start to make the push to go green. It may be baby steps for now, but we are happy to announce that the Gap, the original jeans and t-shirt company, will be filling that void with their new line of organic cotton t-shirts.
Camilla Norrback is a Finnish fashion designer who has been working with ecological textiles such as organic cotton and oeko-tex certified fabric since 2002. Recently Camilla has launched a lovely new eco collection, inspired by the summer Riveria life, capturing its beauty in wonderful images for us to savor. As the collection illustrates, ethics and aesthetics are harmoniously balanced in her designs. Sign me up for the high-waisted jeans and skirt please!
The folks at General Electric have recently put together a series of informative, compelling, and visually stunning videos as part of their Ecomagination “commitment.” Here’s a video about their Evolution Series Locomotive, a lean mean high-performing machine which truly “defies the perception that greater efficiency means less power,” using 189,000 fewer gallons of fuel in its lifetime than its predecessors….
As a follow-up to our previous Toby Long interview, we thought it fitting to highlight one particular (and very exciting) community-based green building project that Toby and Clever Homes have been working on in San Francisco’s Hunter Point neighborhood. Breaking ground within the next few months, the Living Classroom is a community building that will house a variety of programs put forth by LEJ (Literacy for Environmental Justice), a non-profit organization supporting urban environmental education and youth empowerment in the Bayview/Hunters Point area.
We’re firm believers that humanitarian efforts plus green design equals real solutions that make a difference; and here’s a great example. The American Institute of Architects recently announced the winners of their 2007 Housing Committee Awards, and the “Special Housing” category went to a smart project out of the Auburn University School of Architecture, developed for two Habitat for Humanity homes in Alabama. The DESIGNhabitat 2 house was developed specifically for Habitat for Humanity, and serves as a prime example of thoughtful, innovative green design for a good cause.
Collaborative Designworks in Houston, Texas proves that sustainable design practices can lead to award-winning architecture. Their 505 Housing was recently one of the 19 recipients of the American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) 2007 Housing Awards, winning 1st prize in the One-and Two-Family Production Homes category. Now in its seventh year, the award recognizes the best of the best in housing design while promoting the importance of housing as “a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and a valuable national resource.”
We can’t think of a better combination than DIY-crafts, cardboard, and kids- and Swiss architect Nicola Enrico Stäubli’s FoldSchool furniture does just that. What’s more, his chairs-for-kids (or for the kid in you) are not products for purchase, but rather downloadable FREE patterns from his website. All you need is a printer, some cardboard, and a pair of scissors, and you’re on your way to sitting pretty with your tots on some truly green, interactive, and surprisingly sturdy seating. Your three options are stool, rocker, and chair, each of which are simple to create and would make a great eco-design crafts project for you and your little one on a rainy day.
How Green is that Laptop? Ask Walmart.
Walmart knows its own power. Following the release of a packaging sustainability scorecard last year, Walmart has followed up with a call to the consumer electronics industry – go green and prove it. In partnership with The Green Electronics Council’s EPEAT program (which we’ve mentioned before), Walmart will co-develop a standards scorecard that will evaluate products for energy efficiency, durability, upgradability, end-of-life, packaging, and use of innovative (less toxic) materials. Big business saves the world?
It is a fact of life, that for many young architects starting out on their own, paying jobs are quite scarce. In Mexico, the amount paid for those jobs is certainly less than that in other countries. So, when a client gave the option to the group of architects known as T23, of waiting for payment for work completed or a couple of hundred disused fiberglass chairs from the Mexico City Sistema Transporte Eléctrico (STE) bus line, they chose the chairs, got creative and formulated the STElla chair.
Conventional wind turbine technology has been a bit out of reach for most residential consumers living in urban areas—until now. Researchers at Hong Kong University and Lucien Gambarota of Motorwave Ltd. have developed Motorwind, a micro-wind turbine technology small enough for private use in both rural and urban environments. Unlike large-scale wind turbines, Motorwave’s micro-wind turbines are light, compact (25 cm rotor diameter), and can generate power with wind speeds as low as 2 meters/second.
Image by Kalevi A. Makinen, courtesy of the Barbican Art Gallery
If you happen to be in London, you should hightail it over to the Barbican Art Gallery where one of the most talked about architectural shows in the city, Alvar Aalto Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban, is being showcased from now until mid-May. Beautifully curated by world-renowned Japanese architect Ban, the exhibition traces the life and work of legendary architect Alvar Aalto whose modernist designs made him a national treasure in his native Finland and put him on par with the likes of Le Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe.
Following today’s theme of animal excrement as viable design material (dare I say Tuesday = “Poo”sday?), here’s another great example of turning waste into function. It turns out elephant dung is chock-full of the fibrous materials ideal for making paper. The Great Elephant PooPoo Paper Company collects the waste from elephant conservation parks, rinse, boil, and color it, and add a dash of other natural goodness like banana and pineapple tree fibers. The sheets are even formed naturally, the paper pulp poured and into a tray angled against a tree, facing the sun to dry. It doesn’t get much more pure than that! Plus the notecards, stationery, and envelopes are simple, colorful, and many boast the image of the company’s namesake “elefriends.”
While some may look at cows as sources of meat, dairy, or leather, researchers at Michigan State University have found a more sustainable (and abundant!), yet equally useful bovine by-product: you guessed it, manure. Surprisingly, the material, when sterilized, is entirely odorless and offers some wonderful characteristics for the production of a variety of fiberboard building materials. The manure essentially replaces the role of sawdust in the production of particle boards, which would cut wood usage as well as posing a creative solution to the huge problem of agricultural waste disposal (1.5 to 2 TRILLION tons of you-know-what per year!)
BOND, 30 THE BOND*
What’s more impressive than a building design that aims to reduce its greenhouse emissions to a 5 Star Australian Building Greenhouse Rating benchmark, which is the approximate equivalent to that of a Gold LEED greenhouse certification level? How about one which has proven to meet its target and improves on it. This is the case of the building known as 30 The Bond located at Hickson Road in Sydney.
One of the most brilliant inventions we’ve seen to date is this mobile, portable structure which provides water purification, electricity and even wireless internet access - all through the power of the wind and the sun. The Ecos LifeLink was released earlier this month by Ecosphere Energy Systems Inc (EES) at the Cleantech Venture Forum in San Francisco, CA.
What’s better than a beautiful chic handbag made entirely from recycled materials? How about one that is not only eco-friendly, recycled, and supercute - but also engages fair-trade and socially empowering business practices by employing Brazilian craftswomen in hand production of the bags?
Turk+Taylor is a West Coast duo that launched an organic t-shirt line a couple of seasons back. We were pleased to learn that this season they have expanded the line with several tailored pieces. The guys are off to a good start offering solid basics in a few different colorways to compliment the t-shirts and hoodies that seemed their mainstay last year. The new additions are comprised of hand-dyed silks, linens and organic cotton twills.
Yes, thats right… our little site is officially 2 years old today. Can you believe we’ve been bringing you the goods on future-forward green design for 2 whole years now? The last year has been a big year for us - we had our first event, represented at several conferences and panels, expanded our coverage to include green fashion design, brought on a bunch of new contributors from around the world (with more to come), and grown significantly in the past year.
A New Jersey civil engineer powers his home with solar panels and hydrogen tanks. Could this sort of thing work for mainstream homeowners?
Mike Strizki is a civil engineer who lives in the nation’s first solar-hydrogen house. He pays nothing for monthly utilities bills at all, because the technology he’s managed to put together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides year round power to his home, even on the cloudiest of days. Strizki lives “off the grid” and his system creates no greenhouse gas emissions. He also has a fuel cell car which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.
Just a reminder that Inhabitat’s own Emily Pilloton and Sarah Rich will be speaking at the EPIC Conference in Vancouver, tomorrow Saturday at 4pm, about practical yet innovative ways to green your home. So for all you “Ethical, Progressive, Intelligent Consumers” in the Vancouver area, we hope you’ll come on down and say hi.
It’s easy to get googly-eyed at the sight of shiny photographs and colorful renderings of all the prefab housing going up these days. But what makes prefab such an amazing green feat is the science, production, and systems behind the building process. Princeton Architectural Press’ newly-released Prefab Prototypes: Site-Specific Design for Offsite Construction is a real gem, combining stunning photography and an impressive project list with an in-depth yet widely-approachable explanation of 6 systems behind the prefab process: panelized 2×4’s, CNC timber framing, concrete systems, steel framing, sandwich panels, and modular systems.
As a nod to childhood treehouses and those good old days of youthful splendor, Dustin Feider obsessed himself with developing the perfect eco-friendly version of the tree sanctuary. After much trial and error, the 23-year old freelance furniture designer came up with a unique and green take on the conventional kiddie sanctuary which he dubbed the O2 Sustainability Treehouse. Inspired by the construction of Buckminster Fuller’s infamous geodesic dome, Feider discovered that by following Bucky’s lead, he could use less material and construct a more stable structure than that of the ‘traditional’ treehouse - most importantly, without at all harming the tree.
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