As we count down to the New Year, we are taking a moment to review 2007 and think about the highlights of the year. Each of us here at Inhabitat have our own personal opinions about what the most important Inhabitat stories of 2007 were. But ultimately, all that really matters is what you — our readers — think. Counting down from ten to one, based on traffic and reader comments, these were the most popular Inhabitat stories of 2007:
With the new year rapidly approaching, now is a great time to stop and reflect on 2007. Looking back on the past year, and forward to the new one, we at Inhabitat are excited to see such great progress made in sustainable design and innovation. Here are our top 10 green design stories of 2007- what we think were the most important and exciting stories of the past year. We can only hope next year will see even more progress and exciting developments in the field of sustainable design.
You wouldn’t normally associate any massive New Year’s Eve city celebration with environmental sustainability, but that is precisely what the City of Sydney is trying to do with this years New Years Eve celebrations. Sydney is host to one of the largest, if not the largest, display of fireworks in the world, and this New Year the city is attempting to make sure that sustainability is forefront and center in every detail of the celebrations.
If Duro Olowu is not on your sustainable style fashion radar, he should be. This former lawyer from Nigeria has a flair for breaking the laws of couture design via a resourceful mix of brightly colored, recycled African prints and vintage seventies-style tailoring. Olowu has made a big splash on the global ‘must-have’ list with his one-of-a-kind hippie chic and signature high-waisted patchwork dresses, recently updated to an even bolder variation featured in this season’s Barney’s New York green holiday catalog..
What better way to usher in the New Year than with greenmuseum’s first ever environmental art calendar? Through a unique collaboration with Amber Lotus Publishers, greenmuseum.org, the not-for-profit online museum of environmental art, has created a 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper calendar, Environmental Art 2008: Contemporary Art in the Natural World. “To our knowledge, this is the first wall calendar to address the global environmental art movement,” says Sam Bower, Executive Director of greenmuseum.org.
We are all in need of some good old R&R from time to time, and the Sacred Sands Guest Retreat in Joshua Tree, California is just the sort of (green) destination to cure what ails you. This two guest room B&B eco-lodge not only offers desert solitude, no frills pampering, and pristine views and panoramas, but also the opportunity to experience strawbale construction first-hand in this luxury outpost near the western entrance to Joshua Tree National Park.
German prefab firm WeberHaus and architect Peter C. Jakob of Bauart have made a stylish case for sustainable living with the modular concept ‘Option House’. Driven by a modern aesthetic and energy-efficient elements, Option is a fully functional, light-filled dwelling that delivers low-impact living in just 70 square meters of elegant and understated space.
Fernando and Humberto Campana, the Brazilian brother design duo, have long been known for their unique combination of craft-meets-contemporary, recycled-meets-high design furniture. This past summer, they debuted their latest creations, called TransPlastic, at London’s Albion Gallery, which showcased their wicker and plastic crafty yet modern furniture designs. We love the super-cool take on a vernacular form, made hip and new using traditional materials in a cocoon-like encasing technique.
Michael Jantzen’s experimental designs are a fascinating amalgamation of art, architecture, and environmental sustainability. The visionary architect’s design for the Solar Wind Pavilion is no exception. Planned for the California State University at Fullerton, the Solar Wind Pavilion is an impressive integration of wind power generation, solar energy, and rainwater harvesting, all combined into a gathering place for students and faculty for special events, studies, relaxation and meditation.
Google Earth has always been a very cool way to see the world, and recently they have added some very green features including green buildings, and now the ability to visualize air pollution! Thanks to the US EPA, it is now easy to find out exactly how air pollution is affecting your neighborhoods and neighborhoods around the world.
Moscow’s rapidly growing skyline will soon feature an eye-popping new addition: Crystal Island, which will be the world’s biggest building when completed. Sir Norman Foster’s mountainous 27 million square feet spiraling “city within a building” will cost $4 billion and it is scheduled to be built within next 5 years.
The Crystal Island will be Lord Foster’s second large scale project in the Russian capital, and his third new building design that resembles a volcano (we’re talking about his two mountainous buildings in Astana, Kazakstan). Although many people are calling this design the ‘Christmas Tree’ of Moscow - we can’t help but be reminded of the utopian and also rather volcanic X-Seed 4000 design for Tokyo. Unlike that pipe-dream project, however, Foster has a track record of getting buildings built, so the likelihood is high that we will see this striking structure towering over the Kremlin within 5 years time.
Depending on your family traditions, Christmas is a day of everything from gift giving to tofurkey, mistletoe, egg nog, and other less-common behavior like “wrapping paper ball fights.” Last year we suggested a new tradition- giving back for Christmas, and this year, we’re asking you to do the same. In the spirit of the season, let’s do something good to give to those who need a helping hand. Every little bit helps- a bag of clothes for Goodwill, a few hours spent at a local soup kitchen, even small acts go a long way. We’ve listed some ideas below for ways to give back this holiday season. And from the whole Inhabitat team, have a very merry and green Christmas!
The good green folks at the University of British Columbia have an ingenious sustainable gingerbread house design project going on right now. Terry, a sustainability project at UBC (Vancouver, Canada) is sponsoring Bake For A Change, a gingerbread house bake-off as a means to engage both ordinary people and professionals alike on issues surrounding sustainable design and global change via creative, interactive, and hands-on activites. In the spirit of eco-spice and everything environmentally nice, Terry is encouraging all bakers and enviro-shakers to submit their own version of an edible, sustainable gingerbread home before their deadline of December 31st, 3007. READ MORE >
-An acre of living Christmas trees produces the daily oxygen for 18 people.
-Eighty percent of artificial trees are manufactured in China, and most are made with PVC and other plastics, which do not biodegrade and which contain enough lead to legally require a warning label.
While there isn’t much that says Christmas like a decked out tree, every year we are saddened by the waste and loss of life that goes into the usual cut-down-and-dress-up trees that most people buy from the local parking lot. Fortunately, there are kinder and greener options for Christmas trees that really aren’t too difficult to implement at all, if you are just willing to rethink antiquated traditions and realize that the holiday spirit doesn’t need to mean going to the tree lot to chop down a tree. Every year we are frustrated to hear the same old same old ‘plastic tree’ versus ‘cut tree” debate - when the most environmentally friendly option by far is simply to get a living tree instead.
We can offer some help here at Inhabitat by providing you with a stylish organic tote bag that isn’t just an emergency stop-gap, but is an eco-fashion statement you will be proud to carry around with you.
After many long months of research, testing and hard work, we are excited to announce the launch of a brand new Inhabitat T-shirt that is green in both color and in spirit! Our new Tree T-shirt is sage green with an elegant tree graphic printed across the bottom half of the shirt. The shirt is not just green in color, but is also as environmentally friendly as a T-shirt can get, with 100% US grown organic cotton and water-based eco-friendly inks (unlike the plastic ‘plastisol’ which most screen-printed T-shirts use).
Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies is the perfect holiday gift for those of us who are interested in green building, but need a little expert help. Admittedly, the For Dummies® books are a smart start for anyone wanting to pick up a new trade or just learn the overall basics on any particular subject. With more than 150 million books in print and over 1000 topics, this new release by Eric Corey Freed of Organic Architect may be the best evidence out there that green is mainstream.
Play Rethink: The Eco-Design Game is a brand new board game with an eco-design twist. Players are asked to rethink existing, everyday products through the lens of environmentally friendly design. Redesign a chair using locally sourced materials or come up with new functions for an old shopping trolley — the goal of the game is environmentally friendly thinking and eco-design creativity!
The holidays are about giving, so this year give a little something back to the planet while you are giving gifts with a little help from Inhabitat’s Green Gift Guide!
And for those of you more relaxed people who don’t want read through hundreds of gift suggestions in one sitting, we’ve broken our gift guide down into several categories for easier searching:
Chicago Mayor Richard Daly, who has already sent a successful wave of green roofs over the Windy City, has turned his sights towards his next environmental challenge: greening the city’s alleys. Some 1,900 miles of alleyways that cover over 3,500 acres of city land with paved, impermeable surfaces will become the focus of the Green Alley Project with designs and improvements to help manage stormwater, reduce urban heat island effect, promote recycling and conserve energy.
Sweet and sustainable, what could be better? Spice it up while promoting global ideals and you’ve got an idea that’s deliciously irresistible. That’s just what the multi-disciplinary non-profit Terry* is doing this month by sponsoring a gingerbread house contest that is as edible as it is engaging. The deadline for entries is midnight PST, December 31, 2007, so visit the Bake For a Change website for the contest rules and submission guide lines. Read on for details…
The only thing better than beautifully designed green prefab is edible green prefab! One of our favorite green architects Michelle Kauffman, in honor of the holiday season, has designed a yummy version of her awesome zero energy mkLotus, made entirely from gingerbread cookies and aptly named the GingerLotus. And this isn’t just a one-off project for Michelle and her family to enjoy, but a kit and set of instructions for building your own edible mini green prefab house, right from the comfort of your own home!
One of our favorite examples of a great green gadget for the greater good, the One Laptop Per Child is getting all kinds of attention and is now widely available for purchase. Check out the latest video interview from Scribemedia of designer Yves Behar talking about the design. Also known as the $100 laptop, the cute and socially innovative computer will be one of the topics of discussion at our upcoming Greener Gadgets conference.
+ Video by Alexandra of Scribemedia
Producing a beautiful ambient glow through it’s perforated surface, Reestore’s recycled washing machine table turns a household appliance into gorgeous piece of functional furniture. This post-industrial table, dubbed ‘Silvana‘, is fashioned from a reclaimed washing machine drum and a polished glass surface by Reestore.
“Annie” is a shopping cart turned into a comfy cute chair from reclaimed design gurus Reestore. We’ve all seen old decrepit shopping carts left by the side of the road, and it is a sad, sad sight. Thats why we are touched to see UK designer Max McMurdo taking an interest in these old cast-offs and restoring them to life by turning them into bright and cheery furniture.
Bathtubs are places for relaxation, and here’s a new interpretation- turn your tub into a sofa! This clever design by Max McMurdo breathes life into an antique fixture, and turns what was headed for landfill into a smart, provocative, and comfy conversation starter. Founded by UK product designer Max McMurdo, Reestore is a line of green products based on the recycling of old home products. Taking everyday waste objects and turning them into charming yet functional pieces of furniture and accessories, Reestore attempts to “avoid traditional eco materials in favor of contemporary finishes, fabrics, and, above all, style.”
photo J. Crocker
