It’s finally upon us! The groundbreaking Greener Gadgets Gadgets, which we’ve worked so hard at Inhabitat to organize over the last few months, opens tomorrow in New York City!
This is the first ever conference devoted exclusively to sustainability within the consumer electronic space
And as the organizers of the conference, Inhabitat will be on the scene first hand to cover it for you. Many of you who aren’t in the local area have inquired about videos and webcasts. We are happy to announce that not only are we recording the entire conference, but we are doing a LIVE WEBCAST of the event tomorrow, and you can catch it here >
We will also be liveblogging the event here on Inhabitat, so if you are interested in Greener Gadgets, make sure to come back tomorrow and check it out.
About a year ago, Sydney started a trend of turning off your lights for one hour in a show of support for protecting our environment. Soon after, London, San Francisco quickly followed suit. One year later, the organizers of Sydney’s Earth Hour feel that one city at a time doesn’t really cut it anymore. Which is why this year’s event is going global, with cities from every continent, including the US, participating in what promises to be the largest ever show of solidarity in the world on March 29th for Earth Hour.
Our favorite visionary designer Fritz Haeg is at it once again, this time with the launch of Animal Estates, the much-anticipated follow up to his Edible Estates of the past few years (2005 to present) and whose official book release, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, is tomorrow, February 1st. The 2008 Whitney Biennial will feature the first peek at Animal Estates, an eight site project that examines dwellings for animals and critters that have been displaced or shunned from man-made habitats and settlements. Whether creating art in a manicured suburban front yard, at the local strip mall, or in a city parking lot, Haeg proposes to construct customized dwellings or model homes that will encourage the resettlement of animal species in neighborhoods that would otherwise be devoid of native fauna.
Digital artist Chris Jordan knows how to turn e-trash into photographic treasure. His large-scale images of massive amounts of statistically-inspired refuse make it all too clear just how big a problem consumer waste is. His work, which features objects from Barbies and plastic bags to e-waste and shipping containers, brings to light a tough dichotomy, presenting our gluttonous existence as consumers in a beautiful medium. He’ll be keynoting our Greener Gadgets Conference on Friday, and we can’t wait to hear what he has to say.
Trying to find alternative sources of energy has proven to be an extraordinary feat, allowing us to use everything from sun to the motion of the ocean. But there is still one plentiful source of renewable energy which has so far remained pretty much untapped: rain. Getting energy from falling water droplets might seem like an obvious, ‘why didn’t I think of that’ idea, but so far no-one has really exploited this plentiful (albeit somewhat unreliable) energy source. Now a team from CEA/Leti-Minatec has created a system that is capable of recovering kinetic energy from the impact of falling raindrops.
If you are in the market for a small low speed urban vehicle for everyday use, ZENN, a zero-emission, no-noise vehicle might just be your answer. Available in most parts of the United States, it’s a compact car that’s as green as it is useful. According to the EPA, the ZENN is capable of achieving a whopping 245 miles per gallon!
A few months ago we reported on future attempts to use a kite to move a cargo ship across the ocean. But just last week, the MS Beluga set sail on its maiden voyage from Bremerhaven to Venezuela where it showed, quite successfully, that wind power might just be the future of nautical transportation.
Our friend Lloyd Hicks has made a great that’s a perfect lead-in to our upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference this Friday. We talk a lot about the under-recycled cell phone, but with videos like this, we’re starting to think there’s hope. While it brings to light issues like product life-cycle, materials, and the impact of these objects on the environment, we can’t help but believe there are possibilities for improvement (we’re even hosting a cell phone recycling center at Greener Gadgets!). Watch the video for the full story, and check out the Secret Life of Cell Phones website for even more info.
Architect Vincent Callebaut’s latest project balances public galleries, meeting rooms and gathering spaces over canals and abandoned railroad tracks in the 19th Parisian district. The prototype uses green technologies and techniques but is more than just an example of sustainable design. Callebaut’s ‘Anti Smog: An Innovation Centre in Sustainable Development’ is a catalyst for cleaner air.
We are devoted fans of Naturevsfuture designer Nina Valenti and her stunning eco-fashion creations, so it was a nice surprise to hear recently of her upcoming appearance at Carnegie Hall. Nina has created a custom-made gown from over 6,000 used and misprinted juice drink pouches as part of a commission by Terracycle and their ‘Drink Pouch Brigade’ sponsored waste program. Naturevsfuture’s ‘Recycled Juice Pouch Gown’ is a sustainable style happening that we thought you should know about, be inspired by, and totally applaud for its edgy, performance stealing appeal.
We haven’t been giving Ann Arbor, Michigan enough attention and the city deserves it! Last year Ann Arbor joined forces with LED manufacturer Cree, Inc, on an ever-expanding citywide LED initiative to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With a recent retrofit contract signed with Lumecon, Ann Arbor is on its way to being the first U.S. city to light up its downtown with 100% LED technology!
What if the White House, the ultimate architectural symbol of political power, were to be designed today? Over two hundred years ago the winning design of an 18th century architecture competition became the residence of the president of the United States at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. To mark the election of the 44th president of the US, Storefront for Art and Architecture, in association with Control Group, has opened White House Redux, a challenge to design a new residence for the world’s most powerful individual.
Winter shelter in the Arctic can take form in an upside down hunting boat – a traditional Inuit practice. Covey Island Boatworks, award winning builders of hand-crafted yachts, power and sailboats, has brought that idea into dry dock developing a prototype wood and epoxy prefab that applies boatbuilding principles directly to an extreme Arctic home.
It’s very likely that all tickets will be gone by the weekend or early next week. Because of this, we are also closing our press list and ending all discounts at 12noon tomorrow.
The city of Madrid soon plans to add a striking new structure that will “climatically transform” its urban architecture. Designed by Urban Ecosystems, the Air Tree pavilion is to be built from recycled materials and will be 100% energy self-sufficient. Using photovoltaic cells, the Air Tree produces a substantial amount of energy, which is then sold back to the local electric companies, the profits being used for maintenance of the structure. The second byproduct is of course oxygen - hence the name ‘Air Tree’!
Just when you thought green towers couldn’t get any greener (or more towering), there’s a new kid on the block. The Aquarius Tower, a 500-foot tall condominium to be built in Atlanta, is the latest to join the burgeoning ranks of iconic green hi-rises. The building is designed around the four elements of life: sun (solar panels), water (reclamation systems), air (wind turbines) and earth (a minimal footprint).
Italian designers are surely global frontrunners when it comes to cutting edge fashion and innovative design (as evidenced by our previous coverage of the 2007 Milan Furniture Fair). With this in mind, we are pleased to announce that AKA Architetti has just won an international competition for their development of a single-family, green home prototype that’s energy efficient, site adaptable, and incredibly stylish in its integration of interior and exterior architectural features.
If you’ve been reading Inhabitat at all recently, you can’t have failed to notice that we’ve been talking a lot about our upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference on February 1st in NYC, and the fast approaching Greener Gadgets Design Competition, whose deadline is JAN 27th 2008. (Thats 4 days from today people!)
Well now we have three groundbreaking bits of news to share:
1. FREE TICKET GIVEAWAY OVER ON ENGADGET!
If you still haven’t got a ticket for this near-sold out event, and want to attend, Engadget is giving away 5 free Greener Gadgets Tickets as part of a contest they are running. If you are interested in attending, try your luck at theEngadget ticket giveaway contest >
If art school was in our future we might opt to study under, or on top of, the amazing green roof at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. This 5 story facility sweeps a wooded corner of the campus with an organic, vegetated form that blends landscape and structure, nature and high-tech and symbolizes the creativity it houses.
If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, there’s no time like the present! Register here and be sure to come by the Project H Design booth for more info on the organization and these great products.
One of the biggest announcements at this years CES was the introduction of the hydrogen-powered Cadillac Provoq concept vehicle by General Motors. The Provoq is another one of GM’s efforts to develop vehicles that will reduce their fuel consumption and minimize their emissions.
In a hurry? Need to get from Sydney to Brussels in a dash? Not too far in the future you may be able to travel that entire distance in less than 4 hours - emissions free - thanks to an amazing hypersonic hydrogen jet project called LAPCAT. LAPCAT stands for Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologie, and is funded by the European Space Agency. This type of hypersonic jet would put the Concorde to shame with it’s speed, and the best part is that it would not be powered by the typical fossil fuels, but instead by a much greener hydrogen alternative.
If you’ve been keeping up with Inhabitat, hopefully by now you have read about the Greener Gadgets Design Competition and the fast approaching Greener Gadgets Conference on February 1st in NYC. If you are interested in environmental issues within consumer electronic product design, don’t miss your chance to enter the competition or attend the event. The deadlines for both are quickly approaching, so if you want to attend or apply, get on it now!
From cars to prefabs and some slightly greener gadgets, CES gave us plenty of things to marvel at this year. One of the most impressive in terms of future-forward innovation was the Motoslvr cell phone outfitted with Angstrom Power’s hydrogen fuel cell. With Angstrom’s new fuel cell technology, you are able to get the same sleek package as a regular cellphone, but the charge last more than twice as long on a charge time as short as ten minutes! Hydrogen mobile phones? That’s something to get excited about!
The home of the Eiffel Tower is getting a new architectural innovation- and a green one at that. The Energy Plus office building, to be located outside of Paris, is designed to consume no electricity other than that which it creates itself. This zero-energy building, according to the designers, will be the greenest office building ever created.
