IS IT GREEN?: Maid Brigade Green Cleaning Service

Household cleaning is a murky area for consumers who want to be environmentally conscious. Of course we can assume that reusing cloth rags for cleaning is greener than buying paper towels, but household cleaners are not required to list their ingredients under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act – so they don’t. And even if they did, who knows by heart which chemicals are materially damaging? Maid Brigade is a green cleaning service that has adopted a green cleaning protocol at all of its 400+ locations that includes product scrutiny and staff training to make the service “as green as possible in today’s world”. Recently we caught up with Cloud Conrad, vice president of brand strategies to see if Maid Brigade’s green standards are as high as yours.

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Emerald Plaza by Emergent Architecture

Public space is essential in any urban environment, but drawing people out can be difficult when the weather makes the outdoors uncomfortable. The Emerald Plaza in Abu Dhabi by Los Angeles-based Emergent Architecture is intended to invite people out of doors despite high temperatures by offering shade and a wide expanse of space. The multi-level, modern plaza physically links the buildings surrounding it via walkways, while cooling pools help to regulate the plaza’s temperature.

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Ushida Findlay’s Undulating Green-Roofed Park Houses

Ushida Findlay Architects (UFA) recently received permission to build this gorgeous eco-friendly, multi-family Park House compound in Preston, UK. The stunning design incorporates sustainable elements such as solar power, extensive use of natural light, and locally-sourced materials, but its defining element is certainly the undulating green roof that links the homes of five branches of a single family.

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The Super Green Cley Marshes Visitor Center

Birds and ornithologists alike have long favored Cley Marsh in Norfolk, England as a prime place to roost, but the windswept East Anglian wetland now has a new attraction. The Cley Marsh Visitor Center, owned by Norfolk Wildlife Trust and designed by LSI Architects, was recently named the best Sustainable Development by the prestigious Emirates Glass LEAF Awards which recognize excellence in international architecture, design, and building fields. Tucked neatly into the landscape and capped by a moss roof, the new visitor center stands as a unique example of how a combination of sustainable technologies can be used successfully in environmentally-sensitive locations.

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7 Bad Habits of Eco-Design Driven Consumers

Inhabitat is proud to present our readers with the world’s most exciting developments in future-forward design. Still, the stunning array of beautiful green furnishings and stylish products available today presents certain questions about the responsible consumption of green goods. The time has come address these challenges and take an in-depth look at our collective green habits. Read on for a list of seven bad habits of Eco-Design driven consumers, and the first steps that begin the road to recovery.

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Ausra Unveils California’s First Solar Thermal Plant in 20 Years

California’s first solar thermal plant in 20 years recently launched in Bakersfield, helping to usher the golden state into a new era of renewable energy. Designed by Ausra, the Kimberlina solar thermal plant will utilize 1,000-foot long mirrors to convert the sun’s rays into energy. The new plant is the first of it’s kind in North America and was constructed in just seven months.

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Solar Powered Mobile Emergency Response Studio

After Hurricane Katrina, Paul Villinski, a well-known New York-based artist, wanted to transport his studio to Louisiana to see the aftermath first-hand and create artwork in response. At the time he didn’t have a way do it, but since then has picked up a 30′ trailer, gutted it, and rebuilt it to be green, non-toxic and off-grid. The Emergency Response Studio is now a totally self-sufficient traveling artist studio outfitted with solar panels, a wind turbine, non-toxic furnishings, and plenty of space to create.

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NAU IS BACK! Nau Fall 2008 Relaunch

It was only six months ago that the eco fashion community was stunned by an announcement from groundbreaking eco sportswear label Nau that they were closing their doors. Devoted fans of the green fashion label were deeply saddened by this news, as there was the general belief that if Nau could not make a go of producing sustainable casual clothing, perhaps no one could. Well folks, we are pleased to announce that Nau is back, survivor-fierce, eco-friendly, and as savvy as ever. Wisely resurrected by a core team of devoted former employees, the new Fall 2008 collection is proof that Nau is always in sustainable style, for the immediate future and the long haul.

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Ultra-Bright Down Low Glow Lights for Your Bike

For cyclists, safety is certainly the number one concern when riding at night. Sure, most blinking lights will increase your front and rear visibility, but what about the all-important side angles? Well, now you can get the Down Low Glow from Rock the Bike, a tubular light that attaches to your bike, lights up the night, and looks phenomenal!

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TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: Audi’s A1 Sportback Hybrid

Audi recently revealed their slick A1 Sportback Hybrid at this year’s Paris Motor Show. Based on the A1 project Quattro concept released last year in Tokyo, the 5-door plug-in hybrid can run for 60 miles on a single charge, after which it gets an exceptional 72.4 mpg. Audi keeps cranking out concept vehicles that show future directions for the company, and their latest hybrid looks like another excellent entry.

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Mercedes’ Futuristic Formula Zero Sail Racer

Recently Mercedes Benz revealed images of its stunning Formula Zero Racer, a futuristic foray into the next generation of racing. Incorporating elements from luge, yacht, and Formula One vehicles, the zero-emissions racer is propelled by a wind-catching sail in addition to electric motors that are powered by renewable resources. The concept is a tribute to a future where cars will win races based not just upon their speed, but on how energy efficient they are.

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The Beautifully Adapted Wing Luke Asian Museum

The new Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle, WA is building upon the past, literally. Originally the living quarters and social center for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants, the museum’s structure mirrors its exhibits - both preserve the culture and traditions of Chinese and other Asian immigrants while displaying current works from emerging Asian artists. The restoration of the 1910’s building was very well executed with excellent implementation of sustainable strategies, including plenty of re-use and recycling to preserve the old while creating something new.

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Energy-Generating Spinning Wheel Provides Power for the Poor

The e-charkha is an ingenious update to India’s ubiquitous charkha [spinning wheel] that transforms the simple machine into a potentially significant source of energy for millions of struggling families in India. Designed by RS Hiremath, the e-charkha “not only produces yarn but also generates electricity using a maintenance free lead acid battery fixed at the bottom, which functions as an inverter.”

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Thai Temple Built From One Million Recycled Bottles

The Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple has found a way to bottle-up Nirvana, literally. The temple, which sits in Thailand’s Sisaket province, roughly 370 miles northeast of Bangkok is made of more than a million recycled glass bottles. True to its nickname, “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” features glass bottles throughout the premises of the temple, including the crematorium, surrounding shelters, and yes – even the toilets. There’s an estimated 1.5 million recycled bottles built into the temple, and as you might have guessed, they are committed to recycling more. After all, the more bottles they get, the more buildings they are able to construct.

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M-Velope Transformer House For Sale at Neiman Marcus

Wouldn’t it be great to be able change the shape and position of the walls of your house to go along with your mood, or more practically, the weather? Michael Jantzen’s transformable M-Velope® is just such a structure, offering an inspired approach to designing smaller and more usable spaces. The 230 sq foot flexible space can be rearranged into various positions by moving the slated wood panels on its steel frame. All homes really should have this capacity - to move, change and morph depending on our needs.

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Announcing Inhabitat Eco Baby Tees

$20.00 - Organic Owl Baby Tee (3-6 mos)
$20.00 - Organic Owl Baby Tee (6-12 mos)
$20.00 - Organic Owl Baby Tee (12-18 mos)
$20.00 - Organic Owl Baby Tee (18-24 mos)

Eco-cute alert!
We are excited to announce our new line of Inhabitat eco baby tees and onesies. Featuring ‘Habby’, our favorite owly mascot, our super cute baby tees are made from 100% organic cotton and are hand-printed with water-based inks. The tagline (with some fond nostalgia for the 70’s US Forest Service Campaign), reads ‘I give a hoot’. If you have a tot in your life and you are a fan of Inhabitat, show us some love and order one today - proceeds go to support Inhabitots.

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Post-Katrina Sustainable Architecture: The Shotgun House

The 9th ward in New Orleans has become a crazy quilt of architectural styles since the post-Katrina rebuild. In the overgrown fields of the neighborhood, traditionally built homes sit next to elevated solar powerhouses constructed by the Make It Right Foundation– making it clear that the solutions presented to address the needs of the still-recovering New Orleans community are very different from one another, logistically and culturally. Artist Marjetica Potrč’s solution is to revive a small, classic structure called the shotgun house which is native to the South. In collaboration with sustainable design firm Futureproof, she has created a simple and culturally powerful home and symbol.

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The White House Organic Farm Project

Last week, we covered the results of the White House Redux competition. The competition asked what the White House might look like if it was designed today. This week, we are visiting with activists Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow who already know what should be done with the president’s residence: they hope to grow organic food on the lawn. And how are they sending their message? The duo have planted the “roof” of their flipped-up double-bus with a garden and are currently touring the country with it. It used to be called the Topsy-Turvy Bus: now it’s on a mission to get the 44th president to turn the country’s food system on its head. With a new name, The White House Organic Farm Project, and the elections around the corner, Daniel and Casey are hoping to get enough people to sign their petition as they tour the country.

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Part Prefab, Part Custom, All Green: Culver City Hybrid Home

Take prefabricated panels, add a dose of ingenuity, and a desire for an extremely green home and you get this half-prefab, half-custom Culver City home, designed by Sander Architects. Not only does the house play host to eco-friendly details that makes it sustainable inside and out– but its acoustically-tuned-to-concert-perfection interior provides owner Thomas Small the ability to play chamber music with perfect resonance. The 4,200-square-foot home uses a prefabricated structure that was assembled on-site and then outfitted with necessary trim, plumbing, and interior fixings for a grand total of $528,000, about a third of an architect-designed home in the Los Angeles area.

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High-Tech itHouse Prefab by Taalman Koch

We’ve been following LA-based Taalman Koch Architects and their development of a systematized method for building sustainable prefab houses for the past few years. Now, a completed itHouse has landed outside of Joshua Tree National Park in what is going to become a new planned community called Three Junipers. If you have been reading along with us, you would know that the house is off-grid and powered solely by photovoltaic and solar thermal technology. Not to mention, the modest home makes minimal disturbance to its site, has a small footprint (1,600 sq ft), and uses native plants in its landscaping. This high-desert version of the itHouse adds to their previous work with more efficient energy systems, and new furniture and accessories.

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Michelle Kaufmann’s mkHearth

We always love seeing hot designers come out with their next hit– and Michelle Kaufmann’s new mkHearth is the latest in must-have prefab design. The home pushes the principles of green building, as her previous green homes have always done, and combines it with some countryside nostalgia to produce a prefab farmhouse. Her new prefab is both contemporary and inviting, with a slightly more traditional aesthetic which will likely prove popular with the masses. Kaufmann is responsible for many advances in green building, as well as an updated gingerbread house. Although this house is larger than most of her other designs at 2,820 sq ft, it smartly fits many rooms into that area, and even provides some flexible space with a cozy and sunny loft.

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Innovative Desert Architecture from Binary Design Studio

Desert living has long been characterized as a lifestyle that requires considerable intervention to be sustainable. Still, at least one team of architects and designers believes that the secret to living comfortably in the desert is already there - in two unlikely sources: desert plants and prehistoric dwellings. Binary Design Studio, made up of Dale Clifford, Jason Vollen, M. Gindlesparger, and Eddie Hall, is a unique kind of architectural design firm that is looking critically at the conditions present in the desert and trying to create a site-specific methodology for building sustainable homes.

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IS IT GREEN?: The Cordless Vacuum

Dirt Devil is currently retailing a cordless, bagless, ENERGY STAR-certified vacuum cleaner called the AccuCharge. The product’s website urges you to “Clean with a conscience” and the video says, “Go green and get it clean.” Caveat emptor: “Green” and “clean” pair well in advertising jingles, but environmentally-conscious vacuum buyers should be wary. Read this interview with Michelle Kivlov, product manager for AccuCharge, before you rely on AccuCharge to let you “clean with a conscience.”

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Crazy Banyan Treehouse Cafe in Japan

Although this towering concrete treehouse isn’t really green, (unless tree imitation counts as ‘green’), we couldn’t help but be awestruck by its sheer craziness. We thought it worth a post, just for the picture alone. The Naha Harbor Diner in Okinawa, Japan is a life-size rendition of a banyan tree, also known as gajumaru. The aptly-named Banyan Town shopping center near the entrance of Onoyama Park features a twenty foot tall tree with a pan-Asian restaurant nestled amid its branches. Accessible by a spiral staircase around back and an in-trunk elevator, the restaurant specializes in locally grown and organic harvested foods fresh from the farm.

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The Bright Idea Light Bulb Shade

Many of our readers have already switched out their incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy-efficient CFLs, and for this we applaud you! However for those out there who have not made the switch, it may be due to concerns over the bright glare that these bulbs emit. Enter the Bright Idea Shade, a beautiful open-source bulb shade composed of interlocking polygonal pieces. It was created at the Eyebeam OpenLab, an art and technology center in New York that encourages creative thinking and open-source designs.

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GREEN HOME 101: US Cities Sprout Green High-Rises

From green cleaning products to energy-efficient appliances, Green Home 101 has delved into several different aspects of what makes a sustainable, environmentally responsible household. But what about the home itself? Look skyward in any major American city and you’re likely to see a soaring new green high-rise. With scarce land in urban areas, the cost of housing skyrocketing, and increasing demand for better communities, high-density development is experiencing a renaissance in the US. But development is not just growing up, it’s growing green. As consumers look for long-term savings and seek to live in healthier environments, more big developers have grasped onto the fact that the green in the building can lead to green in the bank. Inhabitat’s Green Home 101 takes a closer look at some of the new high-rise projects sustainable residential towers are sprouting up all over the US.

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The World’s First Wave Farm Goes Live in Portugal

The world’s first commercial wave farm went live at the end of September in Agucadoura, located off the coast of northern Portugal. Designed by Pelamis Wave Power, the farm employs three Wave Energy Converters - snakelike, semi-submerged devices that generate electricity with hydraulic rams driven by waves. This first phase of the new renewable energy farm is rated at 2.25 MW with 3 machines, and the the second phase will add an additional 25 machines to bring the capacity to 21 MW - enough to power 15,000 homes!

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The Origami-Inspired Folding Bamboo House

Ming Tang’s beautiful origami-inspired Folded Bamboo Houses are intended to be used as temporary shelters in the aftermath of an earthquake. Brilliant in their simplicity, the geometric shelters are constructed from renewable materials and can be folded into a variety of structurally sound shapes. Their elegant design was recently honored as a notable mention in this year’s Re:Construct competition sponsored by San Francisco’s Urban Re:Vision

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LAST CALL: Vote Inhabitat for Cooper Hewitt Design Award!

Last day to help us win the Cooper Hewitt People’s Choice Award
Today is THE LAST DAY to vote for Inhabitat in this year’s Cooper Hewitt People’s Design Awards! The competition is fierce and we’re currently in 4th place and rallying for the win! Founded by the prestigious Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, the competition gives people a chance to vote …

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TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The 2010 Prius Revealed

Recently several auto sites revealed a first glimpse of the eagerly anticipated 2010 Prius! Currently scheduled for official unveiling in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the revamped model features a similar body shape with a redesigned front, more interior room, and better fuel economy.

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Cars of the Future may be Made of Super-Strong Buckypaper

What is stronger than steel and stands to revolutionize our built environment? Paper! Or rather, buckypaper to be more precise. Buckypaper is a material composed of carbon nanotubes that is 10 times lighter and over 500 times stronger than steel. While the miraculous material used to be prohibitively expensive and hard to make, scientists from Florida State University believe that they have made several key developments that will allow them to efficiently manufacture it for a variety of applications including airplanes and vehicles.

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