ATTENTION GREEN DESIGNERS AND GREEN HOMEOWNERS!

If you live in or have designed a clean green eco-machine, we want to hear from you!

At the upcoming West Coast Green Show in San Francisco (Sept 20th-22nd), Inhabitat’s Jill Fehrenbacher and Emily Pilloton will be giving an interactive presentation on Green Home Design, and we are looking to showcase global examples of the best of the best of sustainable residential design. We know we have a lot creative, smart and accomplished readers out there who own or have designed green homes, and we want to hear from you! Inhabitat is looking for stunning examples of green homes demonstrating energy efficiency, sustainable and reclaimed materials, innovative daylighting or solar systems, and of course, beautiful design.

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Regardless of your occupation, age, or travel habits, it’s safe to say that almost all citizens of our contemporary world have the need to get from Point A to Point B. We’re not going to stop needing to get places anytime soon, so the demand for greener, cleaner transportation is great, but so far there aren’t a myriad of viable sustainable options, especially for longer distance travel. The ever-present issue of transportation shapes cities, infrastructure and home design, uses energy, and moves people. No matter how you look at it, transportation is a hugely important issue, and will play a pivotal role in the future of our society. With that in mind, Inhabitat is excited to launch of its newest weekly column, Transportation Tuesdays…

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In coordination with this year’s HauteGreen exhibition during New York Design Week, Inhabitat will be hosting a star-studded panel discussion surrounding the topic of using reclaimed materials in design. So mark your calendars for RECLAIMING DESIGN Sunday, May 20th at 5pm EST!

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Drumroll please………We know you’re anxious to see the finalists for the Inhabitat T-shirt competition, and the results are finally in. Happily, we had a ton of interest in the contest and received almost 200 entries - so it took us some time to get through all of them. Thank you SO MUCH to all who participated in the competition - we were really impressed to see so much interest and great design ideas from our talented readers. So without further ado, here are our ten finalists. Please vote on your favorite, and we’ll announce the winners on Saturday. READ MORE >

Prefab is notorious for being a whole lot of concept and not much follow-through. So it’s no wonder that the early buzz about the new Jeriko House rings with skepticism. Lloyd Alter’s review at Treehugger pointed out that this thing sounds almost too good to be true. But since we don’t know yet whether it is, might as well ooh and aah at just how good it does sound…

Jeriko claims to bring the best of all worlds together. They eliminate the waste of material, energy, and money that conventional construction incurs, while bringing the homeowner a simple, ideal combination of flexibility, sustainability, and affordability.

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This weeks marks the launch of a new column here at Inhabitat in which we answer your questions about all things eco-design, in a public forum on our site. While we normally do our best to respond to reader feedback via email, we’d like to extend to readers the specialized expertise of our team of writers, all of whom work within the green design world as architects, interior designers, fashion designers, furniture / product designers and green consultants. Starting this week, ‘Ask Inhabitat’ will become your green ‘Dear Abby’ (or ‘Dear Habby’ as the case may be). So no matter what your question, from green roofs to sustainable fashion to “that green insulation product whose name you just can’t remember,” we’ve got you covered.
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SUSAN SZENASY, Metropolis Magazine
The last time I made a New Year’s resolution I lied to myself big time; someone wrote it down and the lie keeps haunting me. But I think I can be truthful when it comes to Green Design New Year’s Resolutions. Here are three:

When I get discouraged about the superficiality of design and designers, I resolve to conjure up the spirits of my design heroes like Paul Rudolph and his sustainable work in Sarasota, Florida. When I recall how he and his fellow architects built to climate and place, before we let technology override our connection to nature, I regain my faith in the power of design and I know that we are capable of adding our new innovations—like computer modeling–to the knowledge we learned from these pioneers of modern design.
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STEVE GLENN, Living Homes
I think 2007 will see an acceleration in development for two sectors of the real estate sector in which LivingHomes is involved. First, far more residential and commercial projects will integrate sustainable design, materials and energy systems. Four factors will fuel this trend: consumer increase and concern; energy prices and economic benefit; benefits or penalties from local municipalities for sustainable construction; and given all this, increased industry recognition of the benefits. Second, dozens of modern, prefab homes will be completed, moving the nascent industry from prototype to commercialization.

+ Living Homes

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JENNIFER SIEGAL, Office of Mobile Design
My resolution for ‘007 is to look much farther ahead - I am taking a great leap forward and looking 100 years into the future. My firm Office of Mobile Design, along with Roland Ritter, Paulette Singley, Nick Pisca, Emily White and students from USC and Woodbury recently competed in The History Channel’s competition to envision our city of the future. This is our team’s statement and what I see for the future.

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YVES BEHAR, FuseProject
Resolutions? I do not make resolutions for the New Year, and have never done so. Reason is, resolutions die untimely deaths, and design is never a short term endeavor.

That said, what can we contribute, and what can we contribute better? Design acquires a new meaning when it is a force for democratization. Whether it is about pushing for technology and access to information for all, or AIDS prevention, or disaster relief, today there is more private money and public funds going to the developing world than never before. In those billions being spent on worthy causes, how much of a role does design play? READ MORE >

Now that you’ve heard from Inhabitat, it’s time to hear from our friend and architectural humanitarian hero Cameron Sinclair, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Architecture for Humanity.

CAMERON SINCLAIR, Architecture For Humanity
Four New Years Resolutions for 2007:

The ones I’ll try to keep:
Pushing the ideas of shared knowledge and open source in humanitarian design.
Convincing more people that being sustainable is not a guilt-based lifestyle.
Learn to drive.

The one I will break:
Cutting down on work, travel and coffee.

+ Architecture For Humanity

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Today marks the beginning of a new calendar year, and an opportune moment to look forward with hope, goals, and anticipation. While it’s traditional for us to make personal resolutions (shed a few pounds, give up whatever habits we haven’t yet kicked, etc), we at Inhabitat feel it appropriate to make more global green design resolutions for 2007. What is the future of green design? What important issues, movements, and ideas do we foresee being influential? What do we hope to see in the coming year? Read on to hear our thoughts, and stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment of resolutions from a few of our favorite designers, thinkers, and innovators. And from all of us at Inhabitat, have a happy and green 2007.

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We had our first ever holiday party this past Wednesday night in San Francisco, and it was lots of fun. Thanks to all of you who stopped by to join in the green holiday cheer- we hope you had as good a time as we did! And a special thanks to our gracious and generous co-sponsors and supporters: Branch, Architecture For Humanity, Design Within Reach, and Mendocino Wine Company. Looking forward to next year! Following are some pics from the party…

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Kids love the holidays- for the cheer, the joy, the abundance of cookies, but mostly, for the gifts. This year, why not give green gifts that are healthy, educational, and eco-friendly. The little ones will love them, and you’ll feel great about giving them. Warning: excessive cuteness ahead…

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Let’s face it: we live in a gadget culture. And around this time of year, gadget consumption peaks as people head to Best Buy and Sharper Image to pick up shiny new gifts for their friends and families. Since we can’t fight this trend, we thought we’d suggest some cool eco-friendly electronics for your favorite gadget geeks this year.

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