Ali was first captivated by sustainable design while snowboarding past green buildings in Colorado ’s Rocky Mountains. After several years quieting her inner ski bum, she returned to her native Connecticut where she received her BA in Art History from UConn and began a decade-long career as a home improvement contractor. She fused her love of nature and the built environment through graduate studies in Environmental Science at Antioch New England Graduate School and a Master’s Certificate in Sustainable Design from Boston Architectural College. Today, she lives in Germany where she works as a freelance writer.
We’ve been having a great time at this year’s BKLYN Designs discovering new eco-friendly designs from inspired Brooklyn-based designers. Today, we invite you to join us for a unique event, a green design walking tour in celebration of Mother’s Day. Inhabitat editors Jill Fehrenbacher and Abigail Doan will be at BKLYN Designs today at 2pm to lead a Green Design Walking Tour of kid and family friendly furniture, décor, and much more. If you are looking for a great way to celebrate Mom, gain green design insight and meet some of the Inhabitat team, join Jill and Abigail for this wonderful event!
We only have a few spots left for the tour, so if you are interested in joining us, please email us at inhabitat at gmail.com, so we know to expect you.
Yesterday’s rainy weather did nothing to deter our spirits as the Inhabitat team of Jill, Abigail, Mike and Ali headed to BKLYN Designs to check out this three day local design extravaganza. Your intrepid Inhabitat team took to the streets of Brooklyn to scope out the sustainable scene at this year’s event, and we’ve found plenty of fresh, new green designs to share with you. We discovered beautiful lighting ideas in LED designs from PRATT Institute (pictured below); new eco-friendly pieces from some of our favorite Brooklyn-based designers like Brave Space, IglooPLAY, Argington; and many debut green designs that are destined for greatness.
BKLYN Designs STARTS TODAY!!
We are thrilled to be on the scene at this year’s BKLYN Designs - it is one our favorite springtime events, and we couldn’t be more excited! Locally sourced and inspired, the BKLYN Designs furniture fair captures a side of sustainable design that is near and dear to Inhabitat’s mission - drawing local designers together into a familiar, yet fresh, environment to celebrate design innovation. This year is especially exciting as four of our Inhabitants (Jill,Ali,Mike &Abigail) have converged upon Brooklyn to scope out the scene and partake in eco-conscious events during this design extravaganza. We will be here all weekend reporting back with the best in sustainable design from BKLYN Designs 2008!
This gorgeous wood container prefab from Olgga Architects was turning heads at Salon Europeen du Bois in Grenoble last month. At just 70 square meters (about 753 square feet), this energy efficient abode is made of two prefabricated modules perched one on top of the other. Rather than box out the structure with a stacked configuration, the designers pivoted the top unit to create a variety of interesting and integrated outdoor spaces, as well as a variety of structural possibilities.
Wind power holds much promise but often meets obstacles in small-scale application. Enter Engineers Without Borders. Volunteers from this humanitarian group, including Malcolm Knapp and Heather Fleming pictured above, have developed a small wind turbine design that has the capacity to bring much needed electrical power to remote villages in Guatemala and provide an alternative to hazardous kerosene lighting.
We’ve just discovered Brave Space’s new Light Block lamps, which will debut at BKLYN Designs this weekend. Made from FSC-certified walnut and 3 Form EcoResin, these modern lighting fixtures are definitely on our must see list in Brooklyn this year.
NY DESIGN FANS GET READY!!!
One of our favorite springtime events, BKLYN Designs, is coming to town THIS WEEKEND, and we couldn’t be more excited! Locally sourced and inspired, the BKLYN Designs furniture fair captures a side of sustainable design that is near and dear to Inhabitat’s mission - drawing local designers together into a familiar, yet fresh, environment to celebrate design innovation. This year is especially exciting as four of our Inhabitants (Jill,Ali,Mike &Abigail) are gearing up to scope out the scene and partake in eco-conscious events during this design extravaganza. And, of course Inhabitat will be there from start to finish to report back to you on the best in sustainable design! MOTHERS DAY GREEN DESIGN WALKING TOUR - Sunday May 11th @ 2pm
Your favorite Inhabitat editors Jill andAbigail will be leading a Green Design Walking Tour this coming Sunday. In honor of Mother’s Day, it will be a mom-focused, family friendly event, so bring your kids, your mom or whomever else to learn more about local sustainable furniture design with the Inhabitat team. The tour will fill up fast, and we have a max of 15 spaces, so if you’d like to partake, please email us at to sign up inhabitat at gmail.com.
Calling all green fashionistas!
The Designers & Agents international fashion showcase kicks off THIS WEEKEND (May 4th-6th) here in NYC! Inhabitat is partnering with Designers & Agents this year, and the Sustainable Style team of Abigail Doan and Jill Fehrenbacher will be on site each day to offer up green fashion ideas and sustainable design tips for D&A attendees. As the exclusive media sponsor and curator of D&A’s Green Room, Inhabitat is looking forward to a weekend filled with future-forward fashion and gorgeous eco-design from the best of this year’s talented designer and agent line-up!
Every year we look forward to the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment’s (AIA/COTE)top picks for the best green building projects of the year. This year’s selections are a showcase of sustainable design approaches that balance functional aesthetics with environmental consciousness. Each winning design has been evaluated under a comprehensive list of measures from community connectivity, to energy efficiency, to longevity of purpose. Those that have risen to the top of the AIA/COTE list for 2008 are examples of successful programs that, through extensive collaboration, have achieved low-impact structures that fuse architectural excellence with environmental stewardship.
Salone Internazionale del Mobile kicks off today and Inhabitat is on the scene in Milan, Italy! We’ve got three Inhabitants at this year’s International Furniture Fair to scope out the greenest designs at this year’s event. Cate Trotter, Ariana Mouyiaris and new Inhabitat writer/photographer Antonia Halse are poised with ears and eyes open to get the sustainable scoop at Milan Salone 2008. We’ll start coverage today! Bringing the best photos and coverage of the most interesting new furniture, lighting, products and presentations from Milan - all through a sustainable lens of course. Starting today, Inhabitat is your source for green design at Milan Salone 2008!
The world’s most prestigious furniture fair, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, in Milan, Italy, starts in two days! And we’ve got three Inhabitat correspondents on their way to Milan to scope out the green design on this year’s international scene. Cate Trotter, Ariana Mouyiaris and new Inhabitat writer/photographer Antonia Halse are headed to Salone to bring back the best photos and coverage of the most interesting new furniture, lighting, products and presentations from Milan - all through a sustainable lens of course. We are hitting the ground running and, starting Wednesday this week, Inhabitat will be your source for green design at Milan Salone 2008!
Eye-catching aesthetics and implementation of a bevy of green building practices have brought a new oxymoron into consideration in the form of the Santa Monica Civic Center parking structure. This building is on its way to becoming the first LEED certified parking garage in the United States, shifting the sustainability merits of LEED debate into impassioned overdrive with plenty of fuel fodder for both sides of the argument.
Architect Dustin Ehrlich has created a custom prefab home near Chapel Hill, NC. Commissioned by his parents and constructed by WIELER, the structure mixes stone, wood, stainless steel and rusted corrugated metal to create an extraordinary first, and lasting, impression. While undeniably modern, the structure’s aesthetic also draws on the local architectural styles of nearby tobacco barns from previous centuries.
What better way to kick off our Milan Furniture Fair countdown than with our favorite‘free-range’furniture designer Ryan Frank. Frank’s modular bamboo creation, dubbed ‘Zig’, is just one of many designs we’ve got our eye on for this year’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile starting next week. We’ve got three Inhabitants heading to Italy to bring comprehensive coverage of the 2008 furniture fair and get a glimpse of what green looks like on the international scene this Spring. If the Zig storage/display system is any indication of what eco-friendly design treats are in store for us, things are looking very promising.
It’s not always our style to point out celebrity lives but when they involve a super green, LEED Gold rated building with stellar views across the Hudson River it gets our attention. The New York scoop is that the three-time Academy Award-nominated actor/environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio has found shelter in Riverhouse, one of NYC’s greenest condominiums.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 12 new Solar America Cities, bringing the number from 13 to 25 in total, and moving along the $2.4 million initiative to provide up to $200,000 per city to build solid solar infrastructures. The announcement came at the New Frontiers in Energy Summit 2008 in Denver, Colorado, which is among the 2008 Solar America Initiative (SAI) cities. The overall program goals are to facilitate adoption of solar technology by individuals and businesses and to make solar electricity from photovoltaics a cost-competitive energy choice by 2015.
Just off the Brazilian coast in São Paulo, architect Andrade Morettin has created Residencia RR - a stunning summer abode nestled amidst the dense vegetation and semi-tropical, hot, humid climate of Itamambuca in the state’s north coast. Responding to the local environment, House RR is selectively protected from and open to the elements. Under a primary “shell” the home shelters from intense sun and rains but allows much desired natural cross-ventilation to permeate through living spaces. With prefabricated components and an elevated foundation, the construction sits lightly on its site with a low ecological impact.
With Spring finally starting to spring, we are excited to announce that Domino Magazine has just published a feature story on our Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher. The April issue of Domino - the guide to living with style - is tinged with green as Earth Day approaches and that’s where Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher makes an appearance in the monthly My Green Life feature. Decked out in sustainable style favorites like Ekovaruhuset and Veja, she talks about living green in NYC and her vision of the perfect way to spend April 22, 2008.
Groundreaking architect Jean Nouvel has inspired and influenced international architecture (and many of us here at Inhabitat) for over three decades with creative interpretations of culture, location, program and client that have resulted in some of the world’s most unforgettable structures. In recognition of his abundant career and persistent imagination, he has been chosen as the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Laureate, the world’s highest architecture honor.
Last year, more than 2.2 million Earth Hour participants shut off their lights throughout Sydney in a powerful stand in support of protecting the environment. Tonight, the lights off action is going global! Around the world, cities on every continent - including Atlanta, Bangkok, Bogota, Chicago, Dublin, Montreal, Manilla, San Francisco, Sydney, Tel Aviv and more - 20,000+ businesses and almost 300,000 individuals have signed up to turn off the lights and turn up environmental awareness.
Up until fairly recently, Rocio Romero fans could only visit a fully realized public version of her enormously successful LV prefab in Missouri. Then, last month, a privately-owned and newly completed Rocio Romero LV home was open to the public in the Hudson Valley, NY. When we ran the news of the New York LV open house tour, many of you asked us to keep you posted when Romero’s homes were accessible elsewhere. Well, West Coasters, hang on to your hats because there’s a new LV in town - a Rocio Romero LV is open for tours and much more against the amazing backdrop of Napa County, just a short drive north of San Francisco, and Inhabitat’s hometown in Marin County.
High Line 23, or HL23, is a new green building from Neil M. Denari Architects that is currently under construction and turning heads soon in the Chelsea art gallery district on Manhattan’s west side. The structure is a 14 floor mixed use of gallery space and condominiums with amazing views of the evolving High Line elevated park preservation and green space reuse project. With an impressively small footprint of just 40’ x 99’ and a multitude of green building technologies, HL23’s cantilevered silhouette is made even more exquisite by the expected achievement of LEED Gold certification.
LivingHome’s KT1.1 Expandable Single Family Residence
The environmentally conscious, award winning architects KieranTimberlake always manages to amaze us with stunning residential designs that define the true synthesis of green building and architectural excellence. We’ve also been equally enthralled by the business vision of Steve Glenn’s LivingHomes, a development company which has been extremely successful in commissioning and building architecturally-stunning green prefabs. Until now, KieranTimberlake and Living Homes were connected only by their shared drives to bring the best green residential designs to market, but this week the firms announced a partnership to design an exciting new line of versatile, sustainable, and modern prefabs that will make green living affordable and stylish.
Architect Steven Holl always appeals to our sustainable side, capturing our imagination with beautiful designs that incorporate both social and environmental responsibility. His new design for a mixed use development in China is bringing a green sensibility to the skyline of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. The ‘Sliced Porosity Block’ will house offices, apartments, retail, a hotel, cafes and restaurants within five towers and a multi-level plaza rivaling Rockefeller Center. This high-performance building will integrate green strategies in heating, cooling, lighting and materials to attain an LEED gold certification.
It is difficult to ignore the designs of Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid. Bold, brave, often controversial - her ambitious experiments in form always seem to stir discourse and debate. Hadid’s design for the new civil courts building in Madrid is no exception. Planned as part of the new Campus de la Justicia at Valdebebas in the Spanish capital city, Hadid’s Civil Court is expected to become a focal point among works from Norman Foster, IM Pei and others. While we are not always big fans of Hadid’s obsession with form, we are intrigued by the “intelligent” façade of this Madrid courthouse, that in addition to being extremely eye-catching, is intended to regulate the building’s indoor environment.
LivingHome’s KT1.1 Expandable Single Family Residence
