The Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles recently announced the winners of the Design Green awards at a recent ceremony hosted by the AIA/LA to recognize outstanding work built or conceived by Los Angeles architects. Citation, Merit, and Honor Awards were given to six projects that ranged in size from residential to corporate, non-profit to civic and educational, with Honor being the highest award. From the diversity of the projects, it’s clear to see that California architects do more than just design green. With each year and innovation, they elevate green, exceeding our expectations of what a green project should be.

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As summer hits its stride many might be opting for the stay-cation this year, but for those adventurous green travelers headed out into the world to do some eco-exploring, we’ve rounded up our top picks for the best eco-hotels and hostels around the world! From high-flying airplane hostels to tranquil eco-lodges to stunning hotels made from reclaimed industrial materials, there’s a world of incredible eco-accomodations out there – read on for our top 5 picks. Happy Travels!

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Did you know you can power a clock with dirt? Dutch designer Marieke Staps has figured out a way to grow time, instead of killing it. Her soil-powered bio-clock (is that like a biological clock?), showcased at Dutch Design Week in 2008 and most recently at Dwell on Design’s Kitchen Ecology Show last week, keeps time by plugging into mud!

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Pre-built homemakers extraordinaire, Marmol Radziner Prefab were in the news this week once again introducing their newest custom prefab home. High up in the hills above Los Angeles sits the new Hollywood Hybrid, a 2576 sq. ft. sustainable, modern prefab home with killer views and a minimal carbon footprint. Inhabitat went up to the site where the home was being built for a peek.

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Inhabitat is happy to report that Dwell on Design, the west coast’s largest modern design event, featured more smart green design than ever before this year. When we walked the floor yesterday with Dwell Publisher and President Michela O’Connor Abrams (and the carpenter and designer from HGTV’s Carter Can show), it was clear to see that the majority of the companies showcasing their products and services at the three-day festival are paying a great deal more attention to sustainability than in the past. We guestimate that about 80% of the companies there were promoting some kind of green story – in a varying shades, of course. Read on for our highlights from the show!

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Inhabitat loves shipping containers, whether from down under or the Great North. These self-contained quadrilateral wonders are the perfect modular building unit; easily transported, super durable, and, with over 700,000 containers being abandoned per year in U.S. ports, in need dire need of being re-purposed. That’s why we are happy to see IC Green, another innovator in the field of shipping container architecture. Check out their line of modest but sustainable and stylish container dwellings as they sprout up all over Southern California, including this weekend at Dwell on Design!

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It’s no secret that we dig Sustain miniHomes. Inhabitat has always appreciated their sustainable spin on the mobile home and have eaten up their eye candy since the beginning. But on this fabulous prefab Friday, we have some even more exciting news to report!  The Toronto-based builders are coming to Los Angeles to debut their California edition — the first of the 12 WIDE series designed with special consideration for passive cooling and ventilation in a range of California climates.

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Dwell on Design is back in Los Angeles this month, showcasing an incredible array of modern design from June 26-28. Now in its sophomore year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the three-day design festival brings together the best and brightest from the design industry to offer visitors “real live modern design” in the form of an expansive exhibition, design conference, home tours and special events. For fans of all things sustainable, we’ve scoured the schedule to find the show’s green highlights. It looks like there will be a lot to check out, and there are of course a few familiar Inhabitat faces in the line up.

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As the air warms on Bainbridge Island, construction on the Ellis Residence continues to bring this state-of-the-art sustainable home even closer to its expected LEED Platinum rating. Designed by Coates Design, the Ellis Residence will be the first single-family residence in the Western Puget Sound region to attain this level of environmental building achievement.

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The very heart of Singapore beats green, thanks to the new design for the National Heart Center conceived by Ong & Ong with medical planning and interior consultation by multinational firm Broadway Malyan. The ambitious 35,299 square-meter building at the center of Singapore General Hospital’s Outram Campus redevelopment plan will hopefully score high green marks with its unique design that places people first. Recognizing that the medical world advances quite quickly, the design incorporates modular building methods to ensure that the structure of the building remains flexible and adaptable both internally and externally, easily and efficiently allowing for future growth.

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Award-winning international architects Zaha Hadid and Ben van Berkel recently unveiled their designs for two eco-pavilions that will be the centerpieces of Burnham Plan Centennial celebrations this summer in Chicago. Both pavilions emphasize the importance of boldly imagining a better future for all, as Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett did in 1909 in their Plan of Chicago. So how can something that is disposable and temporary really be sustainable? Inhabitat wondered the same thing. So we called the organizers and they were more than happy to explain.

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San Francisco’s James Sampayan offers up a bright idea for the Spring Greening DIY Contest that combines old and new to create a lovely pendant lamp that gives the lowly light bulb a second life during which to “live long and prosper.” James’ design snaps ten standard bulbs between two acrylic plates along with a single CFL bulb that illuminates the rest. Simply crafted using bulbs, scrap acrylic, and miscellaneous Ace Hardware bits and bobs, this pendant is functional and economical. If you’re a fan of this design, be sure to vote for it in our contest post!

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE SPRING GREENING DESIGN >

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The beauty of design lies in finding expression in restriction. When Slovenian firm Ofis Arhitekti was commissioned to design a holiday home for their client but tasked with doing so without exceeding the pre-approved 6×11 meter footprint, the design team did exactly that. The result is an inspired and deceivingly spacious, sustainable reinterpretation of an Alpine classic.

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As the WWF’s Earth Hour sweeps the planet this year, Los Angeles is stepping up to do its part (which it most definitely didn’t do last year).  Besides turning off the lights at several iconic city sites and urging citizens to do the same, the Earth Hour LA team is inviting crews of urban guerillas to help spread the good, green word before 8:30 P.M. on Saturday, March 28th.

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Zagreb-based 3HLD has just won an international closed competition to design a new private medical center in the seaside town of Split, Croatia. With the keen eye of design surgeons, 3HLD has taken what we think of as the typical monolithic medical structure, incised key exterior sections, implanted the voids with green gardens, and finished by wrapping the entire building in bandages of protective sunscreen. The result? A light and airy medical facility that patients may actually enjoy visiting.

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We loved MIO’s Flat Pack Origami table at first sight and couldn’t wait to see what would come next from this Philly fave.  Luckily for us, Brothers Isaac and Jaime Salm do not disappoint.  Just in time for the long dog days of summer, the duo has teamed with Target to launch a new line of beautiful, sustainable, and affordable eco-outdoor goodies, like the herb planter pots made from recycled paper (above), all for under $100.

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Inhabitat first spotted Loll Designs at Haute Green in 2007, where their sleek 3-slat Adirondack chairs were hard to ignore. Since then this Duluth, MN-based design outfit has hit its stride, launching several new collections with leading national retailers. From their iconic adirondacks to their brand new low-profile outdoor living rooms and practical stackables, Loll Designs’ sustainably crafted furnishings make lounging around that much more irresistible.

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From the unseen, unsung files of design competitions past comes the Envision Green Hotel designed by Richard Moreta Architecture (founded by a partner of GMZ-Design) with interiors by Miami-based MRA Design for Hospitality Design’s Radical Innovation design competition. Part wind tower, part urban eco-resort, and all egg, this “lobular” structure is touted as one of the most recognizable landmarks for the city in which it would ultimately be…laid. Inhabitat leaves it up to you to decide whether this is an egg-cellent idea or something not quite fully hatched.

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In a city covered by over 4,000 square miles of asphalt and cinder block, the green roof movement may have just won a serious coup with SYNTHe, an urban rooftop garden prototype designed by SCI-arc professor and architect Alexis Rochas. Located atop the Flat, a downtown Los Angeles residential mid-rise building, SYNTHe is a fertile oasis in the sky that will ultimately grow a variety of edible plants. Through an active collaboration between students, faculty, and city officials, SYNTHe proves that green roofs could indeed have a fruitful future in LA.

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Riken Yamamoto’s Ecoms House exemplifies a new kind of home economics. Constructed out of aluminum panels, this diminutive 24-foot by 24-foot box demonstrates how economy in size and fabrication can lead to surplus in style and coolness. A prototype residence for SUS Corporation, a manufacturer of aluminum precision machine parts and furniture, this home was initially an experiment to create something out of aluminum that could not be expressed with steel. The exterior is inspired by the traditional use of tatami mats in Japanese homes — each of the four sides featuring transparent, opaque, and glass-covered aluminum lattice panels.

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Jorge Graca Costa is a prize-winning young architect whose design mantra has always been “architecture for a better future.” As his first major residential project, DT House is a resounding expression of his particular approach. This compact box is a perfect example of how smart, energy-efficient design principles can be applied practically (and beautifully) to fulfill the many requirements of human living. In this case, thinking inside the box, Costa gives us a bioclimatic beauty that is completely out of this biosphere.

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Earlier this summer, Inhabitat got a chance to catch up with M Design’s eco-prefab architect Mark Baez in lovely Venice, CA when he gave us a personal tour of his M Cube home – the minimalist, modular, sustainable, and surprisingly affordable prefab residential development that he designed using his patented prefab modular building system. Designed based on traditional Japanese tatami and imperial units of measurement, M Cube may appear spartan at first glance but proves deceivingly comfortable once inside.

We’re all worried about the recent economic news, but we’re happy to tell you that you can still give ‘green’ without spending too much green. Stretch your green a bit further this year by giving the gift of economic and eco-friendly design. There are tons of great gift ideas out there that are fun, functional, and most importantly….frugal. Here is a round-up of a few of our favorite gifts under $50 that your friends and family will surely appreciate.

The residents of IJburg (pronounced “i” burg) – a quiet Amsterdam suburb that sits on artificial islands along the IJ river – have a new, flashy neighbor, but we doubt that anyone will complain about it. Already known for his trademark design style that lives somewhere at the busy intersection of architecture, communication, community and ecology, Marc Koehler’s latest project – the IJburg House – does not disappoint. This is one cube house that refuses to be square.

What do you get when you take an average vertical blind (the kind found in practically any rental apartment across the United States), outfit it with special mini photovoltaics and LED pixels, then add a healthy dose of creative inspiration? The surprisingly chic and witty Solar Vertical Lamp designed by Yoon-Hui Kim and Eun-Kyung Kim. By creatively applying existing technology, Kim and Kim transform the lowly blind into a sustainable, sexy, and dramatic lighting system. Finally, a blind that has truly seen the light.

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When they were first commissioned to create a “Bahaman” seaside cottage on secluded South Stradbroke Island, Brisbane-based Arkhefield was faced with a few interesting challenges. The design had to be livable all year round, made from materials strong enough to withstand the harsh climate conditions, yet remind its inhabitants of memorable vacations spent on exotic islands. The resulting design stands out as a modern, sustainable interpretation of a Bahaman cottage that capitalizes on the site and celebrates volume but is also capable of isolating, re-orienting and shutting down against inclement weather when necessary.

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Chile is exporting a lot more than a mean pisco these days. The XVI Chilean Architecture Biennial, a celebration of great Chilean architecture, recently wrapped this week in Santiago where the main theme was an exploration of architecture that cares for the earth. Hosted at the Contemporary Art Museum of Forestal Park, there was literally too much talent for the conventional structure to contain and the Biennial exploded out into the public eye in form of a completely sustainable, modern temporary pavilion designed by Assadi + Pulido, a young Santiago-based design studio with a modern, edgy and recognizable style.

Considering the fact that the average person produces 4.5 pounds of waste per day according to the EPA, we would be remiss not to address the question of household waste in our exploration of what it takes to make a green home. Thanks to more widespread public and private recycling programs and increased consumer awareness, Americans are definitely learning to tighten their ‘waste-line,’ but we still produce a phenomenal amount of garbage on a daily basis. Before we can talk about reducing, re-using and re-cycling, Green Home 101 needs to talk trash.

Russ Walker and Matt Kahn

Opportunity Green, a sustainable summit that aims to connect industry and innovation, took place this weekend with an interesting macro-exploration of the current climate for sustainable and social entrepreneurship. A cast of leading keynote speakers from business, economics, media and more offered their experience and insight. Overall, the verdict was cautious optimism.

As part of Inhabitat’s quest to explore future-forward green design it all its forms, we’re excited to announce that we will be covering the 2nd Annual Opportunity Green Conference this weekend in Los Angeles, Calfornia. Hosted by UCLA’s Anderson School of Management from November 8-9, the conference brings together the best and brightest from both the business and design worlds in an attempt to bridge the gap between capital and green innovation. Inhabitants Evelyn Lee and Haily Zaki will be on-site to report the latest on being green and being profitable, and we’re happy to offer Inhabitat readers a discount code for 30% off!

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The kitchen is the heart of any home. The average American spends three to five hours a day in the kitchen – preparing food, eating, hanging out, entertaining, standing in front of the fridge (with the door closed, of course) trying to figure out what to make for dinner. For our readers who have been inspired by our Green Home 101 series and are interested in doing some serious “greenovating” starting in the kitchen, we’ve gathered a few useful tips to consider. Your goals should include extremely efficient appliances, low-VOC and healthy finishes, and surfaces that are durable, easy to clean, and of course, aesthetically pleasing.

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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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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This week our Prefab Friday radar went crazy when it detected A Clean Break’s green, prefab neighborhood in the City of Brotherly Love, hosted by Minima Gallery as a part of overall DesignPhiladelphia and National Design Week festivities. From October 17 to October 30 visitors can wander through a modern, green village featuring innovative design solutions from international architects and designers, including Alchemy Architects and Sustain Design/Altius Architecture. See what it means to live green in the neighborhood!

German engineering has long been heralded as innovative and forward-thinking. And with the help of German innovator, acclaimed architect and structural engineer, Werner Sobek, the ingenuity also appears to be pushing the prefab movement. Werner Sobek and his engineering and design firm have conceived a modern, modular, and minimal series of prefab homes: the R128, H16 and R129. Engineered to be sleek and sustainable, the R128 and H16 are custom designed using prefabricated lightweight, modular parts and special systems designed to be energy-efficient and off-the-grid. The R129, on the other hand, is a complete departure from the traditional notion of a house – or a box- in fact, it’s an elliptical globe.

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