Inhabitat

Chic organic designs coupled with cheap Target-style prices? Did you ever think that this was possible? It is now that the king of cheap-chic, Target, has teamed up with celeb eco fashion designer Rogan (of Loomstate and Edun), to produce a new line of 100% organic clothes that are as easy on the wallet as they are on the eye. With cute safari-inspired prints, and prices starting as low as $16.99 for tops, we don’t want to hear any more bitching and moaning about how expensive eco fashion is…Now you have no excuse not to totally greenify your wardrobe.

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We’ve long been fans of Brooklyn green furniture team Uhuru Design. Every year at BKLYN Designs we eagerly look forward to seeing Uhuru’s latest work, from the beautiful recycled scrap wood Stoolen series that we spotted in 2006, to the clever Cutoffs Table from 2007, both of which utilize reclaimed wood as the main design concept. In fact, Uhuru’s most recognizable style seems to be their unique sensibility in finding innovative ways to turn old wood scraps into stunning pieces of contemporary furniture. So, what are we keeping an eye on for 2008? The answer is Bourbon Barrel Furniture. Uhuru will be launching a brand new line of furniture at BKLYN Designs 2008, featuring a chair, bench, table and stool, all made from reclaimed bourbon barrels.

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GREETINGS FROM DESIGNERS & AGENTS!

For the past couple days the NY Inhabitat team has been camping out in the eco-friendly ‘Green Room’ at Designers & Agents, the premiere fashion tradeshow in New York City. Being the fans of eco fashion that we are, Inhabitat teamed up with Designers & Agents this year to help curate the furniture and decor of the ‘Green Room’ - a gallery space dedicated to environmental design, showcasing eco fashion collections as well as green furniture, books and products. The Designers & Agents show is only going on for one more day, so if you are interested in checking out the hottest emerging eco-fashion and design, be sure to stop by. If you can’t make it, be sure to check out our live coverage of the show here on Inhabitat, and our ever expanding gallery of photos from the event >

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When we launched our Inhabitat T-shirt Design Competition last spring, we had no idea we would get so many entries or generate such interest from our readers. If you followed the design competition, you may remember the popular root / lungs design submitted by Jonathan Sabutis, which inspired readers with its symbolic design portraying trees as the lungs of the earth, and a catchy tagline “I am the root of the solution”. Despite the fact that this design took second prize in our reader poll, it seemed to be hands-down the most popular design with Inhabitat readers, according to comments and feedback.

Well, for all of you who loved that design — we are happy to announce that we now have Inhabitat Root T-shirts available for sale from Inhabitat. Printed in light green water-based ink on soft organic cotton American Apparel T-shirts, our newest Inhabitat T-shirts are as environmentally friendly as a T-shirt can get, and stylishly subtle.

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Designers & Agents, the premiere fashion tradeshow kicks off THIS MORNING in New York. Inhabitat has teamed up with Designers & Agents this year to help curate the ‘Green Room’ - a gallery space dedicated to environmental design, showcasing eco fashion collections as well as green furniture, books and products. We have enlisted Inhabitat’s favorite green artist Edina Tokodi to create a site-specific ‘living’ installation out of moss and INKE’s recycled wallpaper cutouts (see above), as well as putting together a gorgeous showcase of green furniture from our favorite eco furniture designers such as Uhuru, Molo, and Daniel Michalik Inhabitat’s Sustainable Style team of Abigail Doan and Jill Fehrenbacher will be in the Green Room each day to offer up sustainable design tips for D&A attendees.

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For those of you who think that eco-fashion equals hemp sandals and lots of beige hippy dresses - think again, fashion folks. Inhabitat has been preaching the good green design gospel for years now, trying to spread the word that green fashion can be daring, hip, and sexy as well as sustainably responsible. Our recent reports from the New York fashion event Project Earth Day demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that sustainable style is not only sexy but pushing the boundaries of just how much things are heating up on the green stage.

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Eco-fashion loving New Yorkers came out in droves last Thursday night for the annual Project Earth Day green runway show/fashion design competition. The turnout was even more impressive than last year’s event, and the Teknion showroom was a teeming with Earth Week eco-chatter, the latest in fresh green style, and yummy organic treats and beverages. Slated as an eco take on Project Runway, this year’s designs and creations were impressively innovative as well as gorgeously tailored from the latest sustainable textiles and organic materials. It was totally thrilling to see the student designs light up the runway with the glow of their future-forward ideas as well as some real sustainable saviness already radiating from the next generation of young eco designers. (Gorgeous ‘green LED lighting’ by lighting designer Sarah Jakubasz of Lightswitch also provided that special Earth Day glow!). Read on for some of the night’s highlights as well as PHOTOS from both the designer runway show and the student design competition>>>

VIEW OUR PHOTO GALLERY OF THE EVENT HERE >

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Get ready eco-fashion loving New Yorkers! Project Earth Day - the fabulous green runway show / fashion design competition that we love so much is coming to the Teknion showroom TONIGHT, from 7-8pm. Anyone who likes sustainable fashion and/or Project Runway (since this is like an eco take on Project Runway), should definitely try to make it down to the showroom tonight to see it.

For those of you who are interested but can’t make the event, don’t fear! Check back with Inhabitat over the weekend to see our followup coverage. We will be documenting all the designers, and winners of the competition here on Inhabitat in our regular Sustainable Style Sunday column, so be sure to check in on Sunday to see how the whole thing went down.

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Anyone who reads Inhabitat with any regularity knows that we love our eco fashion almost as much as we love green architecture and new technology. We believe in the interdisciplinary nature of design innovation, and love to see sustainable design collaboration across different industries. Thats why we are such big fans of ‘Project Earth Day’ - the annual NYC sustainable fashion event put on by the Emerging Green Builders (EGB) NYC chapter within the USGBC (United States Green Building Council). Although it is put together by architects and interior designers, this inspired green take on the ‘Project Runway’ design competition always features interesting up-and-coming designers, and can hold its own with any fashion industry event. This year’s line-up features all new designers, and yours truly as a judge on the student fashion competition! I can’t wait..

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Gratuitious cute animal alert part deux!

We know you don’t just want to hear about greener gadgets and solar power all day long, so every now and again we hope you don’t mind if we bring you an injection of cute animalage to brighten up your day, as it relates to Inhabitat (ie bamboo or owls). Sure, the New York City Congestion Plan may be DOA, but at least here’s a cute owl story for you to enjoy…

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Hey wordpress-savvy tech geeks out there!

Inhabitat needs a dedicated tech support guru like nobody’s business. We are currently looking to fill one ongoing, part-time with possible potential for full-time position working on Inhabitat’s backend tech support and website development. PHP, MySQL, CSS, Wordpress programming and general website maintenance are the main features of this job. If this sounds like you or someone you know, read on..

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Gratuitous cute animal photo alert! Could this puppy be our new mascot? Habby, watch yr back - this little guy’s coming for you…

Via Icanhascheezburger

ATTENTION NEW YORKERS! This weekend is the annual Armory show in New York City - a giant art show which brings 50,000+ art lovers to Pier 94 in New York City from March 27th to 30th, to scoop up great deals in contemporary art. This year lucky showgoers will have an opportunity to see stunning new green furniture designs in addition to the usual paintings and photographs, with Vivavi’s specially curated green design ARTFORUM Public Lounge. For the second year in a row, Vivavi will design and furnish the ARTFORUM Public Lounge to give visitors a chance to chill out and recharge in a setting that demonstrates the possibilities for merging great design with environmental responsibility. Teaming up with one of our favorite eco designers, Molo, Vivavi will furnish the entire green lounge with a giant foldable paper Molo ‘Softseat’.

Stunning green furniture will also be on display from Brave Space, Knu, and Todd Laby/Rhubarb Decor.

See the Armory website for more details >>

+ Ecodesign ARTFORUM lounge at the Armory Show in NYC

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Ever since we first laid eyes on Todd Laby’s stunning green furniture design back in 2005, we’ve been huge fans. Unlike so much of what passes for ’sustainable design’ these days, this thoughtful designer manages to make green design about more than simply using bamboo or eco-friendly adhesives in standard designs, but instead rethinks the very nature and construction of the objects we own, and does so in a way that is sleek, chic, and always provocative. In his ‘Modern Slant’ line of plyboo coffee tables, the bottoms and legs of the tables are positioned at acute angles in order to efficiently balance books and magazines, and keep them from falling over like in your typical flat shelf. Now Laby has a brand new end table that utilizes this same clever idea of angular legs to support all of your literature needs.

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This might not be the most practical outdoor light in the world, but what the Firewinder lacks in pedestrian utility it makes up for in sheer engaging awesomeness. Transforming wind into light, the Firewinder is a hanging, wind-powered LED light that can be powered by the smallest breeze. Unlike most wind turbines that spin vertically, the Firewinder spins in a horizontal direction, illuminating its LEDs in a spiraling helix of light. The coolest thing about the Firewinder is that it doesn’t just run on or off, but instead is visibly reactive to subtle changes in the environment. How bright the LEDs glow corresponds directly to how fast the turbine spins, enabling observers to visualize the power of wind.

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Here’s a great idea for a cell-phone that is thoroughly green in every way: from its biodegradable bamboo materials, to its thoughtfully considered lifecycle, to its ingenious use of kinetic human power to charge the battery with renewable energy. The ‘Bamboo’ phone, by Dutch designer Gert-Jan van Breugel was one of the finalists shortlisted at this year’s 2008 Greener Gadgets Design Competition (and Jill’s personal favorite). Although this design didn’t end up winning one of the coveted top three prizes in the competition, it certainly caught our kinetic-energy-loving eye.

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Ever wished you could charge your cell phones and laptop on the go - in your car, on a train, or just walking around? There are many new gadgets for mobile renewable energy: from solar gadget chargers, to kinetic energy chargers, to mini portable wind turbines. Check out this video to learn a bit more about some of the companies behind the most future-forward new mobile renewable energy devices.

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What is going on with all these gigantic spiky eco towers popping up all over Russia and the former Soviet Union? First it was the piercing Siberian eco-tower in Mansyisk, then the sharp and very aggressive looking ‘Peace’ Center in Astana, Kazakstan, then the enormous volcanic Crystal Island spire in Moscow, and just this week, this new sharp green tower going up in St. Petersburg. Seriously, what gives? Iconic British architect Norman Foster is responsible for 4 out of 5 of these pointy eco towers, so clearly the man has a thing for building sharp, angular ‘environmental’ towers in the former Soviet Union. But is there a connection in terms of the geography and clients as well? Is it something in air?

Whatever the case, we are excited to discover YET ANOTHER enormous pointy Foster-designed eco tower going up in Moscow, Russia: the Russia Tower. When this colossal tower is completed in 2012, it will be the tallest building in Europe at 2,009 ft tall (612.2 meters), and one of the tallest in the world, just behind Taipei 101 and Burj Dubai. As if that distinction were not enough, the Russia Tower will also be the largest building in the world with a natural ventilation system.

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Sometimes the best designs out there are not ‘products’ that can be purchased — but big ideas made accessible to all through the power of Do-It-Yourself design. The award-winning EnerJar takes the important concept of home energy monitoring, and brings it to the masses in a fun, interactive way through a handy, downloadable DIY design that can be put together using a jam jar and other household objects. By turning energy monitoring into an engaging DIY project the Enerjar took first prize in our recent Greener Gadgets Competition. Designed by Matt Meshulam and Zach Dwiel, this little downloadable DIY kit uses common household materials to monitor the energy output of a variety of everyday devices, allowing a user to take personal responsibility over energy use.

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Hey readers -
Any of you want to write for Inhabitat? We are currently looking for a super-duper power blogger, ideally based in New York City to put his or her excellent writing skills to work in improving the world through the power of good design. Interested? Read on…

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Mary Lou Jepsen’s keynote presentation of One Laptop Per Child at our Greener Gadgets conference was without a doubt one of the highlights of the event.

“By trying to do the right thing and by designing for the poorest people in the world, we’ve made the greenest laptop in the world. And that’s not just the color!”

The OLPC laptop, known as XO or the $100 laptop, is a feat of energy efficient engineering, consuming just 2W of energy - whick makes it able to be powered through solar cells or hand cranks. In the video above, Mary Lou illustrates how the XO laptop is a new model for energy-efficient electronics, and inspiration to look at new ways of powering our devices.

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Despite it’s suspicious name, the Hymini really has nothing to do female naughty bits! Instead it is an extremely promising new portable wind charger. One of the biggest crowd-pleasers at our Greener Gadgets conference last month, we love this cute little portable renewable energy gadget and think you will too. Check out this video from Treehugger on the HYmini. We’ve covered the HYmini before here, but learning about the fab little device at Greener Gadges only made us love them more! Thanks to George Spyros for the video.

+ HYmini
+ Greener Gadgets

+ Inhabitat Greener Gadgets Event Coverage

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Bahar Shahpar Prepster Plaid Jumper

When we first spotted New York designer Bahar Shahpar’s adorable eco-friendly fashions last spring, we were instantly smitten with the playful colors, impeccable tailoring and smart-yet-sassy aesthetic . Whats not to love about cute, colorful, wearable frocks and skirts produced locally in New York City from natural, organic materials? Last summer, Bahar’s iconic flower babydoll dress (shown below) could be found on just about every eco-chic girl in town, and we predict another Bahar Shahpar craze will hit soon when the designer’s new fall collection hits stores in September.

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