Inhabitat Exclusive Video: The NYC High Line Opens!

This week the highly anticipated High Line Park in NYC opened to the public for the first time. We were super excited to be on the scene for a sneak peek of the new elevated park, which was built on the remains of an abandoned rail system in New York City. Check out our video of the new High Line, with exclusive interviews with the design team including Lead Designer and …

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HUGE SUMMER SALE! 50% off VEJA Sneakers!!

SALE ENDS TODAY AT MIDNIGHT!!!!

Looking for some light-on-your-feet, light-on-the-planet, eco-sneakers for summer? You can’t do much better than Veja’s chic, green sneaks, which are ethically made from natural latex rubber and organic cotton canvas in Brazil. We love how socially conscious these sneakers are, without looking at all crunchy or hippyish. In fact, these men’s and women’s sneakers are so subtly stylish they will make you proud to be green.

Right now, as part of our summer kickoff sale, we are offering the sneakers at 50% off their regular prices. That means TODAY ONLY, you can save $75 or more on a pair of Vejas. But TODAY is the last day of the sale - so if you want to snap up a pair, you only have a few hours left!

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LOYALE ECO-BIKINI CONTEST: WE HAVE A WINNER!

DRUMROLL PLEASE…We have a winner!Dying to know if your comment about why you absolutely MUST have a sustainable swimsuit persuaded our judges that you deserve this stunning Loyale bikini? Fifty-six of you entered our Loyale Eco Bikini contest, and there were a lot of great, inspiring comments all around. Unfortunately, however, we only have one green bikini to give away. And the winner is…

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PREFAB FRIDAY: Modularean Eco Prefab Dollhouse!

Every week on Inhabitat, we feature the best and the brightest in green prefab-ulous designs– so when we saw David Baker’s stunning, tiny Modularean House, we were excited to see that the joy of prefab architecture can now be appreciated even by the littlest connoisseurs. This miniature bamboo version of an …

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Sweater ‘Sleeve’ Lamp by Sara Ebert

Would you believe that this eye-catching lamp was made for under one dollar? ‘Sleeve’ by Sara Ebert is a lampshade made from a Salvation Army sweater and a discarded apple juice bottle. Showcased as part of Pratt’s ‘Design for a Dollar’ exhibit at ICFF 2009, ‘Sleeve’ was crafted with an eye toward minimizing energy, labor, materials, and transportation costs and waste. It’s beautiful, smart, and straightforward–exactly the way good design should be.

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Pratt Students Design For One Dollar

Far and away our favorite exhibit at this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair was Design For A Dollar. With one dollar to work with, students from the Pratt Institute of Design in NYC were challenged to design something worthwhile. Through the design process not only did the students from the Department of Industrial Design learn the meaning of a dollar, but many incorporated cast-off items upcycled into new and intriguing designs. 80 undergraduate and graduate students entered the contest and 15 of the best designs were chosen to exhibit at ICFF this year. Here we highlight our favorites for their eco-friendly design, creative reuse and their affordability.

DRIP PLATE by Catherine Merrick
The Drip Plate by Catherine Merrick is an ingenious reuse of an antique ceramic plate. Originally featuring a winter scene in blue, Merrick renewed the thrift store find by dripping wax onto the plate and then sandblasting the rest away to create a new design. The diner will ponder while cleaning his plate, what the design used to be. The cost depends on the price of the plate and patience of the shopper.

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ICFF 2009: Highlights from the Contemporary Furniture Fair!

We came, we saw… and now we’d like to share with you our favorite green designs from this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair. This annual furniture fair takes place every year in NYC in May, and is always a great place to spot brilliant new designs and emerging trends in the design world. This year’s show was smaller than usual (due to the soggy economy no doubt), but that made the stellar designs from this year’s show stand out even more.

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Inhabitat Reports from BKLYN Designs 2009!

Yesterday morning, the Inhabitat team gathered in DUMBO for the opening of BKLYN Designs our favorite locally-grown furniture design show. In its seventh year, the annual showcase of locally-designed furniture provides visitors with sampling of the best in the borough. We saw lots of our old green BKLYN favorites such as Brave Space and Uhuru as well as plenty of exciting new faces and designs — and were especially excited to see what this year’s Pratt students had in store for us. This year’s show, while smaller than last year, proves once again that functionality, eco-sensitivity and beauty can come together under a smart designer. If you live in New York City, we hope you make it out to DUMBO before the weekend is over, to catch our BKLYN Designs Editors’ Choice Awards - which will be given out on our green design walking tour at 3pm on Sunday. To entice you, here are some of our favorite designs from the show…

And don’t forget to check out our photo album >

Hugh Hayden’s FUNiture Tennis Ball Chair

UHURU Booth 2009

Hugh Hayden showcases his colorful FUNiture

Recycled Sweater Stools by Sara Ebert (at the Pratt booth)

Buoy Chair by Evan Dewhirst (at the Pratt booth)

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BKLYN Designs Starts Today!

BKLYN Designs starts today!
BKLYN Designs starts today and we couldn’t be more excited! Running from May 8-10, this awesome showcase of local furniture design kicks off NY Design Week, and is one of our favorite events of the year. The inhabitat team is here right now, walking around the showroom to try all the fabulous eco-friendly furniture on display, so we can report it back to you guys this weekend.

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BKLYN DESIGNS STARTS TOMORROW!

HEY DESIGN LOVING NEW YORKERS! BKLYN Designs starts tomorrow and we couldn’t be more excited! Running from May 8-10, this awesome showcase of local furniture design kicks off NY Design Week, and is one of our favorite events of the year. We’ll be pressing our noses up against the glass bright and early tomorrow morning and - as soon as doors open - racing around to see all the fabulous eco-friendly furniture on display, so we can report it back to you guys this weekend.

This year at BKLYN Designs we’ll be doing something new: we’ll be giving out ‘Editors’ Choice Awards’ to recognize our favorite green designs from the show during our annual Mother’s Day Green Design Tour this Sunday. We’re looking forward to seeing fresh new furnishings, great green products, and energy-efficient lighting solutions, so stay tuned for more coverage to come and if you’d like to join us at the event you can pick up tickets here!

And if you’re not in NYC, keep it tuned to Inhabitat this weekend and next week for all the latest on BKLYN Designs 2009

+ BKLYN Designs 2009

+ Inhabitat BKLYN Designs Coverage

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SMART, ECONOMICAL GREEN GIFTS FOR MOTHER’S DAY

Mother’s day is fast approaching, so don’t forget! (NEXT SUNDAY MAY 10th). This year, if you are looking to save some green while offering thoughtful green gifts, we’ve got some great ideas for you! You can easily find environmentally friendly Mother’s Day gifts that won’t break the bank if you just shop smart. Try some of these eco-friendly, …

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WAY BASICS Eco-friendly Flat-Pack Furniture

Love the idea of flat-pack in concept, but think the reality involves a frustrating wrestling match with an allen wrench and a cryptic set of Swedish instructions? Not so fast! …

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Project Earth Day is TONIGHT in NYC!

CALLING ALL NEW YORK ECO-FASHIONISTAS! What are you doing tonight? If your answer is not ‘Going to Project Earth Day’ - it should be. This extremely fun annual event happens every year around Earth Day and features a runway show of established eco fashion designers, as well as an awesome ‘Project Runway’ style design competition between up-and-coming student designers.

If you’re addicted to reality-show style design competitions (and who isn’t), catch the action LIVE tonight at Project Earth Day! We were on the scene at last year’s Project Earth Day and made the above video to whet your appetite for things to come tonight..

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Test Out a Virtual Home Renovation in Comcast Town & enter to win a room-makeover by Inhabitat!

Contemplating remodeling but a little gun-shy about bringing out the big bucks and breaking into the drywall? Cable company Comcast has an interesting new ad campaign (yes featured on Inhabitat) that allows people to design virtual apartments in ‘Comcast Town’ with a fun assortment of chic, green, weird and wacky materials and objects. What does this have to do with cable internet, you may ask? We’re not entirely sure, but what we do know is that designing virtual spaces in Comcast Town is pretty addictive. And even more exciting than the pure fun of poking around in this mini second-life-meets-google-sketchup is the fact that Comcast is holding a design competition to find the best designed room — and the grand prize is REAL PHYSICAL room remodel — at your actual house — worth up to $30,000, and done by yours truly. Interested?

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Ninetonine Zebra Crib

Looking for fun, modern furniture for the little ones in your life? We just spotted Spanish kids furniture designers Ninetonine at the Milan Furniture Fair, and we are as excited as kids in a candy store about Ninetonine’s playful, eyecatching designs. The Zebra Crib, shown above, takes the form of a zebra with some extra functional design features, such as a ‘head’ that can be used as a tray to holds bottles, and a ‘tail’ …

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VIDEO: Project Earth Day Eco Fashion Show!

Calling all eco-fashionistas in NYC!The third annual Project Earth Day fashion show is set to stun this Thursday with a dazzling array of sustainable looks by the hottest eco-fashion designers.

Inhabitat has been a fan of this fun event for years, and at last year’s event we made a couple videos that we’d like to share with you. We’re thrilled to bring you two exclusive videos that will give you a taste of what to expect at this year’s show. Check them out and stay tuned for our coverage of the 2009 runway show and student competition which take place on April 23rd!

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Inhabitatshop Grand Opening: Blogger Contest!

Calling all eco-bloggers! The Inhabitat Shop recently launched with a fabulous collection of eco design goodies, and we need your help spreading the word about our spring green bounty! In order to get the word out about our new shop, we’re trying a new experiment and holding a green blogger contest. Consider yourself a trendsetter? Think your blog (or facebook profile, or twitter profile) is influential, and want to prove it by winning your favorite designer item from the Inhabitatshop? If so, pick your favorite item from the Inhabitatshop and blog it. The blogger (or facebooker, or twitterer) who sends the most traffic to the Inhabitatshop will win the very item they chose to write about - not to mention bragging rights as most influential blog in the ecosphere. Intrigued?

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Loopwing Wind-Powered Toy Car

Today’s tiny tots will be tomorrow’s eco designers, politicians, and engineers — so we can’t think of a better way to inspire the next generation to think about renewable energy than by giving them smart toys which use clean power sources like wind and solar. Loopwing’s clever wind-powered …

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POWERleap Harnesses Energy From Foot Steps!

Here’s a brilliant invention that makes us wonder why all city sidewalks aren’t covered in piezoelectric tiles. POWERleap is a floor tiling system that converts wasted energy from human foot traffic into electricity. The magic behind that awesomeness is piezoelectric technology and advanced circuitry design, which converts pitter-patter into power. First showcased in 2007 …

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HAPPY ECO EASTER!

We’ve been running green-themed Easter tips all week on Inhabitots, and figured today was a great time to share the bounty with all of you. From a how-to guide to making your own home-made Easter egg dye, to a kit to dye your eggs with vintage neckties, to chalkboard Easter eggs, we’ve got a …

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VOTE NOW In the Spring Green Design Competition!

Drumroll please…
After a week of spring crafting and much anticipation, we’re thrilled to reveal the top entries in our Spring Greening DIY Design Contest! We received over 100 inspired entries, and we were super impressed with all of your clever, skillfully executed examples of recycled and reclaimed design. It was a true challenge to narrow all the entrants down to 15 finalists, so now we’re turning to you, dear readers, to help us choose which designer will receive a grand prize gift certificate of $200 to the Inhabitat Shop and which three runner-ups that will receive an eggling of their choice! You can vote as many times as you want (limited to once a day) and of course we encourage you to tell all of your friends and get them to vote for you! So read on for the top 15 designs, and cast your vote today!

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LAST DAY To Register for LEED AP Exam in NYC!!

Calling all aspiring green builders and LEED professionals!
Today is the LAST DAY to register to take the old LEED AP exam in NYC. The new test after June 30th will be much harder, so if you are hoping to get LEED certified, now it the time to do it! The last day to take …

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EARTH HOUR 2009!

Earth Hour New York City!

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Is Dutch Fashion House Oilily Guilty of Plagiarism?

They say ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’, but children’s toy designer Rosa Pomar isn’t smiling about the recent unauthorized copying of her signature hand-made dolls by major Dutch fashion brand Oilily. Rosa, a Portuguese children’s toy designer, recently came across a doll that bore an uncanny resemblance to one she created and has been marketing online since 2004. Rosa’s bonecos (dolls) are beautifully hand-detailed soft toys made from fabrics …

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SPRING GREENING CONTEST: 1 Day Left!!

Calling all crafty Inhabitat readers!
Win $200 in our DIY Spring Greening Contest!
Our Spring Greening Contest is almost over, and there is just ONE DAY LEFT to enter our fabulous competition! To enter, simply send in your best example of refurbished, recycled, or reclaimed design. We’ll be featuring our favorite entries in an online voting competition next week, and the winner will receive all of the fortune and fame of being showcased on Inhabitat in addition to a $200 gift certificate to the Inhabitat Shop! So break out that dusty dresser or busted chair, give it a brand new life, slap on a fresh coat of (eco-friendly) paint, and let it shine for a chance to win!

The deadline for submissions is TOMORROW, March 27th at 11:59 pm EST

All you have to do to enter the contest is:
1. Sign up for the inhabitat newsletter
2. Send a photo and description of your project to editor at inhabitat.com

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Recycled Water-Bottle Lampshade by Sarah Turner

…

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Mercedes Announces Crazy Hybrid F-Cell Roadster!

In what is clearly an attention-grabbing move, Daimler today has just unveiled the F-CELL Roadster, a wacky-looking vehicle that is a ‘hybrid’ in more ways than one. Literally the roadster is fitted with a 1.2 kW hybrid drive – one that allows the F-CELL to reach a top speed of 15 mph and achieve an operating range of 217 miles. But the roadster is a ‘hybrid’ in a more metaphorical sense as well: drawing design inspiration from a diverse swath of automotive eras. The F-Cell Roadster provocatively merges design elements from the most futuristic Formula One racing cars with the most old-school, turn-of-the-century, original Benz motor car.

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Want to go to The Milan Furniture Fair for Inhabitat?

Calling all European design geeks!
We are looking for a few great writers/photographers/design aficionados who are planning to go to Milan from April 22 - 27 to help us cover 2009’s Milan Furniture Fair for Inhabitat. We had great coverage last year and want to scour this year’s event for the best and brightest in contemporary sustainable design. Planning to go to Milan and want to be an Inhabitat scout? Shoot us an email to editor at inhabitat dot com.

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GREEN RANT: Why Won’t NYC Recycle Plastic?

Why does NYC send easily recyclable PET plastic containers to landfill?
New York City recycles plastic - or so I thought! For the last several years I have been carefully scrubbing all plastic number 1 (PET) and number 2 (HDPE) containers (such as most deli containers that you get when you buy tomatoes or sliced fruit) and collecting them for NYC recycling. Just yesterday the superintendent of my building brought a giant bag of deli containers back up to me from the recycling bin and said ‘This all needs to go in the trash - NYC won’t recycle it‘. I stared at him disbelief until he pulled out a flyer from the NYC government stating that it WON’T TAKE ANY PLASTIC EXCEPT PLASTIC BOTTLES - even easily recyclable #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) plastic!

This news blew my mind - why would the New York City government waste a chance to recycle all the PET and HDPE in non-bottle containers such as fruit and deli containers? Especially when most other cities (such as San Francisco) DO recycle all plastics? According to the NYC recycling website, it seems that the reason NYC is not doing it is because ‘it is not worth the effort’:

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Bamboo Dinosaur Utensils Make Green Eating Fun!

BAMBOO + DINOSAUR-SHAPED UTENSILS = GREEN FUN for your budding little enviro-tyke. Does it get much cuter than this? Bamdinos are adorable dinosaur-shaped utensils made from 100% organic bamboo and natural cashew lacquer. Super …

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Modern Pippi Furniture For Kids

Like the charm of antique furniture but wish you could combine it with the chic modern convenience of laser-cut, flat-pack design? Pippi kids furniture from Ragnheidur Osp Sigurdardottir may be just your answer. These adorable kids stools feature the classic detailing you would expect in an heirloom piece, but pack and ship flat and are super easy to assemble.

READ MORE ON INHABITOTS >

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