As the trees begin to lose their leaves, once full and leafy branches grow increasingly bare to create suddenly spooky shadows in our windows — just in time for Halloween. Halloween is tomorrow and we’ve been admiring the green and ghoulish as well as just the plain weird. Take a look below for some of the best stories on Inhabitots and Ecouterre.

We’re curious to know if you would wear these LED eyelashes as part of your Halloween costume.

Sometimes a fashion faux-pas can be as frightening as a zombie, so take a look at these six howlers that will make your blood run cold.

We are seriously disturbed by these taxidermy accessories made of preserved rat heads, guinea pig feet, pigeon feathers and whole mice.

These spooky and eco-friendly lights are the perfect thing to provide light for your Halloween journey.

If you are thinking about doing some Halloween face painting, be sure to read this article about lead and other harmful toxins in paint.

And if you haven’t already, be sure to enter our Halloween costume contest on Inhabitots. There are great prizes!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: eco-friendly Halloween, ecouterre, green costumes, green halloween, halloween, halloween costume, Inhabitots

Pesticides. Genetic-modification. Mistreated animals. It could just about kill anyone’s appetite to hear about all the horrible news about food production. Fortunately, the emerging food revolution focuses on both health and re-establishing the connection between people and the food they eat (making it harder to abuse our food sources). Designers are both leading and answering this shift in interest. Philips Design has begun an investigation called ‘Food Probe’ that looks at current social trends and how this may affect the way that people will eat in the future — and how this will manifest in design. Their investigation includes three parts: a self-contained farm for the kitchen, a nutrition farm and a high-tech cooking device.

Read the rest of Philips Design’s ‘Food Probe’ Promotes Healthy Eating With 3 Concepts

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: aquaculture, aquaponics, city farms, food production, food systems, futuristic food systems, healthy eating, hydroponics, nutrition, urban agriculture, urban gardening

Halloween is almost upon us — and we hope that your’s will be as ghoulishy green as it is delightful. Not sure how? Well then, check out some of the best in green goodies for this Halloween featured on Inhabitots.

First, the costumes: Oeuf’s bat hat is an eco-friendly costume piece that will last even after the Halloween festivities are over.

But if you are looking for more, Oeuf also creates these wildlife-inspired animal knits for the adventurous child in your life. If your tyke is still too young for those, try these adorable hat & booties sets.

If you want to keep this year’s Halloween costumes DIY, take some advice from Vickie Howell or take a peek at Alison Jenkin’s book of wacky knitted costume designs.

Dressed up in cozy and eco-friendly costumes, you’ll probably want to treat your kids (ahem, yourself) to some Halloween candy , but if you’re not crazy about chemicals and artificial additives, try these healthier Halloween treats.

These Halloween crayons, perfect for creating spooky art, are the perfect answer for a non-sugary night.

Ah, and last, but certainly not least — check out these green options for stowing away that Halloween booty: a Jack on Black Halloween fabric bucket and ghastly casette tape sculptures that could make anyone squeal if asked to reach in for their treat.

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: children knitwear, costume designs, diy costumes, eco-friendly Halloween, green halloween, halloween, halloween candy, halloween costumes, halloween knits, halloween treats, healtheir candy, natural candy

The winner of the Solar Decathlon Competition was announced today — congratulations Team Germany! We’ve been following the competition happenings all week. Our friends have been as abuzz as us, and we’ve noticed that everyone is in a flurry of excitement about solar technology and energy efficient building. Check out what we saw this week!

Treehugger annouced the architecture and market viability awards on Tuesday.

GreenOptions reports on Steven Chu’s decision to spend an additional $87 million on solar technology.

JetsonGreen, our favorite green home expert, highlights the 20 beautiful, solar-powered homes of this year’s Solar Decathlon competition.

NYTimes comments that the students are proving that solar living doesn’t mean compromising lifestyle.

Clean Technica shows us 10 solar technologies to be exicted about.

CleanTechnica also reports that California will be giving more money to small-scale solar projects.

And of course, don’t forget to check out our coverage.

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "energy efficiency", built environment, energy efficient buildings, policy intiatives, solar decathlon 2009, Solar Power, solar powered homes, solar technology

Re-inventing ordinary street dividers and concrete balls, Liesbet Bussche creates larger-than-life jewelry pieces for the streets of Amsterdam. The Belgian designer makes small interventions to the street scape, a charm to a chain or earring backs to a concrete ball. However, altogether the jewelry can easily make any passer-by smile upon finding a serendipitous change in the uniform vocabulary of the urban landscape.

READ MORE AT ECOUTERRE >

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: art interventions, public art, public space, Street art, street scape, streetscape, urban planning

It’s finally the week of the Solar Decathlon competition! From Thursday, October 8 to Friday, October 16, 20 multi-disciplinary students teams made up of architects, engineers, and designers will participate in 10 contests to determine the winner. You can take a peek at each team’s standing here. Taking place at the National Mall, all the homes will be open for public viewing from October 9 to October 13 and October 15 to October 18. Inhabitat has been on the scene of the competition, so take a look at our up-to-date reporting today — and check back next week for more coverage.

We’ve also been scouting to see what the interwebs have been buzzing about the Decathlon:

Treehugger snaps some photos of the students re-building their homes on the National Mall.

CNET News takes us on a tour of the houses that feels like a tour around the country.

CNET News also reports that Energy Secretary Steven Chu plugged solar and building efficiency, announcing $87 million of funding for DOE for solar energy.

We also stumbled upon US Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon flickr feed.

And to get some in-depth perspective on the event check out our coverage of competitions past, take a peek at our photos of the Solar Decathlon this year taken by Jill and Rebecca who visited the National Mall this week and read our on-the-scene coverage of Rice University’s ZEROW House.

And remember — Check back for more next week!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "energy efficiency", "solar energy", energy-efficient homes, reneweable energy, solar decathlon 2009, Solar Power, Sustainable Building, US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

City governance and open-source programming never seemed like a likely marriage. However, emerging initiatives have been working towards it, and have received a boost of popular support through Obama’s call for open government. When NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg launched the Big Apps competition this past June, he invited individuals and groups to program applications that make government data sets accessible to the public — solidifying that technology can contribute to improved quality of life. Applications created in response to Bloomberg’s decisions will join the crowd-sourced initiatives that already exist in New York City, and already explore methods that can offer residents not only information, but a place to gain a sense of community, to exchange ideas and to visualize space digitally.

Read the rest of Crowd-Sourced Initiatives to Create a More Livable New York City

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: city planning, crowd-sourced, iphone apps, nyc big apps, open government, open source programming, urban planning, web apps

Capturing the usually short-lived moments of a blooming bud, environmental artist Richard Solomon’s Seed Orbs encapsulate Goat’s Beard seed heads in glass balls. As an artist, Solomon has worked with plant materials for 20 years — attempting to highlight their beauty while expressing the mystery of nature. Solomon makes the Seed Orbs by first collecting Goat’s Beard buds around the mountains of the northern Mexico, then as they are ready to bloom, he places them in the orbs, leaving them to bloom inside. The effect of the blooming Goat’s Beard bud in the glass is soft and delicate, leaving us to admire the diffused light and wonder at its ability to elicit ideas of mysticism.

+ Richard Seed Shaman

via GreenMuze

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: blooming buds, environmental art, plant art, plant material art, plant seeds

Last week, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG asked Mason White of InfraNet Lab for his thoughts on the growing interest in infrastructure and planning. White reflected that designers today that are looking to positively impact the built environment, and are subsequently thinking about the bigger picture rather than object-orientated thinking. So if you love architecture, and are curious about the larger systems at work at the city scale — and you want make sure it is environmentally conscious, take a peek at the initiatives and innovations that were covered this week below.

Mother Nature Network tells us about a program in New York City that will train building managers in the latest green building practices.

Good Magazine reminds us that there are several components to creating more livable cities.

Treehugger is cautious about a substance that enables concrete to remove nitrogen dioxide from the air.

Green Options says that England and China have new transportation projects: ecowordly says England has a dual plan that include bikes and trains. cleantechnica says China is funding a high-speed rail.

(Oh, and Happy Birthday, Worldchanging!)

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: city planning, design advocacy, green infrastructure, urban planning

For this year’s International Garden Festival at Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens, Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell created this garden installation called Dymaxion Sleep. The project featured a hammock-like structure floating above triangulated planting beds modeled after Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World Map. With scents of lavender, lemon geranium and peppermint wafting up the resters noses, the project is the perfect place to lounge outdoors.

+ Dymaxion Sleep

Via Pruned

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags:

A lush lawn can be a wonderful thing to stretch out on. Unfortunately, the high-maintenance needs, which include frequent seeding and fertilizing, of grass can make it more of a pain than a joy, leaving would-be loungers disappointed. Fortunately, grassy seating can put back some of the fun. The idea of creating seating out of grass is no new concept, as you may find with the lawnge chairs or living lawn chaise. In this formulation, the Floating Green, by Ling Fan, is a stretch of lawn that appears to have rebelled against horizontality by springing from the ground, doing an elegant twist and then settling into a vertically folded position to offer passers-by a place to sit.

Read the rest of Floating Green: A Grassy Bench

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "green wall", city seating, eco-art, environmental art, garden bench, grass mat, lawn care, shanghai art, street furniture, streetscape

For years, we have been trying to control our interior environments — by putting up four walls and a roof, and then by stuffing insulation into walls and painting coats of funny chemicals on the outside. Today, we know that environmentally-sensitive indoor climate control will require re-wiring of buildings and the way we think. Lightening a building’s carbon footprint is a challenging task, but one that promises product innovation and creative design. It all starts with baby steps, and this week we’d thought to highlight a few initiatives that look at roofs and walls.

Treehugger spotted PNC Financial Service’s GIANT green wall. Jetson Green says that the south-facing wall is 25% cooler behind the verdant wall.

Clean Technica tells us about a solar paint that could fight climate change even better than white paint. (Did you know you could volunteer to paint roofs white in NYC?)

Bus-Tops is a blog devoted to tracking the results of a campaign to beautify bus tops.

Archinect showcases a vegi-tecture project that proposes a vertical garden as part of a cathedral in Los Angeles, California.

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "energy efficiency", building renovation, Green Building, retrofitting, roof top garden, vertical gardens

For those New Yorkers who look forward to the first Thursday of each month for the DUMBO Gallery Walk, now there is even more reason to head that direction: the DUMBO archway renovation is complete! Although the archway has been open since the fall of 2008, the DUMBO Improvement District and NYC Department of Transportation recently invited pedestrians in to view the structure’s upgraded interior. Designed by Rogers Marvel Architects and Jim Conti Lighting Design, the “beautification” project introduces wooden benches, lighting, and street improvements.

Read the rest of DUMBO Archway Beautification Complete!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: dumbo art gallery, historic preservation, manhattan bridge, new york city department of transportation, nyc dumbo, nyc landmarks, public space, public space renovation, urban beautification, Urban design, urban revitalization

By now you have probably heard that composting helps make a garden green because it is an effective way to deliver nutrients to plants and reduce food waste. Previously we featured the Jarst planter, which makes composting food waste in your home easy with a side compartment that can distribute the compost directly to the plant soil. Here, we see this idea transform into something to fit the city scale. With Envi, industrial designer Julien Bergignant, proposes a concept for a city trash can outfitted to collect and then process public food waste, all while adding some green texture to the city landscape.

Read the rest of Envi: Composting Trash Can Provides Urban Greenery

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: compost, composting, guerilla gardening, outdoor furniture, street furniture, urban gardening, urban greening

Living in New York City, I’ve lost touch with the concept of affordable housing. However, after competition finalists were announced for an affordable student housing complex in the historic center of Athens, Greece, I felt inspired to seek out other exciting developments in the world of affordable design.

Jetson Green reports on net-zero energy homes nestled into an idyllic setting among evergreen trees and grasses.

gbNYC tells us that Connecticut is getting its first LEED-certified residential building that also happens to be the first affordable housing developing in downtown Hartfood. Woot!

And I am having mixed feelings about Curbed that Milstein Properties exporting their affordable housing development to Bronx and Staten Island.

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: affordable housing, Green Building, real estate development