For those of us not fortunate enough to attend the MOMA’s recent Home Delivery exhibition, Scribe Media has assembled an excellent video that takes an in-depth look at five of today’s cutting-edge prefabs. Chock full of interviews with architects and led by Chief Curator of Architecture & Design Barry Bergdoll, it’s a must-see for anyone interested in a current survey of the potential of prefabricated housing.
Wandering through the Australian Hills north of Melbourne, it would be easy to miss this deceptively simple, yet elegant house nestled into the surrounding countryside. But once you have reached this beautiful abode designed by Sean Godsell it’s hard to forget it. These hills are not just the home of this dynamic dwelling, but they act to protect it from the often harsh Australian weather and provide shade from the blazing sun.
Sustainable design greats McDonough + Partners will soon be bringing Cradle to Cradle thinking to a city often known first for its fashion: Milan, Italy. Their Isola Office building will be aiming for LEED Gold with a variety of sustainable building strategies including solar and geothermal energy, advanced insulation panels, solar shading, and a high-efficiency climate control system. The structure will be part of the Porta Nuova redevelopment, which will introduce 340,000 square meters of housing, community, commercial and government buildings within Milan’s center - it’s practically a city within a city!
The United States’ first net-zero community is coming soon to Arvada Colorado! Dubbed Geos, the development will employ a sterling roster of alternative energy strategies to cut its consumption fossil fuels and become completely self-sustainable. Lately we’ve seen a slew of similar communities springing up around the world, from Canada to India to Estonia and we couldn’t be happier, since it’s future-forward communities such as these that are paving the pathway to a brighter future.
Architects Gilmore, Hankey and Kirke of GHK International have submitted plans for this beautiful Ecolodge on the edge of the Hayle Estuary in Cornwall, England. The 30-room complex will include a restaurant, cafe and visitors center for bird watchers and eco-tourists alike. Featuring an unobtrusive FSC certified design with a living green roof, the sustainable center will blend into its environment with minimal visual impact from above and on ground.
Be it their biomimetic form, their integral strength, or the their beautiful visual texture, lately we can’t get enough of hexagonal honeycomb structures. The latest to catch our eye is the stunning Sinosteel International Plaza by Beijing-based MAD architects. More than just a striking façade, the building’s hexagonal curtain is based upon climate modeling and serves to regulate the structure’s temperature and daylight by varying the size of each cell’s window.
As of late, Seattle has developed into a burgeoning center of sustainable design with plenty of exceptional green architecture and design popping up. The stunning Mount Baker home is one more example to add to the growing green list. Designed by PB Elemental Architecture, the Mount Baker Residence is a sexy green abode that showcases some cutting-edge sustainable design technologies.
Often overshadowed in the prefab debate by their sexier cousin, the modular home, manufactured homes are not usually synonymous with sustainability or style. Until now, that is. Introducing HOM (pronounced ‘home’ and written with a fancy phonetic symbol), a new line of green manufactured homes, furniture, lighting and accessories for the consumer who cares about living lightly on the land, in style, and with a close connection to nature. Designed by KAA Design Group, a Los Angeles-based architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and branding company, HOM is sold as a lifestyle, not just a house, and proves beyond a doubt that this is not your average double wide.
As summer hits its stride and the allure of the outdoors arrives we’re happy to report that Method Home’s modern wood wonder has blossomed into a beautiful home. If it seems like a short while since we first introduced you to the “down to earth prefab” you’re right; construction of the cabin took just three months! Situated in Seattle, Washington, the home exudes woodsy warmth tempered by a refined modern form.
Juan Herreros Architects designed this gorgeous green complex to seamlessly integrate into the sweeping undergrowth of a forest bustling with biological activity. The verdant structure features an elongated low-profile layout to help it blend in with the treetops, situating it as “a new species that respects, protects and enhances the forest”. An excellent example of low-impact green architecture, the design recently took second place in an international competition to design a new building for the CEA Cadarache Research Center.
It used to be that Manhattan’s Central Park was reserved for leisurely Sunday strolls, ultimate Frisbee on the Great Lawn, and narrated carriage rides for out-of-towners. There was a policy to keep public art works out of the park proper leaving public spectacles to be reserved for ‘New Yorkers just being New Yorkers’ and the odd impromptu performance. Ever since Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s saffron-bedecked The Gates and now Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfalls, it seems as if the city is looking for creative ways to build up its financial reserves. We are not sure if Zaha Hadid’s latest Mobile Art pavilion (created as an homage to Chanel’s classic handbag) is the best way for the Central Park Conservancy to boost its programs and plantings, but in this new era of ‘bread and circus’ art and life on the verge of recession, who is really going to fight a posh take on an old classic?
Everything from buildings to resorts to cars to temples are donning the green mantle. The latest to join this list of sustainable structures is the Keilder Observatory in the UK. Located in Northumberland and designed by Charles Barclay Architects, this stunning structure stands an an example of self-sustainable architecture that is equally inspiring in both form and function.
Dwell and AIA teamed up to host the How Green Are You? Contest, meant to showcase green homes and renovations. As AIA says, the contest was meant to highlight the design innovations and sustainable strategies used to reduce carbon emissions, energy consumption and improve building functionality. Contest winners were recently announced and there are some beautiful home renovations. The winner of this competition was Ryan Walsh, of DRW Design Build, with his beautiful 1925 bungalow remodel called Recycled Aesthetic.
Solar power and windows make an ideal pairing of complementary technologies for energy generation, and Japanese manufacturer Nihon Telecommunication Systems is maximizing the potential partnership. The company is set to release a solar windowpane with integrated photovoltaic cells that will be capable of powering a computer and charging your cell phone.
Sheathed in walls of living green and resembling a pagoda emblazoned with a curving copper rooftop, this UniCube dormitory utilizes an impressive set of sustainable features to regulate its temperature, harvest rainwater, and produce its own energy. Conceived by Andrew Southwood-Jones, the design recently took top honors for Architecture in Autodesk’s 2008 Student Design Challenge.
Wrapped in a beautiful facade of hexagonal mesh, this Mobile Performance Venue cuts a striking profile while making strident efforts to size down its carbon footprint. Conceived by Norway’s Various Architects, the superstructure features an inflatable facade that is 100% recyclable and a collapsible design that renders it completely mobile, fitting into roughly 30 shipping containers. That’s an impressive feat for the largest mobile venue in the world, measuring 90 by 60 meters and accommodating up to 3,500 people!
Cabins are meant as relaxing getaways in inspiring location, like the mountains, woods, or the shore. Architect Andrea Salvini revisits the American cabin, with this updated version of the beach house meant for Fire Island, NY. Of his trilogy of projects on Fire Island, the most interesting is his Crab House, an “anthropomorphic” house inspired by a crab. The stilts raise the vertical cabin off the ground, in order to preserve land as much as possible. The front of the house, which faces the ocean, is almost completely glass with a large open air solarium on the top floor.
This week’s prefab breaks out of the hard-lined modern box with a beautiful soft-shelled structure that finds elegance in its simplicity. That’s right - it’s a Nomad Yurt! SoCal based Ecoshack has updated the ancient shelter with a modern construction that is light, flexible, and composed entirely of eco-friendly materials. The airy shelter is perfect for a summer’s eve spent stargazing, an impromptu backyard gathering, or anyplace that a peaceful private space is desired.
What if we told you you could own a piece of your very own tropical island eco-resort - and do so with an awesome Ewok-meets-Aarnio eco-sphere hanging treehouse? Not only is Our Planet Retreats building bubblicious eco spheres in the trees of exotic and far flung places, but they make owning one a plausible reality. Through smart design and creative, communal financing, this innovative company has figured out a way to help you buy in for less than a tank of gas.
Have you ever pedaled on a stationary bike at the gym and thought to yourself: ‘What if this energy I am exerting could be used for something better than just making me sweat?” Well now a new proposal from architect Mitchell Joachim promises to take all that energy expended at the gym to the next level, by capturing all that exertion and using it to transport people around the rivers of New York City. The River Gym concept is a human-powered floating gym that will provide the user with the one experience that no other gym can provide: floating your workout around Manhattan. Designed by architect Mitchell Joachim and personal trainer Douglas Joachim, this project could bring inspiration to both the morning commute and workout.
Herzog & de Meuron set about designing the Tate Modern Extension in 2006 with a modern, glass-filled aesthetic that contrasted the museum building’s origins as a former power station. A recently unveiled redesign of the addition has brought a pyramid shaped brick structure to this anchor point of the museum. The new program not only fits the museum’s needs better, it is poised to set a new standard for sustainability in the UK.
London-based Sheppard Robson architecture firm is bringing a new green office building to the shore of the River Thames at One Westminster Place in Southbank. With sustainability driving the design, the structure’s eye catching glass facade will reflect sunlight in a rainbow of colors creating a crystal like effect. The layers of glazing will also give occupants great views of the surrounding city, including Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge, and boost the building’s energy performance to an excellent BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) rating, the British environmental standard for buildings.
The Singapore skyline has been getting greener these days with new developments from some of the world’s most renown architects. The latest design to join the trend is a new futuristic green building from architect Ken Yeang named Fusionopolis. A research and development complex, this structure will adorn Singapore as the island nation’s most eco-friendly skyscraper.
Building reuse is often overshadowed by the long green shadow of new high performance architecture. But the intrinsic nature of repurposing and bringing second life to an otherwise discarded structure is a sustainable idea we can’t ignore, especially when it’s done as gracefully as this old barn redux in Belgium. Architect Rita Huys of Buro2 skillfully transformed this agricultural icon into a beautiful, modern dwelling known simply as The Barn House.
We checked in on the green rebuilding efforts in Greensburg, Kansas when Planet Green’s docu-series premiered last month. We found plenty of interesting developments, but this prefab from Studio804 of the University of Kansas School of Architecture is definitely one of the most memorable. Built as the community art center, this innovative building uses modular design with the length of long truck trailers as the defining width component measure - an outside the box thinking that makes larger prefab buildings possible.
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