Inhabitat

AIRCRUISE: A Fuel Cell Powered Zero Emissions Luxury Airship

In the hurried and fast paced lives we lead, travel can be just one more stressful, cramped and environmentally unfriendly activity. What if you could slow it down, take some time, and relax – all while aboard a zero emissions luxury cruise that travels not on the water but in the air?! That’s what London-based designers, Seymourpowell, are proposing with Aircruise, a solar and fuel-cell powered airship designed for luxury travel.

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IS IT GREEN?: Las Vegas CityCenter

The CityCenter mega-resort opened last month to fanfare, press, and a fireworks display fitting of a 67-acre 8.7 billion dollar gamble sitting on the Las Vegas Strip. The project surpassed its original sustainability goal of LEED Silver to score an impressive six LEED Gold Certifications (with another one on its way), and it was the recipient of the US Forest Stewardship Council’s best commercial project of 2009. However Las Vegas is a desert, and in this resource-constrained site we couldn’t help but pull back a bit of the star-crossed blinds and ask how deep does the green really go?

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EnviroMission Plans Massive Solar Updraft Towers for Arizona

Australia-based EnviroMission Ltd recently announced plans to build two solar updraft towers that span hundreds of acres in La Paz County, Arizona. Solar updraft technology sounds promising enough: generate hot air with a giant greenhouse, channel the air into a chimney-like device, and let the warm wind turn a wind turbine to produce energy. The idea isn’t new — it’s been around since the mid 1980’s — but it’s only now starting to take off.

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Tallest Building in the World, The Burj Dubai, Opens

Whether you love it or hate it, the Burj Dubai, the tallest building on the face of the planet and the one the whole world has been anticipating, opens today in Dubai! Standing at least 160 stories high (the final height will be revealed at the inauguration ceremony), the controversial tower does not eclipse the world’s second tallest building, Taipei 101, by just a little – it is actually at least 1,000 ft taller (about the same height as the Eiffel Tower). While we’re excited about the opening of this spectacular architectural feat, we’re still skeptical about the Burj’s efforts to green itself, as well as its elephantine carbon footprint.

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Themes, Memes and Dreams in a Decade of Architecture

The blogs are full of “best of the year” lists, but architecture moves more slowly – it takes a long time for ideas to get built, technologies to evolve and for knowledge to spread. Instead, we look at the themes and memes of the past decade of architecture in TreeHugger. From the rise of modern prefab to the growth of green roofs, read on for the most notable trends in sustainable building.

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Dubious Dubai: The Towers We Will Never See

One of the sad things about the recent demise of the construction boom in Dubai is that we will no longer have so many wonderful architectural renderings to show. Some come from talented starchitects jumping through architectural hoops; others like the amazing confection that was Falcon City, feature the Eiffel Tower, pyramids and hanging gardens of Babylon. Sigh, so many glories that will never be built.

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Could Encasing Cities in Giant Domes Be an Energy Solution for Our Future?

Back in 1979, Winooski, Vermont, a town that often experiences -20 degree weather in January, proposed building a giant dome over their city to help reduce energy costs and keep warm throughout the winter. Thirty years ago, we were experiencing an energy crisis with rising oil prices, and people were looking for solutions to reduce their costs. Nowadays, while we’re also looking to reduce our carbon footprint in addition to costs, the concept is still applicable. By doming off the small city of 7,000, Winooski could stay warm all year round, reduce energy costs and emissions, grow food all year, and ban cars inside the dome. Environmentally, it seems like it has potential.

What do you think?

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Cité du Design: Solar Powered International Design Center Unveiled

Situated in an defunct arms manufacturing facility in Saint-Etienne, the recently unveiled Cité du Design is a stunning international center for design. Designed by LIN, the project completely renovated the historic complex and integrated a new facility made out of triangular scaffolding. Powered by solar energy and supplemented by an efficient heating system, the energy efficient Cité du Design is a world class design center that lives up to its name.

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Taipei 101 To Be World’s Tallest Green Building

Taipei 101, famous for being one of the world’s tallest buildings, is set to get some major eco-upgrades in an effort to save money, reduce its impact, and gain the much coveted title of “World’s Tallest Green Building.” In 2007, the Burj Dubai surpassed Taipei 101 in terms of height, but the Taiwanese building won’t give up the fight, throwing down $1.8 million in energy efficiency upgrades, which are expected to yield $20 million annually in savings and make it the Earth’s greenest building that’s also closest to the heavens!

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James Law’s Technosphere is an Eco Deathstar for Dubai

Like an non evil, sustainable version of the Deathstar, the Technosphere by James Law Cybertecture replicates the Earth as a structural concept. Inside the eco-sphere is an entire world which serves as a vehicle to explore the issues of self-sustaining life on a smaller level. Although not nearly as self-sufficient as the Biosphere 2, the Technosphere is meant to reflect the state of our planet in current and future times. Proposed as an iconic building for the Technopark of Dubai, the eco-sphere would be a carbon neutral tourist attraction as well as a place in which to live and work.

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SOM Wins Competition to Create Beijing’s Sustainable City Center

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) was recently awarded the contract to create a stunning new Central Business District in Beijing. The project will integrate into the existing downtown urban district and will improve transportation infrastructure while introducing energy-efficient buildings green public space. The plan also provides a framework for new sustainable growth that would result in eliminating 215,000 tons of CO2 per year, which is the equivalent of planting 14 million adult trees.

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The New Bouwkunde Architecture Proposal Swoops Like a Skateboard Ramp

Back in 2008, a devastating fire tore through the Bouwkunde building where the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology resided, resulting in a loss of more than just a structure, but also a home base for many students and faculty. To put the tragedy in the past, the university set out to start anew with a design competition to rebuild the Bouwkunde that would focus on community, sustainability, and adaptability. One of the designs is from Adam Wojtalik for his masters project, and resembles the biggest skateboard ramp you’ve ever seen. His clever solar panel-clad design for The New Bouwkunde features well thought out work areas for both students and faculty and lots of public space for relaxing and meeting.

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Graft Lab’s Vertical Village in Dubai Has Spider Web of Solar Panels

At first glance, Graft Lab’s dazzling complex in Dubai may appear to have a cluster of sparkling geometric pools at its base. But upon further inspection, the web-like structures are actually something even more desirable than a place to take a dip in the hot desert – a means of collecting the scorching rays of the sun and transforming them into energy. Dubbed the Vertical Village, this multi-use building and accompanying massive array of solar collectors was designed to work smarter, not harder, which is expected to earn it a LEED Gold certification when it is completed.

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Solar Powered Supertower to Eclipse the Burj Dubai?

Even though the 2,600 ft tall, 126 story Burj Dubai is still under construction, a fierce race is already brewing to construct the world’s next tallest building. Recently Santa Monica building designer Tommy Landau threw his hat into the ring by proposing a super-tall 224 story skyscraper to be located in Abu Dhabi. While the building is years away from being built, Landau is convinced that by that time technology will be advanced enough to coat the building in solar cells and power it completely with the sun. Very apropos given the tower’s desert location!

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Songdo IBD: South Korea’s New Eco-City

Every country needs their own master-planned eco city. Germany will have aptly named ECO CITY Hamburg, the UK has Hanham Hall, Sweden has Super Sustainable City in Gothenburg, Spain has Logroño Montecorvo Eco City, and the UAW has Masdar. But South Korea seems to have two master-planned sustainable communities, we saw this super sustainable city by Foster + Partners earlier this week, and now we are taking a look at Songdo International Business District or Songdo IBD. This new eco-city will be impressive with its list of eco-credentials – tons of beautiful open space and parks, green roofs, solar passive design, mass transit and over 120 buildings built to LEED standards.

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Self-Sufficent Floating House Powered by the Sun and Sea

House on the Water by Poland-based Formodesign is a stunning floating home that relies on the surrounding sea and radiating sun to keep it self-sufficient in terms of energy and h2o. Accessible only by boat, the cantilevered home rests offshore from a beautiful beach and is intended to be used as a rental home for those seeking a life offshore.

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Top Five ‘Green’ Buildings That Defeat The Point of Being Green

It’s thrilling to see so many new constructions striving to be as eco-conscious as they possibly can, but beware. What looks green on the surface of things can belie another story entirely when you dig a little deeper. Here we reveal what we believe to be the most ridiculous cases of architectural greenwashing we’ve seen so far.

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Entangled Bank: Sustainable Urban Skyscraper for Dallas

Charlotte, North Carolina-based architecture firm Little Diversified Architectural Consulting has conceived of an incredible project that transforms a vacant parking lot in Dallas into a completely self-reliant eco-city. Dubbed the Entangled Bank, the project features a green-walled citadel emblazoned with solar panels, an agricultural field, and an extensive system for greywater treatment and recycling, providing its residents with sustainable sources for food, water and energy.

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Blue Crystal: A Sustainable Iceberg Lodge in Dubai?

Temporary ice hotels materialize each winter in frigid northern towns from Russia to Canada. As temperatures rise in the spring the structures melt back into the earth. Now Dubai is poised to get its first year-round ice lodge, Blue Crystal. And considering the amount of energy needed to keep a man made iceberg under 32 degrees in scorching summers on the Persian Gulf, it’s almost amusing to hear Blue Crystal touted as sustainable.

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Almeisan Tower is a Solar Concentrating Skyscraper

Architect Robert Ferry recently unveiled a stunning design for a sustainable spire in Dubai that requires zero energy and produces zero waste and zero emissions. The Almeisan Tower is a concept created for Za’abeel Park that generates all of its own energy using concentrating solar power technology. The tower itself is actually a solar power tower (much like Solar One in California) that uses heliostats positioned at the top of the tower to direct sunlight onto a central receiver.

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