We’re psyched about the Greener Gadgets Conference coming up in just 2 days, and are thrilled to be able to give all of you a sneak peek by interviewing industrial designer extraordinaire and keynote speaker at the event, Yves Béhar. We’ve been long-time fans of Béhar’s innovative projects, which range from the Herman Miller LED Leaf Lamp to the Mission One Electric Motorcycle to his most recent tablet computer for kids that he’ll be showing at the conference. Check out the full interview where we caught up with him about his world-bettering designs, greener gadgets and what inspires him as a designer.
We can’t wait for the Greener Gadgets Conference next week, and the thing that we are most excited about is superstar industrial designer Yves Béhar’s opening keynote presentation on his latest tablet PC design for the One Laptop Per Child Project. Béhar is known around the world for his fun, innovative and humanistic designs for things like the Herman Miller LED Leaf Lamp, the Mission One Electric Motorcycle and the XO $100 Laptop for the One Laptop Per Child project. We caught up with him to chat Greener Gadgets and find out a little more about what inspires him as a designer. More after the break…
At Inhabitat, we believe that "good design can change the world," and industrial design mastermind and Fuse Project founder Yves Béhar is living proof of that. With a whole array of products that are both functional and beautiful to behold, Béhar has become an icon for thought-evoking, problem-solving design. That's why we're thrilled that he'll be giving the keynote presentation at this year's Greener Gadgets conference on February 25th (do you have your ticket yet?). Yves will be talking about product design, green gadgets, and about the recently unveiled tablet version of the XO $75 laptop! Read on for a showcase his most brilliant work.
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VIDEO: Boston ‘Bike Czar’ Nicole Freedman Talks Bike-Share & Urban Cycling
by Jill Fehrenbacher, 02/10/10For years, the city of Boston has been considered one of the WORST cities in the world for biking – with no bike lanes to speak of and crazy drivers. Nicole Freedman, Boston’s new ‘Bike Czar’ is hoping to change this with an ambitious program to overhaul Boston’s streets and make them safe and conducive for biking – even bringing the U.S.’s first urban bike share program to Boston! If you are a regular Inhabitat reader, you may remember that we hosted a live webinar discussion with Nicole on Inhabitat this fall, as part of our Green Talks series of video interviews. Our fascinating discussion with Freedman shed light on how urban bike share programs work, and how one goes about trying to turn the worst biking city in the world to one of the best.
Watch our full videos of the talk below to find out more about Nicole’s achievements making Boston a better place to bike, and her grand plan to try to make commuter cycling safer and more practical for more Americans.
VIDEO: Inhabitat Interviews San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom!
Inhabitat readers might remember that we interviewed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom back in October over a live webcast that was open to any of our readers who wanted to attend. The finale of our Green Talks series of live chats with green thought-leaders, this interview touched on subjects such as mandatory composting, electric vehicle infrastructure and political leadership in CA. Our interview with Mayor Newsom was provocative and …
Join our Webcast With Mayor Gavin Newsom Next Wednesday at 12pm PST!
CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS & those of you who want to green your cities!
We’re interviewing San Francisco mayor GAVIN NEWSOM next Wednesday the 28th at 12pm PST, and we’re inviting YOU to join us next for this live webcast conversation with the country’s greenest mayor! Join us to find out more about groundbreaking energy projects, mandatory composting, and how San Francisco got to be the greenest city in the U.S!
REMINDER: Live chat with Tom Hicks of USGBC TODAY at 2pm EDT!
CALLING ALL GREEN DESIGNERS!
In case you missed it – we’re doing a LIVE INTERVIEW TODAY with Tom Hicks of the USGBC, to discuss a brand new USGBC initiative to test and analyze the performance of ‘green buildings’. This is an extremely exciting BRAND NEW initiative from the USGBC, and Tom is leading the charge on establishing performance accountability for green buildings. For those of you who have ever thought to themselves: “LEED is all fine and good, but what happens to LEED-rated buildings after they are built and get their certification?” – make sure you join us in this Inhabitat Green Chat to find out more about this great new Building Performance Initiative from the USBGC.
If you want to watch the interview and participate in the chat, SIGN UP NOW to join us at 2:00pm EDT/11:00am PDT today.
Inhabitat Editor Jill Fehrenbacher Profiled on Mighty Girl
Hi Inhabitat readers! I’m the founder and editor-in-chief of Inhabitat. I don’t talk a lot about myself on this website, since it isn’t a personal blog, but for those of you who are interested in finding out more about me, I’m happy to announce that the Mighty Girl blog has just posted a funny and in-depth interview of yours truly over on MightyGirl.com, as part of a Gap …
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 …
VIDEO: Tennis Ball Chair Designer Hugh Hayden
We love being on hand for the Spring design shows because they offer rare up close and personal access to the designers we mostly admire from afar the rest of the year. This year, we were fortunate enough to score some face time with FUNature creator Hugh Hayden at BKLYN Designs. In between bounces in his whimsical chairs, we listened as Hayden discussed everything from the short lifespan of a tennis ball to how …
VIDEO: Inhabitat Green Tour of BKLYN Designs
It’s hard to capture all of the excitement of this year’s BKLYN Designs in words and photos alone – which is why we’re thrilled to bring you a video tour of our favorite green design picks from the show! Follow Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher and crew as they scout out hot new products and get exclusive interviews with the designers that created them. For more coverage of the stellar show, be …
Energy 101 INTERVIEW: IBM’s Drew Clark on Future Smart Meters
In last week’s Energy 101 column, we looked at some of the home energy monitoring devices currently available and explored the ways that they can help us live more efficient, eco-conscious lives. But with smart grid technologies rapidly approaching, a new group of energy-tracking devices is emerging. We had the chance to speak with Drew Clark, Director of Strategy for IBM’s Venture Capital Group, about what the future holds for smart meter technology.
INTERVIEW: John Viera of Ford Motor Company
Just yesterday we had the chance to sit down with John Viera, Ford Motor Company’s Director of Sustainable Business Strategies, to talk about how the Big Three manufacturer is going green. Viera touched on a number of topics, but we were most interested in what he had to say about Ford’s future in plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and electric vehicles (EV). Read on for our exclusive interview!
Objectified Director Gary Hustwit Interviewed by Dwell
Our good friends at Dwell Magazine recently conducted an excellent interview with director Gary Hustwit (of Helvetica fame) about his upcoming film Objectified. Whether you’re an industrial designer, a design junkie, or just eagerly anticipating the coming film (we are!), their extended conversation offers an insightful look at the nature of good design, the objects we use everyday, and the current state of industrial design.
Check out the …
Jill Fehrenbacher and Inhabitat in Domino Magazine!
With Spring finally starting to spring, we are excited to announce that Domino Magazine has just published a feature story on our Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher. The April issue of Domino – the guide to living with style – is tinged with green as Earth Day approaches and that’s where Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher makes an appearance in the monthly My Green Life feature. Decked out in sustainable style favorites like Mika Machida and Veja, she talks about living green in NYC and her vision of the perfect way to spend April 22, 2008.
INTERVIEW: Mark Wigley on Greening Architecture Schools
Buildings account for almost half (48%) of all greenhouse-gas emissions annually.
This oft-repeated statistic highlights what many architects and designers have long realized: The building industry has a profound impact on the state of our environment. But is environmental awareness really making enough inroads into the curriculum of design schools, in the places where it could potentially have the most impact on the future of the industry? As a graduate student in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), I am both concerned and optimistic about the changes I see taking place in architecture academia. While environmental design isn’t nearly as entrenched as it should be into the core curriculums of design schools, students seem to be clamoring to learn more about this topic and are demanding new classes and are shaping their own academic paths. Recently I sat down with Mark Wigley, dean of Columbia’s GSAPP, to talk about the changes currently taking place within architecture schools to address the growing concern of sustainability. Read on to hear what Mark Wigley has to say about sustainable design….
PREFAB FRIDAY: Michelle Kaufmann mkLotus VIDEO!
At the recent West Coast Green conference in San Francisco, we were lucky enough to not only get a sneak peek of the new Michelle Kaufmann mkLotus prefab house, but also to speak with the designer herself to get the low-down on the sleekly-designed zero energy home. Check out the video to learn all the details about the energy, water, and materials packed into this compact sustainable home.
VIDEO: Tom Dixon on Sustainable Design
Tom Dixon, design pioneer and all around renaissance man, was one of the big hits of the recent HauteGREEN festivities, where he spoke about issues, concerns and contradictions in sustainable design, including materials, production, recycling and economics. Thanks to the video producers of Scribemedia, we have a great video of his conversation with design journalist Julie Taraska, in which he discusses his own work, sustainability, and his brilliant new Second Cycle initiative for Artek.
This video is just a quick snapshot of his thought-provoking talk. For those of you who are interested, watch the entire, unabridged version here at Scribemedia >
INTERVIEW: YVES BEHAR ON SUSTAINABILITY
The designer behind the One Laptop Per Child Project, Yves Behar is truly a world-class designer, balancing aesthetics, function, and socially-based initiatives. Founder and principal designer of FuseProject, he also happens to be the Chair of the Industrial Design Department at San Francisco’s California College of the Arts. Recently, he facilitated a design studio in which Industrial Design students partnered with South Korean cell phone manufacturer Pantech to design new cell-phone models, taking on the future of mobile communications and addressing the idea of emotional networking. I had a chance to speak to Yves about the studio, sustainability, and more…
INTERVIEW WITH CIVIL TWILIGHT
Last week, we mentioned Civil Twilight’s lunar-resonant streetlighting, a project that won the top honor from Metropolis Magazine’s Next Generation contest this year. But we were pleased (but not surprised) to discover that this project is just the tip of the iceberg; the Bay Area-based collective has a slew of other equally-engaging projects in the works (including the mycofarmhouse, in which mushrooms break down and recycle wood-frame buildings). They describe their design process as “brilliant simplicity, across scales and media.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Read on for some more info about their winning streetlights, other projects, their approach to sustainability, and the trio of talent that is Civil Twilight:
On sustainability: “While we feel a sense of responsibility, we aren’t motivated by a grudging sense of duty or ideology, but rather by a general sense of wonder in the world. We try to instill that sense of amazement through our projects—the idea that sustainable design could mean a moonlit walk in the park.”
INTERVIEW: Designer Fumi Masuda
Japanese designer Fumi Masuda, whose Pile Chair was featured this morning, was recently in São Paulo, Brazil to give a lecture about sustainable design. He also conducted workshops involving Brazilian and Japanese design students and some members of Coopamare, a group of people that earn their bread collecting used papers from the street to sell for the recycling industry. I had the chance to talk to Fumi before the lecture. He told me a little bit about his history and offered some interesting perspectives on the sustainable design market…
MARK WIGLEY Interview from BLDGBLOG
Our friend Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG recently published this fascinating interview with Columbia’s dean Mark Wigley. In case you aren’t familiar, Mark Wigley is Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University (architecture school of Inhabitat’s Founder, Jill Fehrenbacher). He is also the author of Constant’s New Babylon and The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida’s Haunt, among others, and co-founder of Volume magazine. The interview focuses mostly on Volume, but also touches on sustainability, architectural education, and more. Check it out…
INTERVIEW WITH TOBY LONG: Living Classroom
As a follow-up to our previous Toby Long interview, we thought it fitting to highlight one particular (and very exciting) community-based green building project that Toby and Clever Homes have been working on in San Francisco’s Hunter Point neighborhood. Breaking ground within the next few months, the Living Classroom is a community building that will house a variety of programs put forth by LEJ (Literacy for Environmental Justice), a non-profit organization supporting urban environmental education and youth empowerment in the Bayview/Hunters Point area.
INTERVIEW: Cameron Sinclair, Open Architecture Network
A few weeks ago, I sat down with Cameron Sinclair to talk about his recently-launched Open Architecture Network. He describes it as a “gift to the design community” with a simple mission: “to generate design opportunities that will improve living standards for all” by providing an open-source platform through which ANYone can view, post, share, and adapt sustainable, humanitarian-based, scalable solutions. The idea that designs and all associated documents can and should be shared within the decidedly proprietary architectural industry is truly innovative, and could very well aid in the reshaping of the entire architectural profession into a more socially-focused and responsible vocation. Read on for a full transcription of the interview and a video of Cameron at last year’s TED conference.
SHIGERU BAN TV
Our favorite “light-on-the-eath” architect, Shigeru Ban, appears in a DesignBoom video interview discussing his latest venture in sustainable design: the Artek pavillion.
INTERVIEW: Ed Mazria from Architecture 2030
[Image: Ed Mazria, photographed by Doug Hoeschler for Metropolis].
Last year, Ed Mazria and his New Mexico-based non-profit organization, Architecture 2030, released the 2030 Challenge to get the building industry completely carbon neutral by the year 2030.
Buildings are the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions, worldwide. As Mazria states in the following interview: “48% of total US energy consumption… can be attributed to the building sector, most of which… can be attributed just to building operations.” By 2030, to prevent “catastrophic” climate change, the building sector must become carbon neutral ‐ reaching that state is the 2030 Challenge. If this sounds impossible, Architecture 2030 reminds us that “these targets are readily achievable.”
PREFAB FRIDAY: Interview with Leo Marmol
At the recent Dwell On Design conference in Palm Springs, I had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner about prefab architecture and sustainability. I asked him about his trajectory as a designer, and what opportunities he sees for prefab to have a larger impact on a wider, more affordable market. His response was thoughtful and optimistic, and provided some great insight into the mind of a forward-thinking and increasingly green designer.
Click on the image above to watch the interview or read below for the full interview transcription.
PREFAB FRIDAY: Interview with JENNIFER SIEGAL
We love the work of Jennifer Siegal’s Office of Mobile Design, and at this past weekend’s Dwell On Design conference in Palm Springs, I had the opportunity to talk to her in person about green architecture and her prefab designs. The recent completion of her ShowHouse serves as a great example of efficiently and effectively executed prefab construction combined with a seamless integration of green materials and technologies.
Watch the video here or read on for the interview transcription.
INTERVIEW: Workshop APD’s Sustainable New Orleans
Back in late August, Global Green and Brad Pitt announced the winners of the Global Green Sustainable Design Competition For New Orleans. The winning proposal, titled GreeNOLA and submitted by Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop APD, calls for six houses and two multifamily units which employ energy-efficient appliances, solar power, and recycled building materials, as well as providing social services like child care and a community garden. Workshop APD’s proposal is designed to cut pollution and decrease operating energy use by 50-60 percent, compared to traditional homes. The success of the GreeNOLA design is its seemless integration of cutting edge green technology with the traditional building wisdom of the region. This combination creates healthy and affordable new residences for displaced residents of New Orleans. Groundbreaking of the new complex starts this January.
I sat down with the two architects to discuss their winning design proposal for rebuilding in New Orleans….
ECOBROKER: Interview with John Beldock
As a follow up to this summer’s Green Building 101 series, we thought we’d take a look at ways to locate green homes that have already been built. We’ve covered lots of strategies that go into sustainable home design and construction, but how can you find a green home in your area? And how can we raise the demand for these properties?
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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