Inhabitat » Sustainable Building

2009 World Architecture Festival Winners Announced

The 2009 World Architecture Festival took place this week in Barcelona, drawing great minds to discuss, learn, share and award excellent architectural designs and completed projects. This year’s theme dealt with how to achieve Less With More and the relationship between cities and architecture, with climate change and sustainability playing key roles. The winners of the festival have been announced and we want to highlight four of the completed buildings that stand out for their environmentally sensitive and sustainable designs. Read on to see all of these noteworthy buildings.

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Cité du Design: Solar Powered International Design Center Unveiled

by Bridgette Meinhold, 11/06/09

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

by Bridgette Meinhold, 11/05/09

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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Puri Indah House: Poetic Sustainability in Jakarta, Indonesia

by Evelyn Lee, 11/05/09

When Architect Adi Purnomo of Mamostudio set out to design a live, work, and exhibition space for a photographer/painter client, he knew that maximizing natural light would be a necessity. Purnomo also pushed his studio’s creative design process to maintain the temperature of the home’s interior spaces through passive means whenever possible. The resulting Puri Indah House features an intricate series of slanted walls that reflect sunlight throughout the day, while intermingled gardens and interior pools of water ensure that the house is shaded and kept cool.

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Elwood Green: 6 Star Sustainably Built Apartment Complex

High Density green living is on the rise in Elwood, Australia with Crosby Architect’s new Elwood Green project. Living up to its name, the high-density apartment building will house 25 units that are expected to receive an average 6-star rating – the highest honor currently available from the Green Building Council of Australia. What comes as a bit of surprise is the lack of active systems assisting in the green rating, which just goes to show that old ingenuity and smart design can create buildings every bit as sustainable as the most high-tech structures.

Garden Sheds Are an Explosion of Architectural Experimentation

Mark Twain had a garden shed; he called it “the loveliest study you ever saw…octagonal with a peaked roof, each face filled with a spacious window…perched in complete isolation on the top of an elevation that commands leagues of valley and city and retreating ranges of distant blue hills. It is a cozy nest and just room in it for a sofa, table, and three or four chairs, and when the storms sweep down the remote valley and the lighting flashes behind the hills beyond and the rain beats upon the roof over my head—imagine the luxury of it.”

But in recent times, the humble garden shed has become an outlet for designers to experiment in small spaces that often slide under the radar of zoning bylaws, providing extra room for study, relaxation or just getting away from everyone else.

COBE Wins First Prize for Bike-Friendly Norreport Station in Copenhagen

COBE Architects blasted away its competitors with a sexy and bike-friendly new design in the recent competition to redesign Copenhagen’s Norreport train station. Almost retro in its lines, the architects’ vision of the new station is composed of a series of rounded, floating roofs set upon striking glass pavilions. Since bicycles are a preferred means of transportation in Copenhagen, ample bike parking was a main feature of the new structure, and other green features will include energy-efficient lighting and natural ventilation.

Herzog & de Meuron Unveil New Miami Art Museum

Herzog & de Meuron recently unveiled their finished design for the new Miami Art Museum, which will be a stunning building surrounded by hanging gardens with tropical plants. Fit for a world renowned art museum, the new MAM will be three times as large as the existing building and will be aiming for LEED Silver certification. A fluid and adaptable interior layout combined with outdoor gardens and sculpture exhibition space will allow the MAM to expand for future growth.

Stunning Open Air Library Pops Up in East Germany

What began as an assemblage of 1,000 empty beer cartons pulled together by residents in East Germany has now evolved into an incredible open air public library. Designed by Karo Architekten in collaboration with local residents, the grassroots project revitalizes a post-industrial district in Magdeburg, Germany by creating a cultural center and pop-up library where books are free to take and leave 24 hours a day. Opened this past June, the project introduces plenty of green space and reuses the facade of an old warehouse to beautiful effect.

Bus Shelter Made From Salvaged School Buses

Decommissioned school buses get sent to the scrapyard every day, so sculptor Christopher Fennell created this brilliant yellow bus shelter to keep the spirit of these buses going round and round. Situated in Athens, Georgia, the shelter is composed of three iconic yellow school buses dating from the years ‘62, ‘72, and ‘77. To create it Chris carefully chose …

Kö-Bogen: Düsseldorf’s Green Roofed Crystal Complex

Daniel Libeskind recently unveiled his remarkable design for the Kö-Bogen, a new mixed-use development in Germany. Set in downtown Düsseldorf, the retail and office complex is crowned with a grassy green roof and is designed to fit in with the surrounding historic architecture of Köenigsallee Boulevard. This lofted space connects two city blocks and creates a whole new zone for pedestrians, shoppers and employees to walk, run and enjoy open space in the heart of the city.

Incredible LEGO Kitchen Renovation

A lot of us can recall spending hours upon hours of stacking colorful Legos into shapes and sizes that tickled our imagination as children. While some of us outgrew that phase, thankfully some of us didn’t forget the charm of the little Lego man’s smile or the amazingness contained within every little block. As Parisian designers Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosetti have proved with their chromatic Munchausen Lego Kitchen: you’re never to old to play with Legos!

Chicago’s Bloomingdale Rail Line to Be a Park in the Sky

New York has the High Line and San Francisco is going to get the Bay Line – both abandoned rail lines turned into public parks. Now Chicago is looking to do the same with the Bloomingdale Rail Line, a 3 mile section of elevated train track running east and west into the heart of downtown. Overseen by Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail, one of the design proposals out suggests turning the line into a 3 mile greenhouse and hydrogen generation facility, providing organic and local food for the community and creating a fuel source for Chicago schools.

Prefab Sustainable Housing Made From Recycled Shipping Containers

Shipping containers are known for their inherent strength, wide availability and relatively low cost — making them a practical and sustainable option for affordable housing. Last year, South Florida-based design, manufacturing and retail company, Envision Prefab set out to create a eco-conscious home, the “E-House,” constructed of sturdy cargo containers. They also wanted to educate homeowners about sustainability, so they recorded all the steps involved in retro-fitting shipping containers to construct the home and shared it with Jetson Green.

Habitat for Humanity and PG&E Support Green Neighborhood in Oakland, CA

Recently we took the trip to Oakland, CA to visit a Habitat for Humanity East Bay Project of particular interest for its pairing of energy-efficient homes with families in need of housing. What was once a deemed by the EPA and the Department of Toxic Substances as a blighted property due to its history as a battery salvage yard has become a sunny neighborhood haven for children to play and families to grow together. It was no small feat remediating some 300,000 cubic yards of soil and bringing in clean fill, but with buildable real estate and housing scarce, the effort is sure to improve more than just the site itself as happy families move into homes that they have taken part in building.

Design Green Awards Elevate Sustainable Architecture in California

The Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles recently announced the winners of the Design Green awards at a recent ceremony hosted by the AIA/LA to recognize outstanding work built or conceived by Los Angeles architects. Citation, Merit, and Honor Awards were given to six projects that ranged in size from residential to corporate, non-profit to civic and educational, with Honor being the highest award. From the diversity of the projects, it’s clear to see that California architects do more than just design green. With each year and innovation, they elevate green, exceeding our expectations of what a green project should be.

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.

REMINDER: Join Our LIVE Chat with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom TODAY at 12pm PST!

CALLING EVERYONE LOOKING TO GREEN THEIR CITY!

In less 4 hours, we’re going to be jumpstarting our LIVE conversation at City Hall with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and we want YOU to be there! This will be the exciting finale to our Green Talks series where we’ve been inviting you to discuss the hard-hitting green issues that matter most to …

Green Lighthouse: Denmark’s First Public Carbon Neutral Building Completed

Last year, we wrote about the groundbreaking of the Green Lighthouse, an exciting carbon-neutral building located at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Designed by Christensen & Co, the spectacular sundial-shaped structure was recently completed, making it the first public carbon neutral building in Denmark! The student services center will be showcased during the UN Climate Conference (COP15) this December, where it will serve as proof that carbon neutral buildings are possible with good design and planning. In fact, 75% of the energy reductions achieved were a direct consequence of architectural design, not fancy technology.

Taipei Pop Music Center Ever Changing Media Wall Powered By The Sun

Nabito Architects has proposed a fascinating new pop-art inspired design for the Taipei Pop Music Center that integrates a photovoltaic facade and a wall clad in LED panels. Depending on the activities of the Pop Music Center that day, the LED media wall can broadcast news, weather, advertisements and trailers for new events. Powered completely by the sun, the LED facade isn’t a drain on the grid when it lights up at night. Although just a proposal for the Taipei Pop Music Center Competition, this music events hall would showcase not only pop musical talents, but an innovative use of renewable energy.

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.

Sun Powered LUMENHAUS has a Shifting Solar Facade

The 2009 Solar Decathlon may have come to a close, but we wanted to shine a little more light on one of our favorite projects, Virginia Tech’s LUMENHAUS. Ranked 4th in this year’s Architecture category, the LUMENHAUS is named for its “power of light” attributes and architectural references to the BauHaus movement, and was particularly inspired by Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. Like its historic reference, it is comprised of all glass walls, maximizing exposure to natural daylight. The house features an automated “Eclipse System” of highly insulated translucent panels that filters the light using independent sliding layers, creating an ever-changing pattern throughout the day.

Icelandic Prefabricated Home To Remember Summer Days By

As the winter winds begin to blow, we’d thought we say one last goodbye to the things of summer by featuring Icelandic architectural firm Glama-Kim Architects’ modern, modular, eco-friendly summerhouses situated in the Western part of Iceland, in the town of Stykkishólmur. Project architect Olafur Mathiesen led the design, which boasts spectacular views of the surrounding landscape, as well as the use of readily available materials combined with the ease of construction and simplicity of design.

Modular Passiv-Haus Concept Offers Customizable, Net-Zero Home

This prefab concept house, Mini40, comes out of Austria and has a slant towards the increasingly popular Passiv-Haus design method, which promotes a very tight and low-energy design. Hailing from Innsbruck, architect Mario Handle designed this passive home so that it doesn’t require any conventional heating. In fact, in good solar locations, it could be completely off-grid, powered by photovoltaics. The Mini40 was also designed to be constructed with modular parts, and reminds us a little bit of Werner Sobek’s modular homes, although the Mini40 has a slightly warmer aesthetic. And with just as many variations as Sobek’s homes, including the Mini60, Mini80 and Mini120, the concept can be expanded to become a larger-sized home or even multi-family housing.

Biooctanic: Giant Cactus-Shaped Biofuel Towers

Biofuel is a sexy topic right now, and we’ve seen everything from crop waste to algae to even tuberculosis as possible energy sources. But how about whole buildings that can generate biofuel? While the idea is still largely hypothetical, architects like UPI 2M in Croatia are jumping on the bandwagon and coming up with fascinating designs for biofuel production stations. Their project, dubbed ‘Biooctanic‘, is a series of cactus-shaped biofuel crop production towers located in an urban setting at the site of petrol (gas) stations. The idea is that by placing these sci-fi-esque fuel producing centers at the refill locations, the towers can act as filters to help improve urban air quality as well as lower transportation costs.

The Kitchen of the Future Today

The kitchen of the future was going to be so high-tech. Frigidaire’s Dream Kitchen of Tomorrow had it all; an IBM punch card recipe file, automatic dispensing and online TV ordering. And that’s not all – read on as we take a look at several extraordinary retro-futuristic kitchens to see how they’ve withstood the test of time.

Tallest Building in Asia Revealed for Seoul, South Korea

A new super skyscraper has just been announced for South Korea and will tower over all other buildings in Asia when it is complete in 2014. From a global perspective, Lotte Super Tower 123, designed by Kohn Pederson Fox, falls just short of taking the title, and will be not the tallest but the second tallest skyscraper in the world. The structure will serve as the new corporate headquarters for the Lotte Group, whose subsidairy, Lotte Construction, will build it. Zoning has been approved and excavation is nearly complete. With aims towards LEED silver certification, the tower will have a strong environmental component and will offer Seoulians mixed-use areas such as shops, apartments, offices and a hotel.

Concrete Mushrooms: Transforming Abandoned Bunkers Into Eco Hostels

There are reportedly over 750,000 abandoned concrete bunkers scattered throughout Albania, remnants of Communist dictator Enver Hoxha and his policies of paranoid xenophobia. Now graduate students Gyler Mydyti & Elian Stefa have developed a plan called Concrete Mushrooms that would ‘invert the meaning’ of these structures by turning them into a network of habitable eco-hostels, cafés, gift shops and more.

Schoolhouse Rock Reaps Platinum Town Center

In California, one district’s fault is another town’s treasure. When the Portola Valley School District realized its mid-century single-room schoolhouse straddled the San Andreas Fault — known for its earthquakes — they sold off the site to the town. Today, that vintage property encompasses a super-eco $21-million Portola Valley Town Center that artfully balances seismic safety, community serenity and sustainable design.

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.

Rathaus Terraces: Mixed-Use Development for Medieval German City

Weilburg, a medieval city not too far from Frankfurt, has announced plans to demolish a parking structure on the edge of its dense core and replace it with a mixed-use development with retail, residential and park space. Recently they revealed this beautiful proposal from ACME, which won the all-important public vote and second place from the professional jury. Inspired by the nearby Baroque terraced-landscape design of the Weilburg Castle Gardens, the Rathaus Terraces will feature green roofs, as well as natural ventilation and daylighting.

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.

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Rio’s Paineiras Hotel to Receive Eco Renovation

With the World Cup scheduled to take place in Brazil in 2014 and the Summer Olympic games following in 2016, officials in Rio thought it was high time to revitalize the abandoned Paineiras hotel and turn it into a model for sustainable tourism. Their recently unveiled plan is a stunning green-roofed eco-hotel that makes the surrounding environment its highest priority.

Boedigheim Chapel Showcases Beauty of Local Materials

Hikers and bicyclists traveling through the foothills of Boedigheim, Germany now have a new place to stop, as construction was recently finished on this gorgeous Field Chapel. Designed and built by students at the Illinois Instiitute of Technology College of Architecture along with Ecker Architekten, the sunning open-air chapel was constructed entirely from recycled and renewable materials including locally-sourced and sustainably harvested woods.

SOLAR DECATHLON 2009: Cornell Silo House

Things really heated up this past few days as we inched closer to finding out who the winner of this year’s Solar Decathlon would be, and in the end Team Germany’s surPLUShouse stole the show. We were sad to see that Cornell University’s Silo House did not place in the top 3, but we still love this totally unconventional and clever home which held steadfastly in the ranks as part of the top 10 throughout the week. As a compact modular structure, the Silo House proves that impressive green, energy-efficient things do come in small spaces!