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NeighborGoods: Your New Virtual Tool Shed

by Mike Chino, 11/06/09

sustainable design, green design, neighborgoods, borrowing service, lending, community, social networking

Practically every household in America has its own tool set, drill, and ladder… but why? Most people don’t use these things on a daily basis, and due to their hardworking heritage these items tend to last forever; when’s the last time you wore out a hammer? Enter NeighborGoods, a service that seeks to cut down on redundant consumption and save households the cost of buying their own toolshed by enabling networks of borrowers. Perfect for those times when you need a drill for a day, or a saw for a few hours — plus you’ll actually have a chance to meet your neighbors and benefit your community. NeighborGoods was recently launched publicly in Los Angeles, and we hope to see borrowing hubs popping up everywhere in the months to come.

+ NeighborGoods

Schoolhouse Rock Reaps Platinum Town Center

by Kevin Gardner, 10/20/09

sustainable design, green design, leed platinum, sustainable architecture, green building, portrero center, siegel & strain architects

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.

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Are Ocean Societies the New Frontier for Sustainable Living?

by Lea Bogdan, 07/09/09

sesu seastead, ocean living, innovation, self sufficient, Marko Järvela, design competition, seasteading, modular platforms, hydrodynamics, new frontiers

Could the middle of the ocean offer sustainable dwelling places for mankind in the future? Estonian architect Marko Järvela of Hirvesoo Arhitektibüroo, winner of the aesthetics category in the first design competition for seasteading, believes that sustainable water-locked living could in fact become a wonderful reality. He saw designing “SESU Seastead” (short for SElf-SUstained seastead), as an opportunity to find the reality in ideas that are “balancing at the edge of utopian.” Järvela says that his winning design for a mini-society in the ocean is based on a self-sufficient lifestyle that requires a rearrangement of priorities.

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