Imagine building your home exclusively of salvaged materials. No re-mixed concretes or FSC-certified woods. Just metals and woods that have been discarded. That’s exactly the kind of home-building Dan Phillips has set out to do through his low-income housing initiative, The Phoenix Commotion. Out to prove that homes can be sound, affordable, and energy-efficient — even aesthetically interesting, Dan is on a mission to build low-cost homes with salvaged materials sourced from unusual places, ranging from flea markets to auto-salvage yards.

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Post tags: affordable housing, eco home design, eco-friendly homes, Green Building, green home design, green homes, low income housing, recycled material building, salvaged material building

Building a home in the desert is certainly a test of green building innovation — because in a climate where resources are limited, how do you build to ensure comfort and longevity? Architect Lloyd Russell offers a beautiful solution with his Austin Residence near Palm Springs, California. Besides its construction out of recycled materials, Russell gave serious consideration to the mechanics of passive ventilation the home during the hot summer months. He was also sensitive to the culture of the surrounding California desert when developing the home’s look-and-feel, creating a contemporary home reminiscent of an old West outpost that captures the essence of desert living.

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Post tags: california homes, california residence, california residential architecture, desert homes, desert living, eco friendly residence, eco-friendly homes, green architecture, Green Building, green homes, green residence, lloyd russell, palm springs, passive ventilation, Sustainable Building

The new year is the perfect time to reflect on some of the crazy and exciting accomplishments of the past year– and to think about the future. As you might have noticed this past week, we’ve been pondering our favorite stories we’ve run this year, how we could be more eco-conscious in 2009, and where 2009 might bring us in becoming a greener and cleaner planet. And in this contemplative spirit, we’d also like to share some of our favorite lists out there:

Archinect asked architects, bloggers, academics, Archinect editors, and others to share their predictions for 2009.

Jetson Green compiled a list of their favorite green homes of 2008.

Treehugger is looking forward to a year of clean technology and gathers a list of six tech start-ups to watch.

Cyclists are in for a wild ride! Designboom collected an assortment of the strangest bikes of 2008.

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", bicycles, clean tech, eco-friendly homes, green homes, green tech, green transportation, inhabitat blog picks