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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

Transport System Runs on Super-Strong Magnetic Fields

by Ariel Schwartz, 11/06/09

sustainable design, green design, green transportation, Novateq Guerrero SNL, magnetic train, magnetic transit system

Instead of moving goods on resource-intensive trains, Spain-based technology company Novateq Guerrero SNL wants to build out a different kind of transportation network–one that uses super-powerful magnets to propel vehicles. Novateq has already developed a prototype of its system, which uses Neodymium magnets, or rare-earth magnets, as a driving force. The magnets are 9 times more powerful than conventional models.

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Opportunity Green is This Weekend!

by Evelyn Lee, 11/05/09

sustainable design, green design, opportunity green, ucla, green design conference, sustainable businesses

If you’re interested in the intersection of business, design, and sustainability and will be in the Los Angeles area this weekend, we highly recommend checking out this year’s Opportunity Green conference! Inhabitat favorite designer Yves Behar will be on hand to talk about his FuseProject, Method’s Chief Greenskeeper Adam Lowry will be available to talk about delivering natural home products to the masses, and our very own Sarah Rich, representing Dwell, will be on the stage moderating a panel. Inhabitat readers receive a 30% discount by entering in the code Inhabitat30, so register today!

+ Opportunity Green

Manhole of the Future is Powered by Rainwater

by Ariel Schwartz, 11/05/09

sustainable design, green design, renewable energy, kinetic energy, manhole, directions, subway, bus

Instead of acting as one of the most bland parts of city landscapes, what if manholes served a purpose? That’s what designers Cheolyeon Jo and Youngsun Lee propose with their “Eco Sign“, an electronic manhole cover that gives directions to the closest train or bus stop.

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LED Sparks Create Energy Efficient Light Sculptures

LED Sparks Create Energy Efficient Light Sculptures

What if you could design your own lighting fixture in the time that it takes to unscrew a light bulb? That’s the premise behind Daniel Becker’s Spark system, a series of energy-efficient LED bulbs that can be linked together to form beautiful light sculptures.

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Garden Sheds Are an Explosion of Architectural Experimentation

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.

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Small Wind Turbine Flaps Wings Like a Bee

Small Wind Turbine Flaps Wings Like a Bee

The Birds and the Bees have inspired one startup to send forth a hovering turbine. Green Wavelength, “committed to finding ways of applying nature’s solutions to our man-made energy problems,” presented its xBee prototype to an entrepreneurial buzz at The Perfect Pitch 2009. This biomimetic windmill sports 19-ft. wings …

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Stunning Open Air Library Pops Up in East Germany

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.

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Europe Launches Satellite Able to Predict Floods and Droughts

Europe Launches Satellite Able to Predict Floods and Droughts

Global warming has dramatically increased the unpredictability of weather patterns, but what if we could more accurately pinpoint the future location and intensity of floods and droughts? That might be possible if all goes as planned with the Soil Moisture and Salinity (SMOS) probe, launched today by the European Space Agency. The $460 million probe, launched on a Russian rocket launcher from the Plesestk cosmodrome, will measure soil moisture, plant growth, and ocean salt levels across the globe.

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MOVIE REVIEW: The Yes Men Fix the World

MOVIE REVIEW: The Yes Men Fix the World

Spoiler alert: The Yes Men do actually fix the world– but only on paper. For years this two-man team has been pranking conferences, newscasts, and exhibitions by posing as representatives of the world’s biggest environmental transgressors. While speaking as DOW Chemical, they publicly apologized for the Bhopal disaster. While pretending to be from Halliburton, they demonstrated the Survivaball, a human disaster survival suit: prohibitively expensive and visually ridiculous. In a particularly complicated stunt, they created a fake version of the New York Times announcing everything from the end of the war in Iraq to the creation of a maximum wage law. They have provoked, embarrassed, ridiculed and shocked many captains of industry. Driven, ultimately, by the desire to address serious issues with humor and radical intervention, The Yes Men Fix the World in a documentary that pits itself against unchecked greed.

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Recycled Bowling Lane Furniture is Right up Our Alley

Recycled Bowling Lane Furniture is Right up Our Alley

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Bus Shelter Made From Salvaged School Buses

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 …

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Incredible LEGO Kitchen Renovation

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!

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Regen’s Giant Solar-Powered iPod Dock Pumps Out the Tunes

Regen’s Giant Solar-Powered iPod Dock Pumps Out the Tunes

Earlier this week, Regen wowed us with their sleek, modular iPhone charger. Now the electronics company is back again with another impressive Apple-related product: the Reverb, an eye-catching 3-foot tall iPod dock that blasts out the equivalent of 60 watts of sound from a conventional speaker. And best of all, it’s solar-powered.

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Savior Bud Device Produces Drinking Water from Tree Leaves

Savior Bud Device Produces Drinking Water from Tree Leaves

Drinking water is all around us — if we know where to look. The Giving Tree-inspired Savior Bud designed by Seol Ah Sun and Kim Hyo Jin is a portable device that attaches to tree leaves and slowly collects water. After four hours, a full cup of water is ready for drinking.

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

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.

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Fabulous Flatpack Furniture

Fabulous Flatpack Furniture

Over at TreeHugger we are saps for furniture that can slide under your door; flatpack isn’t just made by IKEA. Designers like Eric Ku are doing it with humor, inventing a flatpack alphabet – his Flatpack Chair is pretty self-explanatory. In Japan, Keiji Ashizawa channels Marcel Breuer with a steel flatpack cantilever chair that slides under the door. Read on for more examples of cutting-edge flatpack furniture.

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

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 …

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Pavegen: Energy Generating Pavement Hits the Streets

Pavegen: Energy Generating Pavement Hits the Streets

Any one point on a busy street can receive up to 50,000 steps a day, so imagine if you could take all that foot traffic and turn it into something useful – like energy! A new product designed by Laurence Kemball-Cook, the director of Pavegen Systems Ltd., can do just that. With a minuscule flex of 5mm, the energy generating pavement is able to absorb the kinetic energy produced by every footstep, creating 2.1 watts of electricity per hour.

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Join our Webinar With SF Mayor Gavin Newsom TOMORROW at 12pm PST!

Join our Webinar With SF Mayor Gavin Newsom TOMORROW at 12pm PST!

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS & everyone looking to green their city!

We’re thrilled to announce that we’re going to be interviewing San Francisco mayor GAVIN NEWSOM TOMORROW at 12pm PST, and we’re inviting YOU to join in the conversation! Mayor Newsom has spearheaded an impressive amount of eco initiatives in San Francisco and he’s also a forerunner in the race to be …

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3Prong Power Upgrades Any Prius to Plug-in Status

3Prong Power Upgrades Any Prius to Plug-in Status

Toyota is leasing 500 prototype plug-in hybrid Prius’s to lucky recipients in the U.S, Europe, and Japan next year, but what about all the other Prius owners who want to provide some plug-in juice to their cars? Enter 3Prong Power, a Berkeley, California startup that offers plug-in hybrid conversions for first, second and third generation Prius’s as well as the Ford Escape Hybrid.

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Hangeliers: Clothes Hanger Chandeliers by Organelle Design

Hangeliers: Clothes Hanger Chandeliers by Organelle Design

Clothes hangers are clogging our landfills at a rate of nearly 8 billion per year. We’ve recently brought you designers who have been developing brilliant ways to tackle the problem through eco-friendly materials and innovative new designs. Now industrial designers Alex Witko and Courtney Hunt at Organelle Design have hit upon another great idea — Hangeliers, wonderful chandeliers made from off-the-shelf plastic and wood hangers.

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Ridgeblade Wind Turbine Silences NIMBYs

Ridgeblade Wind Turbine Silences NIMBYs

Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing.

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Join our Webcast With Mayor Gavin Newsom Next Wednesday at 12pm PST!

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!

SIGN UP HERE TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION >

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Sun Powered LUMENHAUS has a Shifting Solar Facade

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.

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San Francisco Implements Nation’s First Mandatory Composting Law

San Francisco Implements Nation’s First Mandatory Composting Law

San Francisco already diverts over 72% of its waste from landfills thanks to rigorous recycling efforts, and now the city is set to cut down on trash even more with the country’s first mandatory composting law, which took effect yesterday. Residents and businesses now have six weeks to start composting food waste, plant trimmings, and other items. Needless to say we’re thrilled by this initiative, and we invite everyone to join us as we chat with Mayor Gavin Newsom about it next Wednesday in our final Green Talks webcast!

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Yamaha Unveils Slick EC-f Electric Motorcycle

Yamaha Unveils Slick EC-f Electric Motorcycle

We’ve see plenty of great green concept cars at this week’s Tokyo Motor Show, but Yamaha might take the prize for the best-looking two-wheeler with its new EC-f electric motorcycle. Designed to make motorcycling attractive to riders of all ages and experience levels, the vehicle features  a lightweight aluminum frame, a long-lasting lithium ion battery, and a 0.6 kWh electric motor.

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Fountainhead Reposited: Water Island is an Exercise in Filtration

Fountainhead Reposited: Water Island is an Exercise in Filtration

Synch your workout with a little river detox, then rehydrate with a cup of the fresh water you just filtered. This people-powered water purification island, designed by Jakub Szczesny as part of the Synchronicity architecture and art festival in Warsaw, Poland, hooks up basic exercise machines to kinetically pump polluted water through four filters into overhead tanks …

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Water Pumping Plant Renovated Into Gorgeous Living Space

Water Pumping Plant Renovated Into Gorgeous Living Space

Berlin is a burgeoning modern city with a compelling history, a diverse culture, abundant art, and distinctive architecture that rivals the likes of Paris, London and New York. But if there is one thing that can set the city apart from its pricey peers, it’s the unbelievably inexpensive property. Not unlike many of the uber-creative expatriates that have taken up residence there, two enterprising artists, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, decided it was time to purchase and renovate a place of their own. So what can $700,000 get you in a city like Berlin? An apartment? A loft? Maybe a small house? How about a massive water pumping station!

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Join Our Live Webinar with Boston Bike Czar Nicole Freedman TOMORROW at 3:30pm EST!

Join Our Live Webinar with Boston Bike Czar Nicole Freedman TOMORROW at 3:30pm EST!

Our Green Talks series of interviews with green thought-leaders has been a smash success so far – garnering hundreds of registrants and viewers from all over the globe, and we’re super excited about the next one, which is happening TOMORROW at 3:30pm est! with Boston’s Bike “Czar” Nicole Freedman. We’re beyond thrilled to announce this interview with Nicole, as she is the driving force behind the first citywide bike-sharing system in the United States! …

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The Kitchen of the Future Today

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.

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Concrete Mushrooms: Transforming Abandoned Bunkers Into Eco Hostels

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.

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ANNOUNCING: Our Annual Green Halloween Costume Contest!

ANNOUNCING: Our Annual Green Halloween Costume Contest!

CALLING ALL CREATIVE COSTUMERS!
It’s that time of year again when all the boys and ghouls come out to play – Halloween!!! With the big night swiftly approaching and not much time on your hands, it may be tempting to head to your local big box store and pick up a lame, generic costume straight from the shelves – don’t do it! This year, why not get into the creative fun that All Hallow’s …

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Mud Stencils Create Environmentally-Conscious Graffiti

Mud Stencils Create Environmentally-Conscious Graffiti

DIY graffiti doesn’t have to be ugly– it can be thought-provoking, challenging, and perhaps most importantly, temporary. Jesse Graves, an artist based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, has harnessed mud as an artistic medium to take his green graffiti to the streets, and he encourages others to do the same.

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Top 5 Incredible Retrofitted Eco Rides

Top 5 Incredible Retrofitted Eco Rides

We love seeing eco-upgrades that increase the efficiency of existing vehicles, but a select few are taking their customization to a whole other level. These cars and trucks may have slick paint jobs and fancy rims, but they also have some experimental features that are a far cry from your typical hybrid or biodiesel. Read on for our list of the Top 5 Pimped Out Eco Rides, featuring the most incredible souped-up vehicles that serve to promote alternative fuels!

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LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!