Just heard about the winners of the first phase of the competition. Great work everyone and good luck with the next phase...
"Architecture for Humanity New York (AFHny) announces a month-long ideas competition in search of innovative concepts for a new market place for the Red Hook Food Vendors in Red Hook Park, Brooklyn."
Continue reading "Incredible Red Hook Vendor's Booth Re-design Competition" »
Just ran across this ultra-mod orchid growing system and fell in love. Get one for the James Bond fan in your life. Not so sustainable, but having more plants in our lives is a good start...
"Breathe Easy is an aeroponic growing system designed to improve home air quality. It utilizes toxin absorbing plants that clean the air and add humidity. It also doesn’t hurt to bring some of nature’s green indoors too. The plants are held in place by magnetic seals in the top opening...As an added touch, a row of LED lights line the bottom for some nice ground effects."
via Yanko
This over at Ligature we are featuring award-winning designer, fabricator and educator Peter Benarcik. Be sure to check his work out, it's awesome.
Peter Benarcik has worked with nationally recognized architecture and industrial design studios in addition to developing his own multi-disciplined design studios. Peter’s current endeavor- Five Ply Design based in Seattle, WA- continues to focus on both furniture and architectural projects. As if that were not enough, Peter is also a Full-Time Tenure Track Faculty member at Bellevue Community College where he teaches various foundation and advanced design studios in the Interior Design Department.
read the rest on Ligature: Ligature Online
To view more of Peter’s work visit: http://www.fiveplydesign.com
Just heard that the first six, LEED Platinum certified homes in Brad Pitt's rehab project in New Orleans are now finished. The homes use sustainable materials and donated time and effort to come in under the symbolic $150,000 budget.
Congratulations to everyone involved!
Continue reading "Brad Pitt's Sustainable City Completes First Six Homes" »
The theme of this year's Biennale of Architecture in Venice, which opened on Sunday, is 'Out There: Architecture Without Building' so we thought it appropriate to review it from afar, from 'Out Here:' as it were. Curator Aaron Betsky has this to say:
"Architecture must go beyond buildings because buildings are not enough. They are big and wasteful accumulations of natural resources that are difficult to adapt to the continually changing conditions of modern life...Most buildings are ugly, useless and wasteful"
Hmm.
Continue reading "Top 5 Picks: Venice Architecture Biennale, 2008" »
Great article in the NYT on Wed about the small house movement. It certainly seems like its time has come. Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, weeHouse, and others are making their move and with great success. And while some companies would like to sell us the 'prefab' version of the small house, I am more interested in the DIY versions; a punk-inspired ethic using scavenged, used and abused materials and doing it all yourself.
Looking for something different for Fido's birthday this year? Well look no further. This custom dog house from the architectural duo 'Graypants' should do quite nicely. Taking their cue from modernism's spareness and penchant for glass curtain walls, the design duo has crafted a fabulous little abode for your pampered canine.
The BLOOM was one of my favorite contenders at the last Solar Decathalon and now it seems to have found a new home. The famed Texas MacDonald Observatory is the lucky recipient of this great structure, which, in its new environment, seems to be thriving:
From Treehugger:
"When we arrived, Sam pointed out that the batteries were way overcharged. Even though the state-of-the-art inverters are set up to divert the excess energy to the three hot water heaters and outdoor Dutch Tub (which can hold five people by the way), there was still too much charge in the batteries. Our job was to waste as much energy as we could to bring the energy stored in the battery bank back down to a safe level. We left the doors open, while we used the AC, the microwave, the full size freezer/refrigerator, the convection counter stove and oven, and we also had music playing through the giant plasma flatscreen TV for hours. Hap even let the on-demand water heater run for an hour to heat the Dutch Tub.
By morning, we were able to bring the energy storage to just above its ideal limit capacity. But by then, the sun was beginning to rise again and restart the cycle. Once the sun gets through its morning stretching routine, the up to 5 KILOwatts the panels gather, prevents any appliances from accessing the battery bank. At that point, all the power comes directly from the panels. Even the most wasteful occupant couldn’t use more than the energy the panels can capture. Did I mention the plug in electric cart outside? It doesn’t put a dent in the system."
Our friends over at Inhabitat have put together a great review of backpacks that will do everything hide your iPod to charge your iPhone. Can't wait for these to come down in price. Check out the deets here...
My favorite is the Voltaic solar, which charges all your gadgets, and is made of 100% recycled PET. Yay!
Solar week continues with this great project out of the UK which has the potential to actually reverse the devastation caused by current greenhouse technology which is depleting water tables around the globe.
The Sahara Forest project would marry huge greenhouses with concentrated solar power (CSP), which uses mirrors to focus the sun's rays and generate heat and electricity. The installations would turn deserts into lush patches of vegetation, according to its designers, and without the need to dig wells for fresh water, which has depleted acquifers in many parts of the world.
Read the rest after the jump...
As part of Solar Week here at (incli)NATION I wanted to have a look at the solar Prius. Well, it doesn't seem to be even close to production, and while I'm all for speculative technology, I'll need to be upgrading my Prius pretty soon. I found a couple advanced images at Road & Track and thought I'd share them here.
"As for the motor/engine, here’s what we uncovered. The displacement of the inline-4 will grow from 1.5 liters to 1.8, which will result in more power and torque. The gasoline engine will produce about 100 bhp and 105 lb.-ft. of torque, and the electric motor generating about 60 bhp, making the new Prius more powerful than ever. We hear it will run from zero to 60 mph in about 9.5 seconds and reach a top speed of about 115 mph.
With this extra oomph, one would expect the car’s fuel economy to suffer. Nope. Amazingly, the Prius will be even more fuel-efficient than it is now. According to our sources, Toyota has improved its hybrid system so the electric motor plays a bigger role when driving. Therefore, don’t be surprised when a slow drive to the corner market is achieved without using a single drop of gasoline.
Now here’s the real kicker. The price of the all-new Prius will probably be the about same, perhaps even lower, than the current one. Toyota is expected to offer three trim levels: base, luxury and eco, with the base model starting around $21,000. Of course, these prices are at the mercy of the dollar/yen exchange rate, so don’t take them to the bank just yet. What is sure is that the next Prius will be as ground-breaking as the model before it, and Toyota will remain the global leader in fuel-efficient modes of transportation."
After the Labor Day break, we're doing a solar week theme. Up here in the Northwest we tend to get as much sunshine after Labor Day as before so the theme seemed apropos.
First up, Roofray.com, a new site that integrates Google Maps to give homeowners a ballpark idea of cost/savings benefits of various solar options. Simple to use and fun, Roofray will likely put you off the idea at least until the up-front cost comes down. My system came in at 200K! and a breakeven date 20 years down the line.
Check it out here, http://www.roofray.com/
More good news for Seattlites; our South Lake Union Discovery Center earned an AIA/COTE Green Design award! One of ten awards given out this year, the Center is a model of green and modular thinking.
I love the design, and how amazing is it to be able to reuse these modules! Just unbolt and go, like an upscale shipping container, to any site you like. I read somewhere that an UW arch studio workshopped different ways to use them next and one group suggested upending them, transforming the horizontal into vertical! Just like playing with Legos back in the day! Congratulations to all...
From GreenSource:
“For moving purposes, Miller Hull’s team carefully determined the maximum dimensions allowed on the roadways to the most likely new locations, arriving at a 40-by-73-foot optimum bay size. Working with engineer Jay Taylor of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, the team chose a simple structural system of quadrilateral steel bents that could be fabricated offsite. With gluelam purlins supporting the roof, the bents create a clear-span structure in which a service corridor of restrooms, a catering kitchen, and a sales office sit “a bit like a mobile home” inside. The glass front slopes inward beneath deep overhangs, giving the building the feel of an oversized screened porch. The resulting quartet of modules easily bolts together at three joints to create an 11,000-square-foot building. Splice plates “zipper” the floor seams while the gaps in the standing-seam metal roof panels are bridged by a simple cap flashing. Mechanical units bolt to the top with minimal ducting routed under the bents.”
read the rest after the jump...
When we lived in Hollywood, I used to see the willowy Science Guy walking the Topanga Canyon trail with friends and dog in tow, so I feel a particular affinity, however unfounded, for Bill (we're that close) one of my childhood heroes.
If you feel the same, be sure to hit the interview over at TH.
From the interview:
TH: And maybe you can give us one great eco-experiment or investigation that you can suggest our readers try at home to better understand environmental issues?
BN: You know, I did some research into what were the most heavily traded commodities in the world. The first, of course, is oil… But the second is coffee, which surprised me. It’s not something you need, like wheat or rice, but something you can choose to buy… So I’d ask you to keep a running record of how much you spend on coffee and bottled water for a week or even a month, and compare them. It’s amazing what you’ll find… And if you can convince people to change some really basic habits you can really change the world… Just think of the enormous impact coffee consumption has on the planet.
read the rest after the jump...
Yes, he's a pain in the a**, but at least he's starting to walk the 'green' talk. Have a look at this rooftop wind turbine for residential use. If he can pull it off, even half of it, it will be his best work to-date:
From IHT:
"Take Starck's claim to have "invented a concept called Democratic Design," which, he says, gives everyone high quality products at affordable prices. Sounds great, but didn't the modern movement try to do that for most of the 20th century? And how can he claim to have "won the battle" by designing "a chair that sells for less than €100," or $157, when that's still too expensive for most people? Let alone the 90 percent of the world's population who are too poor to afford the basics? What has Democratic Design done for them? "Oh please, I'm not God," pleads Starck. "I'm just a designer, and I'm doing my best.""
read the rest after the jump...
(incli)NATION is: Daniel Flahiff, editor :: Dorothy D., Akira Rabelais, and Bryan Schultz...
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