Published on November 4th, 2009
Taipei Pop Music Center has opened up an amazing architecture design competition for it’s new building. Nabito Architects has drafted and shared their vision of the new Taipei Pop Music Center composed of a “photovoltaic screen and a wall of LED panels”
The screen of the Pop Music Center may:
- have a LED media wall reporting news, weather, event info and ads.
- be powered entirely by the sun and set an example for green energy in the city of Taipei
- include photovoltaic cell technology, with an LED wall
- have controls set by a central computer, to show all events scheduled and more
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Published on June 4th, 2009
Steel is just about the most recyclable building material on earth. You could be well reading this in an office building built with steel originally smelted from iron in Julius Caesars day.
So it makes good green sense to build eco prefab houses with steel…
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Published on May 3rd, 2009
Inhabitat shares a great set of stories on Alive Structures: a Brooklyn based green roofing collective. Together, with the most creative native gardeners in the city, Alive Structures will be giving tours of their rooftop gardens at NYC wildflower week. All those in the greater New York area make sure to stop by to explore this exciting dimension of the greening of cities.
City roof gardens create a nice natural habitat for pollinators and migrating species, and additionally “they provide open green spaces for property owners and the public to enjoy.” Green roofs are known to improve air and water quality, lessen storm-water runoff, lower building energy consumption, and reduce urban heat island affect.
Green roofs are constructed as a series of layers including:
- a waterproof membrane
- a root barrier
- drainage mat
- an erosion control fabric
- lightweight engineered soil, and vegetation.
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Published on April 26th, 2009
The GreenRoofs.org “Green Roofs for Healthy Cities” Conference is on the horizon in Atlanta this coming June 2009! It is just ideal for:
- those interested in creating Green Roofs.
- studying the future of Vertical Gardens/Green Walls.
- raising awareness for green roofs and living walls (vertical gardens).
- engineers, architects, landscape architects, landscape designers, property managers, developers, roofing contractors, and students.
- anyone interested who wants a 2-day crash course in green roofs and all the beautiful benefits they bring to cities.
- creative city gardeners of all sorts.
“Green roofs are an important component of green infrastructure. They provide valuable public benefits related to stormwater management, reduction of the urban heat island, improvement of air quality (including removal of particulate matter), and general improvement of the quality of life in communities.” ~GreenRoofs.org
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Published on February 28th, 2009
Now that we are all in danger of losing our homes, and the young are so burdened by their unthinkably immense college loans, perhaps we need to find out how to build with absolutely nothing down.
Who better to show us how to DIY on a budget of zilch, than the homeless builders of Berkeley who created the innovative squatters park made famous by the documentary movie Bums Paradise.
Here’s another way to build with no money down, no mortgage, no credit, and —no cash.
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Published on February 6th, 2009
Shown below is another rendering of a winning design for Bird Island called the Rafflesia House.
While it is intentionally named, it “unintentionally looks like the Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world and a native to the rainforests of Malaysia. (Rafflesia used to be Malaysian national symbol, but it is now replaced by Petronas Towers.)
The Rafflesia develops from the bud into a flower over a period of nine months. The blossom is pollinated by flies attracted by its scent, which resembles that of the carcass. The flower lasts for only a few days. Rafflesia challenges traditional definitions of what a plant is because it lacks chlorophyll and is therefore incapable of photosynthesis. Rafflesia is a parasite. It did not begin its life as a parasite, but evolved this lifestyle. Biologists do not know what the Rafflesia’s function is in its ecosystem. This mystery incites one of the most elementary questions: What is the function of the humans in the world’s ecosystem?“
The award winning Rafflesia House shown above is a spectacular study of the human habitat evolving and becoming an integrated part of its tropical, urban, and site-specific ecosystem. The architects, designers and builders “searched and re-examined the ideas of the right balance between the connection of the building to the outside and the shelter the building provides from the outside elements: plants, creatures, rain, sun, wind, or heat.”
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Published on November 20th, 2008
Follow Philly’s Postgreen as they attempt to build a modern green home for $100,000.
Just over a year ago, Philadelphia developer Postgreen undertook an ambitious project, to build a modern green home for $100,000. Not only are they seeking to shatter the myth that green homes are unaffordable, but they are documenting every step on their site, 100KHouse.com. Located in the New Kensington area of Philadelphia, the house will be a roughly 1,000 square foot two bedroom one and a half bath modern style home - and will not be a prefab; rather it is being built from the ground up according to LEED for Homes guidelines using such affordable energy saving materials as SIPs (structurally insulated panels.)
Documenting the progress of the 100K House are Postgreen President Chad Ludeman and PR Director Nic Darling. Both are convinced that affordable green building is not only possible, but necessary to bring about true environmental change. Their blog posts are not limited to the progress of the 100K House; they write about a range of interesting green topics. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on October 28th, 2008
Smaller homes are energy efficient, use less materials, and take up less land. But how do you make a 1200-1500 square foot home on a small lot appealing for a buyer?
Forest Creek Development in Parrish, Florida has discovered the secret. Their cottage program offers homes no larger than 1600 square feet, all on lots that are 27 feet wide. And, they are selling like hotcakes!
Here are some ideas on how to design a small home that has market appeal:
1. “Let the light in” - Window walls and windows set high up on the wall let in lots of light, allow the placement of furniture, and make the spaces seem larger.
2. “Make the indoors private” - Placement of windows is key when homes are so close together (as close as one foot in Forest Creek). Stagger window placement in each house so no one has to worry about being looked in on.
3. “Reserve outdoor space that’s private” - High outside walls allow families to have privacy in their yards, as well as their houses.
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Published on October 9th, 2008
It is hard to believe, but the City of New York has implemented plans to renovate a former landfill into a city park. This is quite an endeavor, and certainly a model for site restoration.
The Fresh Kills Landfill was established in 1948, and was the principal dumping site for the City of New York. It even had the dubious distinction of being the largest landfill in the world! The site was closed in March of 2001, until 9/11, when it was reopened for ten months to receive debris from the World Trade Centers.
The current master plan incorporates several programming elements, including athletic fields, horseback riding, mountain biking, nature trails, and large-scale art exhibits. It will also host a variety of wildlife and native plants, and provide amenities for nature viewing. The park campus will be broken up into five smaller sections, each providing many opportunities for the public to use its various resources. The entire project is expected to take 30 years, and will be split into three 10-year phases.
This is a monumental project, which will hopefully spur other communities to look at how they can take what may be considered “contaminated” sites and turn them back to nature.
For more information, visit the Fresh Kills Park website. You can even sign up for a newsletter to track the progress of the development.
Published on August 28th, 2008
Sprawl is a constant issue at the outside periphery of every city in the country. Although matters have abated temporarily in the midst of the housing and mortgage crunch, new construction continues to decimate the countryside at further distances away from the city centers. However, the state of California is weighing a measure in the state legislature that might help curtail the growth of exurban sprawl developments.
The extension of suburbs further and further out from the core of businesses and services not only consumes acres of land, with its attendant loss of woods, fields, wetlands, farmland, and animal habitat, but it also requires miles of pavement, and the attendant infrastructure (sewers, phone and power lines, etc.) to support the new development. Residents of these displaced communities are forced to rely on cars for more and more of their access to various services and amenities, and very often travel greater distances to work as well as other destinations. This increases both the consumption of fuel resources and the pollution caused from the extra travel. Read the rest of this entry »
