Category Archives: Green Building
20
Aug
Aug
We still live in a time when we do plenty things that are very harmful to our planet. It seems we’re all aware that fossil fuels like oil and coal create a considerable portion of our greenhouse gas pollution. But many people don’t understand that we also do a lot of harm to our planet with…
28
Jul
Jul
The tent of the future by Abeer Seikaly, is designed to be portable and sturdy. Its fabric skin heats hot water and makes electricity from solar power.
01
Apr
Apr
Using the right materials is one step in ensuring good indoor air quality and a healthy home. It also takes a range of building science-based strategies—from proper ventilation and moisture control to radon mitigation and conscientious construction practices–to make sure a home is healthy. Thanks to Brandon Weiss and Evolutionary Home Builders for sharing this list…
16
Mar
Mar
The WaterNest floating home is made from 98% recyclable materials and features a 4kW PV display for true off-grid living.
09
Feb
Feb
This 230 square foot eco classroom, built in the trees at the Benenden School in Kent, United Kingdom, is in demand from students and faculty alike because of its view and its interesting construction. Built by treehouse builders Blue Forest, the classroom is completely self-sufficient, using solar power for electricity and water harvested from its…
16
Jan
Jan
For every ton of rice that is grown, 500 lbs of rice husks and straw are created. Typically, those husks and straw are burned as waste. But two innovations on opposite sides of the world are changing that. In India, 16-year-old Bisman Deu saw all those rice husks being burned and wondered whether they couldn’t be…
29
Dec
Dec
For those of us who are deep in the dark of winter, this is a great time to think about bringing sunlight into our homes. The Light Bandit allows sunlight to be directed fiber-optically to any room in the house – even one with no windows! Like the luminous ceiling we covered back in 2010,…
29
Dec
Dec
Looking something like homes for modern day Hobbits, Binishells are ideal for meeting the world’s need for affordable, energy efficient homes. They can be built quickly using locally sourced green materials with little or no waste. These column-free organic spans can be designed in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit any need while reducing carbon…
01
Dec
Dec
An experimental maintenance free house built in Denmark is exploring ways to eliminate one of the single biggest obstacles to home ownership: upkeep. Designed collaboratively by RealDaniaBYG and Arkitema Architects, the dwelling is patterned after a traditional Viking longhouse and features almost 1700 square feet of interior living space. The designers anticipate the house will need…
24
Nov
Nov
This post is part of Important Media’s “More About the Love, Less About the Stuff” holidays series. This year, we’re talking all about redefining holiday traditions to focus on sustainability and compassion over cutting down trees and fighting for more stuff. Since it’s well past Halloween and officially the “holiday season,” here is a…
14
Nov
Nov
Earlier this year, CDL’s Treehouse condo project in Singapore set the official Guinness World Record for world’s largest vertical garden. The building’s green wall covers nearly 2300 sq. meters, and is expected to save the building’s residents more than $500,000 in heating and cooling bills each year. CDL’s Treehouse was completed in 2013, but the…
13
Nov
Nov
Hidden in the suburbs of Sacramento, California, in an otherwise unremarkable subdivision, is the ZeroHouse. The ZeroHouse is special because, as its name suggests, it uses zero net energy from the region’s electrical grid, making it one of America’s first net zero homes– and it wasn’t significantly more expensive to build than the rest of…
03
Nov
Nov
One of the most important decisions that gets made when designing a building, if not THE most important decision, is where to build it. Site conditions can affect how big a house is, its shape, its orientation across cardinal directions, and- as such- how energy efficient the home has the potential to be. The skinny…
23
Oct
Oct
40% of all the energy consumed in America every year is used for heating or cooling homes and commercial buildings. Modern insulation, fiberglass composite windows and draft reducing doors combined with passive solar design and the use of solar panels could cut that energy usage in half. So why aren’t more people insisting on higher energy…
20
Oct
Oct
The flexibility and simplicity of steel framing systems draws many clients because there are no interior load-bearing walls, so remodeling or reconfiguring rooms when needs change is a snap. “When children leave at 28, you can easily knock down walls. And when they return at 32 you can erect them again,” BONE founder and president…
03
Oct
Oct
There have been a plethora of posts about shipping containers hitting the web recently – and why not? Shipping containers are cheap, durable, and available– and are as easy to ship as a traditional RV. This particular shipping container home is a bit different, though: it can expand! Designed by G-pod, a Hong Kong and…
02
Oct
Oct
Passive House is an international building standard developed by the Passive House Institute (PHI), which is located in Darmstadt, Germany. Building to the Passive House Standard recognizes buildings which have been optimized through passive measures and components such as insulation, air-tightness, heat recovery, solar heat gains, solar shading and incidental internal heat gains. Buildings which…
24
Sep
Sep
I recently discovered this very affordable prefab house on Gizmag from North Wales author, Adam Williams. I found the house to be attractive and livable, with a story very much worth sharing. Overview: a Vietnam-based firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects recently revealed an affordable prefabricated prototype house to potentially offer Vietnamese people on low incomes…