Category Archives: Architecture
17
Dec
Dec
Construction has begun on a new BioDome for Singapore’s JewelChangi Airport. Designed by Moshe Safdie Architects, the glass dome will cover nearly 1.5 million square feet of space and have retail, leisure and entertainment facilities as well as green spaces open to travelers and local residents. A Canopy Garden will hover over the main floor on tree-like columns and feature a natural…
11
Dec
Dec
Daniel Burnham, the architect of some of the world’s first skyscrapers, once said “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized.” The developers of Hudson Yards, an entire new neighborhood rising on the West Side of Manhattan, have taken Burnham’s words to heart. Faced…
09
Dec
Dec
Three new terrace homes featuring green roofs covered with native plants that can grow in small amounts of soil with minimal water are going up in Newtown, Australia- a suburb located just 4 miles from the Sydney Central Business District. Similar in concept to vertical gardens, the new green roofs will help provide thermal and acoustic…
04
Dec
Dec
View, a company headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, has developed glass that can can change its tint in response to changes in an electrical control voltage. The technology promises to do away with the need for curtains and blinds and save up to 23% of the energy spent on lighting, heating and cooling during peak demand. View says…
02
Dec
Dec
Since we announced SunPower’s $16,000 December giveaway, we’ve gotten a few emails about the home pictured in the article. That’s the ultra-green NEXTHouse designed by David Vandervort- a 3 bed, 2.5 bath home and shop built in Seattle, Washington. Designed to be an supremely energy-efficient home, the NEXTHouse features a number of “green” technologies like…
02
Dec
Dec
When you hear the word “cathouse”, you may or may not be thinking of well-designed, architecturally significant little shacks for your fluffy feline friends. That’s exactly what these are, however, and even though they don’t fit, 100%, into GBE’s stated mission of delivering the latest in “green”, passive, and sustainable architecture/home-improvement projects, these little cathouses…
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…
21
Nov
Nov
The tiny 830 square foot home known as “the Spite House” in the Montlake section of Seattle sold recently for $397,500- nearly $500/ft., which is pretty good for the area. As for why it’s called the Spite House? Seattle’s Spite House was originally constructed to irritate its owner’s next-door neighbor … who also happened to…
21
Nov
Nov
Architect Michael Green of Vancouver is a strong advocate for using engineered wood products like cross laminated timber (CLT) to construct medium to high rise buildings. His mantra is “The Earth grows our food. The earth can grow our homes. It’s an ethical change that we have to go through.” He says wood sequesters carbon dioxide…
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…
11
Nov
Nov
When renowned furniture designer Hugo de Ruiter decided to turn his Eindhoven home’s old brick construction into a sleek, inspiring design studio, he turned to the architects at Architecten|en|en. It was a solid move, because what they came up with- a unique, metallic workspace called “Studio R-1”- makes full use of the existing structure while…
05
Nov
Nov
The United States has 9 cities with a population of 1,000,000 or more. China has 140- and that number is growing. China’s cities will not be like Los Angeles or Phoenix, however. Instead of sprawling expanses of suburbs and single family homes that stretch from horizon to horizon, China wants its cities to grow UPWARD…
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…
31
Oct
Oct
Happy Halloween, kids! It’s the one time of year when being excited about seeing zombies waddling down your street on a dimly lit and blustery night seems passably normal. For those of you who view zombies with horror, however, it may be well past time to start thinking about your home defenses- luckily, Tiger Log…
21
Oct
Oct
A byproduct of fossil fuel addiction, massive pit-mines scar the landscape of several US states. The mines have destroyed families, ecosystems, towns, and- when they close- economies. Despite the harm that these mines have caused, however, they may yet play a part in a sustainable utopian future. Not as a mine, but as a vertical,…
16
Oct
Oct
Intus Windows is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of super efficient windows and doors. Its products meet the rigorous German Passive House standards for residential and commercial buildings. Intus is now expanding its marketing area to America and offering US architects the opportunity to earn valuable continuing education credits while attending its presentations and seminars around the…
09
Oct
Oct
In 1949, when Phillip Johnson designed the world-famous glass house in New Canaan, Connecticut, it is doubtful he thought much about the adage, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” I doubt Mr. Johnson specified much in the way of thermal-pane glass, either. Nor had solar windows yet been invented. Using windows as…