Tag Archives: architecture

Stylish Sustainability: Trondheim’s New Student Village

Meaning more than just focusing on the environment, sustainability also means creating a sense of place and belonging. Interpreting this philosophy brilliantly, MDH Arkitekter has nearly completed Moholt 50|50, an award-winning university student village in Trondheim, Norway. Envisioned as a community-focused commercial district featuring distinctive Scandinavian aesthetics, MDH Arkitekter’s minimalist approach and stylish use of…

Bamboo – The ABCs of Green Building Materials

Bamboo is a truly remarkable green building material. It’s twice as strong as concrete and slightly stronger than steel. It’s also a renewable resource that needs little energy to grow, prevents soil erosion, provides biomass, offers wildlife refuge, and produces a healthy food supply for both wildlife and humans. Offering significant remediation from the effects…

An Eco-Lodge “Touching the Earth Lightly”

Originally published on EdenKeeper.org Constructed with an eagle’s loft in mind, a newly renovated eco-lodge in South Africa offers a bird’s-eye view from a well-feathered nest. Overlooking lush vistas of Kruger National Park wildlife refuge, the view is so vast you might easily be inspired to sing a hymn in praise of Creation. Singita Lebombo…

Aluminum – The ABCs of Green Building Materials

Used in a wide variety of ways in the building construction market, aluminum is a very versatile green building material, especially when it’s recycled. Everything from huge external building structures to delicate window blinds can be manufactured from this lightweight, durable, and corrosion-resistant metal. Doors, windows, and awnings are popular products made from this material,…

Carbon Fiber is Architecture’s Lightweight Future

Carbon fiber is a miracle material. It is stronger than steel but weighs 90% less. Anca Trandafirescu and her husband, Glenn Wilcox—both assistant professors of architecture at University of Michigan and principals of Area in Ann Arbor, Mich. have won an award for an impressively strong, 14′ tall design that uses just 30 pounds of carbon…

New Green Roof Homes “Sprouting” in Sydney

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…

Go Up, Down, and Sideways as the Wonkavator Gets Real

No, it’s a Wonkavator. An elevator can only go up and down, but the Wonkavator can go sideways, and slantways, and longways, and backways … squareways, and front ways, and any other ways that you can think of. It can take you to any room in the whole factory just by pressing one of these…

State of the Art Cathouse Benefits Local Pet Charity

cat house

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…

Old Garage Transformed into Ultra-modern Studio Office

garage turned into sleek home office

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…

Skinny Houses Adapt to Site Constraints

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…

Bamboo, Plastic Bottles Make Eco-Friendly Greenhouse

Hanoi architecture firm 1+1>2, in collaboration with Action For The City, has designed an eco-friendly greenhouse that protects growing plants from the elements, provides a place for farmers to rest and a offers a creative play space for children to learn more about their environment. It also offers a break from the visual sameness of…

What Happens When Amateurs Design Cabins

Rendering of the Wedge cabin design

A team made up of non-architectural graduate students at Cal Poly Pomona University have redesigned what camping means in California.  The team was asked to develop a cabin design that would reenergize camping in the state, particularly among non-traditional campers, such as minorities and young adults. Two weeks of research, including a visit to a…

Low-Cost Building Skin Cools While Using No Energy

Building skin cools building

Imagine a building that self-regulates its temperature without electronics. A building that adapts, allowing outside air in as needed and eliminating the need for air conditioning, but that uses no energy in doing so.  A University of California-Berkley research team has developed a new type of “building skin” that can do just that, and they…

Japan Pushes for Net Zero Standard on New Buildings

Japan Net Zero Building

With the rapid pace of advancement from energy efficient smart homes, to passive homes, to energy plus homes, the architecture and construction industries are leading the way in terms of building a sustainable future. Japan, however, is hoping to ensure that sustainable design doesn’t become a passing fad by pushing for all public buildings to…

Tokyo Designer Presents Underground Bike Parking

With more and more commuters turning to bicycles in cities across the world, bike parking has become a critical component in any forward-looking urban planning discussions. Over in Japan, however, one company has come up with a solution that can accommodate hundreds of cyclists without taking up much space or creating an army of urban…

Next Trend in Passive House Design: Passive Hospitals

Passive House Hospital Design

Passive house design has gone from an emerging architectural trend to a firmly established movement that’s entrenched itself in the professional and public mind. Even so, most people – both industry experts and laypeople – take the term literally, and equate “passive house” with, you know, houses. The truth, meanwhile, is that the same principles…

Honda Smart Home is Built for Your Green Lifestyle

Built in collaboration with UC Davis in California, the Honda Smart Home is a three-year green building project that will monitor typical energy use needs for average Americans and their families.

Emerson LA Grand Opening

A week-long series of events—starting with a ticketed gala on Saturday, March 8—will celebrate the grand opening of Emerson Los Angeles (ELA), a spectacular new academic and residential facility that will enable the College to significantly expand its contribution to the city and to the entertainment and communication industries. Guests scheduled to attend the gala include…