Showing posts with label Green. Show all posts
Color Coded Walkability
28 June 2008
Walk Score has developed color coded maps for some cities... The maps are pretty self explainatory, green is good and red is bad, with the various shades in between. My neighborhood is a lovely shade of light green. I'm pretty hopeful that the area is becoming even more walkable... there are a number of restaurants and businesses opening up in the area..
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Athletes, bring your inhalers
27 June 2008
There has been a lot of discussion about the air conditions at the Beijing Olympics this summer... While the area is still undergoing a lot of construction, and therefore the air is filled with dust, this photograph has got to make both athletes and environmentalists anxious..
Via 765
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Global Warming and Global Consumerism
01 June 2008
Amelia Roberts has created a very interesting graphic commentary of the west's consumerism as a direct consequence of global warming..
Via Its Nice That
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DvG Architecten
21 May 2008
This project, the Nederlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by Dick van Gameren, was one of the most recent winners of the Aga Khan award... its a pretty interesting project. While the red concrete structure clearly has roots in the African dirt, its design and form is Dutch in every way.
This apartment complex is some serious adaptive reuse... the complex spreads across an Amsterdam site previously occupied by a sewage treatment plant, to the extent that it even pierces an old concrete sediment drum. I'm not sure if I could get over the idea of living in a sediment drum... but if someone can, more power to them!
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99K House
14 May 2008
A good friend of mine left my office about a year ago to work at a fairly new firm... Recently, they entered their first competition - the 99K House - and they were not only finalists, but they won the competition! ORA's design for a compact, adaptable home is sustainable too. For more info, check out the 99K House Competition..
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A New LEED Office
18 April 2008
Its great to see architectural firms actually following their own advice... GGLO has recently finished a new expansion to their Seattle office, and kept it green in the process! Their new expansion has achieved Silver LEED status, and looks like a healthy (in the non-toxic sense!) and fun place to work!.
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Graypants
06 April 2008
These three objects by local architecture and design firm Graypants are really quite nice... and even green, too! The light fixture and scrap chairs (lowest picture) are made from leftover materials like cardboard and newspapers. The forms are pretty simple, but very successful... The corrugated cardboard gives off a very nice quality of light, and the chairs actually look comfortable! We should all keep an eye on this young design duo in the future!.
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Pre-Fab to the Extreme
25 February 2008
Rocio Romero has got quite a few interesting pre-fab designs under her belt... Although, I think in practice that most of these designs could be even more streamlined... the plan above is a one bedroom in 625SF. Our house has 2 bedrooms in less than that. While I realize that not everyone want to live in the equivalent of a dorm room, I think that if you're willing to build/buy a house that is only 625, you'd probably be up for making the most of the space..
But whether you think that this particular house could handle some tightening of the spaces, I'm sure that we can agree that RR's latest design is probably a bit oversized! Somehow, 3000SF pre-fab homes just don't make sense to me. I mean, isn't part of the appeal of pre-fab the ecological advantages? And really, unless you've got a family of 12, there is no way that you can justify living in a 3000SF home with a pool as green. Not to mention the fact that so many of the house's aspects are clearly site built... you have to wonder what the benefit is to pre-fab in this case? I'd love to hear opinions...
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Floating Homes
04 February 2008
My dad sent me the link to this article on NPR... leave it to the Dutch to figure out a way to provide homes with modern plumbing, utilities, and foundations to float as required by the rising water levels. The foundations of these are actually basements with the utilities connected with flexible pipes, creating a kind of boat whose bottom sits on the floor of the river (or other waterway). As the water level rises, the buildings rise too, with poles embedded into the sea floor keeping the buildings in place. These will be especially useful in the Netherlands, which is already almost entirely below sea level (before global warming!), but I could certainly imagine the same sort of application in places like New Orleans."Suddenly, climate change is no longer a dire threat, but an opportunity for
innovation."
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Proving Green Design can still be Beautiful
03 February 2008
These geothermal water pump stations, which are scattered throughout Iceland are designed by pk arkitektar and prove that green design doesn't need to be ugly, rustic, or even crunchy granola. Green design can also be slick and modern. If we think of green design as not only the process of design, but the program contained by it, our options are limitless..
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Is LEED Green Enough?
13 January 2008
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I'm not yet LEED certified... I keep meaning to take the test, but after finishing the AREs, I'm frankly not all that interested in studying. Besides my lack of motivation for studying in general, I'm just not very motivated to take the exam because I'm not completely convinced of its merits. I consider myself a fairly green person, and try to design green whenever my job allows it (which I must admit is not as often as I'd like), so I've never really understood how LEED would or could help me in my work. I could obviously be even more green in my life and work and perhaps studying for the exam would introduce me to technologies and practices with which I'm not currently familiar. But mostly, I feel like its a lot of added paperwork for a job that's already heavy on the paperwork just to prove that I'm getting the result that we should all be aiming for anyway!.
Last month, there was an article in slate about these very ideas (and even more about the value of the points system) that more clearly expresses my hesitation for bothering with LEED. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the points, effort, and results tied to the LEED process.
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I found C's Christmas Present!
13 December 2007
Ok... so maybe I won't actually be buying this 'Litroenergy', but it sure would be helpful on his dark rides to and from work! .
Litroenergy, is a relatively new material that purports to emit lights for 12 years without any electricity or exposure to sunlight. It will be interesting to see if this product lives up to the hype or if its radioactive core proves too much for the public to handle.
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Via Ecofriend
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Pott Architects
26 September 2007
Wannseeterraces, Berlin - A proposal for the reinvention of a lakeside retreat outside of Berlin.
Santaverde Academy, Spain - An academy for a sustainable way of life that would integrate the local vernacular and open aloe vera fields.
IDL Uplights, Berlin - A wave of uplights.
House L - A sustainable home for a family of form, intended to be ecologically responsible, harmonize with the natural world, and provide a reclusive spot to escape from city life.Pott Architects has a fabulous range of work, most of which has horizontal lines as the common denominator. Some of these projects (particularly the first image) remind me of Zaha Hadid's work... although I think they've managed to get more built!
I can't remember the site that led me to PA, so let me know if its yours...
17th Century Green Design
18 September 2007
Imagine if we'd all been going green since the 1600s...These timber framed farmhomes and barns built in the local Norwegian vernacular have some spectacular sod roofs. Indigenous building is all the rage again, but its a shame that we lost some of this knowledge for so long...
Via Arkifoto