Posts Tagged ‘Green’
December 11th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Art, Costa Rica, Green • No Comments »
When Costa Rica’s brightest young architects, designers, and creatives get together, the results speak for themselves. Such a wide array of talent was exhibited at the show. The variety of installations, mediums, and expression was mind blowing. The beauty of this show was the interaction. The ability to touch, use, enjoy all of this art was amazing. This interactive experience allows one to form a greater bond and truly grasp things we see. Shows like this one need to go on, as the collaboration and the exhibition of young talent is priceless. Its a rare glimpse into the minds of the future, to see what envelopes are being pushed, what crazy ideas are popping up, and what norms are being shattered. Unless people take risks and step out onto the limb, it is hard to get good results. This show was about risks, it was about the cutting edge, and it was about creativity. The ideators, dreamers, and open minds behind this show succeed beyond their imagination, and not just because of the turn-out but rather the reaction their pieces evoked. Fore this is the true award – the look on the faces of those who have been moved and enlightened by these installations. I look forward to seeing further collaborations of this kind!
Tags: Architecture & Design, Design, Green
October 15th, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Sebastian Di Mauro creates these beautiful pieces that I feel would compliment many homes. Its a nice element to liven up and color up one’s interior.
Link
Tags: Art, Green, Sustainable
October 15th, 2009 • Posted in Green • No Comments »
This is one of a number of beautiful wind turbines I’ve seen hit the market recently. I like this as it plays into architecture, because one does not have to sacrifice beauty for sustainability. If people are to incorporate wind turbines into their homes and everyday lives, someone has to make them beautiful. Philippe Starck just created one as well, so this sentiment is obviously a growing one in the community. I think its awesome that people are branching out to do this. I’ve been interested in this since some of my earliest posts (see energy ball etc.), I think the future will see a lot of innovation in this regard, and I can’t wait.
Via Inhabitat
Via Luxist
Tags: Green
September 7th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Grand! Sustainable and beautiful.
Internationally acclaimed designer Michael Jantzen continues to wow us with his architectural and renewable energy wonders. His newest brainchild, the Sun Rays Pavilion, consists of 12 massive columns that rise out of the earth like giant crystals reaching for the sun. Appropriate, because the acutely slanted building relies on the sun’s rays alone for power. Jantzen has many other designs for renewable energy pavilions, like his Wind Shaped Kinetic Pavilion or his Solar Wind Pavilion. This latest design is outfitted with photovoltaic film to generate electricity in order to power the pavilion and sell any excess to the grid. Continue reading at Inhabitat…
Tags: Architecture & Design, Green, Sustainable
September 2nd, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Vertical Gardens Coming Strong
When Patrick Blanc was a boy, he suspended plants from his bedroom wall and ran their roots into a fish tank. The greenery received nourishment from the diluted—ahem—fertilizer and purified the water in return. Forty-five years on, the French botanist’s gardens have grown massive in scale. One inside a Portuguese shopping mall is larger than four tennis courts, and there’s one in Kuwait that’s almost as big. But Blanc’s recently completed facade for the Athenaeum hotel in London (shown) could be his most high-profile project yet. Looming over Green Park, it’s an eight-story antigravity forest composed of 12,000 plants. Read More…
Tags: Architecture & Design, Green, Sustainable
August 21st, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Floating, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Waterpod Moves
I’ve been following Waterpod for a while partly because its a barge project, which makes me very happy. Anyone bringing progress to the barge movement is in my good graces. Moreover they try to highlight community living, eco-conscious living, and art. Right on I say, right on…
The Waterpod ProjectTM has been floating around the New York area for the past few months gaining a lot of attention. Beginning in Newtown Creek, between Brooklyn and Queens, the Pod is moving down the East River and Hudson River. As reported by Melena Ryzik for The New York Times (view her articles here) this experimental project investigates the blend of community living and artistry. Showcasing artworks, performances and such, the WaterpodTM, is an eco-conscious environment that was designed “In preparation for our coming world with an increase in population, a decrease in usable land, and a greater flux in environmental conditions, people will need to rely closely on immediate communities and look for alternative living models; the Waterpod is about cooperation, collaboration, augmentation, and metamorphosis,” explained Mary Mattingly, a photographer who thought of the Waterpod idea.
Read On…
Tags: Alternative Energy, Architecture & Design, Floating, Green, Sustainable
August 18th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Green, Misc • No Comments »
The Sage Residence: Super High Scoring LEED Platinum Home
by Bridgette Meinhold
LEED, LEED Platinum, LEED Platinum Residence, Oregon, Arbor South Architecture, sage residence arbor south, arbor south architecture, pacific northwest architecture, solar panels, solar hot water, recycled paper countertops, daylighting
LEED residences are becoming a standard item these days, but this particular residence hit our radar because of the high LEED score and its stunning appearance. The Sage Residence in Eugene, Oregon was designed and built by Arbor South Architecture, and received an impressive score of 110 in the LEED rating system — higher than USGBC founder David Gottfried’s LEED Platinum home, which only received 106.5 points. Beautiful inside and out, the home is a perfect example of how green homes can be beautiful, energy efficient and create minimal impact on the environment.
Full Article
Tags: Alternative Energy, Architecture & Design, Green, Sustainable
August 7th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Peter Nelson is the man when it comes to tree houses
Challenging convention, these designs are the manifestation of dreams. These dreamers saw their ideas to the finish line and made them a reality. In a short period of time, we’ll get some tree houses going in Costa Rica, it’s been a long time dream of mine. Another dream of mine is to go above the trees, so we are in the design phase for our resort above the trees at our Miramar property (images coming soon). Its eco-friendly and a killer view. Plus there aren’t many resorts in the world that are above the trees! Great to see that there is a whole category of crazies like me who dream to live in and above the trees. (Nelson being president of the crazies!)
Tags: Adventure, Architecture & Design, Green, Sustainable
July 29th, 2009 • Posted in Green, Misc • No Comments »
Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites
Geologist Ian Plimer takes a contrary view, arguing that man-made climate change is a con trick perpetuated by environmentalists
By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun
Ian Plimer has outraged the ayatollahs of purist environmentalism, the Torquemadas of the doctrine of global warming, and he seems to relish the damnation they heap on him.
Plimer is a geologist, professor of mining geology at Adelaide University, and he may well be Australia’s best-known and most notorious academic.
Plimer, you see, is an unremitting critic of “anthropogenic global warming” — man-made climate change to you and me — and the current environmental orthodoxy that if we change our polluting ways, global warming can be reversed.
\Plimer presents the proposition that anthropogenic global warming is little more than a con trick on the public perpetrated by fundamentalist environmentalists and callously adopted by politicians and government officials who love nothing more than an issue that causes public anxiety.
While environmentalists for the most part draw their conclusions based on climate information gathered in the last few hundred years, geologists, Plimer says, have a time frame stretching back many thousands of millions of years.
The dynamic and changing character of the Earth’s climate has always been known by geologists. These changes are cyclical and random, he says. They are not caused or significantly affected by human behaviour.
Polar ice, for example, has been present on the Earth for less than 20 per cent of geological time, Plimer writes. Plus, animal extinctions are an entirely normal part of the Earth’s evolution.
Plimer gets especially upset about carbon dioxide, its role in Earth’s daily life and the supposed effects on climate of human manufacture of the gas. He says atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at the lowest levels it has been for 500 million years, and that atmospheric carbon dioxide is only 0.001 per cent of the total amount of the chemical held in the oceans, surface rocks, soils and various life forms. Indeed, Plimer says carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, but a plant food. Plants eat carbon dioxide and excrete oxygen. Human activity, he says, contributes only the tiniest fraction to even the atmospheric presence of carbon dioxide.
There is no problem with global warming, Plimer says repeatedly. He points out that for humans periods of global warming have been times of abundance when civilization made leaps forward. Ice ages, in contrast, have been times when human development slowed or even declined.
So global warming, says Plimer, is something humans should welcome and embrace as a harbinger of good times to come.
Full Article
Tags: Green, Sustainable
July 28th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Floating, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Floating Urban Beach Barge in Budapest
Rare pleasure of a new barge project. We’re not the only crazy one’s!
Hungary-based design team Urban Landscape Group recently completed an extraordinary summer project that allows visitors to float down the Danube in a portable pool! Dubbed Barge Beach Budapest, the sandy sailing island acts as a contemporary Turkish bath and open air pool situated in the waterways between the river’s edges. The pop up beach is constructed from three recycled barges and provides residents with a brand new public space to bask in the sun.
Inhabitat
Tags: Architecture & Design, Floating, Green, Sustainable
July 28th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Building Living Structures
A young group of German architects are bending trees to their will to form a new breed of living architecture. The team is calling their tree-shaping system “Botany Building,” and while it may not be the cure to climate change, it’s an incredibly interesting way to create living structures.
Full article at Inhabitat
Tags: Architecture & Design, Green, Sustainable
July 14th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
B+N Wall Panels
B+N Industries is an innovative designer and manufacturer of products and systems for the retail, architectural, and consumer industries (available to the trade only). With the launch of their Iconic Furniture in February, 2009 and new additions to their Iconic Panels (great looking modern carved wall panels), they have a huge selection of modern architectural accents that are both good for your decor and the environment.
LINK
Tags: Architecture & Design, Art, Design, Green, Interior, Sustainable
July 11th, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Lisette Spee and Tim Van Den Burg: Lawnge Chairs
I’ve always been a fan of the grass chair, and yet another example appears!
Full Article at Design Boom
Tags: Art, Design, Green, Interior, Sustainable
July 11th, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Nifty Guerrilla Gardening in Toronto
Link
Tags: Art, Design, Green, Sustainable
July 8th, 2009 • Posted in Architecture & Design, Green, Misc • No Comments »
TreeLife launches in Sydney – Summer 2010
Personally tree houses have been a huge passion of mine for the past few years and a big part of a new project I am working on by the beach in Costa. I followed most of the people behind the designs below but this showcase in Sydney is going to be the amazing.
“Treelife is a brand new free event, launched here in Sydney before going to London and New York,” says Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore MP. “This event will showcase innovative and creative sustainable architecture, and illustrate that green can co-exist with urban city life.”
The world’s first major public exhibition of ‘green design’ treehouses, TreeLife will bring the biggest names in international architecture, design and art into the one public place for the first time. iggest names in international architecture, design and art into the one public place for the first time.
Read Full Article…
Tags: Architecture & Design, Green, Sustainable
July 1st, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Dyson (yes the vacuum company) Energy Bracelet
Simply put, you wear it and move and it can charge stuff for you when you need.
Dyson Energy Bracelet is a gadget that uses Seebeck effect to harness energy and power your mobile phones for a few precious minutes more, when you desperately need it. Lemme explain a bit: The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa. This typically includes three separately identified effects, the Seebeck effect, the Peltier effect, and the Thomson effect. This is coz three different guys discovered it around the same time, however Peltier–Seebeck and Thomson effects are reversible and Joule heating is not.
Continue reading…
Tags: Alternative Energy, Art, Design, Green, Interior, Sustainable
June 15th, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Love this DIY floating bike on Inhabitat!
Full Article at Inhabitat
Tags: Alternative Energy, Art, Design, Green, Sustainable
June 15th, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
Firewinder
British Designer Tom Lawton creates a wind powered outdoor light
Inhabitat
Tags: Alternative Energy, Art, Design, Green, Sustainable
June 2nd, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • 1 Comment »
Love that Greenery!
5.5 Designers created this awesome furniture. Yes it grows, just keep those hedges trimmed up and you’re set.
This lounger by Fung + Blatt architects has a built-in watering system and is ready for summer lamping.
Why not go giant with the grass furniture (bb_matt)!
Guerrilla Gardening by Canadian street artist Posterchild. A friend got me an awesome book on this interesting form of street art. Posterchild usually vandalized flyer boxes like this one, but here he decided to show that “forgotten pieces of urban furniture may be used to beautify the streets.”
Thanks Inhabitat and alamodestuff!
Tags: Art, Design, Green, Interior, Sustainable
April 21st, 2009 • Posted in Art, Green, Misc • No Comments »
K3 Charger: Solar and Wind Power to Go
Imagine you’re lost in the woods, having wandered off the hiking trail. It’s looking like you may have to bed down on some pine needles with what’s left of the granola bars, when your friend whips out a little device that looks like a small fan. What’s that? It’s the K3 Charger – a compact hybrid wind-and-solar power generator about the size of a flashlight. The handy green gadget allows consumers to recharge an iPod, cell phone, PDA, or other electronic device using renewable energy!
Continue reading at Inhabitat…
Tags: Alternative Energy, Art, Design, Green, Sustainable
April 20th, 2009 • Posted in Green, Misc • No Comments »
Microwave beams sending electricity from space to power our homes may sound like a concept straight out of a science fiction novel, but with a recent announcement from PG&E, we may actually see a solar powered space station in the near future. The system would consist of a series of solar powered satellites 22,000 miles above the Earth’s equator that would generate electricity, convert it into radio waves and then transmit to a base station on Earth. PG&E has entered into a contract with California-based SolarEn Corp. to supply 200 MW of power by 2016. If they succeed in making space solar power affordable, this new technology could be a huge contender in meeting the world’s energy needs.
Continue reading at Inhabitat…
Tags: Alternative Energy, Green, Sustainable
