The National Design Awards celebrate designers rather than design, honoring a body of work rather than a specific project. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Charles Harrison, who created over 750 products and became Chief Designer at Sears.
Ottawa, Canada is the second coldest capital city in the world, after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Not the kind of place that you would expect people to be building home offices in the back yard, but architect Kevin Deevey did. It is a simple, modern design with commercial aluminum window frames, dark exterior plywood and a bit of corrugated metal.
Why is TreeHugger such a fan of flat-pack furniture? Well, it comes in tiny packages (that you can skip home from the store with) so they ship more efficiently, and anyone can turn a handful of two-dimensional pieces into three dimensions of form and structure. Blu Dot's Real Good Chair is a great example.
Check out the video for the particulars. If Mr. Squirrel can do it, so can you. ::Blu Dot Real Good Chair via ::Hatch
Smart electricity meters and real-time pricing are an important first step in modernizing our electrical grid. Right now it is pretty dumb in most places, charging the same rate during peak hour as in the middle of the night, with no way to reward those who make an effort to have better consumption patterns.
But that's slowly changing. An example of that is PPL's pilot program that offers to install "smart" power meters and alternative pricing methods to the traditional "average monthly rate" to residential customers, something that has been available for years to industrial clients.
"By signing up tens of millions of people like Brubaker to change patterns of electric usage, the companies expect the new power meters and time-based rates to help avoid blackouts, curb greenhouse gas emissions and beat back the immediate need to build expensive new power plants."
TreeHugger loves to see green student design (and we want to see more!); since they'll be designing the next generation of products we use, the greener they can be, the better. These examples are from a project called "Re-Furnished" from the University of Idaho; students were challenged to create functional furniture out of found or used cardboard, and they came up with some pretty compelling final products.
Cardboard, especially when its recycled, can be a very green--and surprisingly versatile and durable--material. Above are two of the student designs from the class; hit the jump for five more student designs and for more of our previous cardboard coverage.
Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research
“The creations of the twelve recipients of the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture make us appreciate the degree to which Canadian architects have transformed the places where we live, work, share culture and come together into a celebration of beauty and human genius.”
So said Michaëlle Jean, the Governor General of Canada, about this year's G-Gs, Canada's most prestigious architectural prize, chosen by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts. Quite a few of the projects have a green tinge and some have been in TreeHugger before.
The Green Roofs for Healthy Cities convention in Baltimore ended with the Awards of Excellence, with seven categories of roof and wall. Green walls are growing like mad, probably because they are visible where a green roof often isn't. Randy Sharp's living wall at the Vancouver Aquarium won for Green Wall Design. It is a modular system that gives new meaning to the phrase "plug-and-pray"- fifteen plant species were tested to find eight that were local and hardy enough to withstand the freeze-thaw cycle. It has an automatic drip-irrigation system using stored rainwater.
Amy MacWilliamson
Clap your hands and say "Yeah!" for Eric Olsen, the winner of the 2008 Metropolis Next Generation Design Prize. The architect and college professor took home the fifth-annual prize for his response to this year's theme of water.
The San Francisco-based architect was awarded $10,000 for his project, Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin, which is a vessel for both transporting and purifying water that may be put to good use in disaster areas, developing urban areas, rural regions, or anyplace where clean water is otherwise difficult or impossible to come by. According to Metropolis, "It is lightweight, expandable, and comfortable to wear, allowing a greater volume of water to be carried when compared to traditional vessels."
The Green Roofs for Healthy Cities convention in Baltimore ended with the Awards of Excellence, with seven categories of roof and wall. Green walls are growing like mad, probably because they are visible where a green roof often isn't. Randy Sharp's living wall at the Vancouver Aquarium won for Green Wall Design. It is a modular system that gives new meaning to the phrase "plug-and-pray"- fifteen plant species were tested to find eight that were local and hardy enough to withstand the freeze-thaw cycle. It has an automatic drip-irrigation system using stored rainwater....
We do go on about bringing your own chopsticks, have shown a few different designs for re-usable travel chopsticks and even proudly displayed the chopstick bra. Now designer Brad Gressel has focused on a new way to carry your own: in your glasses. "The hollow plastic frames offer casing for the stainless steel tipped utensils. They can be easily washed or wiped off, and the end of the glasses are open to eliminate bacteria buildup." Now if I could only find my glasses...via ::Yanko and ::Josh Spear ...
Amy MacWilliamson
Clap your hands and say "Yeah!" for Eric Olsen, the winner of the 2008 Metropolis Next Generation Design Prize. The architect and college professor took home the fifth-annual prize for his response to this year's theme of water.
The San Francisco-based architect was awarded $10,000 for his project, Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin, which is a vessel for both transporting and purifying water that may be put to good use in disaster areas, developing urban areas, rural regions, or anyplace where clean water is otherwise difficult or impossible to come by. According to Metropolis, "It is lightweight, expandable, and comfortable to wear, allowing a greater volume of water to be carried when compared to traditional vessels."...
Student work always excites us so much, the creativity, the ideas, the stuff that comes out of the challenge of thinking about design, not just pleasing a client. Did your school have a year end show, or a website with good sustainable design? Architecture, industrial design, interior design, fashion, what can you show us? So far only Montreal's UQAM École de Design and Ottawa's Carleton University have sent us information; is this a Canadian thing? Don't American or UK schools or others have any stuff to strut? Send us a link at our tips line , click on Design+Architecture, and let us see your stuff. ...
Joel Mulligan of Carleton University points us to Rocket 2008, a show of graduate work from the Industrial Design departments at Carleton University, Humber College and the Ontario College of Art and Design. There is some interesting work in the sustainability category; I liked Scott Bodaly's ideas:
"The Element Personal Computer is designed to promote sustainable computing and a sustainable lifestyle. The Element uses a simplified assembly and manufacturing technique to convey enough information to the user as they will need to repair, upgrade, and eventually disassemble their computer. The materials are chosen for their reprocessability, and value, as aluminum helps to fund the recycling of less profitable materials. The main goal of this is to prolong the useful life of computing products, and to make their waste a resource instead of a burden."...
Visitors to the Olympics in Beijing this summer can look forward to more than just history's largest sporting event and biggest national coming-out party (or, if you prefer, biggest airport or longest bridge). They'll also be able to glimpse the world's largest color LED display combined with China's first photovoltaic system to be integrated into a glass curtain wall. The GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, designed by New York-based architect Simone Giostra with solar technology by China's solar powerhouse Suntech, will form the curtain wall of the Xicui Entertainment Complex in Beijing, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle. ...
XXS Next House is 150 sq. ft. with kitchen. Cost: $21,500 (you assemble)
On first glance the slick web site for Next House, a Swedish prefab designer, is just a tad too glossy. Photos of the prefab houses are gorgeous, to be sure, but they are shot so you'll notice the house's integration with nature - and forget perhaps the fact that in these particular homes you'd be car dependent for every other thing you do besides sit at home.
OK, perhaps that's a little too harsh. Well-known Swedish architect Magnus Ståhl wanted to shake up the Swedish prefab market with stylish and cool flat pack homes that are also affordable. Next House doesn't skimp on the materials - the kitchens are high-quality components from Sweden's Kvänum, feature cool appliances from Smeg, and completed homes are warmed with geothermal heat pumps. Next House says you'd pay twice as much to buy separate pieces yourself. And though the window-filled interiors feel airy and large, the Large Next House is just 148 square meters (approximately 1,500 square feet) which is a far cry from the eponymous (but no relation) Dwell Next House manufactured by Empyrean and starting at 2,500 sq. ft. Now all Swedish Next House needs is to lose the teak (!) and add more eco-friendly components. Via ::NextHouse (Swedish and English)
See also: MOMO Mixes Clean Lines, Green Roof and Some Assembly Required: Wired On Prefab...
It is from a finalist in Apartment Therapy's Small Cool 2008 Competition. ...
Cesar Chavez Library in Laveen, Arizona, Line and Space
TreeHugger has been criticized for ignoring quite a few green buildings that did not meet our particular biases about design; it can't just be green, but has to be interesting architecture as well. Philip Proefrock at Green Building Elements points us to an article in BuildingGreen.com by Rebecca Henn, one of the jurors in the AIA/COTE awards covered in TreeHugger by Mairi here. She discusses how hard it was to pick the winners, and notes that "Our decision was not to select the ten "best" buildings. Instead, it was to select the ten best exemplars of sustainable design that currently on-the-boards work will be held to." and concludes with a message that all architects should heed: "Sustainability needs to be seen in our profession less as a technological fix reserved for the spec writers and engineers. Instead, it should be seen as our responsibility to society in exchange for the state-licensed monopoly we enjoy. If we don't hold both beauty and sustainability as equal cultural commitments, then we might as well hand over our licenses and call ourselves aesthetic consultants." ::Building Green ...
The 70 square meter Maison evolutiV was shown at the Salon Européen du bois et de l'Habitat Durable in April. It looks like a few container projects we have seen but is made from wood. (that is the point of the Salon) It was designed by olgga architectes. ...
I am alternately excited to get the New York Times design and living magazine, and depressed because everything in it is so expensive. The current issue will also cause a case of Déjà vu to TreeHugger readers. There is an article on green walls that covers Ann Demeulemeester's store in Seoul designed by Mass Studies, Patrick Blanc and Mathieu Lehanneur's Bel Air. Alice Rawsthorn, usually one of my favourite writers, takes the easy way out and trashes compact flourescents for their light quality and slow start-up (dead issues with good new bulbs)- when will a writer of her quality talk to the Tom Dixons and other designers who are doing great things with them?
Also seen previously in TH are the Single Hauz,and Tristan Zimmermann's Phonophone ::New York Times...
Grand Designs Live is a lifestyle t.v. show that features house construction and renovations being carried out, with comments by the proud owners and by Kevin McCloud, the presenter, on the taste and architecture. It is usually complimentary, sometimes grotesque and there is always some snag, but it's great fun for architectural voyeurs. All this week the show features the construction of Kevin McCloud's own sustainable house by a team of workmen, with a different aspect of the construction being shown every night. The materials will be sustainable and recycled, where possible, and a combination of traditional materials and cutting-edge technology.
Here's the schedule: foundations and structure of the ground floor in place by day two, using sustainable, prefabricated straw bales (which don't quite fit) and hemp cladding panels. Next: double height rammed earth wall-- 8 tons of earth are needed for this effort. Day three is high tech, using a "computer controlled flat-bed laser cutter to produce the internal and external structure and generate practically no waste." Day four: window frames from "Accoya, a timber that can stay in shape even if it was left in the bottom of the Thames for 10 years, and Nanogel, the lightest and best insulating material in the world for the roof lights." Can he do it? Follow their progress and watch the agony and the ecstasy as it develops. :: Grand Designs Live...
Ozone, the miracle molecule
The miracle molecule, ozone, can be made in your own home now thanks to an award winning appliance, the Lotus Sanitizing System from Tersano. If you are up on green technology, you already know that ozone is a chlorine-free alternative to chemical disinfectants. Many industries now embrace the substitution of ozone for chlorine or other chemical disinfectants. But using ozone used to mean industrial-scale costs to install ozone generating systems. Tersano brings the technology into the home, in the price range of a typical kitchen appliance....
TreeHugger: You actually were not yet mayor when the tornado struck, so what were the first things that went through your mind as an ordinary citizen after the disaster?
Bob Dixson: Well just get stuff cleaned up. Concentrate on your own property and helping your neighbors and just get cleaned up and go from there. We didn’t really get an idea of what we had until we got stuff moved away, with just piles of debris all over.
TH: And what did you believe were the most pressing issues facing Greensburg the day before the tornado?
BD: I think over the years our most valuable resource that we’ve exported is our youth. They’ve been heading elsewhere to find employment. So the question has been, “How do we encourage and get businesses to come and offer employment to our younger generation and keep them in the county and town?”
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PICTURED: Kelly Rutherford-PHOTO by: Albert Ferreira/startraksphoto.com
17 percent surveyed by Sylvania would skip sex if they didn't have to change a lightbulb for over ten years.
We're no fans of abstinence campaigns, but okay you other 83% percent, it's not a lot to ask to help out with things environmental. To tell the truth, no sacrifice is required -- you can have your green lovin' and not have change your lightbulb too, that is, after an initial change to a long-lasting CFL. The folks at Sylvania may have made that a more attractive proposition, perhaps not as attractive as these CFLs Collin told you about (yum!), with their new line of Micro-mini bulbs that the lovely Kelly Rutherford, star of the hit drama Gossip Girl, introduced on Earth Day....
View from a grain elevator in Greensburg. Nearly all of the town's buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged by the May 4, 2007 tornado.
There is an entire industry of stock plan books and plan sites. Some are created by architects and designers with talent; others are full of the usual faux manors. Very few are modern designs and fewer still are what one might call green. All of them are ripped off constantly by every builder and client who isn't willing to hire an architect and isn't even willing to pay a couple of hundred bucks for a set of plans.
David Wax and his team at Free Green turn the home design business model on its head. They are charging exactly what most people are willing to pay for design: Nothing.
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YKK of Japan are huge, last year having net sales of $6,300 million USD (if my currency conversions are correct). They make the zippers which appear on most quality brands the world over. Well, they do have over 250 plants in nearly 70 countries. And they have a well earned reputation for quality. It is pleasing to note that most other major multinationals YKK are making some effort to green their operations.
On the product side they offer the Natulon zipper (left) made from recycled PET polyester. Then there is the ReEarth zipper which is comprised of corn and other plant materials. Placed in an appropriate composting environment the zipper will begin to biodegrade. This image on the far right is the result of about 140 days snuggling up to soil micro-organisms....
If you missed out on buying a bullet-ridden prefab house from the Congo by famous architect Jean Prouvé at $5M, then here is your next chance. A wood-composite prefab by famous architect Shigeru Ban, for only $1.2M--a snip by any standards. Called "the Space of Silence", it will be offered at auction in the summer and the proceeds will be donated to charity. It is made of a wood plastic composite of recycled materials--mainly self-adhesive labels of paper and plastic. The labels are surplus and the composite, called ProFi, is tough and humidity resistant. It can be recycled back into the production process.
Looking like a giant shed, it is comprised of a module (roof, wall and structural elements) which is repeated 21 times. The entire pavilion is 40 meters long and 5 meters wide and can be taken down and re-assembled easily. It was pre-built and assembled in Finland, in association with the Finnish furniture company Artek and UPM, a forest products company. The building is a bit of a nomad, having been displayed in Milan, Miami and Helsinki already. Next stop: your back yard. :: ArchNewsNow.com...
Paul Wimbush with model of Lammas.
About a month ago, we announced, with some fanfare, the approval of Lammas, the UK's first planned ecovillage. The Welsh village was to be a 74 acre model settlement, planned according to permaculture principles and completely sustainable from an economic, environmental and social standpoint. As it turns out, Lammas had not yet cleared all of the planning hurdles that it had to pass, and was still waiting for the final word from UK planning authorities. However, despite the mixup, the founders of Lammas told us, "It was great to see the good news there for a moment - a glimpse of things to come!"
In order to set the record straight, and to hear more about the Lammas project, TreeHugger sat down this week with Paul Wimbush - cofounder, project coordinator and future resident (plot 6) of Lammas.
The word "Lammas," by the way, translates literally from Old English as "first loaf," and refers to the old Celtic harvest festival that takes place on the 1st of August (the date on which the ecovillage endeavor happened to be founded)....
