Architect Chris Sorensen, the mind and soul behind Sorensen Architects, is painting the town green with his efforts to literally shape Malibu into a more modern, progressive place.
When it comes to building or renovating homes, “most people don’t have a clue about the more sustainable, greener building material alternatives out there,” says Sorensen. “That’s why it’s our responsibility as the architects to inform our clients about their options.”
Great concepts come in all sorts of packages: big ones, small ones / smart ones, crazy ones. This one has many elements. And many levels.
British firm Popularchitecture (great name, by the way), in collaboration with Fluid Engineers and Pha Consul M&E specialists, recently unveiled a proposal for a mammoth eco skyscraper. It’s literally a mile high into the sky and will contain 500 floorsand accommodate over 100,000 people.
But it’s more than housing. It’s a veritable village in the sky intended for Tower Hamlets in East London that would contain hospitals, schools, shops, pubs and anything else you can think of – all under its one roof. Including “vast internal voids” every 20 stories where botanical gardens, swimming pools or even an ice skating rink could be built. That’s the big part.
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I want to earn LEED points without sacrificing style. I want to incorporate more bamboo into my house. I want a table that’s really a chair that’s really a table.
Luckily for me, I stumbled across EcoSystems’ Bamba and Tandem 1.
The best part of these chairs is not their versatility (you can get one or one million and they lock together seamlessly) or their sustainable materials (bamboo, aluminum and non-toxic finishes) – it’s what happens after you’re tired of them that’s got me excited.
Too often, we don’t take into account the end of a product’s life. It’s easy to strut around with a reusable bag, buying corn carpeting and denim insulation. But with no convenient plan in place for its disposal, many otherwise green products still go the way of the landfill. It’s super-heartening to see that even small companies like EcoSystems are taking the cradle-to-cradle concept seriously and building a recycling plan into the design of the product.
I’ve been taken on a journey. When it comes to great wine, I’d always considered myself an enthusiast. But when I came across Modern Cellar, I was inspired enough to become a true collector. I was so impressed, in fact, that I purchased the Sporadic Wall Panel in walnut both Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
Forget Batman, Spidey or any other lycra-clad superhero. If you think design can save the planet, listen up. This is a call-out to all you architects and designers of interiors, products, graphics and fashion out there. You have just over a week left to enter the International Design Awards Land and Sea Awards Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
Let’s face it, building green is expensive. Even improvements that will pay off in the long run have a high initial cost. Obviously, protecting the planet is worth a couple extra bucks, but I’ll admit to having been in a store and struggling between the regular twinkle Christmas lights and the LED ones that cost seven times as much. And to be honest, the green in my pocket sometimes trumps the green for the planet.
It’s a frustrating choice consumers have to make — and one that is especially pronounced in the realm of green real estate.
Until now.
A couple guys in Philly are going to make a LEED silver 1,000 square foot house for $100,000. And they’re blogging about it! Some days, I love being an American.
Kyoto? The Hummer? “An Inconvenient Truth”? Bono? BP? Katherine Hamnett? The Prius? Skinny Bitch? G Living? Will they make it into SIGG’s 100 most significant eco moments of the past century? And if so, where?!
For those of you in the dark, Swiss water bottle company, SIGG, and Laurie David’s environmental charity, stopglobalwarming.org, have joined forces to launch the 100 Eco Moments campaign. From today until Earth Day (April 22), they’ll be counting down the most world-changing ecological events – good and bad – that have shaped our planet.
Here’s an example of cool architecture that multi-tasks.
In an attempt to revamp the harbour area of Las Palmas in Spain’s Canary Islands, Nicholas Grimshaw of Grimshaw Architects designed a stunning water theater that expands on the Seawater Greenhouse concept and takes full advantage of the area’s steep beaches, prominent winds and abundant sunshine.
Utilizing these renewable energies, the structure uses vertically stacked evaporators and condensers to convert sea water into fresh water. The roof collects solar heat, which is fed into a distiller, which freshens the water – which is then used to irrigate crops and help moderate the hot, arid climate.
BPM + G = BPM / G Living—the definitive voice for the modern urban human
I’m not intertwining my fingers in some clichéd gesture of synergy, but the newly formed BPM / G Living alliance is about as sleek as you can get. Like water off a duck’s ass, really. BPM + G = BPM / G Living—the definitive voice for the modern urban human navigating through life with a conscience. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
The best thing about container-type housing is the portability factor. With portability comes options. And options generally reduce waste. It’s like having people over for dinner and bringing out the cheap folding chairs.
That’s exactly what the Travelodge hotel chain proved last year in London. Rather than building costly and permanent hotels in areas with temporarily expanded needs, the company simply erected non-permanent structures using prefab sleep pods. The chain suggested outdoor festivals (such as Burning Man) could greatly benefit from such a concept.
If you’ve ever been curious about pre-fab housing, here’s your chance to get up close and personal with the latest and greatest in sustainable architecture. From July 20 to October 20, The Museum of Modern Art will showcase its “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling” exhibition, where there will be an off-site installation on a scale you’ll have to see to believe.
By now, everyone is keen to the chatter about building more-efficient, cleaner cars and many of us would like to get off the grid. But what does it take to design, engineer, and build a totally carbon neutral building? The brains behind the Aldo Leopold Foundation have done it with their Leopold Legacy Center, which was featured in ArchitectureWeek, the leading online magazine for design and construction. The center earned the highest LEEDs Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
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