Water conservation is beginning to take on a whole new look with Harris A’s recent entry into the Reece Design Competition. This new bathroom design concept collects the water the has been used to wash your hands in the bathroom sink and recycles it to flush the toilet. Both sink and toilet will be directly connected so that water can drain from the sink to a tank where it waits to be used when the toilet is flushed.
The winner of the ninth annual MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program was recently unveiled in the P.S.1’s courtyard in New York City. The winning entry, Public Farm One (P.F.1), was submitted by WORK Architecture Company and has been described as “a utopian vision of a future where urban meets organic and form meshes harmoniously with function to create a wholly new kind of landscape.”
The installation is made of cardboard tubes arranged in a honeycomb pattern and floats above the ground to accentuate city views. 51 varieties of vegetables and herbs have been planted for cultivation and will be used in P.S.1’s cafe or sold at a weekly Greenmarket collaborating with the exhibition. Continue reading to see many more images.
Late last week, the Waterloo Regional Operations Centre in Cambridge, Ontario, launched a uniqe new public art sculpture that collects solar energy and promotes human interaction. Solar Collector is a collaboration between the community and the sun. This unique artwork of 12 shafts “gathers human expression and solar energy during the day, then brings them together each night in a performance of flowing light.”
Each shaft is orientated to reflect the angles of the sun throughout the year. “The tallest shaft is perpendicular to the sun at winter solstice, when the sun is low in the sky. The flattest shaft faces the high sun at summer solstice.” You can even interact with the Solar Collector from your own home via the web.
Sebastian Irarrazaval’s 140 m2 low-cost home is cross-shaped to take advantage of the surrounding landscape in Colina, Chile. This prefabricated home sits in the Chilean hillside and has a simple geometry covered with steel plates that weather over time.
Imagine closing your curtains for shade on a hot summer day while producing electricity at the same time. This is exactly what architect Sheila Kennedy imagined for her new prototype. Kennedy, and her team at KVA Matx, have brilliantly integrated solar cell technology with architecture in their SOFT HOUSE - a home that produces nearly 16,000 watt-hours of electricity by transforming household curtains into flexible, semi-transparent, solar collectors.
Join Seattle Great City Initiative for a brownbag lunch discussion led by Owen Richards of ORA and Robert Humble and Joel Egan of Hybrid, as they discuss their winning entry for the 99k House Competition.
Come hear first hand how these local Seattle architects designed a house that is flexible enough to adapt to the changing needs of inhabitants while incorporating rainwater harvesting and a geothermal mechanical system. The best part? - it can be built for only $99,000. This concept was the winning entry in a competition to design an affordable, sustainable house prototype for the Gulf Coast Region devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
When: Monday, June 23, 2008 from 12:00 pm to 1:30pm
Where: Bertha Landes Room, 1st Floor, Seattle City Hall, 600 5th Ave
I encourage all to attend. Cosponsored by Council Member Sally Clark and Seattle DPD, this brownbag lunch is especially timely as Seattle searches for ways to provide quality homes at affordable prices.
Here is our first installment in an ongoing series of case studies that GreenFab will be conducting to highlight truley sustainable projects. Each of these case studies will be organized around a set of nine Sustainable Design Systems that we have created to measure sustainability.
INTRODUCTION - Genzyme, one of the world’s foremost biotechnology companies, has just completed their world headquarters, Genzyme Center , in Cambridge, MA. This building was designed and constructed to be one of the most environmentally responsible office buildings ever built in the United States. To help guide these goals, Genzyme pursued the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System and achieved a PLATINUM rating under LEED 2.0.
Genzyme had sustainable goals across five broad areas: sustainable site planning, safeguarding water and water efficiency, energy efficiency and renewable energy, conservation of materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. As for being employee-friendly, the space combines a collaborative work environment with a green-centric focus providing approximately 900 employees with an ideal work experience.
Continue reading to see Genzyme Center’s sustainable features organized within GreenFab’s Sustainable Design Systems .
GreenFab understands that sustainable design and development is difficult to define. With respect to the great work done by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system and Cascadia’s Living Building Challenge, we have defined our own meaning of sustainable development as: development that makes strides towards creating functional sustainable design systems.
We have created a set of nine SUSTAINABLE DESIGN SYSTEMS that we will use in a series of case studies to promote and highlight what we believe are truly sustainable projects. The projects in each case study will be measured against these systems to better understand design intent and function. Our ultimate goal is to bring great projects to you and make sustainable design more understandable.
Our first case study is coming soon so continue reading to learn about how each sustainable design system is measured. GreenFab also incorporates these measurement tools into each of our own development projects to better inform our process.
If you missed Michelle Kaufmann’s custom Sunset Breezehouse open house in Santa Barbara last weekend, here is your chance to check it out. In conjunction with the Built Green Santa Barbara Expo, Conference, and Tour, the open house revealed some great sustainable features including; permeable walkways and decking, a LouvreTec open roof system, solar integration, rainwater collection, natural cooling, and radiant heating.
The Breezehouse is centered around a site-built glass-enclosed breezeway which “lets the green in” to the main living and dinning areas. The units on either side of the breezeway, including the framing, insulation, electrical, flooring, tiles, walls and plumbing, were constructed in a factory in Tacoma, Washington and transported via flatbed truck to the site in Santa Barbara.
What is the Green Living movement? According to Executive Director Greg Searle, “we are the fusion of the green building movement and green lifestyles innovators. We are Architects + Local food groups + Green transportation entrepreneurs + Engineers + Planners +Landscape architects + Recycling groups + Developers + Smart Growth advocates + Local Chambers of Commerce + many, many more.” The Green Living Movement has one goal: truly sustainable living. Read more and become a signatory.
The time has come to take the conversation about sustainability to the next level.
Mission of the Green Living Movement: “We are dreamers, listeners, connectors, doers, use our influence to create better incentives, and we are bold and persuasive.”
Commitment of the Green Living Movement: “We, the Green Living Movement, pledge to make sustainable lifestyles more convenient and attractive through every aspect of our work.”
Become a signatory and pass this on if you feel compelled. It’s a virus worth spreading.
When we run across an artistic expression that changes the way we look at the world and inspires us to think more poetically, we feel compelled to share it with you. This video is not about a new sustainable project or material, it is simply about the “Power of Wind”.
EPURON GmbH, a subsidiary of Conergy AG, won the top honor for best film advertising spot at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes in 2007. The company’s “Power of Wind” ad, created by Nordpol+ Hamburg, was recognized at the Festival as the most successful TV ad in Germany.
For most of us, we are becoming more aware of our carbon footprint, but do you have any idea how much WATER is required for the production of the food you eat? The Virtual Water Project , executed by German designer Timm Kekeritz, is making sure that you do. Kekeritz graphically represents the concept of Virtual Water on a double-sided poster that uses silhouettes and typography to show the relationships between fresh water consumption and food production. What is your Water Footprint?
The Magic Box is a new prefab “versatile box that changes the stereotypes of prefabricated houses and extension rooms by having qualities such as transparency and simplistic form with high versatility.” This concept comes from Magic Box, Inc. and designer Jun Ueno to provide a type of space that people have never experienced before - a ‘fusion’ of art and architecture.
Our friends Robert Humble, Joel Egan and Ben Spencer at Hybrid Seattle together with ORA recently submitted the winning entry for the 99k House Competition. 182 entrants were challenged with creating an innovative design for a small house in Houston, Texas that is affordable, sustainable, and energy efficient. Designed for a low-income family, Hybrid/ORA’s winning design is a compact and highly adaptable home responding to both social and environmental concerns.
The animation below by Leo de Wijs tells the story of a tree outgrown by an evolving city. It is not only unique but also thought provoking and charming. Enjoy!
>> From Digital Urban
Marmol Radziner
Living Homes
Michelle Kaufmann
Alchemy Architects
