http://www.cubeproject.org.uk/
Related: environmentCommunity Energy Initiatives Information has been collected as consistently as possible for projects funded or supported by the following community-orientated Government Programmes and other community energy programmes or networks: Government community energy programmes: Clear Skies Community Renewables Initiative (CRI)* Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) PV Grant Programme Community Energy EST Innovation Programme Meditation Retreat Gypsy Wagon Tim Kasten wrote to me recently about his Meditation Retreat Gypsy Wagon, so I asked him to send me some pictures and tell us his story. I’ll let Tim take over from here: I dreamed for a number of years of building a gypsy-style caravan on a 4-wheel 14-foot-long wagon chassis that I bought from Shiloh Wagon Works in Minnesota. Health problems eventually forced me to concede that I wasn’t strong enough to build it alone and that I would have to scale back the design considerably if I wanted to be able to tow it with a small car and maneuver it by myself. The result was this little wagon built on a 4×8 utility trailer from Tractor Supply.
The Eco-Cube: The World's Smallest Home? By Stephen Lacey on July 6, 2011 at 8:38 am "The Eco-Cube: The World’s Smallest Home?" My city apartment is pretty small, but not quite this small. Still, through creative design, this net-energy positive “cube house” feels like it has just as much space. This 10x10x10 foot house features a small lounge, dining area, kitchen, space for a washer and dryer, a closet, full shower, bathroom and full-sized bed. House SNR The house is situated on a typical suburban plot and is framed between two edge gables. The house is based on a contemporary study of the archetype the "gable house" which is widely spread in SA, Australia and other countries. This type is usually a single story house connected to the ground with two side gables and a central entrance with a thatched pitch roof. This house takes these "classic" elements and adapts them to our times. The house's plan is a clean, crisp rectangular, raised above the street level and built in mixed technology. The two long side elevations are made from industrial steel elements and covered with frosted glass sheets.
What is sustainable development · Sustainable Development Commission "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The concept of sustainable development can be interpreted in many different ways, but at its core is an approach to development that looks to balance different, and often competing, needs against an awareness of the environmental, social and economic limitations we face as a society. All too often, development is driven by one particular need, without fully considering the wider or future impacts. We are already seeing the damage this kind of approach can cause, from large-scale financial crises caused by irresponsible banking, to changes in global climate resulting from our dependence on fossil fuel-based energy sources.
Yurt Lady on September 6, 2010 She has been living in a yurt for about 3 years. At 9,300 feet in rural Colorado. Custom Tree House Plans, DIY Ideas & Building Designs No, really: would you want to design, build and live in an real fantasy tree house all year round? More and more people have decided to do just that and where treehouses were once novelty architecture for kids they are now (almost) mainstream structures, as attested to by the pictures above via Bella Seven. Many modern tree house designs and home designers and custom builders take a site-specific approach and construct their tree buildings around not only views and rooms but also have to account for access and structural support in unique and novel ways. Some of the results are little auxiliary spaces intended for guests or vacations while others are fully developed tree homes with everything need for daily living. While a lot of attention is paid to lofty plans by fashionable designers, there are many people who continue to use quite conventional home-building plans, techniques and materials to construct tree homes and cabins that look much like ordinary residences on the ground below.
Green Prefab Shed Homes: Small Space Living by Design Sheds do not sound like something you would want to live in, but as modern modular, mobile and miniature houses become increasingly popular sustainable living space options, well, even products dubbed with titles like the Big Shed and Little Shed is not such a bad idea. There is an art to designing smalls-space structures so they are convenient and compact but also comfortable and livable – and a certain lifestyle of simplicity sought by many that makes them a good match for some people.Plus, these designs by Dwelle are relatively affordable as home prices go: you can buy ones of these all-in-one buildings (and not worry about the hassles of construction) for between fifty and eighty thousand dollars. This surprisingly cheap and simple-yet-modern shed home is has its own living area complete with fireplace, elevated bedroom loft space and separated restroom and cooking areas.
National Land Use Database - Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) We manage the National Land Use Database of Previously Developed Land (NLUD-PDL) on behalf of government. The database contains information on previously developed land and buildings in England that may be available for development and is updated annually. Land that has been previously developed is known as brownfield land. September 1, 2014 Issue - Vol. 92 Issue 35 [+]Enlarge CLEVER’S prototype modular design would enable failed components to be replaced, extending the useful life of the phone. Credit: Loughborough University More than 1.8 billion new cell phones will be bought in 2014, but within just a few years, 44% of them will end up “hibernating” in drawers. About the same share will be resold and passed on, and 4% will end up in landfills.
Yurt Lady After working exhaustively with the building department, plans were approved and I started to get to work. Actually, I started spending gross amounts of money to have other people start work. Although I was the official general contractor, I worked very closely with my framer who helped me understand the steps along the way and I took care of all the babysitting/haranguing of subcontractors. Whenever I could, I would do it myself, but unfortunately, that wasn’t until much later in the process.
The Tiny Life , Archive » Egg House This is a pretty neat house, built by Daihai Fei, age 24, he did it for only $960 US dollars. He had moved to Beijing to pursue his college degree, but after graduating he found to get work, he must stay in the city, but he couldn’t afford rent. The house is mobile and covered with bags of dirt and grass seeds. Daihai Fei hopes that the seed will take and grow to fully encase his egg in grass, making it more weather resistant.
Ruud Visser. Architect. Along the river De Rotte in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) stands a wooden church from 1930. The 1930's church had ended its career as a religious sanctuary and was being used as a garage for fixing and selling cars. The church was totally covered with metal plates and looked like a hangar. A family came along and wanted to transform it. With the help of Ruud Visser Architects and Peter Boer, the church was adapted into a home fit for a family of four. With a volume of 3000 cube, the church is as big as six average family houses.