Urban Biofilter Urban Biofilter designs, implements, and advocates for the integration of biological systems into our existing urban infrastructure. Urban Biofilter is a research and design organization based in Oakland, CA and is a project of Earth Island Institute, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. As a collaborative team of ecological engineers, designers and community organizers, Urban Biofilter creates environmental systems appropriate to each site and community.
This Innovative Greenhouse Makes It Possible to Grow Crops Even in the Desert! Farming can be extremely difficult in the areas that lack humidity and experience high temperatures and frequent droughts. However, a new innovative greenhouse, which collects dew and then uses it for irrigation, makes it possible to grow crops even in the hottest and driest parts of the world. It was designed by Roots Up, a non-profit organization based in Northern Ethiopia, which aspires to help Ethiopian farmers in cultivating crops in the unfavorable climatic conditions of the region.
Spiraling Out of Control: The Greatest Spiral Stairs in the World Recently the Loretto Chapel was entered into the Atlas. The Santa Fe chapel is known for a very cool looking set of spiral stairs built in 1877 by a mysterious stranger. With no central support the stairs are said by the sisters of Loretto Chapel to be miraculous in construction. While there are those who beg to differ about the miraculousness of the stairs, no can deny that the stairs look, well, really cool! The miraculous staircase at Loretto Chapel (photograph by Michael Martin) In the past I have admitted a somewhat obsessive love of libraries, and looking at the Loretto stairs, made me realize I have a bit of a thing for spiral staircases as well.
Award-winning renovation slashes mid-century home’s carbon footprint by 80% London-based architecture firm Coppin Dockray completed a green house renovation that’s so successful it cut carbon emissions by 80 percent. Located on a steep wooded slope in the historic Wiltshire village of Antsy, the rural home, named Ansty Plum, comprises a 1960s house and small side annex that had fallen into severe disrepair. Coppin Dockray restored the original structure to its former glory and added double glazing, extra insulation, and other features to boost its thermal efficiency and comfort. Topped with a distinctive sloped roof that mimics the steep terrain, Ansty Plum was originally designed by David Levitt in 1964 for former Arup partner and engineer Roger Rigby. The property also includes a studio annex later designed by Brutalist architects Peter and Alison Smithson. Both structures were significantly deteriorated by the time Coppin Dockray co-founder Sandra Coppin and her husband purchased the property six years ago.
Urbanized Landscape Series by Li Han / Atelier 11 Inspired by the unprecedentedly rapid urbanization process undergoing in China, Beijing-based Chinese architect and artist Li Han of Atelier 11 | China has developed a series of drawings on the subject of urban landscapes. The purpose of the series is to record the phenomena Li found interesting and representative in this urbanization process. With techniques and visual languages borrowed from architectural drawings, Li tries to present the spontaneous interaction between the urban environment and human activities. The drawings are not only objective documentations, but also reflections and scenarios on the future development based on the current facts. More images and architects’ description after the break. Xi Zhi Men
Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building Your future home could make electric bills a thing of the past, and even help you earn money in the process. Plus-energy homes are popping up around the world, generating more energy than they use, and can even be set up to sell excess energy back to the grid. Beautiful, energy efficient, and increasingly affordable, these dwellings are proving the viability of renewable energy over fossil fuel sources. We’ve rounded up eight plus-energy homes that can produce more energy than they need, with some so powerful that they can even light up the house next door.
30 Eco-Chic Houses Made of 10 Types of Recycled Materials Waste materials that are reclaimed for new structures can be as simple as a bunch of stacked tires or a boat that’s no longer seaworthy, or as complex as old stone bricks re-sculpted to look like new. They can be roughly cobbled together into rustic cabins, or masterfully incorporated into stunning modern residences along with new materials. Sometimes they’re left as-is, their signs of age providing a sense of history, and sometimes they’re processed into something that leaves no hint of their origins. These 10 recycled building materials were saved from the landfill and transformed into the following 30 green homes, and many more around the world as like-new materials Bottles & Cans (images via: treehugger, inhabitat, green upgrader, beercanhouse.org)
DIY Used Cargo Homes & Shipping Container House Plans Designs & Ideas on Dornob.url Once upon a time, you had to buy passage on a freight ship headed out to sea in order to see a stack of containers piled high to the sky all around you. Nowadays more and more architects and builders are finding used free or for sale cargo containers at discount prices to construct all kinds of houses, homes and office structures. However, lest you think you need to go the route of hiring a professional, you should know that some do-it-yourself designers like Keith Dewey are making do with their own shipping container home plans.
Sustainable Homes - Eco Friendly Homes - Healthy Living Carbon Positive The Carbon Positive House (CPH) has been created to free us of modern day lifelines and make significant contributions within society. Developed and created through innovative design sensitivities and new technologies. The CPH has moved beyond carbon zero by making additional ‘positive’ contributions by producing more energy on-site than the building requires. Recycled Materials Cottage A cottage in Panguipulli, Chile. Designed by Juan Luis Martinez Nahuel. Photos courtesy of Juan Luis Martinez Nahuel. More info. here.
This family lives in a sustainable and edible green-house home of the future A professor the University of Rotterdam’s Sustainable Building Technology program recently offered an opportunity to Netherland families to participate in a groundbreaking project that would span three years and completely uproot the participating family by relocating them in an experimental greenhouse dwelling. Not everyone would jump at the proposal, but for Helly Scholten, a “botanical stylist” and her family, the project was a chance to dip their toes into a lifestyle she had long fantasized about—sustainable, functionally off-grid and far from mundane. Scholten applied right away and secured her family’s new home for the next three years, adorned with walls of glass and a roof layered in flora and growing produce. They officially moved into the greenhouse in June of 2015 and haven’t looked back.
Modular Modern COMMOD House is Made From Recycled Shipping Containers The COMMOD House by ContainMe! is a 100% recyclable modular house made from repurposed shipping containers. The modern home can grow or shrink according to its residents’ needs, it features a low energy footprint, and it’s made form healthy, low-voc materials like clay, wood, cellulose and steel. + COMMOD House The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader.
ABC OF INCREMENTAL HOUSING « Elemental Out of the 3 billion people living in cities today, 1 billion is under the line of poverty. By 2030 out of the 5 billion people that will be living in cities, 2 billion are going to be under the line of poverty. That means that we will have to build a 1 million people city per week with 10,000 dollars per family. Given the magnitude of the housing shortage, we won’t solve this problem unless we add people’s own resources and building capacity to that of governments and market. That is why we thought of putting in place an OPEN SYSTEM able to channel all the available forces at play.
Couple Leave Their Jobs to Build a Recycled Windows Love Nest Photographer Nick Olson and fashion designer Lilah Horwitz are a couple who take their dreams very seriously. They have left their daily jobs to build and live in a house made from recycled windows. Their unique glazed dwelling is immersed in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia - at the very same spot where they dreamt about building a home for watching sunsets on their very first date.
Rural Studio is an undergraduate program of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University. We have been in Hale County since 1993, where we hope we have been a good neighbor and friend to the community. by creationalvehicles Jun 29