Inhabitat

Read the rest of READER TIP: Philips Lumiblade Reflections OLED Mirrorwall Now Available

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Post tags: Eco, efficient, Electricity, green, green lighting, lumiblade, mirror, mirrorwall, OLED, Philips, pholed, reflection, renewable energy, Sustainable

While a party guest suggests to Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate that “There’s a great future in plastics,” nobody could have predicted that they’d one day be used to make houses! Plastic waste is a class-A environmental problem, and putting recycled plastic to new use is one way of limiting it. And that’s exactly what Welsh company Affresol is doing by using it to build their amazing modular homes.

Read the rest of Affresol Makes Modular Homes Out of Recycled Plastic

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Post tags: green architecture, Green Building, green design, plastic, Plastic bottles, recycling, Swansea, water bottles

Min Kyu Choi recently took home the top prize in this year’s Brit Insurance Design Awards with his smartly designed, material efficient, “Folding Plug.” The elegant and simple design features the necessary 3 prongs, but with way less material. When folded up, the plug is less than 1 cm thick — much thinner even than Apple’s innovative square plug.

Read the rest of Smart Folding Plug Wins 2010 Brit Insurance Design Award

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Post tags: brit insurance design awards, design awards, eco design, efficient material usage, green design, less material, made in mind, min kyo choi, smart design, smart plug

Are you good at video games? Then you might be able work the Dragon Runner, a 14 lb bomb-disposal robot unveiled today by the British Ministry of Defence. The robot, which measures 9″x8″x3, can be worn as a backpack and is capable of climbing stairs, opening doors, lifting up items, and it can even dig around explosives — all via a game console-like controller.

Read the rest of Britain’s New Dragon Runner Robot Deactivates Live Explosives

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Post tags: army, bomb disposal, bombs, dragon runner, eco design, green design, hurt locker, uk army

Imagine a 3-d printer so large that it can spit out entire buildings made from stone. Sounds science fiction-y, right? But that’s exactly what designer Enrico Dini created with his prototype D-Shape printer. Dini hopes to use the printer to create buildings made of stone and eventually, moon dust.

Read the rest of 3-D Printer Creates Entire Buildings From Solid Rock

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Post tags: 3-D printer, 3D printer makes buildings, Alta Space, D-Shape, Enrico Dini, green design, La Scuola Normale Superiore, Norman Foster, sculptures on the moon

Paul Rudolph was one of the dominant architects in the sixties and seventies, who understood how to build with the climate instead of fighting it. Yet so many of his buildings are now gone or threatened. Why are the works of this master of modern architecture being sent to the scrapyard in such staggering numbers?

Read the rest of Why Is Everybody Tearing Down Paul Rudolph Houses and Buildings?

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", demolition, Green Building, green design, green renovation, modern architecture, Paul Rudolph, sustainable design

Solar panels aren’t usually installed because they’re good-looking. But the Swiss design firm Drzach and Suchy thinks that solar power can be beautiful–literally. The pair have created “piksol”, a solar-powered pixel that lets architects and designers generate photovoltaic mosaics on building facades.

Read the rest of Solar Pixel Turns Building Facades into Artwork

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Post tags: alternative energy, eco design, green design, piksol, pixel, solar panels, Solar Power

The makers of the Solar Roadway just got a little closer to their dream of making every road in the United States a high-tech thruway that carries more than just cars. They’ve completed their first prototype and unveiled the photographs of the revolutionary energy-generating road surface. If installed on a real thoroughfare the Solar Roadway would carry vehicles, generate electricity for messages to drivers, self-heat to melt snow and ice, and deliver high speed phone and internet cables to the front steps of every home.

Read the rest of Energy Generating, Self-Heating Solar Roadway Unveiled

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Post tags: alternative transportation, economy, energy production, green gadget, green transportation, messages, power generation, road, road surface, Solar Power, solar roadway

Want eyesight that would make the Terminator jealous? Well, in a few years, you might be able to say hasta la vista to your normal old contact lenses and hello to the solar powered augmented lenses that University of Washington professor Babak Amir Parviz and his students are working on. The technology would embed hundreds of semitransparent LEDs onto a thin lens, letting wearers experience augmented reality right through their eyes. And the applications – from health monitoring to just plain bionic sight – could be endless.

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Post tags: augmented contact lens, Augmented Reality Contact Lens, babak parviz, bionic eyesight, bionic lens, Design for Health

It sounds like a strange combination: zinc oxide crystals, water, and noise pollution. But scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that the mix can efficiently produce hydrogen without the need for a dirty catalyst like oil. By submerging a new type of zinc oxide crystal in water, the scientists claim to be able to harvest hydrogen using vibrations from passing traffic and crashing waves.

Read the rest of New Piezo Crystals Harness Sound Waves to Generate Hydrogen Fuel

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Post tags: "clean energy", fuel, green energy, hydrogen, hydrogen atom, noise pollution, water issues

Instead of showing kids how to kill, a new video game instructs them on how to stay alive. A group of students and their professor at Michigan State University recently launched a video game that aims to teach children how to avoid unexploded land mines. The game, Landmine Lookout!, will be sent to Cambodia this month for testing, and hopefully will be implemented in other at-risk areas, too.

Read the rest of New Video Game Teaches Cambodian Kids How to Avoid Real Land Mines

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Post tags: Cambodia, Golden West Humanitarian Foundation, humanitarian design, Landmine Lookout, landmine video game, landmines in Cambodia, Michigan State University, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, UN, unexploded landmines

When new TGV rail lines were built from France’s Atlantic coast through La Roche-sur-Yon, a new pedestrian bridge was needed to cross the tracks safely. New York-based architect Bernard Tschumi and French firm Hugh Dutton Associés rose to the challenge with this beautiful tubular lattice bridge that connects the old center of the town with the newer districts across the tracks. The new pedestrian bridge was inaugurated in February and now stands as a striking contemporary statement for the town.

Read the rest of Gorgeous Tubular Lattice Bridge Rises in La Roche-sur-Yon, France

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Post tags: eco design, footbridge, france, hugh dutton, la roche-sur-yon, lattice structure, ped bridge, pedestrian bridge, pedestrian friendly, pedestrian friendly design, rail lines, rail transporation, tschumi

In a move to make Los Angeles coal-free by 2020, Mayor Antonio Villariagosa just announced a proposal for a monthly carbon surcharge on water and power bills. The funds will be used to transition the city towards renewable energy sources, and although no set amount was announced, it is expected that the smallest increase seen by 55% of the LA Department of Water and Power (DWP) consumers will be an additional $2.00 a month.

Read the rest of Los Angeles Proposes Carbon Surcharge on Energy Bills

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Post tags: carbon emissions, Carbon Surcharge, Carbon Tarrif, Carbon Tax, City of LA Carbon, DWP, Inhabitat LA, LADWP, Los Angeles

Author, furniture designer and hand tool enthusiast Tom Fidgen designed and built this side table using salvaged Ash collected from the shores of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. The drawer fronts are made of reclaimed Angelique wood that sat on a barge in Martha’s Vineyard for the better part of 100 years, and the table is finished with a food safe oil blend. It was built using only hand tools – no electricity! For more custom designs and to see inside a ‘hand tool only’ workshop visit the Unplugged Woodshop.

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Post tags: "green furniture", "sustainable furniture", eco design, eco furniture, green design, Recycled wood furniture, salvaged furniture, salvaged wood, sustainable design, Upcycled side table

While most of the United States’ focus on Afghanistan has been on the ongoing war, other lessons from this land have come to North America in the form of green building techniques. As it turns out, efficiency, affordability, or mobility are often good catalysts to try something new. From sturdy local building materials like adobe bricks to advanced structural insulated panels informed by traditional designs, read on for several great examples.

Read the rest of Lessons in Green Building from Afghanistan 

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Adobe brick building, green building techniques, green design, lessons in green building from Afghanistan, sustainable design

French architect Jean Nouvel recently unveiled a shining new LEED Certified skyscraper on 11th avenue in New York City. The building features a stunning facade composed of 1,700 different panes of glass and is described by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect as a “vision machine”. With apartments reaching from $1.6 million to $22 million, one wonders if New York really needs another green luxury building when there’s so much need for affordable housing. But nonetheless, 100 Eleventh Avenue is a stunning portrayal of what modern design can accomplish in a city like the Big Apple.

Read the rest of Jean Nouvel Unveils Reflective LEED Certified Skyscraper in NYC

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", apartment, Architecture, eleventh avenue, Frank Gehry, HIGHLINE, jean nouvel, leed certified, new york city, New York., nouvel, NY, west side highway

The Method Laundry Room Sweepstakes is currently in effect, so enter today for a shot at winning a stunning green laundry room renovation worth $8,500! Inhabitat has teamed up with Method to stock your laundry room chock full of a year’s worth of laundry supplies, a new energy efficient washer and dryer, and a set of eco-friendly laundry room furnishings. The competition ends on April 16th, so if you haven’t applied yet it’s time to get cracking!

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Post tags: green contest, green design, green products, laundry room makeover, martha network, method cleaning products, method home, sustainable design

Once a veteran marathoner, 74 year old Bruce Maynard now battles major knee problems — but his age and physical setbacks are not thwarting him from planning his upcoming journey across America in a solar powered jogging stroller named ‘Sam.’ Outfitted with a foldable solar panel (which powers the device in tandem with a battery), ‘Sam’ is Maynard’s mobile office — complete with a computer stand and work table — as well as his campsite via boat-hook poles that will be used to construct a trusty tent. Maynard will be ready to roll on his six month trek in April, after undergoing trick knee surgery. Visit Inhabitots to read more about his inspirational plans for this journey.

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Post tags: bruce maynard, journey across america in a solar powered stroller, solar powered baby stroller, solar powered stroller, solar stroller, stroller tent, walk across america

How do you create effective lighting when there’s no way to get to the grid? Leave it to a couple of ingenious designers to come up with a beautiful and self-sufficient bamboo lighting system! Designed by Ingendesign, the ‘Flow’ light is powered by constant prevailing coastal winds and is built to be almost completely biodegradable.

Read the rest of Beautiful Bamboo Flow Lights are Powered by the Wind!

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Post tags: bamboo, bamboo lamps, Bamboo Lighting, Columbia, flow public light, igendesign, LED lighting, wind powered lamps, wind powered lighting

Solar charging stations for cars? Been there, done that. Now Sanyo has completed two solar parking lot charging stations in Japan for its “Eneloop” hybrid electric bikes–and the company is offering 80 bikes for community use at the two spots. Each station can charge 40 bikes, with power left to light up LEDs at night in the parking lots.

Read the rest of Sanyo Installs Solar Parking Lots in Japan for Electric Hybrid Bicycles

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Post tags: e-bike, electric bicycle, electric bike, electric hybrid bicycle, eneloop charging station, green design, sanyo