In an era of rising environmental awareness, it is necessary to provoke the society in order to change the way it perceives energy use. International practice Sériès et Sériès has been awarded second place for Greenoplasty – the design of Los Angeles Cleentech Corridor and Green District – their successful proposal offered inspiring environment, allowing its residents to look beyond the common and the easily consumed, in favor of the responsive, daring and stimulating. SES’s design has derived from strong belief that the urban planning has to propose radically new and more environmentally conscious way of living which further helps breaking old habits.

In this particular case of the Cleantech Corridor, their urban strategy consisted of compressing the four mile site by implementing a local tram way and proposing new zoning for specific areas, in order to promote most sustainable way of commuting and give space back to the pedestrian. Architects at SES committed to keep as much of the existing context intact, while giving the residents their right to the city and public space. Read the rest of this entry »

This camouflaged, unique gateway into the Cairns Botanic Gardens Visitors Center as awarded building of the year and public architecture award at the 2012 Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Awards in Queensland, Australia. Designed by Charles Wright Architects | CWA, the Center is the successful outcome of the limited competition. The architects aimed to design a “green” building, which would represent a paradigm shift for Cairns – a progressive solution that could be applied anywhere on a tropical latitude. The design had to stand out from the expected – there was a collective desire to attract both national and international attention, which would further result with creating new opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »

Steven Holl Architects has been commissioned to design the Ecology and Planning Museum in Tianjin, China –30 percent constructed, the new Eco City is a cooperation between governments of China and Singapore and is planned the to be the home to population of 500,000, when complete in 2020.

60,000 square meters in total, the museum structure will be the first in the cultural district. Planning museum is the “subtractive” space – the negative to the Ecology museum’s positive, together two museums make a complete box.

Marking the entrance to the Planning Museum, shared public plaza gathers the visitors around the large model of the eco-city and a temporary display area, further directed to the exquisite space experience of great interiors and program sequences, from multimedia system, through the theory and practice zones, to the interactive display on the third floor. The top storey facilitates the green architecture, landscape and water resources exhibits and the access to the vegetative rooftop, offering panoramic views to the future city. Read the rest of this entry »

New Dalian Planning Museum in China, by 10 Design, is a modern, first-class venue for offices and exhibitions in the heart of the government district, advocating cultural engagement within the city. It is one of seven municipal civil projects funded by Planning Bureau – along with library, urban planning exhibition, scientific center, museum, and teenage activity center. Building’s sculptural appearance is in a direction of promoting landmark architecture in Dalian. Striking edifice is also a temple of technical innovations and progressive sustainable concepts.

Clearly inspired by nautical forms, the design also aims to become a symbol of technological perfection and green architecture. Museum’s envelope is active and maintenance-free – the building uses photo catalytic nano-coating of titanium dioxide on the outer zinc rain screen to neutralize air pollution and remove dirt. UV lights powered by photovoltaic cells perform the cleansing reaction at night, while incorporating a figure of a blooming flower, an important symbol to this Chinese city. The great fact is that this dramatic performance comes at no cost – nano-coatings are simple paints in a very thin layer.

A layer of polymer coating of the inner aluminum façade increases thermal insulation up to 20 percent, while also providing fungal resistance. Read the rest of this entry »

This project designed by Italian architect Massimo Guidotti covers an area of 18 ha and provides the design of a fair for nursery gardening, as the main function in a series of collateral ones such as offices, shops, an auditorium, a bank, a post office, a hotel and a big event square.

The roof, totally accessible, with its continuous movement becomes the distinctive sign of the whole project which, according to the point of observation, creates an always new suggestion in the visitor and turns into the icon of the project and, at the same time, into the climatic moderator.

Dynamism as a metaphor of energy and innovation; green as a sign of respect towards new generations. Read the rest of this entry »

Mixed-use vertical farm designed by Brandon Martella for the city of San Diego. The project is located next to the waterfront and the historical Gaslamp district.

Food as a resource is limited. Supply will soon not meet demand. With population growth, food production in the United States is reaching maximum capacity. Current trends in development create a struggle between farming and living. These two practices are modeled for their own benefit and are soon to clash in a disastrous agglomeration. According to the FDA, the average American alone consumes 707.7lbs of fruits and vegetables each year. With the majority of produce coming from the Imperial Valley, Central California Valley, neighboring states and other countries the 30,000 plus residents of San Diego’s central urban context consume 21,231,000 pounds of produce each year. Where will we get our food? Transparency in the food industry needs to occur and enlighten blinded consumers. Our city needs to handle this critical issue with an architecture that responds. Read the rest of this entry »

The corporate headquarters designed by Annkit kummar of the Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (LIDA) is planned keeping in mind the principles of integrating nature in architecture.  Such a unison would promote sustainable architecture principles in planning of industrial buildings in future, which otherwise are flavorless and solid in their appearance.

The proposed Headquarters of LIDA assimilates greenery into the building at higher levels providing terrace gardens and recreational space to the employees. The central courtyard together with the vertical voids aid in the wind flow through-out the building keeping the entire building mass cooler during the summers. Read the rest of this entry »

For the green innovative house, architects Achawin Laohavichairat, Montakan Manosong, and Peerapon karunwiwat designed a building that provided infrastructure, urban facilities, green area, and living space. They designed the house for congested urban areas in this case they choose “Metropolitan Bangkok”. Ecological living uses of clean, non-pollution energies, gathering of organic and inorganic waste, creation of green spaces. The green innovative house is designed with self-sufficient considerations planed to take care of the management of energy. Read the rest of this entry »

Pupa is a habitat by Liam Hopkins of Lazerian within Bloomberg’s London headquarters made from reclaimed cardboard and pallets.

The form and aesthetics are inspired by natural habitats – cocoons, bee hives, spiders nests and weaver birds nests. The ceiling assumes the appearance of a shelter; snug and cave like, but also references the vaulted ceilings of church naves.

The numbers which can be extrapolated from Pupa reflect the almost Sisyphean task faced, whether by human, bird or insect, to create these sort of  structures:

• 3,972 triangular cardboard borders make up frame
• 3,972 triangle inners fill the exoskeleton providing the cover
• 180 wooden pallets taken apart for chair frame and legs
• 11,000 nails removed from wooden pallets
• 252 leather offcuts from make up the chair seats
  

Constructed in triangular sections Pupa utilises the structural and acoustic properties of cardboard. Computer design techniques were used to generate the form and the individual components were then extracted from the virtual model to create flat layouts that are glued together by hand.The original Bloomberg cardboard arrived in damp bales so was pulped and re-constituted at a John Hargreaves factory in Stalybridge using machinery originally installed in 1910.

“Commissioned for Bloomberg Philanthropy by art and design agency Arts Co, ‘Waste Not, Want It’ is a series of specially commissioned art and design projects made almost entirely out of Bloomberg’s waste.”

“Waste Landscape” by French art studio Le Centquatre is a 600 square meters artificial undulating landscape covered by an armor of 60,000 unsold or collected CDs, which have been sorted and hand-sewn.

It is well known that CDs are condemned to gradually disappear from our daily life, and to later participate in the construction of immense open-air, floating or buried toxic waste reception centers. Made of petroleum, this reflecting slick of CDs forms a still sea of metallic dunes: the monumental scale of the art work reveals the precious aspect of a small daily object. The project joins a global, innovative and committed approach, from its means of production until the end of its “life”. “WasteLandscape” will be displayed in locations coherent with the stakes of the project: the role of art in society, the sensitization to environmental problems through culture, the alternative mode of production and the valuation of district associative work and professional rehabilitation. Read the rest of this entry »