Green Architecture/Buildings.

[Ganoderma]

why are the coolest pics you see always so tiny....

[Michaelangelica]

I agree, so I went to the first tree house mentioned clicked, and clicked, and downloaded and clicked, and downloaded and clicked and finally you get a big picture. Now what a clever feature! Computers, the wonder of the age!

Its a lousy picture and its not the view you want, or even the treehouse you started with but HEY! we all have heaps of time before we die.

 

Please, all you communication-challenged 15 year old IT Specialists out there, a BIG red button that says: "Click here for bigger picture for the old blind and lame." would be nice.

 

BlueForest Exclusive Tree Houses, Tree Homes & Eco-Lodges

[Ganoderma]

HAHA!!!!!

 

thanks micheal, i feel special now :confused:

[Michaelangelica]

Urban Greenscapes Symposium 2009

 

Also NGIA Confrence

NGIA Conference 2009

[Michaelangelica]

LILYPAD, A FLOATING ECOPOLIS FOR CLIMATICAL REFUGEES 2100, a large crowd of ecological refugees

 

Further to the anthropogenic activity, the climate warms up and the ocean level increases. According to the principle of Archimedes and contrary to preconceived notions, the melting of the arctic ice-floe will not change the rising of the water exactly as an ice cube melting in a glass of water does not make its level rise. However, there are two huge ice reservoirs that are not on the water and whose melting will transfer their volume towards the oceans, leading to their rising. It deals with the ice caps of Antarctic and Greenland on the one hand, and the continental glaciers on the other hand. Another reason of the ocean rising, that does not have anything to do with the ice melting is the water dilatation under the effect of the temperature.

 

According to the less alarming forecasts of the GIEC (Intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th Century).

The international scientific scene assets that a temperature elevation of 1°C will lead to a water rising of 1 meter.

This increase of 1 m would bring ground losses emerged of approximately 0.05% in Uruguay, 1% in Egypt, 6% in the Netherlands, 17.5% in Bangladesh and up to 80% approximately in the atoll Majuro in Oceania (Marshall and Kiribati islands and step by step the Maldives islands)

more interesting images and comment here

Lilypad, a prototype of auto-sufficient amphibious city | yatzer | designistoshare

[Michaelangelica]

Independence Station in Independence, Oregon is set to become the World’s Greenest Building with the highest LEED (The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating ever awarded for new construction.

 

The current record holder, a Canadian project, has a score of 63 out of a possible 69 points. At its completion next year, Independence Station will likely earn between 64 and 66 points, bringing the top score back to the United States.

 

The 57,000-square-foot mixed-use structure by Aldeia, LLC is 40% complete, and when finished will house offices, retail space, a restaurant, research facilities, a Direct Current (DC) power based data server room, classroom space, and 15 residential units for 21st century pioneers who will work together to shatter worldwide energy consumption guidelines.

Yellows and Blues | Share - Learn - Green

I would have thought that the Council Melbourne Office Block would have been in the running for this.

[Michaelangelica]

Want to cool a building? Steal a trick from the forest canopy and use leaves for shade, as Osaka University did with its Frontier Research Center (pictured above). Builders, architects, and designers seeking better ways to go green are increasingly turning to nature—the original green—for solutions that have proven track records in the real world.

 

Engineering inspired by nature can be “functionally indistinguishable from the elegant designs we see in the natural world,” says Janine Benyus, a leading proponent of nature-based design and founder of the Biomimicry Institute.

Benyus says the strategy has already yielded a wide range of new products that may replicate nature’s successes: ceramics with the strength and toughness of abalone shells, self-assembling computer chips that form by processes similar to the way that tooth enamel grows, adhesives that mimic the glue that mussels use to anchor themselves in place, and self-cleaning plastics based on the structure of a lotus leaf.

Sustainable Architecture Takes Cues From the Original Green: Nature | Global Warming | DISCOVER Magazine

BuzzWords

 

BIOMIMICRY The emulation of natural designs and processes; imitation of life

 

SELF-CLEANING PLASTIC Plastic with a surface that causes liquids to roll off, achieved by forming it in a mold with tiny bumps like those on the surface of a lotus leaf

 

PHOTOVOLTAIC Made of solar cells that can convert sunlight directly into electricity

 

PHOTO-CATALYZATION A process that uses light to speed up chemical reactions, such as the breakdown of pollutants

[Michaelangelica]

 

more at

A Low Impact Woodland Home

 

ADDED 7 MAY 2009

The council wants to tear this down!

Sign the petetion!

http://www.simondale.net/house/lammas.htm

[Essay]

ResearchChannel - Urban Weather and Climate - Now and the Future

Description:

More than 50 percent of our population already live in cities. And by 2030, the equivalent of 15 cities the size of Phoenix will be created annually. Is the quadruple convergence of urbanism, population growth, climate change and coastal development a perfect storm? In this American Meteorological Society program, a panel of experts discuss the impact climate and cities have on one another. Find out what urban planners and climate scientists must do in order to combine their efforts to adapt to a changing urbanized world.

 

Sunday, January 31, 2010

8:30 a.m. PT

2:30 p.m. PT

8:30 p.m. PT

This program will air on ResearchChannel at the following times (GMT-08:00).

 

~ Enjoy!

 

p.s. ...after watching this, it's hard not to think of the new book, "Brace for Impact: Surviving the Crash of the Industrial Age by Sustainable Living."

 

[brace for Impact] - C-SPAN Video Library

Thomas Lewis talked about his book Brace for Impact... (Outskirts Press; October 9, 2009). In his book he analyzes the gathering threats to society's life-support systems such as power, food, and water, and the inability of the political and economic institutions to preserve them. He examines the interrelated systems of industrial society and the economies of scale that lead to a concentration of risk. He advises that individual families and communities can weather the collapse through sustainable living. He was interviewed by the C-SPAN Bus crew at Frostburg State University. The date of the interview is not known.

[cavereform]

Great to see a topic on this. We need all the advice we can get as we undertake a cave reform in Spain. Cave is currently uninhabitable, and without services which means its a great start to put our eco aims into practise. If anyone knows any sites, suppliers who might be able to advise please let me know! I will be keeping a online blog, tweets and eventually (when I do have power) a web cam to record our efforts, successes, as well as failures. You can contact through the web site Cave Reform :: Homepage

[Michaelangelica]

Plans were recently approved for the vegetation-clad Palazzo Park Hotel & Residences, the first luxury beachfront hotel and condominium resort in Costa Rica to be built with the latest green building techniques, including the country’s largest greenroof at 40,000 square feet.

 

i wonder if it will be as good as its pics?

 

 

http://www.greenroofs.com/blog/2010/08/19/spectacular-eco-palazzo-park-in-costa-rica/

[Michaelangelica]

Green public housing units break new ground

By Jennifer Macey

 

Groundbreaking: an artist's impression of the finished development at Lilyfield (gbca.org.au)

 

• AUDIO: Green public housing project opens in Sydney (The World Today)
• MAP: Lilyfield 2040

An apartment complex in Sydney's inner-west has become the first public housing estate in Australia to achieve a five-star energy efficiency rating.

 

The 88 apartments have been designed with natural ventilation, recycled water and solar hot water and power.

 

The estate at Lilyfield also has a large communal courtyard where residents are encouraged to grow their own vegetables.

 

Builders are putting the finishing touches on the complex before residents being moving in this month.

 

Project manager Peter Le May says the design is groundbreaking.

 

. . .http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/09/3134472.htm

"I'd have to say this is a fairly new model, a fairly adventurous model," he said.

 

"I think the department, three or four years ago, looked at how they could innovate and create a new standard for public housing.

 

"As you can see we're creating a place for living, a place that gives people a sense of identity and dignity."

 

Energy efficiency experts say one of the cheapest ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions is to design better buildings.

 

The project cost almost $30 million and includes the apartments that come with either one, two or three bedrooms. Nine have been built to accommodate people with disabilities.