James Russell, architecture critic for Bloomberg, should have been at the Re-Imagining Cities: Urban Design after the age of Oil conference last week, because he certainly has the right idea. He concurs with this writer that the solutions for building in a world with expensive oil won't be high tech but simple and logical, things we have known for centuries and have just ignored. He writes:
Photo via SMUD
The "Home of the Future" is the goal of BP Solar and OCR Solar & Roofing. They’ve teamed up to create a home that is the most state-of-the-art in energy efficiency.
Their design and construction hopes to encapsulate everything a homeowner could want in terms of energy production, storage and consumption. And they've put together quite the home to show off the potential of future dwellings. ...
:: The Environmental Working Group exposes the high levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals found in teenage girls' bodies.
:: Apple is rumored to soon release their eco-friendly laptop stateside.
:: The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) pumps up prefab in their current exhibit, Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.
:: Sony Ericsson develops an energy efficient cell phone called GreenHeart.
TreeHugger visits IIDEX, the International Interior Design Exhibition, an annual trade-only design show in Toronto.
"Green" and "concrete" are two words that I never thought I would use together, but Alla Linetsky convinced me. She mixes up a special blend that is 77% recycled, 92% local and 30% lighter. She significantly cuts the amount of cement that goes into the concrete (the manufacture of cement is responsible for 5% of the world's greenhouse gases). This stuff won't pass any tests for concrete used in construction, but you don't need a structural countertop....
Luckily the suspense has been broken for a look at the West Coast Green Showhouse. While the finishing touches are still going up, the majority of the demonstration house is in place. Take a closer look at more of what this house has to offer below the fold....
Foreclosed farm, Great Depression
I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to defend modern prefab from an analysis by Chad Ludeman and in the end, failed, coming up only with a tie. I spent the rest of the day thinking about it and realized that no, we both fail. Now that Hugo George Chavez Bush and the Republican administration have nationalized the financial structure that funds the entire housing industry, the mortgage guarantors and the reinsurers, neither site built nor prefab has a future.
I mean, really. Except for the metal roof, the Now House looks just like every other sixty year old postwar veteran's house on the street in suburban Toronto. Everybody knows that a zero-energy house has to look all heliotropy and be covered in green gizmos.
Justin at Materialicious asks "How cool is this?" BoingBoing asks "Why didn't somebody think of this before?! Was there some engineering issue that had to be overcome to allow such an elegant, ingenious and obvious design?"
I can think of a couple of reasons:
1) Nobody needed it when outlets weren't grounded or we didn't have wall-warts;
2) It probably still isn't legal in kitchens where outlets are "split"- two circuits to each plug;
3) Because it is made by one manufacturer and is different than the unive...
Passing the LEED Exam
Last Thursday I took--and passed--the LEED accreditation exam. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and is a performance-based rating system for green buildings established by the U.S Green Building Council. It has come to be accepted as the benchmark for green building, and covers all aspects of a building, from materials, to energy, water and building operation. LEED is on the minds of many people in the building industry these days, ...
Passing the LEED Exam
Last Thursday I took--and passed--the LEED accreditation exam. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and is a performance-based rating system for green buildings established by the U.S Green Building Council. It has come to be accepted as the benchmark for green building, and covers all aspects of a building, from materials, to energy, water and building operation. LEED is on the minds of many people in the building industry these days, ...
I have a lot of issues with granite countertops, the cherry on top of the McMansion sundae; they are heavy, expensive and cost a lot to ship. I have heard stories of Brazilian granite being shipped to China for cutting and then to Toronto for installation. Now the New York Times tells us about another problem: some of it glows in the dark.
The Times reports that demand for granite has increased tenfold in the last decade, and the stuff is coming from 63 countries; some are more radioactive than others.
John Carpenter had it backwards; Snake Plissken's job is going to be keeping people out of New York, not in it. According to the New York Post, "The subprime crisis and the gas price crisis are accelerating the trend that people want to be in walkable urban areas," said Christopher B. Leinberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute, who is also a real estate developer. "It's been happening for the past 15 years and these trends have just accelerated it."
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