A large part of the green building focus is on healthy indoor air quality – eliminating toxins, emissions and pollutants that can cause indoor air to be more polluted than outdoors. One common and potentially dangerous health risk inside buildings has recently been found in high levels in granite finishes. This highly popular countertop choice has become suspect as an emitter of radiation and an entry point for high levels of radon gas inside the home.

Read the rest of Could your granite countertops be leaking radon gas?

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: EPA radon, granite indoor air quality, green building indoor air quality, green building radon, indoor air quality, radon gas, radon gas granite, Radon gas in granite, radon granite, radon granite countertops, radon levels granite, radon lung cancer, uranium radiation granite

Herzog & de Meuron set about designing the Tate Modern Extension in 2006 with a modern, glass-filled aesthetic that contrasted the museum building’s origins as a former power station. A recently unveiled redesign of the addition has brought a pyramid shaped brick structure to this anchor point of the museum. The new program not only fits the museum’s needs better, it is poised to set a new standard for sustainability in the UK.

Read the rest of Tate Modern’s Energy Efficient Redesign by Herzog & de Meuron

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: CO2 emissions London, green building CO2 emission, London green building, passive energy design London, sustainable design London, Tate Modern, Tate Modern brick redesign, Tate Modern energy efficiency, Tate Modern Extension, Tate Modern Herzog & de Meuron

Mazda recently announced that it will unveil it’s Kazamai crossover vehicle at the Moscow International Motor Show in August. Specifics on the sporty vehicle’s environmental performance will be revealed next month, but to date the car maker is touting this ride as a car that will “deliver exciting driving dynamics, frugal fuel consumption and greatly reduced CO2 emissions.”

Read the rest of MAZDA Unveils Fuel Efficient Crossover Car

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: green transportation, Mazda concept cars, Mazda crossover vehicles, Mazda green cars, Mazda green vehicles, Mazda Kazamai, Mazda new vehicles, Mazda Sustainable Zoom Zoom, Moscow auto show 2008, Moscow International Motor Show

Al Gore recently appealed to the competitive nature of the US as a market driven society with an energy challenge that calls for a complete shift to renewables in the entire electricity sector. The former Vice President and Nobel laureate is raising the bar with the goal of total carbon-free wind, solar and geothermal power by 2018. Part of the vision includes powering electric vehicles (as truly emissions free), but the ambitious plan would transcend through transportation and ripple throughout the green building industry and beyond. With elections on the near horizon and a push to drill for yet more oil, Gore’s challenge is as timely as it is clear: in order to transcend an unsustainable existence, we need to transform our energy outlook.

Read the rest of Al Gore Challenges America to go Carbon-Free in 10 years

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Al Gore Challenges America to go Carbon-Free in 10 years, Al Gore Energy Challenge, an inconvenient truth, carbon-neutral, electric vehicles, renewable energy, Solar Power

London-based Sheppard Robson architecture firm is bringing a new green office building to the shore of the River Thames at One Westminster Place in Southbank. With sustainability driving the design, the structure’s eye catching glass facade will reflect sunlight in a rainbow of colors creating a crystal like effect. The layers of glazing will also give occupants great views of the surrounding city, including Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge, and boost the building’s energy performance to an excellent BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) rating, the British environmental standard for buildings.

Read the rest of Stunning New Sustainable Landmark for London’s Southbank

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method, British environmental standards building, green building London, green building Southbank, Sheppard Robson architects London, Sheppard Robson Southbank, sustainable design London, Westminster Place

Building reuse is often overshadowed by the long green shadow of new high performance architecture. But the intrinsic nature of repurposing and bringing second life to an otherwise discarded structure is a sustainable idea we can’t ignore, especially when it’s done as gracefully as this old barn redux in Belgium. Architect Rita Huys of Buro2 skillfully transformed this agricultural icon into a beautiful, modern dwelling known simply as The Barn House.

Read the rest of BEAUTIFUL BUILDING REUSE: The Barn House in Belgium

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: barn house, building reuse, Sustainable Building, sustainable building reuse, The Barn House, The Barn House Belgium, The Barn House Buro2, The Barn House Rita Huys

We checked in on the green rebuilding efforts in Greensburg, Kansas when Planet Green’s docu-series premiered last month. We found plenty of interesting developments, but this prefab from Studio804 of the University of Kansas School of Architecture is definitely one of the most memorable. Built as the community art center, this innovative building uses modular design with the length of long truck trailers as the defining width component measure – an outside the box thinking that makes larger prefab buildings possible.

Read the rest of PREFAB FRIDAY: Greensburg 547 Community Art Center

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Greensburg Kansas, Kansas eco-town, passive energy systems, Prefab Housing, prefabricated building, Studio804 Greensburg 5.4.7., Sustainable Building

Diseño Earle is an international architecture firm known for unique, and often ecologically minded, projects around the world. Their latest design responds to a brief “to design and build a large and modern zero carbon footprint villa” in Southern Spain. The result is The Eco House, a modern luxury villa that holds up its name with a variety of environmentally friendly features including a chemical free canal that facilitates cooling.

Read the rest of Modern Eco Villa for Southern Spain by Diseño Earle

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: carbon zero home Spain, Diseño Earle, Diseño Earle Eco House, Diseño Earle eco villa Spain, Diseño Earle Spain, eco villa, geoexchange heating and cooling Spain, green building Southern Spain, green building Spain, rainwater harvesting Spain, zero carbon footprint buildings, zero footprint home Spain

Prefab is taking center stage this summer at The Museum of Modern Art in NYC with the Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibit opening on July 20th. As part of the exhibit, five renowned architects will bring a mix of existing and prototype prefabricated designs to full form on a exterior lot adjacent to the museum. The exhibit has been in construction for several months and the full scale prefabs are almost ready to deliver on what is one of the most talked about prefab events of all time.

Read the rest of PREFAB FRIDAY: Prefab Takes Up Residence At The MOMA!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "prefabricated housing", Albert Rüf, Douglas Gauthier, Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, factory built housing, Home Delivery, Horden Cherry, Jeremy Edmiston, KieranTimberlake Associates, Lawrence Sass, moma, museum of modern art, New York City, new york city, Oskar Leo Kaufmann, Richard Horden

We’re blushing a bit this week from some welcome blog world praise. Arch Daily recently compiled Yet Another Most Popular Blog Ranking (YAMoPo 2008) and, with complex calculations involving things like traffic and Google page rank, decided that Inhabitat is number one in both the Architecture & Related website category, as well as overall popularity (Architecture Only and Architecture & Related).

Read the rest of ARCH DAILY RANKS ARCHITECTURE SITES: Inhabitat is #1

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Arch Daily, architecture and design websites, architecture websites, design websites, inhabitat, Inhabitat accolades, Inhabitat Arch Daily, Inhabitat architecture, Inhabitat architecture blog, Inhabitat architecture website, Inhabitat awards, Inhabitat ranking

We’re always impressed with creative design reuse, but this children’s playground made from recycled shipping containers takes the cake for one of the most imaginative examples of shipping container architecture we’ve seen. Known as the Skinners Playground, this kidscape puts four discarded shipping containers to use as the primary spaces for childhood adventures. Designed by Melbourne-based Phooey Architects, the children’s activity center reconfigures the containers, as well as plenty of other recycled and salvaged materials, into a fun-filled park for the young imagination.

Read the rest of SHIPPING CONTAINER PLAYGROUND by Phooey Architects

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Adventure playgrounds Australia, material reuse, Phooey Architects Australia, Phooey Architects Melbourne, Phooey Architects shipping container playground, Phooey Architects Skinner Playground, recycled materials playgrounds, repurposed shipping containers, shipping container reuse

Just as things were really heating up in the solar energy sector, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) pulled the plug on new solar power plants. Last week the New York Times reported that “the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.” Headlines like world’s largest solar array in California or world’s largest solar power plant in the Mojave desert promised to be few and far between as the BLM decided to take its time to assess the more than 130 proposals filed by solar companies in the past three years. Just days later, after an uproar of voiced concern, the moratorium was reversed. Not fast enough to avoid drops in stocks, but quick enough to avoid fatally derailing the renewable energy sector off the tracks.

Read the rest of U.S. Freeze on Solar Energy Projects Lifted

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: solar application freeze US, solar environmental assessment US, solar freeze US, solar moratorium BLM, solar moratorium Bureau of Land Management, Solar Moratorium US, solar policy US

We get revved up whenever we hear any news about Tesla Motors, and the latest just sets the maker of electric-powered roadsters into an all new green vehicle fast lane. Tesla Motors just announced plans to start building the Model S – an electric sedan with a 225-mile range – in the Bay Area with plans to get the five passenger vehicles on the road in two years time!


Read the rest of TESLA Announces New 225 Mile Range Sedan!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Tesla announces new sedan, Tesla California, Tesla electric powered cars, Tesla Model S electric sedan, tesla model-s, Tesla Motors, Tesla Motors California manufacturing, Tesla Motors electric sedan, Tesla motors manufacturing in California, Tesla Motors new sedan, Tesla news, Tesla roadster, Tesla zero emissions

There’s nothing quite like renewable energy on-the-go, and Voltaic makes solar power a stylish accessory with a hot lineup of solar powered bags to charge your mobile gadgets. We’ve been impressed with Voltaic’s products from the get go, and with their ongoing efforts to amp up the sustainability factor in their bags like boosting the power in their Generator laptop bag and going to 100% post-consumer recycled PET plastic based fabrics. One of our all-time favorite bags is the durable Voltaic Backpack which just may be the ultimate sustainable summertime sidekick and a must have for the eco-geek on the go. And this week, you can win a free Voltaic solar backpack, just for reading Inhabitat!

ENTER TO WIN A FREE VOLTAIC BACKPACK by signing up for Inhabitat here >

Read the rest of VOLTAIC’s Super Solar Powered Backpack

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: laptop bag, Voltaic, Voltaic Backpack

This stunning prefab in Colina, Chile, is the work of Santiago-based architect Sebastián Irarrázaval. Despite its unique form, it is not meant as a custom design but rather a housing solution that can take shape repeatedly. Constructed of concrete, steel and timber, the 120 square meter structure (1290 sq ft) lives large with a simple geometric that is at ease with the surrounding landscape.

Read the rest of PREFAB FRIDAY: La Reserva by Sebastián Irarrázaval

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Chile, double facade, Prefab Housing, Sebastián Irarrázaval

Solar photovoltaics are, depending on the day, between 8-15% efficient meaning much of the sun’s energy’s is lost as heat. While solar thermal systems offer a way to harvest this heat energy for heating water or interior spaces, this option has usually displaced the electricity generating PV on rooftops. A new system from SolarWall, the SolarDuct PV/T, offers a combination of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal in one assembly providing a means to heat and power from the sun with one product.


Read the rest of Solar Energy Cogeneration Solution from SolarWall

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: photovoltaic panels, Solar Duct, solar thermal, Solar Wall