Harvard researchers recently created a miniature mechanized bee called the Monolithic Bee or MoBee using a new technology that produces self-assembling three dimensional machines from flat sets of components. The bee robot is assembled using layers of differing materials on an assembly scaffold – the body of the bee folds together like a pop-up book, and once released from the scaffold it becomes an autonomous, ridged 3-D object whose wings flap when electrical current is applied. The technology could be used to create complex devices using manufacturing techniques similar to those used to make circuit boards.

Read the rest of Harvard Creates Self-Assembling Miniature Bee Robots from Pop-Up Parts

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Harvard Bee Robot, mobee, Monolithic Bee, oragami robot, printed robot, robotic bee

Read the rest of CASE and SOM’s AMPS Living Green Wall Promises to Reduce Air Pollution and Energy Costs

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "green wall", Active Modular Phytoremediation Wall System, Ashra 62.1, Ashrea 62.2, case, green design, green interiors, IAQ, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rhizosphere air filter, SOM green, vegitated wall, Wall plant

Two solar power giants in the US are embroiled in a legal face off which has industrial espionage and intrigue written all over it. Commercial solar supplier Sunpower is hitting solar installer SolarCity with a lawsuit claiming it stole confidential information. The claims are against five ex-Sunpower employees who downloaded “tens of thousands of documents and confidential data” and SolarCity, who allegedly accepted the stolen information. The lawsuit pits the biggest supplier of solar in California against the nation’s largest residential installer, and to raise the stakes even more, Solar City was looking for an IPO in the third quarter of 2012, which now could be pushed back.

Read the rest of Solar Power Heavyweight Sunpower Sues SolarCity Over Stolen Data

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "solar energy", alternative energy, corporate espionage, green design, largest solar company, renewable energy, solar city, solar lawsuit, Solar Power, solarcity, sun power, sunpower

For the next four months, Architecture For Humanity is running an “I Love Architecture” campaign, and co-Founder Cameron Sinclair is asking us to “put down the coffee for a moment and spend minutes reminding yourself why you love architecture and, if you feel so bold, let the world know.” You can tell Architecture For Humanity why you love architecture with a few sentences or a short video, or send a love letter to your favorite architect or building and they will make sure to send it along to your admiree. So what are you waiting for? Get those love letters in and reconnect with why you fell in love with architecture in the first place!

+ I Love Architecture

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: #ilovearchiteture, architect love letter, architect valentine, Architecture for Humanity, cameron sinclair, Eco Architecture, eco design, green design, ilovearchitecture, sustainable design

While we write a lot about a sustainable built environment, we often overlook the contribution of engineers. We recently talked at length with Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, about the upcoming Future City design competition for aspiring middle-school engineers. Bentley elaborates on the competition’s theme, “Alternative Energy: Fuel Your Future,” and he also forcasts the next evolution of an engineer’s role while turning some long held assumptions on their head. Bentley Systems has been a key developer of CAD and BIM software, and while you may never heard of them, their software is used to design the largest architectural and infrastructure projects around the globe. Read on to see what the future of engineering may look like and how we can inspire the next generation to make a real impact.

Read the rest of INTERVIEW: CEO of Bentley Systems Greg Bentley Talks About the Future City Design Competition

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Alternative Energy: Fuel Your Future, Bentley software, Bentley Systems, Bentley Systems CEO, BIM, CAD, Carol Rieg, eco city competition, eco-city, Exclusive interview, Fuel Your Future, future city, future city design, future proof, green design, green engineer, green infrastructure, Greg Bentley Interview, middle school city competition, National Engineer’s Week Foundation, role of an engineer, Sim City

A newly released study from the Breakthrough Institute shows a clear indication on how dependent Japan has been on nuclear power. First the good news: after the devastating earthquake and resulting destruction of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan last year the nation reduced its energy consumption by 9.8%. Unfortunately, the reduction in energy is not enough to offset the environmental impact of replacing nuclear energy with carbon-intensive fuels.  From a glass-half-empty perspective, it looks like reducing energy consumption is not a magic bullet as CO2 levels rose 15%. But we are glass-half-full types here at Inhabitat – and the numbers are a clear indicator that the faster Japan transitions to clean, renewable power sources, the better off they (and all of us) will be.

Read the rest of Study Shows Spike in Japan’s CO2 Levels After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Breakthrough Institute, Breakthrough Institute Japan, CO2 spike Japan, Fukushima, Future of Japans energy, green energy, Japan CO2, Japan energy future, Japan environmental leadership, japan nuclear, Japan sustainable energy, Japans green future, renewable enrgy Japan

Read the rest of AROA’s Second Solar Tulip Power Plant Springs Up in Spain

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "solar energy", concentrated solar power, csp, eco energy, green energy, Haim Dotan, Israel CSP, Israel solar company, low water CSP, solar hot air, solar tower, Solar Tulip, solar waste heat, Spanish CSP

Frank Gehry is no stranger to controversy, sometimes wrongly and sometimes for good reason, but the rejection of his plans for the President Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C. is a new kind of controversy. The proposed plan is being resoundingly rejected by Eisenhower’s Family and many more, not for its radical design or even for its non-traditional materials, but for how the memorial depicts Eisenhower as a Kansas boy instead of the leader of the western world. The green lining to the design though is a robust vegitated space placed at the heart of the memorial.

Read the rest of Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial for Washington D.C. is Controversial For How It Depicts Ike

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: DC green space, Eisenhower family, Eisenhower memorial controversy, Frank Gehry, Frank Gehry controversy, frank gehry sustainable design, green memorial, Ike memorial

Switzerland-based industrial machine behemoth ABB just announced plans to throw its weight behind a massive network of electric vehicle charging stations across Europe, the US, and Asia. The company plans to integrate chargers into smart grid systems and allow drivers to juice up their electric vehicles while they are out and about. The announcement is a big nod that the nascent electric car market is set to boom – sources project that over 5 million EVs will be sold each year by 2017, and the charger market is valued at $1 billion.

Read the rest of Industrial Giant ABB Announces Plans for Worldwide Electric Vehicle Charging Network

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: ABB car charger, ABB EV, ABB EV network, car charger network, electric car charger, ev, ev charger, green car, green transportation, smart grid

Read the rest of Joly & Loiret’s Wood-Wrapped French Racetrack Blends Into the Earth

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: embedded architecture, green architecture, green design france, green horse grounds, green roof, green stable, green stadium, horse training, sustainable design, wooden stands

While we used AC and wires to build a massive electrical grid in the 20th century, wireless energy could be a game changer in the years to come. Researchers at Stanford just announced that they are working on a way to charge moving electric vehicles using a series of coils embedded in freeways. The system would power cars while they drive at full speed, effectively untethering the electric car from the plug and providing unlimited range at high efficiency.

Read the rest of Stanford Developing Wireless Electric Car Charging System For Highways

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: electric car highway, electric car unlimited range, ev car charger, GCEP electric car, resonant inductive coupling charger, stanford electric car charger, Tesla wireless electric car, wireless electric car charger

Apple has been in hot water ever since a long and detailed New York Times report came out highlighting abuses and environmental hazards during the manufacture of its products in China. From chronically overworked employees and extremely hazardous working conditions to overcrowding in dormitories and low pay, the article has unleashed a resounding criticism of Apple and speculation that a boycott will be next. We want to know what you think – would you boycott Apple products until they clean up their act in China?

Read the rest of POLL: Would You Boycott Apple Products Until They Improve Working Conditions in China?

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: apple abuses, Apple boycott, Apple boycott poll, Foxcomm abuse, Hazardous working conditions, iAbuse, Love apple, New York Times report on apple, Reader poll, Worker rights

Read the rest of 6 Green Roof Resorts from Around the World!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: eco lodges, eco lodging, eco resort, eco roof, green roof, green roof cover, green roof hotel, heat island reduction, rain water, roughing it green retreat, storm water retention, vegetated roofs

Toshiba has just announced that they are rolling out two more lines of LED lighting products in order to bolster their growing selection for the residential and commercial markets. The new series is impressive, and like most quality LEDs out there, the bulbs will bring sizable savings over halogens and incandescent bulbs.

Read the rest of Toshiba’s New LED Lineup Offers Up a Huge Selection of Lighting Solutions

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: eco lighting, LED bulbs, LED for lighting designers, LED m16, LED par 30, LED par38, LED replacement, LED replacement Halogen, LED spot, Toshiba LED lighting

Read the rest of Ignatov Architects’ Super Efficient Solar Equinox Passivhaus Tracks the Sun

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Bulgaria green building, eco home, heat pump passive house, passive house, passive house window, passive solar, passivhaus, passivhaus institute, solar hot water, solar oculus, solar tilted window, solstice design, super insulation

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Arizona cave, Arizona green home, cave architecture, cave for sale, cave home, cave house, cave house design, chulo canyon, chulo cavern, eco home, green home, house blasted into hill, house cave, natural cooling, natural pool, rock house, underground home

The epic voyage of the Tûranor PlanetSolar – the world’s largest solar-powered boat – will soon come to a close as the ship closes in on its final stretch. The Swiss vessel is a full-bore high-tech solar harvesting machine whose deck is covered in 537 square meters of photovoltaic panels. The array produced enough energy for the boat to navigate the entire circumference of the Earth without any other means of energy. The Tûranor PlanetSolar is currently set to depart Abu Dhabi en route to their final port in Morocco – the same place the expedition launched on September 27th, 2010. The journey has come full circle in more than one respect, as it was not too long ago the only way to navigate the earth was by harnessing renewable energy with sails.

Read the rest of Tûranor PlanetSolar: World’s Largest Solar Ship About to Complete Trip Around the Globe

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: around the world by solar power, Candino, Capital Gate Tower, eco ship, green ship, lithium ion battery, Solar Abu Dhabi, solar boat, solar cruise, Solar Ship, TÛRANOR PlanetSolar, World Future Energy Summit, World's Largest Solar Boat

One of the holy grails of clean technology is now one step closer to reality as Noble Prize-winning chemist George Olah just developed a breakthrough low-cost plastic material than acts as one of the most effective CO2 absorbers ever created. Olah directed a team of researchers at the University of Southern California to take a common plastic which soaks up CO2 at moderate levels and fuse it to a silica substrate which vastly increases its surface area – and thus its effectiveness.

Read the rest of Nobel Laureate Develops World’s Cheapest and Most Effective CO2 Sponge

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: CO2 absorbing plastic, Co2 absorption, CO2 emissions, CO2 into Fuel, CO2 sequester, CO2 storing, George Olah, global warming, Green Chemistry, Plastic CO2, renewable fuel

Read the rest of Renault Showcases All-Electric Zoe Z.E. Concept Car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show – Exclusive Photos!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: dueal gull wing doors, electric car, electric concept car, french electric car, quickdrop battery, renault electric car, Renault electric production car, Renault Zoe Z.E., swappable battery

The holy city of Amritsar, India will be the site of the first urban installation of the Personal Rapid Transport, a system first seen at London’s Heathrow Airport. The elevated transportion system will be a vital connection for 100,000 riders a day between the downtown, the rail station and the Golden Temple. The driverless system developed by ULTra Global PRT is comprised of individual cars that can be summoned on demand. The raised rail will also be able to navigate the tight infrastructure of the city while reducing congestion.

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: eco transportation, green transportation, India green transportation, Personal Transport System, POD car, ULTra Fairwood, ULTra Global PRT, urban transport, worlds largest urban drivelers transport