Over on Inhabitots I recently had the chance to speak with Dr. Alan Greene, pediatrician, father of four and leading authority on the subject of green and healthy parenting, about how to keep your family safe and healthy by avoiding hidden toxins in common household products and cleaners. Dr. Greene and I chatted insecticides, autism, BPA and the risks (if any) related to soy products. I foud my chat with Dr. Greene pretty fascinating and I hope you will enjoy it. Check out our video and exclusive interview here.

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Post tags: create a healthy home, Dr. Alan Greene, dr. greene, eating healthy, environmental and health issues in the home, EPA-registered disinfectant, Feeding Baby Green, green home, green home cleaning, healthy child healthy world, healthy eating during pregnancy, keeping your family safe from harmful chemicals, Raising Baby Green, toxic chemicals, toxic cleaning products

For years, the city of Boston has been considered one of the WORST cities in the world for biking – with no bike lanes to speak of and crazy drivers. Nicole Freedman, Boston’s new ‘Bike Czar’ is hoping to change this with an ambitious program to overhaul Boston’s streets and make them safe and conducive for biking – even bringing the U.S.’s first urban bike share program to Boston! If you are a regular Inhabitat reader, you may remember that we hosted a live webinar discussion with Nicole on Inhabitat this fall, as part of our Green Talks series of video interviews. Our fascinating discussion with Freedman shed light on how urban bike share programs work, and how one goes about trying to turn the worst biking city in the world to one of the best.

Watch our full videos of the talk below to find out more about Nicole’s achievements making Boston a better place to bike, and her grand plan to try to make commuter cycling safer and more practical for more Americans.

Read the rest of VIDEO: Boston ‘Bike Czar’ Nicole Freedman Talks Bike-Share & Urban Cycling

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Post tags: Bike Boston, bike sharing program, Boston Bike Czar, Boston bike share, boston bike sharing program, cycling in Boston, Head of bicycle programs, mayor Menino, nicole freedman, public bike share system, public bike sharing, urban bike share, urban cycling

I have been enamored with environmentally conscious furniture company Scrapile ever since I came across their line of recycled wood furniture during New York Design week years ago. Brooklyn-based designers Carlos Salgado and Bart Bettencourt have created a beautiful, cutting-edge line of furniture by collecting wood scraps from various lumber mills and recycling those scraps (which would otherwise be headed for landfill) into their stunning minimalist pieces. At this point, the Scrapile line includes tables, benches, stool, shelving, crates and lamps, all made out of their signature striated material. I had a chance to sit down with the up-and-coming design duo at their shop in Williamsburg to learn how it all began.

Read the rest of INTERVIEW: Inhabitat Chats with Recycled Wood Designers Scrapile

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Post tags: "green furniture", bart bettencourt, Carlos Salgado, eco design, eco furniture, green design, new york design week, Recycled Materials, Recycled wood furniture, scrap pile, Scrapile

Last year I had the good fortune to attend the North American International Auto Show (or NAIAS) in Detroit – for the first time – and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect! I had never attended an auto show before, but I’ve heard that most SUV-focused auto shows of years past have not been very interesting to people who care about green cars, like me. However, 2011 was the year of the electric car! From super-sexy hybrid race cars (from Porsche), to a retina-searing electric yellow sports cars (from Mercedes), to practical electric commuter cars (like the Ford Focus EV and Ford C-MAX Hybrid), nearly every major car manufacturer at the Detroit Auto Show unveiled a new electric car or a new hybrid. For those of you who couldn’t make it to the show, happily we shot a video of my favorite new electric cars – check it out above, and stay tuned as we bring you a video of the hottest green vehicles from the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in the next few days!

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO >

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Post tags: an international auto show, auto show, auto show video, detroit auto show, electric car, electric cars, electric vehicle, ev, ford focus electric, Ford Focus EV, green car, green cars, green design, green transportation, green vehicle, green vehicles, green video, hybrid car, hybrid vehicle, inhabitat, inhabitat at detroit auto show, inhabitat car show, Inhabitat LLC, inhabitat video, mercedes SLS, NAIAS, naias 2011, north american international auto show, north americPorsche, Porsche 918 RSR, Porsche eco, Porsche Electric Vehicle, Porsche EV, Porsche Green Car, Porsche Hybrid Race car, Porsche Hybrid Sports Car, Porsche Spyder unveiling, Porsche unveil

Here at Inhabitat we’re suckers for the Solar Decathlon — the biennial design/build competition in which university design teams from all around the globe battle it out on the National Mall in Washington DC to see who can design and build the best solar-powered home. This year’s Solar Decathlon was a nail-biter of a competition, but it was the University of Maryland team which ultimately triumphed over all the other teams with an elegant, water-conservation focused home called WaterShed. We were fascinated by this beautiful winning home, and sat down with project design lead and student designer David Gavin to find out more about how the house came together. David is a second year Masters of Architecture student at the University of Maryland and he’s dreamed of being a Solar Decathlon contender since before he started school. Read on for our insider interview with Gavin as he explains the design of the award-winning home, and how his team utilized Building Information Modeling to streamline the design and construction processes.

This interview is brought to you by Autodesk – Removing the barriers to better business.

Read the rest of INTERVIEW: University of Maryland Wins Big at the 2011 Solar Decathlon

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Post tags: 2011 solar decathlon, 2d/3d cad, 3D representation, 3d studio max, 3DS, Architecture, autdocad, autodesk, BIM, building information modeling, Building Modeling, CAD, computer aided design, constructed wetlands, david gavin, green design, green roof, greywater filtration, local materials, rainwater catchment, solar panels, solar photovoltaics, Solar Power, solar power competition, solar power design, solar power homes, solar pv, Sustainable Building, team maryland solar decathlon, team maryland watershed house, University of Maryland, Using BIM For Green Building, virtual design and construction, water usage, Watershed, watershed home, WaterShed Solar Decathlon House

It’s snowing in New York City right now! The whole Atlantic seaboard is expecting to get hit with a major snow storm from midday Saturday until Sunday morning, which could drop up to 8 inches of snow in some regions. This is the first time that it has snowed more than an inch in New York City in October since the Civil War. Anyone who is still denying climate change needs to simply pry open their eyes.

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Post tags: Climate Change, extreme weather, global warming, major snow storm, snow in NYC, snow in october, snow on halloween, snowstorm

You may (or may not) recall that last year we ran a virtual home makeover design contest with Comcast Town, where the grand prize was a sweet collection of new home entertainment electronics and a green room makeover by yours truly – the editor and (LEED-AP designer) of Inhabitat.com. The lucky winner of the Comcast Town contest was a certain Howard J Dudy (aka Richard), and we headed down to his pad to give him a sweet green home renovation. For anyone who was wondering what happened with this eco renovation, we are thrilled to say we FINALLY have our video of the project all edited down to a nice watchable 5 minutes for your viewing pleasure. Here is our snapshot of the eco-renovation – hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave a comment – we’d love to hear what you think!

+ Comcast Town
+ Comcast Town Contest

Read the rest of VIDEO: Inhabitat’s Green Renovation for the Comcast Town Contest!

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Post tags: comcast town contest, eco renovation, green design contest, green home renovation, green renovation, inhabitat design team

The High Line urban park project in New York City opened last summer to tremendous excitement from locals and tourists alike looking to escape the bustling streets for a more peaceful, green enclave in the sky. NYC’s High Line is a project that exemplifies effective adaptive urban re-use in a city that is littered with structures and spaces that have since reached the end of their useful life. By turning an abandoned, elevated freight train track into a public park, this project has redefined the New York experience, affording never-before seen views of the city’s surrounding natural landscape as well as an expansive and intimate look into one of the world’s most dynamic urban environments. With the completion of the rest of the High Line currently in the works, we couldn’t think of a better time to catch up with one of the brilliant minds behind the design of this beautiful public space. I recently sat down with landscape designer James Corner, the lead designer behind the High Line, to get his personal perspective on the what it was like to take an abandoned train track and turn it into one of NYC’s best loved spots of greenery. Read on for my exclusive interview with James Corner below…

Read the rest of INTERVIEW: Architect James Corner On NYC’s High Line Park

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Post tags: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, high line, high line new york city, james corner field operations, Landscape Architecture, native plants, sustainable design, Urban design, urban green space

Six and a half years ago, as a broke architecture grad student, I launched the blog Inhabitat.com late one night from my college studio as a vehicle through which to explore my passions: green building, clean technology and sustainable design innovation. At the time that I launched Inhabitat, I noticed a glaring lack of discussion around green design and social responsibility in architecture school, in the professional design community and in wider mainstream media as well, and I needed some inspiration and people to talk to about my interests! I wanted to ignite a conversation around what “good design” really means, and connect with like-minded souls who were as passionate about these topics as I was.

Approaching seven years on, I’m proud to say that Inhabitat has grown to become one of the most-widely read design blogs on the internet, with hundreds of thousands of readers each day and millions of readers each month. I’m beyond happy that our initially tiny conversation has grown to reach and inspire so many people around the world — and I think the issues that we touch on are so fundamental to our society’s future that I feel personally compelled to work hard to grow our audience further so that we can bring our conversation to as many people as possible.

On this note, I am happy to announce today that Inhabitat is becoming part of Internet Brands, an LA-based media company that is a master of managing and growing niche websites like ours. With hundreds of talented employees and 85 million total readers every month, Internet Brands will be able to help professionalize our business and take Inhabitat to the next level in terms of technology, advertising, and most importantly, our editorial content. We’ll be joining the Home section of Internet Brands which features great crafty and DIY websites like DoItYourself.com and Craftster.org. I like to think that we bring a nice dose of green and design into the mix, and I am looking forward to working with the talented team over at Internet Brands to expand our website and our content to a wider audience.

The Inhabitat editorial team in action

What does this mean for our content, you ask?

I will be staying on as manager and editor-in-chief of Inhabitat, and our entire editorial team will be staying on with me as well, so the only changes you can expect to see to our website are long-overdue improvements in our design, user-experience and page-load time (it’s about time, right?). We’re not planning any changes to the focus of our editorial — and with more resources, we’ll be able to produce more content, better content, and build out community features which will allow for greater participation of readers in the conversation. Which is a long-winded way of saying that Inhabitat is only going to get better!

What is going to happen to Inhabitots and Ecouterre?

Inhabitots and Ecouterre (our parenting and fashion websites, for those of you who are not familiar) are making the move over to Internet Brands as well – we want to keep the family together and think these two sites will benefit as much, if not more, from the business professionalism and scale that Internet Brands brings.

I’m very excited for what this deal means for Inhabitat, and hope you are too!
Any questions? Fire away! I’ll try to answer any and all in the comments below…

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Post tags: inhabitat, Inhabitat acquired, Inhabitat acquisition, Internet Brands

To this day “eco fashion” still gets a bad rap. Greenies tend to think anything having to do with fashion is extravagant, ridiculous and wasteful, while many in the fashion industry still cringe at the word “eco”, envisioning beige hemp dresses and Birkenstocks. That’s why we’re so thrilled to see rising fashion stars Costello Tagliapietra showcase environmentally friendly apparel production processes to produce classic, beautifully-designed clothes that are remarkably wearable and flattering for women of all sizes and ages. The burly duo (who are almost always seen wearing matching plaid lumberjack shirts and suspenders) showed their flowy, romantic Spring 2012 collection at Milk Studios yesterday to a star-studded audience. (We chatted with Corinne Bailey Rae and Americ’a Next Top Model personality Miss J Alexander about the show – stayed tuned for our video to come!)

On display for spring was a collection of drapey, feminine dresses in vibrant pink, coral and blue prints which the designers created using AirDye technology – a patented textile dyeing process which uses no water. According to independent assessments, AirDye uses 95% less water, and 86% less energy than traditional textile dyeing processes, contributing 84% less to global warming. Access to clean drinking water is a critical issue around the globe, and traditional textile dyeing is responsible for a tremendous amount of water pollution, so AirDye technology holds a lot of promise as one method of producing cleaner, greener clothing. And the collection was beautiful to boot — a stunning example of how smart technology can improve the world we live in.

Check out Ecouterre’s photos of the show here >

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Post tags: Air Dye, AirDye, Corinne Bailey Rae, Costello Tagliapietra, eco textiles, eco-fashion, green fashion, green textiles, Miss J Alexander, sustainable style, waterless dyeing

In light of all the dire news related to climate change, rising sea levels and the natural disasters which have stricken numerous coastal areas around the world, we here at Inhabitat would like to highlight an interview Inhabitat Editor-in-Chief Jill Fehrenbacher conducted with architect Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio.nl. A studio focused on designing for a future water world, Olthuis has been at the forefront of this once unconventional, yet now timely design vernacular. Olthuis says that despite our civilization’s history of trying to drain and fight against wet landscapes for the past thousand years, our best move for the future would be to “let water in and even make friends with the water.” Read on for the fascinating interview where Olthius describes his what designing for water landscapes worldwide really means.

Read the rest of INHABITAT INTERVIEW: Koen Olthuis of WaterStudio.nl Talks About Design for a Water World

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Post tags: Amphibious Houses, floating house, flood proof housing, houseboat, inhabitat interviews, Jill Fehrenbacher Interview, koen olthuis, water house, Waterstudio, Waterstudio.nl

Joost Van Brug was the man behind Reluct - an excellent design blog that uncovered cutting edge design from 2003-2007. Although Joost is squarely a part of the Dutch design scene and frequently wrote about Dutch designers, his focus was international and his audience reflected this. Unlike many Dutch blogs, Reluct was published in English – and the majority of Joost’s readers were in the US. We sat down in with Joost in 2006 in Amsterdam to chat about Dutch design, design-blogging and sustainability in design. Hit jump to read what he had to say.

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Post tags: Demakersvan, design blog, design-blogs, Dutch blogs, dutch design, Dutch design scene, dutch designers, Joost Van Brug, Reluct, Reluct Favorite, Reluct picks, sustainable design

Our 2008 Greener Gadgets Conference featured speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Not only did we invite inventors, engineers, and representatives from the world’s biggest consumer electronics manufacturers, but we also made a conscious decision to spice up the Greener Gadgets dialog with artists, educators and environmental advocates. Nowhere was this diversity better represented than in the Greener Gadgets opening keynote presentation from environmental artist Chris Jordan. Although our short video sadly doesn’t do justice to Jordan’s massive, mind-boggling photographs, (which take up entire walls in galleries), the video provides insight into the vision behind the art, and the innovative method Jordan uses to visualize statistics as fine art.

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Post tags: chris jordan, consumer electronics, digital artist, electronics recycling, electronics waste, environmental artist, ewaste, green electronic recycling, green electronics, Greener Gadgets, greener gadgets conference, inhabitat conference

We love treehouses here at Inhabitat, and are enamored with eco-architect Mitchell Joachim’s visionary ideas about how to grow living treehouses from ficus molded around frame structures. We’ve covered these brilliantly playful architectural ideas before on Inhabitat, but now we have a video from Mitchell Joachim explaining the details of how they work. Joachim does much better justice to his future-forward ecological designs than we are able to do in a mere post, so if you have any interest in living treehouses (and we know you do), check out this fascinating video above.

Read the rest of VIDEO: Mitchell Joachim on How to Grow a Treehouse with TeReForm

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Post tags: fab tree hab, Future-forward green design, green architecture, growing treehouse, living architecture, living tree house, Michael Sorkin, mitchell joachim, Omni Bub, postopolis, sheep car, shoe car, sustainable design, TeREForm, Terreform

These eye-catching, eco-friendly building blocks by Tegu may look like simple wooden stacking blocks that we all remember from childhood, but – despite appearances – these are not your mama’s blocks! Each Tegu block has a powerful magnet inside, hidden seamlessly inside the painted wood, so that these ingeniously addictive blocks can be snapped together to build amazingly complex shapes that defy gravity. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, there is an added bonus: Tegu blocks are made from sustainably harvested Honduran hardwoods and provide income to artisans in Honduras. Each time a Tegu set is ordered, you have the option of sending a child to school for a day or planting a tree to help replenish Honduran forests that have been devastated clear-cutting.

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Post tags: eco baby toys, eco blocks, eco building blocks, eco friendly toys, eco kids toy, eco toy, green baby toys, green blocks, green building blocks eco friendly blocks, Honduras, magnetic blocks, magnetic building blocks, magnetic toy, sustainable baby toys, sustainable blocks, sustainable building blocks, sustainable hard woods, sustainable toy, sustainable toys, tegu, tegu blocks, tegu magnetic blocks, toxic free toys, water based toy

Ever wished you could charge your cell phones and laptop on the go – in your car, on a train, or just walking around? There are many new gadgets that have come on the market for mobile renewable energy: from solar gadget chargers, to kinetic energy chargers, to mini portable wind turbines. Check out this video to learn a bit more about some of the companies behind the most future-forward new mobile renewable energy devices.

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Post tags: Boston Power, eco gadgets, energy generating gadgets, gadgets use kinetic energy, green fuel cells, green gadgets, green technology, Greener Gadgets, greener gadgets conference, hymini, kinetic energy technology, long-life batteries, M2E, mini portable wind turbines, mobile renewable energy devices, MTI, portable renewable energy, portable solar chargers, solar gadget chargers, Solio

Buildings account for almost half (48%) of all greenhouse-gas emissions annually. This oft-repeated statistic highlights what many architects and designers have long realized: the building industry has a profound impact on the state of our environment. But is environmental awareness really making enough inroads into the curriculum of design schools, in the places where it could potentially have the most impact on the future of the industry? While environmental design isn’t nearly as entrenched as it should be into the core curriculums of design schools, students seem to be clamoring to learn more about this topic and are demanding new classes and are shaping their own academic paths. To discuss the future of greening architecture schools, we sat down with Mark Wigley, dean of Columbia’s GSAPP, to talk about the changes currently taking place. Read on to hear what Mark Wigley has to say about sustainable design.

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Post tags: Columbia, columbia architecture faculty, Columbia GSAPP, Columbia School of Architecture, inhabitat interview, INTERVIEW: Mark Wigley On Greening of Architecture Schools, Mark Wigley, Mark Wigley Jill Fehrenbacher interview, Mark Wigley On Greening of Architecture Schools

Measure twice, cut once.

This old adage is one that craftsmen understand well and never question. Careful measurement and planning is essential in producing any quality product, and when it comes to the building industry, a lot of time and effort is spent on measuring and analyzing how a building’s design will interact with materials and environmental conditions like wind, sunlight, water and gravity. In the last couple of decades the building industry has gone digital, and building measurement and analysis tools have become increasingly high tech. Building Information Modeling (BIM) software is a relatively new, promising tool that allows architects and engineers to digitally model the different elements of a building (shape, structure, heating / cooling, cost, materials etc) in real-time and quickly understand how specific changes in design or construction models will impact other variables like structure, loads, energy efficiency and the fiscal bottom line. BIM has especially helped to enable sustainable design – allowing architects and engineers access to higher tech tools than ever before to carefully integrate and analyze things like heat gain, solar, ventilation, and energy efficiency in their designs.

Read the rest of How Building Information Modeling (BIM) Helps Buildings Go Green

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Post tags: 2d/3d cad, 3D reoresentation, 3d studio max, 3DS, Architecture, arup engineering, autdocad, autodesk, BIM, building information modeling, Building Modeling, CAD, Case Building + Technology, Case Design, case virtual design and construction, computer aided design, Department of Energy, DOE, ecotect, Green Building, Grimshaw Architects, Maya, Miami Science Museum, MiaSci, Revit, usgbc, Using BIM For Green Building

If you read Inhabitat, you know that we’re huge fans of BKLYN Designs, the annual furniture exhibition that takes place in DUMBO, Brooklyn. This year, we were saddened that the show did not take place (though they did have this rad booth at ICFF), and we think some of our readers were too. So why not take a look back at our fun behind-the-scenes video about the awards we gave away at the show last year and how we came to a final consensus about the winners. Sneak behind the scenes with the Inhabitat editors, and check out a blast into the past to see the creme de la creme of Brooklyn furniture designers from last year!

+ BKLYN Designs Coverage on Inhabitat

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Post tags: “green furniture”, BKLYN Designs, brooklyn designs 2010, eco design, eco furniture fair, furniture fair new york, furniture festival, green design, industrial design brooklyn, industrial design new york, industrial design students, inhabitat bklyn designs, inhabitat team, jill fehrenbacher, karen auster, local furniture fair, mike chino, Rebecca Paul, sustainable design, yuka yoneda

Mary Lou Jepsen’s keynote presentation of One Laptop Per Child at our Greener Gadgets conference a few years back was without a doubt one of the highlights of the event. The OLPC laptop, known as XO or the $100 laptop, is a feat of energy efficient engineering, consuming just 2W of energy – which enables it to be powered through solar cells or hand cranks. In the video above, Mary Lou illustrates how the XO laptop is a new model for energy-efficient electronics, and inspiration to look at new ways of powering our devices.

Watch the full-length video of Mary Lou Jepsen’s inspiring talk here >

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Post tags: children laptop, ChildrenLaptop, eco design, green design, Greener Gadgets, humanitarian design, inhabitat video, Mary Lou Jepsen, olpc, OLPC hand crank, olpc xo, OLPC XO 1.75, OlpcXo, OlpcXo1.75, One Laptop Per Child, sustainable design, xo laptop