Recycled windshields are busting out of the woodwork, from French country gardens to swank sub/urban surfaces. The protective pupa shown here (“la serre” is French for “greenhouse”) transforms more motive motives into regenerative ones, à la auto glass gone wild, nailed to firewood beams and each other and slated for a greenhouse roof. “I like the idea of recovery,” says maker Sebastien Ramirez, who created this warm cocoon without a budget.

Via CyberArchi

Photos by Sebastien Ramirez

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Post tags: AUTO, Ceramics, euro, french, glass, green design, greenhouse, Recycled Materials, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, windshield, windshield greenhouse

Why not accelerate the natural ability of plants to filter the air around us? As we reported in November, ANDREA by Le Laboratoire aims to do just that. This “living air cleaner” recently entered the North American market, promising “to diminish the amount of toxic gases in your lungs and therefore to breathe more naturally and healthily.” According to data published on the company’s website, ANDREA encases and enhances the metabolism of living plants, soil and water to oxygenate and more effectively remove airborne toxins such as formaldehyde from the environment.

+ ANDREA

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Post tags: air, andrea, clean, eco design, filter, green design, houseplant, houseplants, Living, natural, plant filter, purification, sustainable design

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines! Inhabitat presents our Top 6 Transportation Stories from this past year in a tried-and-true package of trains, planes and automobiles. Keeping in mind common motifs of speed and alternative power, get ready… get set… GO VOTE on the “sustainamobility” story that moves you!

Read the rest of TOP 6 GREEN TRANSPORTATION STORIES OF 2009

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Post tags: green design, green transportation 2009, sustainable design, top 5 green transportation stories

From the world’s largest hydrogen bus fleet to a six-acre multi-use Olympic Oval, British Columbia appears determined to host the “greenest games ever” in Vancouver come February. The city has constructed a series of stunning sustainably-built structures in preparation for upcoming events, and has also kicked off its naturally:wood website, which offers a free digital tool kit for Building Green with Wood and insight into how BC’s sustainable forestry helps LEED the way for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Read on for just a few of the Olympic buildings boasting impressive LEED certification standards.

Read the rest of Vancouver 2010 Promises Greenest Olympic Games Ever

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", 2010, beetle, games, green, Green Building, green design, greenest olympics, leed certified, mountain, pine, sustainable design, vancouver 2010 olympics, winter olympics, Wood

Gionata Gatto, an Italian designer based in the Netherlands, has soiled and seeded suitcases and such for gardening on the go. Designed as a graduation project, UrbanBuds enlivens luggage to grow up to 36 different food plants, either as still life or meals on wheels. Get a handle on your personal baggage and turn any place into a sustainable space simply by showing up and showing off some cultivation.

+ UrbanBuds

Via Designboom

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Post tags: agriculture, food, garden, green design, Organic, portable, soil, suitcase, sustainable design, urban, vertical farm

The Bottle Bank Arcade is a recycling bin that encourages a higher rate of returns by rewarding bottle recyclers with musical notes and tons of fun. It’s one of several kooky and kinetic entries in The Fun Theory competition, which will award £2500 ($4185) for the best idea that proves “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior … be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different.” Registration is currently open and the Contest closes Dec. 15, so enter your project today!

+ The Fun Theory

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Post tags: behavior, change, contest, fun, fun theory, kinetic, theory

The Birds and the Bees have inspired one startup to send forth a hovering turbine. Green Wavelength, “committed to finding ways of applying nature’s solutions to our man-made energy problems,” presented its xBee prototype to an entrepreneurial buzz at The Perfect Pitch 2009. This biomimetic windmill sports 19-ft. wings of aluminum and carbon fiber that rotate to and fro — à la bumblebees, hummingbirds and dragonflies — to produce 1-10 kW of wind power suitable for homes and small businesses.

+ Green Wavelength

Via TreeHugger

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Post tags: "wind power", bumblebee turbine, green design, green wavelength, renewable energy, sustainable design

Synch your workout with a little river detox, then rehydrate with a cup of the fresh water you just filtered. This people-powered water purification island, designed by Jakub Szczesny as part of the Synchronicity architecture and art festival in Warsaw, Poland, hooks up basic exercise machines to kinetically pump polluted water through four filters into overhead tanks that spill into a large drinking fountain at the end of the cycle. This floating platform on the Vistula River aims to empower citizens toward environmental clean-up, and apparently would work on any body of water with enough local bodies willing to pedal for their potables.

+ Centrala design collective

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Post tags: centrala design collective, green design, kinetic energy, pedal powered water purification, sustainable design, synchronicity festival, water purification

In California, one district’s fault is another town’s treasure. When the Portola Valley School District realized its mid-century single-room schoolhouse straddled the San Andreas Fault — known for its earthquakes — they sold off the site to the town. Today, that vintage property encompasses a super-eco $21-million Portola Valley Town Center that artfully balances seismic safety, community serenity and sustainable design.

Read the rest of Schoolhouse Rock Reaps Platinum Town Center

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Post tags: California, community, green, library, quake, school, seismic, sustain, town

Imagine 3,000 communities and 10,000 volunteers across the country in a one-day celebration of solar power. That’s why we are reminding you that the American Solar Energy Society kicks off their 14th Annual National Solar Tour TODAY in collaboration with more than 240 local groups as part of National Energy Awareness Month. Participants can take a peek at their neighbors’ homes and buildings using solar energy and other sustainable technologies, and see for themselves how to save money and the environment. See our previous post for more information.

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Post tags: "clean energy", "solar energy", alternative energy, american solar energy society, photovoltaic cells, reneweable energy, solar panels, Solar Power

There’s a tiny shed subculture growing, and you may find one sprouting in your own backyard. This prototype from Modern Cabana showed up recently at a San Francisco garden store, which also hosted a Tiny Shed Challenge as part of the month-long AIA SF Architecture and the City Festival.

Read the rest of Tiny Sheds Do More For Less

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Post tags: architect, cabana, hut, Office, room, shack, shed, small space living, yard

Of all the pads chosen for this year’s AIA San Francisco Living: Home Tours, only one found me smiling from start to finish. I wondered why as I wandered through this intriguing Glen Park residence… suddenly, on an upstairs landing, I spied a strange note stuck inside a fire-engine red Royal typewriter. I crept closer, just to get a peek. Staring back at me, three words, all caps: NOTHING BUT EVIDENCE. The owners’ motives began to emerge, as clear as the double-height glass wall behind me. Strachan and Melissa Forgan, it seems, had volumes to gain — more space, more light, even sheer satisfaction and enjoyment — simply by digging in, building up and letting Architecture and the City take its course.

Read the rest of Urban Infill Strikes Gold in San Francisco

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Post tags: aia living home tours, architecture and the city festival, bradford construction, glen park residence, Green Building, green design, San Francisco, sasaki, sustainable design

The Frankfurt International Motor Show or Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA) is the world’s largest car show, and we were thrilled to discover a slew of incredibly clean machines this year. Without further ado, feast your eyes on our Top 5 Green Motors from the show

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Post tags: Alternative Fuel, autos, concept cars, eco cars, frankfurt auto motor vehicle show concept electric efficient, frankfurt car show green cars, green autos

GRID Alternatives will lead 200+ community and industry volunteers to install sixteen 1.8-kilowatt solar electric systems in their annual Solarthon this Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at Habitat for Humanity East Bay‘s Edes Avenue development in Oakland, California. These systems should generate over $270,000 worth of clean, renewable power over their lifespans and eliminate over 800 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The event has already sold out, and organizers hope to raise more than $100K to help more California households reap the benefits of solar power

+ GRID Alternatives Solarthon

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Post tags: California, east bay, electric, families, grid, habitat for humanity, low income, Renewable Energy, solar

What happens when an architect and an engineer walk into a Jesuit university in Silicon Valley and end up on a lightbender wholly rolling for the nation’s capital? This year’s Solar Decathlon, a Dept. of Energy best-of competition for smart and sunny houses, chose Team California to compete in the finals in Washington, D.C. The West Coast team is the  result of two very different schools joining forces — 100+ students, graduates and advisers were pooled from Santa Clara University (mostly engineering) and California College of the Arts (architecture and design) to create this solar dream team that created this truly energy-efficient, sun-powered Refract House.

Read the rest of Refract House | Solar Decathlon + Architecture City

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Post tags: arts college, california architecture, california arts college, energy efficient house, enginnering school, Green Building, Renewable Energy, renewable energy, Santa Clara University, smart house, solar house home, Solar Power, solar powered house, student competition, student engineering

Belgium recently took the lead among a set of top university teams vying for “zeroth place” in the Formula Zero European Championship of hydrogen fuel cell cars. This carbon-free Grand Prix injects ingenuity and sustainability back into the races, starring get-up-and-go “karts” with a little H2O in their tailpipes.

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Post tags: AUTO, car, Europe, formula zero one, green design, hydrogen fuel cell, racing, sustainable design

In a converted warehouse on the outskirts of Ann Arbor (Michigan’s other city), swarms of brilliant students harness conceptual, terrestrial and solar power for unusually racy, million-dollar road trips. Enter the Infinium 2009 solar car. Strips of photovoltaic panels (the space-age, gallium-arsenide kind) absorb the sun’s energy along a sleek and light carbon-fiber shell, and a 16-hp electric motor in one of its three wheels propels the 600-lb coupe up to 90 miles per hour and 98 percent efficiency. Awesome aerodynamics and innovative innards apparently allow the Infinium a driving range of 200 to 300 miles without any sunlight at all.

Read the rest of Infinium Sun Car Races Ahead

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Post tags: ford, general motors, green design, infinium solar car, sustainable design, university of michigan

Two grand for a bicycle? Just reading Renovo‘s quietly beautiful narrative of how they handcraft wooden bikes is worth every penny. Based in Portland, Ore., this family-owned business takes wood seriously. Their unique line of custom-built bike frames are studiously forged from two halves of wood that have been hollowed out and bonded together. The result is a super strong, fast and attractive set of wheels that’ll make your eyes pop and mouth water.

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Post tags: bicycle, green design, Renovo R4 Pursuit road bike, sean denham, sustainable design, wood frame

GM recently made waves for claiming that its new electric Volt gets 230 mpg, but the magic number seems more like 40. That’s because miles per gallon really only matter when a gas engine combusts. The Volt on the other hand will go around 40 miles on its electric battery before switching over to gas. If customers drive less than 40 miles per day, and if GM keeps the price under $40K (plus a $7,500 federal tax credit), many Americans could find themselves getting unlimited mpg for whatever it costs to plug in. So can GM really claim that the vehicle gets 230mpg? That’s where public debate heats up.

Read the rest of Chevy Volt Jolts Public Debate With 230MPG Claim

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Post tags: 230 mpg, chevrolet volt, fuel efficiency, green design, Green Transportation, hybrid electric vehicle, sustainable design