Nervous System took inspiration from the shapes and patterns of nature to create an app that lets users design their own “cellular” wooden coffee tables. Once a customer is happy with their online design, Nervous System uses a CNC router to carve it out of plywood. The Inhabitat team stopped by their booth at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) this week for a look at their first official prototype and we have to say that it’s pretty darn cool!

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Post tags: CNC router, DIY table design, eco design, green design, green events, ICFF, International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), Massachusetts green designers, Nervous System, New York design show, new york design week, online table design, sustainable design

Tom Dixon’s new Cell Lights shine like dazzling geometric gemstones. Spotted earlier this year at Milan Design Week and again at the International Contemporary Furniture in New York, these gorgeous brass lamps are etched to filter light and cast riveting shadows on nearby surfaces.

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Post tags: British furniture designers, green interiors, green lighting, ICFF, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, New York design events, sustainable lighting, Tom Dixon

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Post tags: Casa CorManca, Daylighting, eco design, green design, living wall in homes, low energy homes, Mexico City architecture, nature as a design element, passive design, Paul Cremoux Studio, sustainable design, vertical garden in Mexico city

The Low Impact Living Affordable Community (LILAC) recently opened its doors to a community of earth-friendly Leeds residents. Each of the 20 homes was built using straw bale construction and timber and marks the first genuinely green co-housing project in the country. Conceived more than six years ago by Paul Chatterton and others, LILAC is a physical manifestation of the group’s desire to reduce their environmental footprint with earth-friendly construction materials, subsistence gardening, and community living based on Denmark’s co-housing model.

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Post tags: cohousing in the UK, Danish cohousing model, eco design, eco-friendly housing Leeds, green design, homes with low environmental footprint, LILAC, Low Impact Living Affordable Community, prefabricated design, strawbale construction, sustainable design, UK, urban gardening

Read the rest of Clothing for Furniture: Sinje Ollen’s Cozy Knits Give Old, Damaged Furnishings a Fresh New Life

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Post tags: Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair, Berry Pi, clothing for furniture, eco design, green design, green interiors, knitted covers for furniture, new york design week, New York green designers, Sinje Ollen, sustainable design, textile arts, textile designers from New York, wanted design

Doctors did not expect newborn Kaiba Gionfridoo to live long when he was found to have a serious tracheal condition that inhibited his ability to breathe. The infant had a collapsed bronchus and had to be resuscitated on a daily basis. At a loss for solutions, his doctors contacted medical researchers at the University of Michigan for help. Glenn Green, M.D. and Scott Hollister, Ph.D. had designed a 3D-printed tracheal splint made of polycaprolactone, a biopolymer that eventually dissolves in the body. 21 days after the splint was implanted Kaiba was taken off breathing support, and 20 months later he continues to breathe on his own.

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Post tags: 3D tracheal splint, baby saved by 3-D printed device, biopolymer, Design for Health, laser printed medical devices, News, tracheal splint, university of michigan

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Post tags: Architects Rudanko + Kankkunen, Atelier Heikkilä, central Finland, eco design, Finnish Architecture, Finnish design, Geothermal power, geothermally-heated homes in Finland, green design, sustainable design

Hong Kong is laying the foundations for a zero-emissions city with a brand new fleet of 45 bright red electric taxis. Manufactured by China’s BYD, which is partially backed by Warren Buffet, each five-door BYDe6 crossover sedan is powered by an iron phosphate battery that charges in two hours and has a modest 180 mile range. Hong Kong Taxi and Public Light Bus Association Limited are renting the fleet as part of a six month trial period that some say will earn taxi drivers a better wage and local government officials hail the move as the right step towards a cleaner urban environment.

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Post tags: BYD, china electric vehicles, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, Environment, green transportation, Hong Kong electric taxis, Hong Kong Taxi, News, Public Light Bus Association Limited, sustainable transportation

A huge two-mile-wide tornado touched down south of Oklahoma City Monday afternoon, devastating a community of 41,000 and killing as many as 51 people. The tornado hit wind speeds of 200mph and scored a preliminary rating of four out of five on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, and eyewitnesses report that its 20 mile journey tossed around cars, crushed homes and ripped apart buildings – including two schools. The tornado is the worst to hit the suburb of Moore since 1999, and officials from the National Weather Service warn that more could be on their way. Local organizations have already set up a range of ways to provide aid to victims of this terrible disaster – hit the jump to find out what you can do to help!

Read the rest of Two-Mile-Wide Tornado Devastates Oklahoma City Suburb – Here’s How You Can Help

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Post tags: Environment, environmental destruction, how to help Oklahoma tornado victims, locate Oklahoma tornado pets, locate Oklahoma tornado victims, natural disasters, News, Oklahoma tornado destruction, Oklahoma tornado relief, photos of Oklahoma tornado

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Post tags: "green wall", California boutique hotel, eco design, green design, Horst Architects, Laguna Beach green hotel, sustainable design, vertical garden

Work on the world’s largest hydropower plant is expected to start in October, 2015 following commitments from the World Bank and other development agencies to finance its construction. South Africa has also agreed to buy more than half of the energy that would be generated at the 4800 MW Inga 3 plant at Inga Falls on the Congo River. Preliminary reports show that a series of dams on this section of the river would have a relatively small environmental and social impact, but International Rivers and other non governmental organizations warn that virtually none of this power would improve the lives of local residents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Read the rest of World’s Largest Hydropower Plant on Track for 2015 Groundbreaking in DR Congo

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Post tags: Africa, African Development Bank, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, Environment, hydropower, International Rivers, News, off grid solutions, renewable energy, South Africa to buy DRC energy, world bank, world's largest hydropower plant

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Post tags: Canadian green designers, eco design, green design, ICFF, International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, reclaimed furniture design, Reclaimed Materials, sustainable design, The reCYCLER, upcycled furniture design

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Post tags: bamboo cladding, eco design, Garden Terrace Miyazaki Hotel, green design, green hotels in Japan, green materials, green wedding chapel in Japan, japanese architecture, Japanese design, Kengo Kuma, sustainable design, Sustainable Materials

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Post tags: designtree, FSC certified timber, FSC-certified wood designs, green designers from New Zealand, green interiors, green lighting, ICFF in New York, New Zealand designers, recyclable materials, Recycled Materials, recycled PET lamps

As if the oceans are not struggling enough with climate change, pollution and overfishing, the United Nation’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) has issued 17 prospecting licenses for state and private companies eager to dig up the ocean floor. The ISA has published a report evaluating the impact that mining the sea bed to extract about mineral rich “nodules” amid “an unprecedented surge of interest,” according to The BBC. And they are frank to note that there will be “inevitable environmental consequences.”

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Post tags: deep sea mining, Environment, environmental destruction, gold rush of the sea, International Seabed Authority, ISA, Lockheed Martin mining, marine destruction, News, sea bed mining, United Nations

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries believes that only attractive people should be encouraged to wear A&F clothes, but writer Greg Karber disagrees. Offended by Jeffries’ callous statement and the fact that the company refuses to make clothes larger than a size 10, Karber launched Fitch the Homeless – a campaign to outfit as many homeless Americans in their clothes as possible. Hit the jump for more details.

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Post tags: Abercrombie & Fitch, clothing for homeless people, ecouterre, fashion campaign, FitchtheHomeless, News, social activism, social media campaign, the world's number one brand of homeless apparel

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Post tags: BKLYN Designs 2013, Dumbo design event, green designers in Brooklyn, green events in NYC, green interiors, green lighting, NYC green designers, Reclaimed Materials, Recycled Materials, urban chandeliers, Urban Chandy

Read the rest of Adam Frank’s Reveal Light Projects a ‘Daylit’ Window on Any Wall

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Post tags: Adam Frank, BKLYN Design 2013, Dumbo designers, eco design, green design, green designers in Brooklyn, green events in NYC, green interiors, green lighting, Recycled Materials, Reveal Light Projector, sustainable design

MOKO Architects just unveiled plans for a diving and skydiving center constructed out of two abandoned silos and a series of staggered shipping containers. The ten story multi-purpose recreation center will be built out of existing silos located in the Żerań industrial area just 12 km outside of Warsaw’s nucleus.

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Post tags: adaptive reuse projects, eco design, green design, MOKO Architects, Poland skydiving center, repurposed silos, shipping containers, sustainable design, Urban design, urban diving and skydiving center in Warsaw

The glaciers atop Mt. Everest are melting at an unprecedented rate and anthropogenic global warming is likely to blame. The news comes on the heels of reports that CO2 levels have reached their highest in human history, surpassing the 400 parts per million mark, and climate change is shifting the location of the North and South Poles. Researchers from the University of Milan say that ice coverage on top of Earth’s highest mountain has shrunk by 13 percent in the last five decades.

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Post tags: anthropogenically-induced climate change, Climate Change, Environment, global warming, melting glaciers, News, University of Milan, world's highest mountain