Graham Hill’s flat is 420 square-feet, HGTV’s smart home is 2,400 square-feet and Al Gore’s home is quite a bit bigger. But just how big is the average home these days, and how big does it need to be? When you compare average new home size around the world, you see pretty quickly that one man’s home really is another man’s castle. The disparity in the figures begs a question: When do we have enough space? As home sizes have swelled over the years a growing number of people are asking whether less can actually be more. Are we finally reaching a point where people want better spaces, rather than simply bigger spaces? Check out the graphic above to gain some perspective, and find out more over at Shrink That Footprint.

+ Shrink That Footprint

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

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Post tags: average home size, average house size, average square footage house china, average square footage house US, average square footage house worldwide, big home

In light Earth Day and Earth Week, I wanted to share what “Earth” means in the Feng Shui world. When people ask me to describe Feng Shui, I tell them that it’s about much more than moving furniture around. Feng Shui is the original “green design,” and it is about creating harmony with Mother Earth by unifying our inner and outer environments. The inner and outer are not separate, because everything that we do to our earth – positive and negative – affects our daily experience. In Feng Shui we believe that everything is alive, including the earth. Read on to learn more!

Read the rest of Celebrate Earth Day With Feng Shui!

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Post tags: Chinese Five Elements, earth day, earth element, eco space, feng shui, feng shui your house, green home, green interiors, green you home, green your spaces, peaceful spaces, Sustainable Interiors

There’s no denying that America has a trash problem. The USA produces more trash than any other country in the world, with each person throwing away 4.4 pounds of trash per day — that’s a collective total of more than 500 billion pounds of trash per year! From paper products, plastic, food scraps, and more, landfills are overflowing and threatening our health and environment. As non-renewable resources are consumed and the earth fills with trash, our insurmountable waste has become everyone’s problem and everyone’s responsibility. Read on to learn the top 10 reasons why we’ll be buried alive by trash, and get inspired to do something on Earth Day and every day after it!

Read the rest of 10 Reasons Why You’ll Be Buried Alive By Trash

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Post tags: green design, green lighting, green materials, Milan, Milan Design Week, milan fair 2013, Milan Furniture Fair, milan furniture fair 2013, Salone del mobile, salone del mobile 2013, student designers, student designs, ventura lambrate

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Post tags: "green furniture", design milan, eco design, eco furniture, Fabbrica Del Vapore, green design, Green Design Events, Milan Design Week, Milan Design Week 2013, milan furniture fair 2013, salon del mobile, Salone del mobile, upcycling

This fantastic wooden Foosball table, Afrika Kicker, is a socially-motivated, mobile concept that raises money to help support youth activities in South Africa and Rwanda. Created by Misereor, the table is entirely different from its commercial equivalents, made up of pieces that resemble the playing fields scattered across rural areas of Africa. The design includes many of the typical elements you might see on a rural ‘pitch’, including a sandy and uneven ground, a tree, and a well in the middle—some of the players even play on crutches! Moreover, for every game played, 2 Euros is raised for the kids.

Read the rest of Mobile Wooden Foosball Table Raises Funds to Help Support Youth Activities in Africa

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Post tags: africa social design, afrika kicker, community design, eco design, eco foosball table, green design, kolle rebbe agency, misereor, mobile football game, project design, social design

Hey Inhabitat readers! In case you missed it, we just wrapped up our broadcast of the Design with a Conscience conference in San Francisco, CA! We teamed up with Ford Motor Company and the American Institute for Architects (AIA) San Francisco to deliver you a peek at a thought-provoking event, which brought together visionary California architects and automotive designers eager to talk about the intersection of car and building design and how conscious design can spur innovation in both industries. This year’s star panel included: Allison Williams, principal architect at AW ink; Anne Fougeron, Founder of Fougeron Architecture; Ann Hand, CEO of Project Frog; and Freeman Thomas, Director of Strategic Design at Ford Motor Company. Though the event is over, you can read a few highlights from the panel after the break. We’ll also be posting a video recording of the conference very soon, so check back for it if you missed the live event.

Read the rest of Hear What Leading Automotive Designers and Architects Had to Say at Our ‘Design with a Conscience’ Webcast!

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Post tags: aia conferences, aia discussions, aia panels, AIA san francisco, Allison Williams, American Institute for Architects (AIA) San Francisco, Ann Hand, Anne Fougeron, architecture conference, architecture panel, architecture webcast, automotive panel, design conference, design panel, design webcast, design with a conscience, eco design, ford, ford motor company, Ford Strategic Concept Group, Fougeron Architecture, Freeman Thomas, Green Design Events, live webcast, perkins + will, Project Frog, sustainable design, webcast

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Post tags: amy eisenfeld genser, architectural digest home design show, coral reef, mulberry paper, new york city, Paper, paper quilling, rhode island school of design, thai unryu

There are many little, inexpensive ways you can save energy — insulate your hot water heater, use ceiling fans in the summer, insulate your attic, use fluorescent light bulbs, wash your laundry in cold water and use Energy Star appliances. But what else can you do to decrease your home’s overall energy use? Check out this fun and handy infographic which details all the areas in your home that could use a green makeover. With just a few changes, you can dramatically cut down your monthly energy. Hit the jump to learn more.

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

Read the rest of Infographic: A Visual Guide on How to Save Energy at Home

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Post tags: cut my energy bills, energy savings infographic, green energy green home, green your home, Home Energy savings, reduce my bills, reduce my energy bill, save energy at home

Scientists from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the Research Center on Animal Cognition have used robot technology to shed light on how ants forage and navigate. By creating sugar cube-sized machines called “Alices”, the researchers successfully replicated the movement patterns of Argentine ants without having to program the robots. The Alices left light trails that were able to be detected by the other units via sensors – a process similar to the way ants leave chemical markers. By choosing the path that deviated the least from their trajectory through a maze, the robots mimicked the behaviors of the insects.

Read the rest of Scientists Create Robot Ants That Imitate Colony Behavior and Navigate Mazes

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Post tags: alices, ant colony, argentine ants, maze, mimic, new jersey institute of technology, path, research center on animal cognition, robots, trail

Read the rest of CA Modern Home Tour: The Hidden Details of John Lautner’s Incredible Elrod House

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Post tags: alien architecture, alien-inspired homes los angeles, architecturally significant homes, architecturally significant homes california, architecturally significant homes los angeles, bambi and thumper, bob brisco, california modernism, diamonds are forever, elrod house, elrod residence, historic la home, historic los angeles homes, historic los angeles landmarks, historic modern la homes, James Bond, john lautner, john lautner LA, john lautner los angeles, la design, la home tour, la modern, la modern design, la modern home tours, lautner, lautner la, lautner los angeles, los angeles modern, modern homes la, modern homes los angeles, organic architecture, palm springs architecture, palm springs modern homes, palm springs modernism, southern california architecture, southern california modern, space architecture, space homes, space inspired home, ufo homes los angeles, ufo house

Tonight, at 8:30 pm local time, houses and commercial buildings all over the world will suddenly go dark. No, it’s not a global power outage, it’s Earth Hour! Started in 2007, this annual event has become a worldwide phenomenon, educating people about the threat of climate change, and encouraging a commitment to more sustainable behavior.

Read the rest of Earth Hour 2013 is Tonight! (And Yes, Turning Off the Lights Does Make a Difference)

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Post tags: berlin, Climate Change, conservation, earth hour, global action, global warming, renewable energy, Solidarity, UN, wwf

Read the rest of 9 Fun Things You Can Do During Earth Hour 2013!

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Post tags: 9 activities for earth hour, 9 energy saving activities, annual green events, earth hour, earth hour 2012, energy conservation, energy conservation events, energy saving events, environmental events, global events, green events, world black out, world wide fund for nature, wwf, wwf earth hour

Meet a next-generation scientist making the next generation of biofuel. 17-year-old Sara Volz invented a process that increases the amount of biofuel produced by algae to win this year’s Intel Science Talent Search. The Colorado Springs student claimed the $100,000 grand prize with her project, which uses artificial selection to pinpoint which organisms are churning out the most fuel. This new method not only helps to bring down the overall cost of algae biofuel, but it was developed primarily in her bedroom under a lofted bed!

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Post tags: acetyl-coa carboxylase, algae biofuel, colorado springs, enzyme, high school, intel, intel science talent search, pesticide, sara volz, sethoxydim, society for science & the public

LAST DAY TO VOTE!

We’ve received over 300 incredible light-inspired photographs in our LightCollector photography contest over the past few weeks, and we’ve been calling on you to vote for your favorite images to decide which photographer is most deserving of the sweet $1000 cash prize! Will it be this stunning image of a museum escalator, or this mesmerizing photograph of a skylight inside a museum that takes the grand prize? Today is the LAST DAY to vote to help determine the top 20 finalists. The top 20 entries with the most votes will go head to head to compete for the grand prize of $1000! So vote for your favorite entries today, and if you entered this contest, round up your friends and family and make sure they vote for your photo. Voting is easy, you just need to create a Light Collector account (either on the website or through your mobile phone).

HOW TO VOTE

ON THE LIGHT-COLLECTOR WEBSITE >

STEP 1:Go to the Light Collector website and search for photos with the tag #INHABITAT.

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STEP 2:
Click the heart on the bottom right hand corner of the photo to vote it up. Please use Safari, Firefox or IE browser since Chrome seems to not work with this website. Be sure to tell your friends and family to vote on your images (and leave comments) if you entered! The 20 images with the most votes will make it into our final round of judging and have a shot at the $1000 GRAND PRIZE. Please note, you can only vote for an image once.

Read the rest of LAST DAY TO VOTE: Vote for Your Favorite Images in the LightCollector Photo Contest!

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Post tags: inhabitat competition, inhabitat contest, lightcollector, lightcollector for android, lightcollector for iphone, Phillips, photo apps, photo apps for android, photo apps for iphone, photo competition, photo contest, photo editing, photo sharing devices, photography apps, photography contest

If the Tin Man were looking for a modern heart instead of an oversized pocket watch, it might look a little something like this. Scientists at the University of West England in Bristol have fabricated a 3D-printed pump that that uses the pressure generated by live yeast to beat, turning it into an artificial muscle. The valve is powered by electricity generated by a microbial fuel cell and controls the movement of the membrane. It opens to release pressure generated by the yeast, expands, and then shrinks back to begin another cycle.

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Post tags: 3d printed, artifical muscle, beat, bristol, cyborg, ecobot, gas, heart, membrane, microbial fuel cell, pacemaker, peter walters, pump, tin man, university of west england, valve, yeast

In the hunt to replace petroleum, scientists are looking for more efficient ways to produce biofuels from organisms. A team of researchers at MIT have engineered yeast to manufacture the heavy alcohol isobutanol. Yeast normally creates isobutanol in small amounts, and by altering the cell so that the production takes place entirely in the mitochondria, the scientists were able to boost the amount of the chemical by 260 percent. The results of their work were published in the February 17 online edition of Nature Biotechnology.

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Post tags: 2-methyl-1-butanol, biofuel, biosynthetic, cytoplasm, ETHANOL, gregory stephanopoulos, isobutanol, isopentanol, jose avalos, MIT, mitchondria, nature biotechnology, petroleum, yeast

Have you entered our mobile photo contest yet? 1 more week for a shot at $1000!

Are you a designer, architect or creative who finds inspiration in photography? If so, you’ll want to check out Philips’ new free LightCollector photo app to collect photographic inspiration from the world around you. Available for both Apple and Android mobile devices, LightCollector is a free mobile photography app that provides creative folks with a platform to collect, curate and share inspirational images from their mobile phones, and work with a global online network of peers, colleagues, experts and influencers. To get your creative juices flowing, we’ve teamed up with Philips and Light Collective to host a fantastic new photography contest that invites you to upload your best light-inspired photos for a chance to win a sweet $1000 cash prize! You’ve only got until Friday, February 15th (that’s in a week!) to submit your photos, after which we’ll be putting them up to a public vote to determine the most provocative, beautiful and inspiring.  The top 20 entries with the most votes will be included in a final round of judging by a panel made up of Inhabitat editors and industry professionals. Think you’ve got what it takes to get that winning image and the $1000 prize? Here’s how you can enter the competition:

HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST

Read the rest of Enter The LightCollector Photo Contest for a Shot at $1000!

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Post tags: light catcher for android, light catcher for iphone, light collector, light collector app, lightcollector, lightcollector for android, lightcollector for iphone, Phillips, photo apps, photo apps for android, photo apps for iphone, photo cloud, photo competition, photo contest, photo contest cash prize, photo editing, photo filters, photo sharing devices, photo sharing tools, photography apps, share photos, social media photos, where to share photos

In an apartment or an office setting, a little greenery can turn a lifeless space into a relaxing oasis. Designer Marko Vučković‘s Grass Lamp is a sleek hydroponic light fixture that blends modernist design with living plants. The grass is planted in a growing medium and fed with a mineral nutrient solution, while an overhead fixture provides light. Taking advantage of limited space, the lamp is a beautiful and creative way to add life to a room and purify the air.

Read the rest of Marko Vuckovic’s Hydroponic Grass Lamp Lets Anyone Grow Plants Indoors

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Post tags: bosch foundation, design and design award, grass lamp, hydroponic, kare, Light, marko vuckovic, polytechnic university of belgrade, saturn clock

Forget about soggy sleeping bags and competing with rocks and debris on the cold, hard ground on your next camping trip – Inhabitat favorite Tentsile just launched a brand new suspended tent called the Stingray that lets you rest high up in the trees! Designed for three-season use, the 13 lb tent accommodates three to four people plus their gear.  Using only two poles inserted into a polyester fly sheet and a set of tree straps, the arched Stingray can be set assembled in about five minutes. The interior is accessible through a floor hatch or side door via a collapsible ladder.

Read the rest of Tentsile’s New Stingray Hanging Tent Lets You Sleep Comfortably Suspended in the Trees!

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Post tags: alex shirley smith, camping, gear, Greenpeace, hammock, kickstarter, natural disaster, spider, stingray, TENT, tentsile, Trees, UN