Read the rest of INHABITAT INTERVIEW: 8 Questions With Liz Rooks of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park

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Post tags: "solar energy", "sustainable architecture", Daylighting, foundation, green architecture, Green Building, green design, Liz Rooks, NC, north carolina, Research Triangle Park, RTP, Sustainability, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

Read the rest of HKS Architects’ Renovated Warehouse Earns San Francisco’s First LEED for Homes Mid-rise Gold Certification

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Post tags: "leed", adaptive reuse, green buildings, green renovation, hks architects, industrial lofts, leed for homes, LEED gold, San Francisco, San Francisco Real Estate, sf, south beach

Read the rest of Great City: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Unveil Plans For China’s First Self-Sufficient, Carless City

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Post tags: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, Architecture, carless city, Chengdu, china, Great City, self-sufficient, sustainable design

Read the rest of The Yard is an Ambitious Self-Build Estate Constructed to BREEAM Standards in the UK

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", biomass, bristol, city farm, photovotaics, playground, Recycled Materials, selfbuild, solar thermal, St Werberghs, The Yard

Read the rest of Sinclair Meadows: Residents Move Into the UK’s First Carbon-Negative Street

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", affordable housing, Biodegradable, biomass, carbon negative, hemp. sustainable timber, photovoltaics, Sinclair Meadows, South Shields

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams’ plans to build a state-of-the-art net zero energy house in San Francisco has the neighbors up in arms. Why? His green dream home involves tearing down a 1911 $3 million beauty. Before Williams even submitted a plan, 240 opposition letters from neighbors filled the planning department’s (virtual) mailbox.

Read the rest of Twitter Co-Founder Irks Neighbors with Plans to Raze $3 Million House to Build Zero Net Energy Mansion

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Post tags: Evan willams green home, is it green, San Francisco green home, Twitter co founder green home, Zero net energy

Read the rest of Beachaus II is a Smart LEED Platinum Home in White Rock, British Columbia

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Post tags: Beachaus 2, Beachaus II, Britsh Columbia Real Estate, elemental design, inhaus development, LEED architecture, leed certified, LEED Design, LEED platinum, Method Homes, modular design, prefab design, White Rock Vancouver

Last month we kicked off our Green Guide to Prefab series with an article exploring the history of prefabricated housing. Now we’re back with another article in this series to take a look at mobile homes and their influence on the development of prefabricated housing.  Although the words ‘mobile home’ today often conjure up images of sprawling trailer parks outside cities, these compact homes-on-wheels were, in fact, part of a design revolution that gave way to a low-cost, portable option for single-family home ownership. Read on for the second installment of our Green Guide to Prefab, where former Lindal Cedar Homes CEO, and green design consultant Michael Harris schools us on the history of the mobile home and how it helped shape modern prefabricated housing.

Read the rest of GREEN GUIDE TO PREFAB: The History of the Mobile Home and Its Influence on the Modern Prefab

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Post tags: Eco Architecture, economical home, factory made homes, flat pak architecture, green architecture, green guide to prefab, history of modernism, history of prefab design, history of prefab homes, history of prefabricated housing, homes on wheels, Lindal Cedar Homes, lindal homes, michael harris, mobil homes, mobile homes, modern family homes, modern home, modern trailer homes, modernism, non-volumetric homes, portable homes, prefab architecture, Prefab Homes, prefab industry, prefabricated architecture, prefabricated homes, trailer homes, volumetric homes

Read the rest of Tom Dixon’s Converted Water Tower in London is a Modernist Home in the Sky—and it’s Up for Rent!

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Post tags: adaptive reuse, converted water tower, Green Real Estate, London, Tom Dixon, unique homes, water tower home, water tower house, watertower house

Mozilla, the nonprofit tech company behind the ubiquitous Firefox web browser, recently announced that it will branch out and open a new office in downtown San Francisco later this summer. To reflect an atmosphere of transparency, the new workspace, designed by San Francisco-based architecture firm MKThink, is a wide open space with no private offices. The new 15,000-square-foot office is located in the Hills Plaza complex in San Francisco’s South of Market district, and it will provide work area for 125 staff members.

Read the rest of Mozilla’s New Corporate Offices in San Francisco Create a Collaborative Atmosphere

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Post tags: bay area, California, Firefox, interior design, MK Think, Moxilla, office design, office space, real estate, San Francisco, tech, tech companies

Every building is unique, and each has good things and some not-so-good things. The new website Honest Buildings launched today to make it a lot easier to learn about projects and open up a discourse on how to make them perform better. The website tools have been billed as a Yelp for buildings and a Linked-In for building professionals. As the site matures, the creators see it developing into an organic gathering place for discourse on the built environment – a social media hub just for buildings.

Read the rest of Honest Buildings Website Launches To Make Building Research Easier

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Post tags: building data, building information, building resource, eco building, Green Building, honest building, how to find a building, LEED certified buildings, Yelp for buildings

Many of us dream of one day designing and building our own house – and with economic issues ravaging many countries around the globe and ensuing mortgage crises, it’s not surprising that the self-build is becoming a more appealing option. Dubious about getting a mortgage in Ireland, architect Dominic Stevens decided a wooden self-build was the way forward. Armed with a simple design, a few friends, and around $33,000 (€25,613), Stevens started putting together his simple home over a single holiday weekend in his native Ireland. This 3-bedroom self-build project is now a reality just 100 miles from Dublin in County Leitrim, where the timber frame house blends into the surrounding landscape.

Read the rest of Architect Dominic Stevens Builds His Dream House For Under $33,000

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Post tags: dominic stevens, energy saving, green design, green home, housing market, Ireland, irish mortgage crisis, Onduline, self build house, self build houses, small house, Sustainable Building Design, sustainable design, timber frame houses onduline

Damien Hirst is perhaps best known as an extraordinarily provocative, sometimes playful artist who makes an incredible amount of money from his conceptual art — in a surprising shift, he now aims to channel some of that wealth into a new role as a pioneer in eco-housing development. Hirst, who is purported to have a horror of “anonymous, lifeless buildings,” has unveiled plans to construct over 500 eco-homes in an effort to revitalize his adopted hometown of Ifracombe in Devon, UK. The proposed homes include renewable energy solutions such as concealed wind turbines in their roofs and photovoltaic solar panels.

Read the rest of Artist Damien Hirst Unveils Plans to Build 500 Eco-Homes in UK

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Post tags: community development, community revitalization, Damien Hirst, Eco Architecture, eco design, eco homes, green development, green housing, ilfracombe devon, Mike Rundell, photovoltaic solar panels

Read the rest of EcoVillage at Ithaca Offers Sustainable Living in a Community Setting

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Post tags: "solar energy", "sustainable architecture", alternative living, co-housing, common house, Community Supported Agriculture, compost toilet, CSA, EcoVillage at Ithaca, energy efficient, Finger Lakes region, green architecture, green housing, green living, Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, inhabitat, intentional community, Joan Bokaer, Liz Walker, New York New York State, passive solar, PV panels, shared housing, solar panels, sustainable housing, sustainable living, upstate New York, work teams

It’s official: Ikea is taking over the world. Yesterday, Inter Ikea Systems, owner of the popular furniture chain, announced plans to build an enormous 26-acre, environmentally friendly suburb next to London’s Olympic Park. Strand East, located in East London, will include 1,200 homes, a 350-room hotel, 480,000 square feet of offices, as well as shops and restaurants. The site is flanked by canals on two sides, and Ikea hopes to create what it describes as a “mini-Venice,” with water-taxi service and a floating cocktail bar, according to the Daily Mail.

Read the rest of Ikea To Build Massive 26-Acre Suburb in East London

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Post tags: 2012 olympics, England, ikea, ikea suburb, ikea uk, ikea uk suburb, Inter Ikea, London, olympic park, real estate, Strand East

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", 537 x 430 or 700 x 560 green design, eco design, hamburg, LichtAktiv haus, Model Home 2020, photovoltaic panels, sustainable design, velux

As we see the stock market spiral downwards while investors pick their jaws off the floor and rush to safer securities, we have an investment suggestion of our own. Home energy efficiency retrofits can be a safe place to house money (literally) for investors who demand increasing dividends over the life of their investment. The rate of returns for building efficiency has been well-known to many large businesses, but an efficiency retrofit can be a sound investment for any home owner as well. Read on as we take a quick look at the potential returns and the long-term benefits of a low-cost and comfortable home as a sound and safe financial decision.

Read the rest of One of the Safest Investments of All Could be Your Home’s Energy Efficiency

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Post tags: deep energy retofit, double dip recession, dow jones industrial average, energy audit, energy efficiency investment, green house investment, green investment, how to invest in green building, nasdaq, recession, safe green investment, stock market down

The seven-mile-per-side square of land that is San Francisco, densely settled for decades with precious little to spare in the way of developable land, is poised to embark upon one of the country’s most ambitious brownfield redevelopment initiatives. The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard arose as a location of bustling shipbuilding activity in 1941 as the U.S. became engaged in World War II but has sat idle since 1974. The city’s redevelopment plan calls for the transformation of a toxic, abandoned 700-plus acre parcel into thousands of housing units and businesses that will be powered by clean energy, while integrating the area into the ecologically significant San Francisco Bay.

Read the rest of Massive Hunters Point Shipyard Brownfield Project Primed to Set Sail in San Francisco

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", bay area, brownfield redevelopment, green architecture, green design, green renovation, hunters point naval shipyard, renewable energy, San Francisco, san francisco bay, sustainable design

Read the rest of Turning Torso: Calatrava’s Sustainable Skyscraper is the Tallest Residential Tower in Sweden

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Post tags: "sustainable skyscraper", Architecture, biogas, biomimicry, energy efficient, Green Real Estate, green resources, Malmo, recycling / compost, renewable energy, santiago calatrava, spanish design, Sustainable Building, Sweden, twisted building, Zero energy

Energy Star-certified buildings are on the rise in the United States! In 2010 alone, the number of Energy Star buildings in big cities has doubled in size compared to the past ten years combined. A qualified building must use on average 35 percent less energy and emit 35 percent less carbon emissions to be certified by the government as an Energy Star building. We’re thrilled to see greener buildings gaining momentum across the states – read on to see which cities made the biggest gains!

Read the rest of The Top 10 US Cities With the Most Energy Star Buildings

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Post tags: "energy star", "sustainable architecture", carbon emissions, energy efficient architecture, epa, Green Building, green design, most energy star buildings, Smart Planet, sustainable design, top energy star cities, top ten cities