After weeks of submissions and an intense week of online voting, we’re excited to finally announce the two winners of Inhabitat’s Lighten Up! Lighting Design Competition. We received hundreds of entries featuring projects that employ LEDs in innovative and interesting ways, ranging from a colorful art installation that reacts to changing light to a restaurant donning beautiful ceiling lamps to a research campus adorned with LED back-lit wood walls. We narrowed all the entries we received down to just 30 finalists, and then left it up to Inhabitat readers to decide which two designs were most deserving of $1000 prizes from Elemental LED. So who won? Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

Drumroll Please……….

Read the rest of Announcing the Lighten Up LED Lighting Competition Winners!

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Post tags: "wind power", 3D printed lamp, 3D printed light, 3D printing, aerodynamics, Air Turbine, Air Turbine Light, diTTo design, diTTo’s LED Acoustic Cloud Installation, green design, green interiors, green lighting, inhabitat competition, Inhabitat Design Competition, interior lighting design, LED Acoustic Cloud Installation, LED lighting installation, Lighten Up, lighten up competition, Lighten Up LED Lighting competition, Lighten Up LED Lighting competition commercial winner, Lighten Up LED Lighting competition residential winner, lighten up lighting design competition, lighten up lighting design winner, lighten up winner, lighting object, margot krasojevic, Rolluda Architects, wind-powered light Lighten Up LED Lighting competition

TODAY is the LAST DAY to vote for your favorite finalists!

We received nearly 200 amazing entries in our Lighten Up! LED Lighting Design Competition over the last few weeks, and after countless hours of deliberation, we’ve narrowed these entries down to just 30 finalists. Now it’s time for you to have your say! Vote for your favorite designs and decide which of these fantastic commercial and residential lighting projects should be awarded a $1000 prize from Elemental LED. Will it be this fully interactive LED drum wall, this billowing Cosmic Quilt, this gorgeously lit net-zero home in California, or these classrooms inspired by Galileo’s night sky observations? There are no doubt plenty of impressive designs to admire, but ONLY TWO can win. Cast a vote for your favorites, and if you happen to be a finalist, don’t forget to remind your friends and family to vote for your design! Voting ends TONIGHT, Friday, May 10th, 11:59PM EST.

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITES HERE >

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The shortlist of nominees for the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture were just announced in Spain – and the list includes outstanding projects ranging form a school in Afghanistan to a cemetery in Australia.  Every three years the Aga Khan Award is given to one outstanding project that excels in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation, and landscape architecture. The 20 nominees announced today are eligible for part of a 1-million dollar fund, and the five or six finalists will be announced in September of this year.

Read the rest of Shortlist for the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Announced

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TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER!

Calling all architects, interior designers and lighting designers! Do you have a spectacular architecture or interior project that uses LED lighting? Share it with the world today in our Lighten Up! An LED Lighting Design Competition. We’re looking for the best and the brightest examples of residential and commercial interior lighting designs that make use of energy-efficient LEDs. Exceptional designs will be put up to a popular vote, and the top 15 entries in both categories will be reviewed by a panel of expert judges who will determine which two winning submissions should be awarded a $1000 gift certificate for use towards Elemental LED products. Judging will be based on aesthetics, creativity, innovation and how well LEDs have been employed a project’s space. Enter your work in either the residential or commercial categories (or both!) by TODAY Monday, April 22, 2013.

ENTER THE LIGHTEN UP! COMPETITION >

Read the rest of LAST DAY: Enter to Win a $1000 Prize in Lighten Up! An LED Lighting Design Competition

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Post tags: compact pod, Design, design competitions, dome-shaped vessel, eco design, eco-messaging, environmental activism, Graphic Design, Greenpeace, Greenpeace design competition, shelter, survival pod, sustainable design

Once a year, the whole world looks to the Nobel Center in Stockholm, Sweden to announce the Nobel Prizes. The center recently announced plans to relocate to a new building, and out of 140 architects, 12 have been selected to compete to design the new home of the Nobel Foundation and its related cultural and educational activities. Notable designers include OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, BIG, and David Chipperfield Architects. The majority of the selected applicants were from Europe and Scandinavia, with only SANAA’s Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa chosen from outside the region.

Read the rest of Twelve Architects Announced in Competition to Build New Home for the Nobel Prize

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Drumroll please…..

After six weeks of submissions and an intense judging period, we’re thrilled to finally announce the winner of the LightCollector Photo Contest! We called upon designers, architects and creatives to try out Philips’ new LightCollector photo app and collect light-inspired images from the world around them using their mobile devices. We received over 350 incredible entries, and even more of you came and voted for your favorite 20 photos – but there was one photo in particular that really stood out to our panel judges in the final round of the competition. We’d like to congratulate Allison Gates on her win for her photo “Wildfire“. Check it out after the break, as well as a few honorable mentions from our esteemed judges!

Read the rest of Announcing the $1000 Grand Prize Winner of the LightCollector Photo Contest!

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Post tags: inhabitat competition, inhabitat contest, lea stewart, 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, reed young

Do you have an inspiring idea for a t-shirt design? Enter it today in The Collective‘s brand new This Is Your Life T-Shirt Design Contest. The Collective has partnered up with Holstee to find two new t-shirt designs that exemplify Holstee’s powerful manifesto “This is your life. Do what you love, and do it often…” The designs you submit should combine the Holstee mantra with what is meaningful to you. Submit your ideas in pictograph form, words, as a drawing or in a video — whatever medium you feel best expresses the life of your design! Two prizes will be awarded, including a Holstee gift card worth $250 for the grand prize winner. The deadline to enter is TONIGHT Friday, March 29, 2013. Hit the jump to learn more about what you can win and how to enter the contest!

Read the rest of LAST CHANCE: Design a ‘THIS IS YOUR LIFE’ T-Shirt and You Could Win a $250 Prize & More!

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LAST CHANCE TO PIN IT TO WIN IT!

From sparkling pendants to swinging LED wall sconces to ultra mod-style lamps, there’s certainly no shortage of beautiful, inspiring and unique lighting fixtures over at Lamps.com. If you’re looking for a way to light up your life this drab winter, then look no further than our Pin It To Win It contest! We’ve teamed up with Lamps.com to give one lucky reader a $250 shopping spree at their online store. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER!

HOW TO ENTER:

STEP 1: Visit the Lamps.com website, pick your favorite lamp (or lamps!) and pin it on Pinterest with an #Inhabitatlamps tag.

STEP 2: Return to this page and leave a comment WITH your Pinterest link and a brief explanation on why you love the lamp you pinned.

Enter by Monday, March 11th, 2013 at 11:59 PM EST. We will contact the winner via email and announce the results in our newsletter on Thursday, March 14th.

Read the rest of LAST CHANCE: Pin Your Favorite Lamps.com Lighting Fixture and Win $250 to Spend at Their Store!

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Post tags: free stuff, inhabitat competition, inhabitat contest, lamp stores, lamps, lamps contest, lamps.com, lighting shop, lighting store, online lamp stor, pin it to win it, pin your favorite things, pinning contest, pinterest competition, pinterest contest, where to buy lamps online, win this

Compostmodern kicks off next month in San Francisco, and we can’t wait to see what the world’s green thinkers have in store for us at this fantastic two-day event! This exciting conference will provide a platform for leading designers, architects, scientists, and visionaries to discuss ways that design can improve society and the environment. To spread the love we’ve teamed up with Compostmodern to give one lucky Inhabitat reader a free pass (worth $575) to the event which will take place March 22-23 at the Palace of Fine Arts. Want to attend? Keep reading to learn how to enter!

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY:

1. SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER HERE > (If you are not already a subscriber). We’ll be announcing the winner in our weekly newsletter, so if you want to find out who won, you’ll need to receive it in order to claim your prize!

2. LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW and tell us why you want to go. Yep, it’s as simple as that!

The deadline for this giveaway is February 27th. We’ll pick the comment we like best and announce the winner in our newsletter, so make sure you’re signed up!

Note: This contest is for the event pass only — accommodations and travel expenses are not covered. 

Read the rest of GIVEAWAY: Win a Free Pass to Compostmodern 2013 in San Francisco (Worth $575)

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Sunny Southern California is set to break out the photovoltaic panels as the U.S. Department of Energy prepares to host the 2013 Solar Decathlon in Orange County, CA. This marks the first time in history that the event will be held outside of Washington, D.C. Twenty collegiate teams will design and build solar-powered homes at the Orange County Great Park from October 3-13 – and each project will be striving to score the highest marks in efficiency, consumer appeal and architectural excellence. In preparation for the event, representatives from the 20 teams visited Orange County this week to take part in workshops and briefings for the competition.

Read the rest of Solar Decathlon Teams Visit Orange County, California in Preparation for 2013 Competition

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Post tags: Architecture, biannual, DOE, irvine, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, orange county, orange county great park, solar, Solar Decathlon, U. S. Department of Energy, Washington DC

A well-designed watch is a great way to add a little something extra to an outfit. From colorful faces with unique illustrations to more classic styles fashioned with sustainable cork, timepiece maker Sprout boasts and enviable collection that will appease every fashion type. Just in time for the holidays we’ve teamed up with the eco-conscious watchmaker to give not one, but three watches away to a few of you lucky readers! Whether you’ll choose to keep the watch for yourself or give it to someone special for the holidays, enter by tomorrow, December 23rd for three chances to win!

ENTER TO WIN HERE >

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Post tags: bamboo, cork, corn resin, eco-fashion, eco-friendly watches, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, mother of pearl, organic cotton, Sprout Watches, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, sustainable watches

Read the rest of Costa Concordia Architecture Competition Rethinks Disaster to Create a New Seaside Park in Italy

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This is your last chance to vote for your favorite Green Halloween Costume Contest finalists!

Hey Inhabireaders! Today is the last day to vote in our annual Green Halloween Costume Contest. We received hundreds of incredible DIY Halloween costumes from readers across the globe, but only 34 have made it into the final cut. It’s now up to YOU, dear readers, to select a grand prize winner to receive fame, fortune, and a glow-in-the-dark Kilo Glow bike (worth $399) from Pure Fix Cycles! From a Zombie LEGO minifig to an incredibly creative and crafty Photobooth Costume, a real, working camera cardboard costume and a hilarious barrel of cheese balls, there is no shortage of awesome costumes - so check out all of our finalists and vote for your favorite! The polls close TONIGHT at 11:59 PM EST — get on it!

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE DIY COSTUME >

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Click here to view the embedded video.

The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) is an organization after Inhabitat’s own heart. It was formed by the visionary eco architect/designer’s family in 1983 to champion Buckminster Fuller’s amazing legacy and provide the design world — and the rest of humanity, for that matter — with the tools we need to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Buckminster Fuller was a “full systems thinker” — he was a renaissance man who foresaw the problems we are facing now decades before anyone else, and came up with innovative, thoughtful ways to solve humanity’s most pressing problems around energy, shelter and natural resources. Sadly, this amazing man is no longer with us, but The Buckminster Fuller Institute marches forward in his name with a handful of thought-provoking programs for designers. Their flagship initiative is the Buckminster Fuller Challenge design competition to provide solutions to complicated social/environmental problems. Inhabitat covered the BFI Challenge finalists back in April, and we are thrilled to announce the winner of the competition here in our latest video! Watch our video profile (above) to learn about BFI, Bucky’s legacy, and the inspiring winner of last year’s $100,000 prize.

Read the rest of VIDEO: The Buckminster Fuller Institute

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From a dress that tweets to Google glasses coming down the runway at New York Fashion Week, we’ve been seeing a growing intersection between fashion and technology in the past few years. This emergence of high-tech fashion is part of the reason why we kicked off the HP Laptop Bag Design Competition three weeks ago to challenge the design community to create an innovative new laptop bag for HP’s new super-lightweight Spectre XT Ultrabook. So how are fashion and design creatives using technology to inform their work? Hit the jump to see a few of our favorite high-tech wearable designs.

Read the rest of FASHION MEETS TECHNOLOGY: 6 Examples of Groundbreaking High-Tech Fashion

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While their original concept was denied by community members, Studio a+i has gone back to the drawing board to create a spectacular new design for the AIDS Memorial Park in Manhattan’s West Village.  Their second shot, a triangular trellis planted with vines, which would cover the 1,600 square foot plot, is being applauded as a “quiet, abstract” concept that “celebrates life and growth.” The original design “Infinite Forest” was a fenced-in concept filled with looking glasses, which posed not only safety concerns, but was also thought to be too focused on tragedy and loss of life, rather than future advances and positivity.

READ MORE >

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Post tags: AIDS Memorial Park, green architecture, green design competition, landscaping, new york city parks, St. Vincent's Hospital Rejuvenation, trellis design, west village

Read the rest of The Emirates Glass LEAF Awards Announce Their 2012 Shortlist

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The 2013 eVolo Skyscraper Competition is now open for business and looking for the most outrageous, exceptional, unusual, and forward-thinking designs out there. One of our favorite annual architectural competitions, given its broad interpretation of what a building can be, we’ve always been particularly enthused by the environmental bent of many of the winner and runner up entries coming in since 2006. If you have a bold idea ready to be rendered and lauded, then the sky(scraper) is the limit!

Read the rest of eVolo Announces Their 2013 Skyscraper Competition

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Whether you’re a pint-sized builder or a full-fledged designer these eco-friendly Tegu blocks are sure to stir your imagination. This month we’re participating in the Tegu Summer Building Contest in celebration of the new Endeavor and Explorer Sets. We’ve built our own creation from these cool blocks, and now we’re hoping you’ll vote for it ahead. So what’s in it for you? Anyone who votes gets the chance to win an awesome 40-piece Explorer Set worth $125! And even if you don’t win the giveaway, you can also snag your own set for a steal– Inhabitat readers can get 20% off Tegu using the discount code TEGUINHABITOTS. Hit the jump to find out more details!

ENTER HERE >

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Post tags: block giveaway, building block contest, eco building blocks, eco friendly blocks, endeavor set, explorer set, green design, green design for kids, green kids, green toys, magnetic building blocks, natural building blocks, tegu, tegu blocks, tegu giveaway, wooden building blocks