Combine our love for prefab homes and sustainable building into one book and you get Prefabulous + Sustainable, by Sheri Koones. Full of the gorgeous images of beautiful homes, Koones's new book sent to us by Abrams, explores how home owners from all around the US designed and built their dream homes sustainably using prefab construction. Besides beautiful pics, we liked how the book is laid out, giving easy to follow explanations of the different levels of sustainability - Green, Greener and Greenest, leaving the most sustainably built homes for the end.

 

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The Inhabitat team has been closely monitoring recently completed Passive House projects in the United States and abroad, anxiously awaiting each new energy efficient residence’s opening. The Passiv Haus movement, which champions a sustainable building system that originated in Germany, has recently gained steam in the United States, particularly in the New York City area. New York Passive House, like other local chapters of the Passiv Haus Society, was created to promote the movement’s standards in the local area by creating an open forum for designers, construction professionals, manufacturers, clients and anyone with an interest in green building. Inhabitat recently had the pleasure of speaking with local architect and NY Passive House co-founder and president, Ken Levenson. Hit the jump for our exclusive interview!

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There are lots of ways to make green design enticing for people who are just being introduced to it, but we think we've found a method that takes the cake - the cupcake, that is. Situated on a trendy SoHo, NY street corner, the Little Cupcake Bakeshop is a beautifully renovated space that serves up a little taste of Americana with their sweet treats. Behind the nostalgic checkerboard floors, ceramic marble counter tops, wooden book shelves and pastel palette, many serious green considerations from energy saving technologies to recycled materials went into building the charming shoppe. We caught up with Little Cupcake Bakeshop partner Massimo LoBuglio to pick his brain about everything from the inspiration behind the store's design to how the original LCB (in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) is able to save $20,000 (yes, $20 Gs!) just by being green.

 

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In August 2006, Global Green and Brad Pitt announced the winners of the Global Green Sustainable Design Competition For New Orleans. The winning proposal, titled GreeNOLA and submitted by Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop APD, calls for six houses and two multifamily units which employ energy-efficient appliances, solar power, and recycled building materials, as well as providing social services like child care and a community garden. Workshop APD’s proposal is designed to cut pollution and decrease operating energy use by 50-60 percent, compared to traditional homes. The success of the GreeNOLA design is its seemless integration of cutting edge green technology with the traditional building wisdom of the region. This combination creates healthy and affordable new residences for displaced residents of New Orleans. We sat down with the two architects to discuss their winning design proposal for rebuilding in New Orleans – read on for the interview after the jump.

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The new Sustainable Sites Initiative or SITES for short is a the first national rating system for sustainable landscapes, and is modeled after the USGBC's LEED rating system for green buildings. Led by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Garden, the SITES program has set out to promote and ensure that sustainable landscape design has the same credence as buildings. We think this new national rating system has the potential to make a major impact on landscape architecture, so we hooked up with the CEO of ASLA, Nancy Somerville, to get the low down on SITES, how it works and why it's different from LEED certification.

 

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Is it possible for a business to go green and make green at the same time? Ray Anderson, founder of global carpeting company Interface and some say the grandfather of corporate sustainability, thinks so and reveals exactly how he did it in his new book Confessions of a Radical Industrialist. Want to know more about this fascinating new book? Read the review by our editor Haily Zaki here >.

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The highly anticipated second section of the High Line Park will open next week in NYC to what’s bound to be a flurry of excitement. Back in 2009, just as the park was first inaugurated, we were on site for a sneak peek of the stellar transformation that gave way to an incredible public space built on the remains of an abandoned rail system. Check out our video ahead of the High Line, with exclusive interviews with the design team including Lead Designer and Landscape Architect James Corner of James Corner Field Operations and architect Ricardo Scofidio of Diller Scofidio + Renfro who made this stunning new park possible. And stay tuned for more – we’ll be ready to hit up the second section of the High Line Park next week when it opens, camera in tow!

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Green homes are on the rise, but a world dominated by green real estate is far from reality. In this interview with ECOBroker John Beldock, we thought we’d take a look at ways to locate green homes that have already been built. We’ve covered lots of strategies that go into sustainable home design and construction, but how can you find a green home in your area? And how can we raise the demand for these properties?

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We love the work of Jennifer Siegal’s Office of Mobile Design, and our very own Emily Pilloton had the opportunity to talk to her in person about green architecture and her prefab designs. One of her standout designs includes the ShowHouse, which serves as a great example of efficiently and effectively executed prefab construction combined with a seamless integration of green materials and technologies. Read on or watch the video of Emily’s interview with Jennifer ahead!

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As a follow-up to our previous Toby Long interview, we thought it fitting to highlight one particular (and very exciting) community-based green building project that Toby and Clever Homes have been working on in San Francisco’s Hunter Point neighborhood. The Living Classroom is a community building that will house a variety of programs put forth by LEJ (Literacy for Environmental Justice), a non-profit organization supporting urban environmental education and youth empowerment in the Bayview/Hunters Point area.

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John Viera has made a name for himself as a pioneer for the green movement within the automotive industry. As Ford Motor Company‘s Director of Sustainable Business Strategies, he has been building a new base for the Big Three manufacturer to flourish in a sustainable way. We here at Inhabitat were lucky enough to have the opportunity to pick the brain of Viera, who spoke to us about a number of topics, including Ford’s future in plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and electric vehicles (EV). Read on for our exclusive interview!

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New York is home to some of the world’s greatest talents in art and design, but with high prices giving way to hard living, many have fled to more affordable cities abroad. Over the last decade, Berlin has become the haven for creative expatriates looking for a place to explore their ideas. Now on show at Relative Space in SoHo, $H!T HAPPENS In Berlin is an exciting new exhibit, curated by Metropol Parasol architect Juergen Mayer, and principal of Relative Space Tyler Greenberg, that is bringing a bit of the burgeoning creative spirit of Berlin stateside. Our very own Editor-in-chief Jill Feherenbacher recently sat down with the curating duo to talk about the new exhibit. Watch the EXCLUSIVE VIDEO ahead for all the details, and if you’re in NYC be sure to stop by Relative Space for a first-hand look. This exhibit closes Friday, June 3rd!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE >

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Toy designer, Ben Blanc creates classic Corkels push/pull toys from recycled wood chip that looks and feels like cork. His animal, car and boat designs are full of fun, wheelie appeal for kids; and they’re stylish enough to look great in a workspace or perched on a windowsill for adult fans who are kids at heart. Inhabitots contributing writer, Desmond Williams interviewed Ben Blanc regarding the inspiration behind his Corkels toys, and Blanc also shares an exclusive peek at his soon to be released new collection of recycled cardboard products and toys ranging from a wearable shark to a chic, clever room divider. Don’t miss out on meeting this innovative, eco-friendly designer and getting a first look at his latest wares over at Inhabitots!

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For some closing thoughts on the cultural flurry in Copenhagen, Inhabitat turned to Patricia Watts. As the founder of ecoartspace, she has been curating, organizing, discussing, analyzing and writing about eco-art since before it was cool thing to do. With so many conflicting views on the state of art and eco-art today, Watts gave us an exlusive interview offering up her own thought-provoking perspective on the difference between art and activism, art and propaganda, and the prowess behind fake press releases.

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Design Build Bluff is a university design and build course started by Hank Louis at the University of Utah School of Architecture. It's the type of program you wish you were a part of during school and one that you will probably want to help out with when you learn more about it. DBB just finished its seventh sustainably-built house in Navajo Nation in Southern Utah. Their latest house in a string of super affordable and sustainably-built structures, is a testament to the hearts of those involved and the amazing education in green building the students are receiving. I had a chance to sit down with Hank Louis for a juice after he returned from Bluff, Utah, where they base their construction operations out of. As you can imagine, we had a lot to talk about, especially about DBB's exciting new developments and how it differs from other university programs -- read on for our exclusive interview!

 

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