As the author of over 2,000 articles on the subject, you might say that Bridgette Meinhold knows a thing or two about green architecture. In her new book entitled Urgent Architecture, Ms. Meinhold, who is also the architecture editor here at Inhabitat, puts her accumulated knowledge to paper, profiling "40 sustainable housing solutions for a changing world." In the pages of the book, you'll find a collection of some of the most innovative, adaptable and affordable shelters on the planet - ranging from modern yurts to homes that float on water to pop-up tents for the homeless. The book officially goes on sale today, and we had a chance to check it out; read on to see our review as well as select images of some of the featured projects!

 

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Could you live in just 320 sq. ft. of space? How about with 3 other people? The Tiny House Family does it, and the DIY, money-saving way they went about it is attracting them a lot of attention. Hari, Karl and their son and daughter's small living adventure began when the sour economy caused their award-winning restaurant in Florida to close. Knowing they needed to save money, but still wanting to live mortgage-free, they bought a parcel of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains and built a salvaged (mostly from Craigslist) new home for just $12,000. Now this smart family of four enjoys their abode without owing any money on it whatsoever, allowing them to live completely off of Karl's salary and save all of Hari's salary for their future dreams. Read on to see Hari's insightful small-space living tips and see photos of the Tiny House's wonderful living spaces, which include a loft sleeping space, a lovely porch and a sunny kitchen.

 

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It’s no secret that we’re big advocates of cruelty-free fashion, but we also think there’s a lot of money to be made by companies who make clothes without harming animals. Well, who better to ask about that than business mogul and successful fashion entrepreneur Russell Simmons? We recently caught up with the man behind Def Jam Records, Phat Farm, and American Classics (not to mention practicing vegan of 13 years and outspoken animal-rights activist) at the “Healthy Food in Fashion” fall gala and asked him everything from whether he thinks sustainable fashion makes good business sense, to what his new cruelty-free clothing line Argyleculture is all about. Read on to see what he said!

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Rotterdam may have lost many of its historic buildings to the bombings of WW2, but its strategic location, multiculturalism, and vibrant port have since transformed this old Dutch city into a modern hotbed for cutting edge architecture and design. With contemporary structures popping up left and right, there is certainly no shortage of inspiration here, but if there is one design that's slated to change the face of this port city, it's the Rotterdam Market Hall. Designed by MVRDV, and currently under construction, the new market hall will be a towering 100,000 sq meter tunnel-shaped structure that fuses a bustling green market with residences, shopping, restaurants and more. We recently spoke to the hall's project leader, MVRDV architect Anton Wubben, about the landmark design. Read ahead for some of Anton's insight on the project, as he discusses everything from the flexible suspended glass facades to what inspired the shape of the building.

 

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Elizabeth L. Cline has spent over three years researching the American fast-fashion industry. The result? Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, the insightful story of how we became dependent on fast fashion and built our disposable wardrobes.  Click ahead to check out our interview with Cline, featuring helpful tips on how to break our overconsumption habit.

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Last week, we showcased the Bicycle Library, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, and it was so unusual that we had to get in touch with its founder and pick his brain. We needed to know what makes a person wake up one morning and want to start a library where people take out bikes instead of books – and in a revamped double decker bus, no less?! So we caught up with Karta Healy, the driving (or should we say cycling?) force behind this mobile resource, and found out the answers to those questions and more – read on to see what he said.

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Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects is one of our favorite architectural firms, championing the fight for sustainable design. Founded in the late 1960's, the firm has created a collection of structures that rise from the ground as natural extensions of their sites, acting as bridges between nature, culture and people. In our latest interview installment we are joined by prinicipal architect Tom Kundig who shares his thoughts on his design process, what it's like to be a Seattle-based firm, where he finds his inspiration and more. Jump ahead for our exclusive interview with Tom, as well as a peek into some featured projects that are as green as they are gorgeous!

 

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The designer behind the One Laptop Per Child Project, Yves Behar is truly a world-class designer, balancing aesthetics, function, and socially-based initiatives. Founder and principal designer of FuseProject, he also happens to be the Chair of the Industrial Design Department at San Francisco’s California College of the Arts. Recently, he facilitated a design studio in which Industrial Design students partnered with South Korean cell phone manufacturer Pantech to design new cell-phone models, taking on the future of mobile communications and addressing the idea of emotional networking. I had a chance to speak to Yves about the studio, sustainability, and more…

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At Ecouterre, we’ve always been fascinated with designer Victoria Bartlett‘s ability to create fantastic fashions without having to use the furs and skins of animals. So we were delighted to have the chance to speak to this cruelty-free fashion pioneer recently at the annual “Healthy Food in Fashion” fall gala. We chatted with Bartlett about how she thinks we can get more designers to practice cruelty-free fashion, the significance of her controversial human hair accessories, and her favorite meat-free recipe.

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We love treehouses here at Inhabitat, and are enamored with eco-architect Mitchell Joachim’s visionary ideas about how to grow living treehouses from ficus molded around frame structures. We’ve covered these brilliantly playful architectural ideas before on Inhabitat, but now we have a video from Mitchell Joachim explaining the details of how they work. Joachim does much better justice to his future-forward ecological designs than we are able to do in a mere post, so if you have any interest in living treehouses (and we know you do), check out this fascinating video above.

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EVolo Magazine has made a name for itself with its annual skyscraper competition, which started in 2006. Since then there have been over 4,000 submissions arriving from across the planet, seemingly covering just about every imaginable design parameter when it comes to vertical construction. Their newly released book, EVOLO SKYSCRAPERS, is a selection of 300 of the best projects spanning six chapters and a hefty 1,223 pages. If you’re an aficionado of futurism in building design, then this is the decisive book on one of the largest scale human interfaces with the environment — the skyscraper.

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Greening your home can provide numerous financial, health and environmental benefits; from making your air healthier, to cutting down your energy bill, to lowering your carbon footprint. Most people like the idea of "greening" their home, but many are daunted by complex technical information and don't where to begin. Happily, eco architect and green building expert Eric Corey Freed has stepped in to distill the process of greening your home into 5 easy steps. We sat down with this organicARCHITECT to take notes on his 5 steps to a greener home - read on for the full scoop!

 

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Inhabitat readers might remember that we interviewed California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom back when he was the mayor of San Francisco in a live webcast that was open to any of our readers who wanted to attend. The finale of our Green Talks series of live chats with green thought-leaders, this interview touched on subjects such as mandatory composting, electric vehicle infrastructure and political leadership in CA. Our interview with Mayor Newsom was provocative and inspiring, and was a can’t-miss bit of Inhabitat journalism, if we do say so ourselves. Happily, for those of you who missed this amazing interview – we finally have the videos together of the interview in its entirety. We’ve chopped the full 35 minute transcript down into 4 shorter, themed segments for easier viewing. Enjoy!

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Author Angela Youngman has released a guidebook that will immerse you in world of green roofs through case studies, imagery, and must-know terminology related to design, build, and installation of these vegetated scapes. Green Roofs is not a self-help manual, but rather a light read that takes a broad stroke look at many of the variables and considerations surrounding what should really be called “living buildings.”

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For years, the city of Boston has been considered one of the WORST cities in the world for biking – with no bike lanes to speak of and crazy drivers. Nicole Freedman, Boston’s new ‘Bike Czar’ is hoping to change this with an ambitious program to overhaul Boston’s streets and make them safe and conducive for biking – even bringing the U.S.’s first urban bike share program to Boston! If you are a regular Inhabitat reader, you may remember that we hosted a live webinar discussion with Nicole on Inhabitat this fall, as part of our Green Talks series of video interviews. Our fascinating discussion with Freedman shed light on how urban bike share programs work, and how one goes about trying to turn the worst biking city in the world to one of the best.

Watch our full videos of the talk below to find out more about Nicole’s achievements making Boston a better place to bike, and her grand plan to try to make commuter cycling safer and more practical for more Americans.

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