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 playful architectural ideas before on Inhabitat, but now we have a video from Mitchell Joachim explaining the details of how they work. Joachim does better justice to his imaginative 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 the video above.

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Post tags: fab tree hab, Future-forward green design, green architecture, growing treehouse, living architecture, living tree house, Michael Sorkin, mitchell joachim, postopolis, sustainable design, TeREForm, Terreform

At the recent Postopolis event in NYC designers, architects, and bloggers came out to discuss issues surrounding architecture, urbanism, sustainability and a slew of other topics. If you were reading Inhabitat during this event, you might have recalled that Inhabitat’s founder Jill put together a panel discussion about sustainable design featuring Graham Hill of Treehugger, Susan Szenasy of Metropolis, and Allan Chochinov of Core77. You may also recall that we asked YOU – our readers - to submit questions and discussion ideas, which we used to shape the conversation. We finally got our video back and edited from the fascinating event, so check it out!

Read the rest of VIDEO: Sustainable Design at Postopolis!

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Post tags: Architecture Blogger Conference, BLDGblog, City of Sound, inhabitat, postopolis, POSTOPOLIS EVENT IN NYC, storefront for art and architecture, Subtopia

What if architecture was designed to work for you to keep you healthy? Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin, architects at The Living have come up with a new material called “Living Glass” that will look out for your health by monitoring CO2 levels in the air. The new smart material is a thin, transparent, non-mechanical surface which automatically opens and closes “gills” in response to human presence to control the air quality in the room.

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Post tags: designed by Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin of The Living, LIVING GLASS, Responsive Kinetic Architecture

The Postopolis event we hosted in NY a couple weeks ago was inspirational in many ways, and one of the highlights of the 5 day event was seeing Mitchell Joachim of Terreform (a non-profit philanthropic design collaborative) present a whole host of groundbreaking, uber-green projects that could revolutionize the way we live. Mitchell Joachim might be best known as the purveyor of the Fab Tree Hab – a living house built from a growing structure of trees and vines – but he’s got big plans for the world of transportaion and urban design as well. Along with Michael Sorkin, Terreform’s President and Founder, Joachim has conceptualized a new model for urban transportation called the “Soft Car,” a soft, safe, comfortable vehicle that responds to its surroundings, its driver, and other automobiles.

Read the rest of TERREFORM’S SOFT CAR

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Post tags: Future-forward green design, green architecture, living architecture, Michael Sorkin, mitchell joachim, Omni Bub, postopolis, sheep car, shoe car, soft car, soft vehicles, sustainable design, TeREForm, Terreform

Here’s a brilliant idea that functions as both environmental pollution monitor and thought-provoking urban art installation: a floating LED light system embedded in bodies of water to warn of water pollution (in addition to creating an ethereal glow at nighttime). A great way to be more green is simply to be more aware, like in the case of DIY Kyoto’s Wattson energy meter, or Natalie Jeremijenko’s pollution-sniffing dogs, and this project, architects Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin’s ingenious WaterGlow project does just that – making us aware of environmental problems in a beautiful way.

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Post tags: David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang, LED floating lights, Metropolis Next Generation Contest, Pollution monitering LED lights, River Glow, The Living Architecture, The Living’s Water Pollution Monitor, Water Pollution Urban Art Project

Despite the 90 degree weather, 100% humidity and interesting “acoustic issues” we encountered while holed in the tiny concrete (un-air-conditioned) Storefront gallery space for 5 days, the Postopolis event was amazing. So much so that I have to say that people who weren’t able to attend really missed out on something special. Where else would you ever have the chance to chat with Lebbeus Woods, Lot-ek, Stanley Greenberg, Michael Bierut, Terreform, and your favorite architecture bloggers — all while drinking beer in a modern concrete sweat-lodge in the middle of New York City? Fortunately for all of you who missed it we’ve got videos of each talk, lots of insightful recaps, online discussion, and countless photos, so you can enjoy all the inspiration and intensity of Postopolis from the comfort of your own air-conditioned home…

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Post tags: allan chochinov, Graham Hill, Inhabitat Sustainable Design Panel at Postopolis, jill fehrenbacher, postopolis, Susan Szenasy

Postopolis has been open in NYC since Tuesday, and the past three days have been amazingly chock full of things to see and do. So many provocative speakers and discussions have been crammed into such a short amount of time, that I end each day totally exhausted from trying to take it all in. It just keeps getting better and better, so if you live in New York City, I highly recommend stopping by before the event comes to a close on Saturday. There’s just two days left peeps, so come on down! Here’s today’s line-up:

1:30 pm: Julia Solis
2:10 pm: Andrew Blum
3:00 pm: Tom Vanderbilt, Michael Bierut and William Drenttel
4:10 pm: James Sanders
4:50 pm: David Benjamin & Soo-in Yang
5:30 pm: Kevin Slavin
6.10 pm: Eric Rodenbeck
6:50 pm: Laura Kurgan
7:30 pm: Lawrence Weschler

POSTOPOLIS!
Tuesday, May 29, to Saturday, June 2, 2007
Storefront For Art and Architecture

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Post tags: Architecture Blogger Conference, BLDGblog, City of Sound, inhabitat, postopolis, POSTOPOLIS EVENT IN NYC, storefront for art and architecture, Subtopia

If you’ve been checking in over the past couple days on Inhabitat, you’ve probably noticed that we keep talking about this Postopolis event at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City, which we are participating in over the next 5 days. Many people have written in to us to say that they wish they could make it or at least tune in from other places around the globe — and because of this interest we’ve decided to try to get a bit interactive with our events.

Read the rest of SUSTAINABILITY PANEL AT POSTOPOLIS – Send in questions!

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Post tags: Architecture Blogger Conference, BLDGblog, City of Sound, inhabitat, Photo by Dan Hill, postopolis, POSTOPOLIS EVENT IN NYC, storefront for art and architecture, Subtopia

Postopolis opened yesterday to a warm reception over at the Storefront For Art and Architecture Gallery on Kenmare street in SoHo. I was thrilled to see all four of our blogs’ names posted in giant lettering on the outside of the store, and the speakers were uniformly excellent and thought-provoking. Now that we’ve warmed up a bit, today promises to be even better with a fabulous line-up of architects and architectural pundits….

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Post tags: Architecture Blogger Conference, BLDGblog, City of Sound, inhabitat, Photo by Nichola Twilly, postopolis, POSTOPOLIS EVENT IN NYC, storefront for art and architecture, Subtopia

Calling all architecture fans in New York City!

If you’re a New Yorker who likes architecture, we’ve got an exceptional 5 day event starting TODAY at the Storefront For Art and Architecture Gallery. Inhabitat is getting together with BLDGBLOG, City of Sound, Subtopia and Storefront to put on what promises to be a groundbreaking series of events from today, Tuesday, May 29, to Saturday, June 2, 2007 . I will be attempting a pecha-kucha presentation at 6:30 pm, so be sure to come by if you want to see me embarrass myself! The other speakers should be good though – so be sure to come by.

Here’s todays line-up:

Tuesday 29 May

3:00 pm: Robert Krulwich
3:40 pm: Tobias Frere-Jones
5:00 pm: Stanley Greenberg
5:40 pm: Michael Kubo (Actar)
6:30 pm: Geoff Manaugh (BLDGBLOG), Dan Hill (City of Sound), Jill Fehrenbacher (Inhabitat) and Bryan Finoki (Subtopia) in a back-to-back pecha kucha presentation followed by opening reception

POSTOPOLIS!
Tuesday, May 29, to Saturday, June 2, 2007
Storefront For Art and Architecture

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Post tags: Architecture Blogger Conference, BLDGblog, City of Sound, inhabitat, postopolis, POSTOPOLIS EVENT IN NYC, storefront for art and architecture, Subtopia

Inhabitat is excited to anounce that we are getting together with a band of architecture blogs to put on what promises to be an amazing event at the Storefront for Art and Architecture from Tuesday, May 29, to Saturday, June 2, 2007 .
Read the rest of POSTOPOLIS IS COMING TO NYC!

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Post tags: Architecture Blogger Conference, BLDGblog, City of Sound, inhabitat, postopolis, POSTOPOLIS EVENT IN NYC, storefront for art and architecture, Subtopia

Anyone who reads Inhabitat with regularity knows we love shipping-container architecture, and are big fans of the creative NYC architecture firm Lot-ek. We’ve raved about their Recycled Airplane Library and prefab homes made from reclaimed shipping containers. If you are curious to see the faces behind this brilliant work, check out this fabulous presentation given by the iconoclastic Italian design duo at Postopolis event in NYC.

Read the rest of VIDEO: Shipping-Container Homes from Lot-ek

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Post tags: lot-ek, pre fab, pre-fab housing, Prefab, Prefab Housing, shipping container, shipping container architecture, shipping container structure