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Post tags: ArchiCentre, house, landscape preservation, Malaysia, Malaysia’s Green Building Index, material reuse, natural ventilation, Petaling Jaya, photovoltaic, platinum, rainwater collection, Recycle, S11 House, Selangor, Solar Power, Sustainable, tropical

Water filtration company Soma recently unveiled the world’s first entirely compostable water filter. Soma replaced conventional plastic casing filters with a food-based PLA composite that incorporates Malaysian coconut shells and vegan silk. The filter removes chlorine, heavy metals and other contaminants from tap water, producing clean water with a crisp taste. The sleek hour glass carafe combines great design with sustainability, and it looks better than a Brita filter to boot.

Read the rest of Soma Unveils World’s First Completely Compostable Water Filter

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Post tags: Bottled Water, Brita, clean water, coconut shell filter, compostable water filter, David Beeman, Mike Del Ponte, purified water, San Francisco, soma, Soma filter, tap water, vegan materials, water carafe, water filter

Iskandar, an area that covers 2,217 square kilometers at the southern tip of Malaysia, is the center of its country’s sustainable development strategy as an ultra-green and socially integrated city of the future. This megalopolis, which is about 3 times the size of Singapore, is planned to run on green energy – eliminating a lot of the pollution problems facing modern Asian cities – and is supposed to be a socially inclusive haven for people to live, work and play. The current population of Iskander is 1.3 million people and it’s projected to grow to 3 million by 2025.

Read the rest of Iskandar Malaysia to be a Model Sustainable and Socially Equitable City of the Future

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Post tags: asia's first legoland, community building, eco-city, green cities in developing countries, green city, green spaces, green urban development, iskandar malaysia, malaysia global science and innovative advisory council, Smart Cities, smart urban growth, social cohesion

After 25 years of speculation over the future of the Battersea Power Station a Malaysian consortium has bought the protected 39-acre site for 400 million pounds ($635 Million). The consortium plans to begin renovating the London Landmark in 2013, preserving the power station’s iconic architecture while building a multi-use development over the next 15 years. The consortium is a group of investors including developers SP Setia, Sime Darby, and the Employees Provident Fund pension fund, and the development will include apartments, offices, a shopping center, a hotel, an art space and 3,400 new homes.

Read the rest of The Battle Begins for Developer of London’s Landmark Battersea Power Station

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Post tags: Battersea Power Station, development, inhabitat-news, London, Malaysia, mixed-use development, Sime Darby, SP Setia

Read the rest of Shelter@Rainforest: Self-Sufficient Net Zero Longhouse Supports Sustainable Reforestation in Malaysia

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", eco design, forestry company, green architecture, Green Building, green design, green home, Logging, logging company, Malaysia, marra + yeh, marra yeh architects, net zero, net zero home, rainwater collection, self-sufficient, shelter @ rainforest, shelter at rainforest, Solar Power, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, sustainable forestry, sustainable reforestation, Zero energy

Landsat and Google Earth Engine may have created the closest thing we have ever seen to a virtual time machine. Forty years of satellite images of the Earth’s surface have been organized, compiled, and edited to make amazing time-lapse videos. Now, for the first time, we’re able to see the result of decades of human activity on the world’s ecosystems and the startling rates of environmental destruction, particularly in the Amazon Rainforest.

Read the rest of Google and Landsat Create Time-Lapse Videos Showing 40 Years of Environmental Destruction in the Amazon

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Post tags: Amazon, aral sea, data, deforestation, earth, google earth engine, landsat, las vegas, mapping, nasa, rainforest, remote sensing, Satellite, time-lapse, us geological survey, Video

There’s been a great deal of buzz lately about palm oil — the edible oil largely sourced in Indonesia and Malaysia from the fruit of the oil palm, which can also be used to make biofuels. The Environmental Protection Agency recently refused to designate it as a biofuel, as it does not meet the agency’s greenhouse gas requirements laid out in the 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard. Indeed, the release of carbon dioxide from the process of oil palm farming and oil extraction has placed Indonesia as the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. But the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and agencies representing Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil interests are lobbying the EPA to reverse its decision on palm oil derived biofuels. Meanwhile the Washington Post cited claims from some opponents that the palm oil biofuel ruling could be the “EPA’s most important climate-change decision of the year.”

Read the rest of EPA to Rule on Whether Greenhouse-Gas-Emitting Palm Oils Can be Used as Biofuel

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Post tags: biofuel production, biofuels environment, canopy loss, carbon emissions, deforestation, environmental protection agency, epa, green energy, indonesia deforestation, indonesian borneo, malaysia deforestation, methane emissions, national academy of sciences, palm oil, peatlands loss, renewable energy

Last year Ed Chew won our Bright Ideas Lighting Design Competition with a brilliant geometric Tetrapak lamp made of hundreds of strips of recycled packaging linked together with absolutely no adhesives. We liked the LED lamp so much that we ordered a couple. Now he has designed CORE which is comprised of both the original Tetrapak lamp and an additional layer of recycled coconut spheres!

Read the rest of Ed Chew’s CORE is a Quirky Lamp Made From Recycled Coconut and Tetrapaks

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Post tags: bright ideas lighting design, Coconut, Core, eco design, Ed Chew, green design, green interiors, green lighting, LED, Malaysia, Phillips, Recycled Materials, sustainable design, Tetrapak Lamp

Read the rest of Hong Yi Paints an Incredible Portrait Using Coffee Stains

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Post tags: Coffee Art, Coffee Painting, Coffee Stains, Hong Yi, I See Red, Jay Chou, Malaysian Art, Painting with Coffee, Unusual art materials

Read the rest of Angkasa Raya: Landmark Tower Set to Hover Amidst Sky Gardens in Kuala Lumpur

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", angkasa raya, buro ole scheeren, Daylighting, eco design, eco skyscraper, eco tower, green architecture, Green Building, green design, Kuala Lumpur, landmark tower, mixed-use development, natural ventilation, ole scheeren, Sky-Gardens, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

Tourism Malaysia in Paris has decided to sharpen their eco edge by appointing Bizarreka Design to transform their entire ground floor office into a mini-escape. The new interior environment captivates patrons’ attention by asserting Malaysia as the foremost eco-tourism destination in the world. Two concepts were developed and deployed by Bizarreka Design: nature and heritage. Movable and fixed furniture join together with reused wooden structure and elements, earth-toned tiles, arboreal walls, and layered stone underneath efficient in-wall shelving to reflect the natural splendor of the Malaysian rainforests. Other features such as tan and ecru stones on the wall, and earth tone sofas and rugs all allude to the serene landscapes of the Malaysian beaches and islands.

+ Bizarreka Design

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

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Post tags: "green furniture", Bizarreka Design, eco furniture, eco interiors, eco-tourism, green design, green interiors, interior design, Tourism Malaysia in Paris

This supermassive hangar once housed gigantic airships, and now it has been given a second life as an indoor tropical resort that holds the world’s largest indoor pool and water park. Located in the countryside between Dresden and Berlin, the building was modified to bring in lots of sunlight and the huge doors were welded shut to keep in the heat — even during the snowy German winter. Inside, a small oceanside village gives visitors a tropical escape.

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Post tags: Airship hangar transformed into water park, airship hangar water park, german water park, greman water park, indoor tropical forest, massive retrofit, Tropical Island Resort, world largest building, worlds largest water park, worlds larget indoor pool

Read the rest of Stacked Shipping Containers Create Smart Green Homes in Malaysia

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", anand bungalows, Cargotecture, container home, eco design, green architecture, Green Building, green design, Malaysia, recycled containers, shipping container, Sustainable Building, upcycled container house

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Post tags: adaptive reuse, eco design, green design, oil rig, reclaimed oil rig, scuba diving resort, seaventures dive resort, sustainanble design

Malaysian architect Tay Yee Wei recently unveiled a towering vertical city populated with hexagonal housing units that offer a solution to urban population growth problems in Asian cities. The tower itself serves as a scaffolding — as the population of urban areas fluctuates, modular units can be “plugged in” to the structure to accommodate an expanding population.

Read the rest of Futuristic Vertical City Holds Plug-In Hexagonal Housing Units

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", eco design, green architecture, Malaysia, Plug-in Dwelling Development, Pre-fab architecture, Tay Yee Wei

As cities stretch to accommodate the world’s skyrocketing population, loyal Inhabitat followers are surely familiar with skyscrapers and other vertical solutions to cope with urban densification. Still, an urban ecology modeled after the rainforest, complete with towering mushroom high-rises, is sure to raise some eyebrows. Designed for the heart of Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, TROPICOOL @ KL envisions a series of self-sustaining mushroom skyscrapers that incorporate natural energy sources, rainwater harvesting, and bio-mass support for off-the-grid living in a truly green environment.

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Green Building, Green Cities, mushroom city, Sustainable Developments, Sustainable Utopia, Tropicool@KL, Urban Cities, Vertical Parks

Attention eco shoppers!

We hear the complaint frequently that eco fashion is ‘too expensive’ – and there is definitely some merit to that claim. (Of course there is a very good reason that organic, non-sweatshop produced garments cost more than your average Malaysian-made H&M fashion, but still it can’t be denied that sustainable style often comes with a hefty price tag.) That’s why we are super excited about Greenloop massive summer sale which kicked off this weekend. ALL items, from Edun mens sweatshirts (shown above), to sultry Ecoskin frocks (above) are significantly marked down: ranging from 20-70% off.

Read the rest of Summer eco-fashion sale at Greenloop: July 11-20

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Post tags: eco-fashion, greenloop, organic fashion, summer sale, sustainable style, the Green Loop

Malaysia is no stranger to iconic buildings. Two of the tallest buildings in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers, are located in Kuala Lumpur, the country’s capital. So it comes as no surprise to us that a stunning new residential development is planned for the Putrajaya waterfront known as Precinct 4, just 30km south of Kuala Lumpur. The design, however, is a refreshing and original with unique, marine-inspired structures – which also draw from traditional Islamic designs – arranged in a permeable, radiating block of bioclimatic architecture.


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Post tags: "sustainable development", boat like structures, Eco Architecture, ecotecture, green architecture, Green Building, green design, green islamic architecture, green islamic towers, Malaysia, marine architecture, marine inspired architecture, putraya waterfront development, studio nicoletti architects, sustainable towers

In the 1940′s, Portland Oregon’s jazz scene was thriving with activity and nightlife, welcoming such greats as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker to its legendary Dude Ranch club on North Williams Avenue. Now recognized as the Jumptown building, the abandoned relic has been given a second chance at revitalizing the history and culture of the neighborhood that was sidelined long ago, ironically, for urban renewal. Developers have hired Malaysian architect Kenneth Yeang, known for his eco-friendly skyscrapers, and local SERA Architects to restore the original building and design a 10-story mixed use building on the adjacent property.

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Post tags: Jumptown, Kenneth Yeang, SERA Architects

Originally from Malaysia, Adele has been living out of a suitcase for most of her life. She previously resided in Montreal, Canada where she attended art school and graduated with her MFA in Painting and Drawing. When she isn’t aspiring to be Brenda Starr as a print journalist for the East Malaysian press, she is doodling on walls and calling it installation art. Both her artwork and writing have circulated internationally. Her interests, which include sustainable design and socially-communicative architecture, are derivative of her makeshift lifestyle where refuge is found in a permanent state of transience. She currently lives in London, England where she is pursuing her MA in Communications, Media and Cultural Studies on an Erasmus Mundus scholarship.

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