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

With projects like the Burj Khalifa under his belt, architect Adrian Smith has become synonymous with supertall skyscrapers – so it’s no surprise that his firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, is the creative force behind Imperial Tower, a 116-story tower that’s proposed for Mumbai. The only problem with building such a tall tower in Mumbai is dealing with the wind, but AS+GG have come up with a solution for that. The firm claims that the skinny tower is aerodynamically shaped to “confuse the wind.” Strange as that may sound, the tower will also feature several sky gardens that the firm says will further help to break up wind currents around the building.

Read the rest of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill’s Imperial Tower Could Be Mumbai’s Tallest and Greenest Skyscraper

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Post tags: "Adrian Smith", "AS+GG", Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, Bombay, gray water recycling, green skyscraper, green skyscrapers, high rises, Imperial Tower, India, Mumbai, rainwater harvesting, rainwater recycling, Sky-Gardens, skyscrapers, solar gain, supertall buildings

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Post tags: "leed", electric car, Green Building, green car, green car dealership, green transportation, Laura K. Cowan, rav4, Sustainable Building, test drive, Toyota, Toyota RAV4 EV

Read the rest of Toyo Ito’s Daylit Odate Dome Shrugs Off Snowstorms and Monsoons in Japan

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", Air quality, Akita Cypress wood, Akita Prefecture, Architecture, daylight, Daylighting, green materials, Japan, monsoon, Odate Dome, snow, teflon, toyo ito

Edison2 just unveiled the latest version of its Very Light Car (VLC) at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. An earlier version of the vehicle won the $5 million Automotive X Prize back in 2010, and the new Very Light Car 4.0 incorporates safety innovations developed for long-distance racing cars and uses batteries and motors similar to those in standard EV’s. The new vehicle weighs less than 1,100 pounds, and the makers expect that their final production version will weigh under 1,400 pounds while still meeting federal safety requirements.

Read the rest of Edison2′s New Very Light Car 4.0 Weighs Less than 1,100 Pounds

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Post tags: automotive x-prize, Battery powered vehicle, Edison2 VLC, Edison2 X Prize, electric powered VLC, electric vehicles, energy efficient cars, green car design, green transportation, low-mass vehicles, plug-in car design, recyclable car parts, Very Light Vehicle

Read the rest of Roskilde Plywood Dome is a Large Geodesic Structure Inspired by a C240 Molecule

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Post tags: Benny Jepsen, biomimicry, Buckminster Fuller, buckminster fuller dome, CNC machines, digital fabrication, geodesic domes, Kristoffer Tejlgaard, music festivals Denmark, plywood, plywood architecture, plywood dome Roskilde, reduced energy consumption, Roskilde geodesic dome, Roskilde music festival, structural geodesics, Ultragrøn

Read the rest of BMW Unveils Plug-In Hybrid Active Tourer Concept at the 2013 New York Auto Show

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Post tags: 2013 New York Auto Show, BMW, BMW 3 Series, BMW 328d, BMW Concept Active Tourer, BMW diesel, bmw hybrid, electric car, green car, green transportation, lithium ion battery, new york auto show, ny auto show, plug-in hybrid

A new report by the National Research Council has some good news for the future of US transportation. By taking advantage of biofuels, new vehicle technology, and policy reform, America has the potential to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions up to 80% by 2050. The numbers apply to cars and small trucks, both of which are expected to become more efficient in both fuel economy and design in the coming years.

Read the rest of Report Says US Petroleum Consumption and Greenhouse Gases From Cars Could Plummet by 2050

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Post tags: alternative vehicles, biofuel, CO2, cost effective, douglas m. chapin, emissions, fossil fuel, greenhouse gas, hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell, infrastructure, lignocellulosic biofuel, mpr associates, national research council, natural gas, petroleum, Policy

Volkswagen just took the wraps off its first ever production electric vehicle – the e-up! Unveiled today at the Annual Press and Investors Conference in Wolfsburg, the four-seater e-up! is powered by an 81 horsepower electric motor and an 18.7 kWh lithium-ion battery, and it has a 93 mile driving range, which makes it ideal for commuters.

Read the rest of Volkswagen Unveils its First Electric Vehicle – the e-up!

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Post tags: 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, electric motor, electric vehicle, green car, green transportation, lithium ion battery, volkswagen, volkswagen e-up!, Volkswagen electric vehicle

Read the rest of Wildspitzbahn Ski Lodge Harmonizes with Austria’s Alpine Landscape

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Post tags: alps, Austria, Baumschlager Hutter partners, eco design, green design, ski lodge, sustainable design, WIldspitzbahn

Read the rest of Smart Collaborates with Designer Jeremy Scott to Fashionize the Electric Car

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Post tags: "design collaboration", car manufacturer, electric car, electric motor, fashion collaboration, fashion designer, Fuel Efficient, inhabitat, Jeremy Scott, Katy Perry and Rihanna, Lady Gaga, lithium ion battery, Los Angeles, madonna, new york city, new york fashion week, New York., ny fashion week, NYFW, smart car, Smart forjeremy, Smart ForTwo, sustainable design, sustainable driving, zero-emissions

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Post tags: abu dhabi, Around the world in 80 days, Brusa, closed cabin electric bike, Design, Designwerk, eco design, electric bike, green transportation, luxury electric bike, Masdar, sustainable design, swiss, Swiss electric bike, Tobias Wülser, World Future Energy Summit 2013, world's most efficient luxury vehicle, Zerotracer

Read the rest of NAIAS 2013: We Check Out Nissan’s New Quick-Charging 2013 Leaf EV

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Post tags: 2013 Detroit Auto Show, 2013 Leaf, 2013 NAIAS, detroit auto show, electric car, electric vehicle, green cars, green transportation, Laura K. Cowan, leaf, Leaf EV, NAIAS, NISSAN, north american international auto show

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Post tags: chevrolet LS9 engine, Corvette ZR1, Detroit Auto Show 2013, eco design, electric car, fisker karma, green design, sustainable design, V8 engine, VL Automotive, VL Automotive Destino

The Nissan Leaf electric vehicle has only been on the market since 2010, but Nissan is giving it some significant upgrades for the 2013 model. Nissan has announced that the 2013 Nissan Leaf will be more efficient, come with more features and charge in half the time compared to earlier models. The Leaf is also now being assembled in the United States at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn. assembly plant, with battery production taking place right next door in the country’s largest lithium-ion automotive battery plant.

Read the rest of 2013 Nissan Leaf is Now More Efficient and Charges in Half the Time

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Post tags: 2013 Detroit Auto Show, DC fast charger, electric vehicle, green car, green transportation, lithium ion battery, NISSAN, Nissan electric vehicle, Nissan Leaf

Fiat has announced the official performance specs for the 2013 Fiat 500e electric vehicle. The 2013 500e beats out other electric vehicles like the Honda Fit EV and Nissan Leaf with an EPA rating of 108 MPGe on the highway and a total driving range of 87 miles between charges. The 2013 Fiat 500e also has a 116-MPGe combined and 122 MPGe city-cycle rating.

Read the rest of 2013 Fiat 500e Tops Class With 108 MPGe Highway Rating and 87 Mile Range

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Post tags: automotive, electric vehicle, FIAT, Fiat 500, Fiat 500e, Fiat electric vehicle, green transportation, lithium ion battery

We’ve shared lots of great ways to compost, recycle or reuse your old Christmas tree – but blasting it off into space never crossed our mind. Two DIY’ers have decided to “reuse” their Christmas tree by turning it into a rocket and launching it skyward. The already shedding tree was sent 120 feet into the air, revealing its unexpected aerodynamic properties.

Read the rest of XMS MissileToe: Recycled Christmas Tree Rocket Shoots for the Stars

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Post tags: christmas tree recycling, Christmas tree reuse, Christmas Tree Rocketry, holiday recycling, Rocket Christmas Tree, rocket-powered Christmas tree, XMS MissileToe

Eco-conscious green transportation enthusiasts are in for a treat, as the world’s first 100% recycled bicycle comes onto the market.  Appropriately called ReCycle, the cool rides are made from used aluminum, and come in a variety of colors and styles, inspired by the global village in which we live. The brainchild of designer Bryce Edmonds, the ReCycle bike is the greenest ride on the road.


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Post tags: 100% Recycled Bicycle, Bryce Edmonds, eco design, green design, green transportation, mBula bike, Moshi Moshi bike, Mudmaste, ReCycle Bike, sustainable design

Fiat just pulled the wraps off its new electric car, the 2013 Fiat 500e at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show! The 2013 Fiat 500e is largely based on the standard Fiat 500, but its gas engine has been swapped out for an electric motor and lithium-ion battery pack. Fiat is quick to point out that even with the Fiat 500e’s focus on efficiency and zero-emission transportation, it still places an emphasis on sporty driving.

Read the rest of 2013 Fiat 500e Electric Car Unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show!

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Post tags: 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show, automotive, electric car, electric motor, FIAT, Fiat 500, Fiat 500e, Fiat electric car, green car, green transportiation, LA Auto Show, lithium ion battery, Los Angeles Auto Show

The electric Chevy Volt may be a pretty cool green ride – but did you know it also makes a great Christmas Tree? Engadget reports that Vauxhaull, the British subsidiary of General Motors, is celebrating the holidays this year with a glowing Christmas tree made from Chevy Volt parts! The electric tree was designed by artist Gary Card, and it will light up the Kings Cross Filling Station until the new year.

Read the rest of Gary Card’s Electric Christmas Tree is Made from Recycled Chevy Volt Parts!

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Post tags: eco design, electric car christmas tree, Gary Card, green design, Kings Cross FIlling Station, sustainable design, upcycled christmas tree, Vauxhall, vauxhall ampera