Read the rest of Off-Grid Nomad Shelters Provide Relief from the Sun for Tourists in Italy

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", beach architecture, coastal architecture, eco design, Filippo Taidelli Architetto, green architecture, Green Building, green design, italy, nomad shelter, nomad structure, off grid nomad structure, off grid structure, pop-up shelter, sardinia, shelter, solar powered shelter, solar powered structure, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, temporary architecture, temporary pavilion, temporary shelter, Zero energy

Read the rest of Finnish Artist Kaarina Kaikkonen Creates Dreamlike Landscapes From Second Hand Clothes

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Post tags: Art, art installation, italy, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Max Mara, Recycled Materials, second-hand clothes, shirts, shirts landscape

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Post tags: BE.ST, Daylighting, eco design, glass, green design, italy, marble, MenoMenoPiu Architects, microclimate, Milan, rooftop garden, sky garden, sustainable design, world expo 2015

5.9 isn’t just any number; it’s the magnitude of the devastating earthquake that struck the Italian region of Emilia May 29, 2012. Italian company Budri was one of the companies affected by the quake, and they reacted to the event by creating a series of tables and other decor from their damaged archive of marbles and stones (including onyx, lapis lazuli, amethyst and mother of pearl). The series, aptly dubbed Earthquake 5.9, was recently presented at the 2013 Salone del Mobile.

Read the rest of Budri and Patricia Urquiola’s Earthquake 5.9 Collection Reuses Materials Damaged in the 2012 Italian Quake

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Post tags: 2013, budri, coverings, Design, earthquake, fragments, Furniture Fair, italy, marble, marblelace, Milan, natfuses macrosteria, onyx, origami, patricia urquiola, Salone del mobile, secret room, slabs, stones, Tables, vases

Read the rest of La Forgiatura: Industrial Park Transformed Into Verdant Urban Oasis in Milan

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", Architecture, energy efficient, Giuseppe Tortato, glass, green office, green renovation, italy, La Forgiatura, Milan

Zona Tortona showcases unique, outside-the-box thinking every year during Milan Design Week – and few designers exemplify this better than Italy’s IDI Studio. A keen user of FSC certified wood, this charming design studio showed off several cool interiors at Milan Design Week earlier this month, but we were particularly enamored with the firm’s ROPE ME series, which is made from 100-percent recycled materials.

Read the rest of ROPE ME Interiors Made From 100% Recycled Materials Unveiled During Milan Design Week

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Post tags: eco design, fsc certified wood, green design, Green Design Events, green interiors, IDI Studio, italy, marine rope, Milan Design Week, recyclable materials, Recycled Materials, ROPE ME, sustainable design, zona tortona

The city of Milan, Italy is synonymous with high fashion and modern design. Adorning the walls of the this year’s Milan Furniture Fair are Juan Soriano Blanco’s New Dimension Tiles. These modular all-natural cork units that can hold anything from a teacup to a potted plant. Elastic behind each button secures objects snugly to the wall, making home organization attractive. Each tile can be fastened to the wall in a variety of compositions, letting the designer create art installations, vertical gardens, or photo collages. A warm, neutral color, the cork is a novel way to add a little touch of nature a living space.

+ Juan Soriano Blanco

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Post tags: cork, italy, juan soriano blanco, Milan, Milan Furniture Fair, new dimension tiles

When tires reach the end of the road, they often wind polluting the environment in landfills. In Europe alone, 3 million tons of tires are produced each year – and 60-70% of them are dumpstered. To take advantage of this untapped resource the EU has created the TyGRe Project, which is researching ways that old tires can be turned into new sources of synthetic fuel and precursors to electronic components.

Read the rest of Europe’s TyGRe Project Turns Old Tires Into Energy and Valuable Materials

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Post tags: Ceramics, electronics, enea, EU, fuel, italy, portici, Recycle, silicon carbide, syngas, tire, trisaia, tygre project

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Post tags: architectural studio, CNC milling, Corten steel, Daylighting, eco design, geothermal, green design, italy, LED lighting, local craftsmen, passive solar design, plastic bottle insulation, Recycled Materials, solar, sustainable design, Traverso-Vighy Architecture, TVZEB, University of Padua

In the 16th century, Italy produced Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, but now many of the world’s art museums are filled with trash. Not any old trash, mind you. Pascale Marthine Tayou’s latest installation at MACRO – the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome – is made of nothing but plastic bags and stands nearly 10 meters tall!

Read the rest of Enormous Beehive Made of Recycled Plastic Bags Dangles at Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art

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Post tags: Art, cameroon, capitalism, contemporary art, eco design, eco-art, globalization, green design, industrial revolution, italy, MACRO, Michelangelo, Pascale Marthine Tayou, plastic bags, plastic pollution, Pollution, Recycled Materials, rome, secret garden, Sistine Chapel, social critique, sustainable design

Read the rest of Italcementi’s Concrete Pollution-Busting Research Lab Achieves LEED Platinum in Italy

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Post tags: bergamo, cement manufacturer, concrete, concrete facade, eco design, eco lab, eco research lab, green architecture, Green Building, green design, high performance facade, italcementi, italcementi i.lab, italy, LEED platinum, pollution absorbing facade, pollution busting facade, research lab, richard meier, Richard Meier & Partners, richard meier and partners, Solar Power, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

Read the rest of Stacked: Ai WeiWei Unveils Tower of 760 Chinese Bicycles in San Giminano, Italy

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Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Art, bicycles, bikes installation, china, Installation, italy, recycled bikes, stacked, walk-through

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Post tags: copper, Daylighting, Dolomite Mountains, Dolomitenblick, eco design, green design, italy, larch, luxurious mountain getaway, mountain homes, planning regulations, PLASMA Studio, pre-oxidized copper, solar gain, sustainable design, vernacular

Read the rest of Costa Concordia Architecture Competition Rethinks Disaster to Create a New Seaside Park in Italy

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", architecture competition, artificial reef, costa concordia, costa concordia disaster, Design Competition, eco design, green architecture, green design, green design competition, italy, shipwreck, sustainable design, water issues

Read the rest of Italy’s Vertikale Climbing Gym is Clad in an Intelligent Facade That Eliminates the Need for Cooling

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Post tags: brixen, climbing, climbing gym, Daylighting, dolomites, eco design, energy efficient design, green architecture, Green Building, high performance facade, intelligent facade, italy, martin mutschlechner, stadlabor, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, vertikale, wolfgang meraner architekt

The Fibonacci sequence occurs frequently in nature – from the structure of a nautilus shell to the scales of a pine cone or center of a sunflower. Now Italian design studio UTOPIA has created a bamboo Fibonacci Cabinet that allows you to bring the genius of the universe into your home! Inspired by a traditional Chinese medicine cabinet, the system consists of seven separate units that combine to form the Golden Ratio (and a beautiful piece of furniture).

Read the rest of UTOPIA’s Bamboo Fibonacci Cabinet Brings the Golden Ratio Into Your Home

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Post tags: bamboo, cabinet, fibonacci cabinet, fibonacci sequence, golden ratio, italy, Milan, utopia

The Italians like to keep the design world on the edge of their seats—literally. The Sgabellissimo from Modoloco Design is a two-legged stool that becomes a small ladder when turned upside down. Teetering on the edge of dangerous, sitters need to engage some serious core muscles to remain upright. Using the Sgabellissimo as a ladder requires the balance of an acrobat, and one wonders if the piece’s designer was ever a fan of the circus.

Read the rest of The Sgabellissimo is a Two-Legged Stool and Ladder Rolled Into One Precarious Piece of Furniture

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Post tags: fliz concept bike, italy, ladder, Milan, modoloco design, sgabellissimo, stool

For Cartasia, a biennial cardboard and paper art competition held in the medieval walled city of Lucca, Italy, artist Mykl Wells constructed an incredible upside down head using recycled cardboard. Wells’ piece, dubbed Snowdrop, was developed to reflect the Cartasia theme of “crisis and rebirth”. Wells chose to base his sculpture on the snowdrop (or galanthus nivalis), a perennial bulb which cannot bloom until it has experienced the stress of the winter. The sculpture was also anthropomorphized by representing the bulb as an inverted head; it’s point of view was literally a world turned upside-down. Visit the artist’s site to learn the story behind the sculpture, in a detailed blog entry he calls How I spent my summer vacation or How I nearly killed myself making a giant upside-down cardboard head in the name of art.

+ Mykl Wells

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Post tags: artist Mykyl Wells, cardboard and paper art competition, cardboard art, Cartasia, Chimera, italy, Lucca, mykl wells, nature-inspired art, recycle art

We got our first glimpse of the Nautinox Greenline Collection of planter box furniture back in April at the Milan Furniture Fair, and the Italian furniture manufacturer recently showcased a new bookshelf with a trellis structure that allows creeping vines to weave their way behind your reading material. We love how the rigid mechanical steel frame is softened by the plywood shelves and growing plant life – its’ a perfect juxtaposition!

Read the rest of Nautinox’ Trellised Greenline Bookshelf Encourages Indoor Gardening

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Post tags: "green furniture", eco bookcase, Gardening, green bookshelf, green design, green furniture, greenbook, greenline, indoor gardening, italy, London Design Fest, Nautinox, plantable bookshelf, planter bookshelf, sustainable bookshelf, sustainable design

Read the rest of Networking Nature: Studiomobile’s Living Ecosystem Produces Fresh Water for a Future World of Rising Oceans

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Post tags: Climate Change, ecosystem, fresh water, italy, Networking Nature, sea level rise, solar still, Studiomobile, Venice Architecture Biennale 2012