The portable classroom is designed to meet the 20 imperatives of the Living Building Challenge, an international sustainable building certification program known to be more rigorous than LEED and BREEAM,
Seattle's Bertschi Elementary School was just certified as the world's fourth Living Building. The elementary school, situated in the heart of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, is a 3,380-square-foot
Designed by Pittsburgh-based The Design Alliance Architects (TDA Architects), this new 24,350 square foot building is the Center for Sustainable Landscapes and will provide educational space to expand and
A new film project is underway that will explore the power of thinking locally and how design can impact the world. Aptly named LOCAL: Make the Switch, the project will consist of 25 short films and
Designed for Method Homes by New York-based Bogue Trondowski Architects, the Paradigm series is planned in its entirety to be as low-impact as possible. Clad in FSC-certified western red cedar (but
Next month Method Homes will launch its brand new Paradigm series with the debut of a 722 square-foot modular home on the floor of the USGBC Greenbuild Conference and Expo in San Francisco. The prefab
Living Building Challenge founder Jason McLennan What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place? It seems a far cry from our current situation, right? Lofty thought
Today, the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) announced two finalists in their 2012 competition -Future of Fish by Cheryl Dahle andThe Living Building Challenge led by Jason McLennan. Future of Fish seeks
Portland, Oregon is often recognized as one of the greenest cities in America. The city has plans for peak oil and climate action and policies to address recycling and sustainable urban development, so
Painters Hall is a 100 percent solar-powered building nestled in the beautiful surroundings of quiet Pringle Creek community, in Salem, Oregon. The 80-year-old Painters Hall recently earned
Quite impressively, the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory is expected to meet or exceed the three toughest green building and landscape standards: the Living Building Challenge,
This year's semifinalists range from familiar topics like Earth Hour and the Living Building Challenge, to a project that produces fuel and fertilizer from agricultural waste in Africa. A couple of teams
The design of Perkins+Will's VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre was inspired by the organic forms and natural systems of a native orchid. The 19,000-square-foot building is organized into undulating
Planning for the hands-on, living classroom began back in 2009, with a design charrette led by CEI that involved over 40 participants and Okanagan College to develop a working model for the building. The
The Cascadia Center will be a mixed-use commercial and office building and will eventually serve as the future headquarters of the Bullitt Foundation. Located at the crossroads between Seattle's Central
Designed by Boston-based Flansburgh Architects, the Energy Lab provides both indoor and outdoor classrooms to educate students on sustainability, renewable energy, the environment and more. It includes
The Bertschi Science Wing is a 1425 square foot addition to the existing campus and will serve as a learning tool for the students. Collected rainwater will flow through a tunnel in the classroom so the
Image ©Ralph Bicknese /Hellmuth + Bicknese Since the start of the Living Building Challenge in 2006, over 70 projects have registered for Living Building Certification. To achieve this rating, a
We've been closely following the Omega Center for Sustainable Living in upstate New York, and we're thrilled to announce that this week the state-of-the-art environmental education center and natural
The design for the visitor center was inspired by the leaves of an orchid -- its wings consists of 'petals' that shoot off from the 'stem', which serve as the central atrium and lobby. The stem has been
Photo credit ©Flansburgh Architects The living laboratory is powered by renewable energy, with solar panels on the roof and a couple small-scale wind turbines on the hill behind the school. The Energy
The Oregon Sustainability Center is getting ready to build the largest Living Building Challenge-certified office tower in the world. The Portland-based skyscraper is being developed using the LBC’s
This week the International Living Building Institute released its new green building standard to the public at Greenbuild 2009. Version 2.0 expands on its already impressive focus to now cover social
On track to become the first green building to achieve both LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge Certification, the Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OSCL) embodies the synthesis of wastewater
