sustainable design

Transparent NEST Transforms from Pop Up Mattress to One Person Raft

Transparent NEST Transforms from Pop Up Mattress to One Person Raft

A system of pulleys and hooks help to control the surface tensions of the glassy convertible. Each of the red ropes is connected and strung through seventeen spring hooks that span the surfaces of the

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6 Places You Can Find Trash to Transform into Treasure

6 Places You Can Find Trash to Transform into Treasure

Photo via Shutterstock 1. Thrift Stores Go to any town or city and you are bound to find a thrift store. Whether its run by Salvation Army, Goodwill, SPCA or owned by a private person, thrift stores

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Striking Energy-Efficient Balmain House Overlooks Sydney Harbor in Australia

Striking Energy-Efficient Balmain House Overlooks Sydney Harbor in Australia

Fox Johnston had a tiny lot to work with, though it wouldn't appear that way thanks to a deliberate effort to create the illusion of space. In part this is achieved by creating constant communication

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ECO-Cycle Aquaponics Kit Turns Any 20-Gallon Aquarium Into an Indoor Garden

ECO-Cycle Aquaponics Kit Turns Any 20-Gallon Aquarium Into an Indoor Garden

The ECO-Cycle ™ Aquaponics Kit is an innovative retrofit system that turns an aquarium into a productive garden. Sized for a standard 20-gallon aquarium and suitable for smaller tropical aquarium fish

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Aeroponic Vertical Farm: High-Yield Terraced Rice Paddies for the Philippines

Aeroponic Vertical Farm: High-Yield Terraced Rice Paddies for the Philippines

The Aeroponic Vertical Farm is made up of an array of bamboo parallelograms that are formed to create stepped terraces of rice fields. Located in cities, these compact farms would not only help grow rice

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Man Transforms Old TV Screen into 2000 Degree Fahrenheit Solar Death Ray That Can Melt Pennies

Man Transforms Old TV Screen into 2000 Degree Fahrenheit Solar Death Ray That Can Melt Pennies

DIY expert Grant Thompson has a use for those heavy old rear-projection televisions that have been collecting dust in your basement—he transforms them into solar-powered death rays! Thompson takes

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Rooftop Running Track Slashes ChiCheng Primary School’s Footprint in China

Rooftop Running Track Slashes ChiCheng Primary School’s Footprint in China

What a clever idea for LYCS to put the track field on the roof, not only because it saves space and reduces the project's overall footprint, but it also provides children an inspired environment in which

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Coastal Solar-Powered Villa F Prefab Soaks Up the Sun in Greece

Coastal Solar-Powered Villa F Prefab Soaks Up the Sun in Greece

The seaside site is framed by an existing natural stone wall that was incorporated into the design. The entryway ducks just under the house through a cutout in the wall and large skylights in the roof

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Echo Architecture Unveils Greenscaper Hotel Wrapped With Living Foliage

Echo Architecture Unveils Greenscaper Hotel Wrapped With Living Foliage

Echo Design and Architecture's Greenscraper focuses on creating a diverse and sustainable new hybrid environment. The building combines public and private areas, each with a strong identity enriched by

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Café Botanical Creates a Direct Connection with Iceland’s Akureyri Gardens

Café Botanical Creates a Direct Connection with Iceland’s Akureyri Gardens

Akureyri's city council commissioned Kollgata Arkitektur to create a café for the gardens to celebrate the city's 150th anniversary as well as the garden's 100th anniversary. The Botanical Gardens were

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HOK Breaks Ground on Eco-Friendly Master Plan for Istanbul’s New International Financial Center

HOK Breaks Ground on Eco-Friendly Master Plan for Istanbul’s New International Financial Center

With With 13.5 million residents, Istanbul is the second-largest city in the world, behind only Shanghai. The 170-acre International Financial Center will be on the city’s Asian side, and it

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Amsterdam’s Lush Garden-Wrapped SportPlaza Mercator is Topped with a Green Roof

Amsterdam’s Lush Garden-Wrapped SportPlaza Mercator is Topped with a Green Roof

Located at the start of a historic 19th century city populated by people from 129 different countries, the municipality commissioned the SportPlaza Mercator in order to boost the community. VenhoevenCS

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VolcanElectric Mask: Skyscraper Protects Cities from Eruptions and Generates Electricity from Lava

VolcanElectric Mask: Skyscraper Protects Cities from Eruptions and Generates Electricity from Lava

VolcanElectric Mask is a design that could harness the untapped power of volcanoes to generate electricity and minimize damage and destruction from eruptions. Designed by Jing Hao, Zhanou Zhang, Xingyue

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Eco Innovators’ Design Play Cards are a Fun Way to Learn About Sustainable Design

Eco Innovators’ Design Play Cards are a Fun Way to Learn About Sustainable Design

Melbourne-based creative agency Eco Innovators is up to green mischief again with their new Design Play Cards - a deck of 50 quirky playing cards designed to challenge, inspire and explore sustainable

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British Bedmap2 Study Reveals Antarctica Beneath the Ice

British Bedmap2 Study Reveals Antarctica Beneath the Ice

If you’ve ever wondered what lurks beneath the expansive glaciers covering Antarctica, wonder no more. The British Antarctic Survey has created a topographic rendering of the continent, outlining every

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Claesson Koivisto Rune Debuts Gorgeous Daylit Tind Prefab Houses in Scandinavia

Claesson Koivisto Rune Debuts Gorgeous Daylit Tind Prefab Houses in Scandinavia

Working with Swedish manufacturers Fiskarhedenvillan, Claesson Koivisto Rune designed three bold new homes. There is a single story home clad in bold black panels, a double story version capped with a

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INTERVIEW: We Talk to Bicycle Library Founder Karta Healy

INTERVIEW: We Talk to Bicycle Library Founder Karta Healy

Last week, we showcased the Bicycle Library, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, and it was so unusual that we had to get in touch with its founder and pick his brain. We needed to know what

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pH Conditioner: Floating Jellyfish Skyscrapers Combat Air Pollution While Producing Fresh Water

pH Conditioner: Floating Jellyfish Skyscrapers Combat Air Pollution While Producing Fresh Water

Hao Tian, Huang Haiyang, and Shi Jianwei's PH Conditioner Skyscrapers received an honorable mention in the2013 eVolo Skyscraper competition. The fantastical proposal soaks up damaging acidic pollutants

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Vahge Transforms Magazines into Gorgeous Victorian-Inspired Collages

Vahge Transforms Magazines into Gorgeous Victorian-Inspired Collages

The self-taught artist began assembling cut up elements into whimsical collages at a young age. Using a heavy hand on the feminine elements of corsetry, gowns, ornate bows, and complicated hairstyles,

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Sinterhab’s 3D-Printed Space Station on the Moon Would Be Made from Lunar Soil

Sinterhab’s 3D-Printed Space Station on the Moon Would Be Made from Lunar Soil

The key ingredient to Sinterhab’s space station is lunar soil, which would be transformed into a ceramic-like material called regolith with a microwave-sinter process. NASA robots would print the

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Like a Houseboat: LEED Platinum Home Floats Above a Former Landfill in Texas

Like a Houseboat: LEED Platinum Home Floats Above a Former Landfill in Texas

Urban Reserve was designed as a sustainable neighborhood, made to reclaim the land from its landfill past. Encouraging minimal and space efficient homes, the area has become a beacon of modern urban

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Off-Grid Snowboard Cabin is a Perfect Retreat for Powder Hounds on Vancouver Island

Off-Grid Snowboard Cabin is a Perfect Retreat for Powder Hounds on Vancouver Island

Vancouver architects Susan and David Scott set off to start their own practice and the first project they wanted to work on was their own. They designed and built a snowboard cabin located in an alpine

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Skinny Eel’s Nest Home and Office in LA Takes Cues from Impossibly Narrow Japanese Lots

Skinny Eel’s Nest Home and Office in LA Takes Cues from Impossibly Narrow Japanese Lots

The original home was built on this unique 780 square foot lot in 1929, and although most of it had to be demolished, some of the original basement walls are still visible. Anonymous Architects focused on

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Aquascape Sues Over Collapse of World’s Largest Sloped Green Roof Near Chicago

Aquascape Sues Over Collapse of World’s Largest Sloped Green Roof Near Chicago

Parts of the world's largest sloped green roof collapsed the day before Valentine's Day in 2011 after record snowfall and two weeks of freezing temperatures finally began to subside. At the time, it was

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DUS Architects Unveils Plans to 3D Print an Entire House in Amsterdam

DUS Architects Unveils Plans to 3D Print an Entire House in Amsterdam

The KamerMaker, or room maker, is an eleven-and-a-half-foot custom 3D printer created by DUS that is housed inside of a disused shipping container. DUS plans to use the large-scale printer to print the

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University of Michigan Announces 4-Wheeled Sun-Powered Car for the 2013 World Solar Challenge!

University of Michigan Announces 4-Wheeled Sun-Powered Car for the 2013 World Solar Challenge!

The University of Michigan just announced that its 2013 World Solar Challenge vehicle will look more like a regular car than any of its past cars. Called “Generation,” the new vehicle will buck the

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China’s Autonomous Antarctic Polar Rover Powered by UGE’s HoYi! Wind Turbine

China’s Autonomous Antarctic Polar Rover Powered by UGE’s HoYi! Wind Turbine

Beijing’s Aeronautics and Astronautics University just launched their “Polar Rover,” an autonomous research vessel that is exploring the effects of global warming on Antarctica. The 300

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Reflective Predator-Like Armor Clads the Cairns Botanical Gardens Visitor Center in Australia

Reflective Predator-Like Armor Clads the Cairns Botanical Gardens Visitor Center in Australia

The visitor center is clad in a series of flat panels that are each placed at different angles, warping the reflecting landscape in interesting ways. Likewise the building itself bends to accommodate

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Nearly 6,000 Pig Carcasses Found Floating in China’s Shanghai River

Nearly 6,000 Pig Carcasses Found Floating in China’s Shanghai River

This past weekend, the world was shocked as images depicting thousands of pig carcasses being pulled from a river in Shanghai surfaced across the internet. As of today, nearly 6,000 pigs have been found

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