sustainable design

New Jerusalem Orphanage is a Vibrant Shipping Container Home for South African Kids

New Jerusalem Orphanage is a Vibrant Shipping Container Home for South African Kids

Two sisters established the orphanage in 2000 in order to care for children in the Midrand who have been either abandoned or orphaned because of poverty, HIV or other social problems. Due to expansion,

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Wind Power Becomes Spain’s Top Source of Electricity

Wind Power Becomes Spain’s Top Source of Electricity

Photo via Shutterstock In the last three months, Spain has quickly risen as a leader in renewable energy, having produced more electricity via wind farms than any other source! The Spanish Wind Energy

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Future Tech Farm: A Distributed Farm Made of Modular, Internet-Enabled Aquaponic Gardens

Future Tech Farm: A Distributed Farm Made of Modular, Internet-Enabled Aquaponic Gardens

Future Tech Farm is a decentralized and distributed farm that consists of a series of small aquaponic grow systems connected via the internet. Upon receiving a module, users open up their grow systems,

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Help Save Unwanted Pallets By Giving Them New Lives as Chairs or Tables

Help Save Unwanted Pallets By Giving Them New Lives as Chairs or Tables

Gas&Air Studios was launched in 2010 when two British design students started messing around with a pile of broken shipping pallets. After many design iterations the duo came up with a simple and

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McBarge: Abandoned Floating McDonalds to Be Given New Life As a Marina in Canada

McBarge: Abandoned Floating McDonalds to Be Given New Life As a Marina in Canada

Once refurbished, the plan is to turn the ship into a home for several restaurants—instead of just one—which would hopefully include some healthier options for visitors. The proposals are already

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House Hafner is a Beautiful Light-Filled Cubic Retreat With a Living Green Garage in Germany

House Hafner is a Beautiful Light-Filled Cubic Retreat With a Living Green Garage in Germany

Built for a couple who likes to entertain, House Hafner benefits from a private plot at the end of a blind alley that allowed the designer to create an open plan space that opens to the verdant outdoors.

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Urban Farm School Opens in Asheville, North Carolina

Urban Farm School Opens in Asheville, North Carolina

Based in one of the country’s hotbeds of local food culture, the Urban Farm School just launched its first year with 100 instructors and sites in Asheville, North Carolina. The Urban Farm School is a

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Toole Design Chosen to Launch Philadelphia Bike Share Program

Toole Design Chosen to Launch Philadelphia Bike Share Program

The City of Brotherly Love is set to become the next city to join bike-share craze. Last year, the Mayor’s Office of Transportation & Utilities joined forces with the Bicycle Coalition of

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Roger Ferris + Partners Adds a Minimalist Art Gallery to a Philip Johnson-Designed Country Estate

Roger Ferris + Partners Adds a Minimalist Art Gallery to a Philip Johnson-Designed Country Estate

The architects completed the renovation using restoration materials that complemented the existing house and developed what was already there. But the new renovations are distinct from Philip Johnson's

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Seth Stein Architects Gives a Bomb-Damaged London House a New Lease On Life

Seth Stein Architects Gives a Bomb-Damaged London House a New Lease On Life

Seth Stein Architects' Notting Hill renovation keeps a low energy footprint thanks to an array of green building strategies. The project incorporates passive air distribution, and it regulates temperature

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INTERVIEW: LIKEArchitects on the Challenges and Rewards of Sustainable “Performance Architecture”

INTERVIEW: LIKEArchitects on the Challenges and Rewards of Sustainable “Performance Architecture”

Inhabitat: What kind of architecture do you create? LIKEArchitects: We try to build projects in which humor, subjectivity, emotion and surprise ally with the desirable functionality of any architectural

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Artist Tony Plant Creates Epic Sand Etchings on England’s Beaches Using Only a Rake!

Artist Tony Plant Creates Epic Sand Etchings on England’s Beaches Using Only a Rake!

Tony Plant has been using the beach as his canvas for over twenty years. The surfer, environmental artist, and photographer creates these large scale sand etchings simply for the delight of  beach bums

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B.I.O. TECture’s Hybrid Shades Double as Solar Hot Water Collectors

B.I.O. TECture’s Hybrid Shades Double as Solar Hot Water Collectors

LA-based B.I.O. TECture is an integrator and manufacturer of unique building-integrated solar hot water collectors. The company’s flagship Solar Hybrid Shades™ basically serve as a shading system for

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Locally-Crafted Farmhouse Furniture Provides Sustainable Livelihoods for Workers in Rural China

Locally-Crafted Farmhouse Furniture Provides Sustainable Livelihoods for Workers in Rural China

These beautiful pieces of wooden furniture handcrafted by Scot Laughton are simple prototypes designed to be made locally by villagers in rural areas of China. The collection was recently used in 'The

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Rainbow Prefab Duplex is the First Certified PassivHaus in British Columbia

Rainbow Prefab Duplex is the First Certified PassivHaus in British Columbia

Each home in the Rainbow Passive House Duplex is 1,500 square feet and comes with an unfinished basement, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. The home achieves a 90 percent reduction in energy use because

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SCF Arquitectos Unveils Plans to Restore Earthquake-Devastated Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Haiti

SCF Arquitectos Unveils Plans to Restore Earthquake-Devastated Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Haiti

The 2010 earthquake all but destroyed the historical Cathedral, a source of national pride. After removing the ruble, the shell of the church has remained, but soon construction will begin to restore what

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Merritt Crossing is a Sustainable Affordable Housing Project for Seniors in Oakland

Merritt Crossing is a Sustainable Affordable Housing Project for Seniors in Oakland

Merritt Crossing is located on the corner of 6th and Oak Street in Oakland. The dense project worked to match the surrounding feel of the residential homes as well as address the visual and noise impact

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Cantilevered Bioclimatic House Breathes Through its Roof in Greece

Cantilevered Bioclimatic House Breathes Through its Roof in Greece

Located in Paiania just outside of Athens, an area that shifts from industrial to residential, this striking new home consists of stacked metal containers clad in light panels. Well-insulated to prevent

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Sure Architecture’s Perforated Yinchuan Exhibition Center Reflects Islamic Architecture in Northwest China

Sure Architecture’s Perforated Yinchuan Exhibition Center Reflects Islamic Architecture in Northwest China

Sure Architecture's Yinchuan Exhibition Center is designed to unite the Chinese and Arabic Axis while also functioning as a premier cultural institution. The building's perforated facade features carved

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Chinese Millionaire Launches Line of Canned Air to Raise Awareness for Hazardous Smog Problem

Chinese Millionaire Launches Line of Canned Air to Raise Awareness for Hazardous Smog Problem

Billionaire Chen Guangbiao is taking China’s air pollution problem into his own hands - by launching a line of canned air. In a move that rivals a scene out of Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs, the entrepreneur

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House H: Y Beams, Hanging Floors and Irregular Cutouts Transform a Tiny Japanese Home

House H: Y Beams, Hanging Floors and Irregular Cutouts Transform a Tiny Japanese Home

In order to create a playful sense of expansiveness on the inside of the Matsudo City home, Shinozaki decided to give it a large roof and fill the space in-between with eight Y-shaped wooden frames. From

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The Voltmaker Charges Your Gadgets Off-Grid With Kinetic Energy

The Voltmaker Charges Your Gadgets Off-Grid With Kinetic Energy

Sick of your batteries dying at the very moment you need to make a call, flick on a flashlight, or find your position on a GPS when you are lost in the outdoors? Introducing the Voltmaker - an innovative

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Soak Up the Sun at Casa de las Olas’ Solar Powered Eco-Escape in Tulum

Soak Up the Sun at Casa de las Olas’ Solar Powered Eco-Escape in Tulum

Located just south of the touristic city of Cancun, Tulum attracts an array of eco-tourists seeking the adventure within a natural and barely touched landscape. Days are spent exploring the world’s

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Stackable Urban Beehive is Perfect for Beginner Beekeepers

Stackable Urban Beehive is Perfect for Beginner Beekeepers

Seeking to help restore the world's declining honey bee population, designer Rowan Dunford has created a simple, stackable beehive that makes it easy for anyone to raise bees. Dunford's aptly named Urban

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Michael Johansson’s Precisely Stacked Sculptures Give Found Objects the Tetris Treatment

Michael Johansson’s Precisely Stacked Sculptures Give Found Objects the Tetris Treatment

Michael Johansson’s’s stacked creations can be found taking refuge in the unnoticed empty spaces scattered throughout dense urban sprawl. Whether the works are packed between two buildings or piled

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The Cultured Landscape Sets Out a Strategy for Sustainable Transformation of an Australian Brownfield

The Cultured Landscape Sets Out a Strategy for Sustainable Transformation of an Australian Brownfield

Rather than simply let the Latrobe Valley revert to a supposed “natural” state, NAAU proposes a new urban design that retains and adaptively reuses “the significant industrial infrastructure as a

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Construction Begins on Moscow’s Green-Roofed, Geometric Kuntsevo Plaza

Construction Begins on Moscow’s Green-Roofed, Geometric Kuntsevo Plaza

Taking over an entire city block, the Kuntsevo Plaza will provide 250,000 sq m of retail space, entertainment, residences, class-A office space, rooftop decks and public plazas. The contemporary design is

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Ferrer Arquitectos’ PITA & Tecnova Buildings Promote Green Building in Almeria, Spain

Ferrer Arquitectos’ PITA & Tecnova Buildings Promote Green Building in Almeria, Spain

The Pitagoras and Tecnova buildings provide high tech research and office space for Almeria as part of the new Parque Científico-Tecnológico de Almería (PITA). Designed by Ferrer Arquitectos, the

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Haus am Steinberg is a Charming Wedge-Shaped Addition to a Historic Wine Cellar in Austria

Haus am Steinberg is a Charming Wedge-Shaped Addition to a Historic Wine Cellar in Austria

In order to prevent it from interfering too much with the original design, the gabled addition meets the roof lines of the original cellar while still maintaining something of its own identity. The

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