Read the rest of Ryue Nishiziwa’s Gorgeous Vertical Garden House Takes Root in Tokyo

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Post tags: "living wall", Climate Change, CO2, community, Daylighting, eco design, eco-conscious, eco-friendly, Environment, environmental design, green architecture, Green Building, green design, green interior, green living, green space, green technology, home design, innovative structure, Japan, living home, natural light, open floor plan, open space, organic building, outdoor integration, renewable energy, rooftop garden, Ryue Nishizawa, ryue nishizawa vertical garden, SANAA, sustainable design, sustainable living, Tokyo, tokyo architecture, tokyo home, urban planning, vertical garden, vertical garden home, vertical garden house, zen living

Read the rest of Herzog and de Meuron Unveil Plans for Brilliant Naturally Ventilated Mãe Luiza Gymnasium

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Post tags: applied science, Brazil, Climate Change, CO2, community, Daylighting, dunes, eco design, eco-conscious, eco-friendly, engineering, Environment, environmental design, FIFA World Cup, green architecture, Green Building, green design, green living, green space, green technology, gymnasium, Herzog & De Meuron, innovative structure, jacques herzog, lattice, Mariana Vilela, Material science, natal, natural light, open space, Open-Air, organic building, public space, renewable energy, slotted roof, sustainable design, sustainable living, Tomislav Dushanov, urban planning, World Cup

Winter may not seem like the best time to visit New York City’s windy waterfront, but the newly-opened Pier 15 on the East River Waterfront Esplanade will give any design-lover reason to head to the city’s edge. Designed and built by SHoP Architects, with help from landscape architect Ken Smith, Pier 15 is an edgy, angular addition to the waterfront park that pays homage to the waterfront’s nautical history through subtle shapes and a mix of industrial and natural materials. We recently visited the pier and found its solitude relaxing and peaceful despite the brisk temperatures — hit the jump to see our exclusive photo gallery!

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Post tags: East River, east river waterfront esplanade, eco design, green design, HIGHLINE, inhabitat, inhabitat nyc, ipe wood, ken smith, Ken Smith Landscape Architect, manhattan, native flora, native plants, new york city, seaport, shop architects, South Street SEaport, sustainable design, urban planning, waterfront development

When an environmental problem arises and the Army Corps of Engineers fails to act, leave it to an architect to pick up the reins. The Great Lakes, a vital source of fresh water, are threatened by Asian carp, an invasive species with no known predators. Architect Jeanne Gang has proposed a solution that would create a barrier between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, restoring the natural flow of the Chicago River while also helping to introduce green infrastructure and revitalize a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

Read the rest of Invasive Species Threat Inspires Jeanne Gang to Reimagine Chicago’s South Side

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Post tags: Architecture, Army Corps of Engineers, Asian carp, chicago, Chicago's South Side, Design, Eco Architecture, eco design, Gang Studios, great lakes, green architecture, green design, Harvard Graduate School of Design, invasive species, jeanne gang, Lake Michigan, MacArthur grant, Mississippi River, Natural Resources Defense Council, neighborhood revitalization, Reverse Effect, sustainable design, urban planning

The 2006 Israeli-Lebanon war resulted in over two hundred buildings being destroyed or razed to the ground in Haret Hreik, a suburb of Beirut. Approximately 80,000 square meters of debris was then loaded into trucks and taken to the coastline of the Ouzai and today, the rubble sits in two large mounds. Wild greens already are growing on the mini mountains but Spatially Just Environments Beirut was hoping they could take that small amount of nature even further and top them with a full blanket of grass, trees and other plants. The new space could be used as a park and would be a welcome change from the current eyesore that sits there. It would also be a fitting memorial for the victims of the 2006 war, and a way to celebrate new life atop a mountain representing death and destruction.

+ Spatially Just Environments Beirut

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Post tags: beirut, eco design, green design, green landscape, Haret Hreik, lebanon, ouzai, rebuilding war torn areas, sandra rishani, Spatially Just Environments Beirut, sustainable design, urban planning, waad, waad rebuild

Read the rest of San Francisco’s Waterfront To Get Green Makeover In Lead-Up To America’s Cup

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Post tags: aecom, america's cup, boat race, green buidling, green design, KMD Architects, pfau long architecture, port of san francisco, San Francisco, sustainable design, urban planning, urban space, yacht race

Read the rest of Portable Parks Pop Up All Over Downtown San Francisco

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Post tags: cmg architects, Conceptual Art, Conger Moss Guillard, eco design, green design, lanscape architecture, Parklet, public space, San Francisco, san francisco urban design, Street Life, Urban design, urban garden, urban planning, Yerba Buena Center

MIT researchers, in collaboration with China’s Tsinghua University, have recently created a new set of tools to evaluate the energy performance of large-scale development projects. The tools are a response to China’s rapid urbanization and succession of ever-larger housing and infrastructure projects. The researchers’ goal was to help shape the process of urbanization one neighborhood at a time, producing cleaner energy patterns than would otherwise exist.

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Post tags: "clean energy", "energy efficiency", china, chinese, chinese policy, chinese sustainable development, Christopher Zegras, Dennis Frenchman, energy proforma, green design, MIT, MIT School of Architecture + Planning, neighborhood pattern book, planning policy, proforma, sustainable design, Tsinguhua UNiversity, Urban design, urban planning, urban planning tools

Read the rest of Philadelphia Plants Its Very First Bus Stop Green Roof!

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Post tags: bus stop green roof, city green roof, green bus stop, green spaces, green urban planning, philladelphia, philly, roofmeadow, sustainable urban planning, urban green roof, urban planning

Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council recently unveiled their revitalization plan for a messy 1770 hectare sprawl between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The Shahama and Bahia Revitlization Plan is the result of a concerted collaboration between the Abu Dhabi Municipality, local residents, and prominent community members to develop a coastal upgrade that meets all four pillars of the Estidama sustainability program. The sprawl will be transformed into a pedestrian-friendly, dense, mixed-use complex that makes the most efficient use of natural resources.

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Post tags: "sustainable development", abu dhabi, dubai, Estimdama, green design, green spaces, pedestrian friendly, Shahama and Bahia Revitalization Plan, sustainable design, urban density, urban planning, Urban Planning Council

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill‘s plan for a new sustainable Central Business District in Beijing was met with much fanfare when it was first announced, and now SOM has garnered even more attention by winning the AIA’s Regional and Urban Design Award for the project – with good reason. The CBD boasts an ambitious plan for green growth that, if successful, would result in eliminating 215,000 tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of planting 14 million adult trees. We congratulate SOM on their win and can’t wait until we can bring you news of the completed project.

+ SOM

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Post tags: aia, american institute of architects, “sustainable development”, Beijing, Beijing CBD, central business district, master plan, redevelopment plan, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, SOM, sustainable city, sustainable growth, Urban design, urban planning

Read the rest of BIG Unveils a Driverless World of the Future Complete With Solar-Powered Streets

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Post tags: AUDI, audi future urban award, big, bjarke ingels, Bjarke Ingels Group, computer controlled cars, driverless cars, eco design, electric cars, forward thinking design, future city, green design, green transporation, smart streets, solar streets, sustainable design, sustainable transportation, transportation design, transportation of the future, Urban design, urban planning

China pumped €300 billion into its 2010 energy consumption goals, and it may be the only country on earth to have actually met them. This is partially thanks to strict environmental requirements for new projects such as SBA Design’s futuristic new city. Dubbed “Glo-cal DNA”, the self sufficient, low carbon, mixed-use development is slated for construction on Hainan Island – a pumping 42.6 square kilometer tourist hotspot.

Read the rest of SBA Design Unveils Self-Sufficient City of the Future for China

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", "sustainable development", "wind power", bio-gas, china, eco-tourism, future city, Hainan, pedestrian friendly, Personal Rapid Transport, photovoltaic, SBA Design, Solar Power, urban planning

Inhabitat has reported on some pretty mind-boggling designs by the Bjark Ingels Group, but their latest winning proposal just may take the cake. BIG’s Energy Valley was recently chosen as the master plan for Stockholmsporten, a new entrance and major highway junction planned for Stockholm. The group worked with Grontmij and Seascape to create a sculpted bowl-shaped valley that connects the surrounding neighborhoods while improving the largest infrastructure project in Sweden. We’re loving the smart, pedestrian-friendly design for the junction, but plans for a giant reflective sphere to hover above the valley have us scratching our heads.

Read the rest of BIG Unveils Energy Valley With Floating Solar Sphere for Stockholm

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Post tags: big, BIG Architects, big energy valley, big stockholmsporten, entrance for stockholm, green design, green urban design, highway construction stockholm, hjulsta intersection, pedestrian friendly, stockholm hjulsta intersection, stockholmsporten, urban planning

The architecture news of the day is that Foster + Partners has been selected by the board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to design a massive 56-acre urban park on a reclaimed harbor-front site in Hong Kong. Designed as a carbon-neutral development, “City Park” will seamlessly blend into existing streets while creating large expanses of green space and seventeen new cultural venues. Multi-purpose facilities, public transportation links, energy efficient-design and renewable energy generation will help make the new development a prime Hong Kong destination.

Read the rest of Foster + Partners Selected to Design Carbon Neutral Park for West Kowloon Cultural District

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", city park, eco design, Foster + Partners, Foster and Partners, green architecture, Green Building, green design, Hong Kong, masterplan, renewable energy, Sustainable Building, Urban design, urban park, urban planning

The Prince of Wales is taking time out of his royal activities to work on a new pet project – an ‘eco-utopia’ in the slums of India. Prince Charles and his charity, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built ­Environment has recently announced plans to build an environmentally friendly housing development for India’s low-caste. Starting this next year, the Prince hopes to take his knowledge of urban planning and housing to build an eco-community that will be like an oasis in the desert.

Read the rest of Prince Charles to Become Slumlord Millionaire of Eco Community in India

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", 'eco-utopia', calcutta, eco community, eco design, green architecture, green design, india slum, Prince Charles, prince of wales, sustainable design, the prince's foundatin for the built environment, Urban design, urban planning

When reflecting on sustainable design we often get caught up in buildings and their individual points for sustainability. Though we love watching zero-energy homes and LEED certified office buildings go up, sometimes we forget about the bigger picture — the urban planning picture. A new study released by NASA on the urban heat island effect in the northeast United States has drawn special attention to the immense problem. The new study says that some cities in the northeast can be on average up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than their surrounding rural areas. With climate change issues growing ever so rapidly, this problem is expected to worsen in the coming years.

Read the rest of NASA Photographs Highlight Urban Heat Island Problem

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Post tags: city planning, heat islands, nasa heat island photos, nasa satellite photos, northeast heat island, sustainable city planning, sustainable urban planning, Urban design, urban heat islands, urban planning

Read the rest of Build A Better Burb Winner “Upcycles” Long Island Suburbs

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Build a better burb, Design Competition, eco design, green architecture, green design, long island, suburbia, sustainable design, upcycling 2.0, urban planning

If ever there were a case for the importance of good urban planning that includes mass transit, this is it: a 62-mile traffic standstill on a road leading to Beijing is now in its ninth day, with individual drivers caught in it for as long as three days. The cause of the jam — beyond the skyrocketing number of drivers in China — is heavy use of the route, the Beijing-Tibet expressway, by trucks bringing construction supplies into Beijing. The trucks don’t just add to traffic; they also damage the road, necessitating repair crews.

Read the rest of Chinese Traffic Jam Extends 60 Miles and Nine Days

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Post tags: Beijing, china, traffic, urban planning

Read the rest of ‘Build a Better Burb’ Competition Revitalizes Suburban Areas

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Post tags: "wind power", Build a better burb, design competitions, green technologies, green transportation, hydroponic farming, Katelyn Mulry, local agriculture, Local Farming, renewable energy, Solar Power, suburban planning, suburban sprawl, Sven Peters and Ana Serra, Tobias Holer, urban density, urban planning, zero carbon transportation