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sustainable building materials

home design with slanted roof covered in solar panels

1960s home remodeled with energy-efficient and non-toxic hempcrete

When homeowner Pam Bosch was looking for ways to remodel her 1960s home in Bellingham, Washington, she was determined...

round treehouse with spiral staircase

A treehouse made from sustainable wood hides a luxurious interior

The sustainable builders at ArtisTree are known for creating some seriously beautiful and green structures. The...

Comunal Taller de Arquitectura, bamboo social housing, bamboo buildings, bamboo, bamboo constructions, bamboo houses puebla, bamboo design, social design, social housing, bamboo social housing, affordable housing, green design, sustainable building materials, sustainable building materials, bamboo house frams, prefabricated bamboo frame

Local residents help build pre-fab bamboo social center that can be constructed in a week

Mexican studio Comunal Taller de Arquitectura is proving yet again that bamboo is a miracle material when it comes...

Arkitema Architects, Beat Box, beat box apartments, shipping container apartments in denmark, shipping container buildings, shipping container architecture, green design, sustainable building materials, shipping container homes, container buildings,

Striking apartment complex is made of 48 raw shipping containers

While some designers choose to mask the rough aesthetic of shipping containers with sophisticated cladding, Danish...

Forschungs + Architekturbüro AG, cow barn, barn design, barn renovation, stick structures, natural building materials, green building materials, sustainable building materials, cow bard design, green roof, grass-topped roof, green design, agriculture, basel barn, swiss architecture

Beautiful cow barn in Basel is made of tree branches topped with a grassy roof

Swiss architects Forschungs + Architekturbüro AG have made some lucky cows very happy with a stunning new barn...

House Louisana, konbit shelters, oficina design, adobe shelters, adobe housing, adobe shelters haiti, resilient architecture, green building materials, low tech materials, bamboo buildings, sustainable building materials, haiti earthquake, artist Swoon, Heloptrope foundation, haiti home construction, locally-souced materials haiti, earth-quake resistant buildings,

Sustainable Konbit shelter replaces home destroyed by Haiti earthquake

Many Haitians are still trying to rebuild their lives seven years after a powerful earthquake devastated much of...

Michigan solar house, Meadowlark Design + Build, solar power, solar energy, solar powered homes, green design, clean energy, sustainable design, michigan solar energy, 2005 Solar Decathlon homes, MiSo House, sunflower-board cabinets, sustainable building materials, sustainable materials, net zero energy, tiny homes, tiny home design, tiny home living

Couple buys 100% sun-powered home built for the Solar Decathlon

This 100% solar-powered home has been sitting in Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens for the past ten years -...

Contained, shipping containers, Shipping Container Hotel, portable shipping container hotel, shipping container building, shipping container designs, eco-friendly hotels, sustainable hotels, green hotels, moveable hotels, transportable hotels, shipping container buildings, reclaimed wood, sustainable building materials,

This shipping container hotel is so cool you’ll forget its a shipping container

Although building with shipping containers isn't as avant-garde as it used to be, there are still some stunning...

Layer House by Robson Rak Architects and Interior Designers, Robson Rak Architects and Interior Designers, Layer House in Victoria, Layer House Australia, Australia sustainable architecture, rammed earth houses, rammed earth contemporary home, rammed earth and timber architecture

Elegant Australian home shows the beauty and toughness of rammed earth

Rammed earth may be an ancient building material, but the modern homes that use compact earth are anything but...

Artikul Architects, ContainHotel, Shipping Container Hotel, shipping container building, shipping container designs, czech republic hotels, eco-friendly hotels, sustainable hotels, green hotels, moveable hotels, transportable hotels, shipping container buildings, reclaimed wood, sustainable building materials,

This amazing shipping container hotel can pop up anywhere in the world

Prague-based firm Artikul Architects has managed to combine two of our favorite things: shipping containers and...

liar project, living architecture, newcastle university, wwe bristol, smart bricks, living bricks, bricks that generate electricity, bricks that recycle wastewater, bricks that clean the air, sustainable building materials, sustainable buidings, sustainable home, bioreactor wall, biofilm

Energy-generating ‘smart bricks’ turn ordinary buildings into efficient living machines

A cool project with an unfortunate acronym, LIAR or Living Architecture is developing construction bricks composed...

biomason, biobricks, bricks, sustainable building materials, sustainable construction, cutting carbon emissions in construction, sand and bacteria, Ginger Krieg Dosier, north carolina

BioMason’s bricks “grown” with sand and bacteria to hit the market next year

BioMason is inching closer to commercially debuting its eco-friendly “grown” bricks, which they say could be...

bricks, construction materials, brick wall

Recycled cigarette butt bricks slash energy consumption by 58%

Familiar habit: step outside, smoke a cigarette to relieve urban stress, toss what's left on the concrete. This...

Mechanically Stabilized Earth, practical engineering, building materials, building with dirt, grady hillhouse, civil engineering, strong building materials, sustainable building materials

Ultra-sturdy dirt brick gets its remarkable strength from paper towels

It’s safe to say that if you’re reading this article on this particular Web site, you probably already think...

Christina Griffin, GreenBuilt, Hemp Home: Tiny+, tiny hemp home with a green roof, tiny hemp home, solar powered tiny hemp home, tiny hemp home with a green roof, dream hemp home, modular net-zero tiny hemp home, Hudson Valley hemp home, New York

The tiny solar-powered hemp home with a green roof

"Tiny+ does not require the burning of any fossil fuels even in the cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers...

Vo Trong Nghia Architects, Diamond Island project, Vietnam, bamboo, bamboo architecture, skylights, natural materials, sustainable building materials, sustainable wood, wooden pavilions, domes, geodesic domes, prefab, prefab architecture, natural lighting

Mushroom-shaped bamboo pavilions sprout on a Saigon River peninsula

Inspired by traditional bamboo baskets used by Vietnamese farmers to shelter fowl, the structures dominate the...

bamboo skyscraper, World Architecture Festival, CRG Architects, alternative building materials, sustainable design, sustainable building materials, eco-friendly architecture, sustainable architecture

CRG Architects’ unique bamboo skyscraper spirals up into the clouds

Sustainable construction was the main motivation behind the design. "Why wouldn’t we want to build with a strong...

geopolymer, Watershed Materials, clay bricks, clay building material, eco friendly building material, sustainable building, reader submission, sustainable construction, portland cement alternative, cement alternative, sustainable clay bricks

Watershed Materials developed technology that turns clay into a sustainable building product

Watershed Materials, a California based building materials technology startup, has developed a solution to produce...

Aspen Art Museum book, Cardboard house, paper tube house, Ban architecture, emergency shelter, sustainable building materials, earthquake shelter, Humanitarian Architecture Ban,

BOOK REVIEW: Shigeru Ban’s ‘Humanitarian Architecture’ focuses on emergency response design

Shigeru Ban is renowned for his inventive and courageous architecture, which spans from museums to simple huts....

CalEarth, Superadobe, disaster proof home, earth construction, earth building, green building, Iranian architect, buildings fit for space, green design, DIY architecture, DIY home, California, green building course, RUMI, Mojave Desert, eco dome, moon cocoon, earth one, emergency shelter, materials of war, green building materials, sustainable building materials

Build Your Own Disaster-Proof Earth Home Using Materials of War

Just four years before the 1979 Islamic revolution, Nader Khalili abandoned his career building fancy high rises...

Bittertang architecture, Buru Buru living amphitheater, straw-filled tubes, straw architecture, multifunctional architecture, sustainable building materials, biodegradable building materials, natural building materials, performance architecture, straw noodles, LED lights, green lighting

Bizarre Buru Buru Amphitheater Built With Straw Noodles Sprouts Mushrooms!

Buru Buru is one of Bittertang’s most spatial designs but it continues the thread of using alternative materials...

Bamboo Tent Bali, Andrew Ma bamboo, bamboo architecture, sustainable building materials, bamboo poles, locally sourced building materials, Green School Bali, Balinese architecture, Indonesia architecture

The Green School’s Magnificent Bamboo Tent is Made from Locally-Sourced Materials in Bali

Bamboo, one of the most sustainable building materials in the world, can grow up to four feet in a single day and...

Apostrophy’s pavilion, Apostrophy’s Conwood, Conwood material, Conwood wood replacement, eco-friendly wood material, eco-friendly wood replacement product, sustainable building materials, pavilion architecture, Architect Expo 2014 Bangkok

Apostrophy’s Conwood Pavilion Showcases an Eco-Friendly Alternative to Wood

Apostrophy’s designed the structure to exhibit and demonstrate the use and application of the product in real-life...

Herzog & de Meuron Ricola, Ricola laufen center, Herzog & de Meuron herb center, Herzog & de Meuron architecture, rammed earth architecture, rammed earth, sustainable building materials, locally sourced building materials, natural building material, green architecture, swiss architects

Herzog & de Meuron Complete Rammed Earth Herb Center for Ricola

Herzog & de Meuron just completed a new production facility for Ricola, the Swiss manufacturer of herbal cough...

Coil + Drift, John Sorensen-Jolink, reclaimed wood, Angle Vase, Desk Six, Desk Twelve, Hover Shelving Unit, Porter Bicycle Crate, Raritan Coffee Table, Rectangle Kitchen Board, Vineyard Wine Console, sustainable furniture, standing desk, vase, reclaimed wood rafters, sustainable building materials, BKLYN Designs, BKLYN Designs 2014, Brooklyn Makerville Studios, DIY, FSC certified sustainable wood

BKLYN Designs 2014: Sneak a Peek at Coil + Drift’s Rustic, Reclaimed Furniture Made in Brooklyn

Sorensen-Jolink founded Coil + Drift two years ago with the desire to explore ordinary objects in an extraordinary...

South Africa, Hemp House, Tony Budden, Hemp, Green Building Materials, Sustainable Building Materials, Innovate Educate Cultivate, Michael Orchard, New Earth Architecture, Wolf & Wolf Architecture, green design, sustainable design, eco-design, sustainable architecture, legal issues

INTERVIEW: We Talk Hemp with South African Materials Expert Tony Budden

INHABITAT: Tony, our recent story about your Hemp House in South Africa spurred a lot of interesting discussion....

The Wedgie, Tiny Happy Homes, tiny homes, architecture, reclaimed wood, sustainable building, sustainable building materials, the wedgie retirement house, tiny home architecture

The Wedgie is an Adorable Multi-Colored Tiny Home on Wheels

Not only the latest in a long line of innovative tiny structures from the company, the Wedgie is also affordable...

Big Wood, C.F. Møller, wood skyscraper, wood high-rise, Stockholm

C.F. Møller’s Solar-Powered Wood Skyscraper Wins HSB Stockholm Architecture Competition

One of the first things that comes to mind when someone mentions a wood skyscraper is the risk of fire, but the...

Matt Gagnon Studio, Knit Fort, reclaimed wood, innovative tree houses, small enclosures, sustainable building materials, home design, green furniture

Matt Gagnon’s Knit Fort Built with Reclaimed Wood Makes a Perfect Hideaway Cocoon

Whether it's used as a relaxing time out space in a bustling office, a child's playroom, a chill out zone in the...

Topos Architecture, Mayenne, France, timber building materials, douglas fir, High Energy Performance, Certivéa certified buildings, energy efficiency, sustainble building materials

Timber-Clad House of the Early Childhood is a Healthy, Energy-Efficient School in France

The humble, welcoming House of the Early Childhood provides preschool education for 100 children up to the age...

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