The HIGH LINE in New York

Link to High Line website.

Using an old elevated Railway line which is situated within the Meat Packing District the High Line is a new public park in New York. It's a great experience of eco parks along with great views of the city and a vibrant art community venue...

When visiting New York check it out!

FRAME MAGAZINE - Issue 77

Look out for the next issue of Frame - No. 77 which is due in Novemeber/December of 2010. It's on "RADICAL RE-USE"...I think that's well worth shelling out £14 for a magazine....
Oh, they even sell it at WHSmith's in Huddersfield! Radical!

Dalsouple Rubber Flooring

Dalsouple Rubber Flooring website - click here

It's a common misconception among specifiers that modern rubber flooring is a 'natural' product. In fact, virtually all the rubber flooring on the market today is made from synthetic SBR, sometimes know as 'industrial rubber,' a petrochemical by product. In environmental terms, synthetic rubber compares quite favourably with its main competitors - PVC, and even linoleum. But with sustainability now high on the design agenda, Dalsouple has decided it's time to take a quantum leap in improving the environmental profile of its products, simply by going 'back to nature'...


[more on website link above!]

Plan B Architects - Orquideorama

The town of Medellin, Colombia, got another architectural addition. An amazing botanical garden with a superstructure called Orquideorama. This steel and wood structure in an hexagonal shape extends through its organic shape. The renovation was done by Plan B architects and the idea was to make a structure that looks like trees growing together at the branches. A stunning study on structure and scale, the project unites the micro and macro worlds through an elegant synthesis of cellular and architectural forms. The plants situated beneath each trunk are sustained via rainwater collected by the petals, and are protected from the elements by the translucent pine wood weave that is sourced from reforested lands. The project serves as a showroom, concert area and an exposition area


Link to website  
Please note that the Plan B Architects website is in Spanish so you might have to get Google to translate it to English for you!

Aluminum Foam

Aluminum Foam materials by Alusion company. Link to website.

A metal foam is a cellular structure consisting of a solid metal, frequently aluminium, containing a large volume fraction of gas-filled pores. The pores can be sealed (closed-cell foam), or they can form an interconnected network (open-cell foam). The defining characteristic of metal foams is a very high porosity: typically 75-95% of the volume consists of void spaces. The strength of foamed metal possesses a power law relationship to its density; i.e., a 20% dense material is more than twice as strong as a 10% dense material.

Carpet Tile House by RURAL STUDIO

Link to blog.

Film about Rural Studio Practice - click here

Fine architecture is usually reserved for wealthy patrons or grand civic spaces. But in 1993, Auburn University Professor Samuel Mockbee set out to change that. He founded The Rural Studio, which guides students in the design and construction of homes and community spaces in economically depressed Hale County, Alabama.




RURAL STUDIO WEBSITE

Carpet Tiles

INTERFACE Carpet tiles...

The company has sustainable credentials and is huge globally. Carpet tiles are easy to lay so saving time and expense as well as being 100% recyclable.

Link to site

Eco - Textiles

Designtex: innovative textiles, wallcoverings and surface solutions for any environment!


An environmentally responsible company dealing with textiles for a wide range of products from upholstery to hand made rugs..

Bike Furniture

Link to website

Have a look at the website if interested. Some great ideas for re-use!

FELT

Felt is a material which is experiencing a renaissance. Not just in fashion but nowadays also in product design and architecture, more and more creative spirits are exploiting the potential of this material. In the area of tension between archaic material and norm product, between handicrafts and industrial production, its textile character requires very special handling


The increasing importance of ecological building materials in architecture and design has ensured that nowadays felt, one of the oldest materials known to humanity, is experiencing a renaissance.


LiNK

Rubber Flooring

Sustainable rubber flooring from ultimate impact.
Link to site.

The Tough and Design ranges of Ultimate Impact Rubber Flooring are made up of recycled rubber with coloured EPDM granules added at customer desired percentages.

For example the Tough range is made up of 80% recycled rubber and 20% EPDM granules.

3 Form Eco Products

3 Form's products have low impact credentials. Link to site. Eco-resins and plastics.




Link to low impact page.

Product: VARIA - Varia is comprised of our patented ecoresin, made standard from a minimum of 40% post-industrial recycled material. It doesn't contain any plasticizers or stabilizers and is Greenguard certified for Indoor Air Quality. This innovative product line is not only environmentally preferable, but has nearly infinite design possibilities with the layering of colors, fabrics, organics, screen prints, and even photographs

Solid Bamboo Flooring

Solid Bamboo flooring from Ecotimber company. Link to web page. A highly renewable timber. 

FSC symbol

The FSC symbol can be seen everywhere now. Next time you are in the supermarket have a look out for it in the Toilet roll section! It means that the product, paper or timber is from a renewable forest and thus is seen as being a sustainable or eco material. 

'plastic dining room' by vancouver-based office goodweather collective and loki ocean
is a fully catered floating barge made out of recycled pop-bottles onn vancouver's false creek.
constructed from nearly 1700 containers, the temporary pavilion is a fundraising project
for the school of fish foundation, a local organization that aims to train and educate chefs
around the world about ocean-friendly seafood.

the 20 by 8 feet raft can accommodate up to 12 guests every evening. a large communal
table rests on a glass platform that shows the recycled bottles sandwiched between
the wooden flooring. 

LINK

'a country gentlemen once bought 10000 crayfishes in the 90’s to plant in a stream running through his land.
in the autumn he would capture about a hundred of them to eat at the annual swedish crayfish parties.
the crayfishes however slowly started to emigrate to another nearby lake outside the patron’s estate.
desperate of seeing his neighbors feast on his crayfishes, he contacted visiondivision to solve his problem.
visiondivision decided to help the patron by building him a refugee where the crayfishes could immigrate back.
by investigating the condition of the stream we soon found out that it was the lack of stones, hiding places
and the lack of calcite that probably had made the crayfishes emigrate. the city planning would focus on
solving these issues.(...)' - visiondivision

LINK


visiondivision also has a link in my favourite blogs...

My design in a box concept that i'll never complete.
Need to get back to this...

Dutch architect Anne Holtrop has collaborated with green technology firm Studio Noach and botanist Patrick Blanc to propose an artificial floating island containing gardens and a spa.


I love northern Europe design :)


LINK

DMY Berlin 2010: designer Debbie Wijskamp exhibited her collection of cabinets made from blocks of pulped paper at DMY Berlin


Called Paperpulp, the pieces are made from pulped waste-paper, sawn up and treated like planks of wood.


LINK

Nice idea - not to my personal aesthetic taste but an interesting concept....actually the more I look at this the more I can't stand it - sorry there is no link...

Milan designers Gabriele and Oscar Buratti have collaborated with bathroom brand Roca to create a combined toilet and wash basin, where waste water from the sink is used to fill the toilet cistern

American landscape architect Heather Ring of the Wayward Plant Registry has transformed a disused site in Bankside, London, into a public garden with the introduction of apple trees, allotments,  a timber pavilion, and a table-tennis table in a skip.


LINK

Oh, it's not regarding sustainability - this just makes me laugh :)  (click on the smiley face)

Mitchell Joachim: Don't build your home, grow it! VIDEO

Yes, I was totally with him until he mentioned growing meat homes...

Green Dream book: How future cities can outsmart nature.

Looks interesting - will at some point check this out in the library. Link to article

Link in books for amazon if purchase is imminent!

Seems to focus on huge-scale green impact/ideas - some interesting.

Sebastian Cox chair and lamp

The back and seat of the Kerf Chair (above) are made of sawn hazel branches joined to the frame without glue, so that the structure strengthens as it dries and shrinks.


Lamp below: The Rod Desk Lamp (above) has a stem made from a steam-bent hazel branch and a shade made of hazel fibres.

‘Products of Silviculture’ - My work embodies a strong ethos of sustainability. For this project I have used coppiced hazel as my primary working material – a material that is strong, light, entirely renewable, and grows in abundance in the UK.

The challenge in this MA project was to find creative ways to utilise this material. To do this I combined my furniture making skills with the traditional methods used to manipulate green hazel, along with a bit of creative imagination.

LINK to article

 

Transcendent city

Bartlett School of Architecture graduate Richard Hardy has shared with us his short film imagining an autonomous, artificially intelligent, sustainable city 


LINK TO VIDEO


Reminds me of the Matrix. Some interesting visualisations - the idea of a city - growth doesn't appeal.

FabLab House

FabLab House by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

The FabLab House, a solar panel-covered passive building designed by a team from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, is perhaps the funkiest house we covered for the 2010 Solar Decathlon. This three-legged house is clad in solar panels and is chock full of tricks to keep it cool during the heated competition.


Read more: 9 Green Architecture Student Projects That Make the Grade | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World