Archive for the 'Design & Architecture' Category

What Gets Measured Gets Managed: Cracking The Tracking of Bikes and Pedestrians

Libelium/Promo image Our roads are designed for cars, and there are often sensors that control lights or count vehicles in the road that don't pick up bikes; I often stop at an intersection waiting for a light to change, (yes, some cyclists do stop at red lights) and find that it never does unless I go hit the pedestrian button; the sensors don't know I am there. As for pedestria... weiterlesen...

Gen Art: Will Sustainability be the Future of Fashion?

Photo Credit: Neil Chambers Will sustainability be part of the fashion industry in 5 to 10 years? Do the up-and-coming fashionistas feel the green movement is even important? These were the questions running through my head as I drove to the edgy and sexy Gen Art: Fresh Faces of Fashion Show at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles on October 22, 2011. With scantily cladded biki...Re... weiterlesen...

Abandoned Grain Silo in France Is Now an Opera House

© Lisa Ricciotti / C + T Architectures Overlooking the port of Marseille, one of largest cities in France, used to sit an abandoned grain silo. Situated in a neighborhood slated for renovation, the emblematic and highly visible Arenc Silo, built in 1926-7, faced demolition. But rather than destroy the building and start from scratch with new materials, the City decided to t... weiterlesen...

Is This the Tiniest Tiny House in the World? Tiny Houses as Punk Rock (Video)

Fair Companies/Video screen capture From a young man building a tiny house so he can live mortgage-free to an off-grid home built for $2,500, we've featured some pretty impressive tiny house stories on TreeHugger before. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger weiterlesen...

Why Brutalist Architecture Is Not Necessarily Socialist, and Vice Versa

Amanda Vincent-Rous/CC BY 2.0 Andrew Sullivan asks Can Brutalist Architecture Help Explain The London Riots? and illustrates his post with an image of Alison and Peter Smithson's classic Robin Hood Gardens. Sullivan quotes Tom Clougherty of British libertarian website weiterlesen...

UFO Lands and Welcomes Earthlings At Sweden’s TreeHotel

treehotel/Promo image TreeHugger loves and hates the TreeHotel in Sweden; I love it for the design, and the fact that my first post on it was the most popular I ever wrote; Our tech people hate it because it was so popular that it broke the site for a whole day. It is the gift that keeps on giving, as they keep adding wonderful new rooms, such as the UFO design that I wrote abou... weiterlesen...

Verdes y Colores: Museum and Shop of 100% Local Products from Costa Rica

© Verdes y Colores Located five minutes from the San Jose international airport in Costa Rica, Verdes y Colores is a mix of shop and museum which aims to combine responsible shopping with education to give more meaning to sustainable product design....Read the full story on TreeHugger weiterlesen...

Just What We Needed Dept.: A Cardboard Radio

Suck UK/via A few years ago TreeHugger was full of things like this silly overpriced cardboard radio. It looks particularly odd with an iPhone plugged into it in this day and age. Even the people at SUCK UK who sell it acknowledge the contradictions:...Read the full story on TreeHugger weiterlesen...

The Backyard House: Built From Recycled Barnboards

© Rise over Run The TreeHugger aesthetic tends to be crisp and modern, but there is something so charming about Megan Lea's Backyard House. The certified sustainable building advisor has created what she calls a "beautiful, useful, artful, and comfortable space while minimizing environmental compromise."...Read the full story on TreeHugger weiterlesen...

Furniture Companies See The Forest For The Trees (Photos)

© Qubique It seems that finally somebody managed to take furniture fairs to another level. Not only is Qubique held at the re-used airport Tempelhof in Berlin, it also traded boring lectures for high quality products and shows this week. 2 brands have caught my attention already for their responsible use of wood and timeless furniture design. The German brand Thonet, respon... weiterlesen...

Abandoned Bridge in Upstate New York Is Now a Pedestrian Park

© Alex Davies When it comes to dilapidated railways being transformed into parks, New York City's famous High Line tends to get all the credit. But its lesser known sister project is worth a visit as well. Two hours north of the Big Apple, pedestrians and cyclists have another unique place to go - an old railroad bridge transformed into a park, over the Hudson River....Read... weiterlesen...

New Synthetic Bacteria Can Detect Air Pollution & Color-Code Your Poop (Video)

Yes, that's poop. Image: Daisy Ginsberg How Synthetic Biology Could Change the World Daisy Ginsberg is an artist and designer currently exploring the frontiers of possibility in the emergent field of synthetic biology. She just gave what was by far one of my favorite talks at this year's Poptech conference; she discussed the potential boons and pitfalls that products of synthet... weiterlesen...

Grow a Grass Rug for Your Bedroom

Photo: pia...Read the full story on TreeHugger weiterlesen...

Join Urban Animator Mary Rowe Discussion of Famed Urban Planner Jane Jacobs

Watch live streaming video from weiterlesen...

Treeless Treehouse: A "Tornado" of Reclaimed Wood By Roderick Romero

Photos via Jeff Casper What do you do when you don't have a tree to build a treehouse in? Answer: build a "treeless" treehouse. This is exactly what New York-based artist, musician and treehouse designer Roderick Romero did with a team of friends for this unusual treehouse of 100 percent reclaimed wood, recently built high on a hillside overlooking Bel Air, California. ...Read t... weiterlesen...

Award-Winning Design Massages Cows, Keeping Them Happy and Healthy

Andreij Nylander/via The benefits of a good massage can be enjoyed by any animal, it seems. Humans have elaborate spa treatments and hand held massagers. Dogs get belly rubs; cats rub their head against you until you oblige. But what about animals that we raise for our own benefit? Don't they deserve a day at the spa? It's a problem industrial designer Andreij Nylander and Swedi... weiterlesen...

To Fight Oil Spills, An Open-Source Swarm of Robotic Sailboats (Video)

Ask anyone who lives in the Gulf or the Niger Delta: oil spills are very nasty, and they don't clean themselves up. Chemical dispersants can make spills worse. And deploying hundreds of people in boats to run the clean-up presents a host of health hazards. After the BP disaster last year, those challenges led Cesar Harada, a design-and-technology polymath, to another solution: ... weiterlesen...

Sugar or Glass? When Gastronomy Meets Glass, Positive Ideas Crystallise. (Photos)

Chef Christian Escribà making sugar hair... an alternative to nylon? Photo Credit: oh!BCN Bored of conferences? Looking for inspiration? Then oh!BCN might just be your thing. It is a new kind of happening based around the unusual association of glass and food. We listened to chef Albert Adrià (brother of Ferran from El Bulli), and his ...Read the full story on TreeHugger weiterlesen...

Applications Open: Unreasonable Institute Looking For World-Saving Entrepreneurs

Image: The Unreasonable Institute I wrote last year about the Boulder-based Unreasonable Institute's search for people who have great ideas, who think big, who want to change the world, and who seem like they can. Last year's fellowship was a great success: ...Read the full story on TreeHugger weiterlesen...

Define "Home" Anywhere: Mobile Crate Furniture, Kitchen, Bedroom Etc. By Naihan Li

Photos: Naihan Li What's in the box? As we move from static, consumption-driven lifestyles to living with portability, flexibility and "less is more," it's fascinating to see how thoughtful design can bring this vital ethic to bear. We've seen transformer kitchens, weiterlesen...