Sound Of Sirens

“Compared to traditional residential houses built on the ground, the aim of building an earth house is another: Not to live under or in the ground, but with it.”

The unique architecture of earth houses is characterised by multiple beneficial features:

• Insulation
• Air-Impermeability
• Soil-covered roofs
• Sustainable usage of energy and renewable energy
• Heat zones
• Convenient climatic conditions
• Controlled and integral air conditioning
• Windstorm, Earthquake and Fire Protection
• Landscapre protection and land use
• Light

Read more about the features here - Find more stunning photos there.

via

“Doors Of Perception has posted a Cluster Magazine interview with designers John Thackara and Sunil Abraham. The discussion is chock full of potent brain-food on the future of cites, design, sustainable and informal economies and more. They explain in great detail what changes need to be implemented to improve living conditions for the growing number of city dwellers.”

psfk

You’ll find the interview at John’s Blog, Doors Of Perception. Enjoy!

Die Baunetzwoche widmet Frischgrün 21 ein Special in der aktuellen Ausgabe. Hier gibt es den freien pdf-download.

In Berlin hat sich eine junge, selbstbewusste Landschaftsarchitektenzene entwickelt. Frisches Grün aus der Hauptstadt hat sich nicht nur überregional, sondern auch international zum Markenartikel entwickelt. Die Hintergründe und ein Vorgeschmack auf die Ausstellung „Frischgruen 21“

Die Eröffnung war schon am 5. aber heute startet das Rahmenprogramm (pdf). Besonders interessant finde ich die beiden Termine:

MO, 9. Juni, Prozesse Entwerfen. Landschaften und Freiräume können nicht abschließend entworfen werden. Ihre Konzeptionen müssen heute Interaktion, Erweiterbarkeit und Transformation ermöglichen. Ein Salongespräch auf der Suche nach Strategien und Lösungen zu offenen, veränderbaren, dynamischen und dennoch gestalteten Räumen.

DO, 12. Juni, Landschaftsarchitektur ist keine Kunst. Am Anfang steht die Behauptung, dass Landschafts- architektur eine eigenständige gestalterische Disziplin ist. Wodurch aber zeichnet sich „gute“ Landschaftsarchitektur aus? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage sollen versuchsweise Erkenntnisse aus den Kognitionswissenschaften herangezogen und diskutiert werden.

Allerdings wundere ich mich ein wenig, kein einziges mal das Wort Nachhaltigkeit zu entdecken. Ist das Thema in der Gärtnerzunft etwa so selbstverständlich, dass man auf das medienwirksame buzzword in Presstexten verzichtet? Oder ist das womöglich gar kein Thema?

Und was sagt überhaupt die Permakultur-Fraktion dazu?

Via: Urbanophil

“Let’s just stop right there. Sometimes something is so charming and clever that we need a minute to sit down and take a breath. Come on…how great is this Greenhouse?!” Apartment Therapy

Word! Nice work by Jantze Brogård Asshof - a bitter-sweet combination of slick design with a flavour of sarcasm to-the-point. We like!

via: TheJunction

Anything but sustainable, but definitely a nice piece of interior design for geeks like us me. Allthough i seriously got enough of displays at work, at home and… uhm… in my entire life… and i’m very aware of my their carbon footprint (especially if it’s non-sense like this)… dunno, somehow i like this green-haired little guy:

“Growing plants would be a lot easier if plants could express what it is they need from you. Fret not because that’s what the Pet Plant by Junyi Heo does. The very sleek looking pot measures soil conditions, temperature, humidity, and water - calculates those variables based on the need of said plant, and expresses its condition via a series of pictograms on an LCD display.
It’s also smart enough to know if you’ve over watered and will systematically drain itself into a water vessel. All this high tech goodness does mean it needs power but a simple USB interface does double duty by charging and transmitting pertinent information to and from computer software.”

That last point makes me think about a whole digital-pot battalion across my apartment, all connected with a central cpu. whoaah - it’s like real Sims with plants, isn’t it? ;) *giggle*

via: Yanko Design

“One of the hurdles to making sustainable products is figuring out what the term sustainability means for different materials and ingredients.
Jason Pearson, president and CEO of GreenBlue, a research and design institute, spoke with GreenBiz Radio about how companies are using metrics such as recyclability and renewable energy when determining the quality of products, and what efforts are underway to make cleaner supply chains.”

Again we provide you an insight into how industry treats and thinks about sustainability.

“brought to you by bp” - thank you ;)

via: ClimateBiz

Update: Take a look at the Future Supply Chain Study as well, which [...] “presents a new integrated supply chain model that takes into account sustainability parameters such as CO2 emissions reduction, reduced energy consumption, better traceability and reduced traffic congestion, as well as traditional measures like on-shelf availability, cost reduction and financial performance.”

…is an Exhibition at Walker Art Centers again.

“An estimated 90% of the worlds population is without access to what many of us takefor granted. Clean water, adequate shelter, affordable transportation. Design For the Other 90% at Minneapolis Walker Arts Center showcases 30 products from designers and social activists hoping to create low cost options to everyday products. Some are as complex as the one laptop for every child program, others are as simple aswater filters. Shown here is the Global Village Shelter from Ferrara Design made from corrugated cardboard.
The exhibition is on view, free, until September”

For those who can’t visit Minneapolis - check out the online gallery!

via Selectism

It’s about style, it’s about status and it’s about opportunities deriving out of a ‘consumer-oriented look at the next 12-18 months’:

“Eco-friendly goods and services sporting bold, iconic markers and design, helping their eco-conscious owners show off their eco-credentials to their peers.
At the heart of ECO-ICONIC is a status shift: Many consumers are eager to flaunt their green behavior and possessions, because there are now millions of other consumers who are actually impressed by green lifestyles.”

For those of you who are not familiar with this stuff: This is called a trend-briefing. Here you find the whole thing of may/june 08: www.trendwatching.com/briefing/ Have a look where we’re heading…

People working in this field are called Consumer-Ethnographers. And sometimes I get the feeling that they look at ‘consumers’ a bit like the old ethnographers were investigating ‘the brutes’ back then…quite similar notions and quite similar blindfolds sometimes… Interesting species, these ‘consumers’, aren’t they. And if investigated properly the knowledge of their behaviour will make you rich (first and foremost) and better than the others.

Doesn’t change much, the way of perceiving and thinking, does it. I figure, burned down to the basics, again you’re at growth, competition and expansion oriented folks, manipulating, instrumentalizing and exploiting people and nature. As eco and sustainable you call the development, as ‘eco-embedded’ it would ‘have to become’ - in my book there won’t be any sustainability as long as there is an ethnographer investigating a consumer in order to…

This is nowhere near an understanding of our interconnected nature with our surroundings. This is repeating the same patterns.

But check the trendwatching site - and see for yourself how you feel about this stuff…

Some miscellaneous articles coughed up by my rss reader today:

• No Graduation Ceremony For Student Who Rode Horse To School - No Comment. Click!
• How To Host An Eco-Friendly BBQ, from “The Green Parent - The Kid-Friendly Guide To Earth-Friendly Living” hehe…
• Brave New Word - Tim Flannery’s radical climate change ’solution’.
• US car dealer in free gun (or 250$ gas card) offer - lol, the Americans again! Click!
• Completeley new to me - List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming, an official wikipedia entry.
• Europe seeks greenest city - Commission launches European Green Capital Award
• Polar bears are fine, says Exxon-funded…astrophysicist?
• Digitales Soma - Frogdesign springt auf den Grünen Zug auf und stellt ein rosa grünes Brillenkonzept vor.

Finally, Walt Handelsman sums it up:

Picture by newsday.com / Walt Handelsman

New on my Amazon Wish List!

Canada Innovates: Sustainable Building

Pictures  by Design Taxi Network and Mohawk Fine Papers Inc.

It’s an illustrated book that shows the whole spectrum of canada’s sustainable architecture. Ranging from more rural projects on the countryside up to super mega uber 2048 high-tech inner city concepts. I like the book’s holistic demand by including history, the status quo as well as future concepts and possibilities. Stunning pictures and informative text feature large and completely sustainable communities as well as single closed systems, mostly of urban nature. And hey, even the book itself is sustainable:

‘The book’s commitment to sustainability is stirring — Canada Innovates: Sustainable Building is printed on Mohawk Options, made with process-chlorine-free 100% post-consumer waste fiber and manufactured entirely with wind-generated electricity and certified in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), proving their point that investing the efforts to effect a global revolution in the world of design is no lost cause.’

‘Canada Innovates: Sustainable Building’ is published by School of Design, Faculty of Business and Creative Arts, George Brown-The Toronto City College and edited by Luigi Ferrara and Emily Vasse. isbn 978-1-5526-3957-3

Find reviews and buy the book at Design Taxi or at Amazon.

Starting new conversations on design and innovation.

Doors of Perception is a design blog that not infrequently picks out the issue of design and sustainabilty.

I.e. read this article about ‘Ecocide’!

‘[...] A good example of ecocidal policy in action was an announcement last week concerning the Design Centre of the North (DCN). The regional development agency, One North East, has published a public call for tenders for organisations to run the new institution.

The word sustainability does not appear, once, in the accompanying text - despite the fact that 80 percent of the environmental impact of products and buildings is determined at the design stage. [...]‘

‘[...] Professional design bodies and old-paradigm design schools will persist in dragging their feet - but they are baggage we can afford to leave behind.’

Word!

Via: psfk.

Us Design Studio, always famous for blurring the boundaries between design and art, made a new piece:

“Free to roam on green pastures for health, happiness and recreation, with perminant access to over 60 free on-site classes and activities, ranging from yoga to guitar lessons.”

Even availlable as “Reared in Office Conditions”. Haha!

Via: Sum1