I'm one of those who some years ago bought a Mac Powerbook, and have never even thought or contemplated updating my computer with anything else other than another product manufactured by Apple... (In my opinion) They are just miles away from the regular thing.

Well if that wasn't enough for you, maybe you have another reason now, to at least think about it. It's not just because they are more intuitive, user-friendly or (lets face it) better looking; in fact, "the highly recyclable, even more energy-efficient MacBook family has been designed with the environment in mind."

. Many harmful toxins eliminated.
. Highly recyclable.
. Reduced packaging.
. More energy efficient.
. Longer-lasting battery in 17-inch MacBook Pro.
. EPEAT Gold.
. A commitment that starts with products.

Read more here

Roofs are for people, and should be green and accessible. That is what is so exciting about New Heden in Gothenberg, Daniel Andersson's final thesis at Jönköping University, with Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky of Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects. as tutors. The form of the buildings, "built as sliced hills with grass roofs that can be walked upon" brings the green roofs right down to grade, making them accessible; rooftops become terrain.

New Heden looks green from above. Even though denser developed it has a much greater biomass than its predecessor. Local cultivation of fruits and vegetables is a natural part of living in the area. Grass roofs and parks enrich the animal life and plant life and let nature become an integrated part of the city centre. They also absorb rain water that can be purified and reused as household water.

It is interesting to see how the development of green roofs is actually changing architecture and design.

Julien de Smedt Architects also did a proposal for Rimini, Italy that brings green roofs down to the ground and makes the roofscape part of the terrain.


Designboom describes it:
"The powerful and recognisable pattern evokes sand ripples and sea waves and has the incredible ability to allow both longitudinal and transversal connections : to facilitate the meanderings of passers-by strolling along the boardwalk while at the same time integrating the street connections coming from the city."

But the most interesting feature is the way the town connects to the beach by essentially walking over the building.

Art as a form of raising awareness is always refreshing, in that context I came accross this project which in my opinion is closely related with the one in the previous post.

Superflex's apocalyptic new work explores the path that leads from consumption to catastrophe, comprising Jakob Fenger, Bjornstjerne Christiansenand Rasmus Nielsen, they have worked for over 15years on a wide range of projects that deal broadly, and distinctively politically, with global issues. Much of their work has been built around ideas of democratising production and consumption processes — as in their open-access TV channel Superchannel, their work Supercopy that challenges ideas of legal copyright, or the soft drink Guaraná Power they created with Amazonian farmers to challenge the stranglehold multinational beverage manufacturers on commodity prices. But Flooded McDonalds, the second in a series of new films is an example of their intersest in the relationships between global warming and our role as consumers.

Flooded McDonald's from Superflex on Vimeo.

Sea levels are rising due to climate change... but how much could they rise and how quickly? And how could this affect us?
Watermarks is an artist led, public art project that will use a series of large scale projections at sites across the centre of Bristol to explore these questions...

Flood level marks are projected on to the sides of buildings, showing how high water levels could potentially rise as the sea inundates the central, low lying areas of Bristol. By displaying these levels in real space, the project aims to help us to imagine the depth and extent of this potential future flooding - allowing us to measure them against ourselves in familiar environments.

The complexity and inherent uncertainty involved in predicting sea level rise means there is little consensus across the global scientific community as to how much sea levels could rise in the coming decades. The Watermarks project will use current UK government predictions for the next century to set key flood mark levels. The project, however, will also acknowledge uncertainty explore other scenarios.

Chris say: "Although the message is stark, the flood levels shown are as if the city is undefended and adaption measures have not been put in place. As the waters gradually rise over the coming century, there is much we can do to adapt and defend!

"This project contends that the future of our cities and landscapes and our responses to rising sea levels are not just left to scientists, politicians, engineers and the built environment professions but emerge from as wide a base as possible with participation and involvement from all sections of the wider community. Ultimately the mitigation and adaptation measures will be social and cultural as much as scientific and technical."

The site-specific installation runs in conjunction with a website and workshops that are intended to encourage debate and creative participation of the audience.

Remember when we used to plot the construction of our own treehouse with wooden planks, ropes and leaves? Not anymore it seems... Swedish firm Tham & Videgard Hansson Arkitekter designed a fancy new TreeHouse that minimizes its visual impact on Nature. It's an interesting concept though i'm positive it ruins the idea and the magic behind the point of having such a construction. On the other perspective, it also creates an all new dimension of illusion to rejoice upon. Check Tham & Videgard Hansson Arkitekter for more information.

He is one of the most liberal and progressive congressmen in the U.S. today. He has a true passion for preserving the environment and advocates cycling quite strongly by trying to create proper infrastructures, passing bills (and by riding his bike to work everyday dressed in an expensive suit, a bow tie and a colourful pin of a bicycle).

video taken from Street Films

Today I came accross an interesting new blog. Insightful and blunt, its author is a former teacher of mine in FAUP. Make sure you take a peak at Shrapnel Contemporary

In 2009, one of the most eagerly anticipated buildings in the last 20 years was to be completed: The headquarters of CCTV in Beijing, designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA.

A striking, integral piece of that complex was the nearby Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Sadly, it looks like the hotel has almost completely burned down this morning.

"Flames 20-30 feet high shot out of the building, just north of the landmark CCTV tower designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. The flames were reflected in the tower, which itself appeared to be untouched. No one appeared to have been in the building, a policeman on the scene said, adding he had no immediate knowledge of any casualties. The destroyed building housed the Mandarin Oriental hotel in eastern Beijing, which was supposed to open in 2009. The fire department did not immediately comment on the suspected cause of the blaze."

Reuters

Here's a video of the entire complex, and a series of views of the MO Hotel:

Concrete is a familiar substance. Its durable nature and versatile applications have made its usage ubiquitous throughout our cities. However this primary building material is also extremely energy intensive to make and transport, and produces a significant amount of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Can the omnipresent grey substance ever be reconciled as a green building material?

Concrete’s impact on the environment starts when limestone is blasted in quarries to make cement - the binder, or substance that sets and hardens it into a useful building material. Cement accounts for 7 to 15% of concrete’s total mass by weight and is made by superheating (in coal-fired kilns) a mixture of limestone and clay and then grinding the resulting substance into a powder. When this power mixes with water, it forms strong calcium-silicate-hydrate bonds that can bind other particulates, like sand or gravel, to make concrete. The cement-to-water ratio determines the strength of the concrete.

Once limestone has been blasted and mined it is then transported to a cement plant, where the fuels used by the plant and machinery produce CO2 emissions. Next the limestone, or calcium carbonate, releases CO2 when it is heated to make the cement. Forty percent of CO2 emissions from the cement plant come from the combustion process and Sixty Percent of CO2 emissions come from the calcination process, according to the Cement Sustainability Initiative report produced by members of the concrete industry. The report also says that since calcination is intrinsic to the process, they must focus on reducing energy use associated with the manufacture of concrete.

So what does concrete have going for it?

It lasts. This is the stuff the Romans built their empire with. Concrete is highly resistant to heating and thawing. It’s impermeable to air and wind-driven rain. And concrete is inedible, so bugs and vermin can’t gnaw at it. This durability means that a building can preserve its concrete foundation or concrete exterior while replacing less durable parts like windows, insulation and plumbing (you get a point from LEED if you reuse a building).

A building with exterior concrete walls can also be energy-efficient, especially in climates that have daily temperature fluctuations. Even though concrete provides little insulation, it creates thermal mass that can store warmth or cold, reducing indoor temperature fluctuation. White concrete also reflects heat and can mitigate the urban heat island effect.

A Locally-Sourced Material: Another reason concrete is so popular is because the raw materials to make it are prevalent in most of the world. For the eco-conscious builder, this means it can be locally-sourced, reducing CO2 emissions from transportation. Of course, “local” is a relative term – advocates in the cement industry claim that “the cement, aggregates, and reinforcing steel used to make concrete and the raw materials used to manufacture cement are usually obtained or extracted from sources within 300 miles of the ready mixed, precast concrete, or masonry plant.”

Concrete can also be be recycled – to a point. The concrete industry web site concretethinker.com says: “Most concrete in urban areas is recycled as fill or road base and not placed in landfills. Concrete pieces from demolished structures can also be reused to protect shorelines, for example in gabion walls or as rip rap.” Used concrete can also be reused as the aggregates in new concrete. Concrete’s recyclability is limited because its chemical properties change over time and with each processing. Other materials can be recycled as aggregates in concrete.

Canadian environmental consultants, Carbon Sense Solutions, may have just developed a carbon storage method that could reduce global CO2 emissions by as much as 1% a year. Their new method called, CO2 Accelerated Concrete Curing, accelerates the curing process and stores carbon dioxide at the same time. This method applies only to precast concrete, but has the potential to make a huge impact on the world.

The method, also known as concrete carbonation, actually occurs naturally as concrete cures, but up until now has not been considered economical. Carbon Sense Solutions says it has developed a faster way to store more CO2 in concrete, using off the shelf technology, which uses dramatically less energy. They also claim the concrete is more durable, more resistant to shrinking and cracking, and less permeable to water.

As concrete is used more than any other man made material on earth, (the Chinese alone consume 40%!), and concrete is responsible for upwards of 5% of global CO2 emissions, any amount of increase carbon storage in concrete would make a difference. So if Carbon Sense can really deliver as they say it can in Technology Review, the process “has the potential to sequester or avoid 20% of all cement-industry carbon dioxide emissions.”
That’s some carbon sucking concrete.
as seen in inhabitat

We are certainly facing an economic crisis like most of us have never seen before, and the signs can be seen all over the world, but are we reaching the extreme of offering valuable services for close to nothing? Or is this a clear case of a genius idea that we have never thought of before?

"I'm serious," John Morefield said, laughing when asked about his booth, which has appeared two weeks in a row at the open-air street market in old Ballard. "I'm here to answer questions. And I do charge a nickel. I've made a dollar today so far."

Twice laid off from architectural firms in the past year when work dried up, the 27-year-old was inspired by a public radio program's "Ask an Iraqi" show and Lucy's psychiatric help stand in the comic "Peanuts." Morefield decided to set up a booth, offer cheap advice on home remodeling - and hope the contacts would turn into design jobs.

So he built the small stand and painted his sign. He packed up his draftsman tools and laptop (for mapping research that extends beyond the top of his head) and set out. He secured space with market organizers, and brought a stool and a warm coat.

The more I think of it, the more I realise that it was an excellent idea. "It will never pay off", you might say; but the truth is that this guy has already had news coverage from the blogosphere, some newapapers... and on top of this discreet fame and attention he is getting, he still has the chance of finding some job opportunities amongst the people he talks to in the street. So, in a way, it has paid off already.
A genius is an individual who successfully applies a previously unknown technique in the production of a work of art, science or calculation... according to wikipedia, this guy is Einstein. Lets wait and see.

Check out his website here: Architecture 5¢

Eco-enthusiasts will soon have a new eco-paradise island to escape to! Bonaire, a part of the Netherlands Antilles, will be the first island in the Caribbean with a 100% sustainable energy supply. In 2007 the local government of Bonaire, who prides on its island’s beauty and natural preservation, agreed to this ambitious project of trashing its fossil fuel energy dependence and developing an energy system comprised of an 11MW wind farm, 14MW biodiesel plant, and a 3.5MW backup battery. Ecopower Bonaire BV, a consortium of Dutch-German companies, Evelop, Enercon, and local Bonaire Water and Energy Company, is spearheading this project that is expected to finish at the end of 2009.

The project developers first installed a pilot 330kW wind turbine, whose current energy production exceeds any of their initial expectations. As a result, 12 more 0.9MW wind turbines will be installed on the north coast of the island, where wind and surf conditions are most ideal. This wind farm alone can meet the energy demands of the island’s 15,000 permanent residents! Still, five bio-diesel generators are under construction for added stability, and developers expect the switchover from conventional fuels to bio-fuels within 3 years of operation.
Like its neighboring islands such as Aruba and Curacao, Bonaire’s economy is heavily reliant on tourism. Bonaire has strategically developed its land span of 111 sq. miles and the surrounding coral reed for tourism and eco-tourism, making it a top ranked Caribbean destination for scuba diving and witnessing wildlife. The island’s north side is also home to an array of flamingos, a donkey sanctuary and an ecological preserve. With beautiful beaches, great snorkelling, and 100% sustainable energy supply, what more could an eco-enthusiast ask for on her eco-holiday?

As seen in inhabitat

Hosted by Core77 and Inhabitat in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association, this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition produced an incredible crop of entries from a worldwide community of designers. After sorting through hundreds of promising entries the choices are narrowed down to 50 top picks...

This one is my personal favourite:

Blight




Description

The sun provides us with energy every day. How can we use it directly for indoor applications? Blight is an optimal indoor lighting solution that is able to replace current lamps without any need of electric supply. With Blight we have not produced a new object; we have just created the design of an everlasting product: the Venetian blind. We use all the current functions of this object and add a little technology to give it a new function - to catch solar energy and convert it into electricity.

This solar blind creates a link between indoor and outdoor, taking the daylight during the day and giving it back at night. The advantage of the Venetian blind is to have a large surface exposed to sunlight in a small, cumbersome object. With the revolving blades we can follow the course of the sun in order to catch a maximum of energy. Moreover we can adjust the position of the lamp to obtain various lighting effects. The produced energy can be used to supply a computer or other devices, by means of an inverter.

The object will combine two newly-discovered technologies: Flexible solar cells, and electroluminescent foil which requires little energy. Blight is durable and ecological because power cables are not needed and solar power is clean. This improved Venetian blind could be used in the household as well as in office applications.

You can check the rest of the list here.