Austrian art collective Gelitin has created an installation titled “Normally, Proceeding and Unrestricted With Without Title”. You can row around this four feet deep artificial rooftop lake in boats made from from reclaimed timber and junk-store furniture with oars assembled from old chair legs.
Kansas City MO architect Bob Berkebile is one of the key figures in establishing the importance of green building in this country. Berkebile was instrumental in the founding of both the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as well as the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment (COTE).
Those once-radical ideas have started to go mainstream. In 1993, Berkebile helped create a new group that wasn’t confined to architects: the U.S. Green Building Council. The inaugural meeting of the council fit into a conference room at AIA headquarters. Last November, more than 22,000 green-building advocates and entrepreneurs traveled to Chicago for the council’s annual conference.
Read a profile of Berkebile via: The Pitch
All new homes built in Hawaii will be required to install solar hot water heaters beginning in 2010, cutting energy costs by 30%. The state of Hawaii has a goal of at least 70 percent renewable energy use by 2030. “Achieving this goal is nearly impossible without widespread use of solar water heaters,” Hawaii Sierra Club director Jeff Mikulina says. “The solar roofs bill is smart policy, sensibly crafted to smooth a transition toward zero-energy homes of the future.”
Via: Sierra Club
Image: This Old House
Watch out Swiss Family Robinson, this treehouse in Northumberland County, UK is 6000 square feet! Who knew that McMansions would appear in the trees?
Via: Fun Shotgun
They’re probably drinking a lot of beer in Quqiao village, in Shaanxi Province, China.
Ma Yanjun, a carpenter, said he wanted his mother to be able to enjoy a comfortable shower anytime, and since a solar water heating system was too expensive, he devised a way to make one of his own.
Using only water-filled beer bottles and connecting hoses, Ma’s mother now has hot water on demand, and so do more than 20 other families in the village whom Ma has helped build their own system.
He wants to build a public bathroom for the village using the same process, but he needs enough money to buy the beers. He probably has plenty of volunteers to empty them.
Aussie Klara Marosszek has developed a commercially viable hemp building material. Fire and pest resistant hemp concrete is made by mixing hemp hurds (the pithy core of the stem), lime-based binder, water and a little sand. This is not a new technique, as century old bridges in France were made from hemp concrete.
Via: Treehugger
These homes in the ancient city of Maymand, Shahr-e Babak, Kerman-Iran were carved into living rocks 12,000 years ago, representing the peaceful coexistence of man and nature. The underground homes protect inhabitants from extreme cold or heat in the desert.
See more photos: Fars News Agency
As part of their Earth Day coverage, NPR’s All Things Considered took a look at a LEED Platinum home renovation in Washington DC. Peter Yost from the green building resource BuildingGreen helped to explain some of the possibly unfamiliar green building terms and explained how the elements of this renovation contributed to its being one of the greenest homes in the country.
While building tours on the radio can’t show pictures, the NPR website has several accompanying pictures along with the story and an interactive kitchen tour with more information about the project.
image: NPR
The world’s largest solar kitchen serves up to 38,500 meals per day in Taleti, India. The solar kitchen is a special demonstration project of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India.
Source: Inhabitat
In London, a house has been made of newsprint in reaction to the amount of litter caused by free newspapers distributed in the city. I don’t think this house will pass building codes; however, it was constructed in five days from donated newspapers, wood, and not so eco-friendly plastic zip ties.
Source: Treehugger
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