An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Defensible Space: My Wildfire-Appropriate Retrofit Journey – Part I
Posted on November 16, 2018 | No Comments -
KXL Blocked – How Indigenous People Will End Tar Sands Pipelines
Posted on November 12, 2018 | No Comments -
Mythological Journey to the Aztec Underworld
Posted on October 10, 2018 | 1 Comment -
Confronting Wildfire: Retrofit Communities, Not Forests
Posted on September 17, 2018 | 1 Comment -
San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dangers Compound
Posted on September 4, 2018 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
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green building Archive
How Cities Can Build Affordable Housing
Posted on October 3, 2017 | No CommentsAlan Durning lays out how many cities have succeeded in building affordable housing with some lessons from unexpected places. Yet constrained housing markets come about from economics, environment, and geography, and sprawl remains a scourge that affordable cities have allowed. No silver bullet here, but ideas...
Shipping Containers as Sustainable, Affordable Housing?
Posted on September 27, 2016 | 1 CommentCan re-purposed shipping containers become the next inexpensive, quick to construct, green building solution for affordable housing? Danish "starchitect" Bjarke Ingels, as well as a recent Orange County, California, project, assert yes to all of the above, but there are limitations.
How to Legalize Building and Living in Tiny Houses
Posted on August 23, 2016 | 2 CommentsTiny Houses, although lauded as a green way forward in a world covered in wasteful McMansions and debt enslaving rent payments, must overcome health, safety, and building standard regulations that still consider this form of housing either illegal or difficult to approve. Alyse Nelson charts a way through the red tape.
German Prefab House Generates Twice its Own Energy
Posted on May 9, 2015 | 1 CommentThe prefab Active House B10 prototype in Stuttgart can be built in a day, but its implications will be felt for years. Taking the passive house net zero concept one step further, this fully recyclable tiny house actively generates enough power for multiple properties through its rooftop photovoltaics.
Small Architecture: On Glass Houses Built Over Stone
Posted on January 29, 2014 | 1 CommentIn 2012, Nick Olson and Lilah Horwitz quit their jobs for a time to build a West Virginia mountain hideaway cabin, a tiny summer house made with recycled windows. This is the result.
Songdo, South Korea: Utopian City of Big Data and Urban “Sustainability”
Posted on October 1, 2013 | 10 CommentsThe idea of the "utopian" community began in 1516 with Sir Thomas More's fictional perfected society to present-day attempts to build the most sustainable urban ecosystem. With the case of Songdo International Business District, South Korea, we begin a series of case studies in the success and failure of utopian experiments in living sustainably.
Austria: Energy-Efficient Office Tower Rises Over the Danube
Posted on July 22, 2013 | 4 CommentsTall buildings tend to use massive amounts of energy with big carbon footprints. One new Viennese project featured in Passive House Plus shows that high rise doesn’t have to mean high environmental impact.
Win:Win Journal – Re-Imagining Los Angeles
Posted on May 31, 2013 | 2 CommentsWIN:WIN “The Future, a Sustainable Los Angeles” - How does Los Angeles - its people, buildings and infrastructure establish a restorative, long-term relationship with the environment that hosts it and the financial systems that supports it? Read Jack Eidt's Essay on Poly-Human Los Angeles
Earth Sheltered Homes: Energy-Efficient, Living With the Land
Posted on May 6, 2013 | 5 CommentsEarth Sheltered, energy-efficient houses are bright, airy, dry and quiet. Though popular now among advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture, Earth Sheltering has been around for nearly as long as humans have constructed their homes.
Haiti: Rebuilding Sustainably with Earthbag Houses
Posted on January 28, 2013 | 3 CommentsHaiti’s recovery from the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, plus repeated hits by tropical storms and hurricanes, calls for creative, low-tech, earth-based alternatives. Konbit Shelter, a pairing of international designers including the street artist Swoon with local artisans, have advanced earthbag construction as a viable solution to disaster prone areas.
BioMilano: Italian Eco-Vision Grows 26-Storey Vertical Forest
Posted on January 15, 2013 | 2 CommentsBosco Verticale or Vertical Forest, the first phase of BioMilano, a re-envisioning of Milan, Italy, with an eye toward ecological urbanism, integrating tree and skyscraper, city and wild.
Affordable and Green: Net-Zero House in Washington DC
Posted on December 27, 2012 | 1 CommentEMPOWERHOUSE is a community-based approach to sustainable urban development showcasing the design of two affordable, energy-efficient solar powered homes and a neighborhood learning garden for inner-city Washington DC and beyond.
US EPA: 2012 Awards for Smart Growth Sustainability-Minded Projects
Posted on December 3, 2012 | No CommentsThe U.S. EPA recognized seven communities with its 2012 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. Specific initiatives include improving transportation choices, developing green, energy-efficient buildings and communities, and providing community members with access to job training, health and wellness education, and other services.
A Los Angeles Rail~Volution: A City in Sustainable Transition
Posted on October 23, 2012 | 1 CommentThe Rail~Volution Conference rolled into Los Angeles to illustrate how transit projects energize neighborhoods, meeting a significant demand for multi-density housing walkable to restaurants, offices, and shops. They can transform the landscape and mindset, in this case, of auto-addicted Southern California. One stop at a time.
Earthship Biotecture: Self-Sufficient, Off-the-Grid Communities
Posted on October 16, 2012 | 3 CommentsPassive solar Earthships provide electricity, potable water, sustainable food production, with contained sewage treatment, and can be built anywhere in the world. Renegade eco-architect Michael Reynolds' construction and design process called Earthship Biotecture creates beyond LEED Architecture, a sustainable green building design made of natural and recycled materials.
Urban Neighborhoods Revitalized with Certified Greening
Posted on October 3, 2012 | 1 CommentThree LEED-ND pilot participants—the Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the SALT District in Syracuse, New York; and Tassafaronga Village in Oakland, California—show promise as neighborhood-scale revitalized green adaptive reuse in a difficult economy.
How to Build a Greener City – By Michael Totty
Posted on February 21, 2012 | No CommentsWe must re-create cities greener and more sustainable from the ground up. The goal: compact living environments requiring less resources that maximize utilization of land, water and energy. Here are some suggestions.
Reclaiming Houston: Greening of the Bayou
Posted on February 10, 2012 | 2 CommentsEven Houston, the fossil-fuel-driven, no-zoning-free-market-build-here-there-everywhere-city has found its sustainable voice with the water-park-wildlife-habitat reclamation of Buffalo Bayou.
Philadelphia Green Building: Net-Zero Mixed-Use River Redevelopment
Posted on January 25, 2012 | No CommentsA pioneering green developer in Philadelphia plans the largest "Passive House" mixed-use energy-net-zero redevelopment along the banks of the Schuylkill River.
