Comment: (1)

Wind turbine observation tower

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+sustainability+technologies

The author of this is proposal is Michael Jantzen. This is an observation tower where people can walk through to view the surronding landscape, while the five wind activated segments of the structure rotate aroud them in diferent directions.

continue reading

Comments: (0)

coolearth, solar energy

Category: ⚐ EN+sustainability

Coolearth2
continue reading

Comments: (0)

Low-cost top electrode

Category: ⚐ EN+sustainability

cellfoil

continue reading

Comment: (1)

Air Rotor System – Magenn Power

Category: ⚐ EN+sustainability

magenn1

continue reading

Comments: (2)

Shipping Container Homes by Container City

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+sustainability+video

Comments: (0)

GROW.1: the original embodiment of the GROW concept.

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+sustainability+technologies

grow.1
First realized as an Industrial Design Thesis project at Pratt Institute in Spring 2005 by Samuel Cabot Cochran, GROW.1 employs thin film photovoltaics with piezoelectric generators and screen printed conductive ink encapsulated in ETFE fluoropolymer lamination.

continue reading

Comments: (0)

Ecological Strategies in Today's Art

Category: ⚐ EN+hallazgos+sustainability

sold_out
continue reading

Comments: (2)

Bioecolab – Modena (Italy)

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+eu:abierto+sustainability

BIOECOLAB is promoted by Provincia di Modena, Comune di Modena, and Promo (Modena Economical Promotion Society ).
It is thought as a place of information, training, research and experience; it interests and involves both the town-planning and housing operetors, and the final user ( the citizen).
It is also thought as a point of reference for the operators of the “sustainable planning and building” trend.

continue reading

Comments: (0)

Do you know what a Makeador is?

Category: findings+sustainability+the environment

We can all be Makeadores. Anyone who can find valuable what others discarded is a Makeador. The alterego of the person that appears at the very moment he/she is about to make the action of reusing.

It comes and goes, it shows in temporary situations when we are looking for something. Makear comes from “make up”, mending, customising, personalising, repairing, tuning, adapting, sorting out… you make it pretty.

In today’s consumer society, brands are any word, name, symbol or object used for identifying and distinguishing articles by a particular producer from those made by competitors. They infer certain personality and image to the products, so that they become dependant on the brand.

Now MAKEA is born. An alternative to the “use & dispose” culture. MAKEA is a brand that doesn’t sell anything. It represents an attitude of resistance.
MAKEA is the collective intelligence and creativity that turns into useful again what the consumer society has rejected. The idea is to bring back the motto “do it yourself”, extending the useful life of products, going back to knowing how to make things, breaking with the “empty wasting commodity” that sells in boxes the consumer culture.

I bet you are curious to see what we are talking about… well, then, check out this website: makeatuvida.net

Comments: (0)

We welcome sustainable engineering

Category: ⚐ EN+engineering+sustainability

A few weeks ago, the British Institute of Structural Engineers published the winners of their international Structural Awards 07. I like some of the winning projects better than others, but there is a little bit of everything among them – slender bridges, complex geometry roofs, intelligent systems for earthquake-resistant structures, even buildings made of lime hemp blocks… but do you know what I could hardly find? Concrete… in return, the term “sustainable” appears in various occasions.

British engineers have surprised me, getting closer to the issue of sustainability, recognising the efforts of professionals who choose their materials to minimise environmental impact; professionals who bear in mind the life cycle of their structures, not only how much money the contractor can save today on a job, the future of which they don’t care about….

Steel prevails in the winning projects. I do know this is the British construction tradition, but I like to think that it is so for many reasons, some of which are positive. If it can favour future rehabilitation, dismantling or recycling of the structures, so much the better.

Despite the British society having apparently taken advantage of general concern about sustainability with their business around “carbon footprints”, I am pleased to see this effort for promoting concern about the environment among yet another group; in this case, structural engineers.