ORQUIDEORAMA: A Beautiful Floating Meshwork of Modular Flower Tree Structures

We’re crazy about this gorgeous botanical garden in Medellin, Colombia that was renovated in 2008 by Plan B Architects. The Orquideorama is an organically expanding wooden meshwork of modular “flower-tree” structures that weaves its way through the garden’s heart. A stunning study on structure and scale, the project unites the micro and macro worlds through an elegant synthesis of cellular and architectural forms.

First Full Bamboo School in Philippines Stands Up to Tough Stormwinds

As you may recall in the famous fairy tale, the three little pigs build homes of straw, brick and wooden sticks to avoid having their houses being huffed and puffed and blown down by a big bad wolf. In the end, the pig with the brick house triumphs, but in real life, a new school in the Philippines (where they know quite a bit about buildings being blown down by powerful tropical winds) has done one better by utilizing a flexible, storm resistant material that is also locally grown and rapidly renewable - bamboo. Designed by architect Eleena Jamil of Malaysia as the winning entry in the Millennium Schools competition organized by Illac Diaz's MyShelter Foundation, the structure was recently completed in Camarines Sur, and is proud to call itself the first full bamboo school in the Philippines.

Arizona Life Science Building Has A Really, Really Big Shading Roof

A growing biotechnology industry necessitated Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, AZ to expand and build a new facility dedicated to life sciences. Through the expansion, the college had three aims: to incorporate the new building into the fabric of the existing campus, enhance collaboration amongst students, teachers and researchers and finally to respect and celebrate the Sonoran Desert. The Life Sciences Building was designed by Marlene Imirzian & Associates Llc, Architects, and includes appropriate desert architecture and sustainability strategies like rainwater collection, xeriscaping, energy efficient design and use of locally sourced materials. Most notable about the building is a gigantic roof that creates the Big Porch, a shaded zone public meeting areas that were designed to enhance collaboration.

LifeEdited Design Contest Yields Awesome Green New York Apartment

 

New Yorkers are used to small apartments. We think keeping sweaters in our stove and having one piece of furniture function as our bed/couch/desk are totally normal ways to live. But what if your tiny apartment could host a 12-person dinner party? Or comfortably accommodate two friends for a weekend visit? A recent crowdsourced contest by LifeEdited tasked contestants to design a 420-square-foot New York apartment that would do just that. The goal of the contest was to motivate designers and the public to be more eco-minded about our living spaces and reduce our carbon footprints.

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No! it’s a… Hostel?!

Visitors traveling to Stockholm will find soon themselves with the option of sleeping on a plane! That may not sound like the most exciting proposition until you realize that the 747-200 in which they will be sleeping has been retired from flying, salvaged from being dumped somewhere to rot and turned into a low-cost, fully-furnished hostel that is perfect for overnight accommodation.

Wolgan Valley Resort: World’s First CarboNZero Certified Hotel

With Valentine’s Day approaching, wouldn’t it be nice to escape for a few days with your loved one and relax in pampered luxury – without feeling guilty about the huge footprint you are adding to the environment? The world class conservation-based Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in the Blue Mountains, located just a 1.5 hour drive south of Sydney, Australia will provide you with luxury AND a guilt-free carbon-neutral experience! It’s the first hotel in the world to achieve international carbon neutral certification through carboNZero, so you are in for quite a treat.

Lunar Cubit: Gigantic Solar Pyramids to Power Abu Dhabi

The motto of these sleek black pyramids is “Renewable Energy Can Be Beautiful.” No, the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas did not suddenly develop a green streak — the project, called Lunar Cubit, is a pyramid-shaped solar power complex designed to power thousands of homes in the Abu Dhabi desert.
The proposal placed first in the Land Art Generator Initiative, a contest which asks designers to integrate art and interdisciplinary processes with the concept of renewable energy. Each proposed project must generate enough green energy to power thousands of homes, while also serving as an innovative public art installation.
Lunar Cubit consists of eight small glossy solar panel pyramids that surround a central large pyramid in a semi circle. The pyramids act as a lunar calendar, and the central pyramid is inversely illuminated according to the phases of the moon — meaning it is at full illumination with the new moon. The surrounding smaller pyramids act like the hands of a clock for the eight phases of the lunar calendar, illuminating in different combinations to indicate the waxing or waning of the moon. Each is outfitted with energy-efficient LED lights, of course.
By day, the pyramids function as solar energy-producing power plants. Each of the frameless solar panels is made of glass and amorphous silicon, and they’re able to produce enough renewable energy to power 250 homes. That may not seem as productive as a solar power farm, yet it is truly exceptional considering it is also a public art installation. If actually constructed, Lunar Cubit would pay back its cost of construction in five years, through the megawatt-hours of clean renewable energy that it produces.
Lunar Cubit, designed by Robert Flottemesch, Jen DeNike, Johanna Ballhaus, and Adrian P. De Luca, combines the power of the moon, ancient measurement (it is proportional to the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza), and renewable energy. The Land Art Generator Initiative is currently seeking partnership to start construction, and if completed, it is anticipated to become a tourist destination in itself.

Modern Dutch House Built From Salvaged Billboards and Umbrellas

A first glance this may appear to be just another nice-looking modern home — until you realize that it is constructed almost entirely from salvaged materials sourced within a nine mile radius of the building site. Dwell’s recent profile of this Dutch home by 2012architects explores the uncommon lengths that the project undertook to make a refined architectural statement with discarded materials. The architects claim 60% of the exterior and nearly 90% of the interior is salvaged through a process they dub recyclicity — read on to find out how they did it.

Dazzling Checkerboard Green Roof Brings the Countryside to South Boston

 

 

The idea behind 'Boston Fusion', a mixed use development for Boston, was to create an idyllic suburban landscape in the heart of the city. Designed by Danish-firm Bayarch, led by Christian Bay-Jørgensen, the green-roofed apartment and commercial building will resemble a hilly countryside. The undulating development will also feature sloping pathways that travel from the street level all the way to tip-top of the building, similar to BIG's 8 Tallet in Denmark.

BIG Unveils a Ski Slope Waste Incinerator for Copenhagen

Bjarke Ingels Group just announced their winning design for an entirely new kind of building — a waste-to-energy plant that doubles as a ski slope and recreation center. Dubbed Amagerforbraending, the project is tucked between the industrial and residential sectors of Copenhagen and will act as a link between the two. The award came as a bit of surprise to the cutting-edge design firm, but given the poetic and functional nature of the project, it may be even more forward-thinking than they thought.
BIG has designed a lot of mountain-like buildings, but this would qualify as their most ambitious in terms of scale and use. They wanted to avoid just wrapping an industrial building to make it look nice. The philosophy from the onset is to use “Hedonistic Sustainability – the idea that sustainability is not a burden, but that a sustainable city in fact can improve our quality of life.” The design is all about the public good, as it stitches two very different aspects of the city together, making an industrial development a tourist attraction.

The Lifepod: Yurt of the Future for the Modern Nomad

If the idea of escape seems all the more enticing now that the rest of the world is caught in the back-to-school rush, here’s another amazing prefab remedy for your wanderlust. Escape to the beach, the mountains or the trees in San Francisco-based Kyu Che‘s sustainable Lifepod. Loosely based on the traditional Mongolian ger (or ‘yurt’ as the Russian translation goes), the Lifepod is at once organic and high-tech. Built to be highly portable, the Lifepod is a fully functioning, off-the-grid mini capsule for modern nomadic living.

Tulsa Architecture Firm Turns Route 66 Gas Station Into Their Office

Route 66 is an iconic highway and a nostalgic part of America's car obsessed past, but after Interstate 40 took over, many of the towns dotting the roadway died. In recent years, an interest in all things vintage is helping buildings and businesses along the original route come back to life. In Tulsa, Oklahoma for example, the architecture firm ElevenTH bought up an old PEMCO gas station and converted it into their new offices. Retaining the original edifice, adding a green lawn and vintage and recycled decor is helping to reinvigorate the streetscape and placing the firm right in the middle of the action.

Waldspirale is a Curvy Rainbow Colored Apartment with a Forest on Top

It may look like something out of a Walt Disney film, but this multi-hued, swirl of an apartment complex is 100% real and located in Darmstadt, Germany. Dubbed the Waldspirale, which translates to "forest spiral" in English, the building has another feature (besides looking crazy) that makes it unique - it has a forest growing on top of it! Designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and built by architect Heinz M. Springmann, the kooky residential complex is certainly one of a kind and must be an enchanting place for its regular tenants - as well as its "tree tenants," as Hundertwasser lovingly referred to them - to make their homes.

Image © Heidas

The Waldspirale contains 105 apartments, a parking garage, and a kiosk. There is also a café and bar located at the top of the forest spiral (imagine how nice that must be!). The building is shaped like a U, in the center of which there is an inner courtyard, playground, and small artificial lake for young residents to play in.
The Waldspirale’s breathtaking diagonal green roof is planted with grass, shrubs, flowers and trees that wind their way up the path of the 12 story building. But those aren’t the only plants that make their home at the Waldspirale. As is typical of a Hundertwasser building, “tree tenants” also protrude from windows and along the facade of the building (though, unfortunately, they don’t pay rent).
And the fun doesn’t stop there. If you take a closer look, the building has some other weird characteristics that you won’t see elsewhere – at least not all in one place. For starters, the Waldspirale has over 1,000 windows and no two are the same. The handles that are attached to the windows and doors follow the same mismatched aesthetic. Oh, and did we mention the gilded onion domes? Yes, the Waldspirale has got those too.

ECO EWOK TREEHOUSES: Finca Bellavista Rainforest Village

If you been dreaming of picking up roots, living on the edge, or literally going out on a limb in terms of eco-lifestyle possibilities, then Finca Bellavista: A Sustainable Rainforest Community might be just the thing for you. Located on the base of an almost 6,000 foot primary rainforest mountain on the South Pacific Coast of Costa Rica – not far from the Pan American Highway, Finca Bellavista was created with the sole purpose of preserving 300 acres of local rainforest by offering a unique opportunity for ecologically minded property owners to live sustainably in and steward a managed rainforest environment.

Lattice-Pattern Dome is a Beacon of Passive Indigenous Design for New Parliament Building In U.A.E.

Plans were unveiled this week for the new Federal National Council's Parliament Building in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. They reveal not only a beautiful design centered around a large white dome, but they also rely on passive solar design and inspiration from indigenous desert architecture to achieve an energy efficient masterplan. LA-based Ehrlich Architects beat out some heavy hitting architecture firms to win the grand prize to design the striking complex, which marries modernity and tradition.

OFF Architecture Proposes Belgrade Science Center Built as an Entire Mountain

This artificial mountain proposed for the center of Belgrade dubbed “Sciencescape” is the innovative vision of OFF Architecture. OFF entered their proposal for the Center for Promotion of Science Competition, but bad weather delayed their efforts and unfortunately it missed the deadline. While it leaves us to wonder if such a radical melding of mountain and building would be well received, if the recent winning proposal of BIG’s Urban Ski Slope tells us anything, it is that this concept would have bode well amongst the competition. Standing tall, the iconic design by OFF is an immersion of natural elements and the built environment, ready to envelop its visitors.

Qatar Unveils New Green Stadium Designs for 2022 FIFA World Cup!

Like any good soccer fan, Qatar is gearing up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in a grand way. The country which has already started making preparations to host the games in 2022 just unveiled detailed plans for their brand new, state-of-the-art stadiums, in addition to the expansion plan for two existing stadiums that will provide spectators with a new way of experiencing all the action. Conceptualized in Germany by AS&P, each of the stadiums will be built to exceed environmental efficiency standards and be easily accessible by public transportation from New Doha International Airport, all host cities, hotels, FIFA Fan Fests and all FIFA Fan Zones, including water taxi parking.

Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Gardens

Vertical Wall on Jean Nouvel’s Musée du quai Branly
Plants have found a home on walls for centuries, but are sometimes incongruous with architecture, often breaking down the structural integrity of a building’s facade. Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Garden System, known as Le Mur Vegetal in French, allows both plants and buildings to live in harmony with one another. The botanist cum vertical landscape designer is probably best know for his gorgeous living wall on the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris (shown above). But Blanc’s Vertical Garden System can be implemented anywhere: indoors or out and in any climatic environment.

James Law’s High Tech ‘Cybertecture Egg’ for Mumbai

James Law Cybertecture International brings high-tech solutions to large scale structures through innovative ideas for intelligent living. The latest future forward design from this firm is the Cybertecture Egg, commissioned by Vijay Associate (Wadhwa Developers) for Mumbai, India. The 32,000 sq m egg-shaped building will combine “iconic architecture, environmental design, intelligent systems, and new engineering to create an awe-inspiring landmark in the city.”
Cybertecture integrates technology, multimedia, intelligent systems and user interactivity to create customizable living and working spaces that focus on experience. The Cybertecture Egg takes this principle working theme a step further with ‘cybertecture health’ – interactive features that monitor occupant’s vital health statistics, like blood pressure and weight. In keeping with the focus on health and wellness, users can customize their views with real time virtual scenery.
The oblong office building incorporates passive solar design to decrease heat gain and lower energy loads. An elevated garden also moderates temperate by using natural vegetation to assist with cooling the building envelope. The Cybertecture Egg will use solar photovoltaic panels and rooftop wind turbines to generate onsite electricity. Water conservation will be managed with a greywater recycling system that will harvest water for irrigation and landscaping.

The Superstar is a Star-Shaped Self-Sustaining City of the Future

The city of tomorrow takes to the skies in an incredible new concept from Beijing-based MAD Architects. Although its spires may look menacing, the aptly named Superstar is a completely self-sustaining city that is capable of producing all of its own power and food while recycling all of its waste. Conceived as a future-forward update to the contemporary Chinatown, the Superstar will travel the globe, supplying its host cities with energy, commerce, and cultural activities.