Archive for the ‘Sustainable Energy’ Category
Monday, March 1st, 2010
Smart design meets city lights in these solar-powered LED street lights by Phillips. Inspired by how flowers open up to the sun to collect the sun’s energy, the Sustainable City Lights feature photovoltaic petals that open during the day to collect the sun’s rays and transform them into energy. Then at night, the light closes and LED lights turn on to brighten city streets.
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Posted in Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Energy, Urban Design | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
A proposed 239-unit development in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley has yet to come to fruition, leaving an ugly, empty lot in its place. Seeing this, a group of enterprising citygoers have decided to turn the lot into Hayes Valley Farm, an education and research project sponsored by the San Francisco Parks Trust.
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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
A design for the new Los Angeles NFL stadium is in the works and it is set to be the first NFL stadium ever to become LEED certified. Designed by Aedas, a global architecture firm, the Los Angeles Stadium might be finished as early as the 2011 football season, although what NFL team will make its home there is still unknown. Aedas has designed the eco stadium to be a multi-purpose venue and has also included a significant commercial and entertainment sector. With smart design, reduced CO2 emissions and major recycling initiatives, the LA Stadium will be a great boon to the city.
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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
South Korea’s Jeju Island is known for its outstanding aesthetic beauty — it’s an area that bears testament to the compelling natural history of our planet. Listed as a UNESCO site, the island will soon be host to a new World Natural Heritage Center. The center is anticipated to become a meeting place set to educate and promote the importance of preserving the island and its heritage for future generations to come.
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Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
The National Ecological Institute of South Korea recently released plans for a large-scale nature reserve complete with an incredible series of eco domes, an education center, and an environmental think-tank. Designed by SAMOO, the Ecorium Project will be a striking environmental center comprising thousands of acres of open space in addition to greenhouses and a visitor center. Much like the Eden Project in the UK, the Ecorium Project will serve to educate people about nature, and provide a space for study of the world’s eco-systems and how best to protect them.
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Monday, January 25th, 2010
What if we could combine turbines with tourism – turbism? Tourbines? That’s what one design firm, On Office, wants to do on Norway’s coast. Their brainchild, called Turbine City, houses a posh hotel, swanky spa and culturally-stimulating museum right inside the base of a towering wind turbine!
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Monday, December 14th, 2009
If you think your neighbor’s holiday lighting spectacle is an exercise in excess, wait till you see the world’s largest LED project, recently completed in Abu Dhabi. Created by Asymptote Architecture with lighting design by Arup, The Yas Hotel is a wrapped with a sparkling shell composed of more than 5,300 diamond-shaped panels bristling with over 5,000 LED fixtures. The curvilinear field of lights is capable of running color-changing light sequences and can even display low-res three-dimensional videos
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) was recently awarded the contract to create a stunning new Central Business District in Beijing. The project will integrate into the existing downtown urban district and will improve transportation infrastructure while introducing energy-efficient buildings green public space. The plan also provides a framework for new sustainable growth that would result in eliminating 215,000 tons of CO2 per year, which is the equivalent of planting 14 million adult trees.
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
The question, “what will our cities of the future look like?”, is a question that has captured the imagination of many minds, at many times.
After all, here we are in the 21st century, a millennium ahead of us for testing and witnessing just how far the lines between science fact and science fiction will blur.
At the ground level in little ole Aotearoa we all have reason to despair at a lack of focus on our urban futures and the design of those urban futures. We don’t do “urban” as well as we need to.
A suggestion for Auckland’s Queens Wharf
Abstract from Urban Logic’s Article in the Idealog Magazine
Delaying the doing is a fine art. The tools are many and varied. Take time for a lavish display of consultation; commission a report or, even better, commission a scoping study for a possible report. Form a working party, a subcomitteee, perhaps a Commission (that’ll be productive). Wait while facts are found, legislation is passed, funds are freed or an election is held. If that doesn’t work, urban planners everywhere have another option: hold a design competition. Invite the world to enter. Now you have years before anything needs to be done.
Read the full article here at Idealog.co.nz
Posted in Architecture, Engineering, Green Designs, Just Interesting, Landscape Architecture, Landscape Art, Sustainable Energy, Transport, Urban Design | No Comments »
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Wind power is the fastest growing source of renewable energy in Europe, so it’s no surprise to learn that Denmark is launching the world’s biggest offshore wind farm this week. Using 91 turbines scattered across 35 square kilometers, the Horns Rev 2 farm, built by Danish utility company Dong Energy, will be able to produce 209 megawatts of power – enough for a staggering 200,000 homes.
With a price tag of $1 billion, Horns Rev isn’t cheap. But the project could offset some serious carbon emissions and help Europe achieve its goal of getting 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. If offshore wind projects continue, the European Wind Energy Association predicts that offshore turbines could produce as much as 10% of the EU’s power in the next 11 years.
The US has been reluctant to get on board with offshore wind power, mostly because of the increased cost of offshore energy, maintenance concerns, and naysayers who think the turbines are unsightly. But with Europe expecting offshore wind to provide up to 200,000 new jobs by 2025, perhaps the US should think twice before dismissing the technology.
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