Green Roof Mashup: Golf Course, Filtration Plant, Park and Prison

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.27.09

The Bronx NIMBYs went nuts when it was proposed that a water filtration plant be built in a park. So the architects, Grimshaw, followed what is becoming a common strategy: put a green roof on it and show it from the air. Building? What building?

And in this case, it's BIG, nine acres big, and they are putting in putting.

“The distinction here is it’s not just a green roof, but a performative green roof that needs to provide all these functions,” [Landscape Architect] Smith said in an interview. “I think we’re pushing both the design of the green roof and the design of the golf course in new directions. We’re working to see how far we can push the diversity of the ecology and still adhere to the constraints of the golf course.”

The Architects Newspaper writes:

When this heavily secured compound is completed in 2012, it’s due to be topped by far more than just new turf. Grimshaw and landscape architect Ken Smith have designed one of the largest and most intensive green roofs to date, which is also a fully functioning driving range. And an irrigation system for the golf course. And an integrated security program for the facility below. Think Pebble Beach meets the Biosphere meets Rikers.

The engineering challenges are formidable. At nine acres, the $95 million driving range is the largest contiguous green roof in the country. So when it rains at the range, it pours, which creates a paradoxical hazard for the plant below. “It’s of paramount importance to the City of New York that this building stay dry, despite being full of water,” said David Burke, the project architect at Grimshaw. So to handle the millions of gallons that can accumulate on the green roof during a storm, the design team has devised a natural filtration system to collect, process, and store the runoff

A Living, Biodegradable Mushroom Chair By Shinwei Rhoda Yen

by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada on 03. 2.09

Mushrooms ate my furniture chair by Shinwei Rhoda Yen (All photos: Design Boom)

What if our furniture were ‘living’ somehow? Well, this clever ‘mushrooms ate my furniture’ chair by designer Shinwei Rhoda Yen has all the right elements – it’s simple, biodegradable and its underside is graced by small mushrooms. One can easily imagine it outdoors as a comfy seat to use while gardening, and as a tool to grow mushrooms (perhaps ones suitable for eating?). Let's take a closeup view of this fantastic chair:

Hey, are those shitake mushrooms?
Closeup of the mushrooms...

The chair’s bottom is already embedded with spores for easy growing, and the straightforward design allows the mushrooms to grow and live on the chair for years, as they feed off the nutrients of the wood. Eventually, the chair will degrade naturally. The chair presents a minimal and intelligent statement about the life-cycles of consumer products, and it’s one that suggests a re-thinking and re-defining versatility and sustainability to include the humblest of life forms as well.

Greener Gadgets: The Lightimus Solar LED Light

March 2, 2009 · Print This Article

There were a lot of amazing eco-friendly inventions unveiled during the 2009 Greener Gadgets Design Competition, and ultimately, there could only be one winner: The Tweet-a-Watt. One design that didn’t make the top 4 but was brilliant and eye-catching all the same was the Lightimus, an indoor solar light that acts as a constant reminder of the cycle of life.

From Core 77:

Light, Time & Us… All we are sharing the same time and the same planet to which the sun gives life. However, modern life makes us self-focused, and causes us to forget that we are a part of total life chain on our planet. Global warming, enviromental pollution and biological pollution threaten this chain and a sustainable lifecycle.

Lightimus is a decorative lighting design emphasizing the importance of the life cycles of our planet by keeping on its own life cyle during its usage. The product is in the form of an hourglass. One side is composed of solar panels and accumulates energy during day time. The other side is composed of a series of LED lights to lighten its enviroment during night time. When fully charged, its NiMh Battery can illuminate 12 LED bulbs (3mms) for up to 8 hours. When the lights fade away in the morning, you rotate the other side and put it under the sun; in the night it will be ready to illuminate its enviroment again. And the cycle continues - there is no switch on this product.

The LED bulbs on the Lightimus fade away gradually, mimicking the setting sun and representing the passage of time. It may not be the next amazing piece of eco-technology that’s gonna help us save the world, but it’s a slick piece of green design that we’d love to see go into production.

A house made of paper for poor and homeless

A house made of paper for poor and homeless

Friday, 23 January 2009 17:34

Gerd Niemoeller, a design engineer has created the ultimate 'wall paper house' from recycled cardboard and newspapers. These accommodation units provide a fine option for the homeless and poor, as it can be built for less than $5000.

Constructed from an innovative cellulose-based material, the Universal World House is light, cheap, well-insulated, and remarkably strong, making it an incredible asset to developing countries, the homeless, and those displaced by disasters.

It measures 36 square meters, weighs about 800 Kg, can be assembled, is environmentally friendly and earthquake-proof. It comes complete with plumbing, eight built-in single and double beds, and basic facilities. Its versatile structure allows its walls to open up to take advantage of daylight and natural ventilation.

The modular prefab is constructed from Swisscell, a material made from cellulose extracted from recycled newspaper and cardboard. The material is impregnated with resin and formed into honeycomb walls that provide excellent insulation and offer a a great strength-to-weight ratio.

The process is extremely cheap, and machinery can be easily mobilized to other countries, cutting down on the impact of shipping the homes and providing local manufacturing jobs. Niemöller has stated: “From the very beginning, our goal was to create practical, environmentally sustainable, and, most importantly, cheap living quarters for the slums of the Earth.”

The greenhouse-gas emissions for an entire country : Possible to measure ??

The United Nations reported this week that Kyoto Protocol signatories have reduced greenhouse-gas emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels, four years ahead of the treaty schedule.

For a country to get a direct readout of its national emissions, it would have to put a greenhouse-gas meter on every tailpipe, landfill, and cow. Since that's impractical, government officials track the inputs rather than the outputs. In other words, they count up the number of gallons of fossil fuels consumed, cattle raised, and pounds of waste produced. From there, it's just a matter of doing the right calculations.

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Green economy will help fight climate change

Green economy will help fight climate change
“The McKinsey study shows once and for all that taking action on climate change is both urgent and affordable”, said WWF Director James Leape.

Brussels - New figures released today show that moving to a “green” global economy could not only protect the planet from the worst effects of climate change but is surprisingly affordable.

Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy- a new study by McKinsey and Co – shows that global warming can be kept below the critical 2°C rise and that it is well within our means to do so.

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Green economy will help fight climate change..