Baker Cookstove, an Energy Efficient Cookstove by Claesson Koivisto Rune
The majority of women in the developing world prepare food on a technology called a three-stone fire. It is basically three rocks that support a pot with an open fire in the middle. This cooking method is very inefficient and leads to many environmental and health problems. One very real side effect being that children are denied education and future because they are sent to collect firewood. Wood that every day is founder at further distances. The walk takes all day and leaves no time for school.
However, since the three-stone method is a tradition since thousand of years a new stove must allow the user to keep their way of life intact to be successful. The solution found by Claesson Koivisto Rune is to make a stove that burns wood, but as efficient as possible.
The design approach has really been the same as with any design project. Design is about solutions – function, usability, unification – and about adding an immaterial – humane, aesthetic, iconic – dimension.
You can still cook over burning wood, but with the Baker stove you need only one third of the wood of before. In numbers from tests at the University of Nairobi the
Baker Cookstove achieve a 56% reduction in CO and 38% reduction in particulate matter.
Windworks by Merel Karhof
Windworks, the latest project of Merel Karhof, just opened last week on the Dutch National Mill Day at the well-known and typical area of the Zaanse Schans, in the north-west of the Netherlands.
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Unique to this project is that the materials (dyes, fabrics and wood) are all created at the Zaanse Schans and all use a free and inexhaustible energy source; the wind. Visit Windworks until 19 May at colour mill ‘De Kat’, and experience how windmills that are working together can turn into a complete production process.
Windworks can be seen as an urban factory, using wind as its main source of energy. According to Merel Karhof there is an important element missing in the discussion around free sources of energy as she explains the idea behind her project as follows: ‘’Everyone is talking about green energy, but nobody knows what that means, how much wind energy do you need to make a scarf? In this project I have visualised the wind, and what it can produce.”
A variety of little colourfull pillows form the upholstery of the stools, chairs and benches. Each size of the pillow represents the amount of time needed by the wind to make it, thus giving insight into length of the production process.
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’38,’ Pendant Light by Omer Arbel for Bocci
Designer Omer Arbel has designed a new collection for light brand ‘Bocci’ made of recycle glass. The pendant light features spheres of glasses suspended to semi-rigid copper cables forming irregular arcs floating in the air. The orbs comprises between four to six blown glass balls wherein inside three of them LED are inserted. Small plants can be insert in the rest of the cavities to form a harmonious illumination that united greenery, light and ecology.
The Vertical Forest, Milano, Italy by Boeri Studio
Studio Boeri is now building the first vertical forest that willcontribute to purify the air in the cities, absorb CO2 and dust particles, producing oxygen and protect from radiation and acoustic pollution.
‘Techno-Pods,’ Green Rubbish Bins by Renew Solutions
The‘Techno-pods,’the UK Green rubbish bins has doubled as on-screen news services in the City of London. The green rubish bin have recycled over 100 tonnes of waste since their launching providing a solution to the growing paper waste created by free daily newspapers and recycling up to half a tonne of waste every working day.The innovative bins, referred to as ‘techno-pods’ by their developer Renew Solutions, feature LED screens streaming up-to-date news on everything from tube delays to financial market developments.
‘Luci,’ Potable Solar Lantern Light by MpowerD
‘Luci,’ Green Transportable Light is different than any other. ‘Luci’ is an inflatable, water-resistant bright LED solar lantern with three light settings – dim, bright and emergency flashing. The developers had on mind to empower the developing world through solar power, providing greater equity to those without access to electricity. Luci was designed to be independent of a power grid. The lamp can be recharged in the sun in six hours and then produce six to 12 hours of light. The light runs in three different modes, low, high, or a distress mode where it flashes.
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Nature Speaker Bird Perch & Nest by Eun Ji Lee
For lovers of nature and birdsong, not for others who might be annoyed. This very nice sound amplifier sets the scene for a magnificent performance.
Via Yanko Design
Hidden House, Project by 123dv
Hidden House, the latest project from 123dv proved to be challenging, but also very exciting: they were asked to design an ECO House.
In a time when words like sustainable, ecological and green are almost an obligation, they are often only used as a label. Thanks to our friends from Mode:Lina we were involved in a Polish design competition. The assignment was clear and simple: design a house for a standard family, on a standard location, but with a highly sustainable performance.
We had faced this topic before in previous projects, but it had not yet been used as core of the design. For this competition we were asked to be bold, to push to the boundaries of sustainability. It took us several brainstorm sessions to find the right strategy, but at the end we all agreed on one thing: our answer to the question should be architectural. Since we are not engineers, biologists or scientists, we had to look at it from an architectural point of view: does the house contribute to the quality of daily life?
As architects, we deal with space, organization, shapes, light, materials… So we took a basic shape (rectangle), used an age-old natural and ecological recourse (geothermal heat) and combined the two. The house is a rectangle of 28 by 9 by 4.3 meters that for two thirds has been plugged into the ground under an angle of 21 degrees! With one gesture, we created both a strong visual statement and a high performance energy standard. Simple, strong and efficient, but not without consequence. We also had to deal with the psychological impact of living in a sloped house, underneath the ground and with little natural light. We solved this by taking the daily life cycle into account for every floor. The more private spaces are underground and sheltered from the outside world. The living spaces are located above the ground in contact with the light and the surroundings.
‘Bridge House,’ in the Netherlands by 123DV Architects
‘Bridge House,’ by firm 123dv is their latest realization made in Achterhoek, Netherlands. The house was designed to be self efficient and sustainable. At any time, the occupants can go off the net without losing their energy supply. Water is drawn from a private well, and the practical and sustainable built-in features include solar panels, roof and floor heating through thermal energy storage, reuse of rainwater, a septic tank, shielded power cables, and Heat Mirror glass. The windows glasses are acting as efficient and environmentally friendly awning, cooling the house and keeping out excess heat.
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Rooftop Garden in Manhattan by Pulltab Design
Located in the roof top of Manhattan this rooftop designed Pulltab Design offers amazing views of the surrounding building while maintaining a sense of privacy for the owner. At the center of the design there is a large rough white oak block selected from a lumber mill in Pennsylvania. Designed to gracefully weather over the years, the oak blocks are acting as fountain and bench creating a focal point in the garden.
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Neighbirds Houses by Andreu Carlulla
Neighbirds Houses created by Andreu Carlulla is a modular birds’nest handmade from untreated pinewood with a removable little branch for birds to stand on
The bird house is easy to installation in either wild or urban enviromments, as it can be hanged onto a branch, a structure, a hook or a wall. It is a way to bring birds closer to your home and to be able to observe more closely.
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Help Remedies
Help remedies was established by Richard Fine and Nathan Frank is an American pharmaceutical company based in New York City. The company sells assortments of single-ingredient over-the-counter medications. They we recently honored with the Grand Prix for Good for helping to develop an unusual new product for pharma boutique Help Remedies: an adhesive bandage that could save someone’s life. Help Remedies is trying to make healing simple, minimalist,less wasted, less confusion.
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Air Garden, Green Closure
AIR GARDEN is vertical modular jardinière system of closure that makes possible to Separate atmospheres or Plots, construction of Green walls… full of color and aroma.
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‘Click and Grow,’ Self Watering Planter
‘Click and Grow,’ is an electronic smartpot that grows plants without any watering and fertilizing. No need to have knowledge about gardening, instead everything will be taken care by the smart technology that measures all the necessary parameters and doses an exact amount of water, fertilizer and air, according to the plant’s needs. No more constant watering, guesswork and worrying whether your plant is getting exactly what it needs.
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Vertical Garden installed in USP Sagrado Corazón Clinic in Seville
Terapia Urbana has created the first vertical garden to be installed in a hospital center in Europe. In the USP Sagrado Corazón Clinic in Seville, Spain. This garden encompasses a beautiful collection of 1400 plants selected from more than 40 plant species.
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Nomad Architectural System by Mio
The Nomad System designed by Jaime Salm and Roger Allen from Mio is a fantastic double-wall cardboard modules that can be transforms into endlessly customizable architectural system to separate a room to another or free-standing, sculptural screens, temporary partitions, rooms or even displays. The Nomad System is made of entirely green material.
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Green Home Design 2012
My Exhibition is back with a new autumn event “Green Home Design, living the present” an exhibition on architecture, sustainable building and energy efficiency organized by My Exhibition in collaboration with MADE expo and patronized by the Green Building Council.
Within its surface area of 1600 sq m, Green home design offered hospitality to three houses, one playschool, a congress hall and a lounge area with Bio bar, all of which were proper prefabricated 1:1 scale structures. The designers of the project, Aldo Cibic, Marco Piva and Massimiliano Mandarini presented their own interpretation of contemporary architecture with projects that combine aesthetic research, functionality and energy-efficient solutions.
For Green Home Design the Cibicworkshop has designed an installation in scale which consists of two houses built with two innovative solutions: the technology of hemp and a dry system with metal frame.The house in hemp is a way of building contemporary with natural materials. Although
today has almost disappeared in Italy, hemp was an essential element of the Italian agricultural production history. Building today with this material means build new economies of the region with the latest environmental and energy performance requirements.The house will be built with the dry system with metal frame, however, is an innovative technical that combines high performance building and energy with a radical reduction
of construction time. This structural system enables the use of traditional materials in new ways resulting in a completely recyclable, anti-seismic and solid construction time very low and controllable.
The real need of this “Green-oriented” approach is to develop new ways of conceiving the residential structures and service to meet the needs of different lifestyles that are becoming increasingly complex and varied and, at the same time, to make the best use of natural resources by implementing measures to reduce energy consumption needed the realization of the structure and its subsequent operation over time and, ultimately
reducing all forms of pollution that might arise.Hence the concept of the exhibition “Space for Life” project by Marco Piva for “Green Home Design” Made in 2012. Read More…
Matchbox House, Green House by BAU
Matchbox House,based in Ann Arbor, Michigan is a green house with four bedrooms, 1,740 sf of conditioned space and a one car garage. For the design, the architect’s got inspired by matchbox due to its rectangular structure. The house is on track to receive LEED Platinum Certification.
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