Explore - Green

House Tours

California Academy of Sciences Preview

The grand opening of the new California Academy of Sciences, one of the year’s most anticipated events, is taking place this weekend. To help you make it through the last few days until the...

written by: Miyoko Ohtake

09.23.08
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Wattson and Holmes Make Monitoring Home Energy Use Elementary

U.K. design firm DIY Kyoto recently announced the launch of cheaper version of its Wattson, an ingenious little device that not only makes monitoring home electricity use a breeze, but even turns...

written by: Bryan Gardiner

09.24.08
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London Design Festival: Packaging

Packaging seems to be something on young designers' minds—and one of the best products at the LDF dealing with this issue is by Song Bong Kyu. His light uses packaging that doubles as the...

written by: Sam Jacob

09.24.08
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West Coast Green

If green design were easy, everyone would be doing it. And though it makes sense in theory, actual implementation is often easier said than done. How to make all design become sustainable design...

written by: Miyoko Ohtake

09.29.08
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Dashboard Confessional

A major obstacle to reducing our energy consumption continues to be our general unawareness of just how much we are using. Most people have no idea exactly how much a shorter shower or a lowered...

written by: Miyoko Ohtake

10.01.08
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Bioplastic: Green or Greenwashing?

There's a vast field of opportunity right now for designing every day objects using new materials that make them safer and more sustainable. Food containers—which we throw away in astonishing...

written by: Sarah Rich

10.01.08
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Coin Lamp

There are all sorts of devices emerging these days that are meant to monitor and increase awareness of our energy consumption habits. From high-concept products like Die Electric, which we...

written by: Sarah Rich

10.03.08
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Smog-Cutting Concrete

The new Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis includes two 30-foot-tall sculptures made of photocatalytic concrete. Though the squiggly sculptures are supposed to invoke the international symbol for...

written by: David A. Greene

10.11.08
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The Energy Seed

Because I have been told time and again that disposing of batteries in the garbage is a terribly destructive thing to do, I generally collect my spent batteries in an old container in my house. My...

written by: Sarah Rich

10.19.08
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Get Paid to Green Your Home

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs suggests that we only think about fancy needs like self-actualization once we've managed the basics such as food, water, shelter and safety. With a sluggish economy and...

written by: Jamie Waugh

10.22.08
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Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 Recap

October 30th marked the closing of Seoul, South Korea’s nearly three-week-long Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 at the Jamsil Sports Complex, site of the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. The first...

written by: Aaron Britt

11.05.08
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Green Dorm Design

When I was in college I lived in a cinder-block walled dorm room. I'm not complaining, I went to a small art school and had a pretty large room that I only shared with one other person. I...

written by: Laure Joliet

11.07.08
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The Grass Phone

Korea is a known hub for high-tech design, and it's increasingly a hotspot for innovation among young designers learning their trade in a gadget-loving place.

written by: Sarah Rich

12.17.08
Green

Blame It On the Rain

The home’s water collection system makes capturing and storing fresh water so simple that you wonder why cities need a municipal supply at all.

01.01.09
Green

Geothermal Heat Facts and Figures

No matter where you live, you can use the stable temperatures of the earth to condition building spaces. In winter, the ground is warmer than the air, so it can be used to heat a house. In summer...

01.01.09
Green

Eco-Hat

The EcoHat is as typical of the Oxley Woods design as an old-fashioned chimney. The unit is easily accessible from inside the home, allowing for repairs and updates to technology without the need...

01.01.09
Green

Straw House: Facts and Figures

Environment: About 200 million tons of straw go to waste in the U.S. every year. If all the wasted straw were burned, it would add up to nearly 6 percent of the total CO2 emitted annually by...

01.01.09
Green

Heat-Pump

One piece of correspondence that never darkens the mailbox of this Northern California beach house is a utility bill (nor are guests wandering around swathed in multiple sweaters).

01.01.09
Green

Around the Lighhouse

1. Windcatcher The ventilation shafts of the windcatcher reach several feet above the roof to pull cooler outdoor air inside. 2. Photovoltaic array Solar panels extend down the sloped roof, ca...

01.01.09
Green

Sit to Be Fit

If you ask Thomas Robertson, the difference between actively green houses and his passively sustainable Courtyard House is the difference between “a solar-powered yacht and a sailboat.

01.01.09