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The Edible House - Green House of the Future We might soon cultivate our own food, according to architects that were asked to design the green house of the future. Specialists from the Rios Clementi Hale Studios from Los Angeles developed an incredible concept of a green 3-story building that doubles as a vertical garden. They named their design The Edible House. It is made of 3 prefab containers that are stacked on top of one another. Due to the fact that the containers are stacked on top of each other, the footprint of the Edible House is rather small. According to the designers this is a "nod to the importance of building dense, urbanstyle houses in order to reduce energy use." The building's three floors include the eating and living space, found on the bottom, sleeping rooms in the middle, and room for office and/or studio on the top together with a magnificent deck. The green aspects of the design include vertical axis wind turbines, installed on the roof, facing an evaporative cooling reservoir. Such systems are going to considerably reduce the energy use. Besides, the designers included a photovoltaic awning, installed over the top deck. It will have two functions: energy production and shading. The Edible House will also include adjustable doors on its sides that will provide natural cross ventilation. Probably the most interesting feature of the house is that it will allow people to walk out on the deck and collect vegetables from personal edible garden.
http://www.infoniac.com/environm
http://www.readymade.com/blog/design/2010/10/08/the_incredible_edible_house
Stomach in distress after bingeing sweets? After one look at Eathous Dutch abode clad with fiber-liciou veggies, you may be cured. Read more at www.mnn.com
“Biomimicry [is] innovation inspired by nature. In a society accustomed to dominating or “improving” nature, this respectful imitation is a radically new approach, a revolution really. Unlike the Industrial Revolution, the Biomimicry Revolution introduces an era based not on what we can extract from nature, but on what we can learn from her. … “Doing it nature’s way” has the potential to change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal ourselves, store information, and conduct business.
Photo courtesy of HOK
http://greensource.construction.com/news/0 80919biomimicry.asp
Yellow Tree House Restaurant. Conceived by Pacific Environments Architects Ltd. the Yellow Tree House Restaurant captivates our imaginations, appearing like an enormous chrysalis grafted onto a 40-
The Jellyfish House, a recent project by San Francisco's IwamotoScott Architecture, has been "modeled on the idea that, like the sea creature, it coexists with its environment." As such, the entirety of the Jellyfish House is designed to operate "as a mutable layered skin, or 'deep surface', that mediates internal and external environments." What this means is the external surface of the building – the combined expanse of its outer walls and roof – is actually a complicated "water filtration system," operating across and throughout the very structure of the house. The outer surface, then, is partially porous; it forms what the architects call a "water jacket," featuring "quilted baffles," into which water can flow and where that water can be treated and cleansed. Rainfall, for instance, enters into the outer layers of the "water jacket" where it is treated with UV light; domestic greywater can be drained into similar mechanisms, built directly into the home's interior, architecturally incorporated into the design. In the architects' own words, the Jellyfish House "captures, stores and filters rain and gray water for use in the home. For the water filtration system, the exterior surface geometry directs rainwater from the roof, and stores it below grade for future use. The water is filtered through cavities in the skin coated with titanium dioxide and exposed to ultraviolet light." Wonderfully, that same UV treatment, occurring inside the walls of the house, has an aesthetic effect: as a jellyfish can be bioluminescent, so can the Jellyfish House become "a softly glowing structure," its outer walls shining with the blue light of nearcontinuous water filtration.
Heated Architecture Competition Inspires Creative Solutions for Staying Cool 06.07.07 Biomorphic Umbrellas The main structure of Gage's biomorphic umbrellas is made from durable 1-inch-thick carbon-steel tubing. The tops are crafted from cut-brass sheets and steel mesh. Everything is coated in shades of gold automotive paint. "This is really a form of recycling -- not one contingent on reprocessing some material, but giving something life because it's desirable," says Gage. "The greatest weapon against waste is beauty." Image: Courtesy of Mark Foster Gage
http://blog.ounodesign.com/2009/01/06/roun d-windows/#more-1503
The XO.S | PAVILION is a formal exercise emulating biomorphic exoskeletal systems, intended to be used as a temporary place of gathering. It funnels pedestrians from one end to the other, compressing at the center and then widening at both ends dividing space into two zones. The pavilion is fabricated from stainless steel folded strips, laser-cut from flat sheets and welded together. The exterior is painted with a high-gloss black car paint finish while the interior and inner faces are painted white.