Blue Designs - Architectural Designers

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Showing Tag: " sustainability" (Show all posts)

MAD and Stefano Boeri propose crinkled towers and vertical forests for Milan's disused Railway Yards.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Thursday, April 13, 2017, In : Green Building 

MAD, Stefano Boeri Architetti and Mecanoo are among five architecture studios to unveil proposals to completely transform unused railways across Milan, creating high-density housing and swaths of greenery.
The five proposals emerged from a workshop held in December 2016, which invited architects to reimagine the brownfield sites of Farini, Porta Genova, Porta Romana, Lambrate, Greco, Rogoredo and San Cristoforo as public parks, social housing and hubs for sustainable modes of transport.
The ide...

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Solar Powered Safari Lodge offers Sustainable Luxury in Botswana

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Sunday, April 9, 2017, In : Energy Efficiency 


If visiting the rich wildlife at the Okavango Delta is on your bucket list, consider a stay at Sandibe Okavango, a sustainable safari lodge in Botsgo simultaneously blends in with the landscape and stands out from lowana that boasts a light environmental footprint. Designed by Michaelis Boyd and Nick Plewman, the recently reopened Sandibe Okavancal architectural typology with its curvaceous timber-clad form. The striking and sculptural 24-bed lodge overlooks the banks of the Sandibe River, a ...

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Hanging Spherical Lodge is a Treetop Retreat in Laos.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, In : Architecture 


Spherical eco-lodges that hang from the trees could allow visitors to observe and immerse themselves in the flora and fauna of the Nam Et-Phou Louey Biodiversity Conservation Area in northern Laos. Coupled with new observation decks for observing the area’s endangered tiger population, the suspended sleeping pods give guests a protected and unique place to sleep. The project by Cole Company would be located near the village of Nam Poung, and it would create jobs for local villagers.
Inspired...

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OAS1S "treescrapers" are modern skyscrapers inspired by trees.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, April 3, 2017, In : Green Building 

OAS1S has introduced a unique concept for the future of urban green living:  a 21st century home that merges architecture and nature into one. The OAS1S houses are inspired by trees that act as modern skyscrapers. These “treescrapers” consist of wood and leaves, collect sun and water, plus provide oxygen, shelter and food. The tall, slim and detached houses have average tree-like dimensions of 6 x 6 x 12 m, with spectacular vegetation facades. The basic architecture is shaped as a number ...

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Daniel Libeskind unveils twisted, Tree-covered Skyscraper for Toulouse.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Wednesday, March 29, 2017, In : Architecture 

Studio Libeskind has been tapped to design Toulouse’s first skyscraper, the Occitanie Tower, a twisting modern building draped in vertical gardens. Created in collaboration with Paris-based landscape architect Nicolas Gilsoul, the 40-storey mixed-use skyscraper will serve as an economic catalyst for the French city’s central business district and comprise offices, a hotel, a restaurant, and residences. The tree-covered areas of the tower will give the building its iconic appearance and a ...

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Russian Ice Skating Rink doubles as a Solar Powered outdoor Cinema and Geothermal Spa

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, March 28, 2017, In : Architecture 

This solar-powered ice skating rink for a natural lake in the Kamchatka peninsula, Russia, is designed to double as an outdoor cinema and natural geothermal spa. Photovoltaic panels and geothermal turbines provide enough energy to keep the lake at frozen temperatures, power the cinema and LED lighting , and still pump excess energy back into the grid. Margot Krasojević Architects designed the project as a fully self-sufficient multi-use structure that reflects the fluid nature of its immedia...

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Students use rice husks to build affordable homes in the Philippines.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, March 20, 2017, In : Green Building 


Rice husks used to be considered a waste product good for nothing but fire or landfills, but now enterprising companies are beginning to realize their potential as a sustainable building material. A group of students from the Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering at University of California used waste rice husks to manufacture termite-resistant composite boards with help from a $75,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and build affordable housing in the Ph...


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5th Grader builds off-grid solar powered tiny house shelter for just $10.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Thursday, March 9, 2017, In : Sustainability 

One fifth grader took a school project to a whole new level with an entire renewably-powered mobile tiny home. Ten-year-old Callie Hilton designed Callie’s Coop, an off-grid shelter powered via a small solar panel that boasts its own rainwater capturing system and composting toilet. The whole thing is light enough that Callie can move it herself, and by using reclaimed materials, she kept the cost of the project to under $10.
Callie’s Coop is Callie’s fifth grade project; she and her cla...

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Green Facades : Why are some architects scared?

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, March 6, 2017, In : Green Building 

Why are some architects scared to use vegetation at the heart of their façade design? Is it the loss of control implied by adding vegetation to the design? Is this due to a varying emphasis on greenery during architects’ training? Or just that it challenges the defined image of a building? Whatever the specific reasons, it’s still very rare to see vegetation placed at the centre of the design concept, as in the Bosco Verticale ('Vertical Forest') apartment buildings in Milan, Italy.

Why i...

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Parasitic wooden cubes slash Parisan building's energy consumption by 75%

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Sunday, March 5, 2017, In : Energy Efficiency 

Stéphane Malka has designed a clever way of optimizing the energy efficiency of older urban structures while working within the restrictions of Parisian building codes. Malka’s Plug-in City 75 design envisions attaching parasitic wooden cubes to the facade of a 1970s-era building, extending the living space and significantly reducing the building’s annual energy consumption by approximately 75 percent.
The innovative design is slated for a 1970s-era building in the French capital’s 16th...

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Architect turns old cement factory into incredible fairytale home.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Sunday, March 5, 2017, In : Architecture 


When Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill stumbled upon an abandoned cement factory in 1973, he saw opportunity in the ruins. Bofill bought the early twentieth-century compound and, together with local Catalan craftsmen, transformed the sprawling structure of silos and compounds into an incredible fairytale home that blends surrealism, brutalism, and modernism. Located in Catalonia, Spain, the renovation is remarkable – not only for its stunning appearance, but also for the architect’s ongoin...

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A $10K Tiny House 3-d printed in 24 hours.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Thursday, March 2, 2017, In : 3d Printing 

Building a house typically takes months, exacerbating the housing crisis so many people face worldwide. Apis Cor, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in 3D-printing, decided to tackle that crisis with a groundbreaking mobile 3D-printer that can print an entire 400-square-foot tiny home in just 24 hours. What’s more, doing so costs just over $10,000 – a steal compared to most modern homes.
On their website, Apis Cor says the construction industry may be sluggish now, but they wil...

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New Silicon Nanoparticles could finally make Solar windows commercially viable.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, February 27, 2017, In : Renewable Energy 

The trend toward integrating solar into homes and buildings seems to be taking off. First Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled his rooftop solar shingles that are invisible when viewed from the street. Now, researchers at the University of Minnesota and University of Milano-Bicocca have developed technology that could usher in a future with photovoltaic windows harvesting renewable energy from the sun. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Photonics, demonstrates that high-tech silico...

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Solar Power System could provide clean drinking Water in rural India for the first time.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, February 20, 2017, In : Sustainability 
A solar-powered purification system could slake the thirsts of rural India with clean drinking water for the first time. This would be no ordinary feat. Tens of millions of people in India lack access to potable water, and roughly 600,000 Indian children die every year from water- and sanitation-related diseases like diarrhea or pneumonia, according to UNICEF. In the country’s most far-flung regions, where 70 percent of India’s population lives, toxic bacteria routinely fouls at least hal...

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China's first Vertical Forest is rising in Nanjing.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Friday, February 3, 2017, In : Green Building 
Stefano Boeri Architetti is bringing the vertical forest concept popularized in Milan to Nanjing, China with the Nanjing Towers. The two green towers could provide the city with a breath of fresh air, producing around 132 pounds of oxygen every day as they absorb carbon dioxide. They’ll accomplish this air-cleaning feat with 1,100 flourishing trees from 23 local species and 2,500 cascading shrubs and plants.

http://inhabitat.com/chinas-first-vertical-forest-is-rising-in-nanjing/

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Flat-Packed Refugee Shelter Wins Best Design Of 2016 By Design Museum In London

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, January 31, 2017, In : Sustainability 
IKEA Foundation and UNHCR's refugee shelter has been named the 2016 Beazley Design of the Year by the Design Museum in London, selected as the winner of Architecture category. Designed by Johan Karlsson, Dennis Kanter, Christian Gustafsson, John van Leer, Tim de Haas, Nicolò Barlera, temporary refugee shelter gives a response towards the global issue of population displacement.
Better Shelter pipped the 5 other category winners to claim the overall prize. Better Shelter is a social enterprise...
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Students build Solar Devices for Rural Hospital in Africa.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Wednesday, January 25, 2017, In : Renewable Energy 

 A group of graduate students at Grand Valley State University recently created devices that provide solar power when electricity fails at a rural hospital in Malawi. They then made the 22-hour trip to southeastern Africa to deliver and install the devices, according to a press release.  
Embangweni Mission Hospital is in an area where electricity is often disconnected, and the results can be fatal.
Martha Sommers, an American physician currently working in Madagascar, frequently experienced th...
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New recycled plastic sidewalk harvests energy from the sun

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Saturday, December 17, 2016, In : Renewable Energy 
New recycled plastic sidewalk harvests energy from the sun -Imagine a colorful modular paving system that snaps together “like LEGO bricks” replacing dull pavements currently populating today’s concrete jungles. Hungarian startup Platio designed that paving system to make our sidewalks do more for us. Their paving system, made with recycled plastic, offers firm ground while harvesting clean energy from the sun.
Platio’s paving system harvests power from the sun via monocrystalline sili...

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Scientists blend photosynthesis and quantum physics to improve solar cells.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, December 6, 2016, In : Sustainability 
Scientists blend photosynthesis and quantum physics to improve solar cells. Four physicists at the University of California, Riverside decided to blend photosynthesis and quantum physics to work towards greener solar cells. Plants effectively regulate energy flow from the sun, but since current affordable man-made solar cells hover around just 20 percent efficiency, the scientists decided to take cues from vegetation.

Current solar cells require feedback controllers and voltage converters to m...
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Living Microalgae Lamp Absorbs CO2 from the Air

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, December 5, 2016, In : Sustainability 
French biochemist Pierre Calleja has designed a fascinating eco-friendly lamp that could light up streets and parking garages while cutting CO2 emissions. It runs completely free of electricity, powered solely by a tube filled with glowing green algae. The lamp uses the energy created by the algae’s own photosynthesis process to power the light within, while the algae itself lives on CO2 in the air outside.

The lamp is designed so it can store the energy from photosynthesis for later use. Th...

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The Importance of Insulation by Claire Cardwell

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Friday, December 2, 2016, In : Sustainability 

Heating and cooling accounts for up to 50-70 percent of the energy used in an average home. Installing Insulation in your house is the most practical and cost effective way of making your home more energy efficient keeping it warmer in winter and cooler in summer and can save up to 50% on your energy bill. In addition Insulation can also reduce condensation in your home and some types of insulation can make your home more soundproof. A well insulated house is very energy efficient and will ne...
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How stone can help you create a more sustainable home

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Friday, December 2, 2016, In : Green Building 
How stone can help you create a more sustainable home

From the pyramids at Giza, to Stonehenge, to Machu Picchu, it is no coincidence that all of the longest lasting human structures are made from stone. Stone lasts forever, is natural, and is readily available in the environment. When it comes to outdoor landscaping or interior applications that see a lot of use and moisture (i.e. kitchens and bathrooms), natural stone is often the most durable and lowest-maintenance choice for surfaces. Unli...

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What you need to know before installing a Rainwater harvesting System by Claire Cardwell

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, November 28, 2016, In : Sustainability 
Water is vital to life and is such a precious natural resource that it makes sense to collect every drop of rain and re-cycle grey water and back-washed pool water. In fact you can reduce your water bill by as much as 90% by harvesting rain water & grey water. To read more go to : - https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/what-you-need-to-know-before-installing-a-rainwater-harvest-system


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Building your House with Straw? How about Rice Straw? by Claire Cardwell

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Monday, November 7, 2016, In : Green Building 


https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/building-your-house-out-of-straw-how-about-rice-straw
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Green Building Envelope Towards a cleaner, greener, and healthier human ecosystem

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, September 20, 2016, In : Green Building 
http://www.arup.com/greenbuildings?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=GreenBuildingEnvelope

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Cellulose Insulation - ABCs of Green Building Materials by Aisha Abdelhamid

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Friday, September 16, 2016, In : Green Building 
http://greenbuildingelements.com/2016/09/14/cellulose-insulation-abc-green-building-materials/

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Living Walls play a significant role in tackling toxic air hot spots in cities.

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Friday, September 16, 2016, In : Green Building 
http://www.hortweek.com/living-walls-play-significant-role-tackling-toxic-air-hot-spots-cities/landscape/article/1408943

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European Wind Energy is now Cheaper than Nuclear Power

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Friday, August 12, 2016, In : Wind Energy 
http://inhabitat.com/european-wind-energy-is-now-cheaper-than-nuclear-power/

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Pros and Cons of using Shipping Containers for your New Home

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, In : Green Building 
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/pros-and-cons-of-using-shipping-containers-for-your-new-home





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Regeneration and Urbanisation by Edgar Kiviet

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, In : Architect 
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/regeneration-and-urbanisation-by-edgar-kiviet


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Top Tips for a Healthier Home

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, In : Green Building 
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-tips-healthier-home-claire-cardwell-claire-cardwell

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The Pros and Cons of Using Shipping Containers for your New Home

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, In : Green Building 
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pros-cons-using-shipping-containers-your-new-home-claire-cardwell

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The Net Zero Influence

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, In : Green Building 
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/net-zero-influence-claire-cardwell-claire-cardwell

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The Advantages of Sustainable Building

Posted by Blue Designs - Architectural Designers on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, In : Green Building 
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advantages-sustainable-building-claire-cardwell-claire-cardwell

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