Germany will see a new fleet of modern green houseboats this spring. Schwimmhaus was designed by a company called confusion-direction. Who wouldn’t want to live in an attractive home in the middle of water at a price that is less compared to a house on land? The pictures just show the model of these homes.

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All of us surely enjoyed playing with doll houses when we were kids, especially the girl gang. These little cardboard replicas were our sweet homes where we did every thing from washing to cooking. The thought of living in such houses brings back those memories. This is what the Australian architecture firm Stutchbury and Pape designed. Priced at an affordable $35,000, these prefab homes are made out of cardboard and are 100% recyclable.

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One of San Francisco’s most exciting green projects, the construction of the new California Academy of Sciences building, has finally come alive. Designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano in collaboration with engineer Rana Creek, the building is topped by an undulating, functional and HUGE living green roof of 2.5 acre. Not only does this roof provide all the sustainable benefits that living roofs bring to a structure, but it is also visible from within the exhibition spaces, connecting inside and out, and engaging the context of San Francisco’s flora-filled backdrop.

All set to open to the visitors from 27th September, this new Academy Building houses an aquarium, planetarium, and exhibition spaces. Aside from its green roof, the building is a feat of institutional green building, using some of the most cutting-edge energy efficiency strategies, daylighting, possible biofuels, and water reclamation.
The architectural design of the new Academy responds to the Academy’s mission, history, and setting. Inspired by the natural world, nature becomes part of the building itself. Its taken ten years and great vision to unify the Academy’s twelve buildings into one notable structure, standing in the middle of the city’s Golden Gate Park.

With 60,000 photo-voltaic cells covering a glass canopy that frames it, the 410,000 sq ft compound involved a cost of US$500 million. See it ones and you’d acknowledge, it’s WORTH IT!!
Via luxury-insider

Using the advanced techniques of airoponics, which helps grow plants without soil, various scientists from the USA and Israel have decided to create tree abodes for the future, a very eco-friendly housing solution for the future. The whole project is being supported by Plantware, and the first prototype home could be ready in just 10 years. They have already experimented in creating bus shelters, park benches and traffic lights from their unique growing techniques.

These homes will be constructed from actual tree roots to any design specification and will come equipped with a host of eco-friendly features such as solar panels and wind harvesting fans. The self-sufficient dwellings will draw power from clean energy sources and recycle human waste into valuable nutrients for the living trees. With this you can expect to have reduced heating bills, because when the deciduous trees shed the leaves, these homes will have more heat. And in the summer, the leaves will provide shade and shelter.

A very smart and practical “green” concept .Just what our poor little earth engulfed in pollution needs. A very scientifically natural way to purify the air .breathing fresh already? You can hold that thought for a decade though. But this wait will be worth the results.

Hurricane Katrina left some major scars not just in the hearts and minds of the people across the planet but also on the homes of many. These people now find themselves homeless and looking for help. It is in this time of need that Hollywood’s biggest star and his organization has stepped up to lend their helping hand to people of Louisiana. Those hit by hurricane Katrina in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans are having their homes rebuilt and this time with green features.

Brad Pitt’s Make it Right (MIR) initiative recently began construction on several homes that had been wrecked by the hurricane. Contributing to the rebuilding effort following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Make it Right campaign set a goal of constructing 150 new residences designed by 13 different local, national and international architectural firms. While each design is unique, all the homes are employing sustainable building strategies while taking into consideration the ease of fabrication through replication.
Each home is designed to be built within a budget of $150,000, which has been collected primarily by donations pledged through their website.

This not only helps those in need but also spreads the green wave. It seems Pitt has a classy way of doing things both on and off the screen. Hopefully more such organizations will join in to make the lives of many better.

Via Inhabitat

There are not many LEED Platinum certified green homes across the US and while the number is growing, it probably needs to spread more rapidly in order to really help the planet cool down. While US is still trying to switch to green, California seems to the leader in renewable energy and green architecture in the country. The 4600 sq ft Margarido House is by no means a small home, but with the addition of a plethora of green building features it will become the first LEED-H Platinum certified home in Northern California.

The Margarido House will feature almost every green strategy you can imagine and will be 55% more efficient than California’s Title 24 energy standards. The loads of green features inside make your head go on a dizzy ride. Its construction incorporates a variety of sustainable and fire resistant materials, and all of its poured concrete contains 25% fly ash. The interiors feature LED lighting, smart house automation, locally sourced products, and recycled concrete and glass countertops.

A planted roof garden and deck top off the project, and the house is site-sensitve, featuring permeable paving, rain and ground water reclamation, and drought tolerant landscaping and plants. While the owners of the house believe that ‘Green can be beautiful and sexy’, the rest of the world might find it hard to argue with after taking a look at this green masterpiece that defines new conventions and defies the old!

Via Jetsongreen

Large metals containers that have been used for years at the port and left as scrap can be turned in to your dream home! That is by no means a lie and a brave venture Peter DeMaria of DeMaria Designhas proved this to the world. While many artists and designers intend to create furnishings for your home from scrap, Melinda has gone out and made a wonderful home out of nothing but used and discarded shipping containers. Large metal shipping containers that are left empty at ports around the US are being repurposed into modern, eco-friendly housing.

What began as an experiment for emergency housing has become a realistic and less costly option to traditional construction. Logical Homes offers nine models of container homes for construction around Southern California. The homes will average about $150 to $200 per square foot; in comparison to $220 to $250 per square for traditional construction in the area. Started by Peter DeMaria, the firm provides the amazing and exquisite homes to all those who need them at a price that is far less that those of regular spaces.

Logical Homes’ models will range from 640 to 3,250 square feet and look very much like mid-century tract homes from the exterior. The corrugated metal shipping containers are enhanced with large windows and custom paint. Energy-efficient appliances and bamboo flooring add to the eco-equation inside, while recycled denim insulation helps keep heating and cooling demands to a minimum. This is a cool new venture that seems to be gaining ground at a very fast pace and if you were ever to enter one of these then you would not even notice the difference unless someone pointed it out to you.

Via:� trendir

Nigeria would not really be a place where you would be a place where you would go searching for green homes but with Aero Energy Design making the movement of global green living truly global, even the most remote location of the world can now harbor a green structure. The important aspect of the homes is that one needs to feel as if they truly are in the lap of nature. ZED designed 4500 sf concept home as the first of two thousand planned residences in a modern village in Akodo Ise, Nigeria. The TechVille project is both inspiration in design and effective in efficiency.

TechVille has passive and active cooling, PV system, on demand hot water, air exchange system, dehumidification system, low- and no-VOC materials, abundant natural light, rainwater capture, greywater system, and smart home technology. The red “sleeping tube” is super insulated and can be separated from the rest of the home to minimize the mechanical cooling load.� Plus, the extended portion of the tube blocks direct solar gain while still allowing natural light into the interior.

With any amazing view of the beach which allows you to live in tranquil harmony with nature and not pollute the beach with your brilliant residence and technology that allows you to live without cables, wires and pollution, the TechVille community will be a sight to behold when done. Just make sure that you do not trash the beach with plastic waste though!

Via JetsOnGreen

This is one house that I would really love to own as it seems to combine two of my passions with elegant ease. The Garden House is a perfect combination of environment with sports and when I say I mean a lot more than the boring indoor sports. The Garden House has a roof that is covered by a green blanket and it is not just for the look of it. The green top acts as a mini-golf course and you can have loads of fun and fine tune your shots and angles on your own terrace now.

Designed by ADD+ Arquitectura, the Garden House is a good example of designer houses. The project is designed to be located in the city of Igulada while overlooking the overall landscape. The big glasses all over the house ensure that the house does not have dearth of light and air. The house overall is supported on steel tubes and is quite strong in holding the whole house. Also the interiors are done very aesthetically with wooden flooring taking the overall feel to a new level.

The house is designed to be a beautiful green home and while I really like sports beyond golf and would probably prefer a soccer pitch on top of my roof, I’m pretty sure the folks at ADD + Arquitectura would manage to do that with ease. The house is an example of how green architecture can still produce super cool homes with innovative new concepts that are fun and useful.

Via ArchDaily

This really is nothing beyond a symbolic way of saying that France intends to go green and that the French government is ready to embrace eco-friendly technology. But the good thing about cutting the sizzle off of the Eiffel Tower is that it is actually being acknowledged as just a ‘symbolic gesture’ and no one is trying to make a big deal out of it in terms of energy saving. While many might welcome the move, one could surely save plenty of power somewhere else rather than dim the lights on Paris’ most striking monuments.

Since January 1, 2000, every hour after dusk, the 20,000 bulbs twinkle brilliantly for ten minutes in what has become a tourist hit. But starting next month, Sete, the company subcontracted by Paris to run the tower, has decided to half the time the bulbs are on, cutting illumination from 400 to 200 hours per year. The decision is part of a plan to make the Eiffel tower and other monuments more environmentally friendly.

Tickets and documents in the tower are made of recycled paper, and management claims that all the electricity used comes from renewable sources. It is currently studying a plan to put solar panels on the roof of its restaurants. This latest green initiative comes just after the “city of light” completed a massive five-year energy saving plan to replace the standard incandescent light bulbs with metal iodide light bulbs on 125 of its monuments.

Now you could still use solar power of even tiny windmills to power the lights on the Eiffel rather than cut the time in half. The tourists are surely not going to take to it all too well and while it is for a wonderful green cause, there are surely other ways of awareness than taking the sheen of France’s eternal symbol of lights and love.

Via Telegraph