Archive for the ‘materials’ Category

Does Architect Barbie Do Green Design? Is She LEED Accredited?

published February 21, 2011 and has No Comments

The design blogs are agog that on the 125th anniversary of the registration of the first woman architect, Architect Barbie has been introduced. She arrives after a campaign by architectural historian Despina Stratigakos, who staged her own Architect Barbie exhibition in 2007. ( PDF here ) One could argue that she should be wearing more black, have round glasses ...

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Understanding Labels Part 2: Separating Green Building from Greenwash

published February 1, 2011 and has No Comments

1. SFI vs FSC Who can forget the smug guy standing on the lawn in front of his monster home in his pyjamas, the new environmentalist who chooses newspapers printed on SFI paper, looks for a home constructed with wood from SFI certified forests, and even demands that his bathrobe be shipped in packaging made with paper from SFI ...

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Is Mango Wood the New Bamboo?

published January 30, 2011 and has No Comments

Cluster of mango trees pre-harvest. Photo by Sapiens Solutions via Flickr From bikes and floors to sheets and t-shirts, bamboo is well-known as a popular green choice because as a fast-growing grass, it's a renewable material. Hemp is also considered environmentally smart for a variety of products including its wood. Mango trees are also fast-growing and another Continued here: Is ...

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Big Surprise: New Study Shows Insulated Concrete Forms Are Better Than Crap

published December 20, 2010 and has No Comments

Wikipedia commons I have always wondered why a sandwich of polystyrene and concrete is considered green, and have taken significant abuse for my position on insulated concrete forms (ICF). Now an interim report from the impressive-sounding MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub attempts to "deliver a new level of clarity" to the issue, and "to demonstrate the potential energy savings due ...

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Dirty Rags; from old uniforms to funky object (Photos)

published November 25, 2010 and has No Comments

Dirty Rags at Elisava Design School. Image Credit: Vicente Zambrano What can you do with 1.285 bright green used uniforms? This was the brief the design students at Elisava school in Barcelona received by Urbaser , a local waste collection and urban cleaning company. Not only were they asked to design useful products for the company's employees out of ...

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Planet Reuse: A Dating Service For Used Materials

published November 22, 2010 and has No Comments

Image Credit Lloyd Alter There are some things that the Internet is very good at, including helping put people and people or things and things together. Nathan Benjamin runs a dating service for materials, putting people together with the used materials they need. " PlanetReuse makes using reclaimed building materials effortless, expertly matching materials with designers, builders and owners ...

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Bio-Based Phase-Changing Material Adds Instant Thermal Mass

published November 18, 2010 and has No Comments

Images Credit: Lloyd Alter So much on show at Greenbuild, the huge green building convention put on by the US Green Building Council, has been seen on TreeHugger; one has to set some standards. So no products with LEEDING The Way or any other bad punning on LEED will be seen; We want game-changers , products and ideas that ...

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The Green Workplace Looks At Eco-Labels

published November 12, 2010 and has No Comments

The Green Workplace is starting an interesting series on Eco-labels and Certification related to the construction industry. Leigh Stringer, VP of HOK (and author of The Green Workplace ) and designer Deborah Fuller are starting right at the beginning. It is an important issue; as Shane McQuade said in a guest post, they are "a confusing landscape for consumers, ...

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Less is More: How a few sticks create elegant coat racks (Photos)

published November 4, 2010 and has No Comments

Inspired by Japanese Kimonos, the coat racks by the German company Noi are sculpture-like structures made from minimum amount of materials. The different wooden objects are all sticks; no need for screws, glue or other fasteners to hold them up. They come totally flat-pack and can be easily dismantled at any time.... Read the full story on TreeHugger Read ...

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Do Glass Tile Thermal Solar Roofs Make Sense?

published October 25, 2010 and has No Comments

Preston at Jetson Green and Frida at Inhabitat discuss these lovely looking glass roofing tiles from SolTech Energy in Sweden. It is a solar thermal system, that transfers heat from the air to water that can be used for heating. Frida describes it at Inhabitat: ... Read the full story on TreeHugger Go here to see the original:  Do Glass ...

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