Turkey presents a huge ship made from 4 tons of reused materials in Venice

The large ship measures 30 meters (98 feet) and weighs four tons. It was built from more than 500 pieces of reused materials, including seven kilometers (4.6 miles) of steel cable, wooden moulds, discarded furniture, signboards and boats found on site.

Related: Slovenia built a habitable structure with latticed wooden bookshelves

The design, curated by Feride Çiçekoğlu, Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu and Ertuğ Uçar, focuses on the concept of borders and ways in which these can be dissolved and transformed. After the Biennale closes next November, the structure will travel back to Istanbul, where it will become a centerpiece of a museum of arsenal.

Via urdesign

Photos by Cemal Emden

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Aussie surfer designs prefab recycled cyclone-resistant homes

Hyman said to Mashable Australia, "I've spent my whole life around the ocean, and seen the damage done by waste plastic." Nev House structures utilize a "wood-plastic composite" and sustainable wood. Their homes can be built in just five days.

Related: Affordable, colorful and humane housing for London's homeless pops up in just five months

In addition to sustainable building materials, the structures are sustainable from an energy standpoint. Powered by clean energy, the homes can either connect to a grid or go off-grid. Solar panels line rooftops and Nev House's partners also can provide hydro, wind, or geothermal energy.

The houses adhere to "Category 5 Cyclone standards." With features like louver windows, the disaster-resistant homes are designed for tropical climates.

Affordable housing is key to Nev House's mission. The company isn't a charity, but describes themselves as a "philanthrocapitalist organization." From research to planning to construction, the company works with local engineers, architects, and laborers to meet the requirements of the population.

Last year, Cyclone Pam devastated South Pacific archipelago Vanuatu, damaging 90 percent of buildings. Nev House erected a school in Vanuatu's capital last year, and earlier this year started 15 more buildings that they aim to complete this month. They are working with the government to rebuild schools, homes and medical clinics. To help fund the projects, they have partnered with charities.

Hyman said, "We want to create a bit of a movement behind what we're doing. We want to draw attention to affordable housing around the world."

Via Mashable

Images via Nev House

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Crushed bricks recycled for a cave-like concert hall in Poland

[caption id="attachment_843297" align="alignnone" width="889"] © Jakub Certowicz[/caption]

Located between Torún’s old town, a UNESCO-protected site, and the new development area of the city, the concert hall employs in a very special way two conventional materials: red bricks and white concrete. Each personify a specific historical age and corresponding architectural aesthetics. More precisely, classic red bricks recall the old town streetscape and ancient buildings’ façades. White concrete, on the other hand, represents contemporary architecture. The two materials symbolically fuse old and the new.

[caption id="attachment_843298" align="alignnone" width="889"] © Jakub Certowicz[/caption]

Architect Fernando Menis calls this technique cof mixing concrete with other materials “picado” and often employs it in his works. It has been certified by the Spanish and the Polish Building Research Institute. Besides its powerful visual effect, this technique provides excellent acoustic results, which is particularly useful for the CKK Jordanki project. Plus it gives a second life to trashed bricks.

Related: Menis Architects’ Agora Garden is a rock-like residential tower wrapped in vegetation

The shape of the building emphasizes the interplay and dichotomy between modern and historic design. While the exterior of the Jordanki Hall features cold, rigid and almost anonymous geometry, its interior is a surprisingly fluid and dynamic cave-like space. Inside, Jordanki is smoothly-shaped and molded to provide necessary space for the program functions. To understand better the nature of the concert hall's interior space, think of Zurek, a traditional Polish soup served directly in a scooped-out loaf of bread.

The Jordanki Concert Hall is a flexible building that can be easily transformed from a classic opera configuration into a theater, a symphony orchestra, a central scene performance space or even a banquet hall. The hall can also be adapted to a different capacity, shrinking or expanding it like a sponge.

+ Fernando Menis

+ Polish architecture

Images © Jakub Certowicz, Małogorzata Replińska. Courtesy CKK Jordani and Fernando Menis

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High-end upcycling shops with beautiful metal tab designs pop up in London

Gudjon Thor Erlendsson of AUDB and Andreas Krause of Krause Architects have just completed two new pop-up stores that celebrate upcycling in London. The project was commissioned by high-end fashion label Bottletop, a social enterprise that designs accessories from upcycled metal tabs and uses the proceeds to support young people in Africa, South America, and the UK who suffer from health issues. Inspired by the brand’s crocheted metal tab designs, the architects created a beautiful artwork woven from 3,000 soda tabs that’s suspended from the ceiling in an undulating mass. The furnishings are made from recycled and modular materials. One shop is located at the high-end retail Regents Street while the other is located on the other side of London at Redchurch Street in the East End.

+ AUDB

+ Krause Architects

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World's largest commercial rooftop solar array is on a shopping mall in the Philippines

A shopping mall in the Philippines now boasts the world’s largest commercial rooftop solar array, which generates 2.9 MW of clean energy to help run the mall’s operations. The project is also the biggest private solar power system designed for self-consumption in the country. The Philippines-based property developer behind the venture, Robinsons Land, has plans to add rooftop solar panels to its other retail centers, for a total of 12.5 MW by the end of this year.

The 2.9 MW solar array was switched on this month atop Robinsons Starmills shopping mall in San Fernando, in the province of Pampanga. It is the latest in a series of solar projects backed by the Robinsons Land company, which announced in March a lineup of six currently on deck - they are were targeted for completion by May. Two others are expected to be up and running by the end of this year. The company switched on at least two other solar plants on mall properties in 2015, and each project is bigger than the one before.

Related: 1 Liter of Light project illuminates thousands of Filipino homes with recycled bottles

In total, the developer is aiming for 12.5 MW solar power capacity across 10 solar plants, all located on the rooftops of shopping malls. The company said in a release that those 10 plants combined will generate almost 16 million kW/h of clean energy, saving 8,760 tons of CO2 emissions each year. According to the developer, that is equivalent to planting 223,965 full grown trees.

By the end of this year, Robinsons Land promises the plants will, together, generate around 30 percent of the energy needed to run those shopping malls. The developer eventually plans to install solar power arrays on the rooftops of all of its 41 malls, although the timeline for that expansion hasn’t been released.

Via PV Magazine

Images via Robinsons Land and Wikipedia

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