2016. december 31., szombat

Spectacular new shipping container museum nestles near China’s Great Wall

2016. december 23., péntek

Sydney project reclaims enough water to fill 340 Olympic-sized pools each year

2016. december 15., csütörtök

Old bungalow transformed into a light-filled dwelling with recycled brick

3 edible mushrooms that are easy to find – and how to avoid the poisonous ones

There’s no better way to enjoy rainy weather than to break out your Wellies and go mushroom-hunting in the forest. Mushrooms are a healthy addition to your diet and are loaded with important vitamins and minerals that are hard to find in plant food such as Vitamin D, B Vitamins, Selenium, Potassium, Copper and Beta-Glucans, which are important for your immune system. Of course you can find common button mushrooms, cremini and portobello (which are all just different sizes/colors of the same species) in your local supermarket, and you can grow your own oyster mushrooms, but it’s a lot more fun to forage for your own exotic fungi! Many delicious species such as chanterelles, cauliflower mushrooms, truffles and porcini can only be found through foraging, since they are not grown commercially. Some people are scared of the idea of mushroom foraging, since there are deadly mushrooms that can kill you with one bite. But don’t fear – there are several types of mushrooms that are perfect for beginner foragers since they’re unique and easy-to-identify, with few or no poisonous look-alikes. Read on to discover three types of easy-to-identify mushrooms for beginner foragers.

Read the rest of 3 edible mushrooms that are easy to find – and how to avoid the poisonous ones

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2016. december 14., szerda

New recycled plastic paving harvests power from the sun

2016. december 13., kedd

14 green gifts for big kids

Even the greenest kids want gift action during the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy them junk from Walmart. We’ve collected a list of 14 green gifts that will cheer up your kid without being totally detrimental to the environment, and they might even learn something at the same time. From this smooth Razor bike that will give your kid the perfect step up from training wheels, to this cool Root Vue Farm that provides a fun food-growing experience, to an Easy Weaver set complete with rainbow colored 100% pure virgin wool for your novice weaver, our gift guide has ideas for kids with all kinds of interests.

GREEN GIFTS FOR BIG KIDS >

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2016. december 12., hétfő

LEED Silver visitor center is a portal to a historic American battlefield

Calling attention to a historic landscape can be difficult when there are few artifacts to differentiate it from its surroundings. New Jersey-based ikon.5 architects successfully brought renewed attention to a historic battlefield from the American Revolutionary War with their design of the Monmouth Battlefield State Park Visitor Center in Manalapan Township, New Jersey. Located on a high point, the building is a glazed LEED Silver-certified pavilion that frames views of the battlefield while maintaining a minimal energy footprint.

The Monmouth Battlefield State Park Visitor Center replaced an underutilized structure built for the Bicentennial and comprises office space, a theater, museum store, exhibition space, classrooms, an archeology lab, and restrooms. Though the pavilion features many programmatic features, its thoughtful design keeps the focus on the landscape thanks to its custom-fabricated “mullion-less” glass curtain wall. The largely glazed building appears to float on the landscape and offers unobstructed views of the battlefield from the museum. “Sited at the top of Combs Hill overlooking the Battlefield, the pavilion is conceived as a modern day primitive hut, templar in its siting, but diminutive in its appearance,” write the architects.

The building achieved LEED Silver certification thanks to the installation of triple-glazed low-e laminated glazing that wraps around the building and minimizes heat gain and loss. The roof features long eaves to shade the interior and further minimize unwanted solar heat gain. The new visitor center was built within the bounds of the existing property to minimize site impact and incorporates renovated portions of the original building. Rainwater collected on the roof is reused in a rain garden. A geothermal system is used to heat and cool the building.

+ ikon.5 architects

Images via ikon.5 architects, by Jeffrey Totaro and James D'Addio

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17 green gifts for the home

A house becomes a home when it's filled with the energy of those who live there, and the houseware items we've put together for this year's gift guide can help make a home as luminous and eco-friendly as possible. We've rounded up a bevy of eco-friendly gifts for the home that you can give to anyone on your list. A backyard beehive, sustainable bamboo bowls, and the cutest little hedgehog dryer buddies ever are just a few of the gems we've found that can help make this holiday the greenest yet.

GREEN ECO-GIFTS FOR THE HOME >

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2016. december 11., vasárnap

18 tech-tastic green gadget gifts

With the ubiquity of smartphone technology and tablets, there's really a little bit of gadget geek in every person on your holiday gift shopping list. Whether your loved ones' wider interests lie in music, photography, gardening or cycling, we've got you covered for green gadget gift ideas for the upcoming season. From a reusable cardboard smartphone amplifier at just $10 -- perfect for the office Secret Santa or hard-to-buy-for teenagers -- to a splurge on an electric bicycle that will knock somebody's socks off, there's something on the list for every budget too. Click through to see them all.

GREEN GIFTS FOR GADGET GEEKS >

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2016. december 9., péntek

Cheers! 5 seasonal drink recipes to warm you up during the holidays

[caption id="attachment_792843" align="alignnone" width="1600"] ®Isa Carolina Rosanda/Shutterstock[/caption]

Bourbon Hot Toddy

Bright yellow lemons do more than provide a bright tangy note to recipes - they are also high in Vitamin C to keep your immune system robust throughout the winter cold and flu season. Whether you're camping, relaxing in your living room, or returning from a day on the slopes, a hot toddy will warm you from the inside out. This classic winter treat requires only four ingredients - lemon, honey, bourbon, and hot water.

Step One: Gather your ingredients

1 1/2 ounces bourbon
2 slices lemon
1 lemon wedge
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
Hot water

Step Two: Warm the mug

Warm a mug or glass by rinsing it with hot water.

Step Three: Mix hot toddy

Pour in 1 1/2 ounces of bourbon, followed by 1 1/2 teaspoons of honey, then squeeze in one wedge of lemon. Pour hot, freshly boiled water over the mixture, and stir well with a spoon until the honey is dissolved throughout. Float two thin slices of lemon on top and serve.

[caption id="attachment_792840" align="alignnone" width="1600"] ®Jim Lightfoot/Flickr[/caption]

Chai Cocktail

Ginger, Zingiber officinale, is a popular spice made from the bulbous root of a plant originating in China. Ginger is pungent, spicy, and a tad bit sweet, and has traditionally been used in folk medicine for its reputed stomach-calming and anti-inflammatory properties. This spicy chai recipe contains plenty of fresh ginger to warm you up.

Step One: Gather your ingredients

2 black tea bags
4 pods cardamom
Sliced fresh ginger
8 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup whole milk or half and half
1 1/2 ounces dark rum
Ice
Nutmeg
Whipped cream

Step Two: Make chai

Gather your ingredients to make the sweetened chai base. Boil enough water to fill a teapot or another brewing vessel such as a french press (about 32 ounces in size) and fill it with hot water. Add two black tea bags, 4 crushed cardamom pods (or 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom), 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 8 whole cloves, and 4 2-inch slices of fresh ginger to the hot water. Stir, then add 4 tablespoons of honey. Mix well, mashing the spices a bit with a wooden spoon to get all the flavor out. Let the chai cool completely, then strain through a strainer or cheesecloth into a separate container. (If you're serving a hot chai cocktail, simply wait about ten minutes to let it steep before straining the spices out.)

Step Three: Make cocktails

For each drink, you'll need 1.5 ounces (one shot) of dark rum, 1/2 cup of sweetened chai tea, and 1/4 cup of whole milk or half and half. Shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, then strain into glasses filled with ice. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream sprinkled with nutmeg. Alternatively, you can serve the chai cocktail hot - simply add the hot sweetened chai to the rum and milk.

[caption id="attachment_792842" align="alignnone" width="1600"] ® ThamKC/Shutterstock[/caption]

Turmeric Tonic

Turmeric, Curcuma longa, known for its vibrant golden-yellow color, is also reputed to have anti-inflammatory properties. You might be able to find fresh turmeric root - which somewhat resembles a smaller ginger root - at a grocery store or market. If not, you can substitute a smaller amount of dried golden turmeric.

Step One: Gather your ingredients

1 teaspoon freshly grated turmeric root (or 1/4 teaspoon powdered turmeric)
1 1/2 ounces dark rum
1/4 cup coconut milk plus two tablespoons
1/4 cup water plus two tablespoons
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon honey

Step Two: Prepare tonic

Into a small saucepan, add the coconut milk, water, grated ginger, grated turmeric, and honey. Warm over very low heat, stirring until the honey is dissolved and the mixture begins to steam. It will take on a brilliant golden color from the turmeric. To make more servings, simply add more of the above ingredients to fill the pot and heat all at once.

Step Three: Mix drink and serve

For each drink, add 1 1/2 ounces of dark rum to a warmed mug or glass. Place a small strainer (such as those used for making tea) over each mug and pour the hot golden coconut-turmeric tonic through the strainer. Stir to blend with the rum and enjoy.

[caption id="attachment_792839" align="alignnone" width="889"] ®RPavic / Flickr[/caption]

Glögg (Swedish Mulled Wine)

Cardamom is made from the whole or ground seed pods of Elettaria cardamomum, a plant native to Southern India. It's a popular spice in India, Asia, and the Middle East, but also in Scandinavia - particularly Sweden. Glögg is a Swedish-style hot mulled wine traditionally served during the holiday season. With its potent combination of heated wine, brandy, and warming spices like cardamom, cloves, and ginger, this beverage will bring a rosy glow to your cheeks. This recipe makes 8 servings since it needs to mull in a larger pot, so invite some friends to enjoy it with you (or not).

Step One: Gather your ingredients

1 bottle of inexpensive red wine
1 cup of brandy
2 broken cinnamon sticks
10 whole cloves
8 crushed cardamom pods
4 slices fresh ginger root
1 orange peel
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Step Two: Mull the wine

Add all of the ingredients except the brandy to a medium-sized pot and place over low heat. If you like, you can adjust the ingredients to your taste - for example, you can use slices of whole orange instead of orange peel, add more brown sugar, or even add raisins and almonds. Heat the mixture over low heat for about 30 minutes, being sure not to bring it a boil at any point. Keep the pot covered.

Step Three: Add brandy and serve

When you're ready to serve, mix in one cup of brandy to the pot and give it a stir. Ladle the Glögg into warmed mugs or glasses and give a toast.

[caption id="attachment_792844" align="alignnone" width="1600"] ®Masson/Shutterstock[/caption]

Spiked Gingerbread Coffee

Cloves, commonly used in pumpkin pie and gingerbread, are actually a pretty unusual spice. Did you know they're made from the dried flower buds of a tree native to Indonesia? Cloves have a number of aromatic essential oils, and have been traditionally used as a dental painkiller, breath freshener, and digestive aid. In this recipe, cloves lend a distinctive gingerbread flavor to coffee. This recipe makes four servings.

Step One: Gather your ingredients

1 cup freshly ground coffee
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons brown sugar
6 ounces bourbon
Whipped cream

Step Two: Brew gingerbread coffee

Boil 32 ounces of hot water and set up a drip cone and filter. Add one cup of freshly ground coffee to the filter, and stir in the spices: cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. Gently pour hot water over the spiced coffee.

Step Three: Heat milk and sugar

While the coffee is dripping, in a small saucepan, heat up one cup of whole milk with 4 tablespoons of brown sugar. Stir to dissolve all of the sugar, and remove from the heat.

Step Four: Prepare and serve spiked coffee

Into four warmed mugs or glasses, add 1 1/2 ounces of bourbon to each. Pour in 1/4 cup of the warmed milk and sugar mixture into each mug. Finally, add hot gingerbread coffee to each mug and stir to mix. Top with a float of whipped cream.

Note: You can substitute apple cider, black tea, or cranberry juice for any of these recipes to make them alcohol-free.

Lead image ®Ratmaner/Shutterstock

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14 gorgeous and green gifts for her

Whether you want to woo your wife, charm your mom, sweep your girlfriend off her feet or put a grin on granny’s face, we’ve got a selection of fabulous eco-friendly presents for her perfect for the special ladies in your life. From dazzling fair-trade earrings to pretty recycled wall planters to luscious vegan truffles, make your life a little easier by checking out our sustainable selection of Green Gifts for Her today.

GIFTS FOR HER >

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Interview: Ruud Visser transforms old churches and water towers into incredible modern homes

According to Visser, he first became interested in the preservation of old buildings when studying at the University of Delft in southern Holland. Since then, he has developed a strong belief in the profound importance of the existing environment, and he imbues this belief into the foundations of all of his architectural projects. “Our design process starts with the existing environment. We are inclined to the local, the small scale, but we do not merely copy it. We are averse from architecture that is associative. We aim to design in the pure grammatical language of architecture. At the end of the day it is our ambition to make contemporary architecture that intensifies the character of the existing environment.”

Though Visser is responsible for a variety of projects, his firm is perhaps most famous for its inspired design House in a Church, completed last year, in which his firm transformed a cavernous church into a modern family home. Capricious and tumultuous enough to constitute the makings of a Disney film, the church's history was a long and sad one until Visser's renovation. “The original church was constructed in the 1930s, but since 1960 it was used as a garage for fixing cars and storage.” Visser says that during this time as a garage, the church's exterior was covered with metal plates until the point that it resembled an airplane hangar.

It remained in this state until Visser and his firm stepped in with the goal of transforming the church into a modern family home. “[Since] the church had a volume of 3000 cube, as big as six average family houses, there was lots of space for just one family house... The challenge was to create a feeling of enclosure in this enormous space, without losing the grandeur of the church.”

Visser says that though he could have simply designed a labrynthian 16-room home, he chose instead to design “a luxurious house, but of normal measurements.” To accomplish this, Visser employed the use of several innovative design techniques. “We situated this ‘house’ inside the church as an independent object... Inside the house there is the scale of the family home. Outside the house, but [still] inside the church, it is the scale of the church.” Visser says that this creates a unique home environment that provides the simultaneous feeling of living in a normal family house while also occupying a vast interior space.

One of these spaces he left open was the area previously occupied by the pulpit. “The [far end] of the church is the transept or cross-ship. This was the place of the pulpit, [which was] lightened by the original ‘leaded light’ windows. This space we held open as an immense void... By this, the new house in the church is opened to the beautiful landscape. The transept has become a buffer, between the public outside and the private house inside.”

The combined result of his firm's efforts is a breathtaking new interpretation of re-purposed architecture, with House in a Church not aiming to fully occupy and conceal the existing structure, but to punctuate and embrace it.

Since House in a Church, Visser has gone on to work on other similar projects involving architectural reinterpretation, including one project named Water Tower Meerkerk, which also aims to create a family residence out of an existing structure -- this time from an old industrial water tower.

“The water tower in Meerkerk is one of many water towers which is not in function anymore as a reservoir for drinking water, [but] the tower is a protected monument and a characteristic landmark,” Visser says. “Recently a family of four from Meerkerk bought the tower with the intention to convert it into a single family house...Our goal is not only to preserve a valuable industrial object, but at the same time to make a contribution to the quality of a contemporary build environment.”

Ultimately, this twin desire to create and preserve is what seems to drive all of Visser's architecture, adding a noble twist to other forms of architectural inspiration. “Like a poem on a wall of an old schoolteacher's house from which [we build] an elderly home...Sometimes our designs are only interventions into the environment...and sometimes our design is just a moment in time.”

+ Ruud Visser Architects

Photos by René de Wit

Alex Levin is a writer for Granite Transformations, a remodeling company dedicated to advancing green remodeling practices by finding new ways to recycle and reduce waste like making countertops out of blue Skyy vodka bottles.