High House lets you enjoy the outdoors even in the middle of winter in Quebec

As if built out of snow, this discrete house on stilts blends perfectly into the white winter landscape of Quebec, Canada. Parisian architecture studio Delordinaire raised the house above the ground to capture the expansive views of Mont Saint Anne, soak up as much natural light as possible and form a heated outdoor space beneath the volume, all while blending in with the wintry landscape.

The building, named High House, has painted white concrete panel cladding and corrugated steel roof panels in order to blend into the landscape during winter, and stand out against green hills in summer. A warming stove allows the underside to function as an outdoor space that can be used throughout the year.

Related: This cozy cottage sits on stilts made out of recycled gas pipes

This unusual space is where residents can be in direct contact with nature and the snowy exterior while still enjoying a level of protection from the elements. The volume above provides uninterrupted views of the Mont Saint Anne from the lounge room. Large windows allow natural light to directly enter the house at all hours of the day.

+ Delordinaire

Via Fubiz

from INHABITAT http://ift.tt/2znwpKU
via Inhabitat

Artist upcycles plastic bottles into enchanting chandeliers

These elaborate chandeliers might look like they’re made from crystal at a distance—but take a closer look and you’ll see they’re actually crafted from recycled plastic bottles. Czech artist Veronika Richterová created these upcycled beauties as part of PET luminaries, a series of working lamps and chandeliers made from colorful PET.

Previously featured on Inhabitat, Veronika Richterová won our hearts with her PET-ART collection made up of lifelike fauna and flora crafted from recycled plastic bottles. Colossal spotted the artist’s chandelier project and its current exhibition in Eden Unearthed at Sydney’s Eden Gardens that will run until February 2018.

Related: Artist Veronika Richterová turns plastic bottles into beautiful plant and animal sculptures

Her creative light fixtures are intricately detailed—Richterová cuts and twists the bottles into the desired texture, shape, and patterns, but also preserves enough of the original bottle shape to provoke dialogue about recycling. Richterová drew inspiration for her series from the way plastic bottles interact with light, and she works with bulbs and cables that give off minimal heat to protect the heat-sensitive sculptures.

+ Veronika Richterová

Via Colossal

from INHABITAT http://ift.tt/2zSm85S
via Inhabitat

These Christmas lights are made of trash left on Canary Island beaches

While some associate Christmas with crass consumerism, Spanish architect Fernando Menis from the Canary Islands believes it’s a great opportunity to reuse discarded objects. To prove the idea, Menis designed Christmas lights out of recycled summer waste for the coastal town of La Oliva on the island of Fuerteventura. Colorful floats, surfboards, buckets, beach toys and even plastic bottles abandoned on local beaches will have a second life as very unusual Christmas decorations on the exotic island.

Instead of classic “White Christmas” snowflakes and snowmen, the architect proposed more appropriate marine decor that fits into the local context. La Oliva is traditionally linked to the sea and fishing, so Menis dreamt up giant squids, hibiscus flowers, palm trees, boats and jellyfish garlands – all lit with energy-efficient and environmentally friendly LED technology. Some of the lights are even powered by small solar panels.

Menis also wants to bring his oceanic Christmas theme to the sea by supplying fishing boats navigating near the coast with recycled garlands that light up at night.

Related: How to Green Your Holidays With Eco-Friendly Christmas Decor

The project will be realized with the citizen participation – In fact, its assembly will involve the inhabitants and especially the local kids. What a great way to have fun and celebrate Christmas while creating real value with objects that tourists discard upon leaving the island.

+ Fernando Menis

Images courtesy of Fernando Menis Architects

from INHABITAT http://ift.tt/2zIgeUQ
via Inhabitat

6 urban farms feeding the world

A bustling city is the last place you’d ever expect to find a farm. But urban agriculture is alive and well, providing city dwellers with local, sustainable food.  These days, you can urban farms inside warehouses, on top of buildings, and even on the tiniest plots of land. If you are looking to grow food in your city, take a look at these six different urban farming projects we’ve rounded up to highlight various creative antidotes to the pressing issue that is global food security.

Detroit agrihood feeds 2,000 households for free

The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative started a three-acre agrihood in Detroit to bring local, fresh produce to the neighborhood. The agrihood includes a two-acre garden, children’s sensory garden, 200-tree fruit orchard, and a Community Resource Center in the works. Nutritional illiteracy and food insecurity are two obstacles Detroit residents face, and the agrihood provides a community-friendly solution offering free produce to around 2,000 households.

Related: Wind-powered vertical Skyfarms are the future of sustainable agriculture

Rooftop farms in Gaza grow food where resources are scarce

Urban farming initiatives don’t need to be massive to make a difference. The almost two-million population of Palestine’s Gaza Strip doesn’t have much land to farm, so in 2010 the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization introduced the concept of rooftop farming on a large scale by giving 200 homes equipment for aquaponic growing systems. Other Palestinians have built garden beds with recycled plastic and wood, planted with seeds from nearby farmers. Ahmad Saleh, a former professor and community organizer, said rooftop gardens empower people and help create healthier populations.

Indianapolis warehouse farm is 100 percent powered by renewable energy

Old warehouses are being transformed into farms in some areas of the world, like at Farm 360 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The farm’s hydroponic systems are completely powered by clean energy, and the indoor farm produces fresh, local food year-round. The nearby neighborhood had struggled with poverty and unemployment, and one of Farm 360’s goals was to boost economic growth by providing jobs close enough to where employees live for them to walk or bike to work.

Farm on Tel Aviv mall roof produces 10,000 heads of greens every month

Israel’s oldest mall, Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, received a burst of life with the Green in the City rooftop farm. There’s no dirt necessary for the hydroponic systems able to churn out 10,000 heads of greens a month, inside two greenhouses boasting around 8,073 square feet of space. All of the produce is sold, largely to local homes and restaurants through online orders delivered by bicycle. The Green in the City garden was launched by hydroponics company LivinGreen and the sustainability department of Dizengoff Center to raise awareness of the food crisis and offer affordable local produce.

World’s largest rooftop farm in Chicago can grow 10 million crops annually

Chicago, Illinois is home to the world’s biggest rooftop garden after Brooklyn-based agriculture company Gotham Greens expanded out of New York to start the 75,000-square-foot garden on top of a Method Products manufacturing plant. William McDonough + Partners and Heitman Architects designed the project, which grows 10 million pesticide-free herbs and greens every year, all year round, inside a greenhouse facility powered by renewable energy.

Massive Shanghai urban farm to feed nearly 24 million people

Shanghai, China is home to over 24 million people, and a 100-hectare urban farm planned for the city could feed nearly all of them. Architecture firm Sasaki is behind the Sunqiao Urban Agricultural District, which is designed to weave vertical farms among towers. Hydroponic and aquaponic methods, floating greenhouses, and algae farms are all part of the design.

Images via The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative Facebook, Mohamed Hajjar, Esther Boston, © Lucy Wang, Gotham Greens, and ArchDaily

from INHABITAT http://ift.tt/2zF5QNs
via Inhabitat

MIT students develop method to reinforce concrete using plastic bottles

Americans consume 8.6 billion water bottles — every year. Of those, only 1 of 5 is recycled. Fortunately, a handful of MIT students have developed a solution to this problem, and it involves repurposing waste plastic bottles to reinforce concrete. Because the newly-invented method results in the concrete being more durable than existing concrete, plastic bottles may soon be used to construct everything from stronger building foundations to sidewalks and street barriers.

According to the study, which was published in the journal Waste Management, MIT students discovered a method to produce concrete that is up to 20 percent stronger than conventional concrete. First, plastic flakes are exposed to small amounts of harmless gamma radiation. Then, they are pulverized into a fine powder, after which it is added to concrete.

The discovery has far-reaching implications, as concrete is the second most widely used material on Earth (the first is water). MIT News reports that approximately 4.5 percent of the world’s human-induced carbon emissions are generated by manufacturing concrete. By replacing small portions of concrete with recycled plastic, the cement industry’s toll on the environment would be reduced.

The newly-discovered method would also prevent millions of water and soda bottles from ending up in landfills. Michael Short, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, said, “There is a huge amount of plastic that is landfilled every year. Our technology takes plastic out of the landfill, locks it up in concrete, and also uses less cement to make the concrete, which makes fewer carbon dioxide emissions. This has the potential to pull plastic landfill waste out of the landfill and into buildings, where it could actually help to make them stronger.”

Related: MIT battery that inhales and exhales air can store power for months

MIT students Carolyn Schaefer and Michael Ortega explored the possibility of plastic-reinforced concrete as part of their class’s Nuclear Systems Design Project. In the future, the team intends to experiment with different types of plastic, along with various doses of gamma radiation, to determine their effects on concrete. So far, they’ve determined that substituting 1.5 percent of concrete with irradiated plastic significantly improves the mixture’s strength. While this may not seem like a lot, it is enough to have a significant impact if implemented on a global scale.

“Concrete produces about 4.5 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions,” said Short. “Take out 1.5 percent of that, and you’re already talking about 0.0675 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. That’s a huge amount of greenhouse gases in one fell swoop.”’’

Via MIT News

Images via MIT, Pixabay

from INHABITAT http://ift.tt/2i5Re2x
via Inhabitat

Zaha Hadid Architects futuristic KAPSARC named Saudi Arabias smartest building

Despite its name, the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre (KAPSARC) is big on renewable energy, as evidenced by its LEED Platinum certification—the first of Zaha Hadid Architects’ projects to receive the title. Located in the Riyadh Plateau, KAPSARC is a non-profit dedicated to studying energy and their environmental impacts. The crystalline and futuristic campus recently opened to the public for Saudi Design Week 2017; the Honeywell Smart Building Awards program named the project Saudi Arabia’s ‘smartest’ building after its many eco-conscious features.

Made up of white hexagonal prismatic honeycomb structures, KAPSARC uses its partially modular system to optimize solar orientation, increase connectivity, and maximize daylighting. The building massing and facade optimization helped the structure achieve a 45% reduction in energy performance (compared to the ASHRAE baseline standards), while the solar array that tops a south-facing roof provides renewable energy with a capacity of 5,000MWh per year. “A research centre is by its very nature a forward-looking institution and KAPSARC’s architecture also looks to the future with a formal composition that can be expanded or adapted without compromising the centre’s visual character,” wrote the architects.

Related: Zaha Hadid Architects unveils designs for wave-inspired Melbourne apartment tower

The 70,000-square-meter campus comprises five buildings: the Energy Knowledge Centre; the Energy Computer Centre; a Conference Centre with exhibition hall and 300-seat auditorium; a Research Library with archives for 100,000 volumes; and the Musalla, an inspirational place for prayer within the campus. Each building differs in size and is flexible enough to adapt to different uses or changes in requirements. The facade features a strong protective shell to shield the interior from the harsh climate. All KAPSARC’s potable water is recycled and reused onsite while all of its irrigation water is used from non-potable sources. Forty percent of the campus’ construction materials were locally sourced and thirty percent of the materials are made with recycled content.

+ Zaha Hadid Architects

Images by Hufton + Crow

from INHABITAT http://ift.tt/2zEwCpr
via Inhabitat