Vanity height. Now there’s a word the Oxford dictionary should have added to its list of new words for the 3rd quarter of 2013. Early this month, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) revealed the sins of…
Forget steel and cement for the meanwhile and let’s go back to basics. Seaweed power! Modern Seaweed House in Denmark (Image from Dezeen.com) Old-school builders were…
With the effects of climate change upon us, designers are making climate-proof buildings. One family takes a step further with an apocalypse-proof castle. There’s this reality show on National Geographic Channel airing these days, and it’s about a castle…
As a general rule we don’t eat meat that often. It’s not some conscious effort to be a vegan, either for health reasons or out of respect for our fellow animals—we just like vegetables better. But once in a while…
The decision to build green is not always an easy one. You know the drill: there’s tedious paperwork to be done, strict rules to consider, and very little leeway. USGBC, championing green buiding(Image from www.bestpracticesconstructionlaw.com) Thankfully, that’s where LEED contractors…
I'm in the market for a new bike. It occurred to me that I know how to ride a bike, but there is absolutely no bike in the house. Also, I've never bothered learning how to drive a car. I…
You’ve probably heard about graphene before. It’s this new revolutionary material that’s tougher than diamond, more elastic than rubber, a much better conductor than copper, and it can even repair itself. A perfect hexagonal lattice of graphene. (Image from www.bbc.co.uk)…
That precious, sanity-saving technology called the air conditioner celebrated its 111th birthday last July 17. (For a fantastically-detailed and engaging history of air-conditioners, check out Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America,…
China has a new shiny building, and it’s a big one. As in big big. The New Century Global Center: The new largest standalone structure in the world. Set in the city of Chengdu in Southwest China, the New Century…
As we wait for the November launch of LEED v4, it’s worth noting that our favorite sustainable building rating system now includes Cradle to Cradle Certification. This is the result of a majority vote (a whopping 85{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab}) by members of…
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