Tag Archives: Green/Sustainable

This hydrogen fuel based pod is the vehicle of choice for a green future!

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We all once believed flying cars would be the future for the auto industry. Then cars started driving themselves, so that future was left up to the designers to decide. But never has the future weighed so heavily above us than it has in 2020. Globally, designers are utilizing this moment to construct what they believe the future of the auto industry will and, in some cases, should look like, including Moscow-based, Nikita Konopatov who recently conceptualized a hydrogen-fueled car for the future, called Future Center Europe. The fuel-cell vehicle design would move on two cylindrical barrels with a bubbled body, an image representative of molecular hydrogen combustion. The decision to construct a new automobile fueled by hydrogen is both feasible and deliberate. With the frequency of road transportation decreasing, and therefore air pollution, as a result of travel restrictions due to the pandemic, many of us have consciously shifted toward greener alternatives. Fuel cell vehicles indicate one green alternative since the electric vehicles use generators to turn hydrogen into electricity, providing energy.

Hydrogen fuel is produced once hydrogen reacts with oxygen to make water. Since hydrogen is an energy carrier, which means it transmits energy from a primary source, such as solar energy or coal, it can be used as fuel for cars. Extracting hydrogen from compounds can be tricky, but it is possible through electrolysis, which is the most popular, ecological, and efficient option. Konopatov describes his design as “atypical,” but it is also so utopian, it discredits any possibility of a future doomsday. With columnar wheels and panoramic windows, this design could inspire sci-fi anime or become one. Who wouldn’t take a drive? On paper, this design points out our seemingly new reality and how we interact with it. Globally, we’re embracing simplicity, sprucing up our own corner of the world, and modifying our lens for alternative living in order to meet it halfway. Similarly, Nikita Konopatov’s fuel cell vehicle nods towards a simpler, albeit faraway future world, where cars might not fly, but breathe like us.

Designer: Nikita Konopatov

Modern architectural design goes green with this grass roof villa!

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In the hills of Harriman State Park (New York), plans were made to build a beautiful, contemporary-style hobbit hole known as the Black Villa. The house is stunning inside and out, especially its most eye-catching feature: the luscious grass-covered roof.

Green roofs have been growing slowly in popularity over the past decade, due to their economic and environmental advantages. They can reduce energy usage by 0.7% by providing natural insulation against heat and maintaining temperatures that are 30-40°F lower than conventional rooftops. (The Black Villa also decreases the need for electricity by using skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows.) Green roofs also reduce and slow down stormwater runoff, which helps immensely in areas with poor drainage systems (usually in urban areas).

I appreciated the Black Villa’s environmentally-conscious design, but I wish it had been made for a city, not a national park. To build the house, you would have to disrupt the park’s existing landscape, which seems counter-productive as a sustainability project. Perhaps the Black Villa could generate more interest in green roof architecture in the future, but ultimately I think its energy-efficient features are simply part of the pretty facade.

Designer: Reza Mohtashami

 

This geometric wooden cabin is perfect for a socially distant getaway!

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Log cabins are to Norway like fjords are to its mountains. You expect to see it: the stacks of brown timber that build up age-old cabins, dotting the valleys below monolithic mountain ranges. They’re the kind of homes that work in tandem with their environment, almost appearing synergistically with the mountain that encompasses them. The Diamanten Cabin, or, “The Diamond,” designed and constructed by A38 Arkitekter, doesn’t disrupt that synergy, but seamlessly cycles itself into it, like a cogwheel clicking into the grooves of another and rotating.

The Diamanten Cabin, which is positioned atop a cylindrical support pillar in Oppdal, Norway, was constructed within its mountainous, pre-existing framework. The architects with A38 Arkitekter centralized environmental harmony in designing their winter annex; adjacent log cabins punctuate corners of the valley where the diamond-shaped cabin perks. The final structure is visually enigmatic, but chameleon-like in its commitment to reinvigorating, yet respecting the community to which it belongs. Nestled nearby traditionally vibrant timber cabins, the Diamanten Cabin is unassuming in size, with a total of only a single, open room.

However, The Diamanten’s artistry is found not in its size, but in the way it appeals to the landscape and vernacular structures that cradle it. The frame of the cabin is structured so that the roof cascades gracefully in the direction of the massive mountain that frames its larger community. The cabin’s transparent pitched roof provides a vista point for the expansive valley’s horizon that rests just ahead of it. The minimal, yet sturdy cylindrical foundation emphasizes the designer’s devotion to environmental harmony as the single-room home borrows minimal physical space in its conception, maintaining the natural state of the surrounding land.

Reimagining something as iconic as the log cabin is no easy feat. One might describe The Diamanten as a modern, minimalist take on the original, simpler cabin, but it remains and thrives as something completely on its own. The Diamond might not assume singularity the same way classic log cabins have for centuries, but it reignites the possibilities of what it could look like. Just ahead and to the right of time-honored log cabins of yesterday, rests the Diamanten, offering innovation in structure and design from an exciting, fresh vantage point. Off lofty, full-length windows reflects an enlivened and crystal clear vision of Oppdal, Norway’s limitless horizons and it gleams, making it a perfect getaway for a socially distant getaway!

Designers: A38 Arkitekter

This cost + energy efficient mobile refrigerator reduces food contamination and waste in developing countries!

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In many developing countries, especially ones with a large population like India, people don’t have access or money to own basic home appliances. While you can still make do without a fan or a gas stove, a refrigerator is becoming increasingly essential as climate change causes temperatures which affect the harvest as well as the daily food that is perishable – think of how quickly your carton of milk or bag of lettuce goes bad! Sprout Studios and Draper have designed a mobile thermoelectric refrigerator (sponsored by the Gates foundation) for this demographic that doesn’t have an option of renting apartments that come with 5-star rated appliances.

This is a cost-efficient and low-energy consuming mobile refrigerator that aims to combat global refrigeration challenges, especially in tropical developing countries. India is the world’s largest milk producer so it is crucial to not let it perish during storage and transportation. A refrigerator is needed to keep milk from being contaminated with airborne diseases such as Listeria. This product by Sprout and Draper uses thermoelectric technology which is an innovative cooling system that allows villages in India to be able to store their milk overnight and transport it up to 15 miles to pasteurization facilities. The unit requires minimal power and has the added ability to operate from off-grid power sources making it vital for developing countries that have large fields in remote areas. The lack of infrastructure in countries like India (roads, electricity) makes it impossible to fund refrigeration at the point of production or refrigerated transport which is where cost and energy-efficient solutions like this can play a pivotal role.

The Mobile thermoelectric refrigerator has been engineered to be durable, rugged, and look innovative. The chassis of the refrigerator is constructed in a way that it allows the top-chilling unit to be removed while the bottom refrigeration unit is being transported. The chiller uses the water and heat transfer to cool the milk while excess warm water can be used for cleaning and bathing – and that is how it reduces the waste of resources too! The chassis is crafted from anodized aluminum to keep it lightweight and strong. It features an airless wheel system to avoid flats on rough terrain which also utilizes a regenerative hub that powers a battery to keep things cool while on the road. The multifunctional handle design makes it comfortable for the user to pull the refrigerator by hand while walking or even attach it to a bicycle or motorcycle for rapid transport.

“The pressing problems facing humankind and the planet are not well addressed by mass-market off-the-shelf products. Draper’s Global Challenges initiative applies our substantial engineering capabilities to solve these problems by looking beyond the technology to understand the problem space. The correct technology solution is rarely obvious. For example, designing the world’s most efficient refrigerator does nothing for those without reliable electricity,” says the team. Technology is great but can be greater when used to answer the questions of the unheard demographic.

Designers: Jordan Nollman, Jason Wilbur, Rich Orsini, Matt Bettencourt of Sprout Studios, and Robert de Saint Phalle for Draper.

NASA + BIG are working on a sustainable 3D printed moon habitat using moon dust to reduce waste!

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While Mars missions are getting all the media and sci-fi attention, a trusty celestial friend is making a comeback as an option for hosting human colonies outside Earth – it is our moon! Bjarke Ingle’s BIG and 3D-printed building company ICON are working on Project Olympus – a mission to develop robotic construction for the moon.

Bjarke Ingles is the Elon Musk of the architectural world, he loves to explore the impossible and has a penchant for designs that can help save mankind right from his environmentally friendly buildings to Project Olympus. Project Olympus is about finding a way to create a 3D-printed infrastructure for living on the moon using materials found on its surface. Why do we need a habitat on the moon? So that we can launch sustained lunar exploration missions where the astronauts will be able to stay comfortably and carry out their research for extended time periods. The project has also enlisted SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture) after it received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) government contract boosted with funding from NASA.

“With ICON we are pioneering new frontiers – both materially, technologically and environmentally. To explain the power of architecture, ‘formgiving’ is the Danish word for design, which literally means to give form to that which has not yet been given form. This becomes fundamentally clear when we venture beyond Earth and begin to imagine how we are going to build and live on entirely new worlds,” said Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG.

Making a habitat base on the moon is no ordinary construction project. There are many factors at play – it is an inhospitable environment with only a fifth of Earth’s gravity and none of its atmosphere, plus it will have to be created almost entirely from locally available materials i.e. moon dust which will be sustainable and reduce waste! Working with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the team will use a simulant of moon soil to experiment with 3D-printable construction.

“3D printing with indigenous materials is a sustainable and versatile solution to off-world construction that will prove to be vital to our future here on Earth and in Outer Space. The habitat will be designed with the inherent redundancy required for extraterrestrial buildings, while also using groundbreaking robotic construction that uses only in-site resources with zero-waste left behind,” SEArch+ added. A by-product of all the developmental research and experiments being conducted for Project Olympus is that it will also reveal new ways to build more sustainably on Earth while reducing the construction industry’s carbon footprint.

BIG is a perfect fit for this project as they have previously designed a simulation of Mars called Mars Science City in Dubai. ICON too was a finalist in NASA’s 3D printed habitat challenge with many innovative projects under its belt and SEArch+ is an architecture firm that has worked with NASA for a long time on human-centered designs for space exploration making this a complete dream team. *Plays Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon*

Designers: BIG, ICON, and SEArch+

The Ocean Cleanup Project’s collected plastic gets and grows a new life with this urban planter

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Since 2013, the Ocean Cleanup initiative has encouraged designers to envision products that could be made using plastic waste from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Designed to meet the guidelines set out by this initiative, designer Troy Dunn created this urban garden planter to achieve two environmental missions: recycling plastic materials and fostering green environments in urban settings!

The Ocean Cleanup initiative called for products that were durable, easy to use, able to retain their value (after all, what is the point of rescuing plastic from the ocean only to have it dumped into the garbage again), related to social activities, and finally, be a product that people actually wanted and would keep for their whole lives. To fit these requirements, the urban planter was made to be weatherproof, ergonomic, and stackable. Floor space is limited in urban areas, so it was important to design a product that wouldn’t take up too much room — as the owner may end up throwing it away to make room for their other possessions. The reason this planter works is because there is an emotional attachment between humans and anything they create/produce. Plants, though don’t speak, still react to our love and care, and watching them grow and bloom is a highly fulfilling endeavor. Any plant parent will tell you once you start growing plants, its impossible to back out!

The Ocean Cleanup garden planter is made up with three different parts- a synthetic cork base, to protect against wear and tear, a water reservoir made of clear plastic, which allows users to see the water levels inside and prevent overwatering, and a “soil vessel,” which holds the plant. The water reservoir sets this product apart from other gardening products. Most planters are designed with the assumption that the water that drains out the bottom will simply be absorbed by the ground underneath it. City dwellers rarely have a backyard where they can set their pots on the actual dirt, which means that water will simply leak onto a brick patio or some other man-made surface. The water reservoir is just one of the many thoughtful alterations that make this product perfect for urban life while reducing chances of overwatering the plants.

Designer: Troy Dunn

These transparent wooden hanging tents are built using shipbuilding techniques!

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This will sound lame but the Hanging Shelter (Hængende Ly in Danish) is actually the literal meaning of hanging out – you see it? It is a lot more than hammock strung up on trees, in fact, it is a very unique accommodation that has been custom designed using traditional shipbuilding techniques.

The enclosed treehouse is nestled 2.5 meters above the ground that offers 360-degree views of the lush green Genner area in Denmark. The only way to get in and out of the Hanging Shelter is via a basic ladder. The structure is constructed with steam-bent oak which forms the curved walls and floor – something that sets it apart from similar tents and is hard to miss! To give it a height there are eight additional arched wood frames that continue to shape the rounded walls vertically. The design team has used a thin, clear membrane to wrap the entire shelter in so that you are protected from different weather conditions and are still able to soak in all the natural greenery Genner has to offer.

Stedse Architects are known for architectural projects that revolve around “sustainable construction, including climate adaptation, energy-efficient buildings, energy calculations and environmental consulting” – making them worthy of admiration on the design front as well as being a community-conscious company. The Hanging Shelter is crafted by a team of skilled boat builders and engineers who worked with the architects. Both the teams – Stedse and the local builders – have a love for nature and using wood as an element. This made their collaboration successful in highlighting nature, design, and the intricate art of woodworking with a single overnight accommodation that had minimal site impact.

Wood gets a lot of flak when it comes to being used as a sustainable material because people often say “you are killing trees” but that is not how sustainable materials are picked. It is a natural, renewable, and eco-friendly material for building, with a lighter carbon footprint than steel or concrete. Maximizing the usage of wood in residential and commercial construction can remove an estimated 21 million tons of C02 from the atmosphere annually which is equal to taking 4.4 million cars off the road. Companies using wood in construction also follow a cycle to make sure they are not depleting resources faster than they can be renewed – hence many partake in planting trees all the time. Also, residues of wood industries are utilized in either by-product manufacture or fuel and clean bio-energy making it a very clever choice for sustainable construction. The company hopes that the Hanging Shelter can be an example of a project that will “show the potential of using wood as a natural, sustainable, and adaptable building material.”

Designer: Stedse Architects

 

This transparent pen design crystalizes tree branches to make empty pens memorable!

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When it comes to stationery, it often seems that demand overshadows artistry. Noisy, plastic pouches lined with ten or more plastic pens fill the bags of shoppers who just need something to write. That’s why Geonwoo Kim conceptualized the IceN pen. Specifically for pen-users who tend towards plastic, wasteful writing tools, the IceN reimagines an ecological alternative. Before putting pen to paper, Kim took and studied photographs of tree branches frozen over with ice in order to conceptualize the pen’s design authentically and to send home his dedication to conservation. In many ways, this pen represents a marriage between environmental consciousness and the human pursuit for reusability. This design makes sense of human waste by returning to nature. This sentiment is emphasized with Kim’s remark, “I wanted to show that there is still beauty inside the empty, transparent pen.”

While the icy pen is still in its design stages, Geonwoo Kim plans on the manufactured product being made up of resin and ink. By meticulously constructing the pen in harmony with mother nature, the final design comprises a work of art that’ll be sure to take up prime real estate in either your home office or pencil case. Unlike other transparent pens, you won’t want to throw this one away. But of course, ink runs out. As this stationery design hasn’t reached its production stage, the question of refilling the pen lingers. One possibility, echoing nature’s inimitability, would be to 3D print refills, so that each resulting ‘branch’ inside the pen is unique. Lost wax molding, centering a hollowed out ‘branch’ in transparent resin to then fill in with ink, could be an efficient and successful choice as well. With a few possibilities considered, the prospective solution will likely reflect Kim’s environmental commitment.

The beginnings of Geonwoo Kim’s pen design literally symbolizes a root and branch undertaking. The final visual design, in both its complexity and simplicity, is a visually pronounced declaration of environmental awareness. Geonwoo Kim realizes the contemplative connection between the written word and the beauty of nature. The possibilities of merging design with the natural world, or, “man-made nature,” as Kim refers to it, are unveiled with IceN’s artful ode to mother Earth, bringing with it, winter’s textured and fallen branches, crystalized forever in ice.

Designer: Geonwoo Kim

This DIY tiny wooden cabin comes with a Scandinavian aesthetic and a flatpack design!

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Do you love DIYs? Me too! But let’s think big. Okay, a little bigger but not more than a tiny house. Now, what if I told you that you can build your own tiny cabin DIY style? Perfect 2020 project! A Hungarian company called Hello Wood has designed a tiny minimalist cabin that you can assemble yourself for creative space solutions or just an escape from your living room.

The prefabricated cabins start at $10,200 and have been crafted in a way that anyone can put it together, it is truly the ultimate DIY project. With the tiny home market ‘growing’ rapidly, the Kabinka cabin is positioned to be like IKEA furniture – easy to assemble with an aesthetic that is loved by most. The Kabinka cabin comes in four sizes that range between 129 and 215 square feet. It is a tiny cabin but it has high ceilings – over 12 feet high actually – that bring a sense of spaciousness and luxury to the otherwise simple structure. The ceiling space is well optimized to give the cabin a loft-like setup that can be used as storage space or a cozy reading nook.

Another cool thing about Kabinka is that it is a flatpack design! You can also customize it to suit your needs – it can be a private backyard workstation or a mini weekend holiday home without the heavy price tag (since you assemble it, it brings down the costs!). The assembly can take between 1-3 days and the designers say all you need is “a good bunch of helpers, basic tools and enthusiasm” to build Kabinka. The basic layout can easily fit a couch, a tea kitchen, and a stove but Hello Wood allows you to add any of these extras – landscaping, loft bed, bathroom, extra windows, glass wall, furniture, and more. While the base model isn’t suited to year-round living, with the right additions it can be easily transformed into a permanent tiny home.

“Our design-build projects are developed with people in mind. We work primarily with wood to create installations that invite participation, benefit local causes, and best serve our clients’ needs. Creating a quality space was the focus of the design process. Spatial quality isn’t necessarily characterized by big size, rather deliberate complexity. Each and every millimeter counts but we believe that for those who share this level of consciousness it is not a challenge but joy to spend their time in a minimalist home.” says the team. In my opinion, we all need to flee this urban lifestyle and get our own tiny homes so we can WFH with views for days!

Designer: Hello Wood

This Japanese wooden electric scooter is designed to solve mobility issues!

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Did you ever imagine an electric scooter made out of wood? I didn’t but it feels like something Geppetto would make if he was in 2020! Lucky for us we don’t have to wait for the master skills of our favorite fable characters, Japanese designer Mikiya Kobayashi has designed a conceptual wooden electric scooter that is especially aimed at those with mobility issues like the often forgotten elderly demographic.

The electric vehicle is called ILY-Ai and it actually can be counted as a trike because it has three wheels – two large ones in the front and a balancing one in the rear end. ILY-Ai is carved from solid timber and is a complete aesthetic contrast to the usual sleek, matte, futuristic electric scooters you see. The concept is developed in collaboration with Aisin’s technology as they are one of the leaders in the world of mobility and they are also well known in Japan for manufacturing automotive parts as well as lifestyle, wellness, energy-related products. Another crucial collaborator is Karimoku, Japan’s leading wooden manufacturers that helped in picking the right kind of wood so that ILY-Ai worked for indoor and outdoor spaces comfortably.

Wood adds a warm and cozy element to the design, Kobayashi has retained the natural timber’s aesthetic for an organic shape/feel. The combination of chestnut wood and aluminum match elevates the design and gives it a user-friendly touch while smoothly hiding the latest mobility technology. One important feature that was included for the elderly and for anyone with mobility issues trying to be independent is the safety sensor that automatically stops the scooter when it detects obstacles. Karimoku lends its years of wood-related study to ensure the design is as functional as its form with the clean curves and padded leather seat for comfort. This wooden scooter almost looks like our most nostalgic childhood toy comes alive with a better purpose to serve us in our adult life!

Designer: Mikiya Kobayashi