Open Architecture Network

Have you ever pedaled on a stationary bike at the gym and thought to yourself: ‘What if this energy I am exerting could be used for something better than just making me sweat?” Well now a new proposal from architect Mitchell Joachim promises to take all that energy expended at the gym to the next level, by capturing all that exertion and using it to transport people around the rivers of New York City. The River Gym concept is a human-powered floating gym that will provide the user with the one experience that no other gym can provide: floating your workout around Manhattan. Designed by architect Mitchell Joachim and personal trainer Douglas Joachim, this project could bring inspiration to both the morning commute and workout.

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Tags: gym, NYC, transportation, workout, exercise, human-power, New, York, magazine, design, contest

Herzog & de Meuron set about designing the Tate Modern Extension in 2006 with a modern, glass-filled aesthetic that contrasted the museum building’s origins as a former power station. A recently unveiled redesign of the addition has brought a pyramid shaped brick structure to this anchor point of the museum. The new program not only fits the museum’s needs better, it is poised to set a new standard for sustainability in the UK.

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With the 2008 Summer Olympics just around the corner, the Chinese government has started their plan to ban one million vehicles from the streets of Beijing. The initiative got underway this week with the intention to reduce the city’s air pollution in time for the 2008 Olympic Games, which start August 8th. From July 20 to Sept. 20, Beijing will alternate the days that vehicles with even and odd license plate numbers will be allowed to drive in the city - in the hopes that this will reduce traffic and air pollution for the Olympics. China has also announced that fuel prices will be raised by 18 per cent.

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Mazda recently announced that it will unveil it’s Kazamai crossover vehicle at the Moscow International Motor Show in August. Specifics on the sporty vehicle’s environmental performance will be revealed next month, but to date the car maker is touting this ride as a car that will “deliver exciting driving dynamics, frugal fuel consumption and greatly reduced CO2 emissions.”

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Imagine soaring along the road in a car composed entirely of aerodynamic glass, or piloting a red rocket-car with a split chassis mimicking a motorcycle and sidecar. Now consider the fact that these souped-up super-roadsters were envisioned with careful consideration paid to issues of emissions and energy-efficiency. The Royal College of Art recently revealed a rousing rally of auto designs that match sleek profiles with cutting-edge concepts in sustainability. From efficient electric engines to ultra-lightweight materials and driver-less navigation systems, the RCA’s 2008 crop of concept cars struck us as nothing short of stunning.

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Lotus is doing its best to convince us that they are the greenest car manufacturer, and their latest release, the Eco Elise, makes a great argument that this is the case. Not only is this an incredibly fuel efficient machine, it has been created to be manufactured with the greenest materials that Lotus could find. Embodied energy, material lifecycle, emissions and environmental impact of manufacturing and operating, and overall fuel efficiency are all factors that have been accounted for in the design and production of this soon to premiere vehicle.

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This summer PS1 Contemporary Art Center, an arm of MOMA, celebrates the 10th year of Warm Up, its annual summer music series, in New York. This year folks who go to catch the DJs and live music will have the opportunity to also visit a farmers market, dip their feet in a cool pool, and generally chill in the shade of Public Farm 1, by Work Architecture Company. It’s a series of recyclable cardboard tubes that grows rainwater-irrigated veggies while providing solar-powered cell-phone charging and community playspace. Whew!

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Al Gore recently appealed to the competitive nature of the US as a market driven society with an energy challenge that calls for a complete shift to renewables in the entire electricity sector. The former Vice President and Nobel laureate is raising the bar with the goal of total carbon-free wind, solar and geothermal power by 2018. Part of the vision includes powering electric vehicles (as truly emissions free), but the ambitious plan would transcend through transportation and ripple throughout the green building industry and beyond. With elections on the near horizon and a push to drill for yet more oil, Gore’s challenge is as timely as it is clear: in order to transcend an unsustainable existence, we need to transform our energy outlook.

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Sometimes sustainability comes in the form of adaptability, making objects able to accommodate evolving styles or tastes. Polish design studio Emocja had transformation in mind when creating the Bufet Filcowy sideboard. A sleek black panel creates a canvas of some 4000 holes laid out dot-matrix style. Felt pegs of any hue (not unlike cigarette filters) can be arranged into infinite patterns.

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London-based Sheppard Robson architecture firm is bringing a new green office building to the shore of the River Thames at One Westminster Place in Southbank. With sustainability driving the design, the structure’s eye catching glass facade will reflect sunlight in a rainbow of colors creating a crystal like effect. The layers of glazing will also give occupants great views of the surrounding city, including Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge, and boost the building’s energy performance to an excellent BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) rating, the British environmental standard for buildings.

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The Singapore skyline has been getting greener these days with new developments from some of the world’s most renown architects. The latest design to join the trend is a new futuristic green building from architect Ken Yeang named Fusionopolis. A research and development complex, this structure will adorn Singapore as the island nation’s most eco-friendly skyscraper.

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We sure love stylish sustainable knitwear and eco chic layering, and though were are experiencing a steamy summer here at Inhabitat central, we could not help but to be impressed by this gorgeous warm and fuzzy collection by Indigenous Designs. Handcrafted by Peruvian artisans operating under fair-trade guidelines and community-based artist training programs, the quality of these all-natural fiber garments is exceptionally high not to mention totally wearable. Fourteen year old Indigenous Designs is proof that sustainable style begins with the best raw materials and a vision to make a difference, both locally where things are made, as well as globally where the demand for environmental accountability and social responsibility has resonance with the fiber and discerning tastes of informed fashionistas.

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There is no disputing that Brazilian fashion really sets the standard for sexy bikinis, Ipanema beachwear and curvy, nature-inspired design. With this weekend marking a high-wattage celebration of swimwear collections at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Miami, we are taking a little time out here in sweltering NYC – to celebrate all things Brazilian – Rosa Cha swimwear, a cool caipirinha drink with organic lime, ethanol made from sugarcane, recycled Melissa Shoes, and what the heck, Gisele Bündchen (she did once date Leonardo DiCaprio)! But not to be overlooked is the latest collection from Creollus designs. We were recently tipped off on their one-of-a-kind, banana fiber bikinis and eco-chic accessories. If going totally organic is truly your M.O. for flaunting what you’ve got, look no further as crocheted-pieces by Creollus will definitely reveal the real you!

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We have officially entered the depths of summer here in NYC, and local art museums have really turned up the heat with a provocative line-up of environmentally charged exhibitions. The New Museum on the Bowery just opened its much-anticipated, After Nature show, coined after W.G. Sebald’s visionary book of the same name. We are also eager to view the prefab architecture installations that open at MoMA this weekend, but After Nature has definitely captured our imagination with its international roster of eclectic artists (Werner Herzog included), assembled on three floors of the New Museum’s galleries. Poised somewhere at the edge of an irretrievably lost or a yet to be decoded civilization, this eco-feverish exhibit seeks to examine humankind’s relationship to nature, in all its dark, decrepit, and mysteriously lit corners.

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Tags: After, Nature, The, New, Museum, exhibition, show, contemporary, art, environmental, Werner, Herzog, Massimiliano, Gioni, eco-art, NYC, environmental, art, NYC, documentary, film, the, Gulf, War, Werner, Herzog, Lessons, of, Darkness

Following the success of the 2007 ‘Love Your Earth’ Competition, Designboom.com, The Design Association Japan (DA) and TOBU department store have joined forces to launch ‘Green Earth’, a brand new international design competition. Calling all design professionals, students and enthusiasts, Green Earth is looking for graphic artwork that raises awareness of the environmental issues affecting the planet and provokes positive change.

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Building reuse is often overshadowed by the long green shadow of new high performance architecture. But the intrinsic nature of repurposing and bringing second life to an otherwise discarded structure is a sustainable idea we can’t ignore, especially when it’s done as gracefully as this old barn redux in Belgium. Architect Rita Huys of Buro2 skillfully transformed this agricultural icon into a beautiful, modern dwelling known simply as The Barn House.

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We checked in on the green rebuilding efforts in Greensburg, Kansas when Planet Green’s docu-series premiered last month. We found plenty of interesting developments, but this prefab from Studio804 of the University of Kansas School of Architecture is definitely one of the most memorable. Built as the community art center, this innovative building uses modular design with the length of long truck trailers as the defining width component measure - an outside the box thinking that makes larger prefab buildings possible.

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A diverse panel of sustainable design experts converges on San Francisco next Tuesday, July 22nd when IDSA (Industrial Designer’s Society of America) San Francisco presents, Digging Deeper: Building Blocks for Sustainable Design. The evening session is geared towards arming designers with the know how to make sure they have all the tools necessary to design green. Having roots as far as Paris and the Netherlands, the panel includes experts that make a living out of measuring the environmental, social and business impacts of design, brought together to share their strategies for creating a more sustainable future.

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There’s something about the prospect of starting an entire city from scratch that’s sure to stir the imagination, evoking ideals of efficiency and future-forward design at it’s finest. Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects were recently presented with just such an honor when they won first place in an international competition to create a new sustainable city set on the Paljassaare Peninsula in Estonia. Dubbed Ecobay, the mixed-use development will provide a self-sustaining community complete with housing, schools, commercial districts, and daycare centers. Situated serenely overlooking the Baltic Sea, the new city will benefit from a diverse portfolio of clean energy sources and will house up to 6,000 citizens as it is completed over the next 15-20 years.

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photo by Jill Fehrenbacher

With alarming reports of crude oil prices now hovering close to $145 US dollars per barrel, and home mortgage lending going bust, it is increasingly apparent that the 1950’s inspired American Dream of cul-de-sac ‘oases’ and paved highway transport is really on the verge of an all-out collapse. The environmental costs of suburban life were starkly highlighted in a feature story in the NY Times earlier this spring – a harbinger of sorts to the summer of 2008 where cries about SUV-fill-up costs have supplanted soccer-mom chat. Andrew Revkin at Dot.Earth also addressed the topic with a provocative blog piece that suggested ‘retrofilling’ suburbia as a means to ‘uninvent’ the mindless sprawl. Whatever the strategy to come, it is more apparent than ever, that reinventing our consumption habits and our notions of living ‘the good life’ will be a vital action item as we search for new ways to define sustainability in lieu of behemoth malls and suburban plots of American neighborhoods.

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