hippieflavor:

“There’s something quite magical about watching trams in Barcelona, Strasbourg or Frankfurt glide silently along beds of grass as they do their city circuit. Where possible, this attractive combination of efficient public transport and inspired landscaping should be standard as part of the urban fabric.” YES!

[Inhabitat via ecostreet]

hippieflavor:

“Instruction would be based on intensive farming on small plots, a heavy dependence on physical labour, ecological sustainability and meeting local market demands, including the food needs of ethnic and immigrant communities.”

[via urbanworkbench]

Takes “root”! Get it?! Hahahahhaha!

hippieflavor:

davereed:

Rødovre Tower to be Plush Sky Village

The whole thing’s made of pre-fab blocks.

via Landscape + Urbanism

hippieflavor:

museum in san francisco is most eco-friendly of all the world’s musea

FTA: “The living rooftop is tiled with 50,000 biodegradable trays made of coconut husks.” while awesome, i wonder what the lifespan on that roof will be.

hippieflavor: expectoomuch:

It’s 2100. Humans haven’t gained control of their carbon emissions. The earth has warmed up. The oceans have risen. Millions of ecological refugees have nowhere to go. Unless, of course, they had the foresight to build Lilypads.

The brainchildren of Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the Lilypad is a design for an auto-sufficient amphibious city. If you’ve seen Wall-E, it’s a bit like the Axiom spaceship - a giant city with everything needed for humans to survive a major catastrophe. It also looks a bit like something that might be built off the coast of Dubai.

As Lilypad’s creators suggest, though, anything built on or off the coast of Dubai right now will probably be under water by 2100. A floating ecopolis, however, will be immune to such problems, rising above the water, no matter how much of the polar icecaps melt. Watching your atolls sink? No problem. Add a Lilypad. Instant atoll.

Lilypads have a further benefit. Build one or two off the coast of Dubai, Hong Kong or Monaco - and, flood or no flood, you can significantly increase the size of your kingdom or principality. Lilypads house 50,000 people, as well as plants and animals. They have lakes and mountains, schools and multiplexes.

Images: copyright VINCENT CALLEBAUT ARCHITECTURES

hippieflavor:rodmitch:bauldoff:

Envisioned for 2011, the lush, winning city center design for Gwanggyo, Korea (a new town south of Seoul), will comprise housing, office, culture, retail, leisure and education spaces for the estimated 77,000 inhabitants.

The efficient Gwanggyo Power Centre’s small energy and water footprint will also aid in the town’s plan to be self-sustaining.

By Dutch architects MVRDV. (via notcot)

What’s so great about this is how much it mimics the terraced rice fields that are so common in Korea. This is the best picture I could find although it’s actually China but you can see what I mean.

hippieflavor:

Weber Thompson’s design for Eco-Laboratory won the Natural Design Competition at the annual Greenbuild International Conference. The concept high-rise includes rainwater collection, black water to graywater conversion features and is net-zero energy. The high-rise is virtually a self-contained sustainable community.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of the design is the energy-generation system. It starts with methane (produced from waste), which runs the hydrogen fuel cell. The fuel cell and other systems provide electricity and heat water.

(via Mother Earth News)

hippieflavor:

Architect Proposes 900-foot-tall ‘Sky Garden’ Condo For New York City - Ecofriend does a good write up addressing any comments i would add.