In the process of digging the huge Diamond Valley Lake Reservoir in Southern California, some significant fossils were discovered.  The fossils have been sitting around for several years waiting for a super-modern museum to call home, so The Center for Water Education Foundation and the Western Center Community Foundation commissioned Lehrer Architects to design such a place.  The result is the Water + Life Museums, a complex that just so happens to claim a right to being the world’s first LEED Platinum certified museum. 

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The Skinners Playground project by Phooey Architects of Melbourne, Australia is a project that makes compelling use of shipping containers.  Many container architecture projects do little that breaks out of the strong rectilinear form of the component boxes.  While only four shipping containers were used for Skinners Playground, they are cut and amended in such as way as to make much more of them than simply four box-shaped rooms.  Even if the exteriors had been painted over, it would be immediately obvious that this was built from shipping containers.  But, at the same time, this is a case of the whole being far more than merely a sum of its parts.

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New York asked four architects to generate ideas for an oddly shaped parcel of land at Canal and Varick Street in New York.  New York only requested that the ideas include a residential component and generally comply with zoning.  Of the four designs submitted, one of them caught my eye because it’s of something that’s being talked about more and more.  Vertical farms.  The design by WORKac entitled "Locavore Fantasia" features crops on each floor and four large water tanks for rainwater irrigation.  The idea here is just a concept, but it gets me thinking, which city will be the first to take the plunge on a vertical farm …
 

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Sure, this New Zealand home is heavy on the industrial, nuclear reactor look, but it has a certain draw to it, don't you think?  I was pointed to these images in a flickr photoset owned by petraalsbach and was struck by the interesting use of containers — as you can tell, the home was built right up to, and possibly into, the hill.  Containers are strong and stackable,and it seems like lots of people are using them right now in home design.  Container homes may just become more popular than modern prefab …

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• Top Green Start-up Companies [Time]
• Green construction becomes selling point.
• Carbon finance comes of age.
• Investment in green building sector is booming.
• EPA Administrator says green makes financial sense.
• New LEED model tracks life cycle building performance.
• Heart Tower early to adopt "Target Zero Waste" policy.
• Nine earth friendly fixes for your home.
• Do you know how to read ‘green’?

*WIR = Week in Review; a Saturday showcase of excellent links.

You've probably already heard of BedZED, but have you seen it?  Feel free to watch a short little video about the cutting-edge community. 

BedZED is a 100-home, sustainable community in Beddington (UK) that's designed to be a Zero Energy Development.  Hence the Bed and the ZED. 

The colorful wind-driven ventilation system gives it a quirky, kind of playful look — but don't be fooled: This joint is all business.  Most of all, residents appear to enjoy the sense of community and quality of life.