Today CalStar Products unveiled a new Thru-Wall unit which combines the structural properties of standard concrete masonry unit with the look of a traditional brick wall. The units are half as tall as standard concrete blocks but still strong enough to do the job of a brick. Plus, the Thru-Wall unit is made with 40% post-industrial recycled material, fly ash, and comes in several different colors.
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San Antonio-based Lake|Flato, an architectural firm with several AIA COTE Top 10 green projects, this week announced its latest endeavor in the world of prefab with the Porch House. Porch House is an eco-friendly home that combines factory-built modules and custom outdoor elements, such as porches, breezeways, carports, and terraces. The result is a contemporary, site-specific, LEED-certified home that can be delivered in about six- to nine-months after the inception of design.
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Wooden shipping pallets are typically a low-end commodity. Sometimes a pallet will get reused a few times before it ends up being scrapped or used as firewood. But Icelander Högni Stefan Thorgeirsson, owner of Iceland-based Arctic Plank, found a better use for it and produces flooring made from upcycled used pallet wood.
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This is one of the latest sustainable prefab homes from Seattle-based Stillwater Dwellings. The home has three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and 2,300 square feet with a signature soaring butterfly roofline, a great room, and 360-degree views of Sauvie Island, Mount St. Helen, Mount Hood, and Mount Rainier. After solar panels are installed, the owners expect to submit paperwork in line with LEED Gold certification.
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King County in Washington has about 26,000 acres of parks and open spaces with trails, trees, and streams. To help people stay overnight in these areas, the county held a design competition — Little Footprint, Big Forest — to create an overnight structure from a surplus, reclaimed, 20-foot shipping container. The winning design was just announced and it comes from none other than HyBrid Architecture, the firm behind the cargo container-based Sunset Idea House 2011.
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Hello, my name is Lisa. I am (gulp) a modernist who loves color. There I said it, the truth is out! I enjoy the nuances of greens, blues, yellows and my all-time favorite aquamarine. And not just on a throw pillow, mind you. I long to see it up on my walls and even (dare I say it!) on the exterior of my house. Unfortunately for a color-lover like me, I live with a typical modernist devoted to white and grey. But a girl can dream, as I’ve been doing since discovering Unearthed Paints, a gorgeously-hued new line of natural paints and wall coatings.
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