Green Building : Jetson Green

Green Modular Malaysian Idea House

This is the Idea House by Broadway Malyan for Sime Darby Property, one of the largest property developers in Malaysia.  The home was designed as an attempt to become the first carbon zero residence in South East Asia.  The home would be prefabricated in modules to save on labor costs, speed up the construction process, and make deconstruction of the home easy at the end of its useful life.  Some other green aspects of the home design include:

Positive Energy Elithis Tower in France

Green building certification is an interesting phenomenon.  It’s meant to convey a message about the building’s level of “green” or “sustainability,” but the message is only as strong as the system that creates it.  If you push beyond that message, you might ask: how many of these certified buildings are, say, positive energy?  That’s the goal of Elithis Tower recently opened in Dijon, France.  It has 1,600 sensors that examine energy and emissions.  This information is then displayed on a special public sign in full transparency for everyone to see.  The sign is both dynamic and clear.  

Learning from a Dead Living Wall

At one time, Paradise Park Children's Centre in London had a lush vertical hydroponic garden covering certain portions of the structure.  That time is no more, reports The Architects' Journal, the BBC, and the London Evening Standard.  The building, designed by DSDHA, called for a living wall to mitigate against planting the structure on a portion of open park space.  DSDHA retained landscape architect Marie Clarke and had the green wall system installed at a cost of £100,000.

A Simple Yet Functional Container Home

There's something about the simple design of this small container home that I really like.  It was mentioned on A Site-Specific Experiment, which is run by Chutayaves Sinthuphan out of Bangkok, Thailand.  The one-bedroom, one bathroom home was built using two, 20-foot containers with cutouts for windows and doors.  There's a prefab bathroom inside and the interior is insulated with a recycled content material. 

$1B Green Project Planned for Istanbul

Just yesterday, architecture firm RMJM announced plans for a $1 billion, landmark green project for the Atasehir district of Istanbul, Turkey.  The Varyap Meridian development is slated for a new residential and business district -- and just might transform into a new financial district for Turkey.  Of course, the buildings will each seek LEED certification, and if obtained, it could be the first green development of its kind in the country. 

World's First Active House in Denmark

The Guardian just published an interesting article about the world's first Active House.  An Active House, as compared to a super low-energy Passive House, is a highly efficient home that captures more energy than the occupants need for heat and power.  In particular, this Denmark Active House should generate enough electricity over 30 years to cancel out the energy costs of building it.  And it operates like a machine: a computer monitors the temperature and climate of the interior and opens, closes, and adjusts windows accordingly. 

Get Ready for Sustainability Now 2009

This is a quick public service announcement from Phil Clark, a journalist at UBM Built Environment in the UK.  He blogs at Zerochampion and previously wrote a guest article on this site.  

Want to hear from experts and professionals on their experiences of sustainable design and construction?  All from the comfort of your home or office?  Well a new virtual event I’m running next week, called Sustainability Now, may well be up your street.  It’s free to attend and offers a flexible way for finding green content, from reports, articles, and data to video and audio shows.  You can also connect directly with your peers in green architecture, engineering, and building at a lounge area, which offers instant messenger communication for users.

CitizenM Modern Prefab Pod Hotels

This is the first citizenM hotel near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.  Designed by Dutch design firm Concrete Architectural Associates, the hotel is made with prefabricated pods (or rooms) built in citizenM's own production facility.  The rooms have been prefabricated not only to reduce construction waste and save time, but they're also built this way to provide a consistent room experience to guests.  So when guests walk into a room, not only do they get a tightly designed and constructed space, but they get one that's full of geeky tech. 

Biomimicry Inspired Cactus Building

Just last week, DesignBoom brought us news of this cactus-inspired design for the Minister of Municipal Affairs & Agriculture building in Doha, Qatar.  It's a fascinating example of biomimicry -- the skin of one of the hardiest plants of the desert is applied to the design of the facade of a desert building -- with hundreds of smart shades that open and close depending on the strength of the sun.  

Miyi Tower Tree of Light Masterplan

A competition for a community plan in China recently declared a winning entry entitled "The Tree of Light." The local government of Miyi County was looking for a way to create a landmark body of architecture to serve as a foundation for further development in the area.  From the banks of the Anning River rises a comprehensive master plan addressing needs for education, environmental restoration, and community identity.