Jetson Green

Dubai's Xeritown Has Eco-City Aspirations, Too

The task of building an entire city from scratch isn't novel in Dubai -- it seems there's a new city announcement every half year or so.  Xeritown is one of the latest that I've learned about and it's planned for Dubailand.  The idea behind the 60-acre city is that it will be designed to accommodate the elements of the desert rather than overcome them.  The form of the city follows a north-south axis to take advantage of the cool breeze coming in from the sea.  The buildings, rather than artificial and water intense landscaping, provide shading and structure. 

Tragic Lag, Green Fast Tracking, Voices of Sprawl, Green Retailers, + Confused Offsets [WIR]

• Green buyers find prefab fabulous.
• Retail chains sold on green and energy efficiency.
• SLC Mayor proposes fast track approval for green projects.
• The tragic lag between what we know and what we do.
• Offsets present confused picture to consumers and businesses.
• Age of Transformation: suburbs becoming like city centers.
• Voices of Sprawl: now coming to a town near you (buy).

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

First Off-Grid Building in San Francisco Coming Soon!

Last month, Lorax Development broke ground on a building that's being billed as the first off-grid building in San Francisco.  At 1400 sf, The Eco Center is certainly an example of the future of green buildings -- buildings that are off-grid and sustainable.  The Eco Center is a $1.5 million environmental education center that will be located in McLaren Park.  Designed by Toby Long Design for the non-profit Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), when it opens in the fall, it will be the first building in San Francisco, purportedly, to recycle its own wastewater.  Additionally, the off-grid center will have solar panels and an extensive green roof. 

Combating Climate Change by Tackling Sprawl

There's a lot of talk here on Jetson Green about the (adverse) impact that architecture and materials choice can have on the environment.  So it's nice to know that housing can actually be an essential factor in combating climate change according to a new study from Smart Growth America.

While attending the recent EcoCity World Summit in San Francisco, I heard panelist Reid Ewing, research professor at the National Center for Smart Growth, discuss urban development and its (negative and positive) effect on climate change.  The study, published by the Urban Land Institute, documents how key changes in land development patterns could help reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. 

Earth Day 2008, This is How We Do It

Photo by JPhilipson

I've got an inbox full of cool announcements ready for Earth Day 2008, but to be honest, I'm not going to talk about any of them ... not today, at least.  Over the next week or so, I'll take some time to sift through the news and leak out the good stuff.  Today, though, I'm thinking, why not focus on the earth?  The best way I know how to do that is by sharing some earthy images from various, cool flickr folks.  Wear blue and enjoy the day ...

WORKac Vertical Farm Concept for NYC [S2]

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 ...
 

Escraper, Imbuing Green in Vertical Design [S2]

Imagine you are tasked with creating an innovative skyscraper that takes into consideration historical and social context, the existing urban fabric, human scale, and the environment.  Your skyscraper design can take any height or shape on any site in the world, but it must be technologically feasible and environmentally responsible.  Any ideas?  Evolo Architecture held a skyscraper competition with the above constraints and announced three winners and six mentions.  Of those nine, Daekwon Park has received some attention in the last week.  It's a pretty interesting concept.  I also like the escraper by Sohta Mori and Yuichiro Minato. 

Escraper connects three twisted buildings in a modern, but natural way.  It has six major green spaces or parks, as well as a mini garden on each level. 

Popular Architecture's Mile High Eco Tower [S2]

This is a concept tower by Popular Architecture envisioned for Tower Hamlets in East London.  The design is a reaction, at least in part, to sprawl issues.  London is expected to need housing for 100,000 new people per year until 2016, and currently, most of housing that's being built is low-density projects in commuter towns.  Popular Architecture's Super Tower could house up to about 100,000 people with a seriously low site requirement (considering the number of people within the structure). 

The 1,500 meter tall tower would have about 500 floors.  You'd find floors or sections for needs such as a university, farmer's market, pubs, a town hall, sky gardens, etc.  Anything and everything would be in the building.  There's even a fire station on the 419th floor!  Which raises the question: what do you do if there is a fire above or below the 419th floor? 

Nissan's $100 M HQ Goes Green, *Snubs* LEED

It's a story that I'm seeing more and more, although I'm not too sure we're seeing a good thing.  Nissan USA spends $100 M to build a brand new office building and plans for LEED Silver certification, but in the end, they decide to spend certification cash on the wetland "rather than have a plaque on the wall."#  Certification gets dropped, but we should ask ourselves a serious question:  Is LEED certification merely about the plaque?  Is that the only benefit we see from LEED?  Spending money to get a plaque?

Anti-Smog Design with Solar Drop + Wind Tower [S2]

Anti-Smog is a prototype project envisioned for a post-industrial area of Paris that aims to invent a new architecture -- auto-sufficient, depolluting architecture, reactive to its environment.  The Vincent Callebaut Architectures prototype relies heavily on building-integrated, green innovation such as vertical axis wind turbines, rooftop solar panels, and living walls and greenery.  The result is a design that not only borders on positive energy as a self-sufficient structure, but one that moves into a refreshing realm of natural architecture that can clean and replenish the surrounding air.