YardPods are steel-frame, prefab rooms designed to fit snugly in your backyard or somewhere else which are made of modular, eco-friendly parts and materials.  A YardPod, like many of the sheds we've been talking about, can be used in a number of ways, such as for a home office, media room, arts studio, zen retreat, exercise room, work shop, cabana, studio — you name it!  The new company was noticed by Kent Griswold, the Tiny House Blog, and he was able to uncover some interesting details. 

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Shed spaces of all sizes are popular these days.  Sure, you may run into zoning laws and ordinances, but given the legalities, a well-designed shed space could work perfectly as an affordable office, workshop, or anything else.  So we were interested to learn that We Love Sheds just held an international competition to find the best International Shed of the Year 2009.  Maryland-based entrant Chuck Witmer beat out roughly 186 other shed entries to take this year's prize for THE_SHED.  He built it himself, and it's beautiful.

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We usually like to leave the competition news to Bustler, but our friends at Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat have an interesting Reburbia Design Competition in the works.  It's a competition to re-envision the suburbs — a call to all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners, and imaginative engineers.  You can submit up to five (5) images and a statement about your design proposal.  Entries will be judged on clarity of idea, usefulness of design, and visual/aesthetic appeal of renderings. Here's a little more:

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The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL), which officially opens on July 16, 2009, is at the bleeding edge of green building.  It's located on the 195-acre campus of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, an education and retreat center.  Not only is it on track to achieve LEED Platinum, it may be the first building in America to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge.

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According to the Union-Tribune, a $432 million project is making its way to San Diego City Council for consideration as the new San Diego City Hall.  Although still in early stages, developer Gerding Edlen indicates that the design is beyond LEED Platinum, and according to some, it could be one of the greenest buildings on the West Coast if built.  The 23-story building, with a design that kind of resembles a large sail, has some of the following green elements:

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