Talk about a serious transformation!  VaST, a Colorado-based a+d firm, purchased an old porn shop earlier this year — the building was located close to Boulder — and completely gutted the place.  Now, you wouldn’t even know it used to have super skeezy viewing booths.  VaST took all that out and set a new standard in using green materials, particularly salvaged and unique materials.  Located at 1720 15th Street in Boulder, Candy Shop is the right kind of place for a budding green professional or socially aware independent looking for some co-working space.  Plus, they’ve just added solar panels to supply a portion of the building’s energy … check out the particulars of the renovation:

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Founder and artist Leilani Norman-Young manages Spectra Decor out of Seattle, Washington.  Spectra offers a beautiful, unique, and varied line of eco-friendly hardware, which consists mostly of cabinet pulls.  The hardware is made from a variety of green products including recycled glass, cork, recycled aluminum, and eco-resin from 3form. 

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Eco-friendly hardware can certainly be a challenge to find, but Eleek Incorporated of Portland, Oregon offers a hip line of recycled metal hardware for your home.  Their offerings include door handles, door pulls, switch-plates, house numbers, and signs in addition to unique lighting options and beautiful recycled metal sinks for bath and kitchen. 

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Why not build a prefab almost entirely out of reclaimed materials?  That’s what Reclaimed Space founder Tracen Gardner wants to do.  Mr. Gardner was in between contracting jobs and began constructing a portable building using primarily reclaimed materials.  In the process, he liked what he was doing so much that he decided to create Reclaimed Space to continue building modular, passively-designed cabins.  To start off with, the company will build spaces from 240 square feet and at prices in the range of $115 to $160 psf (min. $25k). 

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A combination of various groups, including AIA Newark, Skanska, and Young Architects Forum, put together the Live The BOX competition to find innovative, visionary, and compelling proposals for container constructed, multifamily, mixed- use projects.  The competition received tons of interesting container design entries, but only three won (with three more Honorable Mentions).  Designs had to use standard shipping containers of 8′-6" height and either 20′ or 40′ length as main building blocks for the structure.  Make sure to check out the winners below … Also, I’ll update this article as I find better images. 

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