This month, to provide a new and smarter approach to the home improvement store experience, TreeHouse opened its first retail location in Austin, Texas. The company will offer an assortment of curated materials and products, such as paints, floor and wall coverings, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, cleaning supplies, storage and organization options, and solar power products, as well as services for flooring, countertop, door and window, smart home system, and solar installations.

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Productive Building is a recycled and recyclable building system concept that was recently demonstrated for the construction of Greenhouse, a temporary, and entirely waste free, restaurant on the waterfront in Sydney, Australia.  The Productive Building system is an intriguing and fast way of creating a building with steel, straw bales, and simple interior and exterior finishes.

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Following on the heels of the successful launch of La Boite, Mark Meyer and Austin-based designSTUDIO designed and built another container-based eatery.  SushiBOX just opened at 2nd and Congress in downtown Austin, so you’ll want to drop by if in the area.  The re-purposed container features bio-based spray foam insulation, rainwater HOGs, and some nifty waterjet-cut details.  Executive Chef Ben Crockett leads the sushi-making experience and there’s already one positive review on Yelp.

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This is East Village Lofts in the Revitalization District of East 11th Street in Austin, Texas.  The structure, designed by Bercy Chen Studio, makes a bold statement about the intersection of art and sustainability with a multifaceted facade of colorful steel panels.   The panels, as you would imagine, double as a shade device and guardrails for condo balconies.

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After the debut of PUMA City in Boston last year, PUMA redesigned the massive retail container space to create a new space in New York to coincide with FIFA World Cup 2010.  The smaller space, PUMA City NY, features two separate shipping containers configured as a retail space by architects LOT-EK and builders SG Blocks, maker of the Harbinger House.

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Today, in Palmdale, California, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) flipped the switch on 17 small wind turbines in the parking lot of bulk retailer, Sam’s Club.  Based upon estimates, Walmart and Sam’s Club believe the turbines will generate about 76,000 kWh of energy annually, which is enough to power more than six average homes over the same period of time. 

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