Viesso, a Santa Monica based company, makes custom green furniture that’s ready to ship in three weeks. All furniture is made right in Los Angeles. They offer 17 couch and sectional shapes and 9 armchairs in a practically endless variety of fabrics. You then also have the choice of leg shape and cushion interior materials, spring type, etc., and you can build and price out your exact piece on their website.
Concourse E broke ground on two super green projects last December in Atlanta that intend to move beyond LEED and into a greener realm of living. Committed to the Architecture 2030 Challenge, Concourse E homes will consume roughly 60-90% less energy than comparable sized conventional homes. Concourse E owner Jeff Demetriou instilled the company with the idea that a modern home is not truly modern unless it takes the environment into account. Hence, Concourse E uses its own green building classification system called Greensphere. The company rating system has three levels, 1-3, with 3 being the best. Both of the projects you see below have descriptions from the website and are Greensphere 3 rated projects.
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.
Update: 8/7/08 – check out Seed’s blog documenting the project at www.sipshousepdx.com.
Yesterday Seed Architecture Studio and Kaya General Contractors announced plans to build the first house in Portland using structural insulated panels ("SIP"). This sustainable home design is targeted to save 70% on bills (compared to a home built to current energy code) utilizing tech such as LED and fluorescent lighting, efficient appliances, passive cooling, and the ultra efficient SIPs. Speaking of the home, Seed Architecture Studio owner Darin Dougherty said:
Construction just began on what could be one of the most innovative office towers in the U.S. Located at 1501 McKinney Street in Houston, Discovery Tower is a 30 story office building that will cost upwards near $300 million to build. And as you can tell from the above renderings, the pinnacle was designed to have 10 wind turbines. But that’s not just some fancy, green add-on to an otherwise generic building. Discovery Tower will be built to achieve LEED Gold certification from the USGBC.
With construction set to finish in the second quarter of 2010, the Gensler-designed green skyscraper will have air filtration, water-efficient plumbing, and an energy efficient heating and cooling system, among other things.
Project Profiles
