Green Building Blog - Jetson Green

Rødovre Tower to be Plush Sky Village

Rødovre, an independent municipality of Denmark, was looking for a new residential tower and MVRDV, with co-architect ADEPT, rose to the challenge.  On Monday, it was announced that their "Sky Village" concept won a design challenge to create the next Rødovre skyscraper.  The 116 meter (~381 foot) tower will feature apartments, retail, offices, an hotel, as well as a public park and plaza.  The architects' contemporary design is based on a flexible grid of boxes, or "pixels," which are ~646 square feet each and arranged around the building's central core. 

Pinon House, Mid-Century Modern Renovation Reveals Natural Aesthetic

This website spends a good amount of time talking about new homes and innovation, but don't let us fool you into thinking everything has to be brand new.  Just like the Box House renovation, this house, the Pinon House, is a great example of marrying the old and new to create an incredible living space.  Lead designer Rick Sommerfeld and the3rdspace, with the collaboration of Rob Pyatt, sent us the following narrative of their work on the Pinion House:

Garcia Modern Green Home Takes Award

This home took first place in the St. Louis Magazine AT HOME's 2008 Architect and Design Awards in category of Best Residential Architecture Less Than 4,000 Square feet.  Designed by Killeen Studio, the modern abode is a slightly lighter shade of green than the ones we usually feature -- it has a four car garage -- but there are solid green features nonetheless:  recyclable metal panels, bamboo floors, Energy Star appliances, efficient windows, and tons of natural light.  Plus, the 2,550 square foot home was built in a location that's perfect for the owners, Ivan and Jennifer Garcia, so the environmental impact of their transportation has been minimized in a big way. 

Mesa Del Sol: New Urbanism in Albuquerque

Mesa Del Sol will be located just outside of downtown Albuquerque and is comprised of twenty square miles of land, 3,200 acres of which are said to remain as open space.  Albuquerque is famed for it's 300 days a year of sunshine, was named by Forbes Magazine as one of the best places for businesses and careers in the U.S., is just under a three hours drive from world class skiing in Taos, and is a short two hour flight from L.A.  Mesa Del Sol's New Urbanism approach means that virtually everything you need will be within walking distance -- stores, work, schools, homes, and parks etc. 

Schwimmhaus Modern Green Houseboat

I've seen houseboats -- boats designed or modified to be used primarily as permanent dwellings -- in Portland, Oregon and always wondered what it'd be like to live in one.  I could certainly live in something like this, what with the green roof and modern aesthetic.  It's called the Schwimmhaus and was designed by confused-direction in Germany.  Don't be fooled by the images, though, because this is just a model.  The real version should be finished in Spring 2009.  At a size of 14 m long, 4 m tall, and 3 m wide, Schwimmhaus will feature a spacious living room, kitchen, bathroom, and loft bedroom.   It'll also be eco-friendly, too, with features such as the living roof and wood reclaimed from an old farm barn.

Eco Modern Chestnut Residence [Video]

It's been a long time, it seems, since our last video, so why not get back in the habit?  I noticed this high quality video of the Chestnut Residence, which was designed by Dan Heinfeld of LPA Architects, and thought all the eco modern enthusiasts would enjoy it.  All versions of the video that I've seen get cut off at about the three minute point, so I'll update it if I find a better version.  The house was created with an open passive layout to take advantage of the California climate and benefit from abundant natural light and ventilation.  The design is further married with the best of green technology, such as sustainable materials, smart systems, and a solar PV system (50% of power), to create one posh green residence.  I've included some screen shots from the video below.

Off-Grid Emergency Response Studio

I'm completely fascinated by this Emergency Response Studio.  The gist is that Paul Villinski created a solar-powered, mobile artist's studio from an old FEMA-style trailer -- it's off-grid, sustainable, and an excellent example of eco-reuse.  But there's more.  According to an article in the LA Times, apparently Villinski tried to buy one of the 143,123 FEMA trailers purchased by the government in the aftermath of Katrina, that is, until the government stopped selling them and began buying them back due to formaldehyde fumes from glues used to secure rugs, plywood, and other fixtures.  So he bought this one for $5,015 from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife through a GAO auction.  And after getting rid of the nesting rodents, he cleaned it up and pimped it out for an exhibit called Prospect .1 New Orleans starting early November 2008. 

Green Hybrid Residence for a Briard

Designed by Sander Architects, this part prefab, all custom-made home was recently profiled in the NY Times in an article entitled "Prefab, High-Concept, and Green."  The exposed denim insulation and loft-like interior caught my eye, so I decided to learn more about it.  Apparently, the owners retained Sander Architects to build something that was very green, on a super-tight budget, and amenable to the owner's large French Briard dog.  The resulting 4,200 sf home, according to the architects, is their greenest Hybrid House ever built.  It features a greywater system, passive heating and cooling, rainwater collection for landscaping, recycled blue jean insulation, sunflower seed wall board, bamboo flooring, marmoleum, structural steel frames from recycled steel, etc. 

The Lucida, NYC Luxury LEED Condos

The Lucida, located in New York City's Upper East Side, is the first LEED condominium building in the neighborhood.  If the Upper East Side wasn't rich enough for your taste, this building certainly adds to the allure.  With 110 units, the smallest of which appears to be around 2,000 square feet, this building is certainly not for the average buyer, but it is beautiful. 

Evo Green Condos Looking for Silver

If you live in LA, you've probably heard about Evo and the rest of the newly planted green buildings in the South Park neighborhood (official referred to as "South").  Evo is expected to receive LEED Silver certification, joining its neighbors Luma and Elleven -- California's first LEED Gold condos.  At some point, we'll take the opportunity to talk about both Elleven and Luma as well, but since Newsday published these pictures of the model unit in Evo, we thought it'd be fun to take a look inside.