Gennaro Brooks-Church, the director of the green building firm Eco Brooklyn, is slowly turning his townhouse in a green and sustainable home. The renovations began back in 2008 and they are still ongoing. Just to remind, Brooks-Church is the man behind the recently completed Bright ’N Green complex in Brighton Beach, NY.
It’s always nice to see sustainable building projects get underway, especially when they’re being built in cities, which must become more energy efficient soon, or else. To this end, the firm Behnisch Architekten has recently unveiled their plans to expand Boston’s EpiCenter into the largest energy-positive commercial building in New England, and maybe even on the entire East Coast. Once finished the building will house the Artists for Humanity charity organization.
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Jonathan Von Reusner, a sophomore at Bard College, dreamed of moving out of his parents’ house, but at the same time, did not want to live on campus. To make this dream a reality he recently converted an old school bus into a cozy tiny home, which he plans to live in for a while yet. Read more »
A net-zero apartment complex was recently opened in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY. The construction of this sustainable building was put on hold by hurricane Sandy, which hit when the building was already under construction. According to Robert Scarano, the architect who designed the Bright ’n Green project, as it is called, did not suffer major damage, and the net-zero building was able to supply power to the neighborhood via extension cords during the aftermath of Sandy.
The Prefabricated Accessible Technological Homes (or P.A.T.H.) are high-end, luxury prefab homes, which are capable of producing more energy that they require. These homes were created by French designer and architect Philippe Starck in collaboration with Slovenian prefabricated housing specialist Riko. The two partners are selling these homes under the name “Starck with Riko”.
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Repurposing materials to create a home is at the heart of any sustainable living endeavor. The tiny home recently built by Stefan Cook of A Biggish Tiny House is a prime example of repurposing and salvaging building materials done right. He’s a resident of Christchurch, New Zealand, which experienced devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Stefan salvaged the materials left behind by the devastation to build his own tiny home and recently gave a tour of it at Living Big in a Tiny House.
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