Austin-based documentary filmmaker and instructional designer Jim Bruno was kind enough to tell me about his new short film entitled “Louis Burns & Austin Tiny House.“ The subject is Louis Burns and his reflections building a tiny house. Burns built the minimalist, Spartan space in a plug-and-play style — all it needs is a heavy-duty extension cord and garden hose.
A new Connecticut-based firm just published this video in an effort to kickstart something called dMASS. The video short, “Design Matters: Doing More with Less,” is a part of the larger dMASS project aiming to start a revolution in thinking that will lead to radical gains in resource performance.
This month, Valcucine was selected for inclusion in the Industrial Research section of the Italian ADI Design Index 2010. The company was chosen in part for efforts to produce products with less raw materials and energy, use recyclable materials, reduce toxic emissions and polluting chemical substances, and consider the life cycle of products.
Italian architect Flavio Galvagni of Lab Zero sent us some information on this calming, woodsy cabin that he designed and built with the help of Raffaelli Contract. The tiny eco hut — roughly 12.5′ wide x 14.5′ long x 10.75′ tall — can be used as a mini-lodge, mountain shelter, meditation space, or temporary dwelling. It’s easily transportable and both off-grid and off-pipe.
Inspired by Thoreau with his Cabin and Le Corbusier with his Cabanon, an interdisciplinary group of students at Texas Tech University was able to construct this Sustainable Cabin in a design-build program headed by Urs Peter Flueckiger. The off-grid cabin was fabricated in a warehouse and is now stationed west of Wichita Falls, where it is being used as a laboratory for students to study sustainable design principles.
One of our most popular articles last month was a preview of modular container homes by Toronto-based MEKA. The company planted a show house in the West Village area of New York City and the media took notice. Reporting for Reuters, Kilmeny Duchardt offered this video and short interview with Michael de Jong, one of the entrepreneurs behind the company.
