Residential Building Concept by RAWdesign

 A project by Toronto, Canada-based architectural studio RAWdesign, the Shift 20*20 Prefab Residential building concept is a unique new initiative that looks to transform the urban landscape using sustainable and economically beneficial building concepts. The proposed concept for a 6-storey urban residential building in College Street, Toronto explores the potential for a self-functioning prefabricated dwelling unit that can be built in challenging spaces like sites with imposing building code restrictions and sites that make traditional building construction costly because of arduous and complex city bylaws. Also targeting sites that render urban sites virtually undevelopable because of the imposing of existing building structures in its proximity, the SHIFT concept opens up the scope for usage, habitation and redevelopment of existing tight urban sites much easier.

Prefab 20*20 - Shift

With a single frontage, the 7m wide and 60m deep site of the proposed SHIFT concept sits at the

The Transmutation Pavilion

 The evolution of eco architecture has always been defined by innovative considerations of spatial elements. While sustainability is the major theme of such buildings, it is the efficient usage and distribution of spaces that plays a part in the overall success of a structure. Moving along this structural progression, designer Michael Jantzen has once again come forth with one of his avant-garde spatial designs. Christened as the ‘Transmutation Pavilion’, this conception comprises of an originative public functional art building, with a plethora of sustainable features.

Coming to the structural attributes, the interesting form of the building consists of three interlocking cylindrical components, supported by four horizontal planes. The whole set up is furthermore braced by a system of eight vertical columns. According to the designer, this structural bearing epitomizes

California Academy of Sciences gets a green makeover

This newly created green building in California, the California Academy of Sciences, is a praiseworthy effort of the architect to give it eco conscious features. Hence, this LEED Platinum certified building is a self sustaining structure. It also comprises of a roof top vegetation of living plants that cover 2.5 acres of landmass, along with 60,000 photo voltaic cells, indoor rainforest with living animals and plants, NASA sponsored planetarium and living aquarium, all of which contribute to its eco credentials.

San Francisco Victorian house gets a 21st century green makeover

Under the leadership of the eco conscious designer, Criag Steelt, the Victorian house of San Francisco will get a green makeover, complying with the needs of 21st century. Thus, it will be a gallant effort to restore the 19th century heritage building of the area in a much intelligent and eco conscious way. The basic material of this new structure is recycled wood and recycled wooden facades. Another noteworthy renovation is the glass penthouse with steel exoskeleton that supports the structure of the penthouse and creates less pressure on earth. Hence, the designer has attempted to restore the originality of the neon green structure of the original Victorian house but with an eco conscious twist.

Starbucks Reuses Shipping Containers

 Starbucks, the coffee outlet, has seen remarkable expansion in this year. It has not only increased its business outreach in China, but improved its popularity rating by offering free mobile apps to customers. Starbucks has shown foresight in the development of its business enterprise by investing in what is relevant in business. Starbucks has made promises in the past of going the sustainable route and the unveiling of its “recycled design experiment” on Tuesday, demonstrates how committed the company is to being more Eco-friendly.

The growing initiative is to use “up-cycled” building materials and Starbucks has joined the other large number of companies and organizations who are involved in the movement.

Taiwan's tallest skyscraper undergoes $1.9m green facelift

This eco conscious building of Taiwan works towards reduction in the consumption of energy and water consumption by as much as 10 percent. This building is located in Taipei and the owner, Taipei Financial Center Corp.(TFCC), is currently renovating the building to incorporate new and green heating, ventilating and cooling systems, along with the setting up of a piping structure throughout the building that will collect and direct the rain water to flush the toilets. The conventional lighting system will also be replaced with energy efficient lighting and more stress will be given on the local preparation of food within the building. This will be done to substantially minimize the harmful emission from the vehicles during transportation of food to the building.

100 Park Avenue Gets a Facelift Courtesy of Aluminum

The first retrofit building of New York has been built with aluminum composite materials. It has won the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification for its eco credentials. This amazing skyscraper has also used glass along with steel for its framework to give it a modern and futuristic perspective. The main challenge in its architecture was to reduce the load on the brick foundation. Thus, ACM panel was used to create a suspended system, which was only possible due to the panel’s light weight. The resultant building now features 36 story and occupies a surface area of 955,000 square foot with high rising lobbies and double the size of the original store fronts. There are 14 green roofs that will work towards recycling water by virtue of the low maintenance Xero Flor mat system.

Western Canada’s oldest skyscraper

This 11 story magnificent building in Canada is the best example of green building. It is located in the downtown of Winnipeg and this enormous Canadian splendor is the building of the Union Bank Tower. It covers the landmass of 100,000 square feet and is a residential campus of the college students as well as the site for hospitality and tourism program. A further addiction to this green structure very shortly will be the student operated canteen of the Red River College. Thus, at the ground floor, there will be restaurants, labs and multi purpose spaces. The second floor will comprise of labs, classrooms and offices and the third floor will feature residential options for the students. The eco credentials of the building are the operable windows and the foam sprayed walls. The glass exterior will present a panoramic view of the outer world. These are all the future projects of going green and started on 2009. It is expected to get completed by 2011 and the estimated budget is $27 million.

Ski resort in Lapland

The mega structure

The upcoming avatar of the Levi ski resort will be even more riveting, the building will be revamped to look futuristic and absolutely stunning. There are many reasons why this green resort will attract throngs of visitors. Firstly, it is situated very close to the Kittilä airport. Apart from this, the comfy accommodation, range of amenities and loads of leisure activities will be a huge lure for travelers. Kassiopeia Finland Oy, which owns a number of resorts in different locations, will develop the existing Levi Ski center and transform it into Koutalaki Ski Village. The resort is located at Levi in Finland. The project will be headed by Hanna Johansson and the team will have experts like David Tao, Erik de Haan, Jeff Mikolajewski, Jesper Victor Henriksson, Lucian Racovitan and Maren Allen.

Plus energy hotel

 Of the total energy consumption in the world, a considerable fraction is consumed by the hotel industry. In such conditions, going against the trend and creating a commercial structure that renders off extra energy rather than demand it, is actually worth applause. Switzerland’s Romantik Hotel has achieved more than just applause for the same. It has been felicitated with three different awards - Swiss Solar Award 2011, Milestone 2011 Tourism Award and the PlusEnergieBau (PEB) Solar Award 2011. Why? Because it is one of those rare pieces of architecture in this world, whose energy exceeds in the generation as compared to its usage. Stunning, is it not? Let us find out how it has managed to do so.

Actually, the Romantik is the renovated face of Berghotel, a structure that has witnessed a history of 104 years. During its renovation, it has undergone a huge transformation in its energy installations. So much so, that now, its overall energy utilization has been reduced drastically by 64 percent. On the brighter side, the hotel installations are capable of over-generating energy and storing the extra morsel for usage during scarcity. A majority of the energy requirement that was previously satiated by oil is now compensated for by the solar route. The statistics of the installation are a bit complex.

The solar installations for the purpose of heating water would be 60 square meters in dimensions, while the entire structure would be made live with energy by 16 geothermal loops coiling the building. This apart, a 228 meters long photovoltaic system would supplement the installations.

With the kind of scenic place Switzerland is, this construction is worth an envious eye from even the best hotels in the world. After all, it has done what many others of its cadre could not do – think of Mother Nature and apply it practically.

Girgarre Food Hub by Studio Osk

 Described as intelligent and interesting, the Girgarre Food Hub is the design plan for a technologically advanced food hub expected to be built at Girgarre after Heinz vacates the site soon.

The Girgarre Food Hub design is a step forward towards integrating learning and delivering. When Heinz revealed its decision to shut down the Girgarre tomato factory, a potential replacement was sought and the Girgarre Food Hub came up. Goulburn Valley Food Action Co-Operative approached

GSP Area Proposal

 Greek architectural practice, Kizis Architects, has underlined "the change of the scenery" as the key criterion in redesigning the old Pancyprian Gymnastic Association (GSP) stadium area in Nicosia, Cyprus. The redesign proposal by Kizis Architects, including Yannis Kizis, Costandis Kizis, Thymis Dougkas and Gregory Patsalosavvis, has won first prize in European Architectural Competition.

Panasonic and Sandals Resorts 'Eco Village' in Jamaica

 Looking out for an eco-friendly resort for your holidays this Christmas? Well then, green geeks, head on to Jamaica’s Eco Village to experience some green tranquility. Not just for your eyes, but also for your conscious soul (considering that it is often a sin to harm nature in any way to environmental thinkers)! Sandals Resort International in partnership with Panasonic has come with what is known as Eco Village, an environmentally friendly accommodation in its resorts.

Cornell wins contest to design campus on Roosevelt Island

 The task of building an applied sciences and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island is certainly a tough one. Stanford shelved the project just within three days. But it seems that Cornell has come out as a winner in this remarkable feat as Stanford thought the project was not feasible. Winning is certainly good news for Cornell, and in addition the institute has also bagged a $350 million prize for this accomplishment. For this project, Cornell forms an alliance with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. More than $2 billion will be spent to build the 2 million square feet campus on Roosevelt Island.

Cornell plan is for an SOM-designed campus with four acres of solar panels

The island located in east of Manhattan is about 2 miles long and will house around 2500 students for its masters and doctoral programs. Although students will start to enroll from the next year, the

Dongxin St. Conceptual Master Plan

The master design is for the re-development of the Central Business District of Kunshun by Dongxin St. The site will mainly be responsible for protecting and promoting the key canal systems and also enhancing it. It will also make use of renewable energy sources. This site will mainly be dedicated to activities relating to leisure. In order to make this site a redeveloped and sustainable one and also a river front site, Boyd designed a plan where, one-third of the river front will be used for recreational purposes and the remaining for economic and financial purposes like office and commercial buildings. The entire site will sustain on renewable energy resources.

Masterplan for penglai

This is one of the hottest destination for domestic tourism in China. So, in order to cash on the new interest, Penglai is being planned to allocate the reserve lands and also develop it for holiday homes. The firm that has designed this idea is the Arcas Europe. They have planned to have a golf course, a tennis complex and also adopt the ECC approach. By designing the city through ECC model, the firm is making an attempt to balance the economic and social sustainability of Penglai. The green architectural design for the city is to keep the Marina town as the center and have many small neighborhoods all around it. This will have around 60,000 housing units that includes cottages, flats, courtyard homes and terrace homes.

Church Made From Cardboard

 Come next year, and construction will set out in full swing for Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand. So, you would be wondering what’s so special about this. Well, the church will be entirely made from recyclable cardboard materials. Earlier this year, the church was substantially damaged by an earthquake. So, it had been an absolute necessity to repair the church since it had become a potent threat to the civil life of the city.

Shigeru Ban Architects, an architecture firm located in Tokyo, is the one behind this entire concept. The firm choose cardboard because of some of its awesome features including its easy availability and ability to recycle. As against concrete buildings, cardboard based buildings are less vulnerable to

Home Energy System

 Since the blueprints for devising consumer solutions have been transmogrifying to render efficiency in extreme, manufacturers are certainly hammering away at adopting the green approach. Although we have witnessed almost plenty of devices that throw light on the environment, the new concept vows to stand out from the rest. Surfaced recently, the novel Torus Design emerges to be the first home that focuses on utilizing the cold fusion generation.

Inspired by the famous movie Thrive, the unique house concept showcases the different ways of helping the surroundings establish prosperity across the globe. Since the environment has been facing problems due to the insufficiency of energy, the wisely outlined Torus Design puts forth an affordable and sustained energy medium.

Masterplan for Nanjing, China by CK Designworks

Although it is an ambitious proposal, CK Designworks have designed a grand plan of a 20 sqkm city in the Pukou district in Nanjing. It plans to house a population of two million and also include industrial and commercial areas. The design will include the Chinese cultural elements and plans to showcase a Chinese way of life. The design has ten very important structures which includes a 5-star hotel that will achieve the highest certifications of LEED.

LEED Platinum building

 Israel is all set to become an international example when it comes to housing environmentally friendly buildings. The country will house a LEED Platinum certified building in Tel Aviv University (TAU). Around three years back, Geotectura, an architectural firm focusing on sustainable architecture, won a competition of international repute together with Chen Architects and Axelrod-Grobman Architects for designing a green building for Porter School of Environment Studies (PSES) located in TAU. And now, the trio have started laying ground work for the building.

LEED Platinum Eco Building by Geotectura

The building would take the advantage of Israel’s location. With sunlight pouring in bounty, the building will garner solar energy by using a 50KW photovoltaic solar arrangement. And you need not worry about the temperature inside, for a cooling technology, better known as the chilled beam technology