The architects from Mareines + Patalano in Brazil, created a beautiful eco-friendly beach house in Angra dos Reis, called Casa Folha (Leaf House), one hour south of Rio de Janeiro. Shaped like a giant lotus flower, this house’s concept is inspired by Brazil’s indian architecture, said to be perfectly suited for hot and humid climates. For this project, the architects were looking to integrate the living spaces with the surrounding environment, connecting the occupants with nature. As such, most of the living spaces are open to the outside and most of the materials used for the construction of the house are natural.

There’s a lot of neat green elements in their design. The roof protects the occupants from the sun and collects rain water in the center. The roof is also supported by a central steel column that also redirects the collected water to be used to water the plants in the garden and to flush the toilets.

There are no air conditioning systems in the house. The house is cooled through natural ventilation, taking advantage of the breeze from the sea. Most of the material used for the construction of the house is natural or recuperated. For example a portion of the wood floors comes from old electrical posts. This is definitely a green vacation home that’s respectful of its surroundings and the environment. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new era of environmentally friendly vacation homes.

source: Mareines + Patalano | inhabitat

NOOK is a neat and new little stool made from an innovative material called VarioLine, a material made of solid structural outer layers and a lightweight foamed inner core, resulting in a panel that is very stiff, impact resistant and exceptionally low weight. This makes the stool easy to clean, weather proof, water proof, impact resistant, chemical resistant and recyclable!

NOOK was created by award-winning designer Patrick Frey with a single sheet of VarioLine. It can be used virtually anywhere and comes in various color options. Currently retailing for 229€, the stool recently won the 2010 iF product design award.

NOOK is manufactured by VIAL GmbH, a family-run company with its headquarters in Germany that plans to continue to work with Frey. The plans for their furniture collection is for the collection to be guided by the principles of ‘conviVIAL living’ and to develop striking, weatherproof furniture that encourages a modern form of vibrant sociability.

These stools are a great and fun addition to any room in a home or office. For example, they would look great in the kids’ section of a modern dentist office. Also imagine what a great impact they would make in a library, replacing the traditional step stool found there. Don’t you think they’re a lot more appealing?

source : VIAL

I love this chair by Richard Liddle from Cohda Design. Called the RD Legs (RD stands for Roughly Drawn), it is made from 100% molten plastic waste and it’s really a piece of art. It really does give the impression that someone just sketched the chair with a giant pencil and it came to life. These chairs are all hand made and there are only 25 chairs per color (which I guess explains their cost). Developed by Richard, the design uses no glues or additional fixings in its production.

Cohda Design Ltd is a British company founded in 2006 as an urban design brand with a mission: “to design, manufacture and supply innovative contemporary products that break down the pre-conceptions of what sustainable, innovative designs should be”.

When you look at products from Codha, they don’t scream “I’m eco-friendly”. Clever and thought-provoking, their designs engage the user in a story, allowing the products to be recognized for both their innovation and Eco credentials.

Limited editions of these chairs are available in Canada through galerie CO in Montreal for $1850. The video below shows how they are made.

Photos : Cohda Design | galerie CO

ORIGINAL POST DATE : 2008-01-22

What is a green building? According to the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC), there are 5 levels of “greenness”: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze or Certified. The level of greenness is determine though a point rating system that evaluates the building based on five main categories:

- Sustainable sites
- Water efficiency
- Energy and atmosphere
- Materials and resources
- Indoor Environmental Quality

There are quite a few rules to follow when it comes to determining if a building is green or not, but I can’t help but think that the ice hotels (in Quebec and in Sweden) deserves some recognition.

When you consider the fact that traditional buildings are guilty of producing a large portion of the trash that ends up in landfills, the ice hotel and surrounding buildings are pretty innocent. I believe they are made entirely of snow and ice, a very sustainable product. Even the furniture and details such as the candelabras in the chapel, and the shot glasses in the bar are made of ice.

Photo by Etolane via Flickr

All in all, the site seems pretty sustainable. I don’t think that any of the buildings affect the environment in a negative way. As far as water efficiency, since these building are temporary, I doubt they use a lot of water in the building. For energy usage, except for the stoves, there isn’t much energy used. Materials and resources are for the most part sustainable, recyclable, reusable and/or natural. Lastly, as far as indoor air quality is concerned, since most of the indoor is made of natural material, I would guess that it must be good. I’m curious to know what their real rating would be. Nevertheless, I still think they deserve some form of recognition.

Add a Comment

Tags: , GREEN BUILDING

ORIGINAL POST DATE : 2008-10-07

It’s great to see that the majority of people recycle nowadays. Even malls such as the Eaton Center have recycling stations in their food court but also in other locations throughout the building. There are more and more recycling stations on the streets of Montreal and I would imagine this helps reduce the amount of waste in the landfill. Which makes me believe that it’s time to get to the next step : composting.

Thanks to companies such as NatureMill, composters are now more user friendly. The ones carried by NatureMill are said to be automatic and odor free. The can be left indoor or outdoor and turn food into compost in only 2 weeks. They also come in a variety of colors (PRO Edition).

Source : NatureMill

Everything is done automatically. All you have to do is add the food and take out the compost every 2 weeks.

source: NatureMill

The PRO Edition can even be used in small offices and restaurants! I wonder if restaurants use composters. If not, I think they should and maybe even pair up with landscape companies so that all that organic compost can actually be used.

source: NatureMill

The composters can be purchased directly from NatureMill or in places such as Home Depot for $329 for the PLUS Edition and $399 for the PRO Edition.

I’ve been talking about this for a while now, and I’m happy to see it come to life. Finally! Fast food restaurants are starting to recycle… Well at least the McDonald in Casselman, ON. Hopefully, it’s not the only one.

I used to complain (and still am) about the fact that many fast food restaurants have recyclable food containers but have no place to recycle them. What’s the point of using these containers if there are no places in the restaurant to recycle them? Most people won’t bring them home. So they end up in a landfill anyway.

It would be great to see recycling stations in all fast food restaurants. Better yet, it would be nice to see them use biodegradable containers like the ones from Verterra among others. There are so many choices nowadays.

source: Veterra

The next thing would be to have composters along side (even instead of) trash cans. Now that would definitely help reduce landfill problems and help the environment! In fact why not have composters in the kitchen of all restaurants? I wonder what’s keeping them from doing this. It seems like it would be rather easy to implement. Can you imagine how much waste would disappear if all fast food restaurants used biodegradable containers and all restaurants were using composters in their restaurants?