Recycling Renegade: Guns Melted for Tree-Planting Shovels

Guns are the ultimate symbol of street violence, but this artist is turning them into something beautiful: shovels that will be used to plant trees worldwide.
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12 Green Megastructures for an Eco-Fantastic Future


[ By Steph in Art & Design & Science & Research & Technology & Gadgets. ]

To tackle big problems – like overpopulation, desertification, lack of clean water and a need for cleaner energy – sometimes, nothing but big solutions will do. And these 12 sustainable urban living concepts are not just big. They’re massive megastructures that provide healthy high-density housing, capture or desalinate water, produce renewable energy and sometimes even create their own microclimates.

Living Mountain Skyscraper

(images via: evolo.us)

Could ‘living mountains’ save us from global warming-induced desertification? This concept for the 2011 Evolo Skyscraper Competition creates a livable oasis in one of the world’s harshest environments, the desert of Taklamakan in northwest China, creating a microclimate inside the man-made mountain. This superstructure includes 2,000-sq-ft ‘living pods’, man-made lakes produced by extracting water from the region’s substrate and rainwater collection. Eventually, multiple mountains could be linked using cable cars.

Waste-Recycling Underwater Skyscrapers

(images via: evolo.us)

Imagine using massive underwater skyscrapers to filter all of the plastic and other debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean. The ‘Lady Landfill Skyscraper’ consists of three main functions: trash collectors at the bottom, a recycling plant in the center and housing and recreation above the surface of the sea. The waste would be heated in the recycling chamber and converted into a gas which could then be stored in huge battery-like structures and used as energy. The shape of the structure was actually inspired by an upside-down Eiffel Tower.

Skeletal Skyscraper Harvests Energy from Lightning

(images via: evolo.us)

It’s an odd catch-22: if only we could figure out a less energy-intensive way to produce it, hydrogen fuel could be a great source of renewable energy. But the answer could come shooting straight down from the sky in the form of lightning. The Hydra Tower concept aims to harness those bolts of lightning and use them to literally smash molecules of water into hydrogen and oxygen. The skeletal frame of the tower is made from super-tough graphene, which is 200 times stronger than steel, so that it can withstand that kind of force. These towers would be placed in the tropics, which see 70% of all lightning strikes.

Green Tech City for Hanoi, Vietnam

(images via: inhabitat)

This incredible vision for an entire sustainable city within the city of Hanoi, Vietnam is actually being actively developed. Green Tech City, by SOM Architects, integrates two pre-existing villages to create a new sustainable urban center for 20,000 residents and incorporates both cutting edge modern technology and low-tech passive design customized to the culture and climate of Vietnam. The city will include a green corridor along the Red River with pedestrian-friendly residential neighborhoods located in close proximity to a towering commercial district. Canal water cooling, tri-generation plants, waste recycling and rainwater harvesting will help this city become a model for sustainable urban living.

Everrich 2 Apartments: Self-Sustaining Tower

(images via: designboom)

Another megastructure coming to Vietnam in the near future is the Everrich 2 Apartment complex by DWP Architects, a huge rolling curving structure that resembles an amusement park more than urban housing. Currently under construction, the complex contains 3,100 apartment units along with two floors of mixed retail and public space. The architects designed the structure to maximize daylighting and natural ventilation, and will use precast concrete and local masonry.

Flat Tower: High-Density Honeycomb Structure

(images via: evolo.us)

How can cities be more densely populated, without either dominating the skyline or spreading out to take up too much valuable green space? The Flat Tower concept packs in living space above ground level in an unusual honeycomb pattern, forming a sort of artificial hill. The green space below is left untouched, large openings let in plenty of sun and the structure is able to harvest both rainwater and solar energy.

PoroCity: Rehabilitation for Mumbai

(images via: evolo.us)

The triangular footprint in Mumbai currently occupied by the Dharavi slum – one of the densest in the world – could be transformed into terraced housing with PoroCity, a concept by Khushalani Associates. PoroCity would reorganize the housing of the slum, maintaining the small living spaces and communal living feel but making them more modern with built-in transportation including elevators and funiculars and including space for business and industry, eliminating the need for cars.

Reflections Development in Singapore

(images via: designboom)

Celebrated architect Daniel Libeskind will make a big splash on Singapore’s shoreline with ‘Reflections’, a controversial collection of curved towers containing 1,129 residential units that will be completed this year at Keppel Harbor. The six skyscrapers, connected by sky bridges and towering above low-rise villas, were spaced to allow views to the horizon. The structure won Singapore’s Green Mark Gold Award for significant energy savings.

Seawater-Filtering Skyscrapers from Old Oil Platforms

(images via: inhabitat)

Hundreds of disused offshore oil platforms could be transformed into livable skyscrapers that could desalinate sea water, providing a source of fresh water for millions of people who currently don’t have access to a clean source of this precious resource. The existing oil drill pipes would be used to draw up sea water and the water movement against the tower could provide enough energy to power the site’s facilities. Little pods on the structures would house workers as well as research facilities.

Solar-Powered Paris Triangle

(images via: luxist)

Paris is notoriously resistant to tall modern structures that would dramatically alter the city’s famous skyline, but after a ban on high-rise buildings was voted down, the door was opened for this 50-story glass pyramid called Le Projet Triangle at Port de Versailles. Designed by Herzog and De Meuron, the tower – powered by solar and wind energy – will be the third-tallest building in Paris. Construction has already begun and it’s due for completion in 2012.

KEPCO Green Energy Headquarters Concept

(images via: bustler)

When the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) announced a competition to design its new headquarters in a city near Naju, South Korea, one proposal stood out both for its size and its sustainable factors: a ‘Green Energy Theme Park’ that would not only serve as KEPCO’s home base but also as a way to show off renewable energy technology. The design consists of a 29-story tower on a landscape podium with a series of sloped green roofs, sun shading devices and a north side fully covered in moss which would catch water and naturally insulate the building. Winning third place, this design also includes wind turbines, greywater recycling, geothermal systems and solar panels.

Urban Trees Green Housing Projects

(images via: evolo.us)

With trunk-like central columns and trees growing on rooftop gardens, the Urban Tree project by Geotectura certainly lives up to its name. Housing units of various sizes are contained within ‘floating’ cubes, some of which even have projecting ‘sky terraces’ for outdoor living high in the sky. The result is lots of greenery and plenty of natural air flow, giving occupants healthier living spaces that feel more tied to nature and require less energy to heat and cool.

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The Future is Green: 12 Visionary Architecture Concepts

These 12 concepts for cities, multi-use skyscrapers, theme parks and more look out of this world - but surprisingly, a few will be built sooner than you think.
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Filed Under: Green Things
Tagged: apartments, art & design, development, energy, gadgets, green, mountain, recycling, technology & gadgets, urban, vietnam

Novel Ideas: Books as Furniture & Functional Décor

March 7, 2011 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Steph in Art & Design, Home & Garden. ]

Unloved and unwanted, millions of books are sent to landfills when their text is no longer valuable in itself; the glue in the spine makes them difficult to recycle. But shift their function from repositories for words and pictures to physical building blocks for furniture and décor, and suddenly they once again become desirable objects. These 14 bookcases, stools, lamps, vases, counters and even planters give old books a new life.

Counters & Desks

(images via: the design files, inhabitat)

Stacked and covered with a countertop, books make a surprisingly strong – and beautiful – basis for a desk or counter.  Bookstore Brunswick Bound in Melbourne built a relatively small one, while Delft University went big and colorful for the front desk of its architectural library. The books in the latter were actually salvaged when a devastating fire in the Architecture building destroyed most of the library. The salvaged books represent a physical and metaphoric link to the building’s past.

Invisible Book Shelf

(images via: maydecemberhome)

Invisible book shelves are a fun way to display books on the wall, but look for a tutorial so you can DIY, and you’ll find that most of them require the destruction of the book that will form the base of the shelf. The blog May December Home Accessories uses simple L-brackets to achieve the same look without sacrificing any books.

Books as Planters

(images via: hand-house.com)

As planters, it hardly seems as if books would hold water (literally). But Italian company Gartenkultur specially modifies unwanted books of all sorts, drilling holes into them and sealing the inside of the ‘pot’ with an insulating material. Considering that paper comes from trees, using books as pots for bonsais seems like an especially poetic way to allow books to ‘get back to their roots’.

Book Shelves by Jim Rosenau

(image via: eco-artware, verdelivre)

Jim Rosenau collects thousands of old hardback books, saving them from dumpsters and library discard piles and transforming them into functional furniture. His work ranges from simple wall-mounted shelves created using 3-5 books to large six-tiered bookcases.

Book Vases, Lamp & Stool by Laura Cahill

(images via: dezeen)

Delicate and ephemeral-looking, these books will long outlast the outdated text on their pages in their new lives as vases, lamps and a stool. Laura Cahill uses a band saw and traditional book-binding methods, creating three-dimensional forms from the cut pages. The pages that form the lantern-like vases are formed around a test tube to create a functional piece, while the stool was created by bolting books together along with wood that forms the legs.

Paperback Chair

(images via: casasugar)

This weird one-of-a-kind chair was made entirely from recycled and reclaimed materials including scrap metal for the frame and paperback books from the discard bins at the local library. Made by artist David Karoff for Providence, RI’s Myopic Books, the paperback chair is definitely an eye-catching piece, though its comfort may be in question.

Hanging Décor from Vintage Books

(image via: rpscissors)

Throwing a party for a book lover? Try your hand at some beautiful hanging décor made from vintage books. Cut into shapes and fanned out into three-dimensional forms, this unusual ‘chandelier’ made by NYC event décor & prop resource {found} vintage rentals was a great choice for a themed bridal shower.

Stacks as Side Tables

(image via: real simple)

Using books as furniture and décor doesn’t get much simpler than this. Real Simple Magazine highlights a low-key, stress-free organized home wherein a large book collection is kept visible and accessible in stacks around the room, but also functions as side tables.

Literary Lamp

(image via: thrifty fun)

Craftily-cut pages aren’t the only way to turn old books into a lamp. Using a lamp kit or recycled lamp parts and a drill bit that’s slightly larger than the pole used to support the lamp, a stack of books can form a totally custom library lamp.

Couch Made of Books

(image via: shelterpop)

In the movie Paper Man starring Jeff Bridges, a couch made of books made a memorable appearance. Bridges’ character, an author frustrated both with his work and the ugly couch in his living room, built a sofa using unsold copies of his last novel. The same concept – using any old books you can find, and a roll of tape – could easily be duplicated as a DIY project.

Bibliochase

(image via: nobodyandco.it)

The Bibliochase is a cozy chair and a bookcase in one, making it easy to sit back, relax, read a book and pick up another when you’re done. While it’s not exactly recycling or reusing books in any way, it does cut back on the amount of furniture you need to purchase, which is especially helpful for small-space living.

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It’s Alive! 13 Examples of Green Growing Furniture

Is living furniture the next frontier in ultra-eco-friendly design? Oxygenating the air, providing a punch of green and acting as a natural accent in both interior and exterior spaces, these 13 unusu…
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Filed Under: Green Things
Tagged: alignnone-size-full, design, furniture, green-growing, home & garden, home and garden, recycled art, recycling

14 Smart Silo Conversions from High-Rises to Hidden Homes

January 24, 2011 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments 

[ By Steph in Art & Design, Home & Garden. ]

Once, they held grain, missiles or even sewage. But these 14 silos were transformed into incredibly creative adaptive reuse projects, transcending their utilitarian identities to present us with modern high-rise apartment buildings, eco-friendly homes, unusual restaurants and irresistible bed-and-breakfasts.

MVRDV Gemini Residence, Copenhagen

(images via: arcspace)

Leave it to architecture firm MVRDV to turn two eyesores on Copenhagen’s waterfront into stunning residential towers that are even cooler looking once you step inside. The two silos were left intact as ‘twin cores’, with the actual apartments basically acting as a facade. Inside each ‘core’ is staircases, elevators and common space for residents including terraces.

Silo Eco-Home, Greensburg, Kansas

(image via: natural home magazine)

Greensburg, Kansas is so named because it aims to become one of the first green towns in the United States. If it keeps building homes like this one, which has a reclaimed silo as its main component, the town will certainly be off to a great start. The roof of the Silo Eco-Home will be planted with vegetables and herbs, serving as “a model for small-scale sustainable food production.”

Gruene Homestead Inn, Texas

(images via: gruenhomesteadinn.com)

As the Gruene Homestead Inn demonstrates, all you need to do to make an old silo look like a cute place to vacation is add a front porch. Oh, sure, there’s more to it than that – things like drywall and plumbing – but in this application, the silo retains its charm and character. The interior has been artfully arranged to fit plenty of function inside including a kitchen, curving stairway, loft bedroom and a full-sized bathroom.

Monte Silo House, Woodland, Utah

(images via: archicentral)

On the more modern end of the spectrum is the Monte-Silo House in Woodland, Utah, a conversion project proving that silos can be stylish. The house is in fact made up of two corrugated steel silos, connected by a hallway, and the layout of the home takes full advantage of the round shape, even building capsule-like guest beds for kids into the walls. The smaller silo houses the bathroom.

Silo Student Dorms, Norway

(image via: marcus ramberg)

Once a grain silo in the middle of an industrial area, the Grünerløkka student housing complex is now an eye-catching structure with 226 residential units on 16 floors, sitting on national park land. The architects wanted to keep the original structure intact in both form and material as much as possible, contrasting the concrete of the silos with brightly colored glass.

Cold War Missile Silo Home, New York

(images via: silohome.com)

Nestled into the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York is ‘Silohome’, which the owners call “the finest retrofit of a missile site accomplished to date.” Perhaps they’re a bit biased, but the home is definitely a sight to behold with an ordinary-looking house topping two finished and furnished underground levels. Amazingly, while the home itself takes up 2,300 square feet, there’s still 20,000 square feet untouched, and it goes down… and down.. and down.

Wheat Silo Apartments, Bunbury, Australia

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Built in 1937 and used for decades to store wheat, the silos that were long an icon of Bunbury, Australia got a new life in 1994 as a luxury high-rise apartment complex packed with a swimming pool, heated spa and lounge area.

Coal Silo Restaurant, New York

(image via: moreofme24)

Silo Restaurant in Lewiston, New York is a converted coal silo perched on the edge of the Niagara River. The massive concrete silo gained this prime location – with a beautiful view that was once wasted – because the coal that it held was used to power the Great Gorge Railway. In the early 20th century, the Lewiston waterfront was bustling with tourists, but by the ’30s a superhighway diverted traffic and pollution in the river damaged tourism. The silo was rescued in 1997 and transformed into a restaurant where patrons can sit on the circular deck and gaze out at the water.

From a Silo to a High Rise in Denmark

(images via: inhabitat)

Most converted silo projects are obvious, considering the tell-tale cylindrical shape that is usually retained by the finished buildings. But for this rural ‘high-rise’ in Denmark, the origin of the structure is disguised within a blocky facade. The silo acts as a ‘service core’ for the apartments – it includes an elevator in the center, and supports a roof terrace.

Subterra Castle in Kansas

(images via: subterracastle.com)

Subterra Castle in Kansas was made from a silo of a different sort – a missile silo, to be exact. A small cabin marks the entrance to the underground home, and castle turrets sticking up out of the grass are actually escape hatches. Owner Ed Peden equates his home to the medieval castles of Europe, where much of the most-used spaces are beneath the surface.

Rustic DIY Eco Retreat, Missouri

(image via: dancing rabbit)

Interested in building your own DIY silo house? This ‘grain bin house’ at the Dancing Rabbit eco commune in Missouri was constructed with a lot of hard work but very little cash. The owners lined the inside of the bins with plastered straw bales for insulation and created a second floor, turning the silo into two one-room apartments.

Abbey Road Farm Bed and Breakfast, Oregon

(images via: abbeyroadfarm.com)

Three silos make up the bulk of one of the most unique sustainable structures in Oregon. The Abbey Road Farm Bed and Breakfast, located on an 82-acre working farm and winery, lets guests sleep in these ‘Silo Suites’, which look out onto the fields. “The most intriguing people end up here,” says owner John Stuart. “You’ve got to be a little courageous to want to sleep in a grain silo.”

Silo Converted to a Castle, Canada

(image via: panaramio)

Castles aren’t exactly a common sight in Canada, but even less common are castles made from old silos. Not much is known about this structure, found in the countryside of Ontario, but the image is intriguing, giving the impression of a centuries-old homestead.

NL Architects Silo Sports Complex Concept, Amsterdam

(images via: archicentral)

We’ve seen grain silos, missile silos and coal silos – but what about sewage treatment silos? Yes, those, too are being converted for new uses. Two such towers in the Zeeburg district of Amsterdam were the subject of a contest in 2009 to give the structures a new, more positive identity. NL Architects came up with this concept, turning the silos into a recreational complex for sports and culture.

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10 Surprising Reclaimed & Recycled Building Materials

Sheet rock and brand new lumber from the hardware store seem awfully boring – and incredibly wasteful – when you see the beautiful homes and other structures that can be built from recy…
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Filed Under: Green Things
Tagged: amsterdam, art & design, design, europe, garden, green buildings, home & garden, home and garden, image, recycling, river

Giant German Airship Hangar Transformed into Tropical Resort

January 7, 2011 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments 

[ By Steph in Art & Design, Geography & Travel. ]

Berliners depressed by the city’s notoriously cold and gray winters need to travel mere minutes in order to escape to a lush tropical paradise where the sun always shines, the air is a balmy 77 degrees, and orchids bloom beside a wide expanse of crystal-blue water. But the coolest thing about Tropical Islands, an artificial tropical resort in the German countryside, is the fact that it was built in a repurposed airship hangar.

The 194-million-cubic-foot structure – one of the world’s biggest buildings by volume – was originally commissioned by CargoLifter AG as a hangar for a prototype airship. When the company went bankrupt in 2002, it sold the 351-foot-high hangar to a Malaysian company called Tanjong, which repurposed the massive structure into a reproduction of a seaside village complete with a water park and the world’s largest indoor pool.

Nearly a million visitors take advantage of a 600-foot sandy beach and careen down a nine-story waterslide that sends sliders into the pool at speeds of up to 44mph. The record-breaking resort also contains the world’s largest artificial rainforest, which is packed with over 50,000 trees in 600 varieties.

Of course, as Inhabitat points out, maintaining all of this tropical artificiality in the middle of snowy Germany is not exactly eco-friendly – imagine the water and power bills. But it’s certainly a novel re-use for a structure that is so large as to be impractical for nearly any other purpose, and if the project does well in the long-term, other disused airship hangars around the world may follow suit.

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Sleeping in Trash, Trains & Drains: 14 Recycled Hotels

When you’re in search of a romantic honeymoon spot or comfortable lodging after a long day of travel, sewage pipes, harbor cranes and the county jail probably aren’t at the top of your li…
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Filed Under: Green Things
Tagged: art & design, art and design, buildings, clouds, geography, geography & travel, inspired-buildings, landscape, project, recycled, recycling, travel, water, world

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