Best of Green Readers' Choice: Design
What's the cutest tiny shed or building, best single family house, or best new furniture design? Vote on these and more.
Tiny folding winter hut Is made with walls of ice
A super minimalist mobile ice fishing hut consists of a wooden frame, some chicken wire and walls of ice, made on the spot.
"There Goes the Neighborhood." Two Ways to Deal with Foreclosed Homes
While some cities are tearing down thousands of vacant homes, Occupy Our Homes movement offers a compassionate alternative.
Parking Lots Kill Birds? Thousands Die in Utah Crash Landing
In Utah, birds plunge to their death after storms make parking lots look like ponds. Thwack. Another reason for less pavement?
Recycled Plastic Bottle House Built in Nigeria
Take nearly 8,000 old plastic bottles, add some construction waste and mud, and voila: a sturdy and sustainable home.
Devastating Earthquake in Eastern Turkey Fails to Shake Ankara's Nuclear Plans
Reports that Turkey would reconsider its nuclear plans following a deadly earthquake in the eastern part of the country sounded too good to be true. They were.
Gorgeous Tree House Built Without Cutting a Single Branch (Photos)
When the team at nature-minded Spanish architecture firm Urbanarbolismo decided to build a tree house, they set some high standards. Working with a centuries old oak tree, they wanted to create a place for
Ask Pablo: Do Solar Panels Contribute To The Heat Island Effect?
Image credit: Bernd Sieker, used under Creative Commons license. Dear Pablo: Does installing commercial rooftop solar PV (with the dark-colored PV cells) negate the effect of painting that same roof white to alleviate the "heat island" effect in
Roots Architecture at WOMAD 2011 - A Game of Structural Consequences (Video)
What can you do at a music festival in four days with 75 volunteers and lots of salvaged materials? Build some amazing performance stages, that's what. Last year we reported on the Roots Architecture project at the WOMAD
Traditional Landscapes With a Twist: Photographer Yao Lu Makes Mountains out of China's Rubble Heaps
In photographer Yao Lu's "View of Waterfall with Rocks and Pines," two men stand underneath the spreading branches of a gnarled pine tree, aiming their cameras off in the distance, where
Gorgeous Brittany House Built By Hand of Straw, Wood and Earth
In 2009, architects Franck Deboute and Karine Montagnon decided to build their dream home and office. The site: the Pointe du Raz, hanging out over the Atlantic Ocean, in Brittany, France. The
Wildlife Bridge Being Built Over Ontario Highway
Last year the ARC wildlife crossing competition got a lot of pixels; it was won by Michael Van Valkenburgh & Associates and there is talk of building it, although it was more of an ideas competition. But they are
In New York, New LEED-Certified Hotel Opens with Free Bike Sharing and EV Charging Stations (Photos)
While the greenest vacation is often a staycation, it's nice to know that when you do travel, whether it be for business or pleasure, a hotel can meet you half way.
Let's Spend the Night Together--On a "Boat" on Top of a Roof in London
It's nautical, since it overlooks the Thames River, it's architectural, and it's a winner.
Make this the last AIA Awards where they don't consider sustainability
They say these are about celebrating the best contemporary architecture. But what does that mean today?
Why we need a Carbon-cle Cup Award for Unsustainable Design
RIBA has announced that all its prizes will now be sustainable. We are going to need a counterpoint.
RIBA Stirling prize goes to Passivhaus social housing project
The most prestigious prize in British architecture is given to the solidly green project rather than the flash in the pan.
Keep the AIA/COTEs, but it's time to scrap the AIA Awards
If a building doesn't meet these basic and necessary criteria, it doesn't deserve an award.
RIBA house of the year is an off-grid "sustainable" gem
It helps to have such a stunning lakeside site.
In this time of global warming, we now have a Global Cooling Prize
Big bucks go to the teams that come up with an air conditioner that's five times as good.
Why should autonomous vehicles look like cars? Why not hotel rooms?
The Autonomous Hotel Room from Aprilli Design Studio raises some interesting questions.
Bloomberg’s European HQ wins RIBA Stirling Prize
But is it "the last flourish of a high-resource approach to design and construction"?
Passivhaus Trust announces nominees for ‘the Oscars for building performance'
Let's hope that unlike the Oscars, they make the right choices and open the right envelopes.
Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to scientists studying circadian rhythms
Perhaps now our body clocks will get the attention they deserve.
Where scientists are superstars
... in the place where people understand the risks of living in an anti-globalist, post-fact era
2017 Architizer Awards are "a stunning celebration of innovative architecture"
They deserve an award for putting on such a terrific award program.
First 6 storey wood building in Ontario wins Wood Works! Award
The Templar Block in Hamilton Ontario pushes a lot of buttons.
TreeHugger hero Thomas Thwaites wins an Ig Nobel Prize for being a goat
And why not? It sounds like fun, just hanging around, eating grass
A look at the Runners-up in the Passivhaus Trust Awards
The judges got it right this time.
Scottish Passivhaus is full of light and delight
House on the Highlands wins the rural category in the UK Passivhaus Trust Awards.
Tiny Techtonics timber urban infill wins Passivhaus Trust Award
This just pushes every TreeHugger button.
Governor General's Medals for Architecture in Canada unveiled
It's the country's biggest architectural award and quite a few are TreeHugger friendly
Vertical farm by Rogers Stirk Harbour wins Sustainability Award
If a vertical farm fantasy is the best unbuilt project in the UK, then sustainable design is in worse trouble than I thought.
And the top prize in the UK wood award goes to a fishing hut
There was a big pile of beautiful lumber to choose from too.
Werner Sobek calls for an emissions-free "Electric City" by 2020
The architect/ engineer says we have the tech now to live better electrically.
8 storey Cross-Laminated Timber apartments win Finlandia Prize for Architecture
Building "combines affordable housing with wood construction and the promotion of new technologies."
Tall Wood Building Prize of $3 million shared between two timber towers
A condo in Manhattan and a mixed use 12 story building in Portland get a boost.
Snøhetta wins the sustainable building WAN Award with the Plus House Larvik
They got this one right.
To nobody's surprise, London's Walkie Talkie wins the Carbuncle Cup
This building alternately fries the public, blows them off their feet and cheats them out of promised public amenities. And did I mention it's bloated, top-heavy and just plain ugly.
The Desolenator gets the People's Choice at INDEX awards
It's actually pretty clever as it pumps out fresh water and electricity.
Winners of the INDEX- Design For Life competition announced
Some of them are surprising and all of them will make a real difference.
Black Friday may be dying, but Buy Nothing Day is still going strong
This year, it has a stronger environmental theme.
If you support walkable and bikeable cities, then support Small Business Saturday
This year, take a side in the war on the car, and support stores on your neighborhood bike lane or transit route.
Forget Black Friday, think of Small Business Saturday and support your Main Street
A good followup to Buy Nothing Day.
From Zero Waste to Buy Nothing: A family's quest for simpler, greener living
Adopting a waste-conscious and anti-consumerist lifestyle is not something that happens overnight. Sometimes it's nice to hear about other people who are just starting out, like this young family from southwestern Ontario, Canada.
Forget Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day; Remember Small Business Saturday
A look at the intersection of three ways to deal with this weekend about shopping.
Honor your holey relics
This Friday, Patagonia encourages us to celebrate the clothes we have and the stories they tell.
This is your annual reminder to forget Black Friday
Whether you opt for 'Buy Nothing Day' or 'Small Business Saturday,' the journey toward sustainability begins with a single step.