green

Why aren’t we using Aerblock when we build?

September 29, 2013

Why aren’t we using Aerblock when we build?

Why aren’t we using building materials like Aerblock instead of wood? Habitat Forum 1976 alumni Michael Baron is involved in manufacturing this safe, lightweight, storm-proof, insulating, healthy-air concrete material that mimics ancient pumice building blocks.

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Beautiful re-usable Codd-neck soda bottles still in use in India

February 21, 2012

Beautiful re-usable Codd-neck soda bottles still in use in India

This is a poor photo of a very interesting bottle, despite the fact that the boy running this soda cart in Mysore was being super helpful. (Below, some clearer photos of this type of bottle, courtesy of Wikipedia.) This is known as the Codd-neck bottle and you can read a full history and explanation below, but in short, the bottle is sealed via the use of a glass marble held in place by the pressure of the aerated soda; pressing the marble down either with a thumb or wooden plunger releases the seal, dropping the marble into the curved cavity and allowing the soda to pour out.

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Weekend Cabin by Mark Osburn of Osburn Clarke

November 15, 2011

Weekend Cabin by Mark Osburn of Osburn Clarke

Beautiful simple cabin by my architect friend Mark Osburn and his firm Osburn Clarke. Via Adventure Journal.

I heard another architect say lately that the cabin form is the vernacular architecture of British Columbia, and that is probably true.

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Citroen Kar-a-Sutra

May 25, 2011

Citroen Kar-a-Sutra

Living room on wheels designed by Italian designer Mario Bellini in 1972 as a collaboration for Citroen and Pirelli. It’s a combination conversation pit/sleeping area. It was introduced to the US later that year in a show at MoMA – Italy: The New Domestic Landscape.

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Cornelia Oberlander lecture on landscape architecture and biodiversity

November 11, 2010

Cornelia Oberlander lecture on landscape architecture and biodiversity

Renowned landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander will be giving a lecture Thursday November 18 at the University of British Columbia’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum. From the site:

The environment is not the same to a landscape architect as it is to a biologist.

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Landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander

October 4, 2010

Landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander

Cornelia Oberlander, the pre-eminent Canadian landscape architect noted for long collaborations with Arthur Erickson and Moshe Safdie among other things, designed the landscape for Erickson’s famed Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

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Rain chains or kusari toi

April 21, 2010

Rain chains or kusari toi

Kusari toi (sometimes translitered “doi”)—the Japanese characters are 鎖樋 which translates literally as “chain gutters”—are known in English as rain chains. They are used in Japan as downspouts to direct rain from a gutter to the ground, where it either flows into a gravel or pebble bed or into some sort of catchment.

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Matlo, based on the traditional water cooler called matka, by Doshi Levien

February 8, 2010

Matlo, based on the traditional water cooler called matka, by Doshi Levien

“Most Indian households use a rounded terracotta drinking water vessel — a matlo — that cools water to 14° below ambient temperature without refrigeration. Our matlo is a slip-cast version which has evolved to incorporate filtration and could be batch-produced from a mould.

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Categories: design, Uncategorised

Furoshiki – Wrap holiday presents in the green, Japanese style

December 18, 2009

Furoshiki – Wrap holiday presents in the green, Japanese style

This is a Japanese tradition we desperately need to adopt in North America – re-using textiles to wrap presents. It’s an art form, but it’s worth learning because it dispenses with all the annoying and wasteful tape and paper and ribbon, it’s a fun skill to learn (for kids too), and it’s an educational conversation piece – you might have to explain to the recipient what it is, but that’s probably worthwhile.

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Categories: design, Uncategorised
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