sustainability
This organic-looking tent (design/concept by Abeer Seikaly) provides all-weather shelter, while offering such amenities as energy/electricity (solar-powered, battery stored), "running" water (collection and distribution of water, courtesy of the tent's unique design), storage (again, as a by-product of the design), ventilation (again, the design…) and the benefit of natural light (through the controllable tent’s openings).
Its foldable nature/design and use of lightweight fabric implies ease of transport and deployment.
Oh! And it’s also easy on the eye!
The first jump has all the details, photos and schematics.
Another great and illustrative piece from Discovery.
The good kind of water(bill)boarding.
Introducing: the first billboard that produces drinking water out of air.
Taking advantage of the high percentage of atmospheric humidity in Lima (Peru) and almost no precipitation, a system was developed and installed in a billboard to capture the humidity and producing water. It has already produced thousands of liters of water.
Opened in 2008, the Svalbard Vault (in full: Svalbard Global Seed Vault) is a Noah's Ark, of sorts, for plant life. The idea is to preserve, in safe and optimal conditions, for generations to come, the biological diversity we enjoy today (at least in the plant life domain). A proactive (and welcome) effort that aims to preempt any potential damage done by natural (or not so natural) catastrophes in the planet's seed banks.
Sustainable modularity and/or modular sustainability.
Brazilian Alfredo Moser saw light where others saw bottles, garbage or just plain recycling material. His innovation/invention now recycles sunlight (and plastic bottles) all over the world, spreading lightning fast.
Water from air, where it is most needed.
In their own words:
'WarkaWater' is a project conceived for the mountainous regions in Ethiopia, where women and children walk several hours to collect water. To ease this dramatic condition, the studio ‘Architecture and Vision’ is developing the project ‘WarkaWater’ which is harvesting potable water from the air and honors the disappearing Ethiopian warka trees. The 9 m tall bamboo framework has a special fabric hanging inside capable to collect potable water from the air by condensation. The lightweight structure is designed with parametric computing, but can be built with local skills and materials by the village inhabitants.
Apart from the high praise for the noble idea, notable mentions also for the elegant/simple/sustainable/beautiful design and execution.
From this:
To this:
From Malaysian architect/designer Edward Chew, to win the (2011) Grand Prize in the Bright Ideas Lighting Design Competition.
This origami lamp is the product of clever design, spawning from recycled Tetra Pak packages cutted into strips and then folded into triangles. These were then assembled to form the final, spherical, piece, without the use of any adhesives whatsoever.
