PUBLIC MARKS with tags architecture & écologie

Designing a single, often free-standing, passive solar house is quite different from planning a densely populated city where each building is heated and cooled using only natural energy sources. And yet, if we want passive solar design to be more than just a curiosity, this is exactly what we need. Modern research, which combines ancient knowledge with fast computing techniques, shows that passive solar cities are a realistic option, allowing for surprisingly high population densities.

Floating City 2030: Thames Estuary Aquatic Urbanism - Recycling Ships and Marine Structures

Anthony Lau, Bartlett School of Architecture, London (2008)

The current relationship between community and the goods they rely on is faceless, and with the decline of subsistence hunting due to changing migration patterns, the connection to food is disappearing.

Thoughts about the event about the future of Ecological Architecture

LILYPAD is touted by Callebaut as a prototypical auto-sufficient amphibious city... a tenable solution to the rising water levels. In addition to providing housing for those displaced by the transforming land/water relationships, LILYPAD also produces sustainable energy for developed regions.

Interesting project. I'm always a bit worried with super structures which are not made of loosely joint small pieces in an organic way. Dinosaurs have disappeared because they were massive structure. In Malaysia, right now, there are big building towers not finished, massive concrete skeleton because of the turn down of the economy a few years ago.

Massive things get eroded like others, but the issue is that they are very hard to fix or remove when things go wrong. The superstructure itself is not sustainable.

Sustainable design is not only about energy efficient buildings: Designer should also think about whether they can change people's behavior towards the environment. Can architecture do that?

Adrian Smith Gordon Gill Architecture has won an international competition to design the Masdar Headquarters, the first building in the zero waste, zero carbon emission Masdar City outside of Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates.

terraces are enclosed with bamboo louvers mounted on folding frames that will provide with the necessary protection from the strong East-West sun exposure, provide security to the units and open entirely to the side gardens when desired.

Sustainable design architect Edouard François’s latest project changes the face of social housing in Paris. The project, Eden Bio, features terraced houses arranged along pedestrian alleys set within densely planted organic gardens. The upper level units will be reached by external timber gantries and staircases enclosed in greenery. The 100 social housing unit development will be completed in early 2008.

HABODE is an eco-friendly concept that appears to fold out of two shipping container sized frames that can be transported anywhere using standard container handling equipment, without being limited by the solid steel walls of a standard shipping container.

a new generation of lightweight, fully sustainable boats? It certainly sounds good on paper: the futuristic vessel would use solid sails - equipped with double layer solar cell panels - to harness both wind and solar energy and would have an incredibly light, stiff body structure, courtesy of its carbon fiber and epoxy resin composite-made shell and carbon-foam core lamination. Its body would also have an epoxy primer coat and ultraviolet resistant coating.

MDesign’s patented Mcube modular prefab system is a gorgeous, flexible, solar-powered, and stunningly affordable housing option that exemplifies the benefits of prefabricated building. The system is based on a translucent 10′-cube module which can be stacked in multiple floors and units for residential and commercial purposes.

Le projet, lauréat du concours Algeco “architecture élémentaire”, a pour but d’allier aux contraintes de surface une qualité spatiale,en créant un espace de vie confortable au fort caractère identitaire. Les différentes fonctions du programme sont regroupées dans de petites unités qui expansent le volume principal en se retirant comme des tiroirs: ainsi la cuisine, la salle de bains, le sas d'entrée, et les deux chambres viennent se positionner en satellite d'un seul espace central.