New windturbine to the neighbours´liking

Windturbine that silences NIMBYs

Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing.

continue> inhabitat.com

Jopo Helsinki bike meeting

A City of Jopos

For a long time car owners have had yearly gatherings for special brands. Now bike owners are catching up. The first bike gathering for Helkama Jopo-bikes was arranged in Helsinki. Photographer Roni Rekomaa took a cool photo of the bikers on their Jopos. Talk  about ultra-cool! /aitoa

More> HBL

Photo Roni Rekomaa

Rolling hills of housing

Green building in Gothenburg, Sweden

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects New Heden project transforms a vacant city block is a self-contained sustainable city interspersed with cycling paths and walkways. Envisioned as a “green lung” for Gothenburg, Sweden, the development will introduce a beautiful expanse of fresh green space to an area currently consumed by parking lots and football fields.

LINK> Inhabitat

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects

Professor Hans Rosling

The skill to give an interesting lecture (on statistics)

It is a true skill to give an interesting lecture on something that normally would make most people fall asleep; statistics on world health. We present to you professor Hans Rosling from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden:

Eric Cavalcanti – January 12 2009 wrote:

A brilliant communicator with a great message that could change how we view and inform ourselves about the world. I believe this kind of technology associated with the freedom of information Rosling advocates, and perhaps with future uses of the internet as a means for direct participation from individual citizens could dramatically alter the way we conceive of democracy.

Cement that eats CO2

Revealed: The cement that eats carbon dioxide

Tuomo Siitonen Architects´ plan for apartments in downtown Helsinki

Cement accounts for 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions – more than aviation. Now British engineers have discovered a new form of cement that instead reduces CO2 emissions. Cement is the key ingredient in concrete. In Finland, concrete is the most common material for building bearing structures of high-rise apartment houses.  Scientists predict, that worldwide, the demand for cement will grow by 50% in the years to come.

Cement, a vast source of planet-warming carbon dioxide, could be transformed into a means of stripping the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, thanks to an innovation from British engineers.

Making traditional cement results in greenhouse gas emissions from two sources: it requires intense heat, and so a lot of energy to heat up the ovens that cook the raw material, such as limestone. That then releases further CO2 as it burns. But, until now, noone has found a large-scale way to tackle this fundamental problem.

The new cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative. Set up by chief scientist at Novacem, Nikolaos Vlasopoulos and his colleagues at Imperial College London, the innovation has already attracted the attention of major construction companies and investors.

VIA > The Guardian

How would a butterfly inspire your next design?

Biomimicry

Butterflies exhibit vibrant colors and stay clean using nano-scale structures on their wings. Designers and engineers have emulated this strategy to create self-cleaning coatings, fabrics and paints, and electronic display screens.

What is Biomimicry?

Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.  The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more.

Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most importantly, what lasts here on Earth. Instead of harvesting organisms, or domesticating them to accomplish a function for us, biomimicry differs from other “bio-approaches” by consulting organisms and ecosystems and applying the underlying design principles to our innovations. This approach introduces an entirely new realm for entrepreneurship that can contribute not only innovative designs and solutions to our problems but also to awakening people to the importance of conserving the biodiversity on Earth that has so much yet to teach us.

> Ask Nature

> Morphotex

Open source architecture

Design like you give a damn

A simple mission: “to generate design opportunities that will improve living standards for all” by providing an open-source platform through which ANYone can view, post, share, and adapt sustainable, humanitarian-based, scalable solutions. The idea that designs and all associated documents can and should be shared within the decidedly proprietary architectural industry is truly innovative, and could very well aid in the reshaping of the entire architectural profession into a more socially-focused and responsible vocation. Architecture for humanity; Cameron Sinclair on TED talks//aito

www.openarchitecturenetwork.org

www.cameronsinclair.com

Kinetic walking sculptures

Theo Jansen´s kinetic sculptures are alive!

“Theo Jansen has been creating wind-walking examples of artificial life since 1990. What was at first a rudimentary breed has slowly evolved into a generation of machines that are able to react to their environment: “over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storms and water and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.” From >Inhabitat

These sculptural ‘animals’ are amazing; like a combination of DaVinci and David Cronenberg. Jansen has hit upon a form that resonates with a sense of the future/past as present; fairy tales, dinosaurs and mythical beasts.

from> (incli)NATION via east coast Architecture review

More on youtube: Theo Jansen

Inflatable plastic bag subway art

Artist Joshua Allen Harris´ plastic bag polar bear

Polar bears, polar bears. Those ubiquitous symbols of climate change. Cute and cuddly, ethereal and majestic, they’re popping up everywhere – including atop subway grates on the streets of New York City. Artist Joshua Allen Harris has created quite an online buzz with his puppy-like inflatable plastic bag polar bear: it inflates and deflates with the passing of subterranean subway trains, springing to life and then fading away in a vital commentary on global warming.

From Inhabitat > www.inhabitat.com

Announcement: Ekosähkö Oy

Ekosähkö

An announcement, better late than ever:

Aito, and most of its affiliates, has tossed Helsingin Energia into the trash bin (except for the monopolized transfer part) and has a new electricity provider: Ekosähkö Oy http://www.taustavoimaa.fi/ekosahko/.

Ekosähkö produces electricity through small power plants and at least one third third is produced by wind power. We made the contract here (keep the suggested parameters unchanged, consumption of energy for an one-two person household is 2000 kWh/year) http://www.taustavoimaa.fi/ekosahko/laskuri/ekosahko/index.asp

We will see in some time how it works. :)

Cheers//aito