Interior Design Sense

Bamboo forests are beautiful things — especially when they are cleaning urban air, soil, and water AND shielding communities from industry and heavily trafficked areas. Urban Biofilter creates bamboo forests on brownfields that are fed with wastewater. The harvested Bamboo then creates income in areas that are otherwise neglected through sustainable bamboo harvesting and timber production.

Read the rest of Urban Biofilter Project Plants Bamboo Forests to Clean up Brownfields

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Post tags: Bioremediation, brownfield reclamation, green design, green gardening, public space, sustainable design, sustainable landscaping, urban biofilter project, waste management

Inhabitat reader Raven tells us about the Solar Plant – a flowerpot-shaped charger that uses photosynthesis to charge all of your portable electronic gadgets. This clever design from Ku Bon-Seop of South Korea features a set of solar panels that are mounted on the top of the charger. Just like real plants these panels convert CO2 into renewable energy by utilizing the mighty power of the sun. The design is clean and simple, and its portability makes it easy to keep your gadgets powered wherever and whenever you find the need for some extra juice.

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Post tags: “solar energy”, green design, green gadget, Ku Bon-Seop, photosynthesis, portable charger, solar panels, solar plant, Solar Power, solar powered charger

The world is currently experiencing an economic downturn or recession, but by examining The Great Depression in the 1920-30’s, one may find clues as to what lies ahead for the future of design. Like The Great Depression, this recession began with a market crash, affected almost every country, caused personal income and interest rates to drop and unemployment rates to soar. However the past is filled with examples of successful, efficient designs that flourished during trying times.

Read the rest of How Economic Downturn Can be a Driving Force for Sustainability

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Post tags: design in a depression, great depression, green design, green renovation, green retrofits, recession, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

Font junkies haven’t had reason to get this excited since the release of Helvetica. Designers at SanSanserif Creatius have just premiered their Bold Chair, a funky new seating module constructed from 100% biodegradable corrugated cardboard. Each chair is completely screw-free and is formed via stacked 5mm thick sheets. But don’t be deceived by the lightweight material — compression tests found that this chair is able to withstand the resistance of up to 2,000 lbs. Functional, economic and eco-friendly – what a bold statement!

+ SanSanserif Creatius

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Post tags: “green furniture”, “sustainable furniture”, biodegradable chair, biodegradable furniture, bold chair, cardboard chair, cardboard furniture, corrugated cardboard, font chairs, green chair, recylable furniture, sanserif creatius, sustainable chair

The 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is set to kick off in May and construction is nearly completed on the water-harvesting wood-clad Canada Pavilion. The famous acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil had a part in the design of the pavilion and will also be performing throughout the Expo. Many interesting pavilions have been designed for the expo around the theme of “Better Life, Better City” and Canada’s contribution includes a great set of sustainable design elements to compliment that.

Read the rest of Water-Harvesting Wood Clad Canada Pavilion Designed by Cirque du Soleil

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Post tags: “living wall”, 2010 Shanghai Pavilion, 2010 shanghai world expo, canada, canada pavilion, cirque du soleil, rainwater catchment, rainwater harvesting, shanghai expo

Photo by Wallpaper

We’ve heard about designers doing some crazy things, but this one may just take the prize. For Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2010 show Karl Lagerfeld imported a massive 265-ton glacier from northern Sweden, where over the course of six days 35 sculptors (flown in from around the world) whittled the icy block down to a 28-foot tall frozen landscape. For this brief one-time show, the Grand Palais itself was also kept at subzero temperature for extra Arctic effect. While we ‘re not quite sure how keen Karl is to the whole global warming situation, his musing to reporters on the issue certainly says a lot: “Have you felt any warming this winter? Maybe that’s all nonsense, who knows.”

READ MORE AT ECOUTERRE >

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Post tags: Chanel, Fall/Winter 2010, faux fur, global warming, icebergs, Karl Lagerfeld, paris fashion week

St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect day to get in the green spirit! Apart from cladding your kids in green garb so they won’t receive any of those pesky pinches, why not give them a little something extra to pump up the festive cheer? From wooden shamrock teethers to glitter shamrock crayons, we’ve got five etsy finds for all of St. Paddy’s greenest kids!

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

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Post tags: gifts for kids, green gifts, green st. patirck’s day gifts, st. patirck’s day gifts, st. patrick’s day

Men’s underwear… oblong fruits… all the puns we could insert here just seem too easy, so we’ll keep it simple and introduce you to AussieBum – the world’s first men’s unmentionables made from bananas! These eco-friendly briefs from down undah (how apropos) also contain organic cotton and lycra. We venture making them simply out of banana fiber would make them “a bit squishy.”

READ MORE AT ECOUTERRE >

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Post tags: AussieBum Banana Mens Underwear, banana fabric, banana underwear, banana undies, eco-fashion, eco-friendly underwear, eco-friendly undies, green fashion, men’s eco fashion, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style

HEY READERS! Want to win a new washer and dryer and a year’s worth of laundry supplies?

Inhabitat is teaming up with Method to give you an incredible green laundry room renovation worth $8,500! One lucky reader is set to win a brand new energy efficient washer and dryer duo, some eco-friendly laundry room furnishings and accessories and an entire year’s supply of Method cleaning products! Enter to win this awesome prize package today!

ENTER TO WIN HERE >

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Post tags: cleaning, green cleaning, green design, green interiors, green products, method laundry detergent, sustainable design

Reverse graffiti is a type of street art that effaces – not defaces – public property. That’s right, the taggers or “scrubbers” that practice this art form actually remove filth from their canvases instead of adding it to create their imagery. We’ve been following reverse graffiti for a long time now, but a new sampling of it in Durban, South Africa recently caught our eye. Check out all of the gorgeous work this group of youngsters has completed by cleaning dirt and grime off of their town’s walls.

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Post tags: clean graffiti, durban, eco design, eco street art, green art eco art, green design, green graffiti, green street art, reverse graffiti, scrubbing, Street art, sustainable design