Interior Design Sense

Get ready Boston, someday you might just have this incredible floating city within a city located in your harbor. The BoA, short for Boston Arcology, is a sustainable mega structure designed by Kevin Schopfer, who also designed the amazing New Orleans Arcology Habitat (NOAH). The BoA will house 15,000 people in hotels, offices, retail spaces, museums, condominiums, and even a new city hall. Built to LEED standards with golden proportions, this amazing building would serve as an expansion of the city without impacting what is already currently built.

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Post tags: boat, boston, Boston Arcology, ecology, Kevin Schopfer, mega structure, Sustainable Building

Fabulous prefab design just became more accessible as LivingHomes has announced that homes by award-winning architect Ray Kappe will be available at lower cost on a national scale. The six Kappe designs now available nationwide come chock-full of all the green features that LivingHomes are known for, delivering high quality design in a sustainable package.

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Post tags: Contemporary Design, green architecture, leed silver, livinghomes, Ray Kappe, Steve Glenn, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, Sustainable Homes

The CityCenter mega-resort opened last month to fanfare, press, and a fireworks display fitting of a 67-acre 8.7 billion dollar gamble sitting on the Las Vegas Strip. The project surpassed its original sustainability goal of LEED Silver to score an impressive six LEED Gold Certifications (with another one on its way), and it was the recipient of the US Forest Stewardship Council’s best commercial project of 2009. However Las Vegas is a desert, and in this resource-constrained site we couldn’t help but pull back a bit of the star-crossed blinds and ask how deep does the green really go?

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Post tags: CityCenter, LEED Design, LEED Gold Design, Sustaianble Desgin, Sustainable Building, Sustainble Building Las Vegas

Though New York City’s real estate climate is anything but sunny, this year, the Lower East Side Girls Club (in partnership with the Dermot Company, a high-profile local developer) will break ground on a new 30,000–square foot, mixed-use arts and community center on the corner of 7th Street and Avenue D. It will be the first and only Girls Club facility in NYC (when boys and girls clubs nationwide joined in 1986, the Boys Club of New York, operating on the LES, opted out of the merger, leaving the neighborhood’s girls to develop their own organization). Now, says the Girls Club’s web site, “this sustainably built, ‘green,’ state-of-the-art capital project will enable us to triple our program capacity.”

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Post tags: Architecture, city architecture, green architecture, Green Building, leed gold building, lower east side girls club, mixed use building, sustainable architeture, Sustainable Building, urban architecture, youth educational programming

New York City’s urban grid is dense, so when new developments pop up, we root for intelligent and environmentally-positive design that balances out the concrete with a little bit of greenery. Architect Enrique Norten and his NYC-based firm, TEN ARQUITECTOS, are in the midst of building a mixed-use high-rise in Hell’s Kitchen called Clinton Park, which will provide some much-needed green space to concrete jungle on the west side. The unusual stepped roof and S-shaped design reminds us a bit of terraced farming — an age-old agricultural method — and provides ample space for budding urban gardeners to sow their seeds. When you consider the stepped terrace with the contemporary look-and-feel of the building’s facade, we know this green and attractive addition to the urban grid is sure to please future residents.

Read the rest of Ten Arquitectos NYC Tower Has Stepped Green-Roof!

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Post tags: “sustainable architecture”, clinton west new york city development, eco architecture new yrok city, green architecture, green roof, mixed use architecture, mixed use building, new york city architecture, reen design, rooftop garden, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, terrace garden, Urban design

This stunning home in Kirkland, Wash. is one in a series of prefabricated homes called PLACE Houses designed by architect Heather Johnston. The home’s diverse use of sustainably-sourced materials and low-impact energy harvesting — in addition to its fresh, contemporary look — won the series a spot as one of the Top 6 Prefab Designs in the April 2006 issue of Wallpaper magazine. Built with SIP panels, this 2,800 square-foot model home was constructed on-site and has almost every green amenity you can imagine. This PLACE House has the look of a custom-built home, but can be ordered and built as though it were part of a “ready-to-wear” line — making for an easy, streamlined package.

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Post tags: contemporary design green, green architecture, Green Building, low impact housing, Prefab, prefab design, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

When the new owners of this beautiful wood-clad home decided they needed to update and add a bit more space to the house, who better to renovate it than the architects who designed the original? Re-enter, New York-based Bates Masi + Architects, who worked out a plan to enlarge the kitchen and dining areas, modernize the bathrooms, and refinish the floors, walls and counter tops. Materials and wood from the house were kept and re-used in the renovation, minimizing the need for new materials.

Read the rest of Re-Cover House Wins AIA Award for Renovations

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Post tags: bates masi architects, building material conservation, cabin green home, conservation materials home building, Green Building, green home building, green house, re-cover house, Recover House, recycled materials housing, renovated home salvaged materials, Renovation, reused materials home building, Sustainable Building

This clustered, multi-unit building is both literally and metaphorically green. Constructed with prefabricated modules that come in various hues of green, the building and each housing unit include a myriad of different eco features that make this visionary design, by MarioCucinella Architects, an example of affordable and efficient construction and design techniques. On the exterior, the building is equipped with photovoltaic panels and a rainwater harvesting system, while the interior takes advantage of passive heating and cooling techniques to lower energy use during extreme weather. And best of all, the building is designed so that each home would cost just over $100,000 US dollars.

Read the rest of PREFAB FRIDAY: Casa 100K by MarioCucinella Architects

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Post tags: 000 House, 100%, 100K Casa, 100K House, 100K Prefab, Casa 100K, Casa100K, italian architecture prefab, multi family housing, passive architecture, passive design, passive heating cooling, prefab home, Sustainable Building, wind energy

Located in Mexico City, Restaurant Japonez offers hungry souls searching for Asian-inspired dishes a serene landscape seated between a stunning living wall, wood, and an incredible glass enclosure. Designed by Serrano Cherrem Architects, the double-height space allows for tons of natural lighting during the day and lets in the city at night, creating a juxtaposition that brings the city indoors into the organic nature of the restaurant’s interior.

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Post tags: “living wall”, “sustainable architecture”, Green Building, Interiors

Hay may be for horses, but straw bales also make an excellent sustainable building material. Constructed by former accountant Carol Atkinson, The Straw Bale Cabin in East Yorkshire is the UK’s first straw-bale holiday home! The cabin has been built with locally grown straw and other renewable materials, and it generates its own energy with a micro wind turbine, solar panels and a whole host of other eco-friendly features.