Interior Design Sense

Just in time for spring, Hom, purveyor of stylish, modern, prefab double-wides, furniture, accessories, and lighting, has teamed with eco-friendly LA-based furniture manufacturer Cisco Brothers to announce a new line of sustainable outdoor furniture. Crafted with sustainable materials and environmentally responsible manufacturing techniques, the new line offers up a mix of tables, dining and lounging chairs for California-inspired indoor-outdoor living.

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Post tags: “green furniture”, cisco brothers, green design, green furnishings, green industrial design, hom, sustainable design, Sustainable Interiors, Sustainable Materials, Sustainable Outdoor Furniture

The next time your umbrella turns inside out beyond repair, think about mailing it to Taryn Zychal and giving it a second life. Recycling Zychal upcycles rescued umbrellas into hoods, umbrella dog rain coats, and organic cat nip filled kitty toys. Based in Philadelphia, her team takes their rule “No Broken Umbrella Left Behind” very seriously – scouring through trash in search of discarded umbrellas after a hard rain. Her styles have become quite worldly with donations of umbrellas coming from as far as France. For every broken umbrella donated to Recycling Zychal, the company donates $1 to a list of animal assistance organizations, shelters and causes.

+ Recycling Zychal

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Post tags: Cat Toys, green design, Hoods, inhabitat, Pet Coat, Recycling Zychal, Sustainable Cat Toys, sustainable design, Sustainable Pet Coats, Sustainable Pets, umbrella, upcycling

Within the next few months, we hope to start seeing more about an intriguing small-scale wind power technology that was first announced a few years ago. The Windbelt was devised as a wind power generator to meet the very modest power needs of families in third-world countries. The device is revolutionary for being non-revolving — most wind power is produced by something going around in a circle and turning on an axis to drive a generator. Windbelt, however, uses the oscillation of a thin strip of material held in tension with a spring to vibrate a magnet that generates electrical power.

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Post tags: “wind power”, “wind turbine”, design for developing nations, green design, humanitarian design, humdinger, renewable energy, social design, sustainable design, Windbelt

Read the rest of Gorgeous Green Roofed High School Rises in France

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Post tags: eco design sustainable design, france, freen eco-school, french, green design, green education, green roofs, green schools, Marcel Sambat High School

The tiny island nation of the Maldives is under serious threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. No part of the 1200 islands which make up the Maldives is more than six feet above sea level, so as sea-levels rise (as they will if rampant climate change is not stopped), the entire nation will be under water. Because of this, the Maldives government is pulling out all the stops in the fight against climate change. Not only has the entire country gone carbon neutral, educated all of their children in environmental science and furiously built retaining walls around every island, but the government is buying up land in nearby nations as a place to retreat to when the Maldives disappears. Now it appears that the intrepid Maldivians have come up with a new strategy to fight the rising tide: creating mini floating islands!

The Maldives government and Dutch Docklands/Dutch Watervalley just signed an agreement today to develop several floating facilities for the islands, including a convention center and golf courses. Designed by architect Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio.NL, the people who brought you the Citadel floating apartment complex and these amazing floating homes, the renderings for the amphibious mini-cities appear depict star-shaped, tiered islands with indoor spaces hidden under lush green-roof terraces, complete with interior pools and beaches.

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Post tags: design for climate change, design for rising seal levels, dutch docklands, dutch water valley, eco design, floating city, Floating Island, floating resort, green design, Koen Olthuis Maldives Island, sustainable design, Waterstudio, Waterstudio.nl, Waterstudio.NL’s Floating Star Shaped Resort Islands for the Maldives

The Magtenlight is a lighting system for your bike that uses a contact-less dynamo to generate the energy to illuminate your way at night. The system works by mounting a ring of 28 magnets on the spokes of your bike, which move past the dynamo generating an electric current. Since the dynamo is not in physical contact with the magnet, the system is frictionless, which means you don’t feel any resistance when cycling.

Read the rest of READER TIP: Magtenlight Harvests Energy from Your Bike Wheels

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Post tags: bike light, eco bike light, eco design, green design, green light, kinetic energy, Light, magnets, magtenlight, renewable energy, sustainable design

Read the rest of Stacked Shipping Container Medical Complex in Sudan

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Post tags: “prefabricated housing”, container houses, eco design, green design, Prefab Housing, salam centre, shipping container, shipping container architecture, sudan, sustainable design, tam architects

We just got a tip from reader Selvan about a dual-purpose bicycle that can be used for transportation as well as for energy production. Using a stand that fixes the bike in a stationary position and a pedal power attachment that can be fabricated from widely available parts, the DPB can be used to power numerous small‑scale mechanical devices such as grain threshers, grinders, water pumps, electrical generators, and furniture making tools. Because the bike is low-cost and pretty simple to fabricate, it’s ideal for developing nations.

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Post tags: “clean energy”, dual purpose bicycle, dual purpose bike, eco design, green design, green transportation, kinetic energy, pedal power, sustainable design, technology for the poor

Honda has just revealed this incredible looking three-wheeled 3R-C concept vehicle at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show. The sleek scooter-like pod is an EV that showcases Honda’s latest research into compact urban vehicles. Designed for one driver, the vehicle has a clear canopy that covers it when not in use and protects the rider from wind and rain.

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Post tags: Cool concept car, eco design, electric vehicle, geneva auto show, green design, Honda 3R-C, Honda concept motorcycle, Honda electric vehicle, Honda Personal Urban Vehicle, sustainable design

This portable new product promises energy on the go – and we don’t mean a Power Bar. Bourne Energy’s Backpack Power Plant is a hydroelectric generator that you can strap on just like a bookbag. It can produce electricity from any pretty much any stream of water, meaning that it’s quite a bit more useful than a Power Bar to boot.

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Post tags: backpack power generator, eco design, eco power, green design, green power, hydroelectric power generator, portable power generator, sustainable design