London’s 2012 Olympic Velodrome is an Elegant Energy-Efficient Stadium by Hopkins Architects

As the world eagerly awaits the opening of the 2012 London Olympic Games this Friday, final preparations are taking palce at the 2012 Velodrome Olympic Stadium - an elegant building by Hopkins Architects that balances clean lines with sustainable building strategies. The Velodrome was the first of the “big-five” large projects to be completed for the games. With natural cooling, water harvesting and daylighting seamlessly integrated into the program, this structure bodes well for both green design and energy savings.

The beautiful saddle-like building was carefully engineered to be simple to construct with lightweight materials, and the construction takes advantage of natural resources to operate as a calibrated, elegant whole. The striking white roof has rows of skylights crossing the complex, providing daylight and allowing overhead lights to be off during the daytime. The white roof is made from a net of cables supported by the surrounding steel super structure and will deflect the summer sun during the games thus reducing the cooling needs.

The cedar-clad skin is perforated to allow convective cooling of the interior. Air flows across the 6,000 stands of seats and through the top, being replaced by cool, fresh air from below. The roof collects rain water as well, which is stored for later use in the faculty.

The bike track is expected to be the fastest in the world, furthermore designed to evenly distribute noise from the cheering crowd to keep from distracting riders.

Anish Kapoor’s Recycled Steel ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower Provides Views of London’s Olympic Park

The crazy, twisting ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower in London is now complete and final preparations are underway for visitors before the start of the games this Friday. The spiraling red steel tower provides views of the Olympic Park, and it was designed by Anish Kapoor, engineered by Cecil Balmond, and sponsored by ArcelorMittal, a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and a global leading steel company. The tower, which is both a structure and a work of art, has been constructed out of 60% recycled steel and reaches a height of 114.5 meters.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit is an observation tower located in the heart of London’s Olympic Park and stands at almost 4,500 feet tall. The sculpture was designed by Anish Kapoor, and structural engineering was done by Cecil Balmond. Visitors to the tower will ascend via an elevator in the core to enjoy the observation deck at the top. The platform will afford panoramic views of up to 20 miles, encompassing the entire Olympic Park and London’s skyline beyond. After their visit is over, visitors will be encouraged to descend via the 455 steps that were designed to make the visitors feel as if they were orbiting around the structure. Or just get really dizzy.
ArcelorMittal, the sponsor of the tower and the Olympics, is a leading steel manufacturer and provided the material for the sculpture. Construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit took 18 months and required 560 meters of tubular red steel to form the lattice superstructure. Almost 60 percent of the 2,000 tonnes of steel used in the sculpture were drawn from recycled sources. Steel was chosen for its unique properties including strength, modular structure, advantages of weight and speed of construction and recyclability. The exterior of the structure is outfitted with 250 colored spotlights that can be controlled and programmed for special effects.

A Firsthand Look at the Magnolia 2300 Yurt – the First Energy Star Home in British Columbia

Rachel Ross: Meet our house, the Magnolia 2300. It’s a three bedroom, round, passive solar home located in the lush green forest of Nelson, B.C. Canada. Myself, my husband Lars, and our 15 year old daughter, Poppy, designed our house using Slow Home principles for building houses that are healthy, designed to exactly fit the inhabitants and are gentle on the environment. The design was ‘slow’ but the construction process was quick because we pre-fab built the wall panels off-site with the insulation, doors, windows and siding included. Prefab-ulous!

Some glowing benefits of prefab are a lower environmental impact on the site and less construction waste. It goes up fast, and a speed build to weather-tight means that no valuable building materials were adversely affected by rain and snow — which happens in many places, but especially in Canada through the winter. We started pouring the concrete for the ICF foundation in the fall of 2011 and we moved in 150 days later.

This is the first ENERGY STAR Qualified home in B.C., which means that it uses 30% less energy to function as an incredibly comfortable living space. In addition to a passive solar design — 10” thick walls and “tuned” windows — it’s wrapped in a 3” blanket of Roxul Rock Wool. It has a continuous air-sealed envelope that includes the insulated doors and Low E windows. The walls are an R34 and the ceiling is a whopping R66. The whole house has an EnerGuide rating of 84. This means that our family can head to bed on a winter’s evening with the household temperature at 20 degrees C (68 F) and when we rise in the morning the household temperature is 19 degrees C (66 F).

The house is also a round home, meaning that it literally “embraces” the human beings who reside within it. Lars has been building round homes since 2000 and this home is his culminating dream home. Every aspect is designed to perfectly match the needs of our family.

Why round? As Lars says, “Living in the round is a way of living more closely with nature. Everything around us is round- the moon, the earth, eggs in a nest, the trunks of trees. As a lifelong nature enthusiast, I want my home to connect me with nature, not separate me from nature.”

We recently spoke with a beekeeper who reported that her group was experimenting with round shaped bee hives (as compared to the conventional rectangular beehives), she said that the bees in the round hives were less aggressive, more healthy and produced more honey than the same variety of bees in rectangular hives. Just like the bees, we experience greater harmony, more creativity and more flow by living in our round home. And, we love the fact that the natural thermal dynamics of a round space contribute to the overall energy efficiency of the space.

Erlebnest is a Breezy Open-Air Treehouse Retreat in Germany.

Treehouses come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from a simple platform suspended in a tree to a home with full plumbing and electrical services. On the broad spectrum of treehouse design, the Erlebnest by German company Cambium GmBH falls somewhere in the middle. Spotted by our friends over at Treehugger, the minimalist structure consists of a large, round, open-air covered platform for dining and lounging and a smaller tube-shaped sleeping area that floats next to the main platform. Together, they combine to form one of the most inviting treehouse retreats we've seen.

Cambium is a company based in German’s Allgäu region that specializes in treehouse construction, suspended rope and bridge courses, and forest climbing equipment. The Erlebnest is made of a steel frame with strips of larch wood forming the structure, and it blends into its wooded surroundings. The lounge area is big enough for a party of four, and the “cocoon” sleeping area features a king-size bed. If the weather turns while you’re in there, a large rain flap can be pulled down to protect you from the elements.
Because it has no walls, the 9-square-meter Erlebnest platform affords spectacular views of the surrounding forest. The first Erlebnest has been installed in Bingen am Rhein, and Cambium plans to build six more of them next year in Lake Constance. And if you’d like to build one of these unique treehouses on your own property, the company also offers kits for sale and provides help setting them up.

CLOUD Treehouse in Japan is a Relaxing Space Perched High in the Treetops!

 Hidden amidst the branches of a lush tree in Kanagawa, Japan is CLOUD, a unique tree house structure by SABAOARCH. Designed to be a room that floats like a cloud, the rounded structure gives the client a serene moment of seclusion, high above the world. Accessible by a silver ladder, CLOUD has three adjoining “rooms” for relaxation among the tree tops.

 

Each of the oval “rooms” in the treehouse are connected, but designed for separate activities – one for standing, one for sitting down, and one for sleeping al fresco. Each area is intersected by a tree trunk from the Japanese oak host  that coils around the platform, or jut through the floor, harmonizing each room within the tree.
The rooms are outlined with steel guardrails to protect visitors from stumbling off. A curved white couch, platform bed, and leaning support furnish each of the rooms. The floors are also slatted so that they naturally drain rain and spilled liquids, as well as filter light to the base of the tree. When the wind shakes the tree, the structure slowly rocks with it.
The surrounding branches and leaves act as a natural sun filter, shading the interior for relaxation, filtering rain, as well as giving bursts of oxygen with natural ventilation. The CLOUD structure is an idyllic place of contemplation and serenity high up in the trees.

Via Arch Daily

Colombia’s Hotel Gaia has an 8-Story Vertical Garden with 25,000 Plants!

Paisajismo Urbano is literally turning Bogotá green with their amazing vertical ecosystems. One of the world’s most sophisticated team of vertical gardeners, the group behind Hotel Gaia’s eight-story living wall have spent 18 years learning how to bring the jungle into cities. And what a job they’ve done! This particular vertical ecosystem boasts more than 25,000 plants, of which 40 percent are indigenous to Colombia.

A total of 55 species were planted on the facade of B3′s Gaia hotel in Bogotá. A self-polinating hydroponic vertical ecosystem, this insect-repellent living wall requires very little maintenance and the payoff is huge. Not only does it completely transform the face of a glum building, but it also insulates it, reducing its electricity load, and scrubs the polluted air clean. If you like this, then you’ll love Spain’s largest indoor vertical garden as well. Holy caramba!

Escale Numérique is a Free, Green-Roofed WiFi Station in Paris

Mathieu Lehanneur recently unveiled a free WiFi station covered with a beautiful green roof in Paris! The designer worked in collaboration with outdoor advertiser JCDecaux to tap into an underground fiber optic network to create a haven of peace available to everyone. Escale Numérique (which translates to Digital Break) features concrete swivel seats with mini tables and plugs on their base and a large touch screen that provides updated information about services in the city for visitors or those without their devices. Totally free and available for anyone, Escale Numérique is a brilliant installation that offers up a free connection to the internet.

Mathieu Lehanneur and JCDecaux won the call for intelligent furniture projects by the Mairie de Paris Escale Numérique, to create a connected haven of peace available to everyone. The free WiFi station is on the Rond Point des Champs-Elysées and takes advantage of an underground fiber optic network which is now supplying the capital. Lehanneur likens the project to the “Wallace fountains, which since the end of the 19th century have offered Parisian the free drinking water which was circulating beneath their feet, Escale Numérique allows everyone to benefit, like a real public service, from a high-speed WiFi connection by raising it from beneath the ground.”
The digital service station features super durable swivel chairs made from concrete and mini tables connected to the seat are perfect for a laptop, smart phone, tablet or even just a book. Vertical logs, like tree trunks, are used to support the shade structure, which is topped off with a green roof. The living roof was designed to be attractive both from the ground as well as from a balcony above. Attached to the station is a large touch screen that provides information about the city, news and augmented reality for tourists and visitors who do not have a device with which to get online. Escale Numérique is certainly the prettiest WiFi stop we’ve seen and is at the intersection of great design and technology.

Lively Urban Cabin in Brazil Features Nest Beds and a Spherical Shelf Window

Fabio Galiezzo took a shabby shack in Brazil and transformed it into a colorful urban cabin decked out with nest beds and an awesome spherical shelf that frames views of the verdant surroundings. The original building was so dilapidated that Galeazzo propped it up with bamboo beams and columns and topped the whole place off with a series of green thermal tiles.

The Urban Cabin’s interior flooring is comprised of a combination of FSC-certified timber and brown granite. Since the structure sits amidst a shaded woody area, it was treated as a work of art – a la modernist painter Tarsila do Amaral. The bright colored stripes and irregular forms give the youthful home an attractive lift.
The spherical window doubles as an awesome bookshelf that draws a distinct connection between the interior and exterior, while the lovely hanging nest beds round off the project’s overall sensitivity to and celebration of nature. Outside, nautical, stretchy fabric is used to shelter the owner’s tiny vehicle and the outdoor barbecue is decked out in beautiful tiles. Although this might be a bit bright for some, we absolutely love this home.