Fantastic And Visionary Designs Of Green Living (PHOTOS)

Web Urbanist has compiled a list of fantastic and visionary designs for "green" living. Check out a sampling below. (Many more designs and images here.)

This sweeping sustainable set of structures is another example of integrating an engaging and unique appearance with essential environmental strategies. The curved surfaces are not only visually appealing but they also serve functions - taking advantage of winds and solar orientations to protect inhabitants but also to harness the energy of these elements.

The beauty of these elegantly folded bamboo structures is far more than skin deep. Individual modules are configurable to accommodate different conditions and create a variety of spaces all without compromising their structural stability. Also, the structures are remarkably straightforward to transport in flat form and assemble on site and are simple to recycle as-needed because they are built out of easily grown organic material. With all of these sustainable and practical benefits one has to wonder if there aren't even more uses for origamic structures than just as emergency shelters.

Why buy or build a house when you could simply grow your own? That is precisely the concept behind the Fab Tree Hab - architecture that grows over time. Heavy trees are slowly woven together as they develop to form the essential structure while lighter materials like vines are used to create more detailed connections and canopies. The result? A mixture of predictable and unpredictable, organic and constructed and certainly the end product is bound to be slightly different with each iteration.

Comments

[bogtrotter]

Utterly ridiculous. Do we really think we can have our cake and eat it too? Population all over the world is not only expanding, but becoming more industrial and consumer oriented, using resources at an ever accelerating rate. Do we really think unlimited growth in a finite world can be maintained by adding a little bit of glass, a few solar panels, and changing a few light bulbs? Such architectural ideas are birthed in cities where people live surrounded almost entirely by a reality manufactured from inside the physical and mental spaces they have created, where they desperately seek technological solutions to problems caused by that very technology. Perhaps it would be best if you got yourselves out of those dank dungeons and into the sun awhile.

[carlgt1]

wow, finally Roger Dean album covers come to life! :-)

[Paladin2]

Not a dig, but an honest question. Fast growing bamboo (I'm assuming a spelling error)? Dude, it ALL grows fast, so how fast are you talking? You want fast, come clean up my yard, the low end has all different kinds of bamboo (it's a fantastic building material), and there's lot's of other types and they all sometimes grow feet in a day. Like kelp, only a little drier. Sounds like you enjoy making what sounds like a good effort. Could you talk to Al Gore and get him to clean up his act tho? I can smell him from here, and here is Costa Rica. Since you are probably a victim of a United States education, you can find it with google earth. I already supplied the spelling. Just kidding of course, it's the only thing that keeps me from cursing some times and Adriana doesn't like that.

[Grutch]

We should test these designs on public housing. I wonder where the taggers will spray their graffiti.

[singermuse]

I can imagine a world NOW where if we (that is ALL of us, common folks, government, rich folks, all together) were to put solar panels on all the buildings in our urban areas, all the offices, the parking structures, the apartment complexes, then the suburban bungalows, we'd have a staggering surplus of electric energy that would very quickly more than pay for it's creation/i­nstallatio­n/utilizat­ion. Why don't we do this? Because people are still far to greedy, and it will cost us our future.

[lolcopter]

It is not economical feasible given the current technology and you can't heat your home or drive to work with a solar panel.

[KillTheMessenger]

Why not? Solar heating has been around for decades. You can go to your local installation businesses and ask them to design a system for you that will significantly lower your gas, oil or electricity consumption. It might not completely eliminate it, but it's not an either-or problem to begin with.

Transportation can be easily electrified and in many places has been. Streetcars, fast rail systems, trolley buses all run on electricity and many cities in the world would be virtually blocked by car traffic if not for these systems. The US is an exception in the world, not the norm, in its virtually complete lack of public transportation in many areas.

Even more importantly, freight can be moved on electrified rails with enormous efficiency gains. And since trucks consume about one third of the transportation fuels in this country, the potential for savings would be enormous.

As for electric cars, yes, that will take a couple of more years, but there will be no lack of commercial plug-in hybrids ten years from now.

[googlymoogly]

You must work for OPEC.......

[rjmiller]

I'll keep my Dymaxion House, thanks.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

This type of mega-architecture has fascinated me since I saw a copy of 'City in the Image of Man' by Paolo Soleri . For more incredible structures, the reader might want to visit http://www.arcosanti.org/

[blastit]

I can't believe some of the comments have so many of you forgotten what it is to dream, if you don't use your imagination you loose it I think these pictures are wonderful and could very well be practical I love the one with the house built out of vines and trees awesome idea

[KillTheMessenger]

If I want to dream, I read good fiction, which is fun, but I always know that it isn't real. But if I want to talk about solving our world's problems I use mathematics, sound engineering principles and science. And in this case its all about triple glazed windows and R-values. It's not poetic but effective.

[neilsmeltzer]

That is so cool, I'm trying to do a project in Idaho, using hot springs for heat. A geothermal project. It is an old resort, that I want to reopen and add a fish farm and more. If I can only find some assistance. It would be a perfect place for people to build these type of structures. What a customer draw! Add wind and solar that's in the plans.. Heck if I can get this property, I'll have 19 acres and we can build,just need a little help. It's 19 acres with 5 geothermal wells, temps. range from 120 to 172 degrees, Free Heat!!! and has some structures. Know of anybody that can help? Google neil smeltzer and see the full idea.niner­69@cableon­e.net

[KillTheMessenger]

If "all you need" is money, go to the banks... they are swimming in it, after the bailout.

;-)

[EndangeredJackalope]

I've pushed this a few times on here, but google "earthships." They're totally self-sustained buildings that harvest their own water, energy & food - so they can be built in extreme rural places w/o infrastructure.

They build resorts too, nose around their website.

[IslandPress]

These are amazing ideas for green structures. There are so many ways we can even start the greening process in structures and buildings now. Last week was the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, and that showed us that sustainable living is becoming more and more popular and needed, which 26,000 people and more than 800 companies attending. To read more about it, check out http://blog.islandpress.org/253/253.

[KillTheMessenger]

Amusing? Yes they are. But I wouldn't advise you to ever enter an "island" city shaped like the one in the picture. The center of mass is clearly above the water line, which means this thing will turn into a "Posaidon Adventure" at the slightest breeze.

One would think that whoever drew that had a lesson on center of gravity and stability of floating bodies in high school... but they were probably not listening but "doodling" some SciFi fantasies.

:-)

[msblkwidow]

When I was a child, I watched "Flash Gordon" in amazement. Could not imagine living like the "Jetsons". But, I can't imagine how the computer "Internet" works. Someone had the imagination. ust look at all the inventions that have come into existence. My Grandmother could not understand how the "Microwave" worked either.

So, let's not mock future ideas. The idea has to come first. If Ben Franklin could see us now. If the Wright Brothers could just see us now. If Alexander Graham Bell could just see us now. I'm sure people mocked them; but, I'm glad they didn't give up on their ideas.

[KillTheMessenger]

"But, I can't imagine how the computer "Internet" works."

Why imagine if you can take a network class and LEARN how it works? Packet switched protocols are not that hard to understand (just look at all the IT people that roam the planet).

Same with the microwave oven. Same with everything else. Don't leave it to "imagination". LEARN the hard facts and make informed decisions. And then you will look at these images and laugh, because you will see that while they are pretty, they provide no answers.

[ImagesAndAdjectives]

Have you read the book Ecocities by Richard Register? He's an architect and urban planner. I think he's got some great ideas, and they're a combination of imagination and engineering. I think you'd like the book.

[Gooberweevil]

there are a lot of pessimistic views on here. think about what we've accomplished in our short time on this planet. the problem being that we did not account for the impact our creations would have on the world. now that we know, the only thing holding us back is the consumer... or us. if there is true demand for greener products then companies will gladly make it.

[KillTheMessenger]

"think about what we've accomplished in our short time on this planet."

So true. We have managed to destroy most ecosystems in Europe and North America, large parts of Asia and South America, decimate all large mammals and have driven millions of species to extinction. Over the course of the last century we have damaged the planet's atmosphere in multiple ways, altered most of its water resources and have possibly irreversibly altered the climate.

We are are really cool! Do you want more of the same? I think we can deliver.

[Gooberweevil]

did you even read my full comment?

[KillTheMessenger]

The sad truth is that the answer to sustainability is simply density. The more people share the same space, the more efficiently they can use energy, water, transportation and land.

These images are pretty but they are pure imagination and not solutions to the problem of housing and supplying 11 billion people without destroying the planet.

[EndangeredJackalope]

Aside from the obvious land allotment numbers, you may be right. Young educated people in Beijing are electing to just not have kids - plenty of uneducated peasants fill the gap though. Numbers wise, its ideal.. what kind of population you get, well..

[KillTheMessenger]

Oh, boy, some people still seem to think that a peasant's kids are less intelligent than a professor's.

Let me direct you to China's social policy of judging people by their education and not by their parents. It worked for them for thousands of years and it is working for them so well now that these peasant kids will beat the crap out of yours if you don't get your act together and get them the same quality education that the Chinese are spreading all over their country.

Just a fair warning. You are betting your kids future on a series of misconceptions.

[militantlibrarian]

Unfortunately, 11 billion people multiply constantly. Access to family planning must be the foundation for all plans to "save" the planet.

[KillTheMessenger]

"Unfortunately, 11 billion people multiply constantly."

No, they don't. Please inform yourself.

[EAM]

A wise man once observed, "Sustainability is not a high-tech but a low-tech exercise."

[Progress08]

Solar Panels
Wind Turbines
Geo-thermic house heating
Electric Cars
Biodegradable Plastics
Biodiesel

We've got the tech now. I know futuristic flights of fantasy are nice to indulge yourself with, but lets take what we have now and know will work and begin a massive public works project to get off of oil now. Just think if we could apply our collective effort and public will to making biodiesel fuel more acceptable to cold weather we could get all of our Semi's and our Train Engines off of crude oil completely... That's 1/4 of all the oil we import.