These are the words that resounded throughout my stay at Omega, in Rhinebeck, New York: “A building with a soul”. On Friday, October 12, 2010, I was honoured to be present at the awards ceremony where Omega became the first organization in the world to receive both LEED© Platinum and [...]

The field of green architecture is concerned with the design and construction of buildings that make the most sustainable and efficient use of resources throughout the entire life cycle of the building.  Green buildings are designed to have the least amount of impact on the natural environment and human health. [...]

In a welcome change of news from the last, oh, 20 years, it turns out that American homes are actually shrinking in size, according to recent reports. No doubt this is almost entirely due to the recession and the implosion of the American real estate market, which sucked so much [...]

There have been tons of projects recently, highlighting all the different ways we can build something that’s completely sustainable, or at least part of the way there. But usually these are private projects, designed by a developer in order to sell houses, or funded by a European country or another. [...]

The issue of sustainability is becoming increasingly important as consumer awareness of the environment grows. Increasingly, consumers are demanding products that are produced in a sustainable fashion. They want products that minimize damage to the environment, support biodiversity, and have as low a carbon footprint as possible. This extends to [...]

Issues with finding housing in urban spaces has become an increasing challenge. Finding sustainable living solutions in urban areas can be next to impossible. With the mission of solving the housing problem around the world Gaby Strehler, the creator and inventor of Nano House, has set about creating a sustainable [...]

In some corners of popular culture, the word arcology is practically synonymous with “hive”, and is typically portrayed as a teeming city-building, stuffed to the gills with people in a situation just short of an apocalypse. However, the word arcology is a neologism of architecture and ecology. The idea advocates [...]

Along the shores of Langford Lake, in the hills of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, sits a small, but growing, housing development. Unlike most housing developments you see these days, these houses are not looming McMansions, but instead are small, not much bigger than cottages. Welcome to condo-sized homes, and [...]

For anyone with access to Google Earth, take a look at a typical city core, with its mountains of skyscrapers. Notice the predominant colors. It’s a sea of grey, with the occasional splash of green from a tree or small park on the street. The roofs are grey, empty, and [...]

Red tape is strangling a scheme designed to encourage millions of families to generate their own green electricity with home mounted solar panels, wind turbines and heat pumps, according to the United Kingdom’s largest manufacture of central heating equipment. Households in Britain can potentially collect a fixed fee up to [...]