“This building puts 4,450 households on two acres and it is actually designed with energy conservation in mind. By going huge they are getting tremendous manufacturing efficiencies; by going vertical they get the kind of repetition that makes it affordable. By going half a mile high and 220 stories they are going to get noticed.”

That is Lloyd Alter describing the sustainable case for what will be the world’s tallest building. See more pictures and a video here: One Building, One City: World’s tallest prefab, Sky City, is breaking ground in June

© Thorncrown Chapel

“An odd set of corporate, municipal and grassroots bedfellows has coalesced in Northwest Arkansas around opposition to a proposed Southwestern Electric Power Co. power-line project that critics say could encroach on some of the most scenic places in the Ozarks. The proposed project would push through a 150-foot-wide cleared right-of-way studded with 150-foot-tall electrical transmission towers. One route for the project would bring the power lines within 1,000 feet of the iconic Thorncrown Chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs.”

via Arkansas’ Thorncrown Chapel under threat from energy company

tackett:

“As a medium for social change, posters record our struggles for peace, social justice, environmental defense, and liberation from oppression.”

via Art for Advocacy: 13 Posters for Sustainable Social Change

Solar-powered seed sowing machines spread flowers when air pollution rises: “The solar-powered machines would be filled with flower seeds and when on-board sensors detect high pollution levels, the machine would release small quantities of those seeds. As elevated pollution continues, the machine would keep releasing seeds. The effect would be that the more polluted an area becomes, the more flowers grow in the area around the device, which would signal the need for better quality in a beautiful and artistic way.”

Enter your DIY design in the Instructables Green Design Contest!

- This great contest was launched yesterday, in honor of Earth Day, and there are already 30 entries. Could your project be the winner?

Wind energy generator produces electricity from water droplets

Dirty house? Clean it up with this trash-powered robo

Solar cells made from trees are easily recyclable: The breakthrough comes from the team that last year developed the first all-plastic solar cell, except this time they’ve figured out how to use trees, or any other plant for that matter, in a cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) substrate in a solar cell. Using organic matter in the substrate means that at the end of the cell’s life, being dunked in warm water for a few minutes will cause it to dissolve, leaving all the other components to separate easily for recycling.

Loving these prints from © Koivo. See more prints of Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen and more cities here: Art prints illustrate Europe’s great cities

© Yojiro Oshima

Wood may not seem like the best material for a bicycle, but considering how energy-intensive it is to process metals, wooden bikes seem like a more reasonably earth-friendly alternative, and may even be a better ride. Though we’ve seen no shortage of stylish wooden bikes, this sculptural beauty by Yojiro Oshima, a design student at Tokyo’s Musashino Art University, is quite the head-turner.

via Sculptural Japanese wooden bike sports serious curves

Wow, it is incredible what you can do with a small space with the right design! Check out this Tiny NYC half-bedroom converted into elegant chamber (Video) 

Pop-up closet and shelves perfect for tiny spaces

(via Biggest Bucky Fuller Fly Eye Dome being restored and moved to France)