Rooftop gardens are gaining in popularity in dense urban areas. Check out this cool video about urban rooftop farmers in New York City – the 40,000-square-foot rooftop garden in Queenseven has chickens and beehives (and is the largest rooftop farm in the world). Ben Flanner, one of the farmers profiled, said, “It started with the desire to farm, and also a reluctance to leave the city.”
Check out the full post on 30 Days at a Time
Posted in environmental, gardens, green building, livability, sustainability, urban
Tagged brooklyn grange, rooftop garden, urban farming
To many Americans, ecological nirvana is a bucolic existence surrounded by wilderness. But the Thoreauvian desire for more elbow room has led to sprawl, malls, and cougar attacks. The edge-city upshot is a national cadre of 3.5 million “extreme commuters,” who spend more than three hours a day in transit, many of them spewing carbon dioxide between exurb home and city office. Automobile exhaust in the US contributes roughly 1.9 billion tons a year to the global carbon cloud, more than the emissions of India, Japan, or Russia. Even worse are the 40 million lawn mowers used to tame the suburban backcountry: Each spews 11 cars’ worth of pollutants per hour.
The fact is, urban living is kinder to the planet, and Manhattan is perhaps the greenest place in the US. A Manhattanite’s carbon footprint is 30 percent smaller than the average American’s. The rate of car ownership is among the lowest in the country; 65 percent of the population walks, bikes, or rides mass transit to work. Large apartment buildings are the most efficient dwellings to heat and cool.
Posted in cities, environmental, green building, livability, pollution, urban living
From one of my favorite Austin blogs, the Republic of Austin, Rachel Naugle shares these 5 great, simple things you can easily do NOW to make your home feel more modern.
1. Paint your walls white–and let your accessories do the talking.
White walls help frame and spotlight your artwork, furniture and accessories. Add splashes of color using vibrant rugs, throw pillows, lamps or other accessories to really make a statement. This also helps you easily change the feel of the room with each new season or design trend by just trading out the accessories.
Photo by Doug Naugle
2. Glossy glass tiles EVERYWHERE!
On the Austin Modern Home Tour, kitchens and bathrooms gleamed with glossy glass tiles. Some were just clear glass, while others were subtly tinted. Still others were bright with blues and bold reds. Glass tile is also making appearances in unexpected places, like around fireplaces and trimming staircases.
3. Become a bookworm.
Obviously modern home owners are readers (or they want you to think they are) because every home on the tour used books in the decor. Stack your books in a single column,on low vintage bookcases, or on a coffee table–just about everywhere there’s a flat surface.
4. Get rid of your grass and put in rocks instead.
Let’s face it: You hate mowing the lawn–so why not create a modern entrance by replacing the traditional grass with rocks? To add a more dramatic effect, combine both light and dark rocks.
5. Salvage some old wood.
Sometimes modern homes can seem cold and stark, and this year designers are warming up interiors with salvaged wood. From floors to tables and bookcases, salvaged wood creates a sense of history in places that don’t have any.
Photo by Doug Naugle
If you have been to Europe, or even New York, you have experienced something of what sustainable urban living can be.
You may have stepped from your hotel to an open-air market, then walked to an outdoor concert, dropping your empty bottle into a recycling bin along the way. Maybe you enjoyed sitting under the shade of a tree, and perhaps you even got to talk to someone you encountered while walking around. You interacted with people because you were on foot, not isolated in your car, and you got fresh air, which is good for you.
Why can’t Houston be more like that?
Why not make a village in Houston out of recycled steel shipping containers? Why not build a whole community out of them?
The HIVE mission is to design and build an affordable, inhabitable work of art as a community. By recycling the humble and strong steel shipping container, nearly 500 of them, we propose to create a beautiful, sustainable, walkable, safe, and secure village for thriving cultural exchange and enterprise.
Inspired by artists, creative professionals and environmentalists, we will work in partnerships with individuals and organizations to experiment and discover the next generation of responsible building and living practices. We plan to offer an increasing variety of tenant uses, including office, studio, retail, restaurant, entertainment, and residential opportunities. There will be gardens and places to play and the chance to come together as a community.
Heidi Vaughan is executive director of HIVE, a non-profit group whose mission is to design and build an affordable, inhabitable work of art as a community. To read the entire story about Houston’s HIVE project, click here.
Texas A&M University is going to attempt building a mini-city with sustainable development, so that researchers can collect data on building materials, green energy uses and human comfort. Once finished, this project will be market-driven, complete with private residences and commercial shopping centers.
The entire project will be green,” said Kevin Rogers, the director of real estate for Realty Appreciation. “We will have solar and wind power on-site to generate as much electricity as possible.”
All the buildings will be LEED-certified. The main goal of the Urban Living Laboratory is to better understand the impact green building specifications have on energy usage, indoor air quality, resident health and comfort and productivity, and to use this knowledge to improve green buildings in the future.
This project will be built on land currently occupied by Texas AgriLife Research and Extension on Coit Road in Dallas, Texas. It is owned by the Texas A&M University System, and is the only AgriLife center with an “urban” mandate.
Posted in environmental, green building, LEED, livability, sustainability
Move Urban!
