We’ve reported plenty on the efforts of designers, architects and builders developing houses all over the country that are more energy efficient, and in some cases sustainable. In The LEED House and in Will Green Turn Gold? we profiled the USGBC and the NAHB’s respective visions of a green built environment.
Now, even the new occupants [...]

After the Solar Decathlon competition house designed at Virginia Tech (see Hokie House) created a stir even before being assembled on the national mall later this month, news about another entrant is also leaking out.
Team California, a joint effort by Santa Clara University and California College of the Arts students is getting praise for their [...]

More and more architects are jumping on the boat (or in this case zeppelin) to build “green” vacation houses. We’ve seen more traditional architecture for retreat houses in Lost River Cabin, Taking Form In The Forest and Come Fly With Me, but now if you’ve ever fantasized about spending your vacation in a modern “green” [...]

Recently, Van der Architects near Tokyo Japan needed to find recycled wood to redesign their own firm’s offices. When one designer found a 40-year old house in her neighborhood that was to be demolished, she persuaded the contractor to save the wood rather than smashing it into pieces.
And just what did it take to persuade [...]

Earlier this year in Young Architects Unite we cited various ways in which modern houses are being redefined by young architects, including those yet to graduate from their respective schools.
The Solar Decathlon on the national mall is the highlight event for college students showing off the latest environmentally efficient housing methods and materials, and the [...]

You might say about the Sage Residence that “when it rains, it pours.” This isn’t only because the house is located in Oregon’s rain-belt, but more so because of the near total immersion in green building by Arbor South Architecture, the house designer and builder.
Built as “a super efficient demonstration house,” the Sage Residence is [...]

Hoping to be an idea readily accepted by consumers in its own way similar to “clean coal” technology, a new formula for concrete that reduces carbon emissions has been created by a UK company.
Novacem, with financial backing by significant groups says concrete doesn’t have to be a carbon creating hazard, but in fact can be [...]

Nature is full of creatures who can camouflage themselves so effectively that they are completely invisible to the human eye.
Likewise, Johnsen Schmaling Architects have designed Camouflage House in Green Lake, Wisonsin to mimic its surroundings. In the heavily wooded location the house almost disappears from a distance.

Site specific architecture shouldn’t be so rare. Building a house that fits the environment where it’s being built seems pretty commonsensical. If you don’t have to cut down the trees, why would you?
The Maurer Residence by Allen+Maurer Architects is our latest example of using “green building” techniques. Allen+Maurer refer to this though as “form-follows-physics.”

Modern House Mag has featured a number of modern house designs where the goal of the architect has been to blur the line between man-made space and environment. This is usually done by opening the interior living space to the outdoors.
Now, Japanese architects Suppose Design Office has done the opposite. Their “house in Nagoya” literally [...]

Brad Pitt and his Make It Right foundation in New Orleans are trying to build new affordable houses that will also be safer for residents when the next big hurricane comes their way.
To help out, architects William McDonough & Partners have unveiled Flow House, developed after input from families in the lower ninth ward.

Boston’s Big Dig project became famous for all the wrong reasons – delays, fraud, fired personnel, and massive over budget spending.
On the flip side, the award-winning architectural firm SsD made good out of bad when they created the Big Dig House which reused over 600,000 lbs of salvaged material from the old I-93 highway.

Bercy Chen Studio architects have completed their own take on recycling an existing house to make it more functional and true to its particular site location (Texas hill country).
As GLiving tells us, “the project began as a modest remodel, but turned into a full master-planning for the site… as well as re-organization of the garden.

Over the years various forms of the garden greenhouse have been applied to actual house designs for people-living instead of plants.
Most recently architect Carl Verdickt has used the gardening solar “hot box” as inspiration for his minimalist open floor-plan that gives off a modern lodge-type effect.

There’s still debate within the architecture community about the necessity of building a near 4000 square-foot house, and if by definition such a structure can really be “green.”
But in this case they’ll have to take it up with the USGBC who has awarded the 3800 square-foot Kaplin Thompson house in Arlington, Virginia, with a [...]

Although not strictly a house, we couldn’t resist this “green” building by the German group Kadawittfeldarchitktur.
Technically the building was designed to house a kindergarden on the main floor with access to the surrounding play areas. Just as fun is the green ornamentation made from powder-coated aluminum that has been attached to mimic blades of grass.

In MiLoft Apartments we noted the revolutionary design of the architectural firm RMJM that uses body heat as a form of utility.
The Zuidkas, commissioned by the Government Buildings Agency in the Netherlands is another major step in the direction of self-sustaining design.

Dockside Green in Victoria, BC is slated to become the world’s first Platinum LEED-certified community. Inhabitat reports “the community is going to treat 100% of its waste water on site and use 45%-55% less energy than Canadian Model National Energy Code.”
Even more impressive, Dockside Green will attempt to be the first carbon neutral development.

Michelle Kaufmann, one of the first architects working in the green prefab field to attract large amounts of media attention is now turning her efforts to promote green building to children.
An exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry is displaying her mkSolaire design reproduced in perfect detail using – Legos.

In Amsterdam Brick we cited a house using the famous Amsterdam School of Style brick detailing techniques.
Now Fast Company gives us a story about a team of students in Indonesia who invented EcoFaeBrick to win a $25,000 prize from University of California Berkeley’s Global Social Venture Competition.

Take note cultural-creatives in California, a Florida real estate developer, Kitson & Partners is proclaiming to build the first solar powered city. The 17,000 acre city near Fort Myers will also get the world’s largest photovoltaic power plant.

The next 10 years of green building is the subject of a new post in Natural Home Magazine. The article marks Natural Home’s 10th anniversary.

The Green Building Initiative (GBI), the administrator of the Green Globes building assessment tool, has signed a pact with the American Institute of Architects that would increase coordination between the organizations.
The nonbinding agreement calls for AIA to offer more education to its members on Green Globes, and for both groups to promote research, education and [...]

New York, NY –Lower energy costs, healthier living and improved indoor and outdoor environments are increasingly demanded by and available to home buyers at all income levels, according to preliminary findings from a survey released by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and McGraw-Hill Construction.
Families and individual homeowners with the lowest incomes are overwhelmingly [...]

As most real estate or energy experts would agree, green is no longer a trend among “tree huggers.” Not just about saving the Earth, it’s also about saving energy and money.
After paying $4 per gallon of gasoline over the summer and then going weeks without electricity after Hurricane Ike, many Houstonians are realizing the value [...]