Office building Baumschlager-Eberle: a building without heating

Source: Detail; photo: Jakob Schoof

The architects from Baumschlager-Eberle have built a very special office building in Lustenau, Austria, partly for their own office, partly to be rented.
Although it was not their intention to build a building according to passive standard, it has become a real passive building, since the building has no heating system (and no mechanical ventilation).
More details can be found in Detail and at their website.

Gent in transitie?!

De stad Gent is o.a. via het Gents Klimaatverbond al een tijdje bezig om via transitie-initiatieven te komen tot een meer duurzame stedelijke omgeving. 'Gent in transitie?!' heeft deze initiatieven in kaart gebracht en heeft ze raadpleegbaar gemaakt volgens verschillende criteria (systeem, niveau, initiatiefnemer, periode, ligging en fase). Het gaat momenteel al om een 70-tal projecten. Gent in transitie?! maakt deel uit van het onderzoek van het Vlaams Steunpunt Transities voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling (TRADO).

Living Building Challenge: green building certificate

Living Building Challenge is another green building certification programme, but it aims at going much further than BREEAM or LEED. It considers 8 performance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity, beauty and process. It has been launched in 2006 and is supported by the Living Building Institute since 2009.
A document with the Living Building Challenge Standard, extended descriptions of case studies and further information can be found on their website.

Design for empathy

A different way of looking at sustainable design:
A very inspiring toolkit, developed by Artefact, to help you to design for empathy. It might be helpful in the search for ways to integrate sustainability in your design, especially social aspects of sustainability.

Smart cities inspiration blog

Thuis in de stad (= Home in the city): an interesting and inspirational blog with very distinctive items on urban sustainability (urban farming, sustainable mobility, childfriendly cities and so much more).
Both in Dutch and English 

Green design by Pia Wustenberg



Credits: Pia Wustenberg


Pia Wustenberg is a German designer who lives in England. On her website you find some very nice and poetic examples of design products that make use of sustainable materials that are commonly available around us like moss and paper. Take a look at her Garden Rug and her lamps and tables made of processed paper. Don't forget to watch the video on how the processed paper is made! The result is wonderful!

Sustainable business for tomorrow's child

A very inspiring TED talk by Ray Anderson, CEO of an American carpet company who since 1995 started to climb Mount Sustainability of which he wants to reach the summit in 2020. Besides, by climbing this mountain he found out that this way he not only reduces the environmental impact of his product drastically, but it turns out to be even a better business model.
At the end of his talk, he brings a beautiful poem, written by Glenn Thomas, one of his employees. Here it is.

Tomorrow's Child

Without a name, an unseen face,
and knowing not your time and place.
Tomorrow's Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last Tuesday morn.
A wise friend introduced us two.
And through his sobering point of view
I saw a day that you would see,
a day for you, but not for me.
Knowing you has changed my thinking.
For I never had an inkling
that perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow threaten you.
Tomorrow's Child, my daughter, son,
I'm afraid I've just begun
to think of you and your good,
though always having known I should.
Begin, I will.
The way the cost of what I squander,
what is lost if ever I forget that you
will someday come and live here too.

Shelter with green roof

Source: ecodemica

In a provincial parc domain near Leuven, Belgium you can find this nice example of a shelter with a green roof. It has been designed by Brick, an architect office from Antwerp specialised in ecological design.

Let's speak sustainable construction

Source: EESC

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), together with the Architects Council of Europe and the European Concrete Platform have developed the Sustainable Construction Glossary. It is a multilingual glossary, a dictionary-type publication in English-French-Spanish-German with common language terminology for sustainable construction.

R2B2: kitchen appliances that do not need electricity

Christoph Thetard is a German designer who designed the R2B2. It is a set of 3 kitchen appliances which are powered by muscular strength.
On his website you also find the design of heatable outside furniture that does not produces CO2.

If you are interested in or want to contribute into making environmentally friendly household devices, take a look at http://www.areyouwheel.com/

Interview with architect Steven Holl

Inhabitat interviewed architect Steven Holl on the importance of sustainability in his architectural design.

Interview with architect and C2C author William McDonough

Inhabitat did an interview with the green architect and founder and co-author of Cradle to cradle William McDonough on his approach to sustainable design.

Sustainable aquaculture in Spain

A very inspiring example of sustainable fish production in Spain by biologist Miguel Medialdea told by a American cook: Dan Barber in the TED talk how I fell in love with a fish. Start at 05.00

A portable multi-purpose dwelling

The Yeta Log cabin designed by Lab Zero is a portable multi-purpose dwelling that can be set in any location where a shelter is needed.

The Designer's Atlas for Sustainability

The Designer's Atlas for Sustainability: a book by Ann Thorpe for designers on sustainable design: both background information and information on how to teach sustainable design.
In addition, an online discussion group SUSDESIGNTEACH has been started on how to teach sustainable design. Subscription is needed.

The Designer Accord

The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators and bussiness leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact.

Sustainability in Higher Education

AASHE, Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, is an association of colleges and universities that are working together for a sustainable future.
A publication of Campus Green Builder is 'Advancing education for Sustainability: Teaching the concepts of Sustainable building to all students'

Design for Sustainability Guide

EDF, the Australian EcoDesign Foundation made a Design for Sustainability Guide: a 10 steps introduction guide to sustainable design for all design disciplines, but mostly product design

D4S Design for sustainability

D4S is a joint publication of the UNEP and Delft University of Technology with a practical approach for sustainable design. Mainly focused on product innovation and on developing countries

How complexity leads to simplicity

How to deal with the fact that everything is connected to everything?
Eric Berlow: How complexity leads to simplicity Video on TED.com
Eric Berlow presents an interesting approach in this TED talk, but in 3 minutes he can only give a start to his concept. Might be applicable to sustainability problems.


More in depth information can be found on Eric Berlow's website. By the way a visually nice website.