Inhabitat's Week in Green: 'stealth wear', coiled cable sculptures and a 'pop-up' hotel
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and whether you geek out on the game or just check it out for the commercials, it's difficult to avoid. More than one-third of Americans will tune in to the game tonight, and surprising new research finds that despite running the TV, household energy use actually drops by as much as 7.7 percent during the Super Bowl for a variety of reasons. One good way to keep your carbon footprint low, and your body healthy, on game day is to abstain from meat -- and we've got you covered with our top six vegan and vegetarian snack alternatives to bring to a Super Bowl party. After the game, the San Francisco 49ers will look forward to the 2014 season, when they'll debut their new stadium in Santa Clara. The stadium will feature three solar arrays and a green roof, and it will be the NFL's first LEED-certified stadium.
In other green design news this week, Foster + Partners partnered with the European Space Agency to announce an out-of-this-world plan to create 3D-printed structures on the moon. Here on Earth, cargotecture continues to catch on around the globe. In Israel, Yoav Messer Architects unveiled plans for a colorful 525-foot-long bridge made from recycled shipping containers. And we caught up with Belgium's Sleeping Around Hotel, a "pop-up" hotel made from six shipping containers that is constantly on the move. In China, MINIWIZ Sustainable Energy Development recently announced plans to build the iGreen aviation museum, which will be located in an enormous sphere made from recycled CDs and DVDs.
In green automotive news this week, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan announced that they'll team up to produce a mass-market fuel cell vehicle by 2017. Meanwhile Dutch car manufacturer TNO unveiled the world's first exterior automobile airbag, which is intended to protect pedestrians and cyclists. In the world of green tech, Indian researchers figured out a way to make durable, low-cost bricks from recycled paper mill waste. In Beijing, smog levels are so off the charts they prompted Chinese billionaire Chen Guangbiao to launch a line of canned air. In wearable technology news, Harvard scientists created a fiber that, inspired by the bastard hogberry plant, can change color when stretched. And as a commentary on the amount of surveillance in society today, New York-based artist Adam Harvey produced a line of "stealth wear" that uses "highly metallized" fibers to keep you hidden from thermal scanners and even tracking devices. Paranoid much?
Artists and designers around the world are figuring out ways to use yesterday's technology as a medium for their art. Digital wristwatches, for example, are quickly going the way of the telegram, because many people simply check the time on their phones. In a new installation that's a commentary on the rapid obsolescence of digital technology, artist Heidi Voet wove more than 4,000 watches into a time-telling carpet that chimes in synchronicity. For his latest installation, artist Chris Shen transformed 625 disused remote controls into a giant glowing TV, creating recognizable images from the tiny infrared lights. Bulgarian artist Pavel Sinev creates sculptures from carefully coiled electrical cables that are tied together with zip ties. And Michael Johansson unveiled a new series of Tetris-like installations made by meticulously assembling found objects into geometric shapes.
