This week Inhabitat has been reporting live from New York Design Week, where we've witnessed countless innovative green designs from around the world. To kick things off, we were pretty impressed with this desk lamp designed by Jake Dyson (son of the vacuum god) that extends the life of its LED bulbs by a whopping 37 years. Also in the category of "bright shiny things we love" is QisDesign's Aurelia lamp, which bears a striking resemblance to a glowing jellyfish. We were also dazzled by UM Project's collection of retro, robot-inspired lamps, Light & Contrast's cute LED flower lights, and we were absolutely floored by Alessandro Jordão's larger-than-life LEGO chair. Can't get enough of NY Design Week? Check out all of our favorite green designs from this year's shows.

Continuing with the topic of innovative green lighting technology, artist Ryosuke Fukusada has created the impossible: a glowing wooden light bulb. Confused? The light was created using a technique called Rokuro, and it consists of an LED light bulb wrapped with a very thin layer of wood. When the bulb is turned on, it illuminates the grain of the wood. As Fukusada's creation demonstrates, LED lighting technology has taken some incredible strides recently, and we took some time to round-up 24 of our all-time favorite green lamps that look great with LED bulbs.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: Jake Dyson's lamp, wooden light bulbs and weed-killing lasers

Inhabitat's Week in Green: Jake Dyson's lamp, wooden light bulbs and weed-killing lasers originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 May 2012 20:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Want a sneak peek into the future of design? This week Inhabitat hit NY Design Week to uncover the best and the brightest in green interior and furniture design. At ICFF we spotted an ethereal series of 3D printed Hyphae lamps and we were wowed by the iTree -- a massive iPod sound system made out of an entire tree trunk! We also saw LED technology take on surprising new forms - like Light and Contrast's tiny flower-shaped lamps and Peteris Zilbers' quirky mood broom lamp (yes, it's shaped like a broom). We'll continue with the New York Design Week coverage throughout next week, so come back to Inhabitat in the coming days for more fresh new design finds, and read on beyond the break for more in the here and now.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: NY Design Week, a hybrid Porsche and recycled sportswear

Inhabitat's Week in Green: NY Design Week, a hybrid Porsche and recycled sportswear originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 May 2012 20:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What seems more futuristic: flying cars or self-driving cars? They both sound a bit like science fiction, but they're both getting closer to becoming a reality. In the latest chapter of Google's efforts to develop a car that uses video cameras, radar sensors and lasers to navigate through traffic, the state of Nevada just granted Google the world's first license for a computer-controlled, driverless Toyota Prius. Meanwhile, this week we also checked in on the PAL-V (which stands for "Personal Air and Land Vehicle"), a two-seat hybrid car and gyroplane that runs on gas, biodiesel or bio-ethanol. In other transportation news, the Texas Central Railroad floated a plan to build a $10-billion bullet train that would run between Houston and Fort Worth, and Toyota officially unveiled its second-generation 2012 RAV4 EV, which features a Tesla powertrain.

We also saw green technology cropping up in unexpected places this week, like the $1-billion ghost town that will be built on virgin desert land in Lea County, New Mexico to test emerging green technologies. Construction on the ghost town is set to begin in late June. Milwaukee native Bryan Cera invented Glove One, a 3D-printed glove that doubles as a cell phone. And in Tokyo, participants heaved 100,000 LED lights into the Sumida River as part of the 2012 Tokyo Hotaru Festival. Although it certainly looked cool, that's a lot of LED bulbs to literally dump in the river, and it raises some questions about e-waste. GE found a more practical use for LEDs, unveiling a new LED light bulb to replace the 100-watt incandescent.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: self-driving cars, solar parasols and the ultimate DIY Iron Man suit

Inhabitat's Week in Green: self-driving cars, solar parasols and the ultimate DIY Iron Man suit originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 May 2012 21:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Man-made islands; indoor ski slopes; temporary ice hotels. We thought we had seen it all in Dubai, and then the Middle Eastern city went and outdid itself with the Water Discus Hotel, a hotel that will feature a series of sci-fi styled discs, one of which will be located 21 stories underwater. For those who prefer to stay above water, Antwerp will open one of the world's largest floating swimming pools this summer. Made from an old ferry boat, Badboot will be 120 meters long and it'll be part of a larger facility that can host as many as 600 people. And across the point in New York, the One World Trade Center skyscraper was just crowned the tallest building in NYC.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: the Water Discus Hotel, magnetic LED bulbs and pig poo electricity

Inhabitat's Week in Green: the Water Discus Hotel, magnetic LED bulbs and pig poo electricity originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 20:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Buon giorno! Milan Design Week 2012 is in the rear-view mirror now, but we're still sifting through the incredible furniture, lighting and technology that was showcased all throughout the city this year. Inhabitat sent a couple of correspondents to report on everything that was on display, and they didn't disappoint. We featured a nifty biophotovoltaic table that uses moss to generate electricity through photosynthesis. We also caught wind of a digital camera that IKEA unveiled in Milan that's made of cardboard. And given our love for terrariums, we were pretty excited to find this pendant lamp that doubles as a vegetable garden at this year's fair. But the star of the Milan show this year had to be British designer Tom Dixon, who rolled out countless innovative lamp designs, including the gorgeous Etch Light, which casts geometric shadows all over the room -- and he even invited visitors to design their own flat-pack lamps!

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: biophotovoltaic table, giant rubber ducky and cushions of shredded cash

Inhabitat's Week in Green: biophotovoltaic table, giant rubber ducky and cushions of shredded cash originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.