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6 self-contained skyscraper super cities
By Cat DiStasioToday's architects are imagining the cities of the future as building styles fall in and out of fashion and construction materials evolve. As urban centers get more crowded and polluted, a number of forward-thinking designers are responding with concepts for self-contained super cities that reach up instead of out -- sometimes up to 2.5 miles high. The resulting designs incorporate renewable energy, indoor farms and living space for thousands of people, with the idea that self-sustaining and self-contained communities can exist outside the constraints of climate change without contributing to it further.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: slim skyscrapers, electric vehicles and the machine that lays brick roads
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. It's been a monumental week for green transportation as team Inhabitat hit the Los Angeles Auto Show to scope out the hottest up-and-coming eco vehicles - including the winner of the 2011 Green Car of the Year award, the Chevy Volt! We were also blown away the UK's first all-electric supercar while Honda announced plans to produce an all-electric version of its city-friendly Fit. Of course, clean green vehicles require a steady source of renewable fuel - which is where we were excited to see Washington DC install its first public EV charger while London announced plans to install 1,300 charging stations and Singapore fired up the world's largest biodiesel plant. This week we also looked at several amazing upgrades to our built environment, starting with the Tiger-Stone - an automatic brick laying machine that rolls out roads like carpet. Meanwhile researchers revealed a new way to repair our crumbling concrete infrastructure using genetically modified bacteria, and Taiwan unveiled plans for several futuristic skyscrapers that are wrapped in greenery and powered by the sun. Finally, this week we also brought you coverage of the latest and greatest green building technologies from one of the year's biggest green design shows - Greenbuild 2010. Speaking of high-tech green design, check out this handy solar charger shaped like a beetle and don't miss out on a chance to win a brand new Windows Phone 7!
Inhabitat's Week in Green: reach for the stars, safer kids and sexier cars
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. This week Inhabitat saw several incredible feats of green architecture reach for the stars as Richard Branson unveiled the world's first commercial spaceport and a lunar solar power tower won the Moon Capital International Design Challenge. We were also impressed by Snøhetta's design for a massive möbius strip-shaped particle accelerator and we caught the groundbreaking of what will be one of the world's most efficient solar skyscrapers in Korea. Ultra-efficient autos blazed a trail this week as an electric audi shattered a world EV distance record by traveling 372 miles on a single charge. We also caught a glimpse of the future of green transportation as major auto manufacturers unveiled a set of incredible eco concept cars, and we caught wind of a plan to bring these insane traffic-straddling buses to the United States. In other news, we learned that iPhones and other communication devices may have potentially deadly side effects for kids, and we showcased several innovative designs for safer cycling - an inflatable airbag collar that automatically pops up to prevent injuries and a crash helmet that makes a stink when it cracks. Finally, to celebrate Halloween we rounded up a ghastly array of ghoulish green designs - from a skeletal x-ray lamp to a skin-crawling camera made from a human skull to a company that will press your mortal remains into a vinyl record. Happy Halloween!
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Honeycomb skyscrapers, solar funnels, and the Karma PHEV supercar
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. High tech architecture took the spotlight this week as Aedas unveiled a set of photovoltaic crystalline honeycomb skyscrapers for Abu Dhabi and San Francisco unfurled plans for a sail-shaped solar stadium for the America's Cup yacht race. We also took an exclusive look inside a high-tech solar home that actually produces more energy than it consumes, and spotted a new technology that can transform any home's electrical wiring into an information-transmitting antenna. We also showcased some of the world's most efficient vehicles as the winners of the $10 million Automotive X-Prize were announced, and we were excited to hear that the first factory-built Fisker Karma supercar will be rolling up to the Paris Auto Show next month. Finally, we peek inside Jay Leno's envy-inducing green garage in this week's episode of Green Overdrive. In other news, MIT made waves on the renewable energy front as they revealed a new "solar funnel" technology that could increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells 100 times. We also took a first look at Eddy GT's new streamlined city-friendly wind turbine, and we saw Tesla batteries jump-start residential solar systems by storing excess energy.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: high speed rail, augmented reality, and body broadband
The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat, recapping the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us. It was a monumental week for efficient transportation as China unveiled plans to connect its high speed rail network all the way to Europe. We were also excited to see Solar Roadways unveil the first prototype of an energy-generating road that stands to transform our freeways into power conduits. Meanwhile, one 74 year old man is going solo and blazing his own trail across the states aboard a solar powered stroller. Inhabitat also showcased several amazing feats of architecture this week. One of the world's first skyscrapers with built-in wind turbines is rising above London, while designer Enrico Dini has created a gigantic 3D printer that is able to create entire buildings out of stone. Finally, we explored all sorts of ways that people are getting wired - literally. Students at the University of Washington are working on a set of solar-powered augmented reality contact lenses that may just bring terminator vision to the masses, while Spanish scientists are working on nanochips that can be that can be implanted into human body cells to detect diseases earlier. And in case you haven't heard, "me-fi" is the new WiFi as researches have discovered a way to transmit 10mbps broadband data through a human arm.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: skyscrapers, combustible ice, and coffee-powered cars
The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat, recapping the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us. This week Inhabitat took a peek into the future of our built environment by showcasing the most incredible designs from the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. From water purifying buildings to cities stacked on stilts and self-sufficient underwater skyscrapers, there's no shortage of futuristic thinking on tap. Alternative energy was also a hot topic this week as China launched plans to tap "combustible ice" as an energy source and researchers at MIT discovered a new way to produce electricity by sending thermopower waves through carbon nanotubes. We also saw several exciting advances in efficient transportation as South Korea rolled out an EV that is recharged by electrified roads and researchers at UT Dallas revealed a heat-scavenging tailpipe that may one day help power cars. And if you think your Prius gets good mileage, get a load of this super-efficient gas engine that gets 98 MPG. Finally, if you rely on that morning cup of coffee to get your engine running, you won't want to miss this coffee-powered car that gets 56 espressos per mile
Korean robots to build high-rises by 2010
Dude, Korea knows we've been sending humans to do a robot's job for far too long already, and in a few short years the dangerous world of high rise construction could be left to the true masters of the craft. By 2010, the Korean Construction and Transportation Ministry hopes to have an almost completely automated construction process in place for high-rise projects that could cut labor costs by up to a third, project timelines by 15 percent, and reduce the number of construction-related injuries on these typically dangerous projects. Of course, an inevitable robotic Jurgis Rudkus will be blowing the whistle on robotic working conditions shortly thereafter. Still, civilization stands to benefit greatly from the accelerated completion of super-sized skyscrapers -- at least until the builders turn on us and convert us into human fuel cells.
