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Inhabitat's Week in Green: serpentine solar, sustainable studios and shape-shifting shade
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 we warmed up for cool days ahead by taking a look inside an incredible igloo made from 322 recycled refrigerators. We also showcased several feats of architecture that harness high-tech systems to achieve exceptional levels of efficiency - the ultra-modern world's most sustainable broadcasting studio, and Santiago Calatrava's shape-shifting pavilion for the Milwaukee Art Museum. We also saw transportation get a solar-powered supercharge as designer Mans Tham unveiled plans for a serpentine photovoltaic skin for the Santa Monica Freeway. If that seems a bit ostentatious for your taste, then check out this award-winning plan to create roads using sand and bacteria instead of oil. And speaking of eco infrastructure, this week we were thrilled to see the launch of the world's first wireless electric vehicle charger in the UK. We also showcased several new horizons for ultra-efficient lighting as we shared our top ten picks for stylish LED desk lamps, and took a look at a new interactive night light adorned with fun illuminated Glo balls. Finally, we were blown away by Levi's new WaterLess jeans, which can be produced using up to 96% less water than de rigueur dungarees.
Virtually waterless washing machine edges closer to production
You can find a washer just about anywhere that promises to consume less water than most of its rivals, but finding one that's "virtually waterless" is still a chore. Yeah, there was that one contraption from Singapore a few years back, but c'mon, it's no bona fide washing machine. Nevertheless, a University of Leeds spin-out company -- dubbed Xeros -- has already received £500,000 in order to commercialize a device that "uses less than 2% of the water and energy of a conventional washing machine." Instead, it relies on a plethora of plastic chips that are tumbled with the clothes to remove stains. We're not sure how comfortable we really are with the thought of that, but folks that have already warmed to the idea can look for these things to hit the UK market in 2009.[Via MetaEfficient]
