The DIY Channel’s new show, “This New House” premieres tonight, July 29th, at 8PM/7C.  If the trailer for the series is any indication, it should be chock full of innovative, high tech products, many of them geared towards energy savings and other aspects of green living.

One of the projects highlighted in the first three episodes is the Cleantech Teaching Center, a state of the art showcase home located in Beverly, MA.  This house features an entirely LED lighting system, rainwater recovery system, geothermal energy, and solar photovoltaic panels.  Sustainable materials were used throughout the interior, including Trend USA’s lovely Trend Q recycled glass tile.  Cleantech Homes, LLC has applied for LEED PLatinum status for the home.

Here is a synopsis of the first episode of the show, titled “Folding Houses” -

This episode is set at the Cleantech House in Beverly, Mass., a showcase of the latest in energy-saving design. Host Kevin O’Connor visits Blu-Homes, a Waltham, Mass., company that’s trying to deliver on the promise of prefab housing by making buildings that fold up for shipping. Licensed contractor and host Amy Matthews goes to Las Vegas, Nev., to see a Department of Energy project that brings a 1960s home up to net-zero modern standards. Kevin explains energy-recovery ventilators and Amy discovers Accoya, a treated wood that lasts for 50 years without needing paint or stain. Kevin goes to the NuCedar factory in Chicopee, Mass., to sees how PVC siding is made. At the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, Amy is off to see a P-trap sink drain that never clogs.

Sounds pretty cool.  I’m familiar with the treated Accoya wood, which is a pretty nifty product, and I’m really curious to find out more about the folding pre-fab houses.  Unfortunately, the DIY Channel is a premium channel on our system, and we’ve never bothered to upgrade since we don’t watch a ton of TV (Yeah, I know that’s kinda green living of us, but in truth, it’s as much about being too busy with work as it is anything more noble).  In any case, if you have a chance to watch it, please let us know what you think in the comments below.  Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can catch up with it some other way.

Congratulations are also in order for the winner of the Best of Green award for Best Furniture Line – our friends at Way Basics!  We’ve covered them before in a post on getting organized, but we also get to run into each other at local green events from time to time, and I’ve been a fan since their beginning.

Most of all, I want to say THANK YOU to all the readers who voted for us!  You’re the reason we’re here.

The Sustainable Furnishings Council and World Market Center Las Vegas are proud to once again bring you One Good Chair Design Competition.

“Beauty rests on necessities. The line of beauty is the result of perfect economy. The cell of the bee is built at that angle which gives the most strength with the least wax. The bone in the quill of the bird gives the most alar strength with the least weight… There is not a particle to spare in natural structures.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Intro

The world of green design is pulled in two directions, for the aim of sustainability has been described alternately as “doing more with less” and “celebrating abundance.” The third annual One Good Chair competition challenges designers to do both.

This year’s theme, “Minimum/Maximum,” embraces the idea that smart design can both preserve natural resources and amplify human delight. We’re not asking you to “balance” or “compromise” these two apparently different aims—we’re pushing you to go as far as you can in both directions at once. Trade-offs are for sissies. How little material can you use to make the most of a chair? How little packaging can you use to reach the most people? Can you design a chair that is almost nothing and almost everything at the same time?

So, I know it’s shades of every Academy Award nominee interview you’ve read over the last month or so, but honestly, we’re just happy to be nominated!  However, if you feel so inclined, and you love this blog, and you hope to see us do even more and cooler things with the blog – VOTE!  And tell all your friends!  Everyone who finds out about this blog and starts to read it is another person we can bring into the dialog about sustainable design.

Thanks!!!

Jen graciously allowed us to borrow her scan of the newspaper article.  She is an accomplished writer in her own right, and I highly encourage you to take a look at her blog www.jenleheny.com, as well as all the other great blogs listed.

Architecture for Humanity

Although a 7.0 earthquake is not insignificant, there is no doubt that the damage and loss of life would have been much, much lower had even the most basic of building standards been met.  Instead, in a country where deforestation and poverty reign, buildings were made out of the cheapest concrete available, with inadequate reinforcement.  Sadly, there is no reason to think this won’t be the way things are rebuilt.  That is, unless organizations like Architecture for Humanity are able to lend their considerable energy and talent to the issue.  To learn more about their plans for assisting Haiti, or to make a donation, please click here.

Stray Dog Designs Haitian Relief Fund

Last week, I received an email from one of my favorite companies, Stray Dog Designs.  It said in part…

As you know, we went to Haiti five years ago for the purpose of bringing work to that impoverished nation. There is no better relief from poverty than a chance for gainful employment at a meaningful wage, both of which we were happy to be able to provide.

In the wake of the recent tragic earthquake we, like the rest of the world, await more information and news of our workers and friends in Haiti. We know that there is a high probability that the building where our artisans worked was damaged, thereby taking their place of work away. We pray that was the worst of it,…

We have set up the Stray Dog Designs Haitian Worker Relief Fund. The money we collect will be used to directly help our workers and friends of Stray Dog Designs in Haiti to rebuild their lives, whatever that means -donating blankets or clothing, acquiring medical assistance, rebuilding homes, or  maybe help relocating to another area.

Those who donate to our Fund will receive detailed information as to how their money is used. Whatever the need, we wish to continue to help the very people we went to help in the first place. In addition, Stray Dog Designs will match $.50 on every dollar raised up to $10,000.00.

What a wonderful opportunity for the design community to have such a direct impact on the lives of those in Haiti.  Please click here to make a donation.

Thank you.

Rachel

Cabbage Chair, prototype. Oki Sato, Photo: Masayuki Hayash

If you’re going to be in New York between May 14th, 2010 and January 9th, 2011, you must go to see “National Design Triennial – Why Design Now?” , at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

Intended to explore the role of design in solving the problems of our world, “Why Design Now?”

“… will explore the work of designers addressing human and environmental problems across many fields of design from architecture and product design to fashion, graphics, new media and landscape design. Organized by Cooper-Hewitt curators Ellen Lupton, Cara McCarty, Matilda McQuaid and Cynthia Smith, the Triennial will be global in reach for the first time, reflecting the connectedness of design practices and the need for international cooperation to solve the world’s problems.”

Heath Ceramics Tableware. Photo: Jeffery Cross

The exhibit will address eight different areas of design innovation:

Energy

Mobility

Community

Materials

Prosperity

Health

Communication

Simplicity

SunShade prototype. Rendering: Lianne van Genugten

A nice additional feature of this exhibit will be iPod Touches, with one-to-one interviews and behind-the-scene footage to supplement your experience.  They will be available for use free of charge.

Veil Curtain. Photo: Woodnotes OY

Begun in the year 2000, the Triennial Series showcases the most innovative designs from the previous 3 years.  In this, the fourth exhibition, they will show 125 projects exemplifying the best in environmental stewardship, social equity, accessibility and creative capital.

To learn more about the Cooper-Hewitt, and for hours and directions to get there, click here.

“A double challenge for ONLY FOR WOMEN’s second edition, the International Design Award dedicated exclusively for female designers: searching for new products to enter the contract market and promoting a thinking about sustainability. This is the meaning of the title, which talks green as nature and green as green issue. Area Declic wishes to investigate into these themes all around 2010. With the help of women designers.”

Deadline to enter is March 3, 2010, so get your design engines revved ladies!  For information on rules and how to enter, click here.

via flor.com

This is such a fun idea, it’s a wonder FLOR didn’t think of it sooner.

Now’s your chance to create the FLOR you’ve always dreamed of.

Let your imagination run wild – with FLOR’s design system of 19.7-inch squares the options are limitless. All you have to do is choose your FLOR and let the designing begin. Mix and match colors, patterns and textures to create a rug, runner or wall-to-wall design that fits your décor and your personality. Who knows, you may just get your FLOR design for free or see it on FLOR.com.

The designing on takes place using their online design tools.  Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CT Monday, December 7, 2009, so you don’t have a lot of time!  Click here for contest details.

And hey – if your design gets picked PLEASE let us know!  We’ll be sure to post all about it here!

From finding the best no-VOC paints, to the latest in LED lighting technology, we aim to be an invaluable information resource for the design professional, as well as the general public. We’ll be taking time to explore in depth issues such as organic vs. conventional cotton, and whether bamboo is truly “green”. We’ll review the latest design books and sources, and have guest posts by experts on green design materials and trends. By cutting through the greenwashing and clarifying what counts, we hope to make sustainable design accessible to all.

At no time in our history have interior designers had a more significant opportunity to bring about a wholesale change in the way we live. Let’s make the most of it!