Metropolis Magazine is hosting a unique humanitarian-focused design conference at this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair. On Monday, May 19, Metropolis will present Design Entrepreneurs: Make Good and Prosper from 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. With a focus on political, social and personal aspects of design, this event is sure to be a stimulating design forum filled with future forward ideas towards a more sustainable world...read more at Inhabitat
ICFF STARTS TODAY! Inhabitat is on the scene!
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) kicks off today in NYC, and the Inhabitat team is on the scene! We’ve got four Inhabitants at this year’s event poised to scope out the greenest designs among the fresh finds at ICFF 2008. Mike Chino, Ali Kriscenski, Jason Sahler and Jill Fehrenbacher are at ICFF with eyes wide open, ready to get the sustainable scoop and bring the best photos and reports back to Inhabitat...read more at Inhabitat
ICFF STARTS SATURDAY! Inhabitat reporting on the scene
Every year we get excited about the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), which hits New York City’s Jacob Javitz Center in the middle of May. For New York design fans, ICFF is always the best way to discover the hottest new furniture and interior designs - and every year we are discovering more and more to write home about in terms of sustainable design...read more at Inhabitat
BKLYN Designs: Mother's Day Green Walking Tour
We’ve been having a great time at this year’s BKLYN Designs discovering new eco-friendly designs from inspired Brooklyn-based designers. Today, we invite you to join us for a unique event, a green design walking tour in celebration of Mother’s Day. Inhabitat editors Jill Fehrenbacher and Abigail Doan will be at BKLYN Designs today at 2pm to lead a Green Design Walking Tour of kid and family friendly furniture, décor, and much more...read more at Inhabitat
Inhabitat Reports from BKLYN Designs!
Yesterday’s rainy weather did nothing to deter our spirits as the Inhabitat team of Jill, Abigail, Mike and Ali headed to BKLYN Designs to check out this three day local design extravaganza. Your intrepid Inhabitat team took to the streets of Brooklyn to scope out the sustainable scene at this year’s event, and we’ve found plenty of fresh, new green designs to share with you...read more at Inhabitat
BKLYN Designs Starts Today! Inhabitat is here!
We are thrilled to be on the scene at this year’s BKLYN Designs - it is one our favorite springtime events, and we couldn’t be more excited! Locally sourced and inspired, the BKLYN Designs furniture fair captures a side of sustainable design that is near and dear to Inhabitat’s mission - drawing local designers together into a fresh environment to celebrate design innovation...read more at Inhabitat
BKLYN SNEAK PEEK: New Brave Space Light Block Lamps
We are perennial fans of Brooklyn-based Brave Space Design, and not just because their pieces helped turn the Inhabitat-curated Green Room at Designers & Agents into a sustainable style eco-haven this week. We adore Brave Space for their fresh, fun, multi-functional eco designs that are driven by a “think global, design local” philosophy...read more at Inhabitat
BKLYN Designs Starts this Friday!
One of our favorite springtime events, BKLYN Designs, is coming to town THIS WEEKEND, and we couldn’t be more excited! Locally sourced and inspired, the BKLYN Designs furniture fair captures a side of sustainable design that is near and dear to Inhabitat’s mission - drawing local designers together into a familiar, yet fresh, environment to celebrate design innovation... read more at Inhabitat
Inhabitat brings green to Designers & Agents this weekend!
The Designers & Agents international fashion showcase kicks off THIS WEEKEND (May 4th-6th) here in NYC! Inhabitat is partnering with Designers & Agents this year, and the Sustainable Style team of Abigail Doan and Jill Fehrenbacher will be on site each day to offer up green fashion ideas and sustainable design tips for D&A attendees. As the exclusive media sponsor and curator of D&A’s Green Room, Inhabitat is looking forward to a weekend filled with future-forward fashion and gorgeous eco-design from the best of this year’s talented designer and agent line-up!...read more at Inhabitat
MILAN SHOW STARTS TODAY! Inhabitat is in Milan!
Salone Internazionale del Mobile kicks off today and Inhabitat is on the scene in Milan, Italy! We’ve got three Inhabitants at this year’s International Furniture Fair to scope out the greenest designs at this year’s event. Cate Trotter, Ariana Mouyiaris and new Inhabitat writer/photographer Antonia Halse are poised with ears and eyes open to get the sustainable scoop at Milan Salone 2008. We’ll start coverage today! Read more at Inhabitat
INHABITAT IS HEADED TO MILAN!
The world’s most prestigious furniture fair, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, in Milan, Italy, starts in two days! And we’ve got three Inhabitat correspondents on their way to Milan to scope out the green design on this year’s international scene. Cate Trotter, Ariana Mouyiaris and new Inhabitat writer/photographer Antonia Halse are headed to Salone to bring back the best photos and coverage of the most interesting new furniture, lighting, products and presentations from Milan - all through a sustainable lens of course...Read more at Inhabitat
Jill Fehrenbacher and Inhabitat in Domino Magazine!
The April issue of Domino - the guide to living with style - is tinged with green as Earth Day approaches and that’s where Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher makes an appearance in the monthly My Green Life feature. Decked out in sustainable style favorites like Ekovaruhuset and Veja, she talks about living green in NYC and her vision of the perfect way to spend April 22, 2008...Read more at Inhabitat
Lights off everyone: Earth Hour is Tonight!
Last year, more than 2.2 million Earth Hour participants shut off their lights throughout Sydney in a powerful stand in support of protecting the environment. Tonight, the lights off action is going global! Around the world, cities on every continent, 20,000+ businesses and almost 300,000 individuals have signed up to turn off the lights and turn up environmental awareness...Read more at Inhabitat
What if NYC? Competition Winners Announced
“What if….” The two-word phrase can imply both fear and anxiety as well as big ideas and hopeful possibility. And that was the idea behind the What if New York City? international Design Competition for Post-Disaster Provisional Housing. Sponsored by NYC Office of Emergency Management...Read more at Inhabitat
Announcing the White House Redux Design Competition!
What if the White House, the ultimate architectural symbol of political power, were to be designed today? Over two hundred years ago the winning design of an 18th century architecture competition became the residence of the president of the United States at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...Read more at Inhabitat
Bake for a Change: Gingerbread House Contest!
Sweet and sustainable, what could be better? Spice it up while promoting global ideals and you’ve got an idea that’s deliciously irresistible. That’s just what the multi-disciplinary non-profit Terry* is doing this month by sponsoring a gingerbread house contest that is as edible as it is engaging…Read more at Inhabitat
AR AWARDS: Taketo Shimohigoshi’s Suspended Gardens
Architect Taketo Shimohigoshi has overcome the challenge of finding green space among dense, urban skylines with an elevated installation of vegetation. His design concept frames the city sky with slices of moss-covered beams, which define and connect the cityscape in a greener perspective...Read more at Inhabitat
Integrating Habitats: A Design Competition
Out of a pilot program called the Wild Urbanism design studio at the University of Oregon’s Department of Architecture comes Integrating Habitats, an open design competition focused on the interface between nature and the built environment. In collaboration with the Nature in Neighborhoods...Read more at Inhabitat
SOLAR DECATHLON: University of Colorado Solar House
One of the biggest highlights from the 2007 Solar Decathlon comes from reigning victor University of Colorado- and the design is proving once again that the team has what it takes to be solar design champions. Committed to defending their 2002 and 2005 titles, the 2007 CU Solar Decathlon team...Read more at Inhabitat
AGA KHAN AWARDS: METI School of Rudrapur, Bangladesh
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The Aga Khan Award for Architecture recognizes distinguished architecture that encourages social development, restoration, re-use and environmental responsibility in the Islamic world. One of the winning projects, the METI School of Rudrapur in Bangladesh, is a great example of these values. The school is an amazing hand-built project that showcases great sustainable design practices and locally-sensitive architecture. Elegantly fusing local knowledge, readily available renewable materials and new construction techniques, the project maintains a traditional identity while embracing modernity in both its form and purpose. Volunteer architects Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag developed the design concept by considering local cultural, economic and ecological aspects. The school is based on regional construction and local materials but implemented with modifications that add efficiency and structural integrity, important factors in the densely populated, flood prone region.
To allow for a second story, the designers improved the bamboo structural system and lashing. They also opted for a brick foundation with a damp proof course to overcome the inevitable rising moisture in the earthen walls. The kiln brick detail enlisted craftspeople from a district 20 kilometers away. The rest of the construction was a collaborative effort between the architects, local craftspeople, students, parents and teachers.
The school building embodies many of the guiding principles behind METI (Modern Education and Training Institute) teaching, an initiative of the Bangladeshi sustainable development NGO Dipshikha. Learning with joy, team-based education, and utilization of nature are all elements of this Montessori-like school.
This hands-on connection was central to the architects’ vision. They wanted technical improvements to become part of local knowledge for application in future development. Locally available expertise, skills and materials are all a part of the school’s sustainability goals as an environmentally sound, structurally superior catalyst for the local economy and education system.
At the center of the project are the students themselves, many who helped form the thick walls that keep their classrooms cool and hung the shutters that allow natural daylight and ventilation. Under the shaded garden façade where colorful sari material contrasts the school’s earth tone walls, the students of the METI School leave their shoes along an expansive veranda and enter the handmade structure built to bring out the best in them. It is with intent that the principles guiding their education take form in the building that surrounds them. The structure, like the program within, serves as a wonderful example for a sustainable future.
The METI School in Rudrapur is a recipient of a 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The project has also been recognized by the 2007 International Bamboo Building Design Competition as a Visionary Design for Ecological Living, received a 2006 AR Award for Emerging Architecture and the 2006-07 Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Awards.
+ METI School
+ Donate to the school here Read more at Inhabitat