Home beekeeping isn’t something that gets a lot of commercial attention, but Philips has taken the leap by introducing a uniquely styled system that, through its cool design and very green purpose, may find appeal among more consumers. The Urban Beehive is precisely what its title suggests. Philips has created an innovative product that is both cool and practical. The device installs through a window, and outside, there’s a flower pot to attract the insects’ attention. There’s also an entrance through which bees can enter, and the other side leads to a honeycomb utopia bees should find very inviting.

As Philips explains, “The glass shell filters light to let through the orange wavelength which bees use for sight. The frames are provided with a honeycomb texture for bees to build their wax cells on.”

Philips’ Urban Beehive not only looks sophisticated, it works too. Owners of the hive will be able to harvest honey simply—pulling a string triggers a smoke release, which sedates the bees and allows for honey-taking. Adds Philips, “This is a sustainable, environmentally friendly product concept that has direct educational effects. The city benefits from the pollination, and humans benefit from the honey and the therapeutic value of observing these fascinating creatures in action. As global bee colonies are in decline, this design contributes to the preservation of the species and encourages the return of the urban bee.”

The Urban Beehive is a part of a bigger project by Philips, dubbed the Microbial Home. Items in the collection include a dining room table that comes with an evaporative cooler and a filtering squatting toilet. What are your thoughts on the Urban Beehive? Would you consider buying one for your home, or would you rather spend your money on a new garage door? Let us know in the comments below!

The students who participate in these events are working to send a two-fold message. They are trying to educate the public, to show them that a seemingly niche technology has the power to be a big boon for sustainable development, as well as to show them that green jobs are the way of the future.

This display of dwellings, set up right in the heart of our nation’s capitol is meant to get the attention of folks who drive themselves to work each morning, shutting their garage door, ready for a long individual commute in a vehicle that can hold seven. The message is for everyday people to see possibility.

However this year, the Decathlon was not held without its own bit of backlash towards the green community in the wake of a recently bankrupted solar company. The weather was also trying to work against the event, which opened to rainy, gloomy weather. But the students remained positive and the sun did indeed come out on the event. With it came the eco-conscious from near and far.

For self-proclaimed “greenies”, this is one of the events of the year. In addition to being solar powered, these homes are also carbon neutral. They contain energy saving appliances and the latest in efficiency technology. It is a great way to unveil the latest ideas and findings in the green engineering community. A vast array of technologies – some innovative, some downright strange – are put on display for the public to see and to be viewed for judging.

This event is just one of many that show off the bright minds of the future. As more college students are making a career in sustainable development and engineering, bigger and better ideas will be created, some that could possibly innovate new design techniques. This event is a great way to show the public just what is possible, as well as a great means for those of like-mind to get together and share their knowledge.

Photo credit: Jeremy Levine Design

Sustainability has never reached the point where it became so imminent as it is nowadays and at the same time so unperfected in the architectural discussion. We are on the eve of an architectural revolution where situational design parameters are no longer used as a design tool to “catch” the genius loci of a place or to resolve the design in the context, but will be driven from a sustainable necessity and local opportunities.

In an interview with the Dutch TV program “EenVandaag”, top economist Jeremy Rifkin states that the survival of the human race depends on the question; How are we going to deal with energy? According to Rifkin we are on the eve of a third industrial revolution, an era where fossil fuel is obsolete but the technique to create sustainable energy is available. So far no news. The interview gets interesting when he unfolds his view on “buildings as small power plants” and the way we should distribute energy. In his vision a lot depends on modern techniques which should be implemented in our buildings. Techniques to create energy from the sun, wind, earth warmth, tidal waves and domestic waste. On top of that we should also, according to Rifkin, renew our way of distribution of this “home created” energy. Energy can be stored as hydrogen energy and shared at peaks and lows throughout a intrigued network similar to the internet. Decentralised instead of centralised energy distribution. The question is; how can we as architects implement these techniques in our design process?

Generic and specific energy resources
Taking the statement “building as a power plant” as a starting point and re-evaluating the available techniques we are evidently given an opportunity. By reviewing these different techniques and energy resources we can clearly divide two main categories; “generic” techniques such as solar panels, wind turbines etcetera which can work at almost every location with almost every program. And location or program related techniques such as earth warmth, tidal wave, hydrogen energy and waste energy, the location or program “specific” techniques. An office uses a different waste policy then a family home, subsequently the process of using this waste as an energy source should also be approached differently in the design as such. Not on every location by lack of space or together with every program we can store hydrogen energy due to its explosive character, take a dense residential urban situation for example.

Check your resources
Before one design sketch is made a study of these specific local use, storage and distribution of alternative energy should be studied and checked on feasibility. Location analyses which are traditionally done by architects to come up with an appropriate building height, suitable entrance and façade materials etcetera should be complimented with a study on energy recourses. Specific energy recourses which should work for the specific location and the specific program or building type. Architects should not distinguish alternative energy recourses as a parameter or technical requirement from their design approach but must see these energies as a more fixed part of the ‘design-equation’, a specific and generic design variable.

The future is now
Buildings needn’t be the most energy guzzling sector in the industrialised world, responsible for close to 40% of the energy consumption and a large part of the CO2 emissions in modern society. In fact, the energy used in our buildings for heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water can be cut by 75% globally, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). We need visionary architects enabling the whole-hearted and implement the use of these technologies into their design strategy. Not only new buildings should be constructed to be energy efficient enough to turn the structure into a net zero energy building. But even better, a plus energy home that supplies more energy than it requires, the home as a small power plant. Make money on clever energy use. It’s possible. We are beyond awareness. It just takes a new design method and a renewed look at the local opportunities.

How will our coastal cities look like when the ice melts and causes rising sea levels? How can we take care and give room for the millions of climate change refugees in the future? Well, the Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut might have the answer.

Vincent Callebaut has designed a “floating ecopolis” called Lilypad. Each of these floating cities has room for 50000 people. The city will be able to generate its own energy with the help from several wind turbines, wave power and solar panels. Lilypad will also be able to collect and clean rainwater for daily use around the city.

“Whereas the Netherlands and the United Arabic Emirates « fatten » their beach with billion of euros to build their short-living polders and their protective dams for a decade, the project «Lilypad» deals with a tenable solution to the water rising! Actually, facing the worldwide ecological crisis, this floating Ecopolis has the double objective not only to widen sustainabely in offshore the territories of the most developed countries such as the Monaco principality but above all to grant the housing of future climatic refugees of he next submerged ultra-marine territories such as the Polynesian atolls. New biotechnological prototype of ecologic resilience dedicated to the nomadism and the urban ecology in the sea, Lilypad travels on the water line of the oceans, from the equator to the poles following the marine streams warm ascending of the Gulf Stream or cold descending of the Labrador.”

“It is a true amphibian half aquatic and half terrestrial city, able to accommodate 50,000 inhabitants and inviting the biodiversity to develop its fauna and flora around a central lagoon of soft water collecting and purifying the rain waters. This artificial lagoon is entirely immersed ballasting thus the city. It enables to live in the heart of the subaquatic depths. The multifunctional programming is based on three marinas and three mountains dedicated respectively to the work, the shops and the entertainments. The whole set is covered by a stratum of planted housing in suspended gardens and crossed by a network of streets and alleyways with organic outline. The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of the couple Human / Nature and to explore new modes of living the sea by building with fluidity collective spaces in proximity, overwhelming spaces of social inclusion suitable to the meeting of all the inhabitants – denizen or foreign-born, recent or old, young or aged people.”

In Madrid, the capital of Spain, a huge structure called the “Air Tree” is currently under construction. It is designed to both affect the surrounding environment and act as a social gathering point for people.

The “Air Tree” will generate its own electricity using solar photo voltaic cells placed on top of it. The solar panels will generate enough electricity to be able to sell the energy to local energy companies.

Inside the structure trees will be planted to produce oxygen, just like an ordinary tree. Due to this the surrounded areas will get a cooler temperature. It is expected that during summers it will be 8-10 °C cooler inside and nearby the “Air Tree”. More trees will be planted around the structure to enhance the cooling effect.

The “Air Tree” will be built with recycled materials and has been co-financed by the Housing and Land of the City Council of Madrid and by the European Union under the LIFE programme-2002 (ENV/E/000198).

You can find more information, in Spanish, and pictures of the “Air Tree” over at Plataforma Arquitectura.

The United Arab Emirates, home for around 5 million people, wants to build the world’s first zero-carbon city called Masdar City.

In Masdar City cars will be banned. A light rail system will serve the residents inside the city as well as taking them to nearby cities. Waste water will be reused, all garbage will be recycled and organic food will be locally grown.

The water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant. Even though the developers of Masdar City haven’t said any exact percentage they plan to power most of the city by solar power.

Masdar City, which will stretch out 3.5 miles and will have a wall built around the city. The wall is there to diminish the heat carried in from southerly desert winds, but also the noise from the airplanes at the nearby Abu Dhabi International airport.

It all sounds good, but this Gulf desert nation has a lot to prove.

For example, the United Arab Emirates has the world’s largest ecological footprint per capita, 11.9 global hectares per person. You can compare this to USA who has the second-worst ecological footprint, 9.6 hectares per person. Compare this to the global average which is 2.2 hectares a person and you clearly see the problem.

The country also wins (or loose depending on how you see it) the per capita carbon footprint. In the United Arab Emirates it takes 9.06 global hectares of land to take up each person’s carbon dioxide emissions, in a year. The US carbon footprint is 5,66 and the world average is 1.7.

After a deal with the Emirates government, the WWF will be monitoring the construction and the finished city to be sure it lives up to it green claims.

The city is expected to cost $22 billion to construct and is scheduled to inaugurate in 2015.