20 Stunning Energy-Efficient Homes in the 2011 Solar Decathlon! (Part 4)

The State University of New Jersey and New Jersey Institute of Technology have joined forces to create the ENJOY House, which features an inverted-hip roof that is calibrated for optimal solar energy and rainwater collection.

The Solar Roofpod is designed to reclaim underused urban rooftop areas for green living city living. Designed by Team New York, it caps off an existing mid-rise building with an eco penthouse.

Living Light’s UT Solar Decathlon House is a loft-like, glass-enclosed home with alternating translucent and transparent panes and horizontal blinds that flood the home with light while providing privacy. Designed by the University of Tennessee, the home features a high-tech controllable lighting and blinds system.

Unit 6 Unplugged was designed to integrate into the historic city of Norfolk, Virginia. The artsy homes of Old Dominion University and Hampton University inspired Team Tidewater Virginia to create a solar home with a beautiful porch and floor-to-ceiling windows.

20 Stunning Energy-Efficient Homes in the 2011 Solar Decathlon! (Part 3)

The geometric CHIP home by the Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology certainly looks like a house of the future. The home is encapsulated in a puffy layer of “outsulation,” and its energy use can be controlled by a custom iPad application.

Team Belgium’s E-Cube is an ultra-efficient home that can be assembled in just a few days. The home is based on modularity, affordability, flexibility and efficiency – it plays up a minimal design in exchange for maximum space and energy efficiency.

China’s Tongji University utilizes cast-off shipping containers to create the energy-efficient Y Container home. Shipping containers are joined together to form the house, which is geared toward young couples on a budget.

Team Florida’s Flex House opens and closes seasonally, using passive cooling in mild winter, and shutting to keep sweltering heat out in the summer. Cypress louvers provide shade and style in the hot Florida sun.

4D Home by Team Massachusetts fuses energy-efficient technology and passive strategies without compromising simplicity. The two bedroom home is a flexible shared space, thanks to two sliding partition walls.

20 Stunning Energy-Efficient Homes in the 2011 Solar Decathlon! (Part 2)

The traditional Kiwi vacation home has been given the eco treatment in Victoria University of Wellington’s entry. First Light celebrates New Zealand’s morning light – which touches the country before any other. A triple-glazed skylight illuminates the home’s interior with the first light of day.

Team Canada’s TRTL design is based on the mound shape of Southern Alberta’s Native peoples’ homes. TRTL stands for “Technological Residence, Traditional Living”, and the home uses a curved solar panel roof to power its inner technologies such as an air to water heat pump and hot water production.

Ohio State’s enCORE is a family friendly energy-efficient solution. The 930 square foot home blends in with the average Ohio neighborhood while utilizing solar power, rain filtration and energy efficiency measures to save residents money.

Parsons the New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology partnered with Habitat for Humanity for their Solar Decathlon entry. Empowerhouse is a one bedroom, super energy-efficient home that combines residential needs with renewable energy, consuming 90% less energy for heating and cooling than typical homes.

INhome was designed with the Midwesterner in mind, offering sustainable living without sacrificing comfort. The Purdue-designed home has a self-watering green wall, an air purification system, and it conserves warm and cool air.

20 Stunning Energy-Efficient Homes in the 2011 Solar Decathlon! (Part 1)

The 2011 Solar Decathlon is heating up as 20 teams of students from around the world construct stunning, energy-efficient homes at the National Mall’s West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The competition officially opens on September 23rd, but we’re excited to bring you a first look at each of this year’s incredible solar powered homes – hit the jump to check out the state of the art in green building!

The perFORM[D] House by Florida International University is an open design that responds to its environment and its inhabitants. Like Paul Rudolph’s Cocoon House, it has operable louvers that can be raised or lowered to provide privacy, shade and protection from the elements.

Hawaii’s model home, which unfortunately was withdrawn, was designed to meet the needs of middle-income buyers in a tropical climate. Hale Pilihonua features a design based on louvers and an integrated aquaponics system.

Re_home, by the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, is an easily transported home that is perfect for disaster relief conditions. The eco-friendly and comfortable mobile home will offer flexible living spaces for a family who has lost their home due to a natural disaster.

The Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem was the inspiration for the University of Maryland’s WaterShed house. Featuring a split butterfly roof, the house focuses on water by recycling, conserving and managing storm runoff.

The sturdy Self-Reliance house is a 2 bedroom gabled home with a living green wall in the kitchen. Designed by Middlebury College, it focuses on communal areas for family bonding.

Green-Roofed Urban Park Springs Up Atop a Railway Deck in Munich

An unusual new park popped up in Munich last year in an unlikely place - right on top of a set of railroad tracks. The new urban park spans the railroad chasm in-between several new apartment complexes in the Theresienhöhe district. What was once a parking lot between the spaces has been transformed into a blissful green space. Topotek 1 designed the urban park using lightweight materials so that the deck could handle the load. Accessible from both sides by the public, the space includes a long green lawn, a rubberized play, and sports field, and a large sand and gravel area.

The new park is built in-between a series of residential buildings that measures 300 meters long by 50 meters wide. The deck originally provided a connection between the newly built apartments and it was never really planned to be a park. When the idea came about to turn it into one however, the designers had to pay special attention to how much weight they added to the structure. The deck is not connected to the ground, so all the supports exist at the level of the buildings. With the exception of the orange concrete walls, all of the materials chosen for the park were lightweight – like geofoam blocks covered with astroturf or tartan-covered rubber.

The center of the park features a green lawn covered in astroturf, a sand pit, and play sculptures. Integrated trampolines in the dune-like extrusions, jungle gyms, slides and tubes provide an exciting landscape for children to play. A rubberized tartan surrounds the lawn, providing space for kids to play games, ride bikes, or run around. Gardens on either side connect the play space to the residences, and a grove of pines are planted on the north side to provide shelter.

The new park provides a welcome contrast to the dense housing in the surrounding areas while creating extra play space. Although the grass isn’t real, it is a much better alternative to a massive parking area or an empty concrete lot. More urban parks and play space are always a good thing, and the project’s unlikely location over a railway makes it even more unique.

Beautiful Green-Roofed Barn Extension in France is Barely Visible From Afar

This barn extension in the Pyrénées Mountains has a gorgeous green roof that minimizes its impact on an incredible site overlooking the Adour de Lesponne river valley in France. When the client commissioned PPA Architects to extend the original stone barn building that once stood alone on this enviable pastureland, they made it clear that the existing site and vernacular architecture had to be preserved at all costs. So the firm tucked the new holiday home into the side of the slope and gave it a deceptive log facade wrapped in steel, ensuring that the extension is barely visible from afar.

The new extension consists of a guest room, a multi purpose room, a utility area, and a garage. Typical of the architecture in this historical agricultural region, it is nestled into the side of the slope for both insulation and fiscal purposes. Because it retains the earth above it, the building extension requires very few addition building materials except a concrete roof, a dry stone rear elevation wall, and the industrial steel in which the logs are stored.

This storage area is quite deceptive. From afar, it would seem like that is all that happening on this small plot, but the home actually boasts a very spacious interior that is naturally lit from above. The original barn retains its superiority on the site and the owners have a lovely rustic holiday retreat that completely respects its natural and historical context.

Starbucks Opens New Reclamation Drive Thru Made From Recycled Shipping Containers

If you happen to be passing through Tukwila, Washington, make a pit stop at Starbucks' brand new reclaimed shipping container coffee shop. The first in what could possibly be a new branding strategy, the Reclamation Drive-Thru is built out of four shipping containers and has been designed to LEED green building standards. Designed in-house by resident Starbucks architects, the container coffee shop is part of a growing initiative at Starbucks to encourage green building to reduce energy use and operational costs as well as to push the envelope on environmental design in retail. As with all things from the global coffee dispensary, the container drive-thru is Starbucksified and emanates the same trendy design aesthetic you'd expect from their other coffee shops. We checked in with Starbucks and got them to spill the beans about their latest creation.

Inspiration for the shipping container drive thru came from the company’s use of the containers to ship their coffee and tea from sources around the world. Rather than let the containers wallow after moving their goods, the brilliant minds in Seattle thought to put them to good use and so the Reclamation Drive Thru was brewed up. So far, it’s just a one-off shop, but it could serve as the prototype for future retail locations.

Although it’s not certified yet, the company hopes to achieve LEED soon, which will make the shop the first LEED building in Tukwila. They’ve reduced signage by using the actual building as the sign and also integrated rainwater harvesting and xeriscaping to minimize water consumption.