We all know a thing or two about reducing emissions at home. But why bother turning off the lights and conserving water when you can just buy a home that is completely self-sufficient? That’s the question that architectural firm Sheppard Robson asked when building “The Lighthouse,” a completely carbon neutral home.

The two bedroom home features special insulation that retains 60% more heat. Solar panels capture enough light to generate it’s own electricity. Water efficiency comes in the form of harvested rainwater. What about human waste, you ask? A built-in separation system automatically removes combustible waste materials, providing yet another source of energy.

In fact, it has so much energy that it feeds the grid. That means the electric company pays you for all the excess energy you’re providing them. I’d imagine that would only be in cases where you didn’t leave all the lights on for days on end, but it’s still a pretty huge bonus.

So all that goodness for the environment, what’s the catch? Well, let’s just say they aren’t making them for a song and a dance. The materials and building costs chalk up to almost double the cost of the average home.

Just like Nintendo, you’re likely to get your hands on one after a couple thousand are made. And be rest assured, by that time the electricity company will find an innovative way to take the same amount of money out of your pocket. But at least by that time it’ll be good for the environment!

If you feel as if past Olympic aquatic parks haven’t exactly quenched your thirst, you should take a closer look at the Beijing National Aquatic Center. Four years in the making, the “Water Cube” resembles a large rectangle of beautifully blown bubbles. Its stunning design is matched with green features that prove to innovate architecture and building techniques.

The transparent plastic used in the buildings construction, Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene, reduces heat loss and absorbs solar radiation. So all those pretty blues will help shield those inside from the harmful rays of the sun. It’s also lightweight at 1% the weight of glass, yet extremely durable with form factors that allow it to bear up to four hundred times its own weight.

The Water Cube allows air to circulate through cushions scattered throughout the building. The air is regulated and excess heat is transfered to the water for the swimmers below. Air is further recycled both inside and outside the system. This keeps a tight lock on the level of humidity and water temperature inside the pools.

You’ll be seeing much more of this amazing eco-friendly design on TV during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. I just wish I had the time to go and experience it first hand.

Move over Emerald City. It looks like the yellow brick road now leads to Moscow and ends at Crystal Island. It will be the world’s largest building, so big it will house a massive, sprawling city. Don’t get me wrong, just like any good American I know that bigger is better – but this building seems just a bit extreme, even for the Wizard.

It will dominate the Moscow skyline at 1,500 feet and hold a population of 30,000 residents. That’s split between the 900 apartments and 3,000 hotel rooms, a theatre, museum, school and cinema.

Panoramic views of the city are to be enjoyed on viewing platforms 980 feet above the earth. The glass at the peak will open in summer to an atrium. In the winter the surrounding area’s parks will be open for cross-country skiing and ice-skating.

A cool $4 billion will be needed to complete construction. For that price you can expect over 27 million square feet. Wait, lets put that in perspective. The Venetian in Macau, China claimed the record this year as the largest building by floor area. At the moment the record holder has over 10.5 million square feet of floorspace. Crystal Island plans to crush those numbers well over twofold.

The project has begun under the watchful gaze of its architect, Sir Norman Foster. You might recognize some of his firms’ other projects, the Hearst Tower in NY and The Gherkin in London. Differences with this project include sustainable design features such as solar panels and wine turbines.

If all goes according to plan, this behemoth will be built within the next five years. With the click of your heels and a small fortune maybe you’ll be enjoying views of the Kremlin from one of its floors.

When you picture your perfect seaborne vacation it probably didn’t look as permanent as hanging out with Luca Debrazi. But if you’re dying for the experience, between cement shoes and $10k a night, I’d take a room at the Hydropolis Underwater Hotel any day.

The idea of building a hotel set in the deep blue isn’t a new one. For years the novelty of undersea accommodations has been battled out, with resorts like the Poseidon Mystery Island in Fiji and the Hydropolis in Dubai trying to take the cake. Yet alas, as it is with most innovative architecture these days, you’ll need to take a trip to Dubai to experience the magic first hand. Even though an official opening date has yet to be announced, they’ve raised the $550 million and have recently overcome ecological concerns during construction.

Although they won’t be amongst the first in undersea restaurants, such as the Ithaa and Red Sea Star – which are both 16 feet below sea level, they’ll be offering a lot more. Along with fine dining in its restaurants and bars, it will also feature a grand ballroom, shopping mall, a cosmetic surgery clinic, and a marine biology lab.

All 220 suites will offer the utmost luxury that would make even Jules Verne blink. That might be because his novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea didn’t go so far as to suggest a petal-like retractable roof for open-air events. He also left out the train that will connect you to tunnels in an above land station, where you’ll check-in to your room at 65 feet below sea level.

This may be the first to open, but the designers have plans to open similar underwater projects in several different locations around the globe. Further footage isn’t available as of yet. But if you need a concept video to quench your thirst you can watch this one from its rival, Poseidon in Fiji, which is scheduled for opening in Mid-2008.

Watch the future as it unfolds:
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Taking the risk out of getting a bad tattoo is a difficult proposition. Complicated designs are becoming commonplace for tattoo artists. Yet even the masters have trouble with work that has extra sharp details. Not to mention that you never know how it will turn out until it’s completed.

That was a problem for Loïc Zimmerman, a computer graphic artist out of France. He designed his own tattoo and wanted to see the how the 2-D sleeve and chest design would turn out. Luckily for him, he works at French video game developer Quantic Dream, where he scanned his entire body during the day. The image rendered facial movement, muscle stimulation and 3-D animation. He applied his 2-D art to the 3-D model of himself.

After reviewing the 3-D model his tattoo artist is now confident in the design. Loïc does point out that some of the major problems with extremely detailed work is that 3-D rendering doesn’t offer the ability to show how the ink will fade and blur with aging and wrinkles. Not yet, anyway.

Even though there is no substitute for flesh and blood, this software could very well push the future of the art to the next level. There will be so many more options available. You can say no to the design, no to the 3-D model, and finally you can get it done with erasable tattoo ink.

If you don’t like it in a few months just get it removed quick and painless. Less risk means more beautiful, precise artwork. Prepare for these tools to hit high end studios within the next year.

[Needled]