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.

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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]

It’s the self-sustaining home of the future, on steroids. And all along you thought going green was for design challenged weenies?

The zeroHouse by Scott Specht is futuristic architecture that laughs in the face of ‘the man.’ This setup is made to work completely off the grid. It generates all of it’s own power by means of high-efficiency solar panels. When skies are looking gray, fully charged onboard batteries fuel it continuously for up to a week.

Rainwater is collected in a 2700 gallon reservoir and all plumbing is gravity-fed for extra efficiency. Water that’s being flushed is converted into dry compost underneath to be removed only twice each year.

All functions are controlled automatically by software that can be loaded on a simple laptop. It’s fully customizable from a weekend wonderland to a full-time pleasure palace.

Pleasure is right. Each house is outfitted with a living room, kitchen, full bath and two bedrooms. Furniture from couches in the living room to lounge chairs on the covered deck comes built-in. Thermal resistant materials are enhanced by a full climate control system.

You’re not going to be able to pick one up on the cheap just yet. On the flip side, at least now you don’t have to be a Middle Eastern sheikh to own a home with zero emissions.

[zeroHouse] via [Yanko Design]

Time is fleeting, especially in the span of 1,000 years. How would you convey the passage of time over ten generations as an art piece? Greg Blonder, the former Bell Labs chief scientist has an inventive and elegant solution.

TiWalkMe is a concept design that would have a forest planted along a ribbon of land in order to project “deep-time.” It represents change, as when one section of the forest dies a “tick” of the clock will be reinforced with new trees along the progression. The aim is to bring awareness to a modern, disposable society that has sensationalized a fast and narrow view of the future.

“We must learn to think twice, and act once. TiWalkMe is a place where a thousand years can be experienced as a walk through an ever changing forest. A place to learn and share with others, to better judge and improve our plans before they drift into actions tethered to the past. A forest which is at heart an enormous clock, slowly ticking out the pace of life, resetting our own sense of time and space, with a horizon swept out to a millennia.”

This ambitious project will need to be passed down through generations in order to be a success. So naturally, a few rules are set in place to ensure that goal. It’ll need to be constantly visible and unobstructed, must adapt to future knowledge and needs, and change if it will bring perspective to its visitors.

Now, the search is on for sites and investors. This would be beautiful in an urban setting, but may not prove to be practical considering the value of real estate. Urban communities are high on the list, as the inventor believes that the project would draw in a diverse group of businesses and organizations.

What does €300 million buy a sheikh in the Middle East when he asks for a high rise that is not only beautiful but radically innovative? The Burj Al-Taqa (Energy Tower) will look like the tower Isengard from the Lord of the Rings. You might even be fooled into believing there is a wizard inside. That’s because this modern marvel will produce zero emissions by generating all its power from the sun, wind and water.

The 68-story (1,056 feet) cylindrical shaped structure is designed to have minimal surface area, protecting it from the harsh desert sun. A solar shield will further shelter rooms inside the building from excess heat and the windows will be coated with a special reflective mineral. Think of a giant thermos, keeping the interior cool in when it’s hot and hot when it’s cold.

Giant wind towers above will funnel cool air down as slits in the interior circulate stale air outside. Seawater will aid the natural air conditioning system, ushering in temperatures of 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18C).

As for energy, the tower will depend on a 197-feet (60-meter) turbine and 161,459 square feet (15,000 square meters) of solar panels on its roof. A floating island visible from higher up will provide an additional 182,986 square feet (17,000 square meters) worth of solar panels for when they want to turn on a few extra blow dryers.

All the energy that’s left over will be used to extract hydrogen from sea water. That hydrogen will be stored in fuel cells that will power the glittering jewel throughout the night.

If pulled off this will be by far one of the most extreme examples of modern architecture and engineering. It seems like when anyone mentioned strategies to be “environmentally friendly” twenty years ago my first thoughts were recycling and conserving power.

Projects like these are beautiful, functional and a hell of a lot sexier than getting $.05 for your beer can. It also makes me believe in a green future where people aren’t constantly nagging me to switch off my lights.

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[Spiegel Online]

Amongst all these innovations it’s nice to see that utterly normal objects are also being radically transformed. It can hear you, respond to your touch and anticipate your actions. If it sounds like a robot you are half way there. It’s an intelligent surface that hopes to replace walls in workspaces and on billboards.

HypoSurface behaves like liquid in a controlled state. It responds to sound, movement and Internet feeds with waves, patterns, logos and even text.

“it draws the eyes because no one has seen anything like it before. It captures the digital ‘mood’ that is in the air, and people are delighted to participate in its intelligent sensuality – they immerse themselves in the wonder of it.”

The latest craze in design has been to tailor a specific ambiance to the individual. When someone walks in the room they should feel more relaxed, at home and welcome. Bill Gates spent millions on his home. When you walk in a room your retina is scanned and the artwork changes to your finest tastes as the lights dim, even the shade of color on the walls seems to deepen into the color that best suits your blood pressure.

HypoSurface brings that attention to personality one step further. It allows the user to play with it as a three dimensional object. And it plays back. The idea of a design space that can be in constant flux to be formed around an individual is groundbreaking.

“Every once in a rare while a product or experience is brought into the world that shifts perspective, ignites curiously and charges us to design beyond our imaginations. HypoSurfac is one of these rare inventions. The HypoSurface™ itself is like an organism; responsive, stunning and organic in nature. It is captivating and full of endless possibilities. The HypoSurface will transform any event, environment and experience into a talked-about one!” -Jody Levy, O2 Creative Solutions, Detroit

[HypoSurface Product Page] [Sci Fi Tech]

You like visually stunning intuitive touch systems? Boy, is it your lucky day. The reacTable allows multiple artists to manipulate sounds simultaneously by moving unique blocks over a glowing surface. This beautiful instrument is geared towards a musician as well as an audience.

The synthesizer visually responds when the blocks flip, move, and turn on the surface. Proximity of each block changes variables such as pitch and pulsing visuals underneath the blocks visually show the artist and audience what the music is doing.

Developers of the reacTable had a vision of many artists manipulating pieces at concerts to create a mix of music and performance art. Musician Björk embraced that vision in her last tour, where you may already have seen the instrument in action.

Although reacTable may be the best looking, it isn’t the first in the line of “tangible music interfaces.” Audiopad is a project by MIT students stemming back to 2002. Their goals were similar, “Audiopad not only allows for spontaneous reinterpretation of musical compositions, but also creates a visual and tactile dialogue between itself, the performer, and the audience.”

The trend for systems such as these stems from a desire to bring a human experience to computing. Zero manual, zero instructions yet challenging, interesting and collaborative. This may not be the new face of a musical instrument we are seeing but rather a more natural from of computing.

[Wired]