Climate Pulse

Images by B. Alter: Norway As part of the London Festival of Architecture, twenty eight embassies are celebrating the best of their country's architecture. Strange creations like Italy's photo-reactive skin on its front door and Helsinki in a container are popping up in unexpected places. But... [continue]

Image credit: Good Washers and driers are fast, easy, and convenient—but they tend to use a lot energy and water. Levi Srauss & Co., it turns out, has noticed. According to a study they commissioned, "60 percent of the climate impact comes during the consumer phase." Now, they are asking for... [continue]

Add another to our endless series of things that make you fat, many of which have to do with planning and design. The Harvard Business Review reports on a new study by Lawrence Frank of the University of British Columbia, that analyzed conditions in King County, Washington; he found that residents... [continue]

Images via Vac from the Sea project Electrolux is known for pushing the envelope on design, including sustainable design. And their latest project has our full attention. Pointing out that there isn't enough recycled plastic on land to supply demand, Electrolux is backing a project that would pull... [continue]

photo: Matt Lemmon via flickr It may not offer relief from the sweat dripping down your forehead in the midst of a heatwave as you walk down the street, but you can take comfort that it's not all in your head. Heatwaves are indeed getting more pronounced. As Our Amazing Planet reports, sprawling... [continue]

Team Finland hails from Aalto University, and Alvar Aalto would be proud of this of this stunning little pile of lumber. It's passively heated and designed for the cold and dark Finnish climate, with solar hot water collectors and photovoltaics on the roof. Given the importance of wood in Finnish... [continue]

Last year, Enviu, known for the sustainable dance floor and club, launched the Open Source House project, a platform to share much needed sustainable and affordable housing solutions. The goal of their first competition, in which 3100 architects participated, was to design an affordable, flexible... [continue]

Representative Paul Broun says clean energy legislation will cause electricity prices to rise, which will make it too expensive to run air conditioning, and people will die of hyperthermia. Joe Romm types it out: ...Read the full story on TreeHugger [continue]

Solar powered air conditioning makes so much sense; it is hottest when the sun shines. So all the blogs are excited about LG's new "eco-friendly solar hybrid air conditioner". Slapping a 70 watt solar panel on top of a thousand watt air conditioner is certainly a help, but hardly the holy... [continue]

It's National Design Awards time, when the Cooper-Hewett, National Design Museum honors "outstanding contributions from the design world, including architecture, fashion, lifetime achievement, and sustainable design solutions." Quite a few of the winners this year are TreeHugger favorites; we look... [continue]