E’terra Samara is a planned eco resort designed by Farrow Partnership studio that consists of twelve treehouse villas located in Canada’s Bruce Peninsula forest. The unusual suspended design was developed to minimize its footprint on this UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. 

Life in Color is a new book and a series of galleries from National Geographic. 

About the book:

Life in Color is arranged by color in a rainbow of beauty. Each chapter, devoted to a color, begins with a short, inspiring essay that explores the qualities, meaning, and symbolism of that color…Color chapters include photographs that are predominantly blue, orange, green, yellow, purple and red. Smaller sections present images in silver, brown, black, gold, white, and “unseen color”—not seen with the naked eye, such as laser, the universe, and microscopic images. Throughout, interesting quotes and surprising short insights in the captions give the reader an entirely new look at the color in the world around us. 

I’ll be posting selections from each color chapter today.

The Happy City Birds project was started by Thomas Winther to kill two birds with one stone solve two major urban problems: dwindling habitats for birds and an abundance of trash. He began building birdhouses out of recycled materials and placing them in cities around Denmark. He has since spread his project worldwide by offering his birdhouses to bird lovers everywhere.

Slow Slugs by Florentijn Hofman

Hofman on his project:

The work is made out of 40.000 plastic bags that move in the wind. The slugs are ascending this steep city staircase that leads up to a huge Catholic church, essentially signifying their slow crawl towards death. The work reminds us of religion, mortality, natural decay and the slow suffocation of commercialized societies.

The Little Green Dress Project by Nicole Dextras

About the project:

The concept behind the Little Green Dress has been extrapolated from the age-old fashion adage that every woman should own a little black dress and brings this notion into the realm of today’s environmental awareness. It proposes instead that women should have at least one item of clothing in her wardrobe that is produced in a sustainable and equitable manner. The aim of this project is to promote awareness on the impact of industry on our environment and to offer a realistic opportunity for change by creating a demand for better practices through consumer purchasing. For this reason the dresses will be made entirely from organic materials; Wear it and Compost it!

The Little Green Dress Project replaces the ubiquitous black dress with one that is truly organic: made from leaves and flowers. Its design is based on the classic shift dress, first introduced in the 1960’s by Coco Channel. The twenty-eight participating women will be chosen for their support and involvement in eco-fashion. Each dress will be made to measure by the artist from locally sourced materials representing a wide cross section of women of all ages and sizes from fashionistas, to gardeners. Invited participants will be asked to describe their favorite sustainable article of clothing and their interest in creating sustainable industries.

The project will be presented at the Earth Art exhibition in Vancouver, BC Canada as an outdoor installation of 28 dresses, each draped over a wooden stand. They will be created on site and installed during the run of the exhibition. As with Dextras’ previous Weedrobes series, each sculpture will be photographed and then left to decompose over time.

Awe-inspiring photography by Marc Adams.

Adams on his work:

I’d like to introduce you to the natural world I know. Come follow along on my journey. Explore, consider, and take something with you. This is nature through my eyes. These photographs do not arise from any particular desire to see the world through a lens, but rather from my deep passion for this land we call wilderness. It has shaped every aspect of my life. I wish to show you the amazing, beautiful and powerful forces that have created the Earth we live on…

I want you to know just how undeniably precious these lands are in their preservation. We NEED wilderness; now more than ever. The wilderness experience becomes ever more important to balance our lives as we become more industrialized and therefore bound within our own creations. This is because there exists within it a deep connection unlike anything that can be found in today’s intense world of instantly manufactured gratification. There is a certain freedom that comes only when we are immersed in the natural world. I come to the wilderness to experience something much greater than ourselves, and I hope you will too…Never be afraid to explore, to wander, to find a new direction. Share the beauty of this wonderful life and this wonderful Earth so they may be here forever.

Read his whole statement here

China’s Environmental Protection Foundation wanted to draw attention to the increasing environmental impact of the growing Chinese car industry and to encourage people to walk more, and drive less. DDB China Group put together a clever campaign that did exactly that in a fun and engaging way.

About the campaign:

We decided to leverage a busy pedestrian crossing; a place where both pedestrians and drivers meet. We lay a giant canvas of 12.6 meters long by 7 meters wide on the ground, covering the pedestrian crossing with a large leafless tree. Placed on either side of the road beneath the traffic lights, were sponge cushions soaked in green environmentally friendly washable and quick dry paint. As pedestrians walked towards the crossing, they would step onto the green sponge and as they walked, the soles of their feet would make foot imprints onto the tree on the ground. Each green footprint added to the canvas like leaves growing on a bare tree, which made people feel that by walking they could create a greener environment.

The Result:

The Green Pedestrian Crossing was carried out in 7 main streets of Shanghai and later expanded to 132 roads in 15 cities across China. A total number of pedestrians that participated exceeded 3,920,000 people. Key media both online and offline rapidly wrote about the campaign. According to research, the overall awareness of environmental protection had increased 86%. After the campaign, the print was exhibited at the Shanghai Zheng Da Art Museum.

This concept plane by Airbus would make flying fun again while making it environmentally friendly. Its unusual structure was inspired by its companions in the sky.

About:

Future aircraft could be built using a bionic structure that mimics the bone structure of birds. Bone is both light and strong because its porous interior carries tension only where necessary, leaving space elsewhere. By using bionic structures, the fuselage has the strength it needs, but can also make the most of extra space where required. This not only reduces the aircraft’s weight and fuel burn, but also makes it possible to add features like oversized doors for easier boarding and panoramic windows.

In addition to the improved body of the plane, there would be outfitted with cutting edge technology to entertain passengers and to improve energy efficiency.

Warning: Watching this video will make you even more dissatisfied with the current state of air travel:

In case you’ve ever wondered what goes on up there, aerial photographer Alex MacLean has assembled his book Up On the Roof: New York’s Hidden Skyline Spaces.

The Poor Little Fishbowl Sink by designer Yan Lu encourages water conservation in a rather unconventional way. Turn on the faucet and the water in the fishbowl drains. Turn off the faucet and the water level returns to normal. No need to worry about the fish, the water will never drain entirely, but hopefully the user is a little more aware of the amount of water being used.

This amazing interactive installation piece and pavilion were designed by Atelier Brückner and Tamschick Media+Space for Expo Korea, an event that runs through August in Yeosu, South Korea.

About the project:

Symbol of energy: At the Expo Korea the corporate pavilion of GS Caltex, a Korean oil corporation, illustrates the company’s mission and its visions for the future. The pavilion architecture is presented as a dynamic ensemble which, at first glance, is reminiscent of an outsized rice field. Eighteen metres high, so-called blades sway like grass in the wind. Touching activates individual sensitive blades and illuminates them. A centrally located star-shaped, mirrored pavilion building is optically withdrawn in its entirety. Via raised corners of the star, the visitor can gain access to the also mirrored entrance area on the ground floor. The centre of the pavilion is on the upper floor; a seven-metre-high round room with panoramic projection. Poetic images in a reduced black-and-white aesthetic convey the company’s readiness to assume responsibility with regard to sustainable energy concepts.

Virtue of Blue by Jeroen Verhoeven 

About the project:

Powered by its own solar energy. A chandelier which playfully explores an economy of light through innovative materials. Powered by sapphire-blue solar panel cells, the piece is intrinsically self-sustaining as it absorbs the energy of daylight to fuel its own illumination. The cells have been cut into the shapes of four different breeds of butterfly and these seem to flutter around a central flame-like hand-blown glass bulb, their iridescent wings glinting in the light. The semiotics of this design are highly significant as the butterflies become signifiers of the light’s self-sufficiency; physically, these insects also power their own bodies, using their wings to absorb the rays of the sun, in turn raising and sustaining their own body temperatures to that which is necessary for their survival.

These whimsical repurposed gas pumps designed by James Dive are part of the Zero Petrol promotion for the release of the all-electric Nissan LEAF EV in Australia.

Other Worlds and Future Memories by Catherine Nelson

About the work:

The Future Memories series comprises of 20 floating worlds, meticulously composed with thousands of assembled details. Visual poetry, nature photography and digital techniques blend together to give shape to these transcendental landscapes. The result is a contemporary pictorial mythology that subtly reminds the viewer of a profound truth: that it is in the flourishing variety of the local that the fate of the world resides.

Images from a great Wired gallery of stunning views of glaciers seen from space. Check it out to see more photos and to find out more about them.