Eco news

The latest on the green scene

edited by Sheila Kim and Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 6/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

1. For her 2001 graduation project at New York's Parsons School of Design, Paige Stahl came up with the Lumenair air-purifying lamp. The frosted-polycarbonate planter, containing two plants, rests on a base of reclaimed ash, and plastic tubes bring water from a vial between the base's legs to reservoirs inside the planter. We don't know Stahl's GPA, but we do know that her planter made it into the triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

2. On Earth Day 2003, the AIA Committee on the Environment named its Top Ten Green Projects. The Steinhude Sea Recreation Facility in Germany won Randall Stout Architects recognition for renewable-source power generation and solar- heated hot water. The other winning firms are Arkin Tilt Architects, Farr Associates Architecture and Urban Design, 450 Architects, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, IA Interior Architects, Susan Maxman & Partners, Pugh Scarpa Kodama, Siegel & Strain Architects, and Miller Hull Partnership.

3. Rutgers University engineering professor Tom Nosker has built a thermoplastic bridge over the Mullica River in New Jersey's Wharton State Forest, eliminating an 11-mile detour. Nosker created inexpensive interlocking I beams out of common recycled materials. They include high-density polyethylene—found in milk, bleach, and shampoo bottles—and polystyrene recycled from disposable food containers and plastic utensils and coat hangers.

4. British artist Roger Dean has designed a concept house that's futuristic to look at but inexpensive and eco-friendly here and now. Home for Life is essentially a shell of fibrous plaster sprayed with gunite cement, and the interior is finished in toxin-free paint. To keep Home for Life running smoothly, Dean proposes alternative energy sources, such as wind.