Blog

Living in a Tiny House With Children – Can You Do It?

January 6, 2015

Do 2 adults and 2 children fit into a 207 square foot Tiny House? Yes, absolutely, say Kim and Ryan Kasl, a Minnesota couple who have two young children, 6-year-old Sully and 4-year-old Story. You have probably heard of the tiny house movement. Mimi Zeiger in her book Micro Green: Tiny Houses in Nature describes it this way, “In the wake of the United States’ housing crisis and the overall global recession, the single-family home—once the celebratory site of domestic accomplishment—has become not…

Sustainable Home Made With Straw Bales

January 5, 2015

According to Click Green, hay bales can make an affordable, energy efficient and sustainable home. The bales have 75% more insulating power than a traditional stud wall filled with fiberglass insulation, and are non-combustible because they have little to no oxygen inside. To begin, frame the dwelling as you would a “conventional” tiny house‘s post and beam structure, then fill in the openings with the hay bales. They should be stacked on top of a cement footing (or foundation) in…

Singapore Airport Getting its Own Bio-Dome

December 20, 2014

Construction has begun on a new BioDome for Singapore’s JewelChangi Airport. Designed by Moshe Safdie Architects, the glass dome will cover nearly 1.5 million square feet of space and have retail, leisure and entertainment facilities as well as green spaces open to travelers and local residents. A Canopy Garden will hover over the main floor on tree-like columns and feature a natural environment filled with plants and flowers. Its focus will be an enormous waterfall at the very center. The Singapore BioDome will be constructed from glass panels…

Edenkeeper Talks Walden Pond and Spirituality

December 18, 2014

Throughout Thoreau’s philosophy one can see a sort of neo-Taoism, specifically a way of understanding “higher” thought, spiritual and otherwise, through his reverance of nature: “It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day,…

Babies and Beer Gardens: a New Urban Dynamic

December 4, 2014

Beer gardens and beer halls are popping up in cities all across America and they are discovering a new category of customer – moms with kids. In traditional German beer gardens, whole families would gather to quaff the ales, munch bratwursts, and socialize with their families, neighbors, and friends. At one time, there were over 3000 beer halls in New York City, alone. On Sunday afternoons, it was common to see families with young children in attendance. “It was part of…

Tiny House Movement Benefits Low Income Families

December 2, 2014

The Tiny House movement seeks to teach people how to live comfortably in less space. Instead of 10,000 square foot mansions, Tiny Houses are usually between 100 and 400 square feet. The objective is not only to teach people how to live a more sustainable lifestyle but also allow them to spend far less of their monthly income of shelter costs. Groups in Madison, Wisconsin and Portland, Oregon are actively using Tiny House concepts as part of a larger bid to…

German Village Has Huge, 300% Energy Surplus

December 1, 2014

The German village of Wildpoldsried is producing 321% more energy than it needs. Selling that energy surplus back to the region’s local utility company adds $5.7 million dollars to the town’s treasury. Wildpoldsried’s green initiative first started in 1997 when the village council decided it should build local industries to bring in new revenue. Over the past 14 years, nine new community buildings have been equipped with solar panels, four bio-gas digesters built, and seven windmills installed. In the village itself, 190…

Imagining the Zero Waste City of Tomorrow

November 26, 2014

Around the world, cities are committed to becoming Zero Waste communities by adopting new principles and changing the way they manage waste. And they are finding that eliminating waste is not only environmentally beneficial but also economically advantageous. The San Francisco Experience In the US, the city of San Francisco, California is leading the charge to become a truly zero waste city. Already, it has developed a comprehensive waste management strategy that city officials believe will enable it to keep 100 percent of its waste…

Tulare County, California is Out Of Water

November 24, 2014

Tulare County near Fresno, California is out of water. There’s none available for bathing, flushing toilets, or doing dishes. What’s doubly strange about that is Tulare is just south of California’s lush Central Valley where most of the fruits and vegetables grown in the US come from. How could it have no water? State officials say that at least 700 households have no access to running water, but they acknowledge that there could be hundreds more. The county only recently began aggressively tracking homes without running…

Urban Farming is Coming to Los Angeles

November 21, 2014

In the wake of the landmark passing of California’s Neighborhood Foods Act, urban farming is flourishing in Los Angeles. In October, City Councilmen Felipe Fuentes and Curren Price filed a motion to allow owners of vacant lots in the city to qualify for tax relief if they make their land available for agricultural use. Los Angeles has about 8,600 such lots. “By converting empty parcels into urban farms, we can encourage local economic development, green our more closely knit communities and provide produce…

Cars Are Not Welcome in Zurich

November 18, 2014

Zurich wants tourists to know that they’re welcome to the beautiful, historic city. They’re welcome to walk its streets, bicycle through its lanes, and enjoy its excellent, state-of-the-art public transportation system while they visit the city’s shops and restaurants. They’re welcome to do just about anything, in fact … except bring their cars. Like Amsterdam, Zurich has become something of a leader in urban planning, bike advocacy, and walkability- and it did so way back in the 1990s by taking…

SolaRoad Bike Path Debuts in Amsterdam

November 12, 2014

On November 12, the first SolaRoad bike path will open in a northern suburb of Amsterdam. The Dutch are fanatical about using bicycles for transportation, especially in urban areas where finding a parking space for even a compact car is difficult if not impossible. Since 2009, the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) has been exploring the solar potential of Holland’s nearly 200 square miles of roadways. The SolaRoad bike path is part of a three year feasibility study…

Abandoned Wal Mart Becomes Super Library

November 6, 2014

An abandoned Wal Mart in McAllen, Texas has become the largest, single story library in America while- at teh same time- setting new standards for urban renewal and resource recycling. Massive, empty commercial buildings, in this day and age, tend to stay empty. Especially an old Wal Mart, because if America’s #1 retailer (for better or much, much worse) can’t pay the rent- well. As such, these empty buildings and shopping malls quickly fall into decay, and lead to urban…

China is Growing Up – Like, Literally

November 6, 2014

The United States has 9 cities with a population of 1,000,000 or more. China has 140- and that number is growing. China’s cities will not be like Los Angeles or Phoenix, however. Instead of sprawling expanses of suburbs and single family homes that stretch from horizon to horizon, China wants its cities to grow UPWARD rather than outward. Thirty years ago, most people in China were farmers. By 2011, half lived in cities. By 2030 it is estimated one billion…