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Emerging Markets as a Source of Disruptive Innovation: 5 Case Studies - Core77
One of the most misunderstood terms in the business world is disruptive technology . Too many companies—and the marketers in charge of bringing these companies' innovations to market—assume that "disruptive" connotes a highly-sophisticated, high-end product with cutting-edge technology that will appeal to early adopters. Actually, Harvard's Clayton Christensen argued the opposite in his groundbreaking book on business innovation, The Innovator's Dilemma . As Christensen pointed out again and again, "disruptive technologies were exactly those that did not appeal to entrenched market leaders because they tended to under-perform existing technologies and served a less-profitable consumer demographic."
LAST summer, a business professor and a marketing consultant wrote on The Harvard Business Review’s Web site about their idea for a $300 house . According to the writers, and the many people who have enthusiastically responded since, such a house could improve the lives of millions of urban poor around the world. And with a $424 billion market for cheap homes that is largely untapped, it could also make significant profits. The writers created a competition, asking students, architects and businesses to compete to design the best prototype for a $300 house (their original sketch was of a one-room prefabricated shed, equipped with solar panels, water filters and a tablet computer).
Hands Off Our Houses - NYTimes.com
The warm air was escaping, substantially raising his utility bills. “It defeats the purpose of all the other improvements you’ve done,” he said. And it was not just the heated air that was escaping: in the summertime, the gaps around units that did not fit tightly were letting out refrigerated air. The scope of the problem is outlined in a report to be released on Thursday by the Urban Green Council .
High Costs Linked to Gaps Around Air-Conditioners - NYTimes.com
Lauren’s 400-square-foot apartment was classic New York real estate: a sliver of space in an old brick building, with little light and even less charm. But in just three weeks, she gave it a clean and natural makeover, putting every inch of space to use with clever storage solutions. When she bought it, Lauren explained, the building “was a dump.” It was so small and narrow – just about 12 feet at its widest point - that there was no logical place to put anything, not even a bed.
Lauren's Tiny 400-Square-Foot Cozy Apartment Green Tour | Apartment Therapy Re-Nest
City launches competition for ‘ultra’ green projects - BostonHerald.com
W hat’s better than drastically cutting back the cost of energy for your home? Having a home that produces more energy than it uses and provides power that other buildings can use. That’s the idea behind so-called “net-energy positive” housing and something that the city of Boston is now pursuing in a competition unveiled by Mayor Thomas M. Menino this week. The city has sent out a request for proposals for net-energy-positive multifamily housing on three vacant sites it owns, two on Fort Hill in Roxbury and one in Jamaica Plain. The winning development teams will build townhouses or rowhouses that produce excess energy.
Land mafia has surfaced in the twin cities of Hubli and Dharwad of Karnataka in a big way. They are converting agricultural lands into residential plots without the CLU (Change of Land Use) and other required approvals from the concerned authorities and are selling to gullible people. These Land grabbers have set their eyes on the large tracks of agricultural lands cheaply available on the outskirts of Hubli and Dharwad, leading to the mushrooming of several unauthorised layouts in the twin cities. Hubli Dharwad Urban Development Authority (HDUDA) commissioner R N Shanbag admitted this reality to the Track2Realty and said that such illegal layouts have come up mostly on the outskirts near Kelageri, Muruga Mutt, Hubli-Dharwad bypass road and elsewhere. Since buying agricultural lands from the farmers is not an easy task, the unauthorized land developers take the power of attorney from farmers before converting the land into residential plots.
Land mafia violating all norms in Hubli-Dharwad | Track2Realty || India's real estate e-newspaper
Hong Kong to Face Housing Scarcity
Massive activity in the Hong Kong property market has left prices unaffordable for many of its residents. The government is not providing enough land for the housing needs of its citizens. See the following article from Property Wire for more on this.
Competition is right at the doorstep of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city as another iconic eco-city takes shape within the same province. Led by an Italian consortium, the project’s design draws inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s urban studies for Milan in the late 15th century and the urban structure of the Forbidden City in Beijing. It sits on a 13 square kilometre site in Tianjin and is expected to have residential buildings for 75,000 people, commercial buildings, schools, entertainment facilities, medical amenities and a science park.
Eco-City Competition Hotting Up in China [News] | Green Business Times
Energy Crisis-Architect’s to take lead Rethinking Design | Feature Article 2011-02-20
This article is intended to galvanise public thinking particularly persons involved in the design, procurement, delivery and use of buildings in Ghana. It seeks to initiate a dialogue amongst technical experts’, policy maker’s, city councils, urban and town planning and city managers. Under sec C of the UN Habitat Agenda a broad base and wide range cross sectional consultation with government and her people is advised. Ghana has been fortunate; we had a head start with naturally clean generated energy from Akosombo as the bedrock of our post independence economic resurgence. This vision of Nkrumah has kept Ghana pristine from associated environmental degradation and health related respiratory problems resulting from powering with coal or diesel generated electricity.
I Want My Twitter TV! | Fast Company
Enlarge Blue Magic: From left, Robin Sloan, Chloe Sladden, and Ross Hoffman mash up anthropology and fun to make Twitter TV. | Photograph by Jill Greenberg Enlarge
How the Germans keep a lid on prices
You get a lot more house for your money in Germany and there's a simple explanation for the stability in the housing market - steady growth in supply. HOW does this sound? An outside staircase leads up to this modern villa. Built on a near quarter-acre block, it boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms, floor heating, garage, sauna, pool and a landscaped garden, complete with a fish pond.Energy efficiency retrofits help sell foreclosed homes | Sustainable Industries
Aaron Fairchild Two years ago, the Seattle entrepreneur Aaron Fairchild embarked on a gutsy business launch. He’d seen the value that energy-efficiency retrofits could create, so he formed G2B Ventures to buy undervalued and foreclosed homes, weatherize them, and market them to homebuyers – with the green improvements as a selling point. And despite the housing market collapse, he wanted to raise a $50 million fund to get started. Prominent local investors like Michael Butler of Cascadia Capital told him he was naïve or crazy. He sought out funders anyway.HUD Grants Show Post-Partisan Promise | Metropolis POV | Metropolis Magazine
The U.S. department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced grants of nearly $100 million at the end of last year to fund community projects that forward its six livability principles , guidelines that encourage walkable development, affordable housing and environmental protection. The grants are managed by HUD’s office of Sustainable Housing and Communities and attracted applications from towns and cities all across the United States. As the program’s director Shelly Poticha describes it, her office was “overwhelmed by the number and variety of the applications” which originated from both Democratic and Republican enclaves. This diversity is encouraging in today’s contentious political climate, when legislation that funds such grants provokes heated arguments and claims of a government conspiracy to control how we live.CEPT students win Int’l design competition - Ahmedabad Mirror,Ahmedabad Mirror
Posted On Friday, February 04, 2011 at 02:41:55 AM Two groups of students at the CEPT university won accolades at the 9th International Association of Human Habitat’s International Student Design Competition-2011 held in Mumbai on January 31. The first prize was won by a group of four students from the urban design department for their design proposal ‘Sabarmati Transit Precinct - an inquiry in sustainable humane living environment’. The design proposal is based on the theme of planning and designing a hub for a sustainable humane habitat.Magazines and Blogs