Buildup To Greenbuild: The Green Roofs of Toronto. All images credit Lloyd Alter unless otherwise noted.Greenbuild, the huge green building conference put on by the US Green Building Council, is coming to my home town, Toronto, next month. As many as 30,000 American builders, designers, manufacturers and media will descend on the city (if they got their passports in time). TreeHugger is going to be your go-to place to find the best in Toronto's green building, places to go, things to see and people to meet. These are interesting times in Toronto; no doubt the city was pitched to the USGBC on the basis of its green credentials. But since then the civic government has changed to one that is anti-green, anti-bike, anti-urban and anti just about anything that was previously pro.
Photo credit Susanne Jespersen Toronto's first important green roof was built on top of the Mountain Equipment Coop store on King Street in Toronto, over a decade ago. More: Green Roof on MEC Building View Lloyd Alter's Picks For Greenbuild 2011 in a larger map. For Hospitals to be Green, Patient Rooms Must Be Right‐Sized. Photo Credit: BBH Design - West Facade During Construction When's the last time you questioned the design practices hospitals? Never? Well, you should - of all the building types in the world, hospitals should be a symbol of good health, sustainability, and wellness. But they are not. On average, it takes between five to ten years for a facility to go from the drawing board to its grand opening.
The question is how to design the most state-of-the-art facility today so it will still be state-of-the-art when it opens a decade later? Photo Credit: BBH Design - Image of Full Scale Mock-Up of Patient RoomNormal Modus OperandiThe normal modus operandi for healthcare systems is to make spaces overly flexible to deal with the quick pace of technological changes. Not only that, once the buildings are in place, you have to operate them. Photo Credit: BBH Design - Full Scale Mock-Up of Patient Room Photo Credit: BBH Design - Tour of Mock-Up of Patient Room. Vertical Farms For London Are Lovely Green Eye Candy. Vertical farms may be pie in the sky, but they are a lot of fun for architects with time on their hands. AWR recently organized a competition to design a vertical farm with a residential use called LOFT 2011. I am particularly fond of the Second Honorable Mention, the Breathing Vertical Farm. There isn't a lot of growing area, but it would make a beautiful place to live.
See the whole entry here. The winner was VAWA, or "Vertical agriculture with architecture. " The jurors do not issue a statement of why it won. See the full entry here Second Prize went to Vertical Fields. It would be quite dramatic looking as well, sitting beside Norman Foster's London City Hall.
Third prize went to the Cultivated Carousel, where somehow trays of plants rotate on giant wheels. Like most vertical farms, these proposals are long on visuals and short on reality; a working vertical farm would be a lot more utilitarian, like Gordon Graff's master's thesis. Riverside Medical Center Gets a Gorgeous New Green Roofed Addition Ambius Riverside Medical Green roof – Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World. Renewable Energy. Subscribe to Permaculture Magazine.
Subscribing to Permaculture gives you : A saving of up to around 30%1 on the UK price shop price. 1 year £14.95 (rrp £19.80 saving 24.49%) 2 years £27.95 1(rrp £39.60 saving 29.42%) Plus our subscription package now offers FREE Digital and App access for all print subscribers(worth £10 a year if purchased separately) A subscription includes not just the printed issues but digital access as well, offering you: * FREE access to over 20 years of back issues, searchable by interest * Download issues for offline reading * Bookmark your own favourite pages * Share to social media networks * Apple access via Permaculture App via iTunes * PC & Android access via Exactly * Exclusive reader offers * Free home delivery ALSO, if you renew your subscription we will also send a friend of yours a FREE introductory copy of Permaculture – just send us their name & postal address and we will do the rest.
Subscribe online One year 4 issues (inc. p&p): Two years 8 issues (inc. p&p):* Permaculture magazine digital Donations. Home Energy Conservation. PC peripherals continue to draw power after you turn your PC off. Use one of these devices to turn off the power to all the PC peripherals automatically when your PC is turned off. USB mini Power Minder. This device allows you to automatically turn off all of your PC peripherals (printer, scanner, ...) when you turn off the PC. . $15 Our test of the Mini Power Minder --------------------------------------- Smart Strip -- turns off everything plugged into the power strip when the item that is plugged into the "control" outlet (usually your PC) is turned off.
Our test of the Smart Strip... The WattStopper has a people sensor, and turns off power to everything plugged into it when no people are present. More on PC Power Savings .. Cellular Green-Roofed Pajariro Jardin Infantil La Aurora Kindergarten Sprouts in Colombia CTRL G Pajarito – Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World.