Pallets No Longer Good For Just Shipping… Or Making Huge Fires

For this year’s Architecture Triennale, there will be an exhibition that focuses on humanitarian housing solutions. Ten architects have been chosen to design and build full-scale prototypes to be showcased. A few of the participating architects include Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, and I-Beam Design. I-Beam Design has their Pallet House that they will be showing in the exhibition. Pallets are found in most countries nowadays and make for cheap, available building materials. This house took one week to build and furnish. Homes like this show that there are quick, affordable ways to provide housing for poverty stricken areas that allow easy manipulation and customization.

The Pallet House

French Architect Receives Pritzker

This year’s Pritzker Prize has been awarded to French architect Jean Nouvel. His diverse portfolio of work and modern design ethic made him a stand out to the Pritzker Prize Selection Jury.

“For over 30 years Jean Nouvel has pushed architecture’s discourse and praxis to new limits. His inquisitive and agile mind propels him to take risks in each of his projects, which, regardless of varying degrees of success, have greatly expanded the vocabulary of contemporary architecture.”

- Pritzker Prize Jury

Some of Nouvel’s work includes the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the Arab World Institute in Paris. The prize includes a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion that will be presented on June 2 at the Library of Congress in Washington.

New York Times Article

Earth Hour: 2008

As more and more signs of global warming show up, people are beginning to find ways to help the environment in both small and big proportions. The people of Earth Hour have called for everyone that wants to make a difference to join millions by turning their lights off from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm on March 29th. It will mark the first anniversary of the event which started in 2007.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.

-Earth Hour

Follow the link to read about Earth Hour’s objectives and see how you can help make a difference for your planet.

Earth Hour

Update: Eiffel Tower’s Facelift a No Go

Even though there has been so much press about the supposed Eiffel Tower Addition, it looks like it was all just hot air. It seems that Serero Architect’s design proposal of the 120th anniversary addition was seen on their website and assumed to be the final verdict of what was to be placed on the Eiffel Tower. Too bad that it was just a rumor, the design would have been really cool to hang out on. Dwell.com has explained the situation in a recent article. Hit the link to get the low-down.

Dwell’s Eiffel Tower Mix-up Article

Behind the Scenes of a Cool Car Commercial

It’s rare nowadays to see a television commercial without some kind of computer generated graphics going on somewheres on the screen. Some of the really good commercials would be fun to see how they were developed and created. Thanks to The Embassy, the Citroen C4 Runner commercial has been illustrated in stages to show how they went about making the video. Follow the link to get the full article.

Citroen C4 Runner Commercial Article

Can’t Move Out? Then Move Up!

By 2016, London will be in need of space to house one million more people that are expected to be moving into the city. With the current infrastructure close to being maxed out, one good idea is to move upwards. The group, Popularchitecture, has come up with a plan to build a tower that could house an entire “city” to itself. Every floor would be a “neighborhood” of 600 and a “village” would be 20 floors and house 6,000. Open areas would have gardens, open air theaters, tennis courts, and ice skating rinks. As of now, this is all pure ideas and theory but something like this would definitely help alleviate the pressure of space in London and also create a whole new layer to the urban fabric of the U.K.

Project Page via io9

Eiffel Tower’s 120th Anniversary Facelift

To celebrate the Eiffel Tower’s 120th anniversary, a competition was held to find a design that would liven up the 120 year old structure. Serero Architect’s design calls for an addition to the observation deck that is made of a temporary carbon kevlar structure and increases the current 3,000 sq. ft. of space to 6,200 sq. ft. of usable visitor space. The new design looks oddly familiar to Coney Island’s “Eiffel Tower of the Boardwalk” which was renovated last year. The addition will be completed by next year.

Project Page via Dwell

16 Green Home Products and Projects

Popular Mechanics has put together their 2008 list of 16 sustainable home products and projects. They give very reliable reviews of some of the newest green products on the market which are helpful for people looking to make quick and easy changes for a more sustainable home environment.

The Best of Green Design: 2008

Glow In the Dark Gravel

We all know that when the power goes out, we look for the emergency backup lighting to guide us out of the dark. These lights that draw power from a backup energy source could be replaced by glowing gravel in some buildings which would free up power to be used on other emergency facilities. Glowing gravel can be arranged in any shape to produce an image, sign, text, etc… S. Lovenstein BV, located in Gelderland of the Netherlands, is marketing the product as a “hidden saftey”.

Product page via Transmaterial

Flip That… White House?

Storefront for Art and Architecture and Control Group have gotten together and created a competition to redesign the White House. They are calling for architects and designers to redesign the “ultimate architectural symbol of political power” in the U.S. Design submissions must be in by April 27, 2008 and the winner will be announced in May. The winning design will be displayed at Storefront Gallery in New York and on their website. It will also be published in Surface magazine. First prize is $5,000, second prize is $3,000, and third prize is $1,500. Our new president will be needing a place to stay soon so get to work!!

White House Redux