Pretty Sweet Green Roof

Japanese practice Atelier Tekuto has completed this aluminium-framed private residence in Kanazawa City, western Japan.

We especially liked this little green roof system. Other sustainable features include full LED lighting, rainwater harvesting and solar panels on the top for water heating. It is helpful to see the variety of green roof designs. We think this one is pretty sweet.

Architectural Review featured this house. For additional images of it, click here.

Relief from dog days. Really.

Dog Barn

Heart Box

If green roofs are good for the house, why not the doghouse? Well, maybe. We came across this article in the Los Angeles Times, Home and Garden section today. The article provides instructions for building your own sustainable doghouse with a rooftop garden. This press release we found indicates that even Bo Obama is getting one. His is being donated and uses only reclaimed materials.

The designs above, and Bo's dog house, were created by landscape architect Stephanie Rubin and her partner, sculptor Chris Isner. Their designs for both dog and bird houses and can be found here. The prices for the dog house designs span from $1,000 to $4,000, depending on Fido's size. Not pricey, if you live in the posh Brentwood neighborhood in Los Angeles, where the dog houses are popular, maybe as yard props.

We did wonder if folks have dog houses in the yard anymore. Aren't the dogs all laying on the couch in a nice air conditioned house, with their luxury Whole Foods vegan pet food and Godiva "dog bones"? But, we thought we should pass this news along to help our readers remain on the leading edge of the sustainable pet movement. Thanks to this idea, it may not be so bad anymore for someone who is "in the dog house."We feel certain there's a little beer cooler in there.

Green is Blue is Green

Left, Rainwater HOG, installation view; right, a Rainwater HOG (Courtesy of Rainwater HOG)

Alison Arieff writes about water in today's NYT. The article offers an urgent message about water and also offers solutions for the retention and capture of the essential blue gold. Though 70% of the earth is covered with water, only 3% is fit for consumption.

Because water is cheap (at least for now) and seemingly in infinite supply, efforts to improve its use — or deter its overuse — have been inadequate. And it’s not just water itself that’s being wasted: there’s the energy required to transport and deliver it (particularly in such cases as Atlanta’s bizarre arrangement to get its water from Alabama and Florida, or any of us buying bottled water from Fiji). But there are innovations, large and small, now available that would provide for systematic management and optimization of our nation’s water.

Accompanying the article are some good photos of green roofs and greywater solutions. You can follow the link in Arieff's article or this link to Greywater Guerrillas. Greywater Guerrillas is a collaborative of educators, designers, builders and artists who educate and empower people to build sustainable water culture and infrastructure. Arieff provides an effective overview of the challenges and emerging solutions to water issues.

Don't miss the comment section following the article---informative and always entertaining.

How Much is Your Roof Worth?

Al Gore's Solar Roof

"RoofRay is a fantastic new Google Maps hack that allows you to zoom in on any American address' rooftop, specify the surface area available on that roof for solar panels and then calculate the potential power of the system, in total and per square foot. You need to know some arcane details — like the roof angle, a good guess will do— but it's an excellent resource if you're trying to get a rough independent gauge on whether an investment in solar power would pay for itself any time in your lifetime." Boing Boing

Oh. My. Goodness.

We want to
climb out the window
and sit on the roof

MoMA's P.S. 1 Young Architect's Competition

The ground breaking nature of MoMA's P.S. 1 Museum of Contemporary Art in Long island City, NY, continues through its Young Architect's Competition, now in its eight year. The competition asks for proposals for a temporary structure for the museum's summer music program, Warm-Up. Here is the description of the winning proposal and its young architects posted in World Architectural News. We like the proposal because of, among other things, the novel "green roof." Besides being a living structure, it is also made of inexpensive and sustainable materials that are recyclable after its use at P.S.1.

The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Back view of the garage

Green roof of the garage

Driveway view of the front of the garage

How's this for a green roof? This Seattle, Washington garage was built for storage of a motorcycle collection for the couple that lives in the house in the upper part of the frame in the first photo.

The roof is planted with baby blue eyes, red clover, yarrow and fescues, along with a mixture of drought tolerant sedums. Like all green roofs, it provides insulation and reduces rainwater run-off.

We think this is a great application of a green roof. It helps to inspire the movement toward more green solutions. This one is beautiful.