Design
If you want to live in this Arizona community, you’ll have to ditch your car
Try and imagine your life without a car. No noisy engines, no busy asphalt streets, your grocery store within walking distance. This is the vision for Culdesac Tempe, a new development slated for 2020 in the fast-growing outskirts of Phoenix. The project will house 1,000 people, all without cars. Read More...
Creating pockets of air within concrete fixtures can slash building emissions
The production of concrete is one of the biggest sources of emissions in the world, so anything done to reduce the production of it is a win for the environment. In Germany, architects have come up with a clever way to use less concrete in buildings by incorporating air pockets made of recycled Read More...
Sustainable fashion: this water-proof parka is made from recycled PET bottles
When it comes to coats and jackets, choosing a light-yet-durable option is best, so you don’t find yourself in a mummy-tight arctic coat when all you really need is a lightweight, waterproof shell. That is where the Maium Lightweight Parka comes in to play. Both light and waterproof, this parka Read More...
Soil erosion is a huge problem for small-scale farmers. Here's a brilliant fix
Soil erosion is a vicious cycle, one that is being exacerbated by climate changes as long periods of drought followed by brief, torrential rainfall mean that fertile topsoil and seeds are flushed away before they get a chance to germinate. This leads to a lack of vegetation, which in turn makes it Read More...
Nike has designed tailor-made shoes for doctors and nurses
If you really think about it, working at a hospital is sort of a sport in itself, with workers walking up to 5 miles during a typical 12-hour shift and only sitting for less than one hour--all while saving lives. For that reason, Nike has created tailor-made shoes just for the hard-working Read More...
This coating helps toilets save water by making poop basically flush itself
In a single day, more than 141 billion liters of water is used to flush toilets—and even in places prone to drought, it’s typically clean drinking water. What if you didn’t have to use as much water to flush what you put in them? Don’t be squeamish: New tech from researchers at Penn State Read More...
What Finland’s amazing new library can teach us about valuing public amenities
In a country that boasts one of the world’s highest literacy rates, the arrival of the new central library in the capital of Finland last year was a kind of moon-landing-like moment of national bonding. The €98 million facilities, whose opening in December 2018 marked the centenary of Finnish Read More...
This innovative device helps beekeepers take better care of their hives
Beekeepers frequently open up their hives to check on them, but doing so adds to their workload and stresses out the bees. That's why a team of Dutch entrepreneurs set out to develop a high-tech alternative, resulting in the BEEP base hive-monitoring system. The base itself is a weatherproof Read More...
Urban farms could breathe life into the typical big-box store parking lot
Typical parking lots at big-box stores, sprawling over several acres, are empty most of the time, unnecessarily occupying space that could otherwise be designated for more useful community projects. One way to breathe life and utility into these bland spaces could be by turning them into urban Read More...
Algae is going mainstream as Kanye West unveils algae-based sneakers
We can already imagine some of our readers facepalming after reading this headline, but the fact of the matter is nothing spreads faster than when an “influencer” bringing it to the mainstream. That’s why it’s awesome that Kanye West unveiled a new shoe prototype from his Yeezy fashion Read More...