bowery page Bowery Bicycle
Photography Courtesy of Bowery Lane Bicycles

bowery title Bowery Bicycle

Ah, nothing to fill you with that enticing feeling of freedom like cruising your bike down the block on a grand summer’s day. The wind in your hair, sun in your face, and your fellow commuters’ envious gaze on your exquisite new ride. Because really, what other way to ride a bike than with impeccable style? The people behind Bowery Lane Bicycles, a New York-based family company, have the right idea — and they’re performing it with great finesse.
     The retro-style Bowery Lane bikes are handmade in New York out of American steel. The two-wheelers are available in three styles, all of which are locally handcrafted and manufactured and made with eco-friendly parts such as sustainable cork grips. The Broncks Black — the company’s flagship, inspired by a Dutch original — is even made with renewable solar energy, bringing together traditional craftsmanship and sustainable technology. The company was founded with the goal to make affordable bikes that have more to offer than flair and timeless beauty (as if that wouldn’t be enough) and they sure deliver what they set out to do.


Greenspace June 25, 2009 By Hannah Bergqvist

zero The Zerozero title The Zero

First was the Tesla – an electric dream car taking you from zero to sixty in four seconds with a range of 220 miles per charge, bringing environmental responsibility and high-performance sports cars together in perfect harmony. Of course, its one drawback is its price tag, affordable only to the super rich.
     Enter the Zero, straight out of the land of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati. Named for its lack of greenhouse emissions, the name might also be a hint at its accessible cost. The newcomer isn’t able to go as fast or as far as its competition but the Zero brings something much-needed to the world of electric cars: affordability. Its €18-20.000 price tag makes it a realistic option for the average driver, beating the much-anticipated Chevy Volt to the punch by a solid year. And the cute compact design makes it the Mini-Cooper of electric cars. Let’s hope consumers will find it as irresistible as we do.
     Hitting markets early next year, the 113-inch two-seater will be a perfect for cramped city streets. Constructed primarily out of cast aluminum, it weighs merely 1,200 pounds, one quarter of which is the latest generation of Lithium batteries. It charges simply by connecting to a normal socket. The chassis is one hundred percent recyclable aluminum. With a range of eighty-eight miles on a single charge, it is well within the average daily usage of most drivers, and can accelerate from zero to fifty-five km per hour in less than five seconds.
     The Zero will have its world premiere at the International Motor Show in Bologna, Italy, in December.

med11 Club Medmed title2 Club Med

Interesting things are happening in the south of Senegal a few miles northwest of Dakar. Edouard François, the architect known for his innovative green establishments, is rebuilding the old Les Almadies Club Med creating a sustainable holidaymakers paradise.
     The 250 rooms – made of clay, wheat and wood – are perhaps best described as wooden bird’s nests, or cocoons, as they rest above ground elevated by poles. The location of the resort is stunning with the North Atlantic Ocean on one side and a lagoon on the other. To provide the guests with a full view, each of the rooms have 360-degree windows.
“In our daily life we normally only have windows facing one way, maybe two, but never all the way round. A 360-degree view means that you are free”, he says.
     François has become known as one of the entrepreneurs of green architecture and the new Club Med is no exception.
     “With this place I want to do something that is very poetic and unusual and that also deals with ecology. We have a very high level of ecological ambition for the project and are aiming to become self-sufficient.”

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tree Yellow Treehouse
Photography by Lucy Gauntlett

tree title Yellow Treehouse

Treehouses are one of our very favorite things. And The Yellow Treehouse Restaurant, just north of Auckland, New Zealand, offers diners a unique treehouse experience. Wrapped around a Redwood, this small eatery serves up to eighteen guests with a full dinner menu, but its setting is the main attraction. With a cocoon-like form, its simple oval shape melds organically with the tree’s trunk, lighting up at night like a lantern hanging in the forest. New Zealand architects Peter Eising and Lucy Gauntlett created this woodsy retreat — a simple structure wrapped around the trunk and structurally tied at top and bottom — so the vertical fins would mimic the trees surrounding it and allow the structure to blend in as if it were a natural growth. Work began on the structure in September, and by early January guests were enjoying their meals with a bird’s-eye view.

pacificenvironments

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Greenspace April 12, 2009 By Jazzi McGilbert

sex title Sex Ed

Green and sex certainly aren’t a common word association pairing, but hey, why not? A natural rebellion to its National Geographic predecessors, actress/model Isabella Rossellini is back for a second season of her seriously bizarre TMI series Green Porno on the Sundance Channel. Essentially the anti-Animal Planet, Rossellini uses her intelligence, sharp wit, and role-play to penetrate (pun so intended) the sex lives of oft-overlooked insects, invertebrates, and other creepy crawlies. If you slept through most of your science classes, Rossellini’s cooky costumes, copulation, and creatures – who are all played by one hilarious Rossellini – might teach you a thing or two. On May 5th, the scientifically accurate two-minute shorts are back to reign on as viral sensations. While the series may be too raunchy for the classroom, we promise you haven’t laughed as hard at the words “penis” and “vagina” since middle school.

wonderland title Wonderland

Recycled clothing usually connotes trips to Goodwill or hand-me-downs, and recycled couture typically has its shining moment walking down a red carpet. But over the past three years, London scientist Tony Ryan and artist/design professor Helen Storey decided to tackle our notions of ‘recyclable wear’ and turn it completely on its head, making couture gowns from dissolvable textiles. The duo’s Wonderland exhibit ups the ante on both couture and sustainability – which, let’s be honest, have been pretty mutually exclusive as far as aesthetics go. The exhibition of their “disappearing gowns” gradually lowers dresses into large bowls of water, where they dissolve to create “vibrant underwater fireworks.” The Wonderland team hopes to introduce their “practical solutions to current ethical issues,” to the masses, interpreting their ideas into ingenious uses. Their developments (like intelligent packagings that dissolve into a gel in which seeds can be grown) have garnered numerous awards, and could revolutionize the issue of plastic waste. You really have to see it to believe it, so if you didn’t make it to the last stop in London, check out the video by Nick Knight on the Wonderland site. Super sci-fi.

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Greenspace, Music November 18, 2008 By Timothy Gunatilaka
los Los Campesinos
Photography by Jon Bergman

los title1 Los Campesinos

Los Campesinos! are fighting a war. And given that the Spanish word los campesinos translates loosely to “the peasants”, images of Franco and the Spanish Civil War can’t be far behind. But while this Welsh outfit is indeed in the midst of a revolution, the war is being waged between digital technologies and archaic modes of production. This is not to say Los Campesinos are Marxists, or even Luddites, but they do aspire to preserve something more precious: the materiality of musical culture.
     In just the last year, their song “You! Me! Dancing!” quickly turned from breakout single to an imperative mandate at hipster dance parties in lofts across the globe. Yet, less than eight months after releasing their debut Hold on Now, Youngster…, the band has already put out an ambitious second full-length, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, whose parameters extend far beyond mere music. Only 5,000 hard copies will be released, and there will be no singles. But the limited-edition boxes come with a DVD documentary and a fanzine featuring contributions from Xiu Xiu, Grandaddy, and Menomena.
     “With MP3s now so easy to obtain, there has to be an incentive to want the physical product,” laments frontman Gareth (who refuses to share his actual surname). “As a fan, that should be part of the excitement, and something that’s now missing with a lot of music.

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Fashion, Greenspace November 12, 2008 By Jazzi McGilbert
greenhaus Greenhaus
Photography Courtesy of Olsenhaus

greenhaus title Greenhaus

Growing pocketfuls of designers have taken on the challenge, but it still takes a lot to impress on the green fashion front. Eco-friendly fashion has found a worthy competitor in Olsenhaus, a new line of vegan shoes that definitely don’t sacrifice aesthetics for ethics. Designer Elizabeth Olsen’s artful metallic paint-splattered booties, pumps, and flats make reducing your carbon footprint that much more stylish while still providing shopping addicts with a little (enjoyable) guilt. Olsen draws inspiration from her own vegan upbringing to make designs concerned with “consciousness, purpose, function, and art,” she says. One hundred percent ‘cruelty-free’, and made with high standards in both animal and human rights, Olsenhaus declares “the revolution will be accessorized.” With shoes like these, we’re ready for that revolution.

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Greenspace November 11, 2008 By Jazzi McGilbert
lifepod LifePod
Photography by Kyu Che

lifepod title LifePod

Many of us like to get out of the city and enjoy the nature that remains. San Francisco based Architect-Artist Kyu Che’s sustainable Lifepod looks a lot like an iPod dock turned camping tent, but it’s Che’s artistic interpretation of the traditional Mongolian ‘ger’ or ‘yurt’. An environmental enthusiast, Che has recently improved upon his 1997 design of a highly portable capsule for nomadic living. In what could eventually be prime real estate, the futuristic prefab uses advanced nautical, automotive, aeronautical, and RV technology, allowing it to meld with nearly any environment and provide a perfectly off-the-grid nature-dwelling habitat for any wide-eyed wanderer. With the option to add screens or glass doors, this capsule has the potential to function as a backyard retreat or an outdoor office.

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Greenspace September 25, 2008 By Tara Ramroop
fab1 Fabulous Pre Finds
Photography Courtesy of MOMA New York

fab title Fabulous Pre Finds

It just wouldn’t be modern art if it didn’t offer some pointed social commentary. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City gives new meaning to the phrase “home delivery” as it welcomes a new exhibit exploring the history of pre-fabricated housing. Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, of course, includes a look toward the future with a five-story structure dubbed the Cellophane House. It consists of fifteen easy-to-assemble chunks and runs on solar power. Sorry, it’s not available for purchase just yet. But someday such options might provide welcome alternatives.

moma.org