The soaring number of eco-communities and eco-homes have resulted in a growing demand for sustainable materials.
One company that has benefited enormously from the boom is T Mawr, a traditional and ecological building company based in Brecon, which began growing rapidly in 2005 and has doubled in size every year since. Its workforce of four in 2000 has increased to 22 this year.
After concerns about the amount of sand extracted and dredged in the UK – 70 million tonnes and 12 million tonnes a year respectively – it pioneered the development of glaster and limecrete, natural alternatives to plaster and concrete, made from glass and lime respectively.
In November, the company launched Welsh sheep’s wool as a means of insulation and now sells 10 million tons of it every month.
Read more @ the SOURCE: icWales – Meeting the demand for sustainable materials– Author Steffan Rhys
At the moment, the grandest and most ethically ambitious architecture in the city — the green, living roof of the new convention centre — resembles a hair plug job. There’s a lot of bald up there.
It’s sparse, but growth proceeds. They started planting it two weeks ago, and crews are working their way across the six-acre roof sewing and digging in more than 750,000 plants. A green blush appeared on the canvas of the roof’s dark-brown growing medium of pumice and organic matter.
Read more @ the SOURCE: Vancouver Sun – City’s Signature Roof
A Connecticut architecture firm that designed Atlanta’s 1180 Peachtree Tower and Four Seasons Place, a 3.1 million-square-foot complex in Malaysia, is set to “make a new heart of Oklahoma City” with a Devon Energy skyscraper.
Larry Nichols, chief executive officer of Devon, said Friday that Pickard Chilton was hired from among seven internationally-accomplished architecture firms the company has interviewed the past several months.
Read more @ the SOURCE: NewsOK.com – Devon picks world-leading architects to design headquarters, public space
The University of Pennsylvania plans to announce today that Marilyn Jordan Taylor, FAIA, a long-time partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, will be the new dean of its School of Design.
Taylor, a pioneering female architect widely respected for her leadership in complex urban projects and civic initiatives, joined SOM 35 years ago. She was elected partner in 1985 and in 2001 became the firm’s first female chairman.
Her appointment at PennDesign takes effect October 1, 2008.
SOURCE:Architectural Record – Penn Announces New Architecture Dean
Only a few years ago, anyone who suggested growing plants on a roof might have been dismissed as a complete crank. Not any more.
Sedum on roof
The Botanical Roof Garden, Augustenborg, Sweden
Green roofs have started to appear on new buildings up and down the country with remarkable speed. Most feature a thin layer of the amazingly resilient hardy succulent plant, the sedum. Several different kinds are used, with leaves in a variety of different colours: yellow, green, red and bronze.
Grass and turf roofs are still not that common in this country. It’s a different story in Scandinavia, which has a long tradition of using turf, not least because it makes perfect practical sense: the layer of soil and grass insulates against cold winter weather, and protects the roof from wind damage.
Read more @ the SOURCE: Telegraph.co.uk – Up on the roof garden – .