Acetio | Blogma

The New York Times has a profile of architect Roald Gundersen who builds homes using entire trees instead of boards.

Tracy and I talk a lot about cobb homes and other eco-architecture styles (like this awesome "hobbit house")

The way Gundersen and his family live looks like the fantasy I used to have when I lived in Harlem.

The Fun Theory is a Volkswagen-supported contest that ends December 15, 2009. Come up with an idea that uses fun to encourage positive behavior. Their examples include wiring a public staircase like a piano keyboard to encourage walking instead of riding the escalator; each stair triggers a different note to play.

This is a charming and brilliant idea: public art + social consciousness + gaming as something more than just gaming.

Below is a video showing how to encourage non-littering behavior: have the trash sound like it's falling down a deep well.

WalkScore is a site that rates towns and neighborhoods based on how easy it is to get around on foot - The way it works is essentially based on how close a place is to businesses. So in a way, the site is as much a measure of population density and zoning regulations as anything else.

When I think about the places I would want to live, it ultimately comes down to the single issue of how pedestrian-friendly the place is. Living in New York was great for this reason, and Lubbock, TX was terrible. As a kid, we lived across the street from a library, but the street was a 12-lane highway with no place to cross. We had to wait for my dad to come home with the car so that we could drive across the street.

I first heard about this guy, Reishee Sowa, about ten years ago on some TV news show. He built a floating island out of empty plastic bottles and was able to live on it as it floated near the Yucatan Peninsula.

Unfortunately, the island was destroyed by hurricane in 2005 and since then Sowa has been working on the replacement, named Spiral Island.

The island uses a quarter of a billion soda bottles tied together, with plywood sheets mounted on top of them, then sand is poured over the boards. Mangrove trees, which thrive in salt water, help anchor the sand to the bottles and provide shade.

Sowa is nearly completely independent on his island, gathering drinking water from rain, and using solar ovens for cooking.

More here, a blog devoted to islands

And more and photos here

This idea has fascinated me for 10 years, and is increasingly relevant as people try to find ways of controlling the enormous and growing amount of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean.

This is an idea I've heard suggested but had never seen anyone try to implement: environmentally-friendly events.

Most events are so wasteful (all those drink stirrers, those plastic cups and plates, and those conference lanyards, tote bags, etc.) that it seemed like an obvious idea.

From the site:

dvGreen designs sustainable events without sacrificing style. We show our clients that they can reduce their ecological footprint while still throwing a beautiful party - one that just happens to be Green. By featuring organic food, flowers, and table linens; tree-free paper invitations; donating or composting leftover food; purchasing carbon offsets, and more, dvGreen creates incredible events that you can be proud of forever.