Architecture

Italian architecture firm Boeri Studio hopes to merge vegetation and urban architecture, with its Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) project. The Italian firm has designed a model that could see the "reforestation and naturalization" of metropolitan cities, by growing forests sky-ways. "Bosco Verticale [is a] device for the environmental survival of contemporary European cities," says Stefano Boeri, who worked with Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra on the project.  Read More

Designer Christopher Daniel has conceptualized plans for this prefabricated house, which morphs and adapts according to its setting. Dubbed California Roll, the structure is best suited to a desert environment and incorporates a homogeneous exterior which reflects the sun's heat.  Read More

Foster + Partners, the same architectural firm behind Apple's new campus, recently unveiled its plans for the new Kuwait International Airport. The architects are aiming for LEED Gold appraisal, which will see it become the first passenger terminal in the world to attain this level of environmental accreditation.  Read More

Simon Dale, with the help of his father in-law, has single-handedly built this low impact Hobbit house in the woodlands of West Wales. The eco-house, which rose from a muddy hole in the ground and took three months to complete, came in at under US$5,000 (GBP3,000) – demonstrating that you don't need to be architectural school graduate to come up with the goods. There's no need to be envious, however, because Dale will give you the plans and know-how to build your very own.  Read More

Sweden's CF Møller Architects has just signed off on the new and spectacular Skipark 360°- set to be the largest indoor ski resort in the world. The winter park will house the only indoor ski slope to meet the requirements for hosting the World Cup, measuring 700 meters (2,297 feet) long and with a drop of 160 meters (525 feet). With an impressive height close to 135 meters (443 feet), the sporting facility will create a striking landmark, positioned in a forest located in Balsta, 45 minutes outside Stockholm.  Read More

Three New York entrepreneurs have unveiled plans to turn a long abandoned underground train terminal into a lush and thriving garden. Conceived by architect James Ramsey, VP of the PopTech social innovation network Dan Barasch and money manager R. Boykin Curry IV, the Delancey Underground Project hopes to create New York's first subterranean green space beneath one of the city's least green zones - the Lower East Side - in an unused rail space that stretches over two acres and is nearly the size of Gramercy Park.  Read More

The concept of a floating island is not new, having first surfaced in Homer's Odyssey and with the first artificially-constructed floating island making an appearance in an 1895 novel by the father of science fiction, Frenchman Jules Verne. In recent times we've seen WallyIsland, The Streets of Monte Carlo and Tropical Island Paradise, but Project Utopia is both viable and strangely enticing - a 100m x 100m construct spanning 11 decks with the equivalent floorspace of a cruise liner.  Read More

Launched in 2009, MIT's "1K House" project challenges designers to come up with affordable, sustainable housing solutions that can improve conditions for the billions of people in the world living on less that $1 per day. The "Pinwheel House" designed by MIT graduate student Ying chee Chui is the first prototype.  Read More

This futuristic design by Australian architects Lacoste+Stevenson was submitted for the Busan Opera House competition. Resembling an enormous pebble perched at the end of the promenade (or an alien spaceship), the design dubbed "Open Suseok" hopes to resonate with the Korean tradition by drawing inspiration from local stone art (or Suseok).  Read More