IDEAbuilder at GABreport

An article on our Lake Tahoe proof-of-concept project is now online at the GABreport website. The editor, Mignon O'Young is a green architect and the editor of the GABreport - a great online resource for the green building community.

Thank you Mignon! We look forward to seeing you at West Coast Green and keeping up with you at your website and at cleantech and green building events.

IDEAbuilder at West Coast Green

We will have a booth at West Coast Green in the innovation pipeline area. Please do stop by and visit us.

We will have demos to show and will be ready to answer your questions about the future of building, 3D design, robotic fabrication, sustainability and green building in Europe, etc.

Looking forward to a great event!

Green building - simply requiring LEED certification doesn't work

The New York Times coverage of LEED certified buildings that are not actually very green is great coverate of a growing problem. Simply installing bamboo floors and bike racks may get a building more LEED points but it doesn't make the building very green. Even a USGBC commissioned study shows how easy it is to "game the system" and get a high rating using the least expensive, point-winning features.

Obsolete Building Codes and Amory Lovins Changing the world

When I was up in Seattle a couple of weeks ago I met with some of the writers from worldchanging.com. I really like their site, support their work, and believe, as does Amory Lovins, of the Rocky Mountain Instititute, that" building codes are obsolete before the ink is dry."

Europe leads the U.S. in Green Building?

Here's the link and I agree. Real green building requires "systems thinking" and the integration of multiple systems and iterative design. Good ideas happen everywhere and integrating them quickly into new designs is the real innovation.

Here is an article from 2007 by New York Times architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff, asking "Why Are They Greener Than We Are?" Much has change since 2007 but than Europeans have also passed a lot of new legislation mandating zero energy buildings AND moved further ahead in adopting advanced computer-aided-manufacturing technologies.

Five Green Products from Holland

Five companies introduced at the green-in-the-Netherlands event today

Jaga Heaters - design radiators and more
Thermocushion from Tonzon - thermal insulation
Green Amazons - liaison between the U.S. and EU, especially the Netherlands
Capzo - phase change materials
iDo Technology - home automation

Martin Eberhard: How blogs helped build the Tesla Roadster

Inspirational blog post on the importance of blogging, transparency, and being open and real.