Designer Mohsen Saleh is developing a “lightfarm” concept that specifically engineers a building’s facade and rooftop to maximize the collection and concentration of solar energy via HCPV, (high concentration photovoltaic cells). The energy captured is then used for heating and power generation.

The design is estimated to be much more efficient than conventional photovoltaic installations which produce 12% to 19% efficiency.  The sunlight hitting the building’s facade is concentrated by thin plastic fresnel lenses under a glass covering, it’s estimated that a few square centimeters of HCPV utilizing this technology could generate electricity for the household at a phenomenal efficiency return of up to 40%, while diverting the other 60% of solar energy, which would normally be waste, to heat-sinks for water and space heating purposes.

The home in the accompanying renderings was designed by Nasser Taghavi.

Casey Brown Architects, or more specifically – Aussie architects Caroline Casey and Robert Brown – created this minimalist, two-story copper clad tower as an off-grid retreat for one of their clients. The location of the structure, a remote mountain sheep station, necessitated it being prefabricated off-site, transported to the location and erected. The small footprint house is called both “Permanent Camping” and the “Mudgee Tower.”

The sides of the camp open up to reveal tremendous views of the surrounding landscape, and when closed, protect the building from the elements, brush fires and interlopers. (more…)

This year, New Zealand is happy to be the first finalist from the Southern Hemisphere to make it to the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. As New Zealand sees the light of the sun everyday before the rest of the world, they have named the home the First Meridian Light House.

The design concept for the house was inspired by the traditional Kiwi bach, a New Zealand holiday home.

Kiwi culture places heavy value on socializing and being outdoors.  (more…)

There’s something about micro wind turbine technology that gets my imagination fired-up. I believe it has a similar effect on Italian designer Piero Ceratti, who has conceptualized his Eagle Nest Hut (pictured in renderings above + below) as an off-grid bed and breakfast in the sky.

The self-sustaining, mountaintop hostel is designed to be powered by 80 micro wind turbines that would feed, and store energy in 18 lithium ion batteries. It’s reasonable to assume that an unobstructed mountaintop will be buffeted by strong enough winds to keep the hut’s array of horizontal turbines whirring 24/7. (more…)

A talented group of NJIT and Rutgers University students have teamed up to create the eNJoy house, a prototype for a sustainable modular home that expands the possibilities of green building. The group of young architecture, planning and engineering students calls themselves “Team NJ”.

The futuristic, energy efficient, 940 square-foot, one bedroom eNJoy home is the two schools’ submission to the 2011 Solar Decathlon, a solar-housing competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy every two years.

The home’s energy efficient systems are designed to power all its appliances while heating the home in winter and cooling it in summer. (more…)

By stacking 3 cargo containers you can create a nifty, small-footprint domicile. This three story, conceptual home was designed for an artist by the design firm M2ATK. First floor is envisioned as the living area and kitchen, second floor is the bedroom and the top floor is the studio where all the free-wheeling, creative stuff happens. The home is both easily constructed and moved.

Related: more green architecture

Architect William Morgan’s goggle-eyed Dune House was created back in the mid 1970′s. The two, side-by-side, duplex apartments were built right into the Atlantic Beach, Florida dune using swimming pool technology – a gunite-concrete shell anchored to a cast concrete floor. (more…)

NASA’s Sustainability Base is nearly complete. The 20 million “smart building” opens in July and will be one of a few structures that can generate more electricity than it consumes.

Located near San Jose, the Sustainability Base is generating a lot of buzz among businesses and government agencies trying to be more green. (more…)

Young designer, (she’s an undergrad at Western Washington U.), Kristen-Lehua Barcheski has come up with some innovative designs for shipping container housing. Her EIGHTx8 series features concepts that utilize the ubiquitous cargo container as the basic building unit.

The compact, modular nature of the container units makes them an ideal living solution for crowded urban communities. (more…)