“Cancer City”: Even if Masdar City does materialize against all odds, Nicolai Ouroussoff doubts its relevance to the rest of the sustainable world. The New York Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff has diverted the Masdar City argument from a project that might not lift off – the laughing stock of the Middle East – to something […]
Israel-China deals, green synagogues, droughts and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. Solaer, a Spanish renewable energy company, is expecting to claim 10% of the the Israeli PV solar market within five years. Progress is being made on the construction of Tel Aviv’s first green office tower, as well as on Ormat […]
From New York to Egypt, Arab architects and designers show that it’s possible to be cool and environmentally responsible. At Green Prophet, we are always happy to celebrate talented designers who care about the environment and nothing gets us more excited then when they are from the Middle East/North Africa region. So, I have put […]
Think of Israel and high tech, and the first word that pops into most minds is…Intel. Since setting up shop in the country in 1974, Intel Israel has been responsible for developing the Pentium and Centrino chips which power most PCs around the world. But in the future, if you put together Intel and Israel, […]
When the controversy subsides and construction begins, “Park 51,” otherwise known as the “Ground Zero Mosque,” will be LEED certified Green mosques are sprouting up all over the world. We brought news of the first eco-mosque in Cambridge, but now in the midst of the chaos and controversy surrounding the Ground Zero Mosque, organizers have […]
Check out Merav Feiglin’s Trashlights, mosaics, and other recycled material artwork between August 25th-27th. When Tel Aviv does something, sooner or later everyone else wants to do it too. For years Tel Aviv has devoted one weekend a year to celebrating its architecture, putting on a “Houses from Within” festival. (In recent years the festival […]
Is Geotectura’s Sun Sail just another clever design, or is it redefining Israel’s building policy? Bold and innovative, the Israel-based firm Geotectura produces otherworldly designs with a social conscience that even Bill McKibben might endorse. Their CT-cubes and hovering high-rises rival any science fiction graphic, while the X2S shelter, designed to provide physical and medical refuge […]
New water conservation faucets, solar-powered residential construction, Red-Dead Canal protests and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. Image via n0nick. During the week of July 13, 2010, researchers from Ben-Gurion University received the first US – Israel energy independence grant for their light water reactor research. Motorized bikes are catching on in […]
Sun, wind and solar updraft, could this skyscraper be the world’s first dual power plant and residential building? It’s not easy to shine in Dubai, where architecture and design have captured all the world’s firsts: the tallest skyscraper, the largest collection of artificial islands – so large they are said to be seen from space. […]
Dosier’s fearlessness of the science of construction sets her apart from her peers [image courtesy of flickr] We were so intrigued by Professor Ginger Dosier, the Architect at Sharjah University who grows bricks by combining sand, common bacteria, calcium chloride and urea, that we decided to dig deeper. Some architects, like those at Geotectura, develop mindbending […]
The third “Think Green” conference, held in Amman this week, encourages green buildings and sustainable communities. [image of an apartment building in Amman via: Sezgin Aytuna] We heard about Jordanian Queen Rania’s activities earlier this week, and now we will hear what HRH Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan has been up to. For the past […]
Young Israeli and Palestinian Architects Are Invited to Join World Renowned Architects for a Week of Green Building Lectures, Site Visits, and Workshops. With cooperation from Friends of the Earth Middle East, Hebron Polytechnic, and the Porter School for Environmental Studies (among many others), the International Non-Profit Organization ECOWEEK has announced that from July 25th […]
“The Sufi Order International (SOI) community desired to build an interspiritual temple called the ‘Universel’ at the Abode of the Message located in the Berkshire Mountains near New Lebanon, New York,” taken from Geotectura’s online literature. Although we previously covered their Greenest Building in Israel, which is currently in the process of acquiring LEED certification, as […]
Image credit: © 2009 Farshid Assassi, Courtesy of BNIM Architects. The International Living Building Institute Offers an Earthier, more Holistic Building Standard. The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (above) and the SF EcoCenter (below) are Potential Candidates for Certification. Twenty-three years ago, when then Chair of the United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development […]
Tel Aviv highlights green buildings, spaces, construction techniques, and gardens during its annual “Houses from Within” weekend. [image via: Ykravitz] One spring weekend every year, for the past few years, Tel Aviv celebrates its architecture and invites the public to learn about the special structures that get to call the city their home. These structures […]