Dwindling resources. Failing economies. Its not always easy to stay positive in the face of looming disaster. But there is a silver lining – a whole new market for the crazy future vehicles we’ve been waiting for since the Jetsons fired up their aircar.
To begin production in late 2008, Aptera Motors is releasing the Typ-1, a three-wheeled car to be sold in California next year. The manufacturers claim a fuel efficiency of 130 mpg for the hybrid model, making it one of the most fuel-efficient cars in the world. See link below.
With the amount of natural disasters increasing, it is becoming more urgent to come up with new ideas for temporary housing to shelter the 1000’s of found homeless. The idea of reusing shipping pallets as a building material was originally developed by I-Beam for a Transitional Housing contest aimed at housing refugees in Kosovo. The pallet houses can be easily assembled and disassembled and they can not only serve as temporary houses, but can also be the framework for more permanent housing. One transitional shelter measuring 10′ x 20′ would take 80 pallets to build and cost approximately $500.
This car is pretty exciting. Borne out of the British love of all things sleek and fast and out of the new sense of environmental duty is this electric sports car designed and built by the Lightning Car Company in England.
The design of the car is stunning, with flowing lines that wouldn’t look out of place on an Aston Martin, but with a slightly more futuristic feel, mainly on the rear of the car. But looks are only a small part of this machine’s draw.
Only the second electric supercar to have been built, the first being Telsa’s delightful Electric Roadsters, the Lightning breaks automative convention to match it’s gasoline powered counterparts. The main problem with electric motors is they simply just don’t have as much get-up-and-go as petrol ones. the Lightning tackles this in a unique way. Rather than burden a single engine with moving the mechanics in the car and the car itself, each wheel has it’s own motor, removing unnecessary mechanics and providing much more power than would usually be available from a single engined vehicle. Plus, the lack of an engine reduces the components that can go wrong, essentially making a maintenance-free motor.
The Lightning Car Company explain:
Hi-Pa Drive™ from PML Flightlink Ltd. is a revolution in motor technology and it’s a British innovation to boot! With its integrated motor and drive electronics in one single unit it produces an ultra high power density - up to 20 times more than conventional systems.
The compact, energy-efficient, electric wheel motors produce unrivalled levels of torque with internal heavy-duty tapered roller bearings that can withstand heavy radial loads for robust use. Yet they achieve the power to weight ratio important for the performance sports car capability of the Lightning.
Other features include total weather proofing, total energy transfer and several levels of redundancy, so any single failure will not prevent the vehicle from operating safely.
The car claims to out accelerate a Porsche and has a top speed of somewhere in the region of 130mph. Who said that going green meant the end of fun motoring?
This one is an interesting concept. A pre-fab house with a host of eco-credentials, that can be put together in a matter of days. The Perrinepod design is quite retro, oblong shaped with rounded edges. The idea behind the design is to counter our over-cluttered existence and create beautiful and useable living environment that can adapt to any setting. As the architect, Jean-mic Perrine states:
“My design is about appreciating the beauty of simple, uncluttered space.” The perrinepod is very functional, very sexy, very simple, with the form of the spaces inside following the function, there’s no pretense, just simple, beautiful designs. It’s a really cool thing to have no falseness - for example, the bathrooms are simply designed as a place to wash, backed up by quality materials.
Living spaces have become as transient and irrelevant as clothes. It’s no longer a look for a generation, the look of ‘now’ only lasts for a three to four year period.
That approach is not sustainable and people are putting themselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure trying to keep up. The Perrine Pod is the antithesis of all of that - simple design, beautiful materials that will remain classic. It’s not a ‘look at me’ statement, but a home that is comfortable, stylish and above all, functional.”
A great idea if you ask me. The design is also stackable, giving the option of a larger, family home. The time-lapse video below shows just how quickly these things can be put together.
Mention green energy and most people think of solar panels or giant wind turbines. Well, think again. Researchers are developing new technologies to harvest the power of ocean waves – like this 200 meter rubber tube called the anaconda. See video below.
Congestion… pollution… cars are nothing but problems. But not for long. The brain trust at MIT’s Media Lab is currently developing a shared commuter vehicle system that combines the clean efficient driving of an electric car with the ingenious stackable parking of a Pringles can. See video below.
Maybe it was Al Gore. Maybe its skyrocketing fuel costs. But something’s changed and we all know it– we’ve got to move in a new direction on the environment. And maybe nothing’s more symbolic of this change than the High Line project in New York City. Designed by Field Operations in association with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the project renovates a 1-1/2 mile stretch of abandoned rail line into an elevated, linear park, perhaps the largest and most significant urban renewal for the city in a hundred years.
This new skin that captures energy is amazing. It certainly gives the designers the freedom to use form knowing that the energy savings will still be there. Read more about NVS here.
Diseño Earle
This blog is brought to you by the team at Diseño Earle, Architects. Diseño Earle specialise in modern design and work on projects all over the world in places such as Dubai, Spain, Morocco and Tunisia.
Diseño Earle have recently launched a new product which combines exclusive plots with unique modern villas and superior construction. Visit Blueprint Modern Villas for more information.
Diseño Earle also publishes a monthly magazine Modern Design, which is also available as a free PDF download.Modern Design highlights the finest examples of modern design, architecture, art, fashion and more.
