Small, stylish and comfortable is what most of us see the future cars as. Offering us just what we want is the Audi Contour concept. This electric car of the future is a 4-seater vehicle that flaunts its good looks. The hybrid city car is powered by electrical power engine that gets energy from the batteries and additional fuel engine. Its compact size makes it ideal for city use.

Designed by Biser Boyanov, the Audi Contour concept has doors that open at their maximum. Not only this, one of the doors features a down opening system that forms a step for the passengers to get down comfortably. The step incorporate LED lights that shine at night, making sure that the passengers can see the way while getting out. With its elegant and mesmerizing looks, it is sure to turn heads.

Via: Design-r

The word luxury has never been associated with a trailer, but it seems like Xanthos Design is here to change our perception. The company’s latest trailer is luxurious, stylish, elegant and sustainable. Dubbed the “Xanthos Micro”, this 500litre capacity trailer comes loaded with an integrated hitch stand, 12v power pack, solar recharger, wireless blinker and independent suspension. Weighing mere 160kg, the light carriage has a body that is completely recyclable and durable.

The Xanthos Micro’s light and compact size lets even the smallest car to haul it. The interior space is fully lined with carpet and LED interior lighting gives added security at night. The light, aerodynamic body and independent suspension makes it perfect for a smooth, efficient ride with minimal fuel consumption. The trailer has a fibreglass body that is fully recyclable, strong and durable. Coming in standard or custom colors, it not only provides extra space to small cars, but also enhances the beauty.

Via: AustralianInternationalDesignAwards

None of the present trash-disposing techniques will hold good after 40 years from now. However, if we could encourage people to dispose of the litter themselves without caring too much about separating trash into decomposable units, and introduce incentives for doing the same, it’s will bring down the amount of stench and filth around us. Designer Diego Guevara thinks along the same lines as he conceives TRU (Trash Recycling Unit).

First, you put the trash with a cloud of nanobots in the recycling unit. The nanobots cloud makes sure that the trash decomposes safely by stages, according to density of the trash elements. Once fully decomposed, the trash is directed to recycling industries. Finally, the recycling unit is washed so that it can be used again.

A novel recycling progress display shows how much energy is produced from organic materials. It will also show the stage where recycling unit is in. The energy you generate through this system wins you points that you can use to buy groceries or to pay your bills.

San Francisco-based Chromascope fully realizes the fact that a product design should always meet the needs of its target customers. Accordingly, it puts in over 5 years of experience to come up with the GOZA eCYCLE for an essentially Japanese customer base. The electric concept trike offers a low, stable center of gravity to ensure minimum exertion through an uphill commute.

For greenhorns, the three-wheel design ensures stability and self-balancing. A hubless crank design combines with a VDP transmission for conserving power.

In place of hefty chains and locks as anti-theft tools, GOZA features a shape-shifting frame that renders it immobile. When you remove the special locking pin and GOZA buckles at the center, the steering linkage is locked.

Lest you start believing that some other vehicle has deliberately run into the incorrectly parked car, allow me to tell you that the above image has altogether a different story to tell. Seen on the Santiago de Chile streets, the car in ruins is one of the unparalleled artworks of cardboard artist Don Lucho, who has mastered the art of recycling cardboard and paper into arresting pieces of art. Well, did you say “impressive”? We do feel the same about it.

Have a look at some more specimens of his recycled art to realize it yourself how art transcends credence sometimes:

Via: TrendsNow

Victor Vetterlein brings a beautiful creation that gets life from the trash and after a short but meaningful life cycle returns to the trash. Dubbed as “Trash Me”, this lamp gives significant use to egg boxes. The lamp is made using four egg cartons that are mixed with water, and then neatly poured over a mold. It takes several days to dry up and take the desired shape, after which the various sections are joined together using aluminum screws.

In order to give the products bright illumination a cloth-covered electric cord is blended with recyclable electrical fixture parts. For the Trash Me desk lamp, a paper bag filled with bird seed is placed in the base to provide stability. These lamps amalgamate creativity, fun and innovation with a pinch of eco-friendliness.

Via: Technabob

Some architecture graduates from Tulane University School of Architecture City Center have pooled their resources with building studio to develop the Botanical Garden as part of a salutary project for Katrina’s sufferers. While allowing the New Orleanians to see sustainable technologies fusing to raise a hearty, recycled aluminum-made, 12-ft. cubical living wall, the proposed construction will also include graphic information inside it to instruct residents on how to reduce their carbon footprint.

Lumber for its three interior walls, floor and ceiling comes from homes demolished by the hurricane. The west wall screen is made of bamboo grown on site at the Botanical Garden.

The pavilion roof harvests enough water to nourish the vertical garden. The harvested water treks through an open downspout onto a catch basin that contains certain native water plants within a sandy-medium trough for purifying it.

All of the pavilion’s electrical components rely on solar energy that comes to them through a photovoltaic array. Certain horizontal planting trays allow native plants to extend out from the pavilion’s interior.

What would you associate a foul smelled filthy log tailed rodent as rat with? Epidemic outbreak, food grain loss or may be even as an acceptable form of food to a particular social or economic class. How about them being a green source of electricity generation? Believe it or not that’s what’s new and what’s next to help us meet our energy needs. Zhong Lin Wang, a materials science and engineering professor at Georgia Tech, has shown that nanowires inside a rat can convert the power of breathing and heartbeats into electricity. When attached to the rat’s diaphragm, the animal’s breathing stretched the nanowire, and it generated a tiny amount of electricity — about four pico-amps of current at two millivolts.

When it was attached to the rat’s heart, the nano-generator produced about 30 pico-amps at about three millivolts. Although the energy generated is a very tiny amount, but the technology according to Wang has the potential to power nano-sized devices.

Via: Gizmodo/Technology Review

OFL architecture gears up to change the face of regular, uninteresting and dull housing forever. Redefining potential relationships within the contemporary city and its existing urban conditions, their new project called the Enoki project sees the installation of futuristic housing above Rome. The “Enoki Rome Ecocity” is a cute little self-contained city that houses residences, commercial spaces, green areas, spaces for community activities, sport and cultural activities within them.

The self sufficient and highly innovative building blends beautifully with the historical part of the city of Rome. Erected over parks, green areas and water, the main cellular structure of the Enoki is made from molecular shaped steel and glass. The 150 stories project will include flying shuttles running outside the Enoki to take inhabitants to and from various levels of the building and the old city. The building’s outer skin made using steel diamond-shaped panels enhance the aesthetics. OFL architecture claims that Enoki can house up to 6,000 residents with an area of 240,000 square meters and 300,000 square meters for recreational activities.

Via: Designboom

While reading this story on Treehugger, a comment that said, “Quit trying to enforce your will on what you think is right”, made me think how forced eco-didacticism could lead to such violent retorts. A British Greenpeace activist Frank Huston was protesting against tuna fishing in the Mediterranean when a French fisherman harpooned him in the leg.

Greenpeace France has released a video of the bloody encounter:

No matter how strongly you feel about a certain cause, forced implementation of the same isn’t justified at any cost. Just keep up the good work by moralizing them, and let them decide whether they want to follow or disregard it.

Lincoln is all determined to make certain that its customers are also the most efficient motorists by introducing an updated version of the Smart Gauge that debuted last year on the Ford Fusion hybrid. Similar in design as its previous counterpart the new adaptation of Smart Gauge is a twin 4.3-inch LCD, which will bracket a centrally mounted speedometer, only this time, it will feature a green-gold design, along with long-term efficiency indicators in the form of apple blossoms, which also happens to be the Michigan state flower. Good mileage gets applauded by appearance of small little buds on the screen display which finally blossom into large flowers. Earning all flowers is good since it means saving about $8,000 in fuel costs and 30 tons of CO2 over the life of the car however, earning flowers may not be that easy, since the more you get the longer it takes to get more.

Via:GoodCleanTech/Autoblog Green

Nokia Oyj on Thursday unveiled a bicycle-powered phone charger designed for emerging markets in developing countries, where electricity is often inadequate and unreliable. Comprising of a charger, a dynamo and a holder to fix the charger to the bike, the entire charge kit charges your phone as you ride. To make the charger functional all you have to do is hit the road, once the bike touches the speed of 6km/hr your phone with start to juice up.

Hitting the 50 kilometers per hour mark stops the charger, while the speed of 25 kilometers per hour is suitable to obtain maximum output. It is anticipated that the kit will be available in blackout-plagued India by the end of the year and will set you back by nearly Rs850 (US$18.25). For entrepreneurial bikers in developing nations, this new bike-powered phone charger could prove to be a sustainable micro-business.

Via: TheCityFix

Have you ever seen litter transforming into something so grand to entertain a supermodel? If not, you seriously need to visit Rome to see how German artist HA Schult has converted 12 tons of rubbish, including toys, cans, car exhaust pipes, old tins, hats, cameras, socks and soccer balls, into a temporary hotel. Just recently, Danish supermodel Helena Christensen stayed at Save the Beaches Hotel.

Helena Christensen says…

You walk down the beach and you realise how incredibly ignorant we are with garbage.

The three-room, two-bathroom hotel – standing along Castel Sant’Angelo – is about the size of a large single-family house that shows humans how much of garbage they produce. The hotel will receive guests from June 3-7, and when they leave, they will feel more enlightened about the state of pollution on European beaches.

Image Courtesy: TresSugar

Via: The Age

Pedaling it through the streets of New York, three Brooklyn-residents are serving the most sustainable cup of hot or iced coffee at $2.50 only. Neal Olson, Peter Castelein and Aaron Davis have developed the mobile coffee bar by joining two carts together. Dubbed as Kickstand Coffee, it is a 9-foot long bar that can be hitched to the back of two bikes when folded up.

Olson says…

We’re all huge cyclists, and we’re all huge coffee people, so it was a collision of those two loves. We want to spread the gospel of cycling and show people a better way to do food in a more sustainable way.

The trio is using propane or electricity to boil water. As of now, they grind their coffee beans by hand, but soon you will see them adding a mini folding bicycle to their bar for grinding beans for them. They also have plans to sell their sustainable coffee at the McCarren Park every Saturday this summer.

Via: DailyNews

Aside from providing us with food and creating oxygen for our sustenance, plants will soon be doing another job i.e. running a vehicle. Designers Michal Vicek and Klavir have conceived such a concept car named “Photosynthesis Car” that features special solar panels to allow the natural photosynthetic process to generate energy for running the electric engine of the vehicle. The car accommodates passengers within a naturally growing turf- and plants-embedded structure that makes them feel the warmth of a natural environment. Certain joystick controls make it easier for the driver to guide the nanoplastic-made car along any surface. Since biofuel-powered vehicles are no miracles these days, we hope that the green car generates enough of it and come out of the concept stage in no time.

Via: TheDesignBlog

An anonymous artist had been collecting the ice cream sticks that you threw in some drain or mounded along a boulevard sometimes. Working 24×7 for about 10 days, he/she created a guitar out of them. The playable musical instrument contains 4000 frozen sticks – symmetrically arranged – to produce the sweetest sound. Priced at somewhere around $900, it’s a unique example of recycled art indeed!

Via: eXfun

Even the Wright brothers, the inventors of the airplane wouldn’t have imagined that the future of planes could lie in algae. But, EADS has achieved the unimaginable. The European aerospace firm has successfully built the world’s first airplane that runs only on algae fuel. The plane will be unveiled at the ILA Berlin Air Show next week. Dubbed the “Diamond DA 42”, this airplane requires 1.5 liters lesser fuel per hour than conventional systems.

The reason behind the reduced fuel consumption is the high energy content of the algae. Algae have joined the tribe that naturally contributes towards reducing global warming. The qualities that make them stand out are that they are biodegradable, can grow using waste water and sea water and are capable of being produced on land not suitable for agriculture.

EADS has also taken up other green projects like an electric or “hybrid” helicopter. The company aspires to bring down their carbon dioxide and noise emissions to half of what they have at present by 2050.

Via: TheLocal

Barton Myers Associates, Inc. and Architekton have made the Tempe Center for the Arts greener than it was ever before. While enveloping its various pavilions within a sculptural lobby, they revivified the site with the inclusion of a 16-pitch, 10-layer protective roof that promises acoustic mitigation and a varying natural light shelter against the inconsiderate desert conditions. Moreover, the roof facilitates rainwater collection for rendering the adjacent pond with an aquatic glow.

The 90,000 sq ft site houses two high-tech flexible performance spaces, a ‘Smithsonian-criteria’ gallery, lakeside multipurpose room, café and 17-acre arts park. The center is adorned with a unifying 3-foot thick circular concrete wall that creates a 360-degree iconic landform. A profuse use of traditional metals, stone, colors and native patterns is a sort of tribute to the indigenous tribes and their art.

Via: WorldArchitectureNews

As the world progresses towards innovation and ingenuity, energy demand too has been on the rise. One source of renewable energy that has come to the fore is wind. The future of energy production lies high up in the clouds. Generating power using winds at high altitudes is not a new idea though, but it’s only the advancement made in technology that makes it feasible today. Joby Energy has found a brilliant way to make renewable energy generation affordable.

Joby Energy’s airborne turbine looks like a multi-winged kite supporting an array of turbines. The motor-generators connected to the turbines provide the kite the thrust require to vertical take-off, while a computer system controls the orientation of the kite to the wind by adjusting rotor speeds to keep it flying in a circular path. The kite is anchored to the ground using a reinforced composite tether and this tether itself is responsible to transmit all the energy produce back to the ground.

The airborne turbines would initially fly at a height of 600 meters or less, which is five times higher than conventional wind turbines. Although it can fly at altitudes over 10,000 meters, but as of now the US Federal Aviation Administration has restricted it to fly beyond 600 meters. Higher altitude means higher wind speeds and better wind consistency, giving more reliable power supplies. Capable of withstand strong winds, this turbine is also designed to be landed safely even if the tether is broken, using batteries to power its motors. Right now, the company has selected 30 kW system for evaluation and testing, but it plans to test a 100 kW prototype in the near future.

Via: Physorg

Yes, it might be the world’s first since we have never seen anyone tattooing someone or getting tattooed this way before. The eco-innovators Jared Jared from Artistic Encounter Tattoo in Dallas, Texas, used a rotary tattoo machine connected to a solar panel to inscribe the solar tattoo. Ryan “Miley Cyrus” Marsh had been kind enough to offer his shaved leg for the maiden experiment.

If you thought that the tattoo you had been adorning yourself in was green in any way, you were utterly mistaken - after going through it, at least. What do you say?