A Green Project Round-Up ~ From Palm Trees to Tricycles

While browsing the web for ideas and stories weekly, I often come across innovative and oft times odd designs for new projects and concepts. It's always interesting to see what people come up with, what ideas form in their brain and what they make of it. Here's a round-up of a few things I've come across in the past week.

Aktina
The AKTINA project designed by Greek architects, CityIndex, encourages the distribution of small-scale stand-alone power stations in the urban field. Aktina nurtures the idea of alternative mobility and the vision of productive furniture. These solar-powered hot spots provide a self sustained renewable energy point to recharge electric bicycles and mobile devices as well as serving free Wi-Fi.

We need to get some of these in my area, because who doesn't love free Wi-Fi?
Source: CityIndex and DesignBoom

The Palm Tree House
Developed as a house that awaits a palm tree in the patio 'to take over' with growth, this home leads a life of it's own. The home is pretty minimal and contains only the basics like a kitchen and bathroom as well as some other open spaces so that the palm tree will eventually be able to grow to full size within the home.

Source: Trend Hunter and DesignBoom

A Tricycle... House?
Bizarre as this might sound, a temporary house might be the answer for those who can’t afford their own land... well... in China. (We probably have laws for this sort of thing in the US.) PAO (Peoples Architecture Office) and PIDO (People's Industrial Design Office) have developed an accordion like single family unit that can be compressed to be smaller than the size of the average vehicle. It attaches to the back of a tricycle and includes a tricycle garden that provides a small "yard" when parked adjacent and allows you to plant vegetables, fruits, etc... in order to grow your own food.

Source: Tuvie and Urban Gardens

I happen to find these ideas quite different and refreshing from the usual fanfare I see. What's your opinion? would you live in a tricycle home? or allow a palm tree to grow inside your house? let us know!

~ James
Garden Media Group

Turning the Eiffel Tower into a giant "green lung"

In case you missed this a few months back, there's been a flurry of news articles concerning a certain French landmark, the Eiffel Tower. No, it's not leaning like the famous Tower of Pisa and it isn't melting.

But this iconic French monument may undergo a transformation of epic proportions if the Ginger Group, an urban green engineering firm gets the ahem, "green light".

The firm proposes transforming the Eiffel Tower into a symbol of sustainabilty, covering it with over 600,000 plants in hemp bags, connected with rubber tubing for irrigation. The firm estimated the plants will absorb over 87.8 tons of CO2 and attract eco-tourism.

But at a whopping cost of $72 million Euros or $97 million US dollars- many detractors say the price tag, and aesthetic change to the Tower is simply a price too high to pay.

In it's defence, the Ginger Group claims the plants will be strategically placed in the Tower and will not detract from the magnificent view of Paris.

Built in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel, the famous La dame de Fer (the Iron Lady) is the second tallest building in Paris and is easily one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, attracting over seven million visitors each year.

The proposal is not yet finalized; if it's accepted plants may be plugging into the latticed iron-clad historical ediface as early as summer 2013.

Tell us what you think! Modern day "green lung" or green folly?

~Lynne
GMG
photo credit WikiCommons