SOM Announces Opening of LEED Gold Tower, Tallest in Beijing

The China World Trade Tower III celebrated its grand opening today, closing the third and most recent phase of the incredible China World Trade Center development. The 81-story mixed-use tower is now Beijing’s tallest tower, hosting a hotel, offices, restaurants, meeting and commercial space, as well as a street level pedestrian friendly frontage. And if being the tallest wasn’t enough, the stunning new structure designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is also an energy efficient eco-tower aiming for the title of LEED Gold.

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SOM Announces Opening of LEED Gold Tower, Tallest in Beijing

Will Coda’s Upstart Electric Car Outperform the Nissan Leaf?

With Tesla Roadsters already on the road and Americans poised to place their Nissan Leaf orders tomorrow, Coda Automotive is claiming that its electric sedan will hit the market within months — and that it will trounce the Leaf’s performance for a price difference of just a couple thousand dollars.

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Will Coda’s Upstart Electric Car Outperform the Nissan Leaf?

Registration is Open for the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition!

We’re excited to announce that one of our favorite architecture competitions — the eVolo Skyscraper competition — is starting up again, and registration is now open! The annual design contest explores the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city — and they’re looking for your best designs for futuristic, innovative, and creative towers. The competition has showcased a brilliant crop of concepts over the past few years, like the Ciliwung Recovery Project designed to clean up the rivers of Jakarta, or Dystopian Farms , a spiraling vertical farm for New York City.

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Registration is Open for the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition!

UNICEF’s “Dirty Water” Vending Machine Has 8 Flavors of Disease

As far as stunt activism goes, dropping a dirty-water vending machine in the middle of Manhattan during World Water Week is one helluva attention-grabber. For UNICEF’s Tap Project , however, it also distilled the global water crisis in a way New Yorkers could not sidestep: by bottling and selling “Dirty Water” for a dollar a pop.

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UNICEF’s “Dirty Water” Vending Machine Has 8 Flavors of Disease

Spiraling Triple Towered Eco Skyscraper for Cairo

Cairo deserves an eco-skyscraper just as much as any other city and they couldn’t ask for much more than this spiraling eco tower , designed by Mohamed Abdel-Aziz . Called Space-Scraper, the eye-catching mixed-use development is composed of three twisting towers – one each for office, hotel and residential space, and a “geo-sphere” health center sits perched at the top

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Spiraling Triple Towered Eco Skyscraper for Cairo

First Electric Highway in US to be I-5 from Canada to Oregon

Washington state is about to turn a section of Interstate-5 — all the way from Canada to Oregon — into the nation’s first electric highway.

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First Electric Highway in US to be I-5 from Canada to Oregon

Latin America’s Tallest Skyscraper Aiming for LEED Platinum

Although not particularly known for its skyscrapers, Latin America will soon have their very own eco tower to add to the growing mix of green skyscrapers all over the world. Torre Reforma , designed by Mexico-based LBR&A Arquitectos , will be Latin America’s tallest building coming in at 244 meters (800 feet), which will put it in somewhere around 180 on the list of the world’s tallest skyscrapers . Even more noteworthy than its height though is that the building is aiming for LEED Platinum certification and will hopefully encourage a wave of green building in Mexico City and the surrounding regions

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Latin America’s Tallest Skyscraper Aiming for LEED Platinum

Latin America’s Tallest Skyscraper Aiming for LEED Platinum

Although not particularly known for its skyscrapers, Latin America will soon have their very own eco tower to add to the growing mix of green skyscrapers all over the world. Torre Reforma , designed by Mexico-based LBR&A Arquitectos , will be Latin America’s tallest building coming in at 244 meters (800 feet), which will put it in somewhere around 180 on the list of the world’s tallest skyscrapers .

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Latin America’s Tallest Skyscraper Aiming for LEED Platinum

Sea-Based Vertical Skyscraper Farm Has Advantages Over Land-Based

Another day, another vertical farm concept, except this one is set out on the water to avoid taking up valuable land. This food-producing eco skyscraper by Australian architect Ruwan Fernando was one of the entries for the eVolo Skyscraper competition and has a number of direct advantages over a land based farm including access to water, minerals, more sunlight, and wind and waves to generate renewable energy. Sure we have a long ways to go before vertical farms become reality, but Fernando might be onto something

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Sea-Based Vertical Skyscraper Farm Has Advantages Over Land-Based

Solar Origami: MIT Working on Super Efficient Folded Solar Panels

Standard flat solar panels are only optimized to capture sunlight at one point of the sun’s trajectory — otherwise they need automated tracking systems to follow the sun. MIT power engineering professor Jeffrey Grossman has found an artful answer to this planar problem — the ancient art of origami! Grossman found that folded solar cell systems could produce constant power throughout the day and didn’t need tracking.

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Solar Origami: MIT Working on Super Efficient Folded Solar Panels

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