When you live in a city and pass the same developed areas day after day, you can forget that the concrete jungle is unnatural. Sure, it may feel natural to you after a while, but you would undoubtedly also enjoy…
From a heritage building in the historic region of Cappadocia, Turkey, this hotel works with local crafts and craftsmen. It is important to apply eco-friendly labeling carefully. This is especially true of the tourism industry that is often guilty of…
A beautiful, uber-designed kindergarten was recently completed in Ramat Hasharon, a suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel. A collaboration of Sarit Shani Hay (who makes unique toys, children’s furnishings, and textiles) and Lev-Gargir architects, the design philosophy for the space…
The Jerusalem Seminar in Architecture, an international conference series initiated in 1992, is devoted to discussing contemporary issues in the fields of architecture, urban planning and design. And since green design is one of the most important issues in contemporary…
We’ve had our eyes on Greek-Israeli green architect, Elias Messinas, for a while. President of the NGO ECOWEEK (active in Greece, Cyprus, and Israel), and an environmental consultant to the Kramim Eco Village project in Israel, he’s also been busy…
![art.spinewalk.kaust[1]](http://cdn.greenprophet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/art.spinewalk.kaust1_.jpg "art.spinewalk.kaust[1]")
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may still be considered as one of the most conservative from a religious standpoint. But with the opening of the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, otherwise known as KAUST, a new era in…
Boycotting and destabilizing a country’s business heart for political reasons is fine in my books. But boycotting art, schools, or the environment? Spain, with which Israel has a number of high profile collaborative environmental projects in solar energy and in…
Israeli architect Zvika Tamari (of TeaM Architects) recently proposed a conceptual plan for a Globe Ecological Hub in Modiin, a city in the center of Israel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. What is a Globe Ecological Hub? In Tamari’s conception,…
In Constructing a Sense of Place: Architecture and the Zionist Discourse (Ashgate, 2004), architect and planner Haim Yacobi has compiled a fascinating collection of essays on how the Israeli landscape was born. The book begins with the 1934 Levant Fair,…
With the unbearable heat of a Middle Eastern July upon us, many of us try to find ways to stay cool. Though regular energy-guzzling air conditioning is tempting, some of us will try to relieve our consciences with more energy…
