We love the creative eco design coming out of Tel Aviv. Israel faces nationwide challenges of mismanaged waste and insufficient recycling infrastructure, but from the deserts of Morocco to the streets of Tel Aviv, artists like Yotam Shifroni and Gidi Gilam are seeking solutions through creativity. Around four months ago, Shifroni and Gilam opened Studio Sfog in Tel Aviv. Sfog means “sponge” [...]
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building standard devised by the United States Green Building Council often comes under fire for being insufficiently rigorous – particularly for large commercial buildings. Now a new version - LEED v4 – has been established. Taking effect in November, 2013, LEED v4 incorporates four new standards designed to improve [...]
Clad in building-integrated photovoltaic panels and an aluminum skin that mimics the brain’s neural mapping Foster + Partners, the same UK architectural firm that created the zero-carbon city Masdar, is about to break ground on their first project in Israel – a solar-powered center for brain studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Working with [...]
Nobody wants to see rubbish littering the magical Sahara desert, unless of course it belongs to WE MAKE CARPETS. The Dutch collective has been arranging ordinary household objects into dazzling carpets for a few years now, but their most recent installation commissioned by the Taragalte Festival in southern Morocco is among their finest. Made entirely out [...]
When we first wrote about the boutique Dar HI Hotel in Nefta, Tunisia, Ben Ali was still in power, and Tunisia was one of the Middle East and North African region’s most egalitarian Arab countries. So much has changed since the Jasmine Revolution, leaving both the population and their natural environment more vulnerable than ever [...]
Israeli eco-innovation is spreading to all reaches of the planet, often sowing great green seeds where it touches down. The Tel Aviv-based architecture studio Talmon Biran sent us images of their entry into a recent design competition for the Nikola-Lenivets artist community in Russia’s Kaluga region. Conceived in tandem with Anna Leshchinsky, the proposal calls for [...]
Egyptian studio House designed a beautiful prefabricated Mashrabiya home called Oxygen Villa. Comprised of modular boxes with both vertical and horizontal screens, this solar-powered gem provides all of the natural lighting, ventilation and privacy the average Arab family needs. Combining cutting-edge technology such as photovoltaic (PV) glazing modules and decentralized wastewater treatment system with ancient passive [...]
Four Turkish students collaborated to design Washit – a combined shower and washing machine that makes those 15 minute showers almost guiltless. Responding to the combined woes of water scarcity and excess water use in the bathroom, Ahmet Burak Aktas, Adem Onalan, Salih Berk Ilhan and Burak Soylemez created a shower box that collects, cleans, and [...]
Flush toilets create a real stink in slum communities. Not only do they require often non-existent sewage connections for safe disposal of waste, but they also drain already scarce water resources – no matter where they are. So the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.” This initiative aims to reward [...]
Israeli designer Omer Inbar is selling Bug Lights - a series of desk lamps that look like insects. Decidedly minimalist and definitely unique, each product comes with a choice of several different kinds of 25 W bulbs that emit a soft glow, along with a 1 meter long cable and a bug light ID postcard.
Egypt’s hottest new environmentally-conscious designer Manar Moursi studied in two of America’s most prestigious academic institutions before founding Studio Meem – a sassy and sustainable design studio based in Cairo. Leaving the stoic traditions of Princeton University and UVA behind, Moursi is now making green waves in her home country. Despite being a fairly young [...]
We are at the edge of one of the most important epochs in religious architecture. Architects working on mosque designs are bound by energy and resource constraints in addition to escalating temperatures and the threat of rising seas, but they are also restricted by the expectations of tradition. Which is what makes Suhail Mohammed Suleiman’s [...]
As urban trash threatens to bury city dwellers in environmental and financial ruin, recycling materials is becoming not only a progressive design technique but also a necessary one. That doesn’t mean that an economy of materials has to be boring, mind you. Often, quite the contrary is true. By using either recycled or inexpensive materials, [...]
It’s never difficult to pick a Moroccan building out of the crowd and this beautiful new Guelmim Technology School is no exception. Bold and red like the nearby desert, the 6,833 square meter campus design by architects Saad El Kabbaj, Driss Kettani, and Mohamed Amine Siana comprises a contemporary twist on vernacular architecture. Hit the jump for [...]
WEwood watches are the brainchild of an Italian shoemaker who loves watches and two entrepreneurs who are eager to restore the earth we devoured in just 250 years; together they have grown a sustainable, avant-garde business that has expanded its reach from Florence to Los Angeles and most recently to Cairo. Each unique piece is [...]
Renowned French designer Sandrine Dole wanted to find a way to recycle piles of rubber lying around Marrakech while simultaneously elevating the local community and its numerous cottage industries. Some of the main design challenges included separating the piles of dirty rubber from other waste and then turning them into something not only beautiful but [...]
In the Middle East and North Africa, although it’s still possible to shop in the slow, traditional way – to buy fresh food from the butchery, the dairy and the bakery – it is sadly becoming less common. This is especially true in the big cities, where people live high-flying lifestyles and prefer one-stop-shopping. Izmir [...]
Bringing the merits and techniques of earth architecture to those unable to travel to the California Institute of Earth Architecture founded by Nader Khalili in 1986 was always the internationally-renowned architect’s priority, and it finally came to fruition in 2011 at the first six-day onsite International Workshop in Australia. Now Hooman Fazly and Robert Gordon [...]
This amazing moat bridge parts waters in the Netherlands like Moses and the Red Sea! Thanks to theological scholarship (or in my case, thanks to MGM and Charlton Heston) everyone knows how Moses split the Red Sea. Architects have now imitated that miracle with a sunken eco-bridge that allows safe pedestrian passage through far less-daunting waters. Four [...]
Dubai-based couple develop proven green technologies guide for like-minded architects. There are more than 60 proven ways to harvest nature’s power and convert it into clean, renewable energy, but knowing where to find information about these various applications isn’t always so easy. Enter Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian from the Land Art Generator Initiative. The [...]
Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta who do not have access to the electrical grid have been developing home grown renewable energy plants. Palestinians living in the Masafer Yatta village have been secretly pursuing wind and solar energy projects in order to mitigate a serious shortfall of energy in the village. But the 150,000 residents that [...]
The LEED-hopeful Siemens headquarters in Masdar City has been awarded the coveted 2012 MIPIM future projects award. It wasn’t long ago that the first batch of photographs depicting the new Siemens headquarters made its way through the virtual world, but the LEED Platinum-hopeful building designed by Sheppard Robson has already scooped a coveted architecture award, [...]
Walnut floors and bookshelves gives “warmth”, but at a cost of live trees that take 50 years to grow The use of ornate wood products in building homes, furniture and ships has been part of humanity since time began. Even the Bible gives note to using wood for ornate construction projects with such examples as King [...]
Through his free movie First Earth David Sheen is passing on the positive transformation that occurred in his life after learning about ecological architecture. When David Sheen first decided to make a film that depicts the history, necessity, and straight-up sensibility of ecological architecture, he had no idea what a massive task he had [...]
While the Arab world has close ties with their hardy camels, Australia considers their 1.2 million population of wild camels to be nothing more than pests. Camels are valued in the Arab world for their meat, milk, and leather, but in Australia, more than one million wild Dromedary camels are considered pests. They are also [...]
A family near Essaouira, Morocco happily splash around in a natural pool with zero chemicals. A beautiful, luxurious swimming pool in Morocco that contains none of the nasty chemicals that irritate your eyes and cause respiratory problems has functioned perfectly well for over a year. A family living near Essaoiura on the country’s windy west [...]
A hastily constructed building in Israel designed in 1972 seemed like a good idea at a time, but now it has evolved into a bizarre eyesore and a sanctuary for the country’s Orthodox Jews. We’ve seen many funky buildings on Green Prophet, including Moshe Safdie’s famous Habitat ’67 and beehive shaped architecture in Syria, but the [...]
We’re so thrilled to announce that Geotectura has finally broken ground on Israel’s very first LEED Platinum Building. We’ve been waiting for this happy moment since November 2008 when Geotectura together with Axelrod-Grobman Architects and Chen Architects first won a prestigious international competition to design TAU’s Porter School of Environmental Studies. After years of information gathering and [...]
Find out what it takes to build your home and neighborhood, and then find out about the latest developments in earth architecture. Which is better? You be the judge. Most people agree that having shelter is one of the most fundamental human needs, but for more privileged communities around the globe, a basic necessity has [...]
Despite the mainstream news depicting nothing but political drama and violence, there are all kinds of great green projects ongoing in the Middle East. Take a look at 7 that might surprise you. Most people who think about clean tech developments in the Arab World immediately think of Masdar City, since it is probably one [...]
While many architects look to concrete as a cheap building material, Guilhem Eustache chose natural materials used by local Berbers for hundreds of years. Looks good, don’t you think? Morocco is a magical country full of exotic scents, argan oil, eco-Kasbahs, and challenging mountain trails, but capturing this essence in a building is no easy [...]
Karim Rashid’s incredible Komb House exhibited in Cairo last year features the most cutting-edge eco-technologies without compromising its colorful “wow” factor! We think Egypt needs a little brightening up, and it seems that Karim Rashid agrees. The New-York based Egyptian design master presented the incredible Komb House at last year’s Le Marche exhibition in Cairo [...]
Made mostly from used and vintage scraps of fabric, Timo Handmade’s new creations have a warm, old-world feel. Fabric scraps can be used for lots of things, and we’ve seen designers refashion them in all kinds of ways – like use them to make repurposed fabric shoes, purses made from upholstery fabric samples, and even [...]
This contemporary home located between Bethlehem and Jerusalem is wrapped in a Mashrabiya screen, which keeps the home nice and cool even on scorching hot days. We’ve lauded the benefits of ancient building techniques many times before. Both Hassan Fathy’s incredible mud structures in Egypt and ancient Syrian beehives are a model for sustainable design [...]
We are big fans of reusing perfectly good materials like waste glass, which can be turned into beautiful glasses, and this incredible pavilion in Bat Yam, Israel is a shining example of just how creative it is possible to get. Many Israeli artists love to recycle ordinary objects into beautiful, magical art. Ecco Ukka turns [...]
When complete, Kuwait’s massive solar-powered airport will be the world’s first LEED Gold passenger terminal. Regardless of whether we believe that Foster + Partners‘ numerous commercial buildings are truly sustainable, there is no denying that the firm has a huge influence on how architecture in the Middle East is shaping up. By employing a unique [...]
Instead of standard apples and honey, put some creative green thought into your Rosh Hashanah gifts this year. The Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah 2011 is quickly approaching next week on September 28, and for many Jewish people this is a time of gift-giving in the new Jewish calendar year 5772. Gift giving is [...]
If you are a victim of global flooding, how do you want to float out? If there’s going to be a global flood of epic proportions, we may as well approach it with imagination and style. That’s the thinking behind this crazy Water Capsule designed by Jay Stoughstenger. With global temperatures gradually increasing, there has [...]
The Groasis Waterboxx inventions provides the perfect micro-climate for plants to grow in dead zones - deserts and mountain slopes. Read how it works.
The revolution in Egypt has left a power vacuum that is allowing unchecked development to take over a once thriving, quiet dive spot. Apart from the Egyptian revolution itself, a powerful culmination of civil disobedience that roused thousands of somnambulant citizens from decades of political apathy, it’s still hard to see in what way this [...]