Masdar City is starting to shape up with a roster of new buildings. Siemens recently completed their LEED Platinum headquarters, the new IRENA headquarters is in progress, and GE just opened their first Ecomagination Center in the city’s first commercial building – the Incubator Building.
Iran offers some of the world’s most epic rock climbing, but only a small handful of hard core international rock climbers have tested their courage and skill on its beautiful rock faces. Meanwhile, the less intrepid among us might settle for this awesome climbing gym designed for the Irianian village of Polur by New Wave […]
Colombia and Egypt share at least one unfortunate plague: land mines. Nearly 20 percent of the world’s land mines are strewn throughout Egypt’s western desert and the Sinai peninsula, while in Colombia, they have killed 2,000 people over the last two decades. Lemur Studio designed a life-saving solution – SaveOneLife.
Saudi Arabia isn’t well known for its architectural subtlety, but Gerber Architekten’s renovation of the King Fahad National Library in Riyadh suggests that the Kingdom may be open to a new approach.
Lebanon has had its share of pollution and garbage issues laundered out on Green Prophet. There have been stories of garbage trucks dumping their loads straight into the sea, or those on Sidon’s notorious garbage mound, where local residents used to say: “It’s horrible isn’t it? You smell it before you can see it.”
The world’s largest wind farm in the outer Thames estuary has the capacity to deliver power to 500,000 homes and offset 925,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere. NASA reveals photos of the London Array taken from space – seen after the jump.
When westerners go on holiday they tend to think of Mexico, Costa Rica, or for more exotic locations maybe Thailand. But in some spots in the Middle East, the sun always shines, well mostly, and getting away can be a lot more interesting than sitting in a pool bar drinking Coronas all day.
It happened. I am officially addicted to making ice-cream in my Vitamix machine. It arrived about six weeks ago by courier. At first I didn’t think that it would become such a staple in my life. It’s a high-powered blender, after all.
In 2012, the world’s airlines transported three billion people, emitting 689 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. To mitigate the aviation industry’s future environmental impact, Boeing, Etihad Airways and the Masdar Institute of Technology are working on a groundbreaking new jet fuel made from desert plants fed with saltwater.
According to Islam, being breastfed is a right for all children. Now Abu Dhabi has passed a clause in their Child Rights law that requires all women to breastfeed their children – up to the age of two.
Looking for some good reads about the environment and the Middle East? Then click yourself into the University of California Press (UCP) e-books collection (link here) offering free access to hundreds of books published by UCP and other academic presses.
Archeologists have deciphered what they believe to be the oldest Hebrew texts originating from the Holy City of Jerusalem: “the wine was cheap”, is the meaning of the basic inscription, illustrated above. It is also believed that the wine was made for the “riffraff”, the hard workers in the region, and for soldiers.
This is just one reason why I don’t allow pesticides to come near my home and children: two children have died, and two more are in critical condition after a Jerusalem exterminator applied the pesticide aluminum phosphide in a Jerusalem apartment.
When the Middle East eco-city developers from Masdar approached David Ardill, Partner and Design Director at Sheppard Robson, to design Siemens’ new corporate headquarters at Masdar City, the architect said it was the most challenging brief he had ever encountered. Green Prophet visited the building this week for an exclusive tour.
It began as a goofy Instagram project. Malaysian artist and architect Red Hong Yi went on a month-long mission, creating a piece of edible art every day. The result is an incredible visual feast.