The Best of Buckminster Fuller 2010 Finalists

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Image credit: © 2009 Farshid Assassi, Courtesy of BNIM Architects. The International Living Building Institute Offers an Earthier, more Holistic Building Standard.  The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (above) and the SF EcoCenter (below) are Potential Candidates for Certification. Twenty-three years ago, when then Chair of the United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development […]

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Tel Aviv’s Annual Architectural Weekend Celebrates Urban Green Spaces

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Tel Aviv highlights green buildings, spaces, construction techniques, and gardens during its annual “Houses from Within” weekend. [image via: Ykravitz] One spring weekend every year, for the past few years, Tel Aviv celebrates its architecture and invites the public to learn about the special structures that get to call the city their home.  These structures […]

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Fishing for Peace in Gaza at TEDx

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Students in Tel Aviv propose business “net” – work for peace. Left to right: David Welch, Ohad Kot, Danielle Angel, David McGeady and Osher Perry from Nets of Peace. As one of the largest seafood producers in the Middle East, Israel’s innovative fish-farming industry is booming. Just a few miles downshore in Gaza, though, fishermen […]

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Cautious Optimism at MENASOL Solar Energy Conference in Cairo

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Some 250 people participated in the MENASOL conference in Cairo this week. Courtesy image. The 2nd annual MENASOL solar energy conference on the development and finance of utility-scale solar projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) opened Tuesday in Cairo. Approximately 250 people from around the world gathered for the two-day conference. This […]

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Eco-Activist Yeshiva Offers Summer Session That Brings Torah Down to Earth

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Eco-Activist Beit Midrash offers an alternative (and ecological) alternative to the traditional yeshiva experience. [image via: shorashimroots] The Eco-Activist Beit Midrash (EABM) based in Jerusalem has been devoted to a Jewish approach to environmentalism for a long time.  In their own words, they are trying to “bring Torah down to earth.”  And now they are […]

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Cairo's Green Lung – Al-Azhar Park

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From garbage dump to municipal park. The impressions of Alexandria I shared in a recent post were largely negative, so here I’ll present a happier picture: a green oasis in Cairo built upon a former garbage dump. The photos are mine; the background information comes mainly from touregypt.net.

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Rawabi, the First Planned Palestinian City

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Tractors carving up the face of a hill in preparation for the new town. (Photo credit: Green Prophet) About a half hour’s drive north of Ramallah, construction has begun on the first planned Palestinian city. Surrounded by sleepy hilltop villages and terraced olive orchards, Rawabi, which means “hills” Arabic, is being marketed as a green and […]

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The Wind Catchers of Yazd, Iran

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Green Prophet looks to ancient Iran for some current alternative ideas to electricity-powered air con. Catch the wind with the bagdir wind tower! The concept of “green building” has taken off in the Middle East over the last few years. The need for ecologically efficient housing and offices is becoming more urgent as the cost […]

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Cygalle Shapiro Creates LED Lamp Powered Organically… By Tomatoes

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Israel-based design team creates an LED lamp packed with Lycopene and powered completely by tomatoes.  Yum. When it comes to energy-saving and eco-friendly design, we’ve seen some pretty nutso stuff already on Green Prophet.  We’ve salivated over Hasadna’s ice cream spoon chandeliers, envied Merav Feiglin’s TrashLights, been impressed by Studio Mesila’s upcycled wood laminate lamps, […]

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