We applaud Dubarch’s steps towards sustainability, but is a 70 hectare 5 star resort in no-man’s-land a good idea? The Tourist Development & Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (TDIC) started developing a resort in the vast and uninhabitable area outside the capital called the Empty Quarter. Architects Dubarch designed what will be a high-profile, luxury 5 […]
This beautiful eco-lodge is chiseled into the side of Wadi Rum’s dramatic red sandstone walls. Chad Oppenheim’s design for an eco lodge in Jordan’s desert is absolutely breathtaking. Also called the Valley of the Moon, Wadi Rum resembles a martian landscape with its high red sandstone and granite walls. The downside is that this beauty […]
An Israeli architect designed an Olympic stadium that could travel the waterways from country to host country. Every four years a new country has the honor of hosting the Olympic Games – an international event that fosters transboundary competition and good will. But such events also wreak havoc on the environment in which they are […]
This Japanese-style resort and spa attempts to add value to, rather than subdue, its natural surroundings. My stepmother always says about life that there is no such thing as perfect, that there are only degrees of imperfection. So it is with green building. Foster & Partners are among the world’s most evolved architectural firms, but […]
Nabito Architects in Barcelona are negotiating with Abu Dhabi engineers to build these stunning sustainable skyscrapers. Dubai’s skyline is going to look increasingly dull compared to what is planned for Abu Dhabi. In addition to Masdar City and the Lunar Cubit energy-generating pyramids that won the Land Art Generator Initiative’s 2010 design competition, a new […]
Remarkable “junk” cathedral is built by one man with a ton of faith. Have you ever got down on your knees and promised your creator that if you got that groovy green job, or if these natural stimulants improved your libido, or if that horrible bout of encephalitis went away, you would do something amazing? […]
Global Architecture Development circumvents heat and building codes with this house in Southwest Turkey. There’s all kinds of things you can do with roofs: in the Middle East, we like to party on the roof – that’s for sure, and you can lease it to farmers and electricity generators if you have enough space. You […]
Teams have 72 hours to re-design an urban area in a pretty crumby satellite city in Israel. It’s guerilla urban architecture. We’ve all had the same thought: it’s been built, we’re stuck with it. This ugly urban mess we have created is here to stay and there’s nothing we can do about it; may as […]
The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority paves the way for sustainable building in the increasingly “green” emirate. Although green building codes have existed in the United States, Australia and elsewhere for a while, the same phenomenon has only recently been adopted in the Middle East. Israel’s first eco-tower aspires to incorporate, and Intel has already achieved […]
Tel Aviv’s first ‘green’ office tower uses recycled, sustainable and domestic building materials and ecological maintenance procedures for a long-term low impact on nature. Israel’s scarce water and energy resources were foremost in the minds of constructors Ronen and Alon Azouri when they designed Tel Aviv’s first ‘green’ office tower. Using recycled sustainable and/or domestic […]