Why Design Now?: Hope Solar Tower
Why? Solar towers capture solar energy to heat air under an expansive collector zone. Based on the principle that heat rises, this air flows towards the center of the collector through...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Viet Village Urban Farm
Why? After Hurricane Katrina, the Mary Queen of Viet Nam Church and the local Vietnamese community in New Orleans formed a community-development corporation, working with a design and engineering team...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: GoodWeave Label and Odegard Rugs
Why? GoodWeave is an ethical certification program that seeks to end illegal child labor in the rug industry. Stephanie Odegards company was the first in America to work with GoodWeave. Sales of her...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: SunShade
Why? SunShade is an outdoor solar floor lamp. With solar cells embedded in the canopy and acting as sensors, the umbrella opens and closes automatically like a real flower in relation to the shifting...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Masdar development
Why? Masdar is a self-contained, sustainable city currently being built on the desert outskirts of Abu Dhabi. Its design pushes new approaches to alternative energy applied to architecture and...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Loblolly House
Why? Loblolly House is comprised entirely of readymade components and elements fabricated off-site, reducing assembly time while increasing energy efficiency. The house comprises four key architectural...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Eco-Machine at the Omega Center for Sustainable Living
Why? The Eco-Machine is a carbon-neutral and environmentally safe wastewater-treatment system at the OCSL. In a 10,000-gallon anaerobic tank, microbes digest the sludge, and the wastewater travels to...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: bioWAVE Ocean-wave Energy System
Why? Ocean waves are an abundant and untapped source of renewable energy. The bioWAVE harnesses this energy and converts it into grid-connected electricity. Mounted on the seabed, the unit is...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Norwegian National Opera and Ballet
Why? The first purpose-built home of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet is both a bridge and anchor for the Oslo community. As part of the first phase of an extensive transformation of the waterfront, the...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Learning Landscape
Why? Learning Landscape is a universal, adaptable approach to elementary math education. This simple grid of half-submerged tires can be built anywhere in the world from cast-off materials. Using chalk...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: MIT CityCar
Why? Mobility on-demand and shared use are alternatives to private car ownership, and CityCar is a concept vehicle that combines the two. This two-passenger electric car can be made available from a...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: M10 Kite-Power System
Why? This kite system harnesses the winds energy with a tethered wing that flies at high altitudes where the wind is both strong and more consistent. As the kite sweeps through a vast amount of area,...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Power Aware Cord
Why? Most people have no sense of their energy usage until they receive their monthly utility bill. The Power Aware cord is a poetic gesture that indicates energy is flowing to an appliance through...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: Modular Prosthetic-limb System
Why? The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored research for this configurable bionic-arm prototype, which mimics the speed and dexterity of a natural limb. Neural-integration...
View ArticleWhy Design Now?: AGV (automotrice á grande vitesse) [high-speed...
Why? Trains are among the most sustainable forms of transportation, and the AGV is at the forefront of high-speed, energy-efficient train design. Ninety-eight percent of the train is built from...
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