Eco-Design, Architecture, and Photos

Happy New Year all. Here's to hoping 2007 treats each of us kindly. I'll have a Firefox 2.0 post in the next couple days, summing up all my favorite extensions, add-ons, and features. So please check back, it's sure to be helpful if you have FF; especially useful if you DON'T use FF yet.

Inhabitat has an interesting article about how 40% of the world's energy is consumed by buildings. I guess they're hungry. I hadn't any idea- but I guess this stat prolly includes factories and manufacturing. Inhabitat is a favorite site of mine, there's lots more there worth viewing.

The Cool Hunter has an older post about the Dongtan Eco-City, which should be amazing and spectacular once completed in 2010. This gives me hope that people will actually take more notice of how we, as a society, consider everything and anything "consumable" (which really means "disposable."

While I'll refrain from doing "A Year in Review" wrap-up, I must say the BusinessWeek article of 10 Modern Wonders of the World is stunning. Including the $70 billion project in Egypt to transform half a million acres of desert into arable land to the inclusion of the Dongtan project.

More locally (Santa Cruz), furniture designer Maria Yee uses sustainable bamboo and strong environmental integrity to create a beautiful line of furnishings.

Another furniture design company taking eco principles to heart is Bang Design, with their beautiful Pli Collection.

Then there is the great blog "Are We Overheating?." Here's a frightening video clip from ABC News about possible flooding of our American coastlines. You won't want to watch it, but you'll want to watch it.

After that vid, here are a few new New York projects to ponder. The New York Times Building on Eighth Av b/w 40th & 41st. Then there's the new New Museum on Bowery. Gosh that neighborhood is growing up fast, even if CBGB's closed down a whiles back.

Still on the NYC tip, I liked the Urban Forest Banner Project that concluded a bit over a month ago. Some great artwork (like this banner, right, by Michael Beirut), a good cause, and just a very New York kinda vibe all around.

Okay. I've posted some more pics on Flickr last night, so please come visit My Flickr photos.

I've also found some inspiring images while browsing on Flickr. Incoming Tide II by Adam Clutterbuck and Move by Aqui-Ali are truly outstanding.

Have a safe, fun, and Happy New Year. Cheers peeps.
image credits: Dongtan eco-City from BusinessWeek online, Caramel Recliner from Maria Yee, Pli Chair from BangDesign, NY Times Building from Wikipedia, Michael Beirut banner from UrbanForestProject, Move photo from Aqui-Ali's Flickr Photoset.