BASIC VOWELS

Domination implies taking over. If we had it our way, natural systems would dominate entirely. Natural systems operate in perfect efficiency. Humans are both part of those natural systems and also somehow separate (by choice). The further we stray from connections with nature, the more alien we become. tres birds workshop was commissioned to concept, design and build an art installation in Downtown Denver for the purpose of encouraging people out of their offices for daily fresh air breaks. We highly recommend it. The installation made up of part vintage office furniture and part 100% live vegetation reminds us not to let office overgrowth affect a healthy relationship with the outdoors. All of the vegetation used in the installation were reused + recycled afterward.

Seeds are tricky things. On one hand, we have the whole Omnivore’s Dilemma argument, that industrialized and genetically engineered food is probably bad.

Photographer Jan Smith reached out to us to tell us about a beautifully haunting photo series he shot at Chernobyl.

When was the last time you used a phone booth? Despite cell phones being as common as clothing, rarely-used metal phones booths still exist throughout New York City, but architect John Locke has created a clever way to give them new life. Locke attached a pumpkin-orange set of shelves to an obsolete phone booth near 96th Street to create a mini, ultra-public library. Made out of plywood milled by Kontraptionist and stocked with books donated by local residents, Dub 002 is the designer's second attempt to create a free book distribution system sans any kind of prescriptive rules. His goal is to reinvent the obsolete phone booth as a new kind of public space.

Read more: NYC Phone Booths Turned Into Free Mini Libraries by Architect John Locke | Inhabitat New York City

Blood Brother is the story of a group of children infected with HIV and Rocky Braat, a disenchanted young American drifting through India. They were left on the doorstep of a slum orphanage by their families: he had bounced between parents and jobs his whole life. He wanted to adopt them all, but in reality, he couldn’t cure even one of them. He had to stay. Today, he lives in a concrete hut a few hundred yards from the orphanage. Every day he encounters the bitter reality of HIV infection. People in the nearby village have tried to force the orphans out because they think the disease is communicable through touch.

Full documentary coming Fall 2012

A documentary about the worldwide destruction of food. Why do we throw away so much? And how can we stop this kind of waste?
Film by Valentin Thurn

Sandhi Schimmel Gold, an Arizona-based artist, does her bit for the environment by creating beautiful artwork by upcycling junk mail that would otherwise end up in landfills. She goes solo for the first time to display her work at the Springs Preserve Museum in Las Vegas through March 14. The 180-acre cultural institution designed to provide a vision for a sustainable future will exhibit Schimmel Gold’s amazing amalgamation of beauty and ecology at the museum show.

Souvent les idées novatrices restent plantées dans les têtes. Plantons-les ailleurs ! « Seed Your Idea » est à la recherche de concepts durables et novateurs en termes écologiques et sociaux auxquels notre société est confrontée de nos jours.

Spanish art collective Luzinterruptus lit up 5,000 bags to raise awareness about the use of plastic bags and their effects on the environment through artistic storytelling.

The Designer Garth Britzman used recycled bottles filled with colored water to create stunning topographical shade canopy for a vehicle. This project reused recycled soda bottles as a canopy under which a small park is created. An intriguing environment is created where one can explore the surface qualities of the bottles at eye level. Additionally, this project sought to stimulate creative alternatives for recycling and reusing materials.

SANGMIN BAE DESIGNS A ROLLER THAT ALLOWS SPROUTING SEEDS TO BE "PAINTED" ONTO ANY SURFACE.

Grass Paint is an eco-friendly grass-seeding tool that makes it possible to plant seeds anywhere – even on brick walls or asphalt roads. Grass Paint is as easy and intuitive to use as regular paint.

We plant grass. We water our lawns. We aerate and fertilize and mow. We drink lemonade incessantly. Well-manicured green spaces, from backyards to baseball fields, are part of Americana.

L’agence AGE Isobar située au Brésil a pu penser la nouvelle campagne print pour la Croix Rouge. Avec des photographies réalisées par Sergio Buss, ces derniers ont décidé de mettre en avant la croix comme signe “+”, pour montrer l’union et la volonté de l’organisation de relier les gens.

LUZINTERRUPTUS’ “DRINKING WATER RUNNING THROUGH THE STREETS”

"In Madrid, in less than 30 years, more than 50% of the public fountains in service have been lost, which now are seen to be dismantled, broken, without a tap to drink from or simply dry.

To criticize the indifference of the administration in regards to a necessary public service, we carried out our action. We have spent more than 4 months collecting the glass containers of the multiple vitamin supplement Infatrini, prescribed for little Alicia, who is now 1 year old, and whose father Fernando has been saving them for us with all the patience in the world.

In total they have donated more than 200 vials to us that we have thoroughly cleaned and used to create our individual and luminous streams of water.

On a cold night at the end of January, we went out into the street and took control of 4 unused public fountains in the city center, bringing them back to life for a few hours.

We wanted to say that water is necessary for life and that the fountains that are used for drinking and refreshing ourselves seem much more necessary and beautiful to us than those which are merely ornamental, which the citizens cannot normally get close if not for some football event of “national interest”... Luzinterruptus - http://www.luzinterruptus.com/?p=979

http://www.woostercollective.com

Designed by Berlin-based Studio Aisslinger, this incredibly attractive modular home was created almost 4,000 ft above sea level. Located near Bozen in Northern Italy, it features magnificent views of the Dolomite mountains, yet can be easily taken apart and rebuilt in a new location. This makes the structure perfect for the travelling nomad, all while leaving a minimal CO2 footprint.

The Bag Monster® is a costume worn by your volunteer to visually show the impact single-use plastic bags have on our environment. These flighty bags end up in trees, along roadsides and washed up on sea shores. Each costume is decked out with 500 plastic bags, the average amount an American uses in one year.