Pure Genius - All In The Name Of Eco-Friendly

Joann Hong — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:39:03 +0000

Ok, recycling is as eco-friendly as I get so far, and I'm even too lazy for that sometimes. So I really have to applaud these people who have dedicated their best brains to creating some of the most ingenious inventions I've seen, all for the sake of a more sustainable future.

I recently stumbled upon this site, Inhabitat .com, which is worth looking at not only for the fabulous design but also some damn good ideas.

For instance, I work at an architectural firm and wondered the same thing this guy did: why don't we ever do anything with all those samples of tiles, glass, rubber, etc. that potential suppliers inundate us with daily? I figured decorating my bathroom with all the spare tiles would be pretty clever, but that's not nearly as fun as what these people came up with.

But the strangest and most intriguing to me has to be this:

No, that's not just a building. See the green inside? That is one of the designs associated with the vertical farm project, the brainchild of Dr. Dickson Despommier, a Columbia University professor of environmental sciences and microbiology. The idea behind the project is that in 50 years, most of the human population will live in urban centers. Their solution to overcrowding and its environmental consequences: start building farms into skyscrapers!

Some of the purpoted benefits of such a scheme:

-Organically grown food, sans pesticides

-No weather related crop failures

-Year-round crop production

-Animals can be raised in them as well **small ones, such as chicken and fish**

-No tractors, plows or shipping, thus less use of fossil fuels

-And the best benefit: we can't go to the moon or Mars until we try skscraper farming! Woo hoo! No creepy Total Recall moments.

The farm has yet to be built, and I just hope I'm around long enough to see it. In the meantime I guess I can enjoy the staircase drawers.

Staircase by Unicraft Joinery. Photo courtesy of blogger Emily on Inhabitat.

Read more about the two-in-one staircase here .

Vertical farm picture: design by Chris Jacobs.

This article is from Joann Hong of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

stairs

Pure Genius - All In The Name Of Eco-Friendly