Carbon-Free Battersea Power Plant Renovation Gets the Green Light

The UK's Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment recently granted Rafael Viñoly Architects the green light to roll out a massive eco renovation on London's famous Battersea Power Station. Situated alongside the River Thames, the iconic power plant has been featured in works by The Who, Pink Floyd and The Beatles, and now this cultural touchstone is being retrofitted into a self-sufficent community powered by a zero-carbon energy plant.

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MOMA Exhibit Offers Real Solutions to NYC’s Rising Tides

It's long been known that if the seas rise due to Climate Change, New York City is in trouble. With buildings built right up to the waterfront, the city could be in a soupy mess with just a small increase in water levels. Enter the Museum of Modern Art. Eight months ago they commissioned 5 teams of designers and architects to take up residency and create real world solutions for the Big Apple. On March 24th the exhibit "Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront,” goes on display.

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Tiny houses/big sheds?

The boundary between garden office and house is usually a pretty hefty one, but that’s because most people haven’t come across Jay Shafer and his Tiny House company. Shafer is an architect and lecturer in the USA where he has taken minimalist living to a spectacular level, designing and building houses which are fully functional but, frankly, titchy.

They’re built to last and with environmentally-friendly materials to boot. However, to be honest, my first thought was that while my shed has plenty of room for my laptop, I’d have trouble squeezing a kitchen next to my modem. But Jay is undaunted. “A sense of space has much more to do with the quality of a place than with the quantity,” he says. “A well designed little house can feel roomy, and a poorly designed mansion can feel crowded. By opening up the centre of these houses, including a lot of windows, and maintaining unobstructed throughways for traffic, I have managed to make even the tiniest of houses feel spacious.” So, for example, the lovely XS House pictured, complete with tiny wheels, measures just 11’ x 7’ x 11’ (the porch and awning fold up neatly).

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