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Here is one way to minimize one's impact on the environment when building on a slope- follow it. H Arquitectes (David Lorente, Josep Ricart, Xavier Ros, Roger Tudó) built this cute little 109 m2 (1179 SF) number in Costa Brava, Spain.

"this project looks to respect the natural environment on this strongly slopped plot with dense Mediterranean vegetation. We tried to modify as little as possible the environment by building the house on a slope, and thus reducing the land movements, foundation and generation of waste products. We also have maintained the vegetation in order to not lose the current shade...

Interface sells carpet to the tune of $1,100,000,000 each year. That is just one reason why the business world listens up when Ray Anderson speaks. Ray describes his ecological awakening as “a spear in the chest,” a wound he has used to both his company’s advantage, and the planet’s. Giving rebirth to 133 million pounds of carpet is just the beginning. Anderson and his design teams are hard at work studying nature’s delicate technologies—like the sticky feet of geckos—to make products better, cleaner, and more beautiful. Here, the founder of Interface share his insights on biomimicry, right-brain thinking, cradle-to-cradle design, and our innate “biophilia.” :...

Both Don and Don expected that it would have been harder to do, both the off-grid experience and the local eating. We learned that food is available if you look around you and the internet is a big help in the research. In Sherbrooke there is the Marche de Solidarite promoted by Les Amies de la Terre de l’Estrie
(Les Amies de la Terre) You order on-line and then pick up local produce and products at a spot on King Street. A similar set-up, Les Amies de la Terre du Voisinage de Waterloo, is being developed in Waterloo, Quebec
(atvwaterloo.com). With a little creativity (s...

TreeHugger has been a fan of Ponoko ever since they launched last year (full disclosure: head TreeHugger Graham Hill is now on their Board of Advisors); their ability to mix ideas like mass customization, downloadable design and flat pack means efficient resource use, design that can be customized to your exacting specifications, and manufacturing tha...

Justin at Materialicious nails it: "The parents of some lucky kid in the suburbs of Paris hired H²O architectes to create a private space for him in a disused garden shed in the backyard. The results are fantastic. The entire interior is built using birch plywood, on four levels, with dedicated areas for sleeping, living/study, and a bathroom. Resembles a boat interior, don’t you think? The architects call it ‘inhabitable furniture’."...

TreeHugger is always on the lookout for sleek ways to do more with less; it's a good thing any time you can, say, get six extra seats from a cube slightly larger than one cubic foot. That's the idea behind Japanese designer Naho Matsuno's Cube 6, an ingenious construction that fits six stools into a diminutive cube just bigger than a foot (35 cm) each way. Dinner party time? Bring out the cube! Party's over? Put the cube away; no need for a whole dining room to store a full set of full-size chairs.

Matsuno showed the design in the Salone Satellite at the recently-concluded Milan Furniture Fair; like

The kitchen is often the heart, soul and gathering place of your home, but what do you do when you want to cook at home and entertain and your kitchen is tiny? The best small kitchen designs we've seen help make the most of whatever amount of space is at your disposal, cutting back on clutter and wasted space to give you maximum functionality in minimal square footage. And, as we're fond of saying, living with less is the key to sustainability.

Above is the Tivali Kitchen from Dada

Collin usually covers the transformer beat, but he is on the road pedalling to Epic in Vancouver , so I get to show the Vertical Patio by Seattle's Pique Architecture. It makes the most of a small back yard by transforming from a backyard fence to everything from a picnic table to a bar, complete with folding stool. What a brilliant way of dealing with a small backyard....