{Re}habitat

Looking at INhome, short for "Indiana home," one wouldn’t assume that it is net zero or even necessarily green, if not for the solar panels mounted on its roof. It looks like a quintessential Midwestern home, and that is exactly what Purdue University students intended for their 2011 Solar Decathlon entry. Sarah Miller, the team’s Architecture and Design Manager, describes the look as “transitional style,” falling somewhere between modern and traditional. With an estimated cost of less than $250,000, INhome’s practical design will appeal not only to the Midwestern homebuyer, but also a national market.

The trends sweeping the American architectural front include a great shift to the outdoors. Among outdoor living spaces, the one idea that has gained incredible popularity is the outdoor kitchen. With sweltering heat waves oppressing the nation, Americans want to perform their cooktop operations alongside their grilling in the great wide open. With the housing market still in decline, homeowners are also looking for ways to increase property values and stay content with staying put. We talked with interior designer Joshua Ingraham of Joshua Ingraham Design, who offered some of his best advice for effectively and efficiently incorporating an outdoor kitchen into your home.

Imagine a place that could take you away from the stress of demanding deadlines. Lapa Rios Rainforest Ecolodge can offer that very experience. Located on the Osa Peninsula on the southwestern end of Costa Rica, Lapa Rios sits on a private nature reserve of more than 900 acres and overlooks the Golfo Dulce. This eco-tourism destination has garnered international attention and has won awards from several prominent publications such as National Geographic Traveler and Condé Nast Traveler. Multiple times it has won the Certification for Sustainable Tourism's (CST) Five Leaf Award – Costa Rica’s highest honor. Lapa Rios Rainforest Ecolodge marries the efforts of the resort, guests, and locals to promote sustainability and environmental awareness.

The Delta Shelter, by Olson Kundig Architects, rises above its site on stilts. When unoccupied, it is shuttered against the elements and reduced to its simplest form: a metal box. In concept, it is not so different from the timber observation towers that are scattered throughout the North American wilderness and used for the purpose of hunting or habitat viewing. In fact, the 1,000 sq. ft. Delta Shelter, like its vernacular counterparts, is a rural retreat situated on a remote site in the North Cascade Mountains of Mazama, Washington.

(Thanks in part to Gehl Architects)

Over the past decade or so, New York City has been making dramatic improvements that emphasize the quality of life on the street, urban vitality, and sustainability. This is a most welcome shift that is part of a most welcome sea change. Specifically, the city has been carving out more spaces for pedestrians, bicycles, public transit, public gathering, and parks. New York City has no lack of pedestrians, and these improvements invite more. Planting a million trees and creating 200 miles of bike lanes are certainly New York City-sized moves. Like many cities, New York City is correcting the problems created by modernist planning and the predominance of the automobile, including damage to ordinary life for people on the street, where valuable urban vitality was traded for more lanes of traffic and parking lots.

Boundary-stretching architecture is helping the once oppressed city of Baku, Azerbaijan, reinvent itself. DIA Holding has several major building projects underway; in addition to the high-profile Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects, the company is responsible for the Flame Towers project, designed by HOK.

The Marcellus Shale, a subterranean rock formation that extends to 10 eastern and Appalachian states as well as Canada, may well become the proving ground for hydraulic fracturing, an increasingly controversial method of drilling for natural gas, with Pennsylvania currently the flashpoint of this controversy.

Building a fire pit in your backyard is a great weekend project that adds value and enjoyment to your home.