A good hotel that is great
When friends who are visiting San Francisco ask for a recommended hotel, I usually have different categories with different criteria and it becomes a matrix of qualities that the particular friend might be most interested in. However, now it is simple. What hotel do I recommend? The Good hotel by Joie de Vivre.
The Good Hotel [...]
V House touches lightly
In Yelapa, Mexico, the Verana resort has built these interesting structures they call The V House. The V-shaped steel structure forms a truss, but also allows these guest rooms sit very lightly on the ground, which is especially important on water-front hillsides. The allow nature to be fairly undisturbed around them, creating a magical treehouse [...]
Eco-confession
During this trip researching eco tropical designs, I’ve found that I am all for conserving energy (it only is available from the small PV solar panels), am willing to take showers outside in the only shower (ok, truth be told, that is a pretty lovely experience), prefer the natural breezes over AC, don’t mind having [...]
Eco traveling
Kevin and I have rented a cottage in the Bahamas to be our “base camp” while we do day trips on the boat while I am researching climate-based designs and eco-resorts and homes for a few projects I am working on down here (I will be able to share more on those projects next month).
The [...]
Is white the new green?
When I think of the word Igloo, the Inuit name for shelter, freezing cold locales are the first thing to pop into my mind. Even colder than my native Iowa, and that is pretty darn cold. Perhaps the first form of completely sustainable building, Igloos are typically made of snow blocks formed into a dome [...]
The Plastic Journey
Today we had the great pleasure of visiting the Plastiki, an incredible boat and inspiring story. The Plastiki is a 60′ catamaran constructed out of reclaimed plastic bottles and will be sailing from San Francisco to Austrailia with a handpicked crew of adventurers, scientists and creatives. Visionary David de Rothschild leads this extraordinary team with [...]
House of the Island
As I have been working on a few projects in the Caribbean (including modular and site built), I have been studying architecture on the islands. I was happy to see this project by A-cero Architecture in the Dominican Republic.
Their approach to maximizing breezes while being strategic with sunlight through the use of the curved roof [...]
EcoTourism : Future Patagonia National Park
I recently attended an impressive event, a dedication to the future Patagonia National Park with Conservacion Patagonica. Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia Founder and all around eco-hero) and Kristine Tompkins (former Patagonia CEO) shared their stories and South American adventures that inspired the Patagonia company as well as their lives. Their dedicated work and tireless commitment to [...]
A different type of Eco-Tourism
During these challenging times, there can be a tendency to stay at home more and make more “safe” choices. However, I was inspired by the approach that my friends, the Wilson-Hoffs took. When the economy tanked, they decided to move their family to Croatia (where writer Jen Wilson’s family is from) for a year, and [...]
