HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We know our Inhabitat readers are a creative bunch and we can’t wait to see the funny and thoughtful costumes that you’ve cooked up, so don’t forget to send in your photos to our annual Green Halloween costume contest for a chance to win some great green gadget prizes like hand-crank and solar power flashlights for your late-night trick o’ treating. The deadline is MIDNIGHT TONIGHT! And if you have little ones (or like looking at pics of cute little ones in green halloween costumes), check out the Inhabitots Green Halloween contest for kids >.

GROWNUP COSTUME CONTEST >

KIDS HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTEST >

The deadline for both contests is MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!

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Photo courtesy of James Silverman Photography

While this cabin looks spookily lizard-like, its unusual structure was created in response to Swedish environmental building regulations. The solar-powered off-grid cabin is owned and designed by Maartje Lammers and Boris Zeisser of 24H Architecture as a family summer vacation retreat in southern Sweden’s Glaskogen nature reserve. The locals of the lakeside area affectionately call the house “Dragspelhuset,” or Accordion House because a room of the house is capable of extending outwards over the nearby stream.

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Halloween is tomorrow and we can’t wait to see the incredible costumes that you’ve cooked up, so don’t forget to participate in our annual Green Halloween costume contest! And if you have little ones (or like looking at pics of cute little ones in green halloween costumes), check out the Inhabitots Green Halloween contest for kids >.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays of the year, and one of the best parts of Halloween is seeing people get creative and resourceful with their costumes. Anyone can buy a plastic / spandex costume at a drugstore, but not only is that boring and generic — it is the opposite of environmentally friendly. We encourage you all to get inspired and resourceful this year and go green with your Halloween costumes! This could mean cobbling together a great DIY idea from items you already have around your house, or picking up some old items at the local charity shop to create your costume.

Enter your Green Halloween costume today!

Inhabitots Green Halloween contest for kids >

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Household cleaning is a murky area for consumers who want to be environmentally conscious. Of course we can assume that reusing cloth rags for cleaning is greener than buying paper towels, but household cleaners are not required to list their ingredients under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act – so they don’t. And even if they did, who knows by heart which chemicals are materially damaging? Maid Brigade is a green cleaning service that has adopted a green cleaning protocol at all of its 400+ locations that includes product scrutiny and staff training to make the service “as green as possible in today’s world”. Recently we caught up with Cloud Conrad, vice president of brand strategies to see if Maid Brigade’s green standards are as high as yours.

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Tags: maid, brigade, green, cleaning, service, chemicals, environmentally, friendly, product, greenseal

Public space is essential in any urban environment, but drawing people out can be difficult when the weather makes the outdoors uncomfortable. The Emerald Plaza in Abu Dhabi by Los Angeles-based Emergent Architecture is intended to invite people out of doors despite high temperatures by offering shade and a wide expanse of space. The multi-level, modern plaza physically links the buildings surrounding it via walkways, while cooling pools help to regulate the plaza’s temperature.

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Ushida Findlay Architects (UFA) recently received permission to build this gorgeous eco-friendly, multi-family Park House compound in Preston, UK. The stunning design incorporates sustainable elements such as solar power, extensive use of natural light, and locally-sourced materials, but its defining element is certainly the undulating green roof that links the homes of five branches of a single family.

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Birds and ornithologists alike have long favored Cley Marsh in Norfolk, England as a prime place to roost, but the windswept East Anglian wetland now has a new attraction. The Cley Marsh Visitor Center, owned by Norfolk Wildlife Trust and designed by LSI Architects, was recently named the best Sustainable Development by the prestigious Emirates Glass LEAF Awards which recognize excellence in international architecture, design, and building fields. Tucked neatly into the landscape and capped by a moss roof, the new visitor center stands as a unique example of how a combination of sustainable technologies can be used successfully in environmentally-sensitive locations.

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Inhabitat is proud to present our readers with the world’s most exciting developments in future-forward design. Still, the stunning array of beautiful green furnishings and stylish products available today presents certain questions about the responsible consumption of green goods. The time has come address these challenges and take an in-depth look at our collective green habits. Read on for a list of seven bad habits of Eco-Design driven consumers, and the first steps that begin the road to recovery.

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With Halloween right around the corner, we’d like to remind you all to participate in our annual Green Halloween costume contest! And if you have little ones (or like looking at pics of cute little ones in green halloween costumes), check out the Inhabitots Green Halloween contest for kids >

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays of the year, and one of the best parts of Halloween is seeing people get creative and resourceful with their costumes. Anyone can buy a plastic / spandex costume at a drugstore, but not only is that boring and generic — it is the opposite of environmentally friendly. We encourage you all to get inspired and resourceful this year and go green with your Halloween costumes! This could mean cobbling together a great DIY idea from items you already have around your house, or picking up some old items at the local charity shop to create your costume.

Enter your Green Halloween costume today!

(more…)

After Hurricane Katrina, Paul Villinski, a well-known New York-based artist, wanted to transport his studio to Louisiana to see the aftermath first-hand and create artwork in response. At the time he didn’t have a way do it, but since then has picked up a 30′ trailer, gutted it, and rebuilt it to be green, non-toxic and off-grid. The Emergency Response Studio is now a totally self-sufficient traveling artist studio outfitted with solar panels, a wind turbine, non-toxic furnishings, and plenty of space to create.

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