green design

Exhibit

Fostering live, awe-inspiring interactions through immersive, mediated environments | SELECT PROJECTS | * Seeing Sound * Message in a Bottle * Zen Grass

I’m drawn to the secrecy that shrouds the financial district in general, and the NY Stock Exchange building in specific. I’m interested in making the buying and selling of stocks, especially those that pertain to the public’s health, transparent. I’m in love with tree houses, community-supported agriculture, and plant-solutions for bio-remediation efforts. I’m frightened by …

Captain Planet Belt Buckle: wearable VOC sensing & reporting

Turning everyday citizens into environmental action superheroes Air quality in NYC is bad news. It’s not something that gives you pleasant dreams at night, or calms you as you pass yet another idling diesel truck. In an effort to better understand and report my exposure to volatile organic compounds, I’m designing a wearable VOC sensor …

Project Proposal: Re-envisioning New York City, a pop-up book

For Designing Living Systems, I propose to compile my research on NYC’s natural ecology, current environmental data, and design and bioremediation solutions to produce a handmade pop-up book that offers visual renderings of the past (a la Mannahatta project), present, and, most importantly, the future for selected New York City sites. In this way, each …

A Noxious Night

My roommate woke me up at 3 AM this morning, asking if I could come smell the rest of the apartment, which she said reeked of gas or smoke. Sure enough, one whiff and you knew there was something wrong. Not natural gas or your standard smoke from a fire, but there was a heavy …

The Highline Potluck, pt 2

While most event organizers would veto a rainy Monday for an outdoor event, Melissa, Yoni, and I succeeded in throwing a little shindig at the Highline Park in Chelsea. Originally intended as an intervention to draw attention to the lack of observed community and the high-end visitors to the park, we staged a neighborhood potluck. …

Earthships

While the Omega Institute is in the limelight in “Designing Living Systems” for its green building standard, I wanted to post some information about earthships as started by New Mexican architect Michael Reynolds. In terms of energy & material conservation, they beat Omega and every other LEEDS-certified building hands down (and are worth checking out …

Peace and Quiet…with a price tag?

Why an urban tree house? Toiling in our dark, noisy streets, the middle and low income inhabitants’ hours of sunlight and quiet in New York City are limited, if they exist at all. Forget Alaska–for the six months of late fall and winter, I personally lose all direct sunlight in my apartment. Unfortunately, the constant shrieks …

Highline Park Intervention: Neighborhood Potluck (pt 1)

As visitors to the Highline, we reacted strongly to the park’s design choices regarding community space and decorum. Unlike other NYC parks, where people congregate in groups, often picnicking or playing games, the Highline feels like a lavishly decorated walkway where such everyday park behaviors would be unwelcome, may in fact get you thrown out. …