After winning a design competition, Philadelphia architects KieranTimberlake have a $1 billion project on their hands in the shape of the new US embassy in London. Plans for the new “carbon neutral” embassy were put forth after the current embassy, built in the 1950s turned a bit inefficient for day to day work, and had neighboring residents up in arms against some security measures.
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The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has made a promise to his citizens – that in five years, the town will be equipped with thousands of strategically positioned recharging stations, so that every single citizen will have access to one within a mile at most.

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The Cloud is the name of an observation tower, designed with glowing spheres, connected to very light transparent towers. The designer behind all this is Carlo Ratti, who heads the MIT SENSEable Cities Laboratory. The tower is going to become a major landmark, and it will be constructed through fundraisers and support from the society.

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Speed bumps are not really something you would be raving about if you happen to own a vehicle, but the latest “models” in London are all set to change that conventional perception.

The new speed bumps designed by Peter Hughes and will reap free energy every time wheels roll over them. With a cost from £21,000 to £55,000 depending on size – yes, they don’t come in cheap, the metallic knob-like humps manage to earn their value back in just about an year.

Designed to tap the kinetic energy generated by vehicles that roll over constantly, the new technology uses the weight of the car to displace the metal plates underneath and set the wheel rolling to convert mechanical work into energy. Producing between £1 and £3.60 of energy an hour (each) for up to 16 hours a day, the energy will be used to power up street lights and road signs for a mile long.

Some £150,000 of funding has already been approved by the city council, so expect to see them pretty soon while you drive around London. [via EcoWorldly]

Remember the “funny” guy with the British humor that was talking to his bin? Well the story continues and this time we can understand more about the recycling campaign that mayor Boris Johnson is promoting for London.

“Despite recent reports of a downturn in the market for recycled materials the Mayor is confident that the recycling market will recover. Over 60 per cent of the rubbish we throw away can actually be recycled and yet Londoners on average are recycling 20 per cent of their waste. Now everyone in London can recycle paper, glass and cans at the very least and the message from the Recycle for London campaign is to reassure people and encourage them to recycle more.”

There is something we can do, right?

With the modern world stretching out vertically, rather than horizontally, it’s also inevitable for our green structures and gardens. Amin Taha Architects are building gardens in the sky in their new Vauxhall tower, with 25,000 square feet of communal gardens, each three stories in height.

The new green structures may not only be a great place for evening walk and social activities, but also our first step towards vertical farming on skyscrapers. Apparently, the one on the top, won’t be just a garden in the concrete jungle that surrounds it, because it may produce food to feed the hungry. Of course, the space also offers a great way to create fresh air and should be a portal for healthy living.

The planned tower will stand 130m tall and will feature 178 residential units, as well as office space. Let’s hope future developments will include all these … and more. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea, at all. – via TreeHugger

Covering a distance of over 3700 miles in air, purely powered by biofuel is something that even the aviation industry would be proud of. But UK’s Skycar Team is trying to do that in a car with a giant fan, a powerful engine and a parachute.

Skycar is probably the most exciting green vehicle that is waiting to make it out on to the streets sometime in the future and the fact that it is not just a concept, but the real deal is something that is far more alluring.

Skycar will aim to prove its potential with a flight of over 6000 Km from London to Timbuktu. They use a lightweight Para-Wing that is filled by a huge fan built into the back of the vehicle to achieve theoretical airspeeds of 100 mph and thanks to a light-weight chassis it seats two people and goes some 3000 feet high. The distance to be covered is a daunting and probably a fitting challenge to Skycar as a successful journey will prove its true worth.

The car converts from flight mode to ground mode and vice-versa in just 3 minutes and can run completely on biofuel when needed (for ground, it can run on ethanol using a Yamaha R1 engine).

This is truly one eco-journey that we wish the very best as the success of Skycar could usher us into a clean new era where we just lift up from the traffic of rush hour and fly home ala Jetsons style! Check out the gallery after the break. (more…)

The Chinese car maker Geely Automobiles which is a partner of the black London taxi maker Manganese Bronze has been negotiating plans with the UK government to transform the London cabs into electric cars.

Chairman Li Shufu elaborates that he has had talks with the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson at the Beijing Olympic Games – this August, and that Geely which owns 23% of Manganese Bronze and 51% of a Shanghai-based combined venture with its UK counterpart said that the company was working on the project.

Production of these electric cars should begin starting from December in China. “One of our ideas is to convert London taxis (to electric cars) … we are doing research on this project,” Li told the Financial Times in an interview. – Reuters (original image © germeister)

In the same category with the recent PETA protesters that tried to make a statement , we have someone that got better ideas. He’s really on the next level.

To oppose against building the third runway at Heathrow, Dan Glass of London’s climate group Plane Stupid, unsuccessfully tried to superglue himself to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s jacket, when they shook hands.

“Do not worry - this is a non-violent protest. We cannot shake away climate change like you can just shake away my arm. We can beat climate change, but this is not going to happen by planning the world’s largest international airport at Heathrow” he said.

Apparently Gordon Brown didn’t seem to take the poor protester serious and laughed off of his way of making a point.

Though he was allowed 40 more minutes after the trick (he was forgiven?) Mr. Glass tried it once again, this time at the gates of Downing Street. No luck again, because of a police officer.

Is this a good way to protest or maybe he tried to get shot by one of the MI6 guys?

Though we’re not really fans of an expanding Heathrow, he was either brave or stupid. We’re still debating on that matter.

In some worlds trains are faster than airplanes, or at least definitely more convenient considering fuel and airline ticket prices, rising the way they are.

Image by Nicola Beccu

Europe’s first high speed train link from Paris to Lyon saw air traffic drop significantly. This was followed by the same phenomenon more recently in the Paris-London, Paris-Brussels and Paris-Amsterdam combinations. Madrid-Barcelona high speed trains caused an 18.4% drop in airline passengers. When I lived in Japan, Tokyo was linked to Niigata by bullet train and the air route was canceled altogether.

It’s faster to get on the train and than to going to the outer limits of the city to reach the airport, check-in, fly, check-out, etc.

Image by Dan Holder

Train speeds are pushing along faster – 300 kph (200mph) about the speed and sometimes better of small commuter airlines. In any event, can we expect trains to overtake plane routes in more places? I don’t see it happening in the States. The country is too big. However, there has been talk of a high speed train route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

But, those talks always stall because of some special interest group. In this case, the environmentalists prevent environmentalists from trying to do ‘good.’ Then what?

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