Even more architecture that resembles the “arcologies” of Sim City 2000 are sprouting up, this time in Singapore. Here, eco-minded architecture firm TR Hamzah & Yeang is designing this skyscraper it’s calling the EDITT (Ecological Design In The Tropics) Tower. This 26-story skyscraper will be constructed using various recycled and recyclable materials. Not only that, but the tower will include the most eco-friendly technologies ever to be incorporated into a high-rise building.

You name it, this thing’s got it. Besides the immense amount of solar panels that’ll generate 40% of the tower’s energy demands, this skyscraper will include an energy plant that will convert human sewage into biofuel, a rain water harvesting system and the ability to remove and add walls and floors just in case vegetation is growing out of hand. That’s every possible way to save our planet jam packed into one skyscraper. You’ll have to deal with a major case of bed bugs, but it’s a small price to pay for saving the planet.

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Finding new ways to make eco-friendly biofuels is going to be crucial to surviving this whole global warming thing. That’s why it’s so exciting that someone’s figured out how to power jets with alga.

A synthetic biology company named Solazyme has figured out how to make jet fuel using oil produced by caged marine microorganisms. Other companies are researching algal jet fuel, but Solazyme’s formula is the only one that’s passed government tests for Aviation Turbine Fuel.

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Your house plants are withering. You have two options: put them out in the sun or build a gigantic robotic arm that takes up half of your living space. Lively plants at the cost of sleeping in the bathtub doesn’t sound too bad either.

The Bartlett School of Architecture showcased their “Experiments in Time” exhibit, which included this steel monstrosity strapped with an Arduino Lilypad controller to tilt a disc into sunlight.  Seriously, all you have to do is pick your house plants up, walk outside and place them down on the ground. You’ll be set, they’ll be healthy and you get to spend the night in your bed without sharing rent with a robotic arm.

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Editor’s Note: SEATTLE!!

If you’re a real Dead-head and you just so happen to be redecorating your home. Livinglass.com proposes a eco-friendly alternative to glass paneling decor. OK, so it’s not as eco-friendly as the trash recycler, but at least it isn’t hurting the environment. From the official site:

“Livinglass is the leading manufacturer of decorative transparent and translucent laminated glass panels, capturing an array of natural materials between sheets of real luminous glass. Livinglass is proud to offer ecologically responsible products which utilize recycled, recyclable and renewable resources.”

Well, it kind of hurts the environment, or plants. Shoving flowers in between panels of glass for means of preservation can’t be pleasant for the flower. The tree hugger inside of me asks you, how would you like to be preserved inside a panel of glass? How about being put in alkaline hydrolysis?

That’s what I thought.

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Device artist and interaction designer Ryan Wolfe has invented a new kind of plant: a cybernetic one. Well, alright, maybe it’s not “cybernetic,” but it can survive indefinitely without sunlight.

The plants have had surgically implanted LEDs put into them and these same LEDs mimic sunlight and moonlight depending on the plant and the time of day. This “internal sunshine” allows for photosynthesis, keeping the plant alive and at the same time. Not only that, the plant looks cool to boot.

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A self-sufficient aquarium? To an extent, that’s what one could probably call Local River. The latest project from French designer Mathieu Lehanneur features a small aquarium with untrained fish swimming around at the bottom. Various plant life grows around the tank and the fish feed off it as they please. In turn, the plants provide nutrients for the fish and purify the water.

I’m not a botanist, so don’t ask me the scientific details. All I know is that Local River looks beautiful and can be seen in New York City through June 21st. If I have the time this week, I’ll try to stop by and snap some pictures of the exhibit. Which would you rather have in your home? Local River or those Grobal Plants in wacky colors?

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Not since Audrey the talking plant from Little Shop Of Horrors exclaimed “Feed me, Seymour!” have we heard of talking plants. Though, Botanicalls brings us one step closer to having flower-to-person communication (F2P?).

Botanicalls is essentially a soil moisture sensor implanted in your flower pot, made with only two nails and a circuit, which sends information about the plants vitals from an arduino board which then passes the information to an Xbee network. A Xport is then used to send information and alerts through PHP to a mySQL database and to Asterisk, which then forwards a phone call to the plants owner, alerting them of the plant’s needs.

For each plant there is a acceptable moisture level set, which when becomes too low, sets off the Bontaicalls system when checked back with other averages. While it all seems rather complex for the sake of gardening, we suppose some peoples green thumb needs some reminding. (more…)